Languages Books

Believe it or not, this book really helped my trombone playing even though I don't stutter! The Valsalva Maneuvre is quite common among brass players and this book is the most profound source I found so far.

This books is really one of a kind. It is so in depth about stuttering and tht tips are amazing

William Parry is my complete stuttering guru! Yet, I've never stuttered in my life, (with my voice, that is). I'm a trombone player who has stuttered for the last 17 years. It started in my 2nd year of college as a music major. I was a great player all through high school, winning numerous awards and playing even with famous musicians.
After I started locking up on my trombone in college, I went to many different trombone teachers from L.A. to Northern California, but none of them could help me (not even a little). Even the very best trombone players (incredible trombone players, mind you) had no clue what I was trying to describe. "Frustration" with the trombone would be putting it mildly and I even quit playing for a few years.
Just a month ago, I decided to see what else I could find. I came across William Parry's web site on stuttering and immediately purchased the book. Although the first few chapters were hard to read, I knew instinctively that I had to keep reading. Well, I'm glad I did, because as soon as I finished reading the book (especially the last chapters), I already was reducing my trombone stuttering dramatically.
3 weeks after finishing the book, I'm not stuttering at all (haven't for many days). Not that I won't stutter again, but if I do, I'll know how to deal with it. My trombone teacher is speechless and even dumbfounded with my improvement. William, if you are reading this review, I thank you from the deepest most bottom part of my heart.
Get this book everybody and read it with all your attention and watch it work miracles on your stuttering! This is the book !!!
--------------- UPDATE November 2008 (many months later). My stuttering has been held hostage by new & improved habits. I'm now performing very hard music professionally in successful bands (and getting paid). The trick is to DO THE EXERCISES NO MATTER WHAT AND EVERYTHING WILL IMPROVE NATURALLY.

It is one of the good book I read eventhough the writer used more technical words that may not be easy for lay man.

Good book. Gives a different perpective. Definately interesting for those who tries to see things deeply.

I love all the dummy book series and this is one of the best. It guides you step by step and gives you a notion of children's book, how to start and publish your book. Although, I wish the book had more explanation about illustrations as I try both writing and illustrating.

We all have an idea for a Children's book. This book is the key to answering your many questions about how to sculpt that great idea into something that will get your book noticed, in the stores and sold. If you are serious about Children's books or want to be, then this book is the place to start. Really! -Warner McGee (children's book illustrator)

This book was very enlightening. Straightforward, simple to understand and it answered all my questions as well as giving me lots of new ideas.

THIS BOOK GAVE ME THE IN SITE I NEEDED TO SEE IF I COULD BE CAPABLE OF WRITING A CHILDRENS BOOK

This book lived up to its advertised benefits. It is clearly and concisely written and very encouraging to beginning as well as experienced writers wanting to write in this genre. I highly recommend to anyone desiring guidance to successful children's book writing.

This is an excellent introduction to the Agile Software Development concept for anyone who learns best from examples. Mr. Martin's book is essentially a collection of introductory concepts and principles he has spoken or written about elsewhere. Much of it may be available on the web with some searching but here it is organized logically into 3 major approaches to learning: concepts, principles, and case studies. In the first chapters Mr. Martin takes us on a high flyover of Agile Software concepts such as extreme programming and test-driven development practices. Next he takes us through Java and C++ examples to demonstrate programming with key principles in mind such as "The Single-Responsibility Principle" and "The Interface-Segregation Principle." Finally he sums up the concepts and principles by examples using several real world case studies.

Mr. Martin is a master at this sort of approach to teaching software design. Those familiar with his work will immediately recognize his hand. Some (perhaps most) learn well from this approach and the organization of the book lends itself well to a classroom study or self-directed learning. This is an excellent introduction to an important and timely topic.

Reader,

This book addresses some of the key reasons software continues to fail. It firmly ends the discussion that was never relevant of 'Agile means you do not have to REALLY known OO design'.

Indeed to be 'Agile' and not create iteratively 'crap', the only real way is via your mastery of OO Design. Long term systems that withstand change do not happen via accidential discovery with a lack of vision and core design at the core.

You can work in software with a lot of gaps, but the content here defines what is mandatory for even moderate levels of interesting work.

Do you agree in the following as a common value of `good' for software?

FROM: http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-1050347.html

Good design

Well-designed applications offer software components that are more robust, more maintainable, and more reusable. Such applications should be able to adapt changing business needs without affecting design. For example, a banking application should be able to support new types of accounts without a change in the existing design.

Three key points of good design are:

Maintainability, which is the ease with which a software system or component can be modified to adapt to changing environments, improve performance, correct faults, or other attributes. Well-designed applications require fewer resources for maintenance and changes.

Reusability, which is the degree to which a software module or components can be used in more than one computing program or software system. Reusability of software components helps ensure faster development of software applications.

Robustness, which is the stability of software applications in extreme situations (e.g., maximum load conditions, erroneous user inputs). Robust applications have less downtime and can reduce maintenance costs.

Bad design
Nobody plans to create ill-designed applications. It often happens because of a lack of experience or because the app was designed quickly to meet an extremely tight deadline. Poorly designed applications usually have these problems in common:

They're rigid. A design is rigid if it cannot be easily changed. For example, a single change to heavily interdependent, rigid software could begin a cascade of changes in dependent packages. When such a program grows in size, the designers or maintainers cannot predict the extent of that cascade of change, and the impact of the change cannot be estimated. This makes the cost of the change impossible to estimate.
They're fragile. Poorly created programs have a tendency to break in many places when a single change is made. Simple changes to one part of the application can lead to failures in other parts that appear to be completely unrelated. Fixing those problems leads to even more issues, and the maintenance process begins to resemble a dog chasing its tail. Such fragility greatly decreases the credibility of the design and maintenance organization, which leaves users and managers unable to predict the future quality of the product.


They're not reusable. A design is difficult to reuse when its desirable parts are highly dependent upon other details, which aren't desired. If the design is highly interdependent, other designers will also be daunted by the amount of work necessary to separate the desirable portion of the design from the parts that aren't reusable. In most such cases, the cost of the separation is deemed to be higher than the cost of redevelopment of the design.

Still with me? Ok..


.NET developers historically have lacked (as compared to other OFA (one framework only) developers) at the very, very least) acceptable OO Design skills. I mean even remotely `predictably' acceptable. Sure I worked with many teams who were exceptions but they were all from other (Java/Smalltalk) environments. Even C++ developers can slant to a master of C, deep internals, and Fragile Base Class disaster (grin). So Microsoft would have been nuts as they have always know this to put multiple-inheritance into C#. I digress... This is relevant to the book I swear....

Uncle Bob Martin created a masterpiece here that is still just as (more?) relevant. It is utterly transformative for anyone who wants to be even remotely productive on a team of best-practice types.

FYI this is the book used when I teach 'Core Object Oriented Design for the C# Developer' around the country.

NOTE: Do not let the word 'Agile' fool you. This is a book about best practices in software design and development. Agile just assumes you already know this material, yet most I work with do not.

He provides definitive coverage of the most critical reasons for failure if you skip then. For example, inheritance in OO is wrong for most cases used today in .NET.

Liskov substitution principle
Read this (covered in detail in this book):


Kind Regards,
Damon Wilder Carr
http://blog.domaindotnet.com

It's a great book. As a senior developer with more than 5 year's experieces of Object-Oriented Design, I think this is a valuable pragmatic book about how to do in a practical project.

I bought this for my brother. Got for a good deal on Amazon. Very happy with the fast delivery by Amazon.

After reading this text, I feel it deserves the attention of other great texts such as Design patterns and Refactoring, even though much of it's content expounds upon the ideas of these two classics. It's my opinion that this text has two strong points: it explains the ideas and details of agile development very clearly, and it does an excellent job of explaining the most popular patterns originated by GOF, plus a few more. The authors style was very good, with most of the examples in Java. Being a C++ programmer, I would have liked to see more examples in that language, but this is not any fault of the author.

Alexis de Tocqueville came to America for nine months in 1831-32 to conduct a study of the American penal system. What resulted instead was "Democracy in America", one of the best-ever treatises on a nation's politics, culture, and institutions.

This Bantam edition begins with a great introduction by Joseph Epstein.

Along with his famous words concerning the tyranny of the majority, the rise (and future clash) of America and Russia, and the differences between democratic and aristocratic societies, Tocqueville makes scores of other trenchant observations.

He shows that America was already a powerful, respected nation by the 1830s, and he expected it to become more powerful (and rule the seas) in the future.

He was a staunch advocate of freedom of the press. He examines political parties, and thought that, in the 1830s, the political system was already to the point that the chief desire of American presidents was to be reelected.

Tocqueville examines religion and was "convinced that Christianity must be maintained at any cost in the bosom of modern democracies". He was against slavery and foresaw its demise. He thought that there were mostly equal levels of education in America, and thought that as conditions in the country became more equal, great revolutions would become more rare.

Tocqueville is a hero for many conservatives, as he mostly agreed with Jefferson in thinking that that government is best which governs least.

Not even Alexis de Tocqueville has a perfect track record--he really got it wrong when he asserted that "the people in democratic states do not mistrust the members of the legal profession" and when he predicted that the nations of South America would one day be prosperous (a prediction that might yet come true, but has not done so 175 years later after the book's publication).

When reading "Democracy in America", what I was repeatedly thunderstruck by was the fact that someone 26 years old was insightful enough to make these observations. Reading this book cannot help but give the reader a much more keen understanding of America. "Democracy in America" will be read and studied for centuries by those who wish to understand our great nation.

Before approaching the text of Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America, I had little realization as to the proper content of his prophetic work. To my former understanding, the text was merely a collection of adulation and reflections upon the American way of life by a French observer in the nineteenth century. Upon reading this abridged version of Democracy in America, I found a much more prophetic text which reflected more upon the cultural impact of democratic institutions than upon the praise which should be attributed thereto. While one may fault de Tocqueville for approaching the democratic world with the cutting eye of a small aristocracy, it is quite evident that he accepted the fact that the human spirit was led to greater democratic tendencies and that such was to be taken almost a priori as the state of the world in his era.

The truly important reflection of the work as a whole comes in the considerations which he places upon the consequences of equality which follows from democratic revolutions. The phenomena of hardy individualism and its potential devolvement into individualism were not lost in his reflections. From this hardy individualism, de Tocqueville feared that humanity in democratic times may tend more toward equality and stability than toward liberty. In this, he not only foresaw the simple tendencies of utilitarian artwork and literature but also the potential destruction of civil associations and the devaluation of individual accomplishment and differentiation. It is this latter point, which seems somewhat paradoxical at first glance, which is perhaps the most prophetic of his reflections. In the process of cultural homogenization and individuation, de Tocqueville foresees that centralization of power will become much more likely as the populace views itself to be nothing more than an accumulation of nearly-identical citizens. Beyond this, his fears of the tyranny which could result by the abandonment of liberties by the people are well founded, for a society which wholly forgets the fact that some human beings can stand out is one which can easily allow itself to be subjected to the capricious desires of a powerful state as liberty is wholly forgotten.

These prophetic words should be read by all reflective Americans as we continue to move toward a larger centralized state and clamor with greater intensity for security in all forms (be it physical or social), for such equalizing security can only come at the cost of the liberties which allow the individual to actually have the worth which we intellectually affirm that he or she has.

Praising this book is a bit like saying Huckleberry Finn was one of the great American novels - it's a profound statement of the obvious. Even so, it must be said: Alexis de Tocqueville's magnum opus is a brilliant sociological analysis of America, with his genius made all the more evident by how applicable his observations about 1830s America are to its twenty-first century counterpart. Everything from the solidity of America's political infrastructure to the disquieting trend toward anti-intellectualism are explored in this massive work, and his gift of analysis is matched only by his gift for prophecy (can you believe that he predicted a conflict between America and Russia before the rise of Communism?). An amazing book, and necessary reading for anyone who wishes to understand America, rather than merely talk about it.

I have three complaints about this edition of Tocqueville:
1) Nowhere in the book is the translator credited. This violates basic principles of publication and scholarship.
2) This is in fact an abridged version of the original English-language translation by Henry Reeve, dating from sometime before 1862. Unless you want to re-create the experience of a modern Frenchman confronted with de Tocqueville's somewhat archaic French by reading the text in somewhat archaic English, I would seek out any of the more recent translations: there are at least three.
3) The ellipses, that is, the abridgements, have sometimes been made to conceal some of the author's less flattering views America. In fact I suspect this is a "patriotic" abridgement. For example, in the second chapter of part one, Heffner has omitted references to some of the excesses of Puritan law in New England which the notoriously even-handed Tocqueville had cited.

As a former reviewer has stated this edition takes quite a bit of liberty in excising the less flattering aspects of Tocqueville's views of America. In fact the entire section on race-relations has been excised --perhaps it was deemed too controversial? This kind of editing is even more unacceptable in our age of open communications and hopefully open minds. Find another edition.

We all want to believe that if we could just read something SO PROFOUND, our understanding of the writing craft would magically propel us into greatness for all the world to read. Time-after-after, attempt-after-next, we search and purchase and scour through advice both real and imaginary--book after book. Then, some of us, hopefully close to one million of us, happened upon this great book. I had the pleasure of exchanging email with the author. She was kind enough to extend her wisdom even further in two words: "Trust me". I did, and from her thoughtful, deeply opinionated book, I gained the insight that all mysteries of the world are available to a child if they can be accepted by the faith of one. This book worked for me. Trust her well laid-out architecture and you, too, can have the confidence to write a 740 page epic novel as your very first attempt, as I did. You won't agree with all her strong opinions but, that is style. Style helps you understand yourself and where you are in your art.

I thank God for people with the gall to say what they mean and mean what they say. "Don't murder your mystery" is as serious work, but its fun! Buy this book. Be faithful to the principles inside which you select to follow. Define your style in doing so (bonus). Invest simple faith in what she says and DO IT! WRITE YOUR OWN NOVEL!! DO IT! (But get this book first) Oh! And listen: the "mystery" part in the title? Don't let that throw you. My novel is fantasy--horror--erotica--drama... Her principles work for ALL of it. Take this book and the "How to write a damn good novel" together... You're bulletproof, baby! Take on the world!

Don't Murder Your Mystery
Is full of great advice and tips about what not to do and gives a good picture of what you should.
It isn't a step-by-step how to write. But rather what to avoid and how to look at your work from the perspective of the publisher, agent and the all important screening process that you must get through before it reaches the eyes of someone who can say "yes"!
It is well written and easy to read and I am certain that it was money well spent.

I stumbled upon this book when it was recommended to me by a writer friend. What a refreshing and helpful book! It's clearly written and fun to read--and the advice is spot on. If you are pondering which of the many mystery writer's guides out there you should buy--include this one for sure. You won't be sorry. The author also has a similar book that speaks to a more general writing audience ("Don't Sabotage Your Submission")--check that one out if you're not a mystery writer but want solid tips for making your manuscript the best ever.

This is not your usual writing/revising guide. Chris Roerden is an insider (a book editor), and she gives insider information. The best part is the book is not a re-hash of the many writing books available. Be sure to check out her new book DON'T SABOTAGE YOUR SUBMISSIONS. Not only does Chris provide valuable information, but she's one of the nicest people I've met.

This book is a terrific primer for first-time or relatively new writers -- and not just writers of mysteries, but all fiction and even non-fiction. The examples of poor choices and better alternatives that Chris Roerden chooses are clear and relevant. My only nit to pick is the negative construction of the book: with some background in teaching, my preference is always to suggest the right thing to do first, rather than to point out what not to do or how not to do something. A valuable addition to the library of anyone who wants to become a better writer, editor, or reviewer.

I had some experience with C++. After reading this book, I am a far better programmer. The book is truly exceptional in that it offers you an array of topics, each one being a self contained section. So one need not start from the beginning and work their way to the end. They can select the topic of interest, and read directly there. It does assume a large amount of c++ knowledge (extensive familiarity with OOP and the STL). But if you have that, this book will truly improve the quality of your code.

There seems to be a bit of confusion about what level this book is at. Based on some of the reviews I've read, I was a bit concerned that much of this book would fly right over my head, exploring advanced and obscure features. So let's get one thing straight: this is pitched at the same level as Effective C++, and has a similar structure and style.

And it's not just a 'puzzle' book - although it does highlight some tricky issues to do with templates and name lookup, which might conceivably appear in an unimaginative job interview.

And it's not just about the language feature of exceptions. All aspects of the language are covered, but the section on exceptions is particularly good.

Nor is it 'advanced' in the sense that many practitioners of C++ would consider, e.g. template metaprogramming, or non-portable hacks that take advantage of memory layout of compilers. Instead this is advice at an intermediate level, assuming you know the syntax and purpose of C++, but exploring their most appropriate use.

The structure of the book does involve a series of posed questions, but they differ wildly in how specific or general they are. You can see them more as a rhetorical device to frame the subsequent discussion, rather than questions you must answer (unless you want to retrospectively crown yourself guru of the week, of course).

Each question is followed by a significant discussion of a particular language feature, and summarised advice and recommended principles. Therefore the book is similar in structure to Effective C++. There is some overlap between the books, although even where similar material is included, there is differences in how much detail is given.

To some extent, this book is a victim of its own success. A lot of the advice given here can now be found in other books. But its legendary status means that like Effective C++, this is still essential reading as soon as you've graduated from introductory tomes.

This book and exceptional c++ series are the best book series, I have ever read. Its language and presentation of material is exemplary. I learned a lot from this book and suggest to anyone to leverage his/her knowledge.

Just finished it. It may not be so apparent at first, but definitely you need it to find how to write a "perfect" C++ code.
Of course, before reading this book, several intermediate books demand reading, such as "Effective C++", "More Effective C++", "Effective STL". Some system programming book may also need to be read. Otherwise, you may have no idea why you need this book.

This book presents advices more or less in the same format than books from the Effective C++: 55 Specific Ways to Improve Your Programs and Designs (3rd Edition) (Addison-Wesley Professional Computing Series) serie. What is similar is that topics are divided in 47 small items of few pages each. The difference is that the author first ask questions to the readers or propose exercises and encourage the reader to put down the book and to take the time to think about the problem and then come back to read his answer. This format is more or less original as I have seen something similar in Tom Cargill C++ Programming Style (Addison-Wesley Professional Computing Series) book.

I have read this book pretty fast which is a good sign of my interest in a book but in the same time this book did not leave me a strong impression that will make me remember this reading for a long time. It is hard for me to say exactly why but I think that it is because most items focuses on very small details of C++. Some of these problems are very hard and probably is an indication that the book targeted audience is advanced C++ users which is not a bad thing by itself but I am not convinced that mastering these small details actually has a high impact on someone programming skills. It is probably just a matter of topic choices as I really appreciate much more the sequel than this book.

My review will probably not affect your decision to read or not this book. You will have to read it to find out if you like it but hopefully I have been helpful to let you know what to expect from this book.

This is just the book I was hoping to find! It has many great ideas for setting up literacy centers for kindergarteners. I shared the book with my kindergarten team, and they all want their own copy of the book.

This is an amazing book! I took it with me on the plane and lost it...so I re-ordered it on-line. I am a kindergarten teacher and use a lot of these ideas for literacy centers. Her ideas are great!

I actually have two copies of this book. I had misplaced my first copy and had to have another one. I use these ideas throughout my kindergarten classroom. It would be even better for first and second grade classrooms. I use the "I Can" lists and management board ideas. This book really helps make centers work. I plan on giving one as a gift any time I have a student teacher. If you can only buy one book, this is the one to buy!

I would recommend Debbie's book to all K-2 teachers! I spent TONS of time making and preparing "centers" during my 1st year of teaching and my students struggled with them. I read Debbie's book and set up my work stations according to her models - not only is it my students' favorite time of the day, but it's mine too! I also spend very little time preparing for work stations as the book explains how to use tasks that are taught during your everyday lessons (this way they easily align with the curriculum)!

I LOVE this book and just can't say enough about it! It has a permanent place on my desk!

I am a first year teacher learning the ropes. I am finding the work stations very easy to implement and am enjoying the "freedom" to achieve reading level testing at week three of the school year and am looking forward to guided reading group time soon.

This charming little book takes a comfortable character that is at once independent and someone to whom kids can relate through good ol' fashioned anthromorphing. The stories are short, adorable, and well-crafted, and Lobel's illustrations are of course his best.

I just purchased this for my 33 year old sister as she is going through some hard times with a relationship's break up. This book seems to bring comfort as an old memory of similar books that I loved as a child because they helped me feel safe and see the world in a wonderous way. Can't remember all the titles but they include Old Black Witch, Suzy Squirrel, and other various otters, cats, and creatures.

In my opinion its hard to grow up in the 80's and not know "Frog and Toad" it was so popular when I was a kid I don't know anyone that didn't read it and with that I had the name Arnold Lobel branded in my mind since. So when I saw this I had to give it a try. "Owl at home" is made up of a handful of little short stories which i find really useful at bedtime cause I can zip through them quickly yet they don't feel rushed and yet amazingly evoke alot of thought and questions afterward. My daughter is the type to pull out 15 books at bedtime so these are a great way to wrap up the night or read something light. "Tear water tea" is my favorite (I find it to be incredibly creative yet true to what you imagine little minds would find sad) cause the images he uses to make himself sad (in order to cry and collect enough tears in a pot for tea) are so cute like spoons that fell behind the stove and are to never be seen again and mornings nobody saw cause they were too busy sleeping! I just love it love it love it I couldn't recommend a beginner book more!

This Arnold Lobel classic should be a fixture on every child's bookshelf. Owl is a gentle soul with whom children can identify, even as they laugh at Owl's silly responses to mundane events in the world around him. Humor ensues when Owl goes too far in anthropomorphizing (tytomorphizing?) winter and the moon, and when he mistakes his own feet for scary bumps under the bed. These stories are a natural for bedtime on a cold winter night, cuddled up under the blankets just before drifting off to sleep.

I originally purchased this book when my children were young, and it was nearly worn out from the numerous readings. My children loved the "bumps" and I always used the "tear water tea" to remind my kids when everything seemed to be going wrong in their world. It is a great little book for children...and some of us adults as well.

A good reference to the PERL language.

As opposed to the O'Reilly publications, this book does not assume as much reading between the lines as what is written at times in those.

So, this may be useful for people to clarify what is being talked about in entries there, or just as a more clear starting point to begin with for the areas of PERL programming that it covers.

This book is a great reference if you just want to quickly look up a syntax. The index is very good and makes it easy to find answers to problems quickly, and it almost always beats trolling through google search results! While it would not be useful as the only text for beginners, I think it would make a good supplemental text. It also might be a good choice for people who already have experience in other languages, and are switching to perl, or intermediate perl programmers who cannot remember where every comma and semicolon should go!

I am extremely impressed by this merchant. The shipping was on time and the book was in great condition

As a new programmer and new Perl programmer this is an invaluable reference. For the ambitious newbie this book can serve as a great starter guide to the Perl language. As a reference and supplement to another beginner book, this book really soars.

I was able to quickly expand my understanding of Perl and started writing real perl programs (albeit very simple ones as a beginning perl programmer) by using this book. You'll become well versed in Perl using this as your constant guide.

When a programming reference can be distilled is such a highly useful and pragmatic way, you've got to add it to your library. Brilliant job on this one.

I highly recommend this work and I'm confident you won't leave home without it. Or perhaps you'll buy one for home and work. I also highly recommend 'Perl Power' by John Flynt and 'Beginning Perl, Second Edition' by James Lee (Apress) as companion beginner books to this one.

This is a great reference book for perl. It doesn't try to teach the reader perl, which after you already know it is really nice. This is more like a collection of all the perlmod/man pages put together in an organized manner. I reference this book all the time for different syntax structures and many other reasons.

El libro es buenísimo, particularmente el estilo de Gabo es genial y lo que lo hace aun mas meritorio es que se trata de un relato autobiográfico. Lamentablemente tengo que advertirles de un error de encuadernación en la edición de pasta dura (hardcover) las hojas vienen mal cortadas, he ya ordenado dos libros y los dos vienen con el mismo defecto. La editorial KNOPF ha hecho un muy mal trabajo. Mi recomendación... busquen otras editoriales.

El autor es un relator latinoamericano costumbrista. El realismo magico es lo comun y corriente en esos pagos. De ilusion tambien se vive. Quiza algun dia se inspire en escribir una novela sobre el realismo magico de la tragedia cubana, dada su intima afinidad con el Doctor Fidel Castro Ruz.

This book is the first in a series. Frankly, I hope that in his next memoir there iwll be more about his literary writing b/c this doesn't cover his marvelous literary career at all.

The first sections of the book which deal with his childhood and schooling are comic and moving, with great turns of phrase and details about his grandfather and large family. What I found less interesting were the accounts of his journalism career. Apart from a very compelling section about a political asassination and its aftermath, I was a little bored. Even worse, I did not feel that some of his bohemian friends were distinguished from each other.

I am going to go back and reread The General in His Labyrinth and the novels that I so adore. I just prefer them.

Although I can consider myself a GGM fiction fan, I encountered "Vivir Para Contarla" utterly more attention-grabbing than any of his other works. Perhaps It was just the fact that he related his real life, from the time before his birth until he was something like twenty eight years old, in such a magical way that I could just not put the book down for more than a few moments. I could come across in this volume with so much of the background that made the genius in Gabo, that I could not accept it as factual. Actually I was so beguiled by the story, by the idiosyncrasy of his large and astonishing family, by the actual brilliance and intelligence of the child, the adolescent and the young man in Gabo, that I unreservedly supposed I was immersed in one more of this author's accomplishments. He relates his non precedent childhood and early adolescent years as a conspicuous reader and writer of poems and stories- which he memorized and recited by hearth-, as a distinguished picture drawer, as a notable singer, as an extremely timid person, in sum: as another character out of its novellas and short stories. He, at the same time, enriches our reading with his detailed and exhaustive career as an anonymous young journalist in Colombia, who spends an awesome amount of his free time discussing literature with his fellow workers and friends, at a time period when literature was the coolest matter to be involved in. However, the social and political backgrounds of his whereabouts are so precise and stuck to Colombian and the World's historic and social events, that henceforth what he conveys us in this first volume of his autobiography must have a great deal of reality in it.
In spite of the fact that a myriad of the characters, locations and events that we find as basis for his novellas and short stories come out of his real life, I do not believe it imperative to be acquainted to any of his other masterpieces in order to devour and absolutely enjoy this volume. It stands unique by itself!
I am anxiously waiting for the subsequent volumes of this trilogy, however due to the actual author's sickness; I don't believe we will be receiving the complete trilogy at all.

"Living to Tell the Tale," ("Vivir Para Contarla"), is the first book in a planned trilogy that will make up the memoirs of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the renown Colombian writer who initially won public acclaim in the mid-1960s for his novel "One Hundred Years of Solitude." At that time, Garcia Marquez, a journalist and writer, had never sold more than 700 copies of a book. While driving his family through Mexico, he had a veritable brainstorm. He remembered his grandmother's storytelling technique - to recall fantastic, improbable events as if they had actually happened - literally. That was the key to recounting the life of the imaginary village of Macondo and her inhabitants. He turned the car around and drove back home to begin "One Hundred Years of Solitude" anew. To my mind it is one of the 20th century's best works of fiction, and was highlighted in the citation awarding Garcia Marquez the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature.

"Living to Tell The Tale" relates the early years of the author's life, although some of the book's most important incidents predate Garcia Marquez's birth. The impact of these experiences, the people and their stories, were to have a powerful effect on him, as a man and as a writer. This is the tale of his parents' courtship, marriage and the birth of their children, Garcia Marquez, (Gabito), the oldest, and his ten siblings. It tells of his early years which were spent in Aracataca, in the home of his maternal grandparents. His grandfather, Colonel Nicolás Ricardo Márquez Mejía, was a Liberal veteran of the War of a Thousand Days. He was supposedly a storyteller of great repute. The Colonel told his young grandson that there was no greater burden than to have killed a man. Later García Márquez would put these words into the mouths of his characters. His grandmother, Tranquilina Iguarán Cotes, had a major influence on Gabriel's life also. Another great source of stories, her mind was filled with superstitions and folklore, and she gossiped away with her numerous sisters within hearing range of young "Gabito." No matter how fantastic her statements, she always delivered them as if they were the absolute, verifiable truth. This was the style which was to effect Garcia Marquez's fiction, sometimes called "magical realism." These women filled the house with stories of ghosts, premonitions and omens - all of which were studiously ignored by her husband. He had little interest in "women's beliefs."

Aracataca was a small village, a banana town on the Caribbean coast, where poverty was the norm and violence was an everyday occurrence. On December 6, 1928, in the Cienaga train station, near Aracataca, 3,000 striking banana workers were shot and killed by troops from Antioquia. Although still a baby, this event, recounted to him, was to have a profound effect on the author. The incident was officially forgotten and omitted from Colombian history textbooks.

In 1940, when he was twelve, Gabo was awarded a scholarship to a secondary school for gifted students, run by Jesuits. The school, the Liceo Nacional, was in Zipaquirá, a city 30 miles to the north of Bogotá. It was during his school years, 1940s and 50s, that he was first drawn to poetry - a national obsession in Colombia. Verse was revered as an art form, and also as an effective means of social and political commentary. He and his friends, fellow students, would read aloud and discuss poetry late into the night. The youths admired a group of poets called the piedra y cielo ("stone and sky") and they were strongly influenced by Juan Ramon Jimenez and Pablo Neruda. Too poor to buy his own books, Gabo would devour novels borrowed from friends.

While still a boy, he decided he wanted to be a writer. The people who surrounded him in his childhood later became instrumental when developing the characters and the storylines for his novels. "Love In The Time of Cholera" was inspired by the romance between his mother and father. And his grandfather, who had twelve children, (some say 16), by two different women, became Colonel Aureliano Buendia in "One Hundred Years of Solitude."

One of the most powerful episodes of the book tells of the period called "La Violencia." In 1948 the Liberal presidential candidate, Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, was assassinated. The murder led to rioting, and left approximately 2500 dead on the streets of Bogota, during "el Bogotázo." Political violence and repression followed. One of the buildings that burned was the pension where Garcia Marquez lived, and his manuscripts were destroyed along with his living quarters. The National University was closed and he was forced to go to the university in Cartagena. Garcia Marquez began his career as a journalist, writing stories and commentary for a Liberal newspaper in Cartegana. Later he moved to the coastal city of Barranquilla where he began to associate with a group of young writers who admired modernists like Joyce, Woolf and Hemingway, and introduced Marquez to Faulkner. In 1954 he returned to Bogota, as a reporter for El Espectador.

Garcia Marquez begins his book, however, not with his real birth in 1928, but with his "birth as a writer," at age 22. He and his mother took a trip from Baranquilla, where he was working as a reporter, to his childhood home in Aracataca, now virtually a ghost town. They were going to sell the ancestral house. Vivid memories were stirred up here, memories which electrified his imagination. This trip was to change the course of his writing life. "With the first step I took onto the burning sands of the town, Aracataca instantly became Macondo, an earthly paradise of desolation and nostalgia." His one great subject became his family, "which was never the protagonist of anything, but only a witness to and victim of everything." His is not a chronological autobiography. Garcia Marquez cuts back and forth through time to show how memory colors experience. As he says in the book's epigraph, "Life is not what one lived, but what one remembers and how one remembers it in order to recount it."

Humor, dry wit, a sense of the absurd, is a trademark throughout the novels of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and this autobiography is full of his deadpan humor. His anecdotes of his many mistresses and cafe society are wonderful. "Living To Tell The Tale" is not a conventional literary memoir. It is a magical combination of memoir and national history written in the author's remarkable voice. It is his personal mythology, from the repertoire which birthed Macondo. The narrative is intimate and sincere, filled with bewitching details and descriptions. In spite of poverty, and the political turmoil so prevalent in Colombia during his lifetime, Gabo acknowledges his early years were filled with joy, a sense of well-being and encouragement from many people. Garcia Marquez leaves us, at the end of this volume, with a glimpse of his future love, his wife, ""wearing a green dress with golden lace in that year's style, her hair cut like swallows' wings, and with the intense stillness of someone waiting for a person who will not arrive."

Bravo Gabriel Garcia Marquez!!
JANA