5 comments about Wandering Time: Western Notebooks (Camino Del Sol).

1. This little book fell off the bookstore shelf in front of me while I was browsing so I knew it was meant for me to buy and read. It was also the first time I felt so inspired to write to the author to say how much his writing moved me. The book tells of his travels around the Western US while trying to find direction in his life but it is really a heart to heart talk with the reader. You will feel like you have an author for a best friend and you will never forget the beauty of how he puts his words together.



2. This American poet writer delivers songs in sentences and has a singular voice that calls out to you long after the book is lost on the shelf. His words don't just stay with you, but the spirit of a decent man does too. An engaging, funny, reflective, lyrical read.



3. Luis writes from his soul; he is a wonderful person and it shows in his work. Kirkus doesn't know what he/she's talking about...Luis is one of the world's greatest writers, and one of my favorite people. I hope he's happy and well. I am, Nicolina



4. I knew Luis and the other half of this "troubled marriage" (Kirkus Review) that ended. She left, he fell apart, she fell apart. But that was seven years ago! He's remarried and she has a two year-old by someone else! This is one of the great writers of our time; surely he can find something more interesting to think and write about. P.S. where do you want me to send your dad's records???



5. It is a shame that Amazon.com has to put on-line the review by Kirkus. I don't know who wrote it--he didn't sign his name--but I wouldn't be surprised if it was a jealous, inferior writer lashing out with his tiny pen.

   The shame is this: Wandering Time is a fine book. A great book. One of the best books I have read. Urrea's language has a music all its own. That's as clear as I can say it. He knows the word-music, the secret combination that strings the right sounds together in the right order--turns the language into something better, something sweeter than it is for the rets of us, something delicious.

   The Kirkus review sounds an awful lot like what they said about Mozart. In that regard it is appropriate. But in no other way.

1 comments about Xul Solar: Pintor De Misterio / Painter of Mystery.

1. Oscar Agustín Alejandro Schulz Solari (1887-1963) was born with that name, but later decided that he wanted to change it to Xul Solar, a phonetic equivalent of his parents surnames. Xul was many things: a painter, an astrologist, a mystic, a creator of languages and religions. He participated actively in the Argentinian artistic scene from the 1920's onwards, and was permanently involved in new endeavors with friends such as Jorge Luis Borges, Oliverio Girondo, Leopoldo Marechal, and Macedonio Fernández. According to Borges, "Hombre versado en todas las disciplinas, curioso de todos los arcanos, padre de escrituras, de lenguajes, de utopías, de mitologías, huésped de infiernos y de cielos, autor panajedrecista y astrólogo perfecto en la indulgente ironía y en la generosa amistad, Xul Solar es uno de los acontecimientos más singulares de nuestra época".
   
   Because of all that, it isn't easy to find a good biography about Xul, because such a biography would have to be little less than a biography of everything. Fortunately for us, "Xul Solar: pintor del misterio" is almost certainly such a biography. Well documented and easy to read, it is evident that Álvaro Abós had a great idea when he decided to write this book.
   
   Notwithstanding that, I think that this biography could have been even better if it had had illustrations of at least some of Xul's paintings. All the same, we can solve that inconvenient if we visit www.xulsolar.org.ar/xulhall.html, a website where you can admire Xul Solar's works. Do you really need to do that?. Well, allowing Borges to speak again, "Sus pinturas son documentos del mundo ultraterreno, del mundo metafísico en que los dioses toman las formas de la imaginación que los sueña. La apasionada arquitectura, los colores felices, los muchos pormenores circunstanciales, los laberintos, los homúnculos y los ángeles inolvidablemente definen este arte delicado y monumental.El gusto de nuestro tiempo vacila entre el mero agrado lineal, la transcripción emotiva y el realismo con brocha gorda; Xul Solar renueva, a su modo ambicioso que quiere ser modesto, la mística pintura de los que no ven con los ojos físicos en el ambito sagrado de Blake, de Swedenborg, de yoguis y de bardos". No need for more words, don't you think?.
   
   Also, it is wortwhile to point out that another possible problem for the English speaking reader is that this book is written in Spanish, so get ready to practice your language skills, or be prepared to wait a long time for an English translation that may never come...
   
   On the whole, I recommend his book to you if you are at least somewhat interested in Xul Solar's paintings, or eager to know more about a man as peculiar as Xul was.
   
   Belen Alcat

No comments about Simon Bolivar (Hispanic Heritage).

No comments about Men May Come and Men May Go ... But I've Still Got My Little Pink Raincoat: Life and Love In and Out of My Wardrobe.

2 comments about Cholos & Surfers: A Latino Family Album.

1. Jack Lopez has crafted a series of essays that speak more to the human condition than to the latino condition. For anyone who has grown up in America, let alone southern California, this is a collection that speaks volumes. There is an emotional tug in each piece that requires the reader to stop, go back a few sentences and then read again. At times funny, sad, and hopeless, this is a major work.



2. In these remarkable personal essays Lopez is son, brother, father, husband and friend; the human condition (and within it the "Latino condition") is inseparable from family and friends, for without them we have nothing. For Lopez, as one critic has pointed out, surfing is a powerful metaphor for staying alive and being true to yourself in a society where identities are so easily washed away. Lopez's quiet compassion, insight and honesty manage to make more meaningful thunder than many of the trendier, louder essayists writing about the American scene today; and anyone who likes the work of Mary Helen Ponce, Ilan Stavans and Richard Rodriguez (or for that matter Joan Didion and Truman Capote) should try this book, and, if they like it, to make the effort to track down Lopez's fiction, which has appeared in these excellent Latino short story anthologies: MIRRORS BENEATH THE EARTH, PIECES OF THE HEART, IGUANA DREAMS, MUY MACHO and CURRENTS FROM THE DANCING RIVE! R, among others.

No comments about Ghosts of Slavery: A Literary Archaeology of Black Women's Lives.

1 comments about Defying the Inquisition in Colonial New Mexico: Miguel de Quintana's Life and Writings (Paso Por Aqui).

1. Francisco Lomeli and Clark Colahan have made a major contribution to the colonial history and literature of Hispanic New Mexico in this book about Miguel de Quintana's life and writings. I am amazed that Quintana's writings were discovered in the archives of the Inquisition in Mexico City. I appreciated the contextual analysis of Quintana's thoughts expressed in his poetry. Readers of English will appreciate having his writings available for the first time in English. My profound "gracias" to Professors Lomeli and Colahan.

No comments about Jose Marti: Cuban Patriot and Poet (Hispanic Biographies).

No comments about George Lopez: Latino King of Comedy (Latino Biography Library).

2 comments about Standing Tall: The Stories of Ten Hispanic Americans (Scholastic Biography).

1. 
   This is one of those books you MUST read. Don't let a traditional education turn you into a comsumer zombie. Learn about YOUR history and herstory! The PEOPLE'S HISTORY. NOT THE CORPORATION'S HISTORY! NOT THE RICH WHITE MAN'S HISTORY!
   
   There are more important people out there than ever were revealed to you in public or catholic schools, Hector.




2. There are lots of people in this world.But only these ten made it in this book!Its Great for people who dont know much about people!Such as Roberto Clemente and Jaime Escalante!Roberto was a baseball player and Jaime was a Teacher!