Portugal Books

Specifically designed for the traveler who wants to get the most out of their vacation dollar when touring the sites and sampling the delights of Iberia, Fodor's Up Close: Spain is an ideal guide to the country charms and city sights of this sun drenched European destination. The cost conscious traveler will find descriptions and directions to memorable small hotels and cozy guest houses, inns with character and inexpensive rural retreats. From the entertainments of night life to the spectrum of year round cuisines, the music and the cultural icons, Fodor's Up Close: Spain has it all exceptionally well organized and "user friendly". There are also airfare deals, tips on traveling smart, clear and informative maps. If you are planning a trip to any part of Spain, whether for a week, a summer, or a year, then begin planning your itinerary with a thoroughly perusal of Fodor's Up Close: Spain!

This book is an in-depth exploration of the concept of pilgrimage. In order to understand the meaning of pilgrimage herself, the author sets off on one of the Western world's most famed pilgrimage routes, the 500-mile-long Camino de Santiago that stretches from the Pyrenees in France to Santiago de Compostela in Northwestern Spain. As she describes her own path, she also relates to us the history of this particular pilgrimage route. She tells us the stories of others who walked the route in the past as recorded in history or literature, and she also tells us about the people she meets herself along the way. Feinberg notes that while some people along the route may be mere tourists, motivated by the desire to travel beyond their usual surroundings, most take up the route because they have a sincere desire for a transcending spiritual experience, an experience that will transform their souls. The rituals connected to the route and sanctity of the sites along the way strongly affect the participants, so much so that many of those who start out as simple tourists eventually become true pilgrims by the time the final goal is in sight.

Feinberg's record is illustrated with maps and tourist quality black-and-white photographs. The story unfolds as a journal, with Feinberg describing daily details of finding food and lodging, dealing with bureaucracy and local yokels and well wishers, and her relationship with her traveling companion. Interspersed with these details are relevant snippets of Spanish history from early times through Franco's reign, or bits of information about Spanish literary figures and religious traditions. Mostly, though, Feinberg's mind seems to be on the pilgrimage itself, as she contemplates her actions, and asks other pilgrims to describe their motivations for her. The true meaning of her pilgrimage didn't become clear to Feinberg until some months after she had completed the walk to Santiago and returned home and had time to think about it some more and discuss it with others, off the trail.

I learned much about pilgrimages by reading this book. Before I picked the book up, I had a vague idea that the word pilgrimage had something to do with travel with a religious purpose. I was certainly familiar with the word, and knew that Muslims must take a pilgrimage to Mecca, and that there were Christian and Hindu pilgrimages as well, but I thought these were simple traditional religious requirements to travel and see a little of the world or perform a ritual in a specific location. I had very little appreciation for the level of contemplation that is undertaken by a true pilgrim, or how a true pilgrim's journey is never truly finished.

Well, I'm again here recommending a Footprint book. I took two weeks off and travelled from San Sebastian to Vigo, and from there to Portugal (where I used a Michelin for a three day stay). If you have more than a week, Footprint is the way to go (and read the guide BEFORE travel, like always). Is a great thing that they decided to write this sector guides (about only a part of a country) because it allows you to take in some areas without feeling that you paid for something that you will not use. Also, it represents better the way I do tourism. The cheap hotel (pensions) reccommendations where incredibly accurate (and I saved a lot of euros without losing quality). One line even mentioned a dog pertaining to a hostel owner, and since the dog passed away last year the owner wanted to see the guide to remember him and was happy to see that his dog will always be in a printed page! (that was in Oviedo). Continue with the good job people.

Barcelona novelist Lluis-Anton Baulenas' For a Sack of Bones recently won Catalonia's highest literary award, the Ramon Llull prize, for this most satisfying read.

The novel is a gripping and compelling page-turner than not only conveys vividly the tragedy of the Spanish civil war and the subsequent dictatorship, but also the moral quagmires which so many Spaniards and Catalans were forced to endure, often as a matter of simple survival. It is flabbergasting to think that Barcelona, arguably the most cutting edge city in the world today, was until the mid-1970s under the boot of a brutal dictatorship.

As in France during World War II, there were oppressors and there were oppressed, but sometimes the line between the two was precariously thin.

The main protagonist of For a Sack of Bones, Sergeant Genis Aleu, is in a moral grey zone, pursuing a quixotic mission to fulfill his father's dying wish. However, the road to achieving this goal threatens his own moral integrity, and even his life.

In its review of the book, the Toronto Star (July 13, 2008) commented that 'Baulenas is an accomplished storyteller whose narrative never falters, never veers off-course, never relinquishes its hold on the reader'.

Baulenas keeps the pressure mounting throughout the narrative, to a highly-charged conclusion ultimately reminiscent of Greek tragedy.

Worn down by yet another dreary English winter and with an emotional disinclination for hard - or indeed any - work. Shaun Briley decides that life in Spain has to be a better bet. So he and his girlfriend Helen set off with their meager savings (well hers) and buy an isolated farmhouse in the mountains of Almeria. Two innocents abroad, they don;t realise their farmhouse has neither electricity, water nor indeed a lavatory. What follows is an extremely funny tale of how not to settle in a foreign land, involving rat racing, runaway horses and infatuated cross-eyed neighbours.
--- from book's back cover

lo pude conprar con un buen amigo de Bilbao, tenia años tras esta obra, la vida, hasta el año de 1938 del Caudillo de España, ciudadano universal, azote de los rojos.

This is a good read for those interested in the history of Spain. It gives a fairly thorough look at Franco, the Spanish Civil War, and the dictatorship, but you will want to read other books about the history of the country and about Franco and the other players in order to really begin to get the facts straight and get a good feel for what that nation's history was like. This biography falls into the "favorable" column, but not sycophontic or propagandistic. A good choice to read after this would be books by Stanley Payne.

This book is an excellent introduction to the complex issue of the Spanish Civil War. De Meneses' pithy account explains the principle causes,characters and myriad groups involved in the conflict. As an undergraduate student of De Meneses I am able to note in this publication, his passion for the subject as conveyed in lectures. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to gain a brief insight into the Spanish Civil War. Doubtless it will awaken in the reader the desire to read more on the subject.

Centinela de occidente, caudillo de España por la gracia de Dios,vencedor de los rojos en el campo de batalla, el unico que lo hizo.

In "Free Women of Spain", Martha Ackelsberg does an excellent job documenting the lives and struggles of Mujeres Libres, a revolutionary organization of Spanish libertarian socialist women fighting against capitalism, fascism and patriarchy. This outstanding book will resonate with activists today engaged in class war feminism (not to be confused with the liberal, corporate, reformist women's movement, i.e. Hilary Clinton or NOW). Not only is the book informative, it is also a real page-turner! I highly recommend this book!