📚🍻BOOKS ‘n BEER: SHAKESPEARE’S ‘MACBETH’
We are doing ‘Macbeth’ this week, a classic Shakespeare play… I am not in love with Shakespeare. I have read only three works by him in the past three years. We’ll see how it goes in the discussion this weekend. 😧 (Macbeth is not recommended for ESL learners but perhaps your native language? Maybe not. […]
📺WATCHING OUR 7th SIMPSONS EPISODE
A student and I watched our seventh Simpson’s episode together in two years: ‘Homer’s Enemy’, a classic from 1997! Watching the Simpsons is a creative and fun way to learn English AND classic American culture. I watched this episode live back then and I can’t believe it is now 29 years old! In this famous […]
📚STUDENT READING: ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST🪺🤯🪺
(Story English) A student is reading the classic novel, ‘One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.’ Why? Well, he found it for 70% off at a book store so he figured it was his destiny to read it in English! Crazy? Maybe! 😜 Either way, he is in for an amazing read! And: the book and […]
📚🍻BOOKS ‘n BEER: ‘THE FALL’ by Camus
Our last discussion was, ‘The Fall’ by Nobel Prize winner Albert Camus. It is a crazy, fun and at times disturbing look into Camus mind. Some even say it is a kind of confession about his own life. 5/5 Stars. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Fall is a small (120 ish pages) philosophical novel published in 1956. It is […]
🎥🍿THE HANDMAID’S TALE (Series and book)
(Story English) A student just finished seasons one and two of, ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’. I personally loved the book and give it 5/5 stars and season 1 as well. The series is rated 8.3/10 on IMDB and can be seen on Hulu, Prime video and Netflix where available. 📺 THE HANDMAID’S TALE – NO SPOILERS […]
🎬🍿🎥HOW TO WATCH MOVIES AND LEARN ENGLISH!
How to Watch Movies in English and Actually Learn Most people watch movies in English and wonder why their English isn’t improving. The problem isn’t the movie. It’s the method. Here’s how to actually learn from movies in English — the Pete’s Lab way. Step 1 — Choose the right movieDon’t start with Shakespeare or […]
📘📚THIS WEEK’S SHORT AUDIO BOOK IS AVAILABLE🤓
“Eveline” is a short story by James Joyce about a young woman torn between staying in her hard, familiar life in Dublin or running away to a new life with a man she loves. It is a quiet, powerful look at the fear of change and the weight of family duty.
📚THIS WEEK’S (VERY SHORT!) SHORT STORY:
“For Sale: Baby Shoes, Never Worn” is a famous six-word story often attributed to Ernest Hemingway. The story is a thought exercise that forces the reader to use their imagination. The rest is up to YOU. What are the possibilities? What could it mean? Before you Google it or ChatGPT it, THINK about it. 💡🧠
📘HOW TO READ SHORT STORIES
https://youtu.be/HA8Q-ECwk70?is=HNgxHby6xbDFc8ya
📚🍺Books ‘n Beer- Invisible Cities: continuing work this week.
As I recently said, this was a tough book to read. So, I bought this hard cover version and will continue working on it for the next few weeks. (Again, this book is not recommended for ESL learners. Perhaps, just perhaps in your native language??) 😉
📚SUMMER READING: ‘EPICAC’ 💻
Reading definitely slows down during the summer! Even so, a student read ‘EPICAC’ by Kurt Vonnegut this week. It is long for one of our short audio stories. But, it is a fun and interesting early look at AI with a big question: Can computers ‘feel’ real love? Some of EPICAC’s (The AI) last words: […]
📚🍺BOOKS n’ BEER: INVISIBLE CITIES by Calvino
Invisible Cities is a 1972 novel by Italo Calvino, where the Mongol emperor Kublai Khan talks with the explorer Marco Polo. As the emperor feels his empire is falling apart, Marco tells him stories about 55 strange and beautiful cities, each one a dream-like place that makes you think about memory, desire, and what it means […]
📚🍻’BOOKS ‘n BEER this week: ‘In Watermelon Sugar.’
Here we are yesterday at the bar, struggling with ‘In Watermelon Sugar’ by Richard Brautigan. Its a sort of dystopian-utopia story and one of the craziest things I have ever read. But, very interesting! The papers are some AI analyses on the book, which often turn out to be wrong! You can see some of […]
📚🌍MY TOP (BOOK) READERS? WHERE ARE THEY FROM?
Some of my top readers over the past two years so far have been from these countries: Currently, there is a ‘man on the move’ from Italy with 26 books read!
📚🔊MOST POPULAR AUGUST BOOKS ON GOODREADS
https://www.goodreads.com/book/legacy_popular_by_date/2026/August
📚🍻BOOKS ‘n BEER: IN WATERMELON SUGAR🍉
In Watermelon Sugar is a strange and dreamy novel by Richard Brautigan, published in 1968. It takes place in a gentle, mysterious world where almost everything is made from watermelon sugar—houses, furniture, even a dress. The story follows an unnamed narrator as he remembers his past, his lost love Margaret, and the violent trouble caused by […]
📙 SUMMER READING: KEEP IT SHORT!
📙 THIS WEEK I AM READING: ‘In Watermelon Sugar’ a very weird dystopia-utopia book from 1968. The book has been a fun challenge so far and maybe the best part about reading it in the summer: It’s only 144 pages! (Not recommended for ESL students in English. Buuut: possibly in your native language? Maybe not […]
📚SUMMER ‘READING’ :)
SUMMER READING: It’s summer. For the third summer in a row, the short story reading program has definitely slowed down. No surprise. 🙁 However, consistency is key and I personally read one small book per week, even in the summer. (Even I missed reading last week though. Lol) Some good news!: A student that has […]