Cruz Books

This is an enjoyable, informative history of the Cuban cigar industry, various Habanos brands and factories, with the most gorgeous photos of cigar box illustrations and cigar bands.

The author nicely avoids an overabundance of details, and has organized the material quite thoughtfully.

It is a real pity that his history goes no further than 1960 when the industry was nationalized; one is left with a definate sense of incompleteness.

Perhaps Mr.Infante plans a sequel to this fine book; there is no doubt that Habanophiles would greatly appreciate one.

This book was one of the only ones we found that covered San Fran and other northern CA destinations. Very good overviews, but not a huge amount of detail, so you will need additional information on some of the destinations. For Ex, it lists the main hikes in Yosemite, but doesn't give details about how long, how hard, which ones are best, etc. Same with wineries - it lists them out, but doesn't do extensive reviews.

I've just purchased this book and have some first thoughts.
I think it's pointless to understand the Hypnerotomachia Polipholi without first delving into Frances Yates book, The Art of Memory. Ms. Yates' masterpiece gives an intellectual context for the magic book, which I think is deeply connected to the Art of Memory. Perhaps The Hypnerotomachia is the ultimate "fantasia" of memory, As Ms. Yates refers to it, the state of the art, before being swallowed up, made irrelevant by the printing press.
That said, I think it remains for scholars of this book to attend to the intense VISUALIZATION of the places described in the Hypnerotomachia, rather than add more useless layers of words. This is Mr. Esteban's most valuable insight, his first academic motive, and as such it represents a very healthy and helpful avenue of research into the significance of the Hypnerotomachia Polipholi, and he has done much meticulous work to give precise visual imagery to the tortured narrations. Working from these images,I would suggest the next logical step would be to link them to heraldic imagery in general, and Francesco Collonna's working knowledge of memory systems in particular. If the images could start to be informed by the narrative in relation to these symbols, perhaps another layer of the Hypnerotomachia could be then revealed.

Para aquellos de nosotros fieles a nuestros voceros literarios e históricos, La Cruz de San Andres se presenta como una crónica de la España gallega sólo en sus detalles puesto a que desenmascara una rica variedad de personajes que son alumbrados tanto por su papel en la vida de la protagonista como por sus aventuras y particularidades.

El libro merecedor del Premio Planeta por un escritor luego galardonado con el Premio Nobel forma parte de una tradición literaria que deja al lector buscando la siguiente novela del mismo escritor.

La manera en que esta compuesto el texto tiene algunas similitudes con el libro de Gabriel Garcia Marques:"El otoño del Patriarca" en el sentido de que vuelve a los mismos circulos y señala brevemente eventos históricos.

Es un libro que se disfruta y pasa a complementar las propuestas escritas españolas.

A mi punto de vista, el personaje principal, era el que mantenia su casa en un trabajo en el cual lo explotaban todos, pero un dia,al sufrir un cambio y convertirse en un tipo de insecto, su familia y "amigos" lo empiezan a despreciar, por su apariencia y porque ya no era util para ellos...al grado de que lo evitan la mayor parte del tiempo, dicha aberracion que sienten sobre el llega tambien a que el sea insultado y golpeado.

Creo que es una manera de ver, que no importa quien seas, si no pueden sacarte algun provecho, dejaran de apreciarte.

The author added such an interesting twist on the writings of two of my favorite Latin American authors

This is a easy-read book and helps one to give thought to what one's excuses might be. Even excuses that we may not realize are there. Eliminating roadblocks to success is important to achieving what we want in life and Dr. Cruz helps us to see what those roadblocks might be.

I think that this book is very interesant, because this man is a magnificus artist. He has a inspiration special. To made some thing beautiful.

After a nice little fishing trip, Renko is allowed back in Moscow to work. The next Arkady Renko novel is a little better than the previous effort. It gets across the decay and depressing atmosphere of the communist country that he is in, and the rise to power of the Russian mafia.

A man that is a banker for many of the mafia groups is murdered, and Arkady is on the trail.

Mysteries are about my favorite genre. I've read the Grishams, the Georges, and the Charles Todds, as well as the Rankins and the Grimes books and the Stephen Whites. The Arkady Renko novels of MC Smith are way different. W-a-a-y different.
Arkady is as disillusioned as Rankin's Inspector Rebus, and he inhabits a similarly difficult work environment---only worse, because in Russia it hasn't been so long since non-conforming could get you dead, and the atmosphere of danger has not entirely dissipated. The plot of this one involves the part of the population that still looks back to the Stalin era with some nostalgia (go figure) and a subgroup of that population that finds recreation in digging up WW2 battlegrounds. Like Civil War buffs, but with issues. It also involves Arkady's unwillingness to give up on a woman who has left his bed for another man's, and a feral boy who occupies his household part of the time.
People who claim we are all fundamentally alike and should therefore just "get along" would do well to read these books. We ain't there yet, if Arkady Renko is to be believed.