Spanish Books Books

El alma no desaparece con la ausencia del cuerpo. Las hermosas palabras de Soraya reverberan con la belleza que sólo su corazón es capaz de impregnarle a la vida. Este libro respira su luz, su necesidad de vivir al máximo y su deseo de que el resto del planeta lo hiciera. Su sinceridad es el hilo conductor de cada idea y es esta honestidad la que llega tan dentro a quien lo lee. ¡¡Simplemente, precioso:)!!

This is a tremendously inspiring book about Hispanic-American singer-songwriter Soraya, who lost her life to breast cancer at age 37, in 2006. It's an incredibly inspiring memoir that has broken records for Spanish-language books. It is now available to order in English, with 100 extra pages of memories, filled with pictures and stories told by friends, family and fellow musicians. Through this alternate story we learn things the humble Soraya would not have said: that in the final years of her life she became a world-class humanitarian, and that she was one heck of a musician. Enjoy. Soraya: A Life of Music, A Legacy of Hope

A veces nos quejamos de un simple malestar o porque el dia por una tonteria no nos haya salido bien, pero una vez uno lee este libro, aparte de que cuando empiezas a leerlo no lo puedes dejar, es una gran enseñanza de que las cosas pequeñas que nos enfrentamos cada día son bien insignificantes. Hay que tener mucha fe y valor para pasar por lo que pasó Soraya y a la misma vez continuar viendo la vida de la maner que ella lo hizo. Este libro me enseño a que hay que darle la importancia a las cosas que realmente la tienen y dejarnos de darle importancia a las tonterias que nos pasan dia a dia. Lo recomiendo 100%, si todos actuaramos de la manera que ella lo hizo, poniendo su ejemplo en las cosas que nos toca vivir todos los dias, creo que tendriamos un mundo mejor. Que pena que personas como ella, de tanta fe y tanta perseverancia, tengan que dejarnos, quizas porque de esta manera han cumplido su proposito en la vida y nosotros podamos seguir su ejemplo. Gracias mil por este legado de esperanza.

Rafael Alberti (1902-1999) is one of the most notable poets of the 20th century. He is not nearly as well known as his friend Federico García Lorca and most of his work is still unavailable in English translation. City Lights has made an invalubable contribution in the effort to widen the availability of Alberti's work to English speaking readers. This collection from 1929, here in a bilingual version, is considered by many to be Alberti's greatest poetic achievement. Translator Christopher Sawyer-Laucanno set himself a monumental task and he comes through with dignity and grace. The brief introduction by noted Hispanist Ian Gibson (a Lorca specialist) is helpful and Alberti's autobiographical note (from 1955) is fascinating.
Critical inertia has set "Concernng The Angels" in a surrealist context, but the work is not at all exemplary of surrealist art nor does it reflect in any important ways significant surrealist influences. The collection is, rather, an immensely creative narrative of the redemptive value of imaginative art. Alberti, who two years after publishing this book began a life long engagement with the Communist Party and a commitment to political activism, here makes his best and most radical political statement. Read this book and discover what it is.

This book illustrates why City Lights Books is the most important tourist stop in San Francisco - they are the publishers of this excellent book. The Andalusian poet is a contemporary of Lorca, Dali etc. In his brief autobiographic note, he states that these poems were written at night in a frenzy. I believe him. At least three-quarters of the poems have a sense of being inspired rather than crafted i.e. as if they came as whole to the poet, i.e. as if they came directly from within as an expression of state-of-being rather than being created consciously by the artistic intellect.

Within the poems there is a significant variety in structure and tone although most share a sense of disorientation. There are very inventive images which absolutely fit in the poem although standing alone, that seems impossible. Throughout the poems there was only one image that jarred, one (to my mind) misplaced "piano". Some examples: "Ah yes. A suit of clothes went by / uninhabited, hollow" or "The earth was an enemy, / because it fled. / The sky an enemy, / because it never stopped."

This volume is bilingual - something I appreciate (or demand) in translations of poetry. It is a volume that bears reading and rereading in either or both languages.

Rafael Alberti's "Concerning the Angels" stands as not only one of the strongest & greatest collection of poems by a Spanish author in the twentieth century, but as the back cover states it is on par with other essential poetry books from all countries of the last century. Alberti's brief & poetic autobiographical statement at the beginning brings light to his mental state when he wrote the book in 1927-28. "What was I to do? How could I speak? How could I shout? How could I give form to that enmeshing tangle with which I was engaged in combat? How could I raise myself again from that catastrophic pit in which I had sunk? Submerging, burying myself more and more in my own ruins, covering myself up in my own rubble, with my insides torn, my bones splintered." Judging from the poems alone, one can tell that Alberti was in an anguished state. Alberti's recurrent idea of the soul in it's different conditions deserves to be examined closely & not be taken in a religious context, just as he informs us that, "the angels revealed themselves to me, not as Christian, bodily angels of the sort found in beautiful paintings or prints, but instead as irresistible forces of the spirit, maleable to the most turbid and secret states of my nature."


If people now find it hard to contemplate the notion of the soul in other than a strictly religious context, I have no reservations in stating this is one of the more lamentable effects of our consumer-driven society. As much as Alberti writes about the soul it is evident from these poems that he was witness to man's demoralization:

"body that for soul

had the void, nothing,"

"Ruined men, fixed,

in the wrecked cities,"

"Lost among equations, triangles, formulas and blue precipitates,

between bloody events, ruins and toppled crowns,

at the time of gold hunters and bank robberies,

in the tardy blush on the flat roofs

voices of angels anounced to you the casting off and loss of your soul."

Lorca brought "Concerning the Angels" with him to New York & was influenced by it while writing, "Poet in New York" esp. in his poems criticizing the greed of American capitalism. If capitalism & industrialized societies have offered us comfort & luxury, it has been enormously detrimental to our being, modern capitalism has turned people into exploitable objects with a dollar sign on everything. Beginning with Blake & Novalis, poets have been warning mankind about the negative effects of capitalism.


For Alberti physical death is preferable to anguish, especially after the loss of love. Rimbaud gave us a memorable definition of this when he wrote, "the only thing that is unbearable is that nothing is unbearable." The poet Ruben Dario writes of a different hope in death: "...Tell me that this horrible dread of agony which posesses me is my own wicked fault; that, dead, I will see the light of a new day, and then will hear you say, "Arise and walk!" Indeed, in extreme desperation what Alberti longs for more than anything else is either the void of death or a return to a state prior to becoming acquainted with love's disappointments. Usually this state assumes the form of childish innocence, but since this is more unlikely than the void of death, the most memorable lines of the book belong to the latter solution:

"Fly now from me, dark

Lucifer of quarries without dawn,

of wells without water

of caverns without sleep,

now, ember of the spirit,

sun,moon...

Oh, burn me!

More, more, yes, yes, more! Burn me!"

"Ugly one, sooty and muddy

I don't want to see you!

Before, you were snowy, gilded,

in a sled across my soul.

Ornamented pines. Slopes.

And now through the carriage houses,

of charcoal, filthy.

Out! Out! Away!"

"Always at counterlight,

never overtaken, alone,

soul alone...

Soul in pain:

lifeless brilliance,

you conquer."

In "Concerning the Angels" anguish usually appears in the form of mist, in fact three sections of the book bear the title, "Guests of the Mist", a line from G.A. Becquer, who Alberti dedicates one of the greatest poems of the entire book, "Three Remembrances of Heaven." This mist is the physical manifestation of Alberti's mental states, either completely obscuring anything colorful & promising or bringing back even more painful memories:

"Neither sun, moon, nor stars,

neither the unexpected green

of lightning or thunder

nor the breeze. Only mists."

Again the poem mirrors the conditions under which Alberti wrote them, "a creature of darkness, I began to write blindly at any hour of the night without putting on the light in my room."

We move with the poet through these skeins of mist, knowing all along, "to go to hell there is no need to change one's place or posture." Alberti keeps searching for what will eclipse his pain completely, the reason it is usually death he sees as the answer is because with every other solution, even a new love, there is the potential of old memories reappearing and throwing him back into extreme agony, what Alberti wants from death is to be cauterized not only from his present torments but from the painful memories as well. The poet's hope he puts into his death is, "there is always a last time after the fall of the wasteland, the advent of cold in forgetful dreams, and the tumbling down of death on the skeleton of nothingness." Alberti's conviction in the soul & his longing for the complete void of emotions that death promises may at first seem a paradox, but it is not. Only for someone who acknowledges the soul as something absolutely vital to living, as opposed to merely existing, would require death's permanence as a solution to their persistent agony, and the reason it is so intolerable is because it refuses to end. With "Concerning the Angels" Alberti has given us one of the most magnificent poetry collections, a veritable catharsis of the soul.

I was so happy when Condorito came out in book format finally. The only drawback is that there aren't more of these types of books out. Condorito is a beloved character and I am happy this fact was recognized with the release of this book in english and spanish.

Great fun to read. Better than the editions in Spanish.
I am looking forward for the following edition. You'll laugh along with Condorito and friends from the first page to the last one!

I've collected all the Condorito magazines since I remember and obviously I got this first book. It really is different than the other comics as it features shorter stories, but it still gives great laughs.
A must have for fans and and worthy read for non-fans.

Es un libro escrito por una verdadera experta en SEXOLOGÍA, y a mi me ayudó hasta para ilustrar a mi hijo mayor!
Realmente, hay que leer este libro, PORQUE NADIE SABE SUFICIENTE SOBRE LA FUNCIÓN SEXUAL, Y ESTA AUTORA SI SABE Y EXPLICA SENCILLAMENTE !

IN SEXOLOGY, wrote a book that is a GIFT for all of us.
Even those who believe they know all, WILL LEARN CLEAR, SCIENTIFIC FACTS ABOUT SEXOLOGY.
A marvelous book!

Se trata de un libro que nos enseña muchísimo, aunque nos las demos de que nos las sabemos todas !
No es un libro porno:Es un libro escrito por una verdadera experta en SEXOLOGÍA, y a mi me ayudó hasta para ilustrar a mi hijo mayor!
Realmente, hay que leer este libro, PORQUE NADIE SABE SUFICIENTE SOBRE LA FUNCIÓN SEXUAL, Y ESTA AUTORA SI SABE Y EXPLICA SENCILLAMENTE !

Autobiografía de Pablo Neruda donde el poeta nos cuenta lo cotidiano de su existencia. Es deslumbrante como el poeta convierte en mágico a través de sus metáforas poéticas los sucesos más cotidianos, la lluvia, el pasar del tren, los campesinos, el ruido del mar, etc. Esta claro que el poeta supo entender y disfrutar de cada momento de la vida más que cualquier un mortal normal. El lector puede introducirse y casi revivir los sentimientos de Neruda durante los momentos más importantes de su vida, su primer libro, sus amores, sus amigos, etc. En otra parte del libro nos hace conocer sus ideas comunistas extremas como por ejemplo que considera la Unión Soviética "el país de los sueños intentados y conseguidos", y su admiración por los líderes políticos comunistas.

Neruda's life highlighting the events that shaped his poetry and deep love for humanity. From his early childhood in his beloved and magical Chile through his experiences with love and politics, this beautiful and humorous book explores the poet's life in the most beautiful Spanish prose written in contemporary literature.

Pablo Neruda's "Memoirs" is not a comprehensive autobiographical document. It is a personal memoir, recounted as if the author was sitting around a table, with good friends and a bottle of excellent Chilean wine, telling tales of the people, anecdotes and incidents that were so important in his life. "Confieso Que He Vivido," means I confess that I have lived. And Sr. Neruda certainly did that...with zest, zeal and so much talent. I have read both this Spanish edition and the English edition, translated by Hardie St. Martin, which is a good one, but it does not do justice to Neruda's beautiful skill with the Spanish language. He romances the language, like no other, even with his prose. I am only sorry I do not feel secure enough in my knowledge of Spanish grammar to write this review in the beloved language of Neruda.

Neruda was born, the son of a railroad worker, in the then frontier wilderness of Southern Chile in 1904. He led a bohemian lifestyle, dressing in black "like the true poets of the last century," during his university years in Santiago. His shyness, the "kink in the soul,"...especially of women, took him a while to overcome. He describes the people and places of that period with great 'carino' (love). His political ideology began to form at that time also, and politics became an integral part of his writing. The Student Federation, student demonstrations and the subsequent repression, had a great impact on the young intellectual.

Neruda led a rich and fascinating life. World traveled throughout his life, he served as Chilean consul in Burma, Ceylon, and Java. He was the consul in Spain during the Spanish Civil War, and during this time "Nine Love Poems" from "Veinte Poemas de Amor y Una Cancion Desesperada" was published. It was at this time also, that his friend Federico Garcia Lorca was killed. Neruda was present in Paris to organize a worldwide anti-Facist congress of writers that would be held in Madrid. His writing about Spain during the war is heartbreaking. Returning to Chile in 1938, he found a burgeoning Fascist movement in his own beloved land.

I particularly enjoyed his account of the time he spent in Mexico, as consul. He tells of his encounters with the great Mexican painters there.

After returning home, Neruda ran for political office and was elected to Chile's Senate in 1945. He was later removed from his Senate seat after joining the Communist Party.

His friends included: Garcia Lorca, Ehrenburg, Picasso, Siqueiros, Diego Rivera, Octavio Paz, Miguel Angel Asturias, Gandhi, Nehru, Mao, Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, and most sadly, Salvador Allende.

Pablo Neruda's death, just weeks after the brutal murder of Chile's President Allende, is something I will never forget. I was living in Colombia at that time, and remember where I was and what I was doing when I learned of Allende's death, and later heard of Neruda's passing. It called to mind, then and now, my recollections, as a young girl, when President Kennedy's assassination was announced. I always thought Neruda died of a broken heart.

This is an exceptionally good memoir, told with great charm, in a series of vignettes. I highly recommend it, especially to anyone who has read and enjoyed Pablo Neruda's poetry - to my mind some of the most beautiful in the world. It also gives us a glimpse of the politics of the left from the point of view of a Latin American - not the usual perspective, and well worth while.
JANA

El placer de ver la hermosa cara de la modelo que se encuentra en la portada ! Así podríamos quedar eso..depende de tí...

Because it states the truth: All beauties are diferent:
Then, it shows you how to underline your very personal, particular and own beauty..
The first surprise WILL BE FOR YOU...A VERY NICE ONE!
You`ll never leave this book...

El primero: Volver a ver a mi esposa tan guapa como cuando nos casamos !
El segundo:Ahorrarme un buen dinero, porque ya no va al salón de belleza ni compra cremas lujosas...Hace todo lo que este libro recomienda...
Y tercera:El placer de ver la hermosa cara de la modelo que se encuentra en la portada !

Llévenlo a la señora y ya verán ¡QUE CAMBIO TAN GRANDE !

Mr. Paiewonsky's terrific account and rich accompaniment with period art, valuable maps and charts, and contemporary perspective, gives us all a chance to review this history with new eyes.

As a Virgin Islander, Mr. Paiewonsky, was raised in a family that has for generations collected the history, art, and artifacts associated with the region. Finally we get reasonable interpretaions of the accounts of the New World process of discovery and indeed conquest. His understanding of this is all the more valuable because of his local knowledge, just from growing up in the region. He has sailed the routes, accompanied the archeological digs, and can interpret the art and the drawings of the old cartographers.

The description of the Reefbay petroglyphs on St. John alone, from this author, is worth the price of the book, which will no doubt become an historial treasure of its own one day.

This book is a gem. The sad results of the encounter of the Spanish with the indiginous population of the Caribbean Islands is presented objectively and the few accounts of the Tiano Peoples' own words are effectively used to hint at who these early victims of European expansion really were. The use of modern photos and historic illustrations opens up the real lost world where these events unfolded and every illustration adds to and interacts with the text. The result is both a good read and a rigerous scholarly introduction to the foundations of the American experiance. This is the first work of its kind that interperts the historic documents as understood by an island inhabitant who understands details the first explorer encountered from personal experiance.

History books on the voyages of Columbus can only take you so far -- until now. This book really ties the historical details together with the drama and adventure that the original explorers must have felt. It is impossible to put this book down -- for the reader interested in history or for the person seeking an adventure.

In a letter quoted by Buddy Levy in his magnificent Conquistador, Hernan Cortes confesses that he and his men suffer from a particular "disease of the heart": a lust for gold and power. The tale of the unhappy outcome of that disease, the destruction of one of the New World's mightiest empires in an astoundingly short time by an astoundingly small handful of adventurers, is the most apparent storyline in Conquistador. Levy tells it with eloquence and accuracy.

But there's another storyline in the book that I find just as fascinating. The disease of the heart which afflicted Cortes and his men also troubled Montezuma, for the Aztec Empire, despite its achievements in science and art, was also a bloodthirsty machine that subjugated native peoples, sacrified tens of thousands to pitiless gods, and created caste systems in which the many were ground under the feet of the few. What Levy gives us, then, is a double portrait of two invalids suffering from similar illnesses. One, a European captain with fewer than 500 men, the other a divine emperor with life-or-death power over 15 million people. In the end, both of them died from their diseases, Montezuma and his empire literally, Cortes morally and (despite his sporadic religious zealotry) spiritually. Curiously, neither of them seemed to have quite the necessary stamina to survive their illness.

In telling the story of the clash between these two men, Levy explores the tactics by which Cortes managed to defeat Montezuma: a combination of bluster, good luck, superior technology, alliances with disgruntled indigenous peoples, and hard fighting. His description of La Noche Triste, the night in which Cortes and his men were forced out of the royal city of Tenochtitlan by rallying Aztecs and nearly destroyed, is surpassed only by his account of the 2-month siege that retook and destroyed the city. (Cortes, for example, dug a one-mile canal to launch battle ships in the lake surrounding Tenochtitlan. Over 200,000 Aztecs, including Montezuma, perished in the resulting fight, which Levy describes with the gusto of Homer's account of the fall of Troy.) Afterwards, Cortes built his palace on the ruins of Montezuma's.

The relationship between Montezuma and Cortes has always been a strange one, with both men appearing both attracted and repulsed by the other. Levy suggests that part of the ambivalence may've been because Montezuma, overpowered by the splendor of the invaders, fell victim to the Stockholm Syndrome (a sense of loyalty to one's oppressors). It's a fascinating suggestion.

All in all, a splendid book that combines historical narrative with much insight about how diseases of the heart can bring down both individuals and empires. Something to think about.

I was a huge fan of Levy's first biography of David Crockett, and was eager to read Conquistador. Once again Levy was able to paint an amazing portrait of these historical figures, while illuminating historical events in an entertaining manner. The final siege on Tenochtitlan makes an amazing climax to this epic.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in historical non-fiction.

i couldn't put this book down. the incredible deceit and politics that went on and still continues today. you could really see the humanity in both Cortes and Montezuma. very well-researched. now i want to go to mexico city and dig deep in its streets and sewers to find all that lost gold!!!!

I've spoken Spanish since the age of 13 (I'm 60 now) and have been married to a native speaker of Spanish (Puerto Rico) for almost 30 years. Although I don't live in an Hispanic country, my exposure to Spanish is almost on a daily basis, mostly by virtue of household conversations and satellite television programs. What I've always found useful to keep my language active at a professionally competent level are well-chosen anthologies of literary excerpts by established authors in their original format. This anthology delivers exactly that. Ms. Varona-Lacey has done a fine job of selecting from across a wide spectrum of genres to not only introduce popular authors to an interested audience, but also to ensure that the level of difficulty is just right to provide that linguistic challenge to those who want to raise their non-native fluency in the language to higher levels of expertise. Technical and seldom-encountered words are glossed and explained below the page of text, as well as brief explanations of historical personages/events to facilitate comprehension. Her selection of authors is quite inclusive and I cannot think of anyone to add to her list of contributors, although no doubt other reviewers can probably come up with a name or two. I hold a PhD in Foreign Language Education and am a former university professor of both Arabic and Spanish. I would have loved to have used this selection in my third or fourth year Spanish classes had it been available when I was still teaching.

This book contains short stories, poems, and excerpts from a variety of well-known latin american authors such as Octavio Paz, Isabel Allende, Carlos Fuentes, and Pablo Neruda. Each selection includes an introduction of the author, pre-reading notes, footnotes of difficult words with English translation, and post-reading questions.

Buy two copies, give one to your best Spanish-speaking friend, and keep the other to give to your grandchildren after you've worn it out.

Moore's poetry is striking in a number of ways and well worth reading. The fact that they have been translated into Spanish by the well-known translator and poet, Alicia Zavala Galvan, is also worth noting for the value it adds to Moore's book, but also for the access it now allows Spanish readers to Haiku. A nice job by poet and translator!

In this cluttered world where many busy themselves with the radio, television or CD players, enters the haiku. It is not a new type of poetry but one that has been rediscovered. The unique dimension in this presentation by the haiku specialist Michael Moore is that he presents them to us in two languages, English as well as Spanish. He is not a novice to writing haiku His three other collections: Chocolate Haiku, Chocolate Chips and Home Grown in the Haiku Garden attest to this. Alicia Galvan is right in her introduction when she states "translation of a literary work into another language can best be described as opening Pandora's box." However, she has carefully and skillfully translated these poems as if she had the secret to the lock. The task of the poet as an artist is to employed strong vibrant images in as few words as possible. Similar to his other collections, Michael's poems are like (candy kisses), too many of them will only leaves you feeling stuffed. A few at a time will lighten your day and be the inspiration that is often needed for the mind and soul after a full day's work. Contemporary View of Haiku is enriched by the subtle use of the oriental brush of Don Albert, a San Antonio artist. I would suggest having a copy of this near the dinner table and reading a few before meals to whet the appetite or before retiring in the evening. Contemporary View of Haiku would be a wonderful book to teach contemporary haiku to children, especially since it is a bilingual edition. (Trinida Sanchez)

Contemporary View of Haiku is a work that explore the free-verse style of an old Japanese art form in a bilingual format. ISBN: 0-9610702-6-9

Mustard Seed Press

Michael Moore's poetic microcosm is inhabited by the subjects usually associated with haiku: cicadas, fish, dragonflies, crickets, plum blossoms, gardens, and the seasons. But Moore juxtaposes themes with images as diverse as bungi jumpers, cotton candy, and a Navajo blanket. Haiku is an intuitive experience, and at times Moore's deft touch results in a surreal leap. Residing in the here and now details, he mines the evocative power of the common place object: a lounge chair, a wheelbarrow, a collar button, an habachi, a clock, a bullet, bike, and museum bench. Moore's perception lies beyond the threshold of utility. As poetic images, he redeems them. to read Moore's poetry is to dwell in the house of possibility:

Gently waking
the sleeping butterfly
a distant temple bell.

La campana lejana de un templo
suavemente despierta
una mariposa que duerme.

------------------------

Spider leaps
from the ceiling fan
ancient bungi jumper.

Arana brinca
del abanico del techo
saltador bungi antiguo.

Bienvenidos al microcosmo de Michael Moore. Su obra poetica celebra no solamente un jardin de temas asociados con el haiku pero tambien el inesperado poder de objectos que presuponemos. Sus poemas celebran el toque transcendental que redide en los detalles de nuestra vida cotidiana. La poesia haiku es un relampagueo. Michael Moore no los desilusiona.

Jacinto Jesus Cardona, Teacher and poet