Central America Books

Tio Rico lives in a village in Oaxaca (wah-ha-kah), Mexico. He is a 77 year-old who became a pinata maker when rheumatism made it too difficult to continue his business of making sombreros.

A village boy collects newspapers and concrete sacks for Tio Rico. These he uses to fashion unusual and decorative pinatas. The process is explained by a delightful profusion of photographs which accompany the story. The author, George Ancona, also shows "puppets" which are child-size papier-mache forms worn by young folk dancers. He shows his own version of pinata formed over cardboard or balloons for those of us who cannot buy clay pots at a local market.

Children everywhere will enjoy this colorful book and be eager to try the craft. With luck, they will have patient teachers and learn some Spanish and/or English words, too! My favorite companion book is "Colors of Mexico" (isbn: #1575052164), illustrated by Janice Porter.

"THE PINATA MAKER" is a 5-star book for adults as well as children, and most appropriate for the 2003 church women's study of Mexico. Find a group of children to share this book with, and increase your enjoyment three-fold.

Both my 5 & 3 year-old children LOVE this book. It is a nice combo of something fun (the pinatas, the design, & just the thought of candy...) and reality (photos of Don making pinatas). It is simple enough for them to understand, and captivating enough for even my younger child. We haven't delved much into the spanish text, but will eventually. For now, we're working on making the star for my daughter's sixth birthday party!

The Piñata Maker describes how a Mexican gentleman, Don Ricardo, became a piñata maker. It elaborates on how he makes his beautiful piñatas, while including a description of his way of life. The book is fantastic for individuals who are studying either English or Spanish. I'm using it both to become more familiar with Spanish and to teach English to a Spanish speaking person. It is written on an appropriate level for adults to use in this manner, but it is also an excellent book for children.

This was a shocker''the B/W photos are wonderful (Yo fui en El Salvador en Marzo)'' y this was an inspiration. The authors have included beautiful photographs and the text, such as it is, is dead on. I love ES and this book brought me to tears. viva la revolution y la FMLN

Larry Towell gives you a chance to see El Salvador through a completly different perspective. There are many books out there that show photography in a very literal way, but in this book you sometimes have to search for what Towell is trying to tell you.

You can't just flip through this book and understand what is going on in a photo in a few seconds, but you have to take time to look at each one, think about it and look at all of the layers.

If you are adept at looking at complex photojournlism, then I highly recommend this book.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is moved by high quality documentary black and white photogaphy. Or anyone who is interested in the culture of El Salvador. As a photography student, I know how many thousands of exposures it takes to get one image that has a truly unique perspective and contains real power. This book has many images that would be the "photo of a lifetime" for most people I know.

It was very moving. Larry Towell does real honor to the word "photojournalist" with this collection of work. I would love to own a print from one of his negatives someday.

People from the prairies of South Dakota and North Dakota aren't pretentious. Well, some might be, but they tend to stand out in miserable ways. Linda Hasselstrom's writing is like the people of her home: careful, persistent, simple, surprisingly complex, fascinating. Your own family and home may be very different from Hasselstrom's, but through her writing you'll gain a better understanding of your own people and place of origin. Hasselstrom is a master; she shows us how to cherish the tribes we were born into, despite the inevitable losses and disappointments of life. She ranks right up there with Kathleen Norris and Patricia Hampl.

Reading this book was a wonderful experience. What a touching story of a family that develops as all families do; realizing we love our family members even more when we accept them loving us the only way they know how. All this against the backdrop of a still unspoiled area of America. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in this region, history or living.
Allen

I unboxed this book, flipped open some pages to preview and before I knew it, I had read 60 pages standing in my kitchen. Legs buckling, I sat and finshed the book in one sitting. The book is compelling because Hasselstrom's storytelling makes you want to read further, but also because her writing mesmerizes the soul. I found myself rereading sentences and hanging on the beauty of her unique prose. "How does she write like this?" I kept asking myself. Her ability to take you within the moment is unsurpassed. You don't need to be a cowgirl to enjoy this book, but if you are, you'll finish it in one sitting--or standing--like I did.

This is one of the better field guides available for identifying and determining the usefulness of many medicinal plants found commonly in the Eastern and Central US. This guide is recommended for beginners and experienced medicinal plant enthusiasts alike. A must have book for the novice in this field.

This is excellent reading at home and on the go. You'll want to buy two of these just so you have one at home, and one you can really rough handle on the road. :) If you're into medicinal herbs or you just love knowing what's what out in the wild, this guide is number one! A MUST! You need it now.

This book was so fabulous, in fact, I give it more than five stars, I give it twenty! It is because of this book that I now want to be an ethnobotanical chemisist. This book has such pep and drive, just the Introduction and Preface make you want to go outside start a weed garden, picket the FDA, and go to college for seven years to get your degree in botanical chemistry. You don't believe me, but I'm serious. READ THIS BOOK! If not the whole book, at least the Introduction and Preface. It'll give you SO much energy.

Great book! We booked the accomodations through a travel agency but found that they were both Fodor's choice. The resorts were well described, and using their recommendations on where to eat on Ambergris Caye were spot on! The only thing I would have liked would have been more detailed maps of the different areas (Cayes in particular) but that may be out of the scope of this book. Highly recommend!

This book answered most of the questions I had prior to taking my trip to Belize. The questions it could not answer were questions that only could be answered in specific situations by actually being there. For an in depth look at Belize and how to prepare for your trip, it is an excellent guide book.

This is the most up to date, accurate reviews and ratings of where to go and what to do in Belize. We had everything lined up before our trip.

I love the Great Lakes. My great-great-grandparents were pioneers in Manistee. I live close to the lake in Chicago. Our family is tied to water from the 1600s of the West coast of France. Fresh Water was on my wish list for a long time. I asked for it for Christmas. Now I can't give it away. The Notes on the Contributors has too many references to other literature the authors have written and ecological societies around the Great Lakes. The stories vary from personal to purposeful.

Having grown up on Lake Ontario, living now in high desert country, I was longing for the big vista of "my lake". Fresh Water is full of well written strong experiences and images that vividly recalled my years on the lake. I could almost smell and feel that big body of fresh water, remember the intensity of storms and forgotten mystery, as well as the joy of quiet early morning swims. Gifts from Alison Swan and all the contributors!

Edited by award-winning environmentalist Alison Swan, Fresh Water: Women Writing on the Great Lakes is an anthology of brief yet contemplative reflections upon the Great Lakes, all written by women. The essays are contemplative rather than scholarly in nature, dwelling upon emotion, history, the beauty of the Lakes and the need to preserve them. A deeply moving compilation filled with passion and respect for the spiritual bounty of nature.

If you want to meet a person who is interesting, intelligent, funny, energetic, and spiritual buy this book and meet Ita Ford. She will help you realize what is truly important in life. Plus, she is a great writer. Since some of her friends saved Ita's letters you meet her up close and personal.

It seems strange a quarter century has already passed since the torture, rape and murder of these four courageous and Catholic US women by US directed fascist forces which killed so many religious in El Salvador including the Archbishop, and yet none are yet canonized. Perhaps this refusal indicates more about the new timid direction of our Church away from living testimony of Jesus and his Gospel than their certain santity as confessors and martyrs of our Universal Faith in solidarity with the Poor of this earth who are rich in Heaven. Our Church's ignorance of their martyrdom matches our US government refusing to bring to justice their terrorist torturers, rapists and killers, more culpable of crimes against Americans than anyone on Guantanamo Bay.

This remarkable book collects the personal writings and meditations of one such certain Saint, Ita Ford. Rarely since Saint Therese of LIsieux have such an opportunity to study, meditate and imitate the pathway of a Saint in her own writings.

Please take this book prayerfully, in respect and in joy, and meditate the meaning of her life and ultimate sacrifice and its aftermath.

Discovering "Here I Am, Lord" The Letters and Writings of Ita Ford came as an unexpected surprise. Not being a dedicated reader of books that could be categorized as theology, the story of Sister Ita Ford's life as told through her letters (which are prefaced by concise but very vivid and helpful Introductions by the editor, Jeanne Evans) impressed me as I became caught up in the simple power of an amazing woman's life work.

In retrospect, the relevance of Ita Ford's life story as revealed by Evan's book is compelling to any reader interested in how an individual can fight to change the political structures that control everyday people for the enrichment of the powerful few. The most important actions Ita Ford took on in her life led to her execution-style murder by the Salvadoran military on December 2, 1980. This act of brutality was covered by TV and print reporters around the world.

It seems to me that the importance of Ita Ford's life is mirrored in the recent successes of films like United 93 and Oliver Stone's World Trade Center. These films tell the stories of many people caught up in the horrific events of September 11, 2001. They give direct, moving glimpses of the heroism of everyday people, who are very like Ita Ford in suddenly finding themselves facing unexpected unspeakable evil. Ita Ford's heroic death may be a quarter of a century ago; but, the evil committed by certain individuals who are willing to kill the innocent to promote what they see to be their right: to impose their will upon others, is as common an event today as it was in 1980. The politics change, but the importance of everyday people who will sacrifice themselves to fight fanaticism and greed remains as amazing and important in 1980, or 2001, as it is today.

What is special about Ita Ford's life? She was born in Brooklyn, NY to a Roman Catholic family, and had the then typical parochial education, which by 1957, took her to the all women's college of Marymount Manhattan, which was then run by Roman Catholic sisters. The strength of Evan's book is immediately apparent in her ability to give a short, precise summary of each stage of Ita's life, and then flesh it out with Ita's letters and other writings that were never intended to be read by the public, and therefore are candid and revealing. At this time, Ita's commitment to the yearbook, and her adolescent agonizing over certain college courses, as well as her reaction to her professors, will resonate with any reader. As Evans takes us further along in Ford's life, we have an insider's view with her struggles as a Maryknoll Postulant [a nun in formation], and her first defeat when she fails to become a Maryknoll sister. Evans takes us through the decade of the 1960's, while Ita lived in Greenwich Village and lived out a time of the United States' great transformation from post-war Ozzie and Harriet America, to the America of Vietnam, Feminism, and (for those interested in things theological) Post-Vatican II.

The heart and soul of Evan's book follows: Ita Ford's return to the Maryknolls and her acceptance for missionary work in South America in the turbulent 1970's. This is impossible to summarize; the reader has to experience Ita's life as Evans presents it. A snapshot will suffice. Ita began her missionary work in the huge shantytown of La Bandera on the edge of Santiago, Chile. The details of the numbing poverty, and the resilience of the Chileans reduced to living in La Bandera has to be seen through Ita Ford's eyes. Her story may be from twenty-five years ago, but the La Banderas of South and Central America are unchanged today.

Finally, Ita is moved to go to her destiny in El Salvador by the call of Archbishop Oscar Romero. It is no accident that she arrives in March 1980, to the news of his assassination by his political enemies. She will be executed with three other women nine months later.

I was particularly impressed by Evan's ability to use her own Introductions and Ita Ford's writings to give the reader an amazingly clear picture of a woman who thought of herself as very ordinary, but who was determined to do extraordinary things. In a way, Ita Ford's letters show that she saw herself realistically. But, Evan's book gives the reader a much larger view. People like Ita Ford who can put the needs of other people above their own, in whatever small part of the world they take on, are truly extraordinary people. It is the pervasive poverty and meaningless violence in the world that is truly ordinary. Evan's book is a real and moving journey in the footsteps of an amazing woman.

No reader interested in the power of one ordinary person to do the seemingly impossible will be disappointed by "Here I Am, Lord."

You should buy this book for several reasons, but just being the last book that Linda Schele ever wrote should be enough. It will be a long time before someone with her talents helps put ink and photos on paper again. It's a collector's item. FFD

This book is well worth the price and a must for anyone interested in maya art and culture. Aside from the full color photographs of maya figurines from museums in both Mexico and the US, I also like the layout of the text which is divided into 10 chapters categorizing the figurines pictured and describing each one with extra explanations when needed. Definetely one of of the best books on the subject, highly recommendable.

The extraordinary photos in this book depict some of the most beautiful artifacts made by the Maya. Even the size and proportions of the book is intended to remind the reader of the Maya codices. I had the rare privilege to travel with both of the authors, and their enthusiasm and devotion to the Maya culture are exceptional. Their talents are apparent in this book and I recommend it to anyone with any interest in Mesoamerican cultures.

Braeking the state up into sections, the author does an excellent job of describing and presenting the various highlights of each. Equal treatment is given to popular and off-the-beaten-path areas, with sufficient detail for each. It made my recent visit more enjoyable!

This book was a wonderful guide to the areas of Montana we traveled through. There were several things we would not have seen if it hadn't been for the suggestions in the book and some excellent restaurants we wouldn't have stopped at if they had not been recommended by the book. We plan to get another "hidden" book for our next trip.

Hidden Montana appears in its third edition to cover inns, tours, drives, and outdoors explorations throughout the state. From Glacier Park to Yellowstone, this is packed with lesser-known byways. Recommended.

"Hidden Tennessee" like all the other Hidden books are really great for the traveler looking for something different. In our travels, we always attempt to avoid the commonplace and crowds, and the Hidden guides help us find the unusual.

I purchased this book as a birthday gift for my son-in-law who is an avid hiker and prefers naturalist areas that are less traveled. He was very pleased with the content in this book

We used this book to tour the whole state of Tennessee for our Anniversary. Every time we went to a "hidden" recommendation, we found exactly what the book said. We were never disappointed. We also used the AAA book of Tennessee. "Hidden" gave us a better idea of things to do and see. It had general descriptions of areas in addition to city information. We only used the AAA book when we wanted to stay in a chain hotel. The "Hidden" book only suggest non-chain lodging