Spain Books

Having known nothing about this book I picked it up at the library based on the funny title. He explores the southern part of Spain; Grenada, the Canary Islands, ect. and writes about some of the lost culture and events that are little known and in danger of being overrun by modern growth (such as silbo, terrace jumping, calabazo, and canarian stick-fighting called garrote).Even while he went to a few of the places where others have been he seems to experience from a totally different perspective making you feel like you empathize from a unpresumptious perspective (instead of seeing the canary islands from a tourists view). His funny travels also take him to lesser-known villages where he takes part in recovering the practice of shepherding, festivals, and old traditions.

What a brilliant and fun read. Hilarious antics of how we all wish we could spend our winters.Having a laugh with the love of our life!
Interesting and so so so funny!
A great book written by the most gorgeous author!

"Out of the Fringe" provides an electric and eclectic new world of plays by latinas/latinos. Thanks to this handsome new anthology, latino/latina theater is shown to alive and thriving in the U.S., whether in the hands of gay activist chicano humorist Luis Alfaro or lyrical cuban-american Nilo Cruz. Caridad Svich, who compiled the anthology, has an extremely musical incantatory play included as well. It is a testament to the energetic state of latino/latina theater and thought that mixed-blood chicano Oliver Mayer writes a play which has but a single latina character and whose themes are national more than regional. This is a must-read. These plays should be done!

I turn to this book nearly every day for a quick refresher on the dates, publications, thematic interests,etc. of major Spanish and Spanish American writers. The Companion has long nourished my pasion for the great body of literature available in Spanish. The articles are succinct and informative and the breadth of coverage is remarkable. I very much hope a new edition comes out at some point, as I have been using this edition since high school.

I purchased this book along with "Paella!: Spectacular Rice Dishes From Spain by Penelope Casas". Paella Paella was the convincing winner for me, maybe I was a sucker for cooking books with pictures. Paella Paella has beautiful pictures for most recipes, I have not used the other book since picking up Paella Paella.

I also found Paella Paella to be more authentic, although if you are looking for an authentic Paella Valenciana recipe this book does not include one. Don't let that stop you, there is an even mix of authentic and modern paella recipes along with tapas and sangria delights. Furthermore, the recipes are clear and simple to reproduce.

Well Worth the inclusion into the creative cook's recipe collection. A delight to read through and to cook from.

I received this book as a Christmas gift a few years ago and thought only recently to write a glowing review of this book. Sorry Penelope! I should have done this a few years ago.
Penelope is a personable and expressive writer. As I read through all her time saving tips and scrumptious recipes I feel as though I have an expert advising me in real life on how to make some great dishes.
I consider myself an above average 'home trained' cook in the kitchen and following her recipes was a breeze. The only problem you should ever have, and this isn't related to the author whatsoever, is finding the ingredients. But they can be found online so don't fret!
One paella that I make for Easter is the salmon with asparagus with crumbled boiled egg and smoked salmon bits garnished on top. It's a winner with anyone who enjoys fish. Friends of mine who go to 5 star restaurants have told me that the paellas I've made from Penelope's book are some of the best food they've had in a long time. So thanks Penelope! You've transformed me into a better cook.
She also has a few more recipes in there that are for tapas and deserts. She educates you on the quality of ingredients that for the most part come from Spain and you develop a deeper appreciation for them. For example, I knew saffron was very expensive but I didn't know it was more expensive than gold pound per pound!
There are so many varieties of paella that one is sure to find a recipe in this book whether a person is vegetarian or a meat eater.
If you really like paella I can't recommend this book enough. My copy of this book stays close on hand. It'll never develop dust on the shelf from lack of use since I am always referencing it or trying a new recipes.

What an enchanting book this is! I found the characters warm and captivating, enjoyed the pace and the excitement, the sense of "what's going to happen now?" I felt as though I knew that little fishing village and loved the way those erotic golden statuettes brought sensuality to a community that had been under the thumb of the dictator, Francisco Franco, thus making it a true village of "Miraculous Love."

The Spanish Culture took a radical turn towards painting as a medium back in 1850 - "Painting and the Turn to Cultural Modernity in Spain: The Time of Eugenio Lucas Velazquez" examines the key figure in this revolution, Eugenio Lucas Velazquez, taking full advantage of sources not used often before, such as the art of Velazquez itself. With twenty five photos, eight of which are color, and enhanced with indexes, notes, and a bibliography, "Painting and the Turn to Cultural Modernity in Spain: The Time of Eugenio Lucas Velazquez" is highly recommended to many interest groups and community library shelves - biography, art, and world history lovers alike will all find something to love.

I am delighted with this book. It is ideal for teaching university students. It not only provides fresh insights into the social milieu as well as the the paintings themselves, it also has an excellent updated bibliography of the literature on the subject. For the past two decades I have lamented the fact that the Kubler-Soria Pelican book on Art and Architecture in Spain had become first increasingly outdated and then out of print. This book fills that gap splendidly - although I do wish it had been possible to include sculpture in the book as well: the interactions between these two art forms is very important. One other minor criticism: the book emphasizes the importance of the regional schools of painting in the 16th century, yet nowhere in the book is there a map of Spain showing those regions! Next edition of the book, I hope one is included.

On March 31, 1621, Philip III, third Habsburg ruler of Spain, met a premature death, reportedly clutching in panic at the same crucifix his father and grandfather had held on their deathbeds generations before. His son and heir, the sixteen-year-old Philip IV, succeeded to what is now known collectively as the Spanish Empire - a vast conglomeration of lands and people whose progressive decline as a political entity has long remained a basic assumption amongst twentieth century historians and yet whose cultural vitality has given its period the title of "The Golden Age of Spanish Art." The accession of Philip IV seemed to inaugurate a new era of reform after the previous regime's mindless inactivity and self-interested grandee domination. As the contemporary playwright Tirso de Molina remarked, "New architects acceded with the new king."

This premise serves as the central metaphor in A Palace for a King. Elliott, a historian, and Brown, an art historian, examine both the literal and political architecture of the reign, charting the complicated, often surprising interrelation between art and politics. The palace of the title is the Buen Retiro - an intended recreational center built for Philip IV with astonishing speed during the years 1630-33, left largely in neglect after the 1640's, and finally decimated by French and English troops during the Napoleonic wars. In reconstructing the circumstances surrounding its construction and initial occupation, Brown and Elliott attempt to furnish the reader with a "total" history of the Spanish Habsburg court during its penultimate representative's first twenty years of rule.

The scope of the book is immense. In a prose that is precise and elegant, if at times monotonous, it describes the political and economic issues of the day as well as the relationship between the continuously vacillating king and his powerful minister, the Count-Duke of Olivares, who until 1643 held the true control over Spanish government. It then goes on to analyze the palace of the Buen Retiro itself, exploring the process of palace-building and the symbolism of the palace as a repository of the values of the ruling class. Simultaneously, it looks at Spanish baroque painting, theater, and architecture and their inextricable connection to the court at Madrid, which, itself, was in so many ways like a giant theater. Elliott's inquiry and interpretation of the troubles besetting the institution that was then called the monarquía española and of the role played by Olivares makes for particularly rewarding reading.

The book appears to be extremely well-researched and provides an abundance of evidence from primary sources as varied as confidential memoranda, secret expense accounts and drawings of architectural plans; the endnotes alone constitute twenty of its almost three hundred pages. However, it is its very wealth of references and information that also lies at the core of its greatest weakness. Too often, the text becomes bogged down in statistics, where apparently meaningless figures about who paid whom and whose plot of land was where replace any real insights. The authors seem to become trapped in unneeded details, losing track of the larger picture that they originally intended to convey. As a result, in certain chapters, more attention than necessary is devoted to the actual logistics of building the palace and, consequently, not enough to the palace's political, social, and economic implications.

Still, aside from these slightly irritating flaws, Brown and Elliott's work remains a highly absorptive and very informative look at subject that has thus far remained sadly underrepresented amongst the scientific community. The sheer extent of the information to be found makes this book a valuable resource for anyone interested in the period, while the distressing lack of similar studies makes it absolutely essential for those at all curious about Spain's architectural history. It is, in my mind, a fascinating complement and worthy companion to R.A. Stradling's landmark Philip IV and the Government of Spain.