Hello reader!
This website was created through the initiative of a Brazilian woman, born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, named Jaqueline Castro, who for over four years had been engaging in virtual dialogue, through Google Meet meetings, about books and world news with Roger Bowman from New Zealand.
Currently, in the year 2025, Jaqueline Castro is 24 years old and recently graduated with a bachelor's degree in Letters and Literature from the Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), and Roger Bowman, in the year 2025, is 73 years old and graduated from Massey University, Bachelor of Business Studies in New Zealand.
Our encounters came about through Roger's daughter, Anna, who was a volunteer English teacher in the Pavão-Pavãozinho and Cantagalo favela for the NGO EduMais. Jaqueline was a student at this NGO, which was located within the school she attended. After finishing high school, Anna and Jaqueline stayed in touch, exchanging information about culture and language, and helping each other with their native languages – English for Anna and Portuguese for Jaqueline. Anna then suggested that Jaqueline practice her English with her father, Roger, who had previously worked as a teacher, and from that moment a great friendship was born that continues to this day.
The virtual meetings began in 2020, before Jaqueline started university. Roger accompanied her during her attempts to get into college and also participated in their shared reading sessions, where they read books that are exposed on this website. These meetings were weekly, lasting about an hour, during which they discussed the book and questions about the chapters.
The idea was this: They would both read about three chapters (at most) and create questions about them. Each week they alternated, one week Jaqueline would create the questions and the next week Roger would. On the day of the meeting, Roger would highlight a section focused on the reading so that Jaqueline could practice reading and pronunciation in English, while Roger helped her with difficult words. After the reading, they would begin discussing the questions about the chapters, which had already been answered by both before the meeting started. This way, they could both share their answers – which could be different or very similar, and there could be different points of view since they are from different generations, ages, countries, and cultures.
After years of meeting virtually and reading books together, the idea arose to create this website to gradually share what we've done together so far. We will publish questions asked about specific books, as well as the answers. In addition, other sections will feature impressions and/or opinions on the readings.
Last but not least, the blog's name, "Two Places, One Page," came from the idea that Jaqueline and Roger are from two different places – Brazil and New Zealand – and that "page" would be the book, or the passage chosen for their shared weekly reading.
Thank you for reading this far, and I hope this website helps you in some way! Invite your friends to read together and use our questions to generate discussions and reflections on the chapters of the book you are reading!
See you!
