Central America Books

Esta novela es genial. Comprendi mejor la historia de Argentina, su gente, su ideologia, su cultura. Pero la historia en si es hermosa, cautivadora. La heroina de esta novela es admirable, pero al mismo tiempo muy real. Todos los personajes estan muy bien elaborados. La autora tardo cerca de 30 anhos en escribir esta su primera novela y de verdad, se trata de una novela hecha con amor y con mucho trabajo. Se trata de uno de esos libros que uno no puede dejar de leer, y que aun despues de terminarlo, uno no puede dejar de pensar en esta bella historia y en cada uno de los personajes. Esta novela merece ser llevada a la pantalla grande.

This volume is both comprehensive and fresh, consolidating the best and newest scholarship on the history of the American South. The editor, John B. Boles, is perhaps the foremost authority on current southern scholarship, and he has hand-picked the author of each chapter so that the subjects are treated by the best-qualified historians. The book is designed to provide the reader a brief overview of virtually every field of southern history, and it directs the reader to the most important works on each subject. Example topics include Native Americans in the South, the Civil War, Populism, Jim Crow, Women, Environmental history, and Civil Rights. Any person wishing to gain familiarity with southern history will benefit from this book, and graduate students preparing for exams may find it worth its weight in gold. The companion is part of a larger series offered by Blackwell Publishers, and promises to serve as the guide to secondary readings in southern history for years to come.

The effective collaboration of freelance photographer and Wisconsin native Zane Williams and essayist Mark Lefebvre (Senior Director for the Medical School at the University of Wisconsin Foundation), Wisconsin is a coffee table book showcasing Williams' full-color visual imagery of the Badger State's natural, human, and architectural landscapes. This wonderful photographic compendium is superbly enhanced with the inclusion of Lefebvre's three informed and informative essays emphasis the state's land, history, and culture. Additionally, Wisconsin is enriched for the reader with interspersed passages from the writings of such established Wisconsin figures as August Derleth, George Vukelich, Owen J. Gromme, and Robert E. Gard. No community or academic library's "Wisconsin Studies" collection can be considered complete or comprehensive without the inclusion of Williams and Lefebvre's Wisconsin!

Ok, I haven't read the book, but I heard an interview with Ken Thomas on the radio talking about his book and it sounds very interesting. It's about corporate welfare (subsidies/tax breaks given to business by state,local, or national government in order to convince business to build in its area). Im waiting for the book to come in at my local library because there is no way in hell im paying 65 dollars for it. That really bothers me. Anyway, when i finish it, i'll Write a real review. I wouldnt be requesting if from the library if I didnt think it sounded good on the radio.

Like packing a laptop, this 650-page book covers every creature an East Coast nature lover could encounter, from starfish and sharks to rabbits and walruses. Very easy to identify your sighting with numerous color plates and vivid descriptions. Author, Collins, offers own observations and challenges the reader with unexpected wit and wisdom seldom found in nature books. 40 years old and shamefully out-of-print, if you find a copy, hold on to it!

At first glance, "The Composition" is a book that simply describes military dictatorships in a way that children will understand. On a closer look, however, Antonio Skarmeta's brilliant 2000 creation does more than that. It shows how every human being, regardless of age, can fight injustice on an individual level. It displays sympathetic characters that are punished for thinking for themselves. And it is one of the first picture books I've ever read where the main character is a child that outsmarts a fascist regime.

Pedro lives in an unnamed South American country with his mother and father. Each day after work his parents sit on the sofa to listen to foreign radio stations about their country's military dictatorship. Pedro doesn't really understand the importance of this, preferring to play soccer with his friends. One day, while playing, he sees the father of one of his friends being led away by a group of soldiers. That night Pedro finds that his own parents, like Daniel's, are against their country's form of government. When he asks if he himself is against the dictatorship his mother replies, "Children aren't against anything. Children are just children". The next day a military man enters Pedro's classroom with an assignment. They are to write a composition under the soldier's watchful eye entitled, "What my family does at night". Pedro thinks it through and after talking with his friend Juan proceeds to write. In the end, the reader discovers that sometimes children are far cannier than the adults around them might suspect.

In many ways the real question this story raises is whether or not children have the ability to make careful informed decisions. On the outset, Pedro's mother thinks this isn't possible. She believes that kids are innocent and incapable of deep thought. When Pedro tells Juan this, his friend's response is, "They all say that. They took my father away up north". So you see, when a child is affected personally by the events around him/her, that child cannot help but come to their own conclusions. What Pedro writes in the end is a clever tale of how his parents usually come home and, after dinner, play chess. The last line of the book (after Pedro has read this composition to his parents) is this:

"Well", said his father, "we'd better buy a chess set".

Fabulous writing. Would you expect anything less from the author that wrote the novel on which the film "Il Postino" was based? I loved the plot of this book and, in a way, I wished that the illustrations matched it. The pictures here are fine, of course. They accurately portray the ways in which kids feel the effects of life in a strictly controlled country. Illustrator Alfonso Ruano also isn't afraid to focus his attention on the seemingly innocuous elements of a tale. When the children are told the subject of their composition, the picture on the facing page is of an eraser that has had a small hole drilled into it. Two pages later you see Pedro grasping the edge of his desk as he attempts to try to figure out what to write. Behind him looms the soldier, arms clasped behind his back. Another artist might have chosen to make the tale a little more artistically rendered, but Ruano has done pretty well with this book. The result is that your attention is focused entirely on the story itself.

Tackling freedom and personal choice in a picture book is very hard work. Very hard. In the case of "The Composition" it's pulled off brilliantly. A creative amalgamation of text, subtext, and darn good writing this book is appropriate for any and every kid. If you'd like a book that is politically charged but subtle too, I think "The Composition" is a brilliant choice.

Tells about the History and background of Latin America. A must for Spanish, International Affairs, or World History buffs or students.

This Warrior title from Osprey Publishing examines the training and combat experiences of the cannoneers of the Confederate Army for the entire duration of the Civil War. Early in the war, being an artilleryman was not considered very glamorous, and most recruits joined the infantry or especially the cavalry. The artillerymen would soon prove their worth, however, and would forge a reputation for valor and tenacity as much so as their comrades in the cavalry and infantry.

The book is divided into the following sections: enlistment, training, daily life, appearance, campaign life, and the artilleryman in battle. It is an absorbing read, as historical books should be; it discusses such varied topics as the artilleryman's spirituality, his relationship with women, and the nervous breakdowns he might suffer before a battle.

The color plates, usually considered the most useful part of an Osprey book (I agree with this claim with men-at-arms and elite titles, but beg to differ with some of the Warrior titles like this one), are up to the usual excellent standards in this volume. Six plates illustrate the men moving or operating the artillery, while two others show the uniforms of individual men, and the last two illustrate camp life and a battalion's winter headquarters.

This book is in short a good source on an essential yet somewhat overlooked type of soldier in the Civil War.

This short book packs a maximum of information into a minimum of pages. Without wasted words, every aspect of Confederate ironclads is covered: design, construction, armor, armament, life on board, strategy, tactics, and actual combat actions. Nor is analysis lacking. The author contends that the casemate ironclad was the best design possible given the Confederate resources available, and after switching doctrine from one of expecting the ironclads to break the blockade to one of having them defend vital ports, they performed their function well. As is usual with Osprey, the book contains many diagrams, photographs, and color artwork, including a cutaway drawing of CSS Virginia. Information about the 22 ironclads actually comissioned is assembled in an appendix, but any put under construction are mentioned somewhere, including CSS Stonewall, a non-casemate ironclad built in France. The only misprint I noticed was in the appendix where CSS Huntsville is spelt "Husville". The book is suitable for those just starting to learn about Confederate ironclads, and old hands who want a quick reference available.

Chapter One: 'Negro Mobilization'

"It would appear that Virginia was not faced with a serious breakdown of its holding power over the Negro noncombatants until the closing says of the war. Flight into Union lines, however, or seizure by Union troops, though seemingly less extensive than in other parts of the Confederacy, was a cause of concern. In countless ways, the war came closer to the Virginia Negro than to other Negroes with the South. Both of the war governors, John Letcher ad William Smith, encouraged and supported Negro mobilization and war measures whereby the labor of Negroes contributed to the ability of the Confederacy to keep an army in the field. The Virginia Negro resided in what was not only the industrial heart of the South but also the major battle ground of the Civil war. Armed conflict greatly increased the technological and military demand for his brawn and his skills. Virginia's coal mines, ironworks, lead-smelting works, nitriaries, harness shops, arsenals, naval yards, and machine shops offer unique examples of the state's efforts to match Negro manpower to the need for increased production. The many diversified needs of the war involved the Virginia Negro in correspondingly wide variety of tasks-procurement operations, processing of minerals, fabrication of the weapons of war, transportation of war materials by land and by river, and construction of fortifications and defensive works. Probably no other southern sate offers a better example of the premium placed upon Negro manpower." (p.-15-16)

Chapter Two: 'Quartermaster and Commissary Noncombatants':

"Both the Quartermaster and Commissary departments were conscious of the logistical importance of Negro manpower, and they competed effectively with other departments for their services. As they competed effectively with other departments for their services. As they needs to increase the war output multiplied rapidly, both the Virginia and the Confederate Government made provisions for placing the black noncombatants at their disposal of the services of supply though military hire, impressment, and conscription. From February 1864 to March 1865 the Bureau of Conscription detailed 341 Negroes to the quartermasters scattered throughout Virginia. As in any undertaking which involves large numbers of persons, the Negros who met the needs of supply will forever remain anonymous to posterity, Yet thousands and thousands of Negroes played a vital pert in feeding, supplying, and sustaining Confederate combat forces in Virginia." (p.30)

Chapter Three: 'Naval Ordinance Works':

"In retrospect, the mountain blast furnaces, as they belched smoke and fire into the sky, dominated the industrial scene of the Valley. Industrial Negro labor was an indispensable factor as the Tredegar Iron Works wrestled to fulfill vital war contracts with the various bureaus of the War Department. The realistic war practices of this industrial plant were based, from the very outset of the war, on the full and extensive use of black manpower-and skilled and unskilled-in the procurement, transportation, and fabrication of raw materials and the delivery of finished products to Confederate fighting forces, southern railroads, smaller industrial plants, and various branches of the War Department such as ordnance, quartermaster, engineer, and the navy." (p.73)

Chapter Four: 'Transportation Laborers':

"It would perhaps be claiming too much to say that Negro manpower, the sinew of the war effort behind the scenes, provided Virginia with the means of continuing the uneven contest. Yet it is impossible not to conclude that had the Virginia's transportation arteries been deprived of Negro brawn and dexterity, the Virginia war effort would have been severely and seriously hampered."

Chapter Five: 'Negroes in Confederate Hospitals':

"Most of the thousands of Negroes-nurses, ambulance drivers, stretcher-bears, cooks, bakers, and other hospital attendants-are now nameless. Yet they bathed patients, fed the sick and wounded, administered medicines, aired and made beds, cleaned wards, maintained fires, and performed numerous other tasks, Other colored hospital attendants prepared food, washed clothing, whitewashed and repaired buildings, worked in the purveyor's office and the commissary, labored in the gardens dairies, and icehouses maintained by the hospitals, drove wagons, and so forth. Seldom were they mentioned n the journals of their day, and only a few were named or described in the memories of Confederate surgeons. On the other hand they never engaged in wholesale desertions. The decision to place them as attendants in the military hospitals not only freed many thousands of soldiers for military duty but considerably lightened the burden of caring for the sick and wounded in Confederate armies. Now wholly forgotten, these Negroes' names have no meaning today. Confederate medical histories seldom discuss the Negro. For the same reason, too, the story of Confederate logistics is incomplete." (p.129-130)

Chapter Six: 'Confederate Labor Troops':

"Virginia's fortifications and the labor force responsible for their construction have received less attention than other phases of the Civil War. Yet, from every part of Virginia, thousands of Negroes were called upon the encircle cities and vulnerable areas with cordons of earthworks, and their labor undoubtedly prolonged the war by preventing Federal invasions from seriously affecting the resources of the state. Their story not only provides new insights into the history of the warring South, but contributes to an understanding of the many ways in which the Virginia Negro was inextricable related with the Southern war effort. When weighted against the tragic theme of the stunted existence which resulted from his enslavement, the war discloses that he had a compelling effect on the course of the war and that his service was a key piece in the mechanism of Southern defenses." (p.163-4)

Conclusion: "Today, in a lonely unmarked grave, forgotten and unknown, lies the Confederate Negro-a casualty of History." (p.167)