3 comments about Cinco maestros: Cuentos modernos de Hispanoamérica (Spanish Edition).

1. This book contains great short stories for anyone with an interest in latin american literature. I bought this book for a college lit class in the univ bookstore and it cost almost as much used as it is here new. Throughout the course, after researching, I found many of the stories, which are quite short, you can find online. The one great thing about this book though is it has an excellent glossary. It is a plethora of Spanish vocabulary that you won't find in a regular dictionary because some of the words might be indigenous to a certain region or area. It also has footnotes for regional idiomatic phrases that you might have trouble translating with a regular sp/en dictionary. The only reason I give it 4 stars instead of 5 is for the cost.



2. This anthology contains a collection of short stories by Latin American male writers such as Borges, Rulfo, Donoso, and Cortazar. There are from three to five short stories per author. The editor has included a short biographical entry for each author. Most, if not the majority, of the stories are accessible and easy to read. There is a list of questions at the end of every story to facilitate class discussions.

   If you are thinking of purchasing this book, consider buying it used, since it is very expensive.




3. No merece la pena comprarte lo. Lo que contiene te vas a encantar - pero sale mas barato comprar los cuentos como parte de otra antologia, o de una coleccion del autor (el alef, Borges; el llano en lantos, juan-rulfo, etc) 40 dolares es mucho para un libro tan chico

2 comments about Mas alla de mi Reaching Out Spanish Edition.

1. This is the 3rd book in a series about the true life of the author which starts after high school graduation. The first book started out with the author as a young boy. He and his family face incredible challenges in life's struggles through poverty, hunger, weather extremes, finding shelter, education, bullies, immigration, work ethics, and faith in God. After reading the first book, the students in my Spanish class all wanted to continue reading the next 2 books. Francisco Jimenez shares his family's stories about overcoming more than their share of negative situations. His life growing up was blessed because he had a mother who believed in him and encouraged him, but even with that positive influence, his life is a real miracle about overcoming odds stacked against him.



2. I have read all three of the professor's books in their Spanish-language versions, and I have read each several times. As someone trying to learn Spanish, I find these books to be most useful. The vocabulary is practical, consisting of everyday words; the style and narrative are direct; the ideas and sentiments comprehensible and familiar. This book is a continuation of an autobiography that begins with the professor's previous book -- Senderos fronterizos. In that book, Professor Jiménez describes his family's illegal entry into the U.S. and the difficult years of poverty in California, where his family labored as agricultural workers. In Senderos, we watch the family struggle to make ends meet. We watch Francisco and his older brother Roberto struggle to put themselves through high school. It's the sort of immigrant story that every American can understand and enjoy. Francisco and his siblings adapt to their new environment (while the father does not), and Francisco wins admission to university. In this second volume of the story, Francisco leaves his family in Santa Maria and goes to college. The reader admires Francisco's love of family and determination to educate himself. I can't believe that he didn't kiss Laura before he put her on the train to San Carlos. Maybe he did and just won't tell us. I suspect that we might see a third installment to this story. If the professor writes it, I will certainly buy and read it.
   
   At the moment, I am rereading Más allá, looking up all the words that I didn't know and let pass on the first reading. As a resident of the San Francisco Bay Area, I derive an added pleasure from reading this book -- that of recognizing many of the places described in the story. A very pleasurable read. Highly recommended for intermediate learners.
   
   All right, here it is on page 210: "Me estiré y le di un beso. Oímos el silbido del tren." So Laura gets her kiss, after all. Now I'm happy.

3 comments about Requiem por un campesino espanol (Spanish Edition).

1. i needed this book for a class im taking and it came in the mail very fast and is in great condition thanks!!



2. I discovered reading this book one of the greatest Spanish writers. On a recent trip to Madrid I looked for his books, not an easy task, and bought all the ones I could find. Now I look forward to reading them.



3. Ramon Sender fuses symbolism and realism in this account of the effect of the Spanish Civil War on a small Aragonese population. He reclaims the image of Christ crucified for the Republican side. This image had been used by Nationalists to symbolise the fate of Spain. It is here won forever for Republican historians as a metaphor for the suffering of ordinary Spanish people. Easy to read in the beautiful Spanish original but excellently translated. You now have good reason to read this book twice!

1 comments about El cuarto de atras (Libros Del Tiempo) (Spanish Edition).

1. I read this in the original Spanish as an undergrad at Gettysburg College (in a class taught by a superb professor). It is a mix of the surreal, of meta-literary constructs and a feminist manifesto on the search for gynocentricity (and the Male obfuscation of this search). Be prepared to read and re-read this work. It doesn't allow an easy approach to the narrative but it is worth the effort.

1 comments about Charlie y la fabrica de chocolate (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) (Alfaguara) (Spanish Edition).

1. The text is classic Roahld Dahl. My two girls love it, and the chapters are parsed to make them perfect bedtime length. The book itself is sturdy, with nice color on the cover and funny illustrations. However, the print is very small for a children's book. It should have more pages with larger print. The translation is good, and always makes sense. My Spanish is Latin American, so it was a bit cumbersome reading all the "os" conjugations of the peninsular Spanish.

No comments about Los recuerdos del porvenir (Spanish Edition).

2 comments about El Gesticulador: Pieza Para Demagogos En Tres Actos (Spanish Edition).

1. This book arrived in excellent condition, with limited highlighting. I got it much cheaper than the price our college bookstore was selling it for.



2. Rodolfo Usigli (1905-1979) is not only Mexico's finest playwright, but El gesticulador (The Gesticulator 1938) is also one of his best plays. The work depicts the life of a disenchanted history professor who leaves Mexico City with his family, and returns to his hometown in northern Mexico hoping to capitalize on the upcoming gubernatorial elections. Circumstances beyond his control lead him to assume the identity of a revolutionary general by the same name, César Rubio. Amidst the confusion, he becomes the people's hero and is elected to run for governor of the state against a former acquaintance that also happens to be the town's villain. The family members play supporting roles: Elena is the dedicated wife and mother; his son Miguel is a young man distraught by his father's failures and by social hypocrisy; and his daughter Julia, is an unattractive, yet seductive young woman who idolizes her father and is interested in social and physical appearances. In a gesture typical of many of the works of the Mexican Revolution, César Rubio is killed before he gets the opportunity to win the elections. While Rubio's death gives his contender the perfect opportunity to look good by honoring the dead hero, it robs Julia of the possibility of gaining a higher social status and leaves Miguel clamoring for Truth. For her part, Elena's resigned nature and sense of dignity allow her to request nothing but her husband's body.

5 comments about Ficciones (BIBLIOTECA BORGES) (Spanish Edition).

1. Imagine removing a blindfold. You are in some American city, but which one? For many cities the street layouts, the buildings, the commercial enterprises are so similar that few clues would be available. But New York, Boston, and San Francisco would be immediately recognizable.
   
   In much the same way the works of Jorge Luis Borges, Umberto Eco, Franz Kafka, and Edgar Allen Poe stand apart from other great writers. They each offer a uniquely fascinating perspective, an unusual style combined with a remarkable command of language.
   
   I first encountered Ficciones quite a few years ago. I was not familiar with Jorge Luis Borges and was not prepared for this remarkable discovery. I still have that book, a little paperback priced at $2.45. I return to it again and again, always to find myself surprised by Borges. (I now have all of Borges works that have been translated to English.)
   
   Borges assumes that his reader is literate. He makes allusions to a wide range of works, occasionally mentioning entirely mythical books that somehow should exist. His volcabulary is immense, but his writing is clear, entertaining, and unpredictable. It is said that Borges has seemingly read everything - and not in translation, but in the original Latin, German, French, English, and Spanish. To better appreciate Dante, he taught himself 13th century Italian.
   
   The poetry, essays, and short stories of Borges are already recognized as classic works of the 20th century. Ficciones, a collection of short stories from 1941-1944, is a particularly good introduction. Take a look at some other reader reviews, but not too many. Borges is best as a surprise, like a fine wine that is unexpectedly encountered.



2. I should begin this review by saying that this is the only work by Borges I have read. I am very familiar with modern and contemporary literature, and through my exposure to others have repeatedly heard reference to Borges. I now know why he is so frequently cited and why the blurb on the paperback version's back cover says "without Borges, the modern Latin American novel simply wouldn't exist." I think Borges would likely challenge that assertion, but at the least Borges has an extraordinarily precociousness about him. He is postmodern in every sense of the term without the pretension that often accompanies a postmodern sensibility.

   In Ficciones we are exposed to the possibility that nihilism is the ultimate reality. In other postmodern works, this idea is presently mordantly, the author reverently succumbing to their own notion of nothingness. In Ficciones the possibility that nothing really exists also has a corollary: the possibility that anything exists. It is this sense of limitless possibility that predominates the first half of this collection of short fictions. In my opinion the first half of this book, entitled The Garden of Forking Paths is far more engaging than the second, Artifices. In Part I, we are told some of Borges's most noted tales, including The Library of Babel in which everything that can exist is recorded and stored in an eternal grid of rooms. I have heard Borges's work described as labyrinthine, but I think that term both simplifies and obscures his fictions. To say it simplifies his work is to say that it reduces his stories to puzzles, or mazes for which there may or may not be any solution. In my reading of Borges the idea of a solution to a riddle presupposes that a singular answer is available. To Borges, there is an infinite array of solutions to an infinite array of problems. What he does, because he must in order to address such rampant chaos, is create boxes which neatly contain a microscopic summary of the spread of problems at hand. This is what I believe people refer to when they say he is labyrinthine (not to mention he often writes about labyrinths and puzzles).

   The themes of recursion and simultaneity dominate Part I. Everything exists at once. Time is an illusion. Yet he uses the conceit of a library to attempt to order it. This is futile and he knows it, so he situates the narrator of that tale in a task of recursively searching for and ultimately never finding a definitive explanation to anything.

   Part II is more narrative-driven and does include some very good stories, particularly "Funes, the Memorius", "The Secret Miracle" and "Three Versions of Judas". These tales put into motion the intellectual conceits introduced in Part I.

   Borges is not nearly as impenetrable as I was led to believe. I am not saying that it's easy either. Although this book is short, it took me about 3 days to finish because the stories are so compact. It takes time for the ideas to unravel. In Ficciones, Borges makes Einstein's physics into readable literature. He was postmodern before modernism was finished. This thin volume is a must for anyone with a passion for 20th century literature.




3. Junto con el Aleph, Ficciones es el libro que me convirtió en un fanático de Borges. En realidad, en este pequeño volumen quedan resumidas todas las genialidades, búsquedas, acertijos, historias, bromas, erudiciones de Borges.

   Para alguien que nunca ha leído a Borges es sin dudas un buen comienzo para empezar a enamorarse de uno de los mas grandes escritores de nuestra lengua. Para aquellos que ya somos sus lectores, leer y releer Ficciones es un placer inagotable.

   ESte libro es sencillamente una maravilla




4. las "ficciones" forman un libro muy elaborado y revelan una sabiduría existencialista muy rara. Las historietas, de manera misteriosa una alegada a la otra,reflejan la situación del hombre en el mundo. La descripción de Tlön, un pais ficcional a lo que contribuyen los sabios del mundo, sirve como ejemplo para entender el misterio del mundo tal y como se presenta a la percepción humana. Los supuestos habitantes de Tlön, por ejemplo piensan que el idealismo va tán de suyo como para nosotros el materialismo. Los filósofos, por tanto, han establecido algunas aporías las que entrene el idealismo y las que los filósofos de Tlön discuten con tanto ardor como los modernos las aporías del eleatismo. Estas circumstancias complejísimas vienen descrito con inmensa virtuosidad, de una manera que es fácil imaginarse los habitantes de Tlön. Pero hay que leerlas todas. Un libro favorecido.Debo hacer un fín.



5. es facinante perderse en el laberinto de palabras, oraciones e ideas de Borges.toda la filosofia de su obra, la creacion de un universo nuevo, con nuevas reglas , hecho por hombres y para hombres, los espejos, las loterias, los laberintos.... su obra esta repleta de esa fantasia embriagante y de esa magia que hace que no nos demos cuenta de que se nos agotan las paginas y aun deseamos mas... mientras mas lo leo mas me apasiona ese escritor.

5 comments about Cien años de soledad: Edición conmemorativa (The 40th Anniversary Edition) (Spanish Edition).

1. I love to read. I bought this book because of the author, and that called my attention the title "Cien anos de Soledad", I wanted to know what this title means and how Gabriel Garcia Marquez could write without living that long, it was amazing the way he described all the situations that make me feel that I was part of the novel.I ussually read at night and while reading this book I just wanted to go to the end and read to 4 or 5 am. I will recommend this book very hardly



2. Al terminar el libro solo queda darle gracias a Garcia Marquez por el universo marivilloso que a creado para la posteridad. Un libro de esos sorprendentes q vale la pena re-leer y q tiene la cualidad de sumergir al lector tan facilmente q es mejor leerlo despues de haber hecho las demas tareas del dia para no olvidar de hacerlas!
   Es un regalo grandiosioso.



3. Excellent novel; good in English translation, better in this (Spanish) original. Special "Royal Institute of Spanish Literature" edition contains critical works on the novel. Good buy, good book, great story.



4. The time period from the e-mail notification (when they notify me the item was shipped to me) to when I actually got the item was kind of long, but besides that, very good service.



5. Este edición, aparte de ser un buen libro, es otro edición ejemplar de Alfaguara. Sale en pasta dura y tiene un listón en medio del libro para mantener tu página. Además del libro, salen artículos de Carlos Fuentes ("Para darle nombre a América"), Mario Vargas Llosa ("Cien años de Soledad. Realidad total, novela total.") y otros. También incluye un glosario del español de Márquez (para explicar las palabras que no están o no tienen el mismo sentido en otros dialectos del español.) Y en fin, una lista de los personajes, con detalles someras sobre sus papel en la historia, pero no revela detalles.
   
   Si han leído esta historia antes o lo quieren leer por la primera vez, esta es una edición ideal que parece elegante en sus estantes después de haberlo leído.

5 comments about Rayuela (Spanish Edition).

1. me encanta como utiliza las palabras, los lenguajes, para crear otro mundo, para hunir al lector en la dinamica de un europa colonial, ahogante, insoportable y a la vez bonito ..



2. He leido Rayuelas 3 veces a lo largo de 35 anos y cada vez que leo este libro aprendo nuevas cosas.Con este libro Julio Cortazar demuestra que es un genio de la palabra escrita y un creador de belleza sinigual.Su genialidad a mi entender queda expuesta en el capitulo 34 de la obra.Este capitulo hay que leerlo de tres formas diferentes para su aprehension.No voy a entrar en detalle de los personajes del libro,pero quiero senalar que cada uno de ellos es de por si de una profundidad y complejidad enormes,pero con caracteristicas muy particulares.Recomiendo la lectura de este libro y estoy seguro de que quedaran tan impresionados como yo con el mismo.



3. Un libro maravilloso, I really enjoy it , and I received it as soon as i spected.



4. Some of the words have miss spell, i dont like at all the product because the quality for the price i pay, is like the Pirate version of the book. Sorry!



5. Very satisfied with the order, the book arrived extremely fast and in very good condition. Thank you