libros

Teaching English Worldwide: A New Practical Guide to Teaching English

Nikki — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:11:53 +0000

This teaching manual by Paul Lindsay is a wonderful resource not only for people interested in teaching English worldwide, but also people teaching in the US. It's an easy to read step-by-step guide for new language teachers, but I imagine it could be useful for seasoned teachers as well. The content of most Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) is covered in this book. So many language books are overly theoretical and academic while Teaching English Worldwide is extremely practical in teaching how to be a language teacher.

There are some grammar points specific to English, but the book covers strategies, theories, class activities, and ideas about language teaching that are beneficial for teachers of any language. The book also goes through how specifically to teach the four language skills: reading, writing, speaking and listening.

I will certainly be referring to this book for years to come!

The Shadow of the Wind ("La sombra del viento")

Nikki — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 23:05:54 +0000

Another book about people who love books, like The House of Paper, The Shadow of the Wind combines mystery and intrigue against an interesting historic backdrop in this bestselling Spanish novel by Carlos Ruiz Zafón.

Set in Barcelona, the author's home, after the Spanish Civil War young Daniel Sempere is taken by his father to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. Each visitor to the cemetery is allowed to choose one book, which he must keep and guard for life. The Shadow of the Wind by Julián Carax catches Daniel's eye and he takes it homes and reads it. The novel pulls Daniel in, and he becomes curious and later obsessed with learning more about Julián Carax. As he searches for other novels by Carax, he enters into a mysterious world, where the lines of fiction and reality are no longer clear, and Daniel's obligation to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books may prove to be difficult.

the house of paper (la casa de papel)

Nikki — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 00:02:37 +0000

I've recently promised myself to stop buying books, even though perusing the shelves of my favorite bookstores is a favorite pastime now bordering a guilty pleasure. I couldn't resist purchasing when I ran across Carlos María Domínguez's short book, the house of paper. It's only fitting that the story is about book lovers, and just so happens to have a Latin American twist.

As readers, we spy on our friends' libraries, if only as a pastime. Occasionally we hope to find a book we want to read but do not have, or to find out what the animal opposite us has devoured. And at home, we leave a colleague sitting in the living room, and return to find him standing there, without fail, sniffing at our books.
-from the house of paper

Alma Guillermoprieto - Looking for History: Dispatches from Latin America

Nikki — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 21:56:22 +0000

Looking for History is a collection of essays that Alma Guillermoprieto wrote while working for the New Yorker and The New York Review of Books. This makes for great reading and for many of the stories means that if you are interested in the topic you immediately get a list of books to pursue. For example, many Americans are insterested in Cuba due to the embargo which limits our trade and therefore our knowledge. Guillermoprieto's review of several books related to Che, Cuba, and Fidel gives us not only insight but a starting point for further investigation. Additionally, the fact that she primarily lives in Mexico provides a bit more credence to her point of view - this is not yet another view of America from north of the Rio Grande.

Miracle in the Andes

Nikki — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 17:02:07 +0000

A plane wreck in the middle of the Andes in the 1970s. Stranded survivors from a Uruguayan rugby team. Resorting to cannibalism to avoid starvation.

Sound familiar? Likely: the story was originally told in the bestselling book Alive, which was later made into a movie.

The Heart that Bleeds - by Alma Guillermoprieto

Nikki — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 18:42:05 +0000

In her introduction to The Heart that Bleeds, Alma Guillermoprieto encapsulates my love of Latin America: it's chaotic, often corrupt, and has one of the biggest problem

How Soccer Explains the World

Nikki — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 18:39:31 +0000

Written by Franklin Foer, an American journalist with a passion for soccer, How Soccer Explains the World is a fascinating political view into the world's game: soccer (let's be real....football). He examines soccer clubs in a living societal and political perspective, and discusses what their players, fans, and owners say about their society. From AC Milan, to Serbia's Red Star Belgrade, the book takes you into the game and further still, into the club's society, history, and its passions.

A Great Book About Spanish Culture - In the Garlic

Nikki — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 21:08:59 +0000

Next time you're heading to Spain, pack In the Garlic next to your guidebook (or you can pick it up when you get there). I wished I had read the book at the beginning of my trip, as it would have explained so much of my confusion about Spanish culture, for example:

When I walk by people on the street in a small town and I say "hola", why are they saying "adios"?

A Book About Food and travel?

Nikki — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 18:37:40 +0000

Much in the way How Soccer Explains the World discusses societies through, well, soccer, Taras Grescoe's travelogue The Devil's Picnic examines societies by way of food, and more specifically what food it forbids. This is my book of the year, and I have told everyone I know that they have to read it. It combines two great loves of mine: food and travel and adds in witty social commentary to boot.

Tortilla Curtain - by T. C. Boyle

Nikki — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 16:54:36 +0000

The Tortilla Curtain is the story of two couples in Southern California and their contrasting lives. America and Candido have recently crossed the Mexican border in search of a better life for themselves and their soon to be born child. Instead of the panacea they thought they would find, the couple tries to eak out a living working day labor jobs and camping in the bottom of a canyon. An unfortunate event links their lives to those of Delaney, a nature writer, and his wife Kyra, a ambitiously high rolling real estate agent, who live in an exclusive neighborhood.