ADVANCED ENGLISH READING CLUB
We will discuss pages 41-83 in the next session.
A review:
What is it about the Queen that inspires such deep affection in the British? As played by Helen Mirren in T
he Queen, HM was possessed of a steeliness, an impatience with cant and humbug and a sharp sense of humour. As portrayed by Alan Bennett in his quirky new novella, The Uncommon Reader, she is canny, intelligent and - most subversive of all - an increasingly avid reader who becomes convinced of the transformative power of literature.
Her discovery of books happens by chance: the corgis discover the City of Westminster mobile library parked outside the Buckingham Palace kitchens and the Queen, having calmed their yapping, feels duty-bound to borrow a book. Though Ivy Compton-Burnett proves a stodgy start, she ploughs on to the end and, appetite whetted, returns for another. Attracted by Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit of Love - 'Novels seldom came as well-connected as this and the Queen felt correspondingly reassured' - she begins a journey that encompasses autobiography, novels and non-fiction, taking in Proust, Henry James and Mary Renault, though not, unlike her mother, Dick Francis.
As her passion grows, so her entourage becomes increasingly alarmed, in particular her ambitious private secretary Sir Kevin Scatchard. 'I feel, ma'am, that while not exactly elitist, [reading] sends the wrong message. It tends to exclude.' None the less, she persists, drawn by the 'lofty indifference' of books: 'Books did not care who was reading them or whether one read them or not ... all readers were equal, herself included.'
Bennett's portrait of her is not only extremely funny, but also, one imagines, not far off the truth. Travelling by coach to state occasions, she becomes practised at waving and reading at the same time, 'the trick being to keep the book below the level of the window and to keep focused on it and not on the crowds'. As she works her way through the canon, her critical faculties become more acute. 'Am I alone,' she confides in her notebook, 'in wanting to give Henry James a good talking-to?' Through books, she discovers a way to express herself that has been denied her by her upbringing and vocation. Reading King Lear, she is moved by Cordelia's plight: 'Cordelia's "I cannot heave my heart into my mouth" is a sentiment I can readily endorse. Her plight is mine.'
What´s new?
My name´s Earl (Seasons 1 & 2) : Set in fictional Camden County, the series stars Jason L
ee, Ethan Suplee, Jaime Pressly, Eddie Steeples and Nadine Velazquez. Lee stars in the title role as Earl J. Hickey, a petty crook with occasional run-ins with the law, whose newly won $100,000 lottery ticket is lost when he is hit by a car. Lying in a hospital bed, under the influence of morphine, he develops a belief in the Americanized concept of karmic retribution when he hears about karma during an episode of Last Call with Carson Daly. He decides he wants to turn his life around, and so makes a list of every bad thing he's ever done in an attempt to correct them, as he believes that this is the only way he can gain positive karma. After doing his first good deed, he finds the $100,000 lottery ticket he had previously lost. He sees this as a sign and, with his new lucky money, he proceeds to cross items off the list, one by one, by doing good deeds in correspondence to the list items to atone for them.
T Crowd: The IT Crowd is set in the offices of Reynholm Industries, a fictitious British corporation in central London. It focuses on the shenanigans of the three-strong IT support team located in a dingy, untidy and unkempt basement – a stark contrast to the shining modern architecture and stunning London views enjoyed by the rest of the organisation. The obscurity surrounding what the company does, serves as a running gag throughout the series – all that is known is that the company bought and sold ITV (a fact which Denholm Reynholm forgot completely), and once made part-year profits of "eighteen hundred billion billion". The team consists of what Douglas Reynholm describes as "a dynamic go-getter (Jen), a genius (Moss) and a man from Ireland (Roy)".Moss and Roy, the two technicians, are portrayed as socially inept geeks or, in Denholm Reynholm's words, "standard nerds". Despite the company's dependence on their services, they are despised, ignored, and considered losers by the rest of the staff. Roy's exasperation is reflected in his support techniques of ignoring the phone in the hope it will stop ringing, and using reel-to-reel tape recordings of stock IT suggestions ("Have you tried turning it off and on again?" and "Is it definitely plugged in?"). He expresses his "personality" by wearing a different geek T-shirt in each episode. Moss's wide and intricate knowledge of all things technical is reflected in his extremely accurate yet utterly indecipherable suggestions, while demonstrating a complete inability to deal with practical problems like extinguishing fires and removing spiders.
Jen, the newest member of the team, is hopelessly non-technical, despite claiming on her CV that she has "a lot of experience with computers". As Denholm, the company boss, is equally tech-illiterate, he is convinced by Jen's interview bluffing and appoints her head of the IT department. Her official title is "relationship manager", yet her attempts at bridging the gulf between the technicians and the business generally have the opposite effect, landing Jen in situations just as ludicrous as those of her team mates.
en (Seasons 1 & 2): Set in 1960s New York, the sexy, stylized and provocative AMC drama Mad Men follows the lives of the ruthlessly competitive men and women of Madison Avenue advertising, an ego-driven world where key players make an art of the sell. The latest season of the show takes place in 1963. Life on Mars: Life on Mars tells the fictional story of DCI Sam Tyler (John Simm), a police officer in 
service with the Greater Manchester Police. After being hit by a car in 2006, Tyler awakens in 1973, 33 years in the past. There, he finds himself working for the predecessor of his police force in 2006, the Manchester and Salford Police as a Detective Inspector one rank lower than his 2006 rank of Detective Chief Inspector. While under the command of Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister), the character faces various culture clashes, most frequently regarding his modern approach to policing and the traditional un-scientific methods of his colleagues.
Mixing the genres of both science fiction and police procedural, the series' central plot centres on the ambiguity concerning Tyler's predicament of it being unclear to both the audience and character whether he has gone mad, is in a coma or has actually travelled back in time.
If you liked the Spanish version 'La chica de ayer' you can´t miss it!
Broth
ers and Sisters: Brothers & Sisters is an American dramatic television series that centers on the upper class Walker family and their lives in Los Angeles, California.
It premiered on ABC on September 24, 2006 after Desperate Housewives and airs Sundays. The current acting ensemble includes Sally Field, Rachel Griffiths, Calista Flockhart, Balthazar Getty, Matthew Rhys, Dave Annable, Ron Rifkin, Rob Lowe, Luke Macfarlane, Emily VanCamp, Patricia Wettig and Tom Skerritt. Sally Field won the 2007 Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her role as Nora Walker. Rachel Griffiths was also nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.
ee Hill: One Tree Hill is an American teen, young adult television drama created by Mark Schwahn, which premiered on September 23, 2003 on The WB Television Network. After its third season, The WB merged with UPN to form The CW Television Network, and since September 27, 2006 the network is the official broadcaster for the show in the USA. On February 25, 2009, The CW renewed the show for a seventh season.The show is set in fictional town Tree Hill in North Carolina and originally follows the lives of two half-brothers, Lucas Scott (Chad Michael Murray) and Nathan Scott (James Lafferty). Their relationship evolves from heartless enemies to caring brothers, and the basketball drama, as well as the brothers' on-again/off-again romances with female characters, are significant elements within the series.
ched (Seasons 1 & 2): A young-looking witch named Samantha (Elizabeth Montgomery) meets and marries a mortal named Darrin Stephens (originally Dick York, later Dick Sargent). While Samantha pledges to forsake her powers and become a typical suburban housewife, her magical family disapproves of the mixed marriage and frequently interferes in the couple's lives. Episodes often begin with Darrin becoming the victim of a spell, the effects of which wreak havoc with mortals such as his boss, clients, parents, and neighbors. By the epilogue, however, Darrin and Samantha most often embrace and confound the devious elements that failed to separate them.
