Все кругом и говорят вы-сами-знаете-о-чем, и уже порядком утомили этим. Но от темы карантина и иже с ним никуда не уйдешь, особенно если на этом карантине приходится сидеть.
Поэтому мы решили немного скрасить вам вынужденное заточение - книжками о приключениях. Поскольку, по нашему скромному мнению, именно этот жанр может максимально “погрузить”, заставить забыть о серых буднях и надоевших четырех стенах.
Elementary
Antoinette Moises - Apollo's Gold
Немного детектива, немного приключений + прекрасный setting (Греция!) = рецепт хорошей, захватывающий книги.
О чем это произведение?
Liz teaches archaeology in Athens. She works too hard and her doctor tells her she needs to take a holiday. So she goes to the beautiful and peaceful Greek island of Sifnos. But the peace does not last long when a local man dies in suspicious circumstances. Liz ignores advice not to get involved and her relaxing holiday becomes a matter of life and death…
Лиза преподает археологию в Афинах. Она работает на износ, и врач советует ей взять отпуск. И вот Лиза отправляется в на прекрасный и тихий греческий остров Сифнос. Но ее покой продлился совсем недолго: внезапно один из местных жителей умирает при странных обстоятельствах. Лиза пренебрегает советом не вмешиваться, и ее расслабленный отпуск становится приключением, где на кон поставлены жизнь и смерть...
Кстати, на goodreads об этой книге очень хороший, прямо-таки вдохновляющие отзывы (сможете разобраться в них самостоятельно, без перевода?)):
This book was easy to read, so I could read in short time compare with other books which I have read before. There were some happening and also including love story in this. About Liz and Takis, my expectation proved right, but I was happy because they get along with. I think this book is not made us boring.
First times , I chose this book for it's English grade but next times it is good story.The story about a young women,Liz and a police,Taki.Liz works hard and finally she went a holiday but in holiday she lives unexpected things.Antoinette Moses succeed tell the meaningful story in a less pages.I loved that book and I suggest this book to everyone.
И, как обычно, небольшой отрывок из романа - just to try it:
Chapter one
Get well!
It began with a visit to the doctor. 'You need a holiday,' the doctor told me. 'You need a rest.'
'I can't take a holiday,' I answered. 'I'm too busy.'
'No, Liz,' said the doctor. 'You don't understand. If you don't take a holiday, you're going to get very, very ill.'
'I'm just tired,' I said. 'I feel tired.'
'No,' he said. 'It's more than that. Are you doing too much? You teach, don't you?'
'Well, yes,' I said. 'I'm teaching and studying archaeology at the university.'
'What else are you doing?' he asked me.
'I'm learning to speak Greek,' I replied. 'And I'm writing a book.'
'I see,' he said. 'You're learning to speak Greek, you're writing a book and you're working at the university. Don't you think that's too much? How many hours do you sleep at night?'
'Four or five hours most nights,' I told him.
'It's not enough,' he said. 'You need to slow down. Is your husband here in Greece with you?' the doctor asked.
'No,' I told the doctor. 'I was married but my husband left me. Last year.'
'I understand,' said the doctor.
Intermediate
John Milne - the Queen of Death
Давайте перенесемся в пустыни Египта и вместе с героями сегодняшней книги попробуем разгадать тайну древнего проклятия. Казалось бы, избитая тема - пирамиды, фараоны, раскопки, тайны, насчитывающие много сотен лет - но как же это все-таки цепляет!
Пару слов о книге:
Detective and adventure story featuring Salahadin El Nur, who searches for the answer to the riddle of an ancient curse. He suspects an English professor of being involved with a gang of ruthless smugglers. Nobody knows much information about this doctor, but many famous archaeologists read his only book and most of them agreed with main idea of the book, author of that says that he knows where buried Queen Axtarte also known as Queen of Death, because she poisoned all people who knew where her body was buried and also she had protected her tomb...
Детективно-приключенческая история, главный герой которой, Салахадин Эль-Нур, пытается разгадать тайну древнего проклятия. Он подозревает, что английский профессор имеет какое-то отношение к группе контрабандистов-головорезов. И не беспочвенно: об этом профессоре почти никому ничего не известно, но многие известные археологи прочли его книгу - и верят, что ее автор действительно знает, где была захоронена Царица Астарта. Царицу эту прозвали Царицей Смерти - ведь всякий, кто хотел похитить что-то из ее могилы или даже просто войти туда, умирал…
Звучит захватывающе, правда?
В лучших традициях приключенческих романов))
Попробуйте свои силы на этом отрывке:
It is hot in Cairo in August - very hot. The people who live in Cairo go away in August if they can. Some go to Alexandria, where it is much cooler, and some of the lucky ones go abroad to Europe or America.
Salahadin El Nur, Chief Inspector in the Egyptian Police, was one of the lucky ones. He was able to go on holiday because no archeologists come to Egypt in August when it is so hot. Archeologists prefer to come to Egypt in the cooler months of winter.
It is hot in Cairo in August, but it is much hotter in the south of Egypt! In the desert around Luxor, the sun can burn a man's body like a bar of red-hot iron. And it is there that most of the archeologists want to work. Many of the ancient temples and cities of Egypt are in and around the modern town of Luxor.
Thursday, 4th August, was Salahadin's last day at work. He was going on holiday for three weeks. His assistant, Inspector Leila Osman, would be in charge while Salahadin was away. At half past eleven, Salahadin tidied up his papers and locked the drawers of his desk. Then he stood up and went over to where Leila was sitting. He gave her the keys.
Leila, like Salahadin, was a graduate of Cairo University. They had both studied Ancient History. Leila was twenty-seven, six years younger than Salahadin. She had joined his department five years ago and was now one of the youngest inspectors in the Egyptian police.
Advanced
Mark Twain - The Innocents Abroad
Еще одна книжка именитого, замечательного мастера!
О чем же она?
In 1867, Mark Twain and a group fellow-Americans toured Europe and the Holy Land, aboard a retired Civil War ship known as “Quaker City.” Throughout the journey, Twain kept a written record of his experiences. “The Innocents Abroad” is both a travelogue and a critique of clashing cultures—but more importantly, it is an entertaining and insightful work written by one of the great masters of American prose.
Еще немного отзывов с goodreads:
I love certain travel books, ones that give you an inspiring window on places you’ve never been or want to revisit while holding a humbling mirror up to the perspective and culture of the traveler. Innocents Abroad is a classic that fulfills this goal nicely and a fun read to boot.
Throughout the novel Twain is hysterically funny, irreverent, lampooning, and blatantly racist--a classic American traveling abroad. This travel log touches upon almost every tourist spot in Europe, North Africa, and the Holy Land.
И, наконец, фраза, которую можно было бы сделать квинтэссенцией книги:
This novel is part stand-up comedy and part history lesson.
Sounds great, doesn’t it? Что ж, теперь, как обычно, попробуйте эту книгу “на вкус”:
For months the great pleasure excursion to Europe and the Holy Land was chatted about in the newspapers everywhere in America and discussed at countless firesides. It was a novelty in the way of excursions—its like had not been thought of before, and it compelled that interest which attractive novelties always command. It was to be a picnic on a gigantic scale.
The participants in it, instead of freighting an ungainly steam ferry—boat with youth and beauty and pies and doughnuts, and paddling up some obscure creek to disembark upon a grassy lawn and wear themselves out with a long summer day's laborious frolicking under the impression that it was fun, were to sail away in a great steamship with flags flying and cannon pealing, and take a royal holiday beyond the broad ocean in many a strange clime and in many a land renowned in history!
They were to sail for months over the breezy Atlantic and the sunny Mediterranean; they were to scamper about the decks by day, filling the ship with shouts and laughter—or read novels and poetry in the shade of the smokestacks, or watch for the jelly-fish and the nautilus over the side, and the shark, the whale, and other strange monsters of the deep; and at night they were to dance in the open air, on the upper deck, in the midst of a ballroom that stretched from horizon to horizon, and was domed by the bending heavens and lighted by no meaner lamps than the stars and the magnificent moon—dance, and promenade, and smoke, and sing, and make love, and search the skies for constellations that never associate with the "Big Dipper" they were so tired of; and they were to see the ships of twenty navies—the customs and costumes of twenty curious peoples—the great cities of half a world—they were to hob-nob with nobility and hold friendly converse with kings and princes, grand moguls, and the anointed lords of mighty empires!
It was a brave conception; it was the offspring of a most ingenious brain. It was well advertised, but it hardly needed it: the bold originality, the extraordinary character, the seductive nature, and the vastness of the enterprise provoked comment everywhere and advertised it in every household in the land. Who could read the program of the excursion without longing to make one of the party? I will insert it here. It is almost as good as a map. As a text for this book, nothing could be better:
EXCURSION TO THE HOLY LAND, EGYPT,
THE CRIMEA, GREECE, AND INTERMEDIATE POINTS OF INTEREST. BROOKLYN,
February 1st, 1867
