1 comments about Isabel Allende: Life and Spirits.

1. The simplest description of this book is that it is a short biography of renowned hispanic writer Isabel Allende, translated from the Spanish by Margaret Sayers Peden. It is based on a series of taped interviews between Zapata and Allende made at Zapata's instigation after many years of cajoling, following the beginning of their friendship in the 1980s. It was Zapata, a professor of Latin American literature at San Jose State University, who convinced Isabel, then a new best-selling author living in Venezuela and also newly divorced, to include California in a lecture tour promoting her popular novels in the USA for the first time. In their first meeting at San Jose it was Celia who introduced Isabel to the man who would later become Isabel's second husband, William Gordon. This in turn led to Isabel moving her home from Venezuela to California. The interviews that became this book occurred at regular intervals over a whole year in a rented hotel room near San Francisco Airport, half way between San Jose and Isabel's new home in San Rafael. In one interview Isabel says, "Why do I write? Because I am filled with stories that demand to be told, because the words are choking me, because I like and need to write, because if I don't write my soul dries up and I die." I like Allende's books, and I like her personally even more after reading this compelling biography. It's an easy read, and also includes a helpful chronology of Isabel's complicated life from 1942 to 2002.

No comments about That's Not Fair! / No Es Justo!: Emma Tenayuca's Struggle for Justice/La lucha de Emma Tenayuca por la justicia.

5 comments about Sin querer queriendo.

1. El mundo esta repleto de libros. Unos buenos. Otros malos.
   Este es uno de los buenos libros. Hay que leerlo. Su prosa es captivante, su historia es altamente imitable para nosotros los que pensamos tener pocas esperanzas. Sus puntos de vista son claros, sinceros, directos y sin compromisos hacia ninguna entidad o punto de vista.
   Me emociono haber leido este libro no solamente una vez si no muchas mas en su totalidad. Y con admiracion y respecto dedico estas lineas a ese genio de nuestra gente, Roberto Gomez Bolanos.



2. Sin querer queriendo es un libro ameno, gracioso por momentos e interesante por otros, que nos da a conocer detalles de la vida de este genio llamado Roberto Gomez Bolaños. Las fotografias incluidas ayudan a complementar la lectura. Recomendable a todos sus seguidores!



3. si duda un libro que todo aquel que lo lea hace que se sienta orgulloso de su cultura hispana, como siempre el titulo de grande se queda corto ante el virtuoso chespirito.



4. Es un libro muy entretenido, ameno y divertido, fácil de leer, ya que está logicamente estructurado. Lo recomiendo. Merece la pena conocer la vida de este genio, que nos tiene "mal" acostumbrados a esperar siempre lo mejor de él.



5. Lo recomiendo es su totalidad. Un libro que no debe dejar de leer si es Fan de Chespirito, o sea casi todo el mundo!. Cuenta su vida de una manera graciosa, inteligente, donde hay alegrías, tristezas, chispa, emoción y buen humor. Cuando empiezas a leer es difícil soltar el libro.

1 comments about My Sax Life: A Memoir (Latino Voices/Vidas).

1. Paquito d'Rivera is an undisputed virtuoso on saxophone and clarinet in both the jazz and classical worlds. One of the great innovators of Latin jazz in modern times, Paquito has always been at the forefront of the movement. Unless you are familiar with his random writings in numerous publications, most people were unaware of Paquito's talent of prose in Spanish and English. After penning his novel, Oh, La Habana! and the Spanish version of his memoirs, he has now released his memoirs in English or his anti-biography as he prefers to call it. Much like his lyrical improvisational style, Paquito d'Rivera's book is filled with his trademark humor and wit, bounces between decades here and abroad and includes personal antidotes and stories as well as those of his closest friends and collaborators. Destined to becoming one of the great jazz memoirs of all time, and definitely a must read for this year's music book releases, My Sax Life is highly recommended.

No comments about Footprints on the Mojave: A view from the barrio : an autobiography.

No comments about Latino Legends: Hispanics in Major League Baseball (High Five Reading).

1 comments about The Conquistadores: Building a Spanish Empire in the Americas (Proud Heritage: the Hispanic Library).

1. R. Conrad Stein has written enough books for the various series published by The Child's World press that he not only know the formula, but how to exploit it to his advantage. Like all of those other volumes, "The Conquistadores: Building a Spanish Empire in the Americas" is required to have four chapters, but Stein is allowed to have detailed sidebars in each chapter and he really takes advantage of that in this book.

   The first chapter on Spain and the Conquistadores explains how fighting for several centuries to free their land from Moorish rule created a warrior class in Spain that took advantage of the discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus to take armies across the sea to serve God and the monarch (and also to get rich). The other three chapters are devoted to the three most famous conquistadores, namely Hernando Cortes and the Conquest of Mexico, Francisco Pizarro and the Conquest of the Incas, and Francisco de Coronado, Explorer of the American Southwest. But then Stein also devotes sizeable sidebars to Vasco de Balboa, Discoverer of the Pacific, Cabeza de Vaca, the Compassionate Conquistador, and Hernando de Soto, Explorer of the Mississippi. The Time Line in the back of the book shows who was doing what when and where to help put each conquistador in perspective. The result is a nice introduction to a half dozen of the key conquistadors who helped to establish a Spanish presence in the New World on a level that is at least comparable to what you would expect to find in the early chapters of a standard grade school American history textbook.

   The book is illustrated with historic prints and paintings (the cover is a detail of Spanish soliders taken from Juan O'Gorman's "Historical Mural). The first eight volumes in this series, "A Proud Heritage: The Hispanic Library," were published last year and "The Conquistadores is one this year's eight new volumes. The others are devoted to "Christopher Columbus: Opening the Americas to European Exploration," "Emiliano Zapata: Revolutionary and Champion of Poor Farmers," "Frida Kahlo: An Artist Celebrates Life," "Hernando Cortés: Conquistador and Empire Builder," "Mario Molina: Chemist and Nobel Prize Winner," and "Pancho Villa: Mexican Revolutionary Hero," as well as a volume on "The Changing Face of America: Hispanic Roots, Hispanic Pride" (the first set had a volume on Coronado). Given that Hispanics are now the second largest ethnic group in the country the value of a series like this is better than ever.

No comments about Mexicans in Phoenix (Images of America: Arizona).

No comments about Orange County: A Personal History.

No comments about Josefina Niggli, Mexican American Writer: A Critical Biography.