Mexico Books

Although I knew that Lynn and her husband were finally able to adopt their daughters, I simply could not put this book down. I kept reading to find out what struggles they had to endure next. I was so happy when the adoption was finalized.

We also adopted a child from a former state of the Soviet Union and Ms. Doxon's story brought back many memories of that experience. We thought what we went through was grueling and trying, but their experience was far worse. We have given this book to friends who are trying to adopt currently from Ukraine. We want them to go in armed with the knowledge, insight, and courage that was so accurately portrayed in Rainbows From Heaven. This is a must read for anyone who is thinking about adopting from overseas. This book shows that with God & the desire to adopt that all things are possible.

This true story of a family's struggle to adopt three girls from the Ukraine was capitivating from page one! I laughed, I cried and I prayed for this family thoughout this book. What an inspiring story of faith, love, and determination. Truly, one of the best books I've read in a long time!

I felt inspired by the perseverence of the author. I enjoyed reading the perspective of the young children. I was moved by their journey as orphans prior to their adoption by their American parents.

Lynn Ellen Doxon's book about the adoption of three girls from the Ukraine is truly a story about faith, courage and persistence in the face of difficulty. Lynn Ellen and her husband, Robert, are proof that with God's help, the impossible can be accomplished. This is a fine piece of writing, and will fill the reader with hope and joy.

This book provides an enlightening look at Diebenkorn's early biomorphic landscape drawings and paintings. It's full of quality images and incisive analysis, and gives a thoughtful overview of his formative break-through years.

Of the few scholarly books written on Deibenkorn's prolific production, this volume offers a new insight into the relationships of his previous developmental and matured California works. His clearly defined non-objective landscapes hold the seeds of the objective period to follow and an even more defined structural forecast of his late period of geometric compositions. Diebenkorn's use of color in New Mexico brings together both a broad stroke vision of the native landscape and an alternate coloration of local floral and costume. This author views the Albequerque series as his deepest expression of color beyond the sand, stone and dry botanical forms of cactus and sage as a predominating foilage. The light-hearted color canvases are of very special interest.

Of all artists of the twentieth century, few, if any, have explored the diversity of color intricately entwined within the composition structure so much as Diebenkorn.

Ray W. Clarke
Cleveland and Palm Beach

This book is something of a revelation for anyone who has an interest in American painting, but isn't an artist, academic or serious collector. Richard Diebenkorn, for me, has always been a great West Coast, landscape/colorist painter, known most recently for the Ocean Park series that became a kind of hallmark for him. "Richard Diebenkorn in New Mexico" shows an entirely different phase of his remarkable professional life; one that saw him fully committed to the dominant abstract expressionist school of the time and painting with quite a different pallette of colors than that he would come to be known for some 20-30 years later. This book is a wonderful collection of paintings, drawings and sculpture that provide examples of how the then-student Diebenkorn developed his craft over a two-plus year period in the 1950s. This is a major pleasure to read, peruse and discuss as well as a wonderful addition to any art library.

This book accompanies an exhibition of Diebenkorn's works painted in New Mexico in the early 1950's. Wonderful illustrations make it a valuable addition to the literature on the artist. Now, you really have to be an all-out Diebenkorn fan to consider that these early works measure up to what was being painted at the same time in New York by the likes of Pollock, De Kooning, Rothko, Kline and Guston. Diebenkorn became great when he started the Ocean Park series in the 1970's, but here, he only reveals himself as a good colorist. The merit of this catalogue lies, in my opinion, in the high quality of the illustrations, albeit of minor works, and in the sensible text written by a leading authority on the artist.

This excellent collection represents the works produced by Richard Diebenkorn during his tenure at the University of New Mexico from 1950-52, comprising some of his most exciting abstract images. The companion exhibit at the Harwood Museum in Taos, New Mexico once again confirms Diebenkorn's stature as one of the most influential and important abstract painters of our time.

It is amazingly accurate and if you are interested in Geology you will
learn solid, well written information about this Geology.

These Roadside books are always very good and this one is no exception.

I expected a pretty dry book regarding a pretty dry subject. I was wrong.

This has stimulated my interest in geology. Each time we travel now, we take this book and the Roadside History of NM book with us. It makes our trips through New Mexico much more interesting. We stop and look at the places these books mention and read about the events that occured there and what the rocks are telling us. Sometimes we even take side trips to see things that are mentioned in one of these two books.

I particularly like how this book has diagrams and pictures to help clarify what it is exactly I'm looking at. There are answers to questions I wouldn't have thought to ask in this book.

If you drive through NM quite a bit, this is a good book to have with you as you travel. Even if you don't think you are interested in geology, this book is a good book to have.

Outstanding! Since I travel frequently to and through New Mexico, this book was everything I hoped for. Familiar terrain takes on a new meaning now. The seller (BookPlanet) delivered the book promptly, at a reasonable price, and in new condition. Very satisfactory deal all the the way around. John Bradshaw

I have persused through several Roadside Geology book, so I was pretty sure of what I was ordering. This book is wonderful to read before road trips, while on road trips and after road trips. My family and I have a much better understanding of and appreciation for what we are seeing on our trips. I highly recommend this series for anyone the least bit interested in geology.

Being a former San Diego City resident, I found this book very interesting. It was fun to see all the changes in this beautiful city in the past 25 years since we have moved...it will be very helpful on our next vacation. The book is both informative and entertaining.

San Diego & Tijuana: Great Destinations: A Complete Guide (Great Destinations)This is a particularly good choice for families planning a vacation in San Diego or for local families to have on hand for weekend adventures. Moving beyond the area's acknowledged world-famous attractions, Hardin offers information on kayaking and kite-flying classes, whale-watching trips, and roar & snore sleepovers. Her dining suggestions offer more detail than most guides and include such local favorites as MooTime, Miguel's Cocina, Point Loma Seafoods, Cafe Chloe, Tony's Jacal, and the Chicken Pie Shop. Hardin covers a welcome variety of options for accommodations, restaurants, and activities for all ages and in all price ranges. Excellent travel guide.

Though I have lived in San Diego over 15 years, I love to eat out and get ideas of places to see and do locally so I am always looking out for a new publication with some interesting ideas. This guide is the best I've seen for San Diego. It is written in an interesting style so that I even enjoy reading about the places that I have frequented for years. The comments on the various locations are insightful and personal so that I know the author has been there and been able to get a true feel for the location. I have also used the guide to provoke explorations of new places that I have missed and found that it has led me to a few new gems. It is the first guide I hand to the various visitors who drop by from out of town. Highly recommended!

Great!! Traveled to San Diego for the first time with my 2 children. This book was so helpful. Gave such useful info on so many places.

Very informative and well written. As a San Diego resident, I find it helpful both for myself and for loaning to visiting friends and relatives.

What a wonderful and authentic book!! I loved reading it from cover to cover.....there are sooooo many recipes that I've tagged to try soon. In fact while I was browsing the book, my husband happened to look at the fish taco picture in there and immediately started craving some. So went to a mexican farmer's market and brought our ingredients home and started cooking from the recipe in the book...and let me tell you, this was the BEST fish taco we've ever had!

UPDATE: I made guacamole and pico de gallo(mexican salsa as called by the book) and they both turned out AWESOME! I also made enchiladas verde...and they were nice...especially the tomatilla salsa that's used in the recipe...yummm.
Next up: Agua Fresca!

Every cookbook should be loaded with pictures like this one is. This book has a great sampling of dishes from all over Mexico, and helpful substitutions for hard to find ingredients. Not only are the recipes great, but the history behind the dishes are interesting also. I found most of the recipes require a lot of preparation time, however that is due more to the nature of Mexican cooking. I haven't found a bad recipe yet in the whole book.

Once again Marilyn Tausend does not disappoint! I own the Spanish edition of this book and have given the English edition to friends visiting Mexico and wanted a "real authentic Mexican cuisine" cookbook. She does a great job on explaining the traditions and festivities that go hand-in-hand with a lot of foods in Mexico. The Christmas punch is a family favorite served annually at our Posadas and Christmas meals. (Recipe tip: remove the seeds from the Guavaba fruit before adding to the punch.)

Even if you don't relish roasting and peeling a Poblano Chili, just reading the recipes and looking at the tantalizing photographs will make your taste buds tingle. This book is so beautiful, it would even look lovely on your coffee table. Mrs. Tausend's work, replete with interesting historical explanations, is a true portrayal of Mexico's rich cuisine and culture. If this book is not enough for you, then I recommend that you accompany Mrs. Tausend on one of her wonderful culinary trips to various parts of Mexico for a "hands on" experience of Mexico and its unparalled cuisine.

Favorite cooking tip: many of the Mexican chili salsas can be made in large batches and then frozen in smaller portions for use at a later time.

I was looking for a good authentic mexican book (my husband is mexican) and this one captured my attention. My husband reviewed it and he aggreed that the recipes are authentic from a lot of regions in Mexico. Each recipes has its own picture and very well presented.

I recommend it to all people who wants to cook mexican cuisine. The recipes are relatively easy to make and it's easy to find the ingredients.

A fabulous book!

This book is a wonderful followup to her collaborative work "Mexico The Beautiful". I was afraid that many of the wonderfully authentic recipes from her other books might be duplicated here, but that's not the case. As usual, she's managed to come up with very authentic recipes (I have lived in Mexico for many years now and have studied the cuisines) that I had been hoping to find, such as Quail in Rose Petal Sauce of "Like Water For Chocolate" fame, Cream of Chile Poblano, and Torta Azteca, among others. The instructions are easy to understand, the photography is brilliant, the ingredients are relatively easy to find and Ms. Tausend again did her research right because these recipes taste like the real thing! This is not another taco/enchilada/burrito cookbook, there are many truly fascinating and hard-to-find dishes in this book. I'm so glad I bought it! If you're looking for another great Mexican cooking aid, this is the one to get after Mexico the Beautiful!

The publisher would like to market Schaeffer Brown as a private investigator with a penchant for literary allusion, but this is a book that succeeds on many levels. Candace Katz offers a vivid portrait of metropolitan Washington, D.C. (from the White House mess to Madeira School to Heidelberg Bakery!), and then moves effortlessly to Oaxaca, Mexico, with its distinctive mix of vibrant cultures, ancient and modern. It's impossible not to care about the characters in this book. Best of all, there is a surprise (and very exciting) ending, one that will make every reader wonder about how Katz will develop her appealing but slightly ditsy protagonist in the sequel that is sure to come.

The delightful cover of Candace Katz's new book caught my eye, but it was the engrossing story that held my interest. I like a story that transports me to another world, and this book did just that. I loved the picture of Oaxaca, Mexico that Ms. Katz painted; she made me feel as if I were there. Private Investigator Shaeffer Brown is a smart, adventurous, and very human character. I like that she worries about making mistakes but carries on with her job anyway. I hope her next case is as interesting as her first.

Very well written romance/detective mystery. Has a
great and interesting plot - flows well. Really
exciting and hard to put down. Can't wait to read her
next book.

Schaeffer Brown, who lives in a staid suburb of Washington DC --is a petite blonde, an easygoing but nervy dame with innocence reinforced with insouciance, guts, grit, and a fine sense of panic shored up by an iron will. Not someone you'd usually meet on your commute to work....or maybe she is!

To pull herself out of a blue-funk brought on by a smarmy divorce, she becomes, of all things (surprising even herself) a PI!!

Candace Katz brings to life a delightful, albeit dizzy character who mixes guffaws with gumption, gutsiness with gore, a dainty woman with gallows humor and a steel trap of a mind behind all that coyness and cuteness.

Involved in an ever widening net of intrigue, murder and mayhem in Mexico, our heroine has her legs pecked by angry turkeys on second class Mexican buses, picks her way thru tombs in the dry hot dusty outskirts, packs away more than a few blue martinis in out of the way tourist traps -- all the while zeroing in on her prey while trying to rescue a damsel in distress and decipher a cryptic note while time runs out and nefarious characters close in on her.

Drawn into these adventures like someone who tags along breathlesssly in the background, I could not put this book down.

The book's colorful cover is a portent of things to come -- it brings to mind the sinister beauty encountered by PI Brown as she gets drawn into this ever widening net of intrigue, while she gets to know the impoverished denizens of these run down towns, who maintain a sense of dignity, friendship and loyalty even while they eke out a hardscrabble existence.

And just as you are about to breathe a huge sigh of relief (and Brown, you wield a MEAN tear gas canister!!!), there is M-O-R-E. The mix of "savory" and unsavory, chills, thrills and dry wit will keep you, dear reader on your toes.

Is this Candace Katz' first book? Bravo!!!! May there be MANY more like it!!

I highly recommend this book. I prefer mysteries written by women and I now have a new writer to add to my list of favorites. The book is well written, engrossing, and full of interesting characters, including and especially Schaeffer Brown herself. The author has a distinctive voice and a wonderful eye for detail. I hope that this is the first of a long line of Schaeffer Brown mysteries.

JH (Washington, DC)

I got this for my birthday and finished it in about two weeks (reading for a while before bed each night). I loved it. I need to share it with a friend and see if she wants to be my 'sisterchick'.

In an interview on FaithfulReader.com earlier this year, I asked Robin Jones Gunn if her "sisterchick" characters would always be sisters in Christ; she answered, "This will be an interesting angle to explore in these books." Little did I know --- and savvy of her not to say --- that her next book, already written, would address this angle. Fortysomething sisters Joanne and Melanie are certainly not diametrically opposed; Joanne does attend church, after all. But while Melanie's life is centered on her personal relationship with God, Joanne's is centered on the daily dilemmas of family life.

For Joanne, the devil is in the details: organizing and planning have become a form of serenity. When the sisters discover that they have inherited a vague piece of property in Mexico, Joanne is the one who tries to make everything flow perfectly. Jones Gunn has used this character device in the first two Sisterchicks books, mainly to show that things are out of our hands --- humans can't try to make things go the way they want them to. Here, she quietly but effectively shows that Joanne has allowed her need for control to cover up her lack of inner peace. The women start off on a cruise ship because of their aunt's generosity and well-maintained status as a preferred passenger on the line. When they run into an eccentric and likable group of women throwing a fabulous chocolate-tasting party, they first hear the term "sisterchicks" --- and Joanne sees in those spontaneous, exuberant ladies qualities that she not only lacks, but also covets.

Soon, Joanne gets the opportunity for spontaneity when she and Melanie discover that they are going to have to rent a car and drive to their deceased uncle's property in order to meet a legal deadline. When they then arrive and see that their inheritance is apparently a lot containing an Airstream trailer, they're a bit downcast. Guess what? They haven't seen the big picture --- and when they do, Joanne is so amazed that she opens up to her sister's spiritual guidance in an entirely new way.

Like the earlier Sisterchicks books, the characters experience both joys and difficulties, and these are interwoven with scenes from the local culture that are meant to show sisterchicks can learn from experiences quite foreign to them. In SISTERCHICKS ON THE LOOSE they took a Finnish sauna and in SISTERCHICKS DO THE HULA tried a Hawaiian lei-making class. The sombrero-sporting sisterchicks wind up needing overnight accommodations and meet an extremely poor and generous Mexican woman who embodies Christian hospitality. It is a credit to Jones Gunn that she does not allow this character to lapse into stereotype or flatness.

At the end of the interview, Jones Gunn wrote, "Being a sisterchick...becomes a validation that within the heart of a sisterchick grows a deeply rooted relationship with Christ." Melanie experiences growth (and will probably experience some change, too), but it is Joanne whose sisterchick experience, newly hatched as it were, is most interesting in this installment.

--- Reviewed by Bethanne Kelly Patrick

Sisterchicks in Sombreros by Robin Jones Gunn is the 3rd installment in this series. One of the great things about this series is that the stories really aren't related so you can read them in any order and not miss anything, but I enjoyed the reference to book #2 in this one. Melanie and Joanne are sisters who have lost touch with each other and in some ways themselves until their uncle leaves them beachfront property in Mexico that they must visit in order to inherit. The trip takes them on a cruise ship, driving across Baja, and into more scrapes than they ever thought they could handle. The message of the book is surrender. Surrender to God, surrender control, and surrender our expectations in order to really fully experience life. The message is powerful, and I really enjoyed the read, but I felt this book was more chick-lit (no pun intended) than the previous two which had deeper themes. It's still a winner!

I loved this book. Took me about three hours to read from beginning to end! I couldn't put it down and you won't either! The story is a great one, of two sisters who have inheritated a beach front property in Mexico and go down to sign some bank papers, taking a cruise to get there part away. They have some mishaps which will make you laugh and want to have a robe just like them!

They become closer to each other and to the Lord, one already believing and the other drawing nearer every day. They meet a few interesting people and learn about others and ways of life along the way.

You won't want to miss out on this book and I will be looking forward to all the others!! BRAVO!

I love all the sisterchick books. I hope i have adventures like that when i turn into my 40's. (although that won't be for another 20 years or so!).

I loved how Robin Jones Gunn always inserts characters or plots from the Christy Miller series into her books. For the casual reader it's nothing special, but for those who grew up reading Christy Miller and Sierra Jensen it's a treat to see old friends. So that's why I was pleasantly surprised to see christy's aunt and uncle, Marti and Bob, on the cruise ship with Melanie and Joanne. I didn't recognize them at first b/c he was called Robert. But then it was like ..DUH!

This tome covers corn "ear" to toe. I love the sassy tone and contrarian viewpoints.

I must admit, I am actually a beet person (well, root vegetables generally) and bought this book to get ammo to goof on my corn enthusiast friends. But how the worm has turned! Corn and human history are inextricably linked, a bonding of nurture and social evolution. This book lays down the facts.

I guess in retrospect my "hubris" about beets was misguided and wrong. I now think the lesson I learned, whether it pertains to vegetables, politics, music or whatever, is that YOU SHOULD NEVER UNDERESTIMATE DIFFERENT OPINIONS. It's too easy to do, and is an easy way to miss out on fundamental truths.

In that sense, this book transcends it's core audience of corn folk (cornies?) and teaches a much deeper lesson if you are not really interested in corn - that well disciplined research into unfamiliar topics can instruct and delight the receptive reader.

Read it, enjoy and reflect.

Food historian Betty Fussell's survey of corn history blends folklore, anthropology, botany and social and art history to provide a lively blend of anecdotes and facts about world corn, from its influence on war and ritual uses in the Inca and Aztec worlds to its use as a key ingredient in different cultures' cuisines. The Story Of Corn isn't a cookbook; it's a specialized food history which will appeal across many different lines, from students of anthropology and sociology to culinary enthusiasts and history buffs.

Everything you want to know about corn is found in this book. And I mean everything. We see corn growing in fields everyday but do we actually stop and think about it? Do we pull over to the side of the road and LOOK at it? It's amazing how corn has been around longer than anyone will know. This book covers an overwhelming amount of detail. If you don't find it interesting you're just not a corn person. In fact, the only thing it doesn't answer is why I threw up over a bad cob one time. I don't throw up.

I love corn. Whether it's cobbed, creamed, breaded, or popped. This book is non-stop corn!

As a native of New Mexico I found this book wonderful. I live with a Navajo who was raised very traditionally and he found the book wonderful also. Douglas Preston is the best.

It's a pleasure to enjoy the author's background studies (dry) and then his reality (with large hail stones) on a search that leads to more respect... for everything.
Reading this book caused me to yearn for some concrete search of my own, and that is the dream this book passes along. It was given to me as someone else's favorite book. I can see why. Thanks.

It helps immensely to have travelled to the Navajo Nation when reading this story. I found that I had minor interest in the developing family story, compared to the lore and myth of the SW Native Americans. If you've travelled to the SW and are familiar with horses, you'll love this book.

A wonderful read, both encouraging and disheartening, with some real family values thrown in. A graphic, first-hand description of the way things were and are, and might be. Mr. Preston provides many enduring messages about the sanctity of life and living that the Bilagaana have nearly completely lost in our rush of subservience to the technology god.

This book and its predecessor, Cities of Gold, chronicle the amazing, arduous, foolhardy, inspired journeys of a "yankee" in search of the traces of cultures his own people have nearly annihilated. Unlike many memoirists, Preston doesn't shrink from chronicling his own failures and misjudgments, and that's what makes him so accessible to the people he meets along the way, and to the reader him or herself. Most of us will probably never have the guts to make these journeys or get to know all these people - that's what makes this book such a radical act of anti-tourism. Above all it's a poignant homage to "the people." (They know who they are!) If you're a horse person, a traveler to the southwest, or if you're just interested in the question "what is American?" you have to read these books now. And don't miss the great story about the skinwalkers - it's enough to keep you cold in July.

This is a well-written narrative that doesn't go far enough. In particular, there's a very untold story about Hispanics in the suburbs that one documentary (Farmingville) brought to light at its worst -- and that was only touched upon in this book...the clash of race and class is being played out in the suburbs and Jose's brief stint in Porchester felt like an aside. That said, this book is moving, well-written, and compassionate, particularly the road trip to Mexico...a terrific story in itself. CBock

Thompson writes a fact filled account of the life of his friend Enrique, a Mexican immigrant living in Brooklyn, and the people around him. The author meets Enrique as a tenant struggling with housing issues. Later in the book Thompson travels to Mexico with Enrique and members of his family. The many experiences are described with conversations and impressions but little editorializing by the author. And that is not needed because the stories speak for themselves. This book fills an incredible gap.

Thompson's book goes where few others have gone before; inside the lives of undocumented workers from New York to Mexico. It's a human story of family, survival, and love. This book should give pause to anyone who tries to argue that undocumented workers do not bring value to our country. Thompson writes clearly and allows those he meets to speak for themselves, something that is too rare in our public debate about immigration.

The truth about Mexican immigration

Gabriel Thompson hits the heart of immigration problem. People tend to oppose to migration blindly without analyzing the factors that propel all these poor people to work outside of their homeland, being humiliated, underpaid, and overworked for a few dollars. Also all these "Minuteman" and other racists would not do the work that a Mexican does; yet they want to throw out the people who give this country their work so that those racists could live in the land of plenty. People that oppose this migration are also the descendants of other immigrants that came to this country for the same reasons as these new migrants. Mexican migrants and all migrants in general are the backbone of our industry and our economy, we should be thankful that there are people like these poor Mexicans and migrants from other countries that do so much work in exchange of very little. I'm grateful that amid this sea of racism and ignorance there are a few people like Gabriel Thompson that expose the truth as it is.

The best work of non-fiction narrative I have read in years. It reminds me of Jimmy Breslin's down-to-earth journalistic style. Sorry Lou Dobbs, there is no political spin here; you can get this book for your racist uncle or for your socialist aunt because this book speaks to the heart and helps you realize that Enrique could have been either an Irish, Norwegian, or German immigrant in a different time and a different place. Still, Enrique's journey is fascinating and knowing that people of his stature still come to our shores makes me feel optimistic about the future of this country.