Read and discuss this beautifully written, lyrical story of new neighbours disturbing a mother and daughter's carefully constructed world HIGHLIGHTS * Join this book club and gain extra motivation to read in English * 6 hours of live classes to help you develop fluent speaking in English * Read this book to discuss Sicilian folklore, families, friendship, class and autism * Be corrected by an expert English teacher to remove errors and mistakes Practise and develop your English online in this 6 week course using All the Little Bird Hearts by Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow. Each week you read some chapters, discuss them in class and improve specific areas of vocabulary or grammar while also examining literary aspects of the novel. Personalised feedback improves your grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. THE BOOK CLUB BOOK This poetic book is really memorable - the story of an autistic mother and free-spirited daughter whose lives change when a charming new couple move in next door. The mother, Sunday Forrester, is neuro-diverse - she doesn't understand the world in the way that most people do, for example sometimes being compelled to only eat white foods. Social situations are confusing for her, despite reading her etiquette handbook of how people should behave. Another source of how things should be comes from her mother's family - the folk stories from her Sicilian heritage. Sunday lives with her sixteen-year-old daughter, Dolly, her clever, independent-minded, teenage daughter. Into this world come Vita and Rollo, their new next door neighbours. With their elegance and charm what impact will they have on the structured and controlled world that Sunday has created? And what will be the impact on Dolly, and the relationship between mother and daughter, especially since Vita has always wanted a daughter like Dolly... *LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE FOR FICTION 2023* *SHORTLISTED FOR THE AUTHORS' CLUB BEST FIRST NOVEL AWARD 2024* 'Delicate and strong... I loved it' Maggie O'Farrell' 'Darkly vivacious... mesmerising' Guardian 'Immaculate' Financial Times 'A triumph' Daily Telegraph Geoff says: > "I highly recommend this if you like a beautifully written, lyrical style. I > also loved the way that traditional beliefs, customs and stories from Sicily > are weaved into this great narrative." >
English pronunciation course for readers and English literature fans. Use and improve your English. Qualified and experienced British English teacher.
READ AND DISCUSS THIS GRIPPING BEST-SELLING COMING-OF-AGE MURDER MYSTERY NOVEL, SET IN THE BEAUTY OF NATURE HIGHLIGHTS * Join this book club and gain extra motivation to read in English * 6 hours of live classes to help you develop fluent speaking in English * Read this book to discuss a coming of age story within a murder mystery * Be corrected by an expert English teacher to remove errors and mistakes Practise and develop your English online in this 6 week course using Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. Each week you read some chapters, discuss them in class and improve specific areas of vocabulary or grammar while also examining literary aspects of the novel. Personalised feedback improves your grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. THE BOOK CLUB BOOK Where the Crawdads* Sing tells the story of sensitive and intelligent Kya Clark who lives outside society in the marshlands (* a crawdad is an American word for a freshwater crayfish - like a large prawn!) When in late 1969, Chase Andrews is found dead, the local people instinctively suspect the marsh girl of the crime. But Kya is not an ignorant wild child - she is a born naturalist, who has learnt about life from nature. But Kya starts to need the company of others and the novel asks how isolation influences the behaviour of this young woman. Thought-provoking, moving, and wise, Owens helps us to remember that child we once were and the shaping that happens as we grow up, in a background of the constantly changing natural world. But the book is also a murder mystery. Highly recommended! "A rare achievement" The Times "Vivid and original" The Guardian "A painfully beautiful first novel" The New York Times Book Review Geoff says: > "This is a very interesting book to discuss. It is a historical novel set in > the 1950s and 60s with two parallel narrative time lines. The book is hard to > classify - is it a coming of age story? A murder mystery? A meditation on > nature and our place in it? The truth is that it is all of these. Readers > around the world have fallen in love with this, the debut best-selling novel > from Delia Owens who spent many years as a wildlife scientist in Africa."
READ AND DISCUSS THIS WONDERFUL RUN THROUGH HISTORY IN THIS FEEL-GOOD BEST SELLER BY MATT HAIG! HIGHLIGHTS * Join this book club and gain extra motivation to read in English * 6 hours of live classes to help you develop fluent speaking in English * A best seller that visits many historical times & places - discuss happiness and living a life well * Be corrected by an expert English teacher to remove errors and mistakes Practise and develop your English online in this 6 week upper-intermediate book club course using the modern best selling book How To Stop Time by Matt Haig. Each week you read some chapters, discuss them in class and improve specific areas of vocabulary or grammar while also examining literary aspects of the novel. Personalised feedback improves your grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. THE BOOK CLUB BOOK Tom Hazard looks like an ordinary 41-year-old, but due to a rare condition he's been alive for centuries. We travel with him from Elizabethan England to Paris in the 1920s, from New York to the South Pacific. Tom has seen a lot, but now wants an ordinary life. Can he control his past? Can he prevent himself from falling in love in the present? This is a wonderful book about losing and finding yourself, about coping in a changing world, and about learning how to really enjoy the moment. It throws a light on what it means to live a meaningful life. The movie of How to Stop Time is in development starring Benedict Cumberbatch. Geoff says: > "I chose this book because I read it and loved it! The long life of our hero > is told in flashbacks and so we experience history through his eyes, which is > always shown with a light touch. The themes of what it means to live and love > are thought-provoking."
READ AND DISCUSS THIS LOVELY ROMANCE, TELLING THE STORY OF A WOMAN TORN BETWEEN LOVE AND DUTY, BETWEEN IRELAND AND AMERICA HIGHLIGHTS * Join this book club and gain extra motivation to read in English * 6 hours of live classes to help you develop fluent speaking in English * Read & discuss this charming story of home, of migration to America, of life changing decisions * Be corrected by an expert English teacher to remove errors and mistakes Practise and develop your English online in this 6 week English book club course using Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín. Each week you read some chapters, discuss them in class and improve specific areas of vocabulary or grammar while also examining literary aspects of the novel. Personalised feedback improves your grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. THE BOOK CLUB BOOK This is a lovely, quiet sort of book about a small town girl getting a chance to change her life. Ireland in the early 1950s is difficult, and for Eilis Lacey, as for other Irish girls, opportunities are limited. So when she gets a chance to emigrate to New York, she has to go. This is a story of love and of duty. It's a powerful portrait of a woman making decisions that will shape her whole life, told in a simple, elegant style. With this elating and humane novel, Colm Tóibín has produced a masterwork ― Sunday Times The most compelling and moving portrait of a young woman I have read in a long time -- Zoë Heller ― Guardian, Books of the Year Suffused with humane depth, funny, affecting, deftly plotted ... a novel of magnificent accomplishment -- Peter Kemp ― Sunday Times, Novel of the Year Geoff says: > "Colm Tóibín is one of the great Irish modern writers. Brooklyn, set in Colm > Tóibín's home town, was the winner of the Costa Novel Award, and has been made > into a much loved film starring Saoirse Ronan - but as usual the book is > better!"
English pronunciation course for readers and English literature fans. Use and improve your English. Qualified and experienced British English teacher.
READ AND DISCUSS THIS FUNNY, VERY BRITISH, BEST-SELLING MURDER MYSTERY, FULL OF INTERESTING IDIOMS AND EXPRESSIONS HIGHLIGHTS * Join this book club and gain extra motivation to read in English * 6 hours of live classes to help you develop fluent speaking in English * Read this funny book to develop your understanding of colloquial English * Be corrected by an expert English teacher to remove errors and mistakes Practise and develop your English online in this 6 week English book club course using the second Thursday Murder Club mystery, The Man Who Died Twice. Each week you read some chapters, discuss them in class and improve specific areas of vocabulary or grammar while also examining literary aspects of the novel. Personalised feedback improves your grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. THE BOOK CLUB BOOK Four friends in a retirement community are again involved in solving murders. This time the plot involves stolen diamonds, and a violent criminal looking for revenge. Can Elizabeth help out her old friend and colleague who comes to her for assistance? Will meeting a ruthless killer result in more funerals at the retirement home? What would the Thursday Murder Club do with the diamonds if they found them? 'Superbly entertaining' Guardian 'A thing of joy' Kate Atkinson 'He's not only done it again, but he's done it even better' Philippa Perry Geoff says: > "This is the second in the Thursday Murder Club series which has taken the > world by storm! This multi-million selling novel is both funny and warm, and > full of British English idioms and colloquialisms."
DISCUSS THIS BEST-SELLING, VERY FUNNY DETECTIVE STORY FOR AN INSIGHT INTO IDIOMATIC BRITISH ENGLISH, AND BRITISH HUMOUR AND CULTURE HIGHLIGHTS * Join this book club and gain extra motivation to read in English * 6 hours of live classes to help you develop fluent speaking in English * Study this modern novel to understand British expressions & humour * Be corrected by an expert English teacher to remove errors and mistakes Practise and develop your English in this 6 week online book club course using the modern novel The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman. Each week you read some chapters, discuss them in class and improve specific areas of vocabulary or grammar while also examining literary aspects of the novel. Personalised feedback improves your grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. THE BOOK CLUB BOOK The Thursday Murder Club is a detective story set in a peaceful retirement village. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron are four retired people who meet up once a week to investigate unsolved murders. But following a murder right where they live the Thursday Murder Club springs into action to investigate their first live case. This is a lovely book that shows the skills and understanding of older people in a humorous context. It is filled with British English expressions - great for improving your understanding of spoken British English. The Book * Genre: Murder mystery; humour * Language: British English * Suitable for people new to reading in English - from Upper-Intermediate upwards * Text: Original * Length: Average: 114,218 words. Dates & Time * Wednesdays from 8th May-12th June * 17.30 CET (Paris, Berlin, Madrid, Rome & most EU); * 16.30 (UTC+1/GMT+1) London, UK, Portugal * 18.30 CET Turkey, Greece, Saudi Arabia, * 11.30 EDT Boston/New York Age 18+ Online class size Maximum 8 participants, on Zoom, using break-out rooms for increased speaking and discussion What you learn * To express your ideas clearly, concisely & accurately * To improve specific areas of grammar and vocabulary * To stop making repeated errors and mistakes * To summarise arguments, highlighting significant points * To develop discussions with related comments & feedback * To overcome any gaps by paraphrasing or rephrasing * To socialise fluently and spontaneously Your teacher * Geoff Hardy-Gould, BSc, MBA, CTEFLA, DTEFLA. * Over 20 years' experience of UK language schools. * Speaker at: 2024 IATEFL Conference; 2023 IATEFL TechLit! Exploring crossovers between technology and literature; 2022 Extensive Reading Foundation; 2021 TESOL Italia Geoff says: > "This book is a world-wide phenomenon! It was the Sunday Times 1# bestseller, > and it was shortlisted for the British Book Awards Crime & Thriller Book of > the Year 2021. It is also very funny - and very British with great use of > language - and has a great plot!"
READ AND DISCUSS JANE AUSTEN'S FIRST NOVEL - A MOST AMUSING SATIRICAL CLASSIC! HIGHLIGHTS * Join this book club and gain extra motivation to read in English * 5 hours of live classes to help you develop fluent speaking in English * Study this classic Austen novel and increase your knowledge of the gothic * Be corrected by an expert English teacher to remove errors and mistakes Practise and develop your English online in this 5 week advanced book club course using the classic Jane Austen novel Northanger Abbey. Each week you read some chapters, discuss them in class and improve specific areas of vocabulary or grammar while also examining literary aspects of the novel. Personalised feedback improves your grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. THE BOOK CLUB BOOK Northanger Abbey is the first novel by Jane Austen, one of Britain's most loved novelists. Catherine Morland, seventeen, has left her village for the first time and is living in the town of Bath. She goes to dances, the theatre, and talks to her new friends Isabella Thorpe and Eleanor Tilney, who lives at Northanger Abbey and has a rather attractive brother... Catherine learns some lessons about life - about friends, about money, and of course, about love. Geoff says: > "This is Jane Austen's first novel. Our heroine loves books and is always > reading the scary popular "gothic" stories of the time - which makes for many > funny moments. We read the original text of Northanger Abbey, which is > relatively short (approx 77000 words)."
READ AND DISCUSS THIS MODERN CLASSIC - BRET EASTON ELLIS'S DEBUT NOVEL RIGHTLY CELEBRATED FOR ITS POWERFUL PORTRAYAL OF HEDONISTIC YOUTH HIGHLIGHTS * Join this book club and gain extra motivation to read in English * 5 hours of live classes to help you develop fluent speaking in English * Read & discuss this coming of age story that helped to define a generation * Be corrected by an expert English teacher to remove errors and mistakes Practise and develop your English online in this 5 week English book club course using Less Than Zero by Brett Easton Ellis. Each week you read some chapters, discuss them in class and improve specific areas of vocabulary or grammar while also examining literary aspects of the novel. Personalised feedback improves your grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. THE BOOK CLUB BOOK Published in 1985 when Bret Easton Ellis was only twenty-one, Less Than Zero is an extraordinary work - a cult classic and a timeless capturing of the 1980s. It's a story of a hedonistic teenager, Clay who is returning home to Los Angeles for Christmas. With relentless drinking, wild parties, and dispassionate sexual encounters, Less Than Zero is a powerful coming-of-age story. However, the novel is not as shocking now perhaps as it was on publication - and indeed it is tame in relationship to his later work. An extraordinarily accomplished first novel. ― New Yorker The Catcher in the Rye for the MTV generation. ― USA Today One of the most disturbing novels I’ve read in a long time. It possesses an unnerving air of documentary reality. -- Michiko Kakutani ― New York Times Geoff says: > "I think what's really surprising about Bret Easton Ellis's debut is how well > structured it is. We feel anxious for the lead character, and there's a > creeping sense of foreboding that comes out of what at first seems to be the > shallowness of a hedonistic party lifestyle. Less than Zero might just be > Bret Easton Ellis' best ever book..."
