Es una istoria muy intesante, que me ayudo a comprender muchas cosas sobre mis raices. Es apacionada,amorosa y soverbia. Conoces la casta de los verdaderos guereros,y el papel iportante que la religion tiene en todo esto, como una mujer fue la clave principal,como un pueblo fue sometido y dominado,pero nunca dejaron que sus creencias les fueran proibidas.

Historia romántica, llena de pasajes históricos e historias paralelas. De los pocos libros que esperaba cualquier momento para leerlo, además podría leerlo de nuevo.
La relación de Cortés y la Malinche con su toque de romance, avaricia, poder, superstición, racismo... en comparación con la de Benitez y Flor de lluvia donde el cariño, la bondad, y el amor a pesar de las diferencias raciales, religiosas y del lenguaje. Como mexicana esta obra me provocó emoción, en algunas situaciones enfado por la humillación y la codicia de los conquistadores. Pero a pesar de todo, aqui estamos y así se formó el pais.

La literatura chilena es excelente, recuerdo este libro con nostalgia ... volveria a leerlo si lo tuviera en mis manos y tuviese tiempo! Os lo recomiendo desde la primera página os cautivará.

This is the book about romanticism, deep class separation, politics and honesty in the Chile of 1850, The hero shows all the points of his flawless character in the context of a full ethics approach to relationships, It will make an spectacular gift for teens and persons of teen heart because it included a passionate love story with optimistic message for all.

Additionally the political events that form part of the novel are real, and will provide a deep knowledge of political forces in a just-born Country.

I read it when I was teen, I reread for my fifty birthday, always with watery of eyes.....

This book is a wonderful introduction to Modigliani's work. I was impressed with the beauty and variety of full-page color plates of his paintings and sculpture. These illustrations are accompanied by text that describe not only the individual works, but also the progression, development and influential people/artists in Modigliani's lifetime. A breif bibliography is included. My interest in this artist has increased after reading this book.

One of MODIGLIANI's greatest regrets was not continuing as a sculptor: the enigmatically sensuous "Crouching caryatid" in roughly-hewn boulder-like stone showcased his skills at making every sculpted surface part work together and at reducing forms to their most basic parts. His drawings and paintings put sculpturally-influenced emphases on the sitter's eyes, hands, mouth and shoulders: "Hanka Zborowska" had Brancusi-style tightly compressed features in a thin face looking like a 3-D polished metal sculpture. Avoiding naturalism and tending towards Art Nouveau, MODIGLIANI painted nudes, portraits and some rare landscapes: "Landscape at Cagnes" was painted vertically like head- and shoulders-sized portraits, with cypresses people-like in their oval leaves and waveringly thin-stemmed trunks. His painting became an art of expressive forms and geometrically simple lines influenced by African art and Cezanne: "Jeanne Hebuterne" pregnant, with an African mask face on a swan's neck symbolically linking the cerebral and the physical, a line forming the head-neck-shoulders axis, and a suite of curved arabesques forming the body; "Paul Alexandre," with Cezanne-type dominating and subsidiary hues deepening statue-like modeled light and shade against a green background and with Titian- and Velazquez-style formal stance and spread fingers; and "Raymond Radiguet," as a fraily sensitive 12-year-old, childlike and prophetic with one eye intensely blue and one blankly inward-looking. Author Carol Mann explains MODIGLIANI's art by a clearly written and nicely illustrated text. Her book works with Jose Maria Faerna's DE CHIRICO and MODIGLIANI to show the influences on the artist from the art of Jonathan Brown's VELAZQUEZ; the ART NOUVEAU books by Robert Fitzgerald, Edmund Vincent Gillon Jr or Paul Greenhalgh; the CEZANNE books by Henri Lallemand or Pavel Machotka; and Filippo Pedrocco's TITIAN.

Guess what? I am another passionate Brazilian spending sometime commenting on Santos Dumont. ...and of course I want to be included among those who agree that Santos Dumont was the first to really fly a heavier than air (without catapults).
Why do I think so? Just because I am a Brazilian and that was the way I was taught in school. Yes, Brazilian school. Like in the US you go to school and learn that the Wright Brothers were the first, in Brazil we also go to school, but we learn that Santos Dumont was the first.
Does it matter all about the Write Brothers' case? Not more than it matters whether Santos Dumont made that "first flight on December 23rd, 1906 before a huge crowd on Bagatelle Field, Paris, with full press and media coverage and movie recording and that It was an Official Experiment, homologated by Aero Club de France members present at the meeting." No, it does not matter. Why not? Because like Theodore Roosevelt said "It is not the critic who counts*".
It is not who the first was that counts! Santos Dumont and the Wright Brothers were conquerors, while you and I and all these people trying to defend one or the other are just a bunch of critics, who does not count at all.
Whether the Americans "explained their position with unassailable logic" or the Brazilians go with our "way of recounting history that isn't quite so dependent on a timeline", this is just a cultural difference.
In my opinion Santos Dumont x Write Brothers is analogous to Brazilian x American culture. Americans will never prove to Brazilians and Brazilians will never prove to Americans.
"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." by Theodore Roosevelt.

Although the achievements of Santos-Dumont (1873-1932) are not widely appreciated today, a ring of familiarity still clings to his name from the days when he was one of the most famous men in the world. Probably more flamboyant than any other figure in the history of aviation, he was the first man to succeed, not once but time after time, in leaving the ground, flying through the air to a place of his own choosing, and landing safely. Around the turn of the century he was the most prominent of all the early aviators, and his balloons, dirigibles and (later in his career) heavier-than-air craft were frequently to be seen in the air around his beloved city of Paris.

At the height of his first fame and triumphs, when he was 30 years old, Santos-Dumont dashed off an intriguing and delightful book about himself and his work, Dans l'Air (immediately translated as My Airships), published in 1904. In it he tells of his childhood in Brazil, his early fascination with machinery and passion for the novels of Jules Verne, his early success in France as an enthusiastic automobilist, his first balloon ascent in 1893, his famous balloon Brazil, and the joys and trials of his first ten dirigibles (1898-1904). Referring to himself as "inventor, patron, manufacturer, amateur, mechanician and airship captain all united," his egocentric but nonetheless admirable personality imbues the whole account with grace, whether he is praising the joys of lunching in a spherical balloon or describing one of his numerous hair-raising scrapes with death while navigating the air.

Today, this book appeals to us as a delightful evocation of the age he lived in, with all the romance of early aeronautics. Prize competitions, brief touch-downs at a café for refreshments, and the near-slapstick crash landings that somehow can't be taken seriously are only a few of the exciting elements of Santos-Dumont's account. Information on early aviation, excitement, evocation of the turn of the century, and lively, passionate writing on a fascinating subject; and all of these will captivate and enthrall any reader in the pages of this extraordinary book.

Oriental Tales by Marguerite Yourcenar is a Fantasy Book with many stories (hince oriental TALES). I can't say I have read a book like this one before. The only one that comes to mind are those little children multiple scary storybooks.
The first story is about an old painter and his apprentice. It takes place in old China. They travel abroad to paint landscapes. Later on, their funds were low so Ling, the apprentice, pilfered food from the market. Wang Fo, the painter, and Ling were taken to the Dynasty Emperor that night. Ling was beheaded and Wang Fo painted a magic picture with Ling and sailed into the horizon.

The stories in this book provide great imagery, in part, because the setting took place in old Eurasia. The stories were written in a way I haven't experienced before. They combine many subjects like Heroism and Triumph over bad. But some of these had depressing endings.
"Her tanguishing eyes died out like the reflection of stars in a waterless cistern, and nothing could be seen through the gap except two glassy eye balls that no longer gazed upon the sky." pg 49, an example of a depressing part. The style was hard to follow, but that made it enjoyable.

Out of 5, it is a 4. The book was difficult at first and was translated by Alberto Miguel to English from French. There are complex, symbolic sentences everywhere. If you like books on mystical Asia and books with multiple themes, I suggest you go and get this book.

If you enjoy finely crafted story telling, exquisite imagery, painterly prose, and highly imaginative explorations of timeless emotional and philosophical themes then this book of short stories is for you.

Comprised of Yourcenar's reinterpretation of folk tales from various cultures, as well as tales of her own imagining, the author herself pointed out in her introduction to the work that the title Oriental Tales is a bit misleading. Settings range from the Orient to Greece, Italy, and India, to name a few.

The themes, however, are universal- lost love, regret, transcendence, redemption, heroism- and the telling is of unparalleled quality. I have re-read this small book at least twice a dozen times and never has it failed to bestow some new gift of understanding or beauty.

Este libro ha sido recomendado desde hace mucho tiempo para personas que como yo practicamos la magia blanca, el libro contiene poderosas "recetas" que las he comprobado yo y mucha gente que ha encontrado este libro como todo lo "magico" la fe es muy poderosa, el libro es una buena guia para practicar magia blanca.

need english version pleas

This book was very informative, of both Renoir's life as well as his art. I enjoyed reading it thoroughly and would recommend it to any art lovers.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir was an artist in the fullest sense of the word. The paintings he left us show us the simplicity and sensuality of his times and their brilliant colors and joyous images express the passion of Renoir's own soul.

The paradise of color and the changing effects of light were Renoir's greatest gift to the world. This book, Renoir: The Crown Art Library, showcases some of the artist's most beloved works and gives a brief overview of his life.

A quick glance at this book tells you that Renoir's favorite subject was always people. In fact, it is possible to select an entire series of masterpieces from Renoir's works without including even one landscape--something that would be impossible with any of the other Impressionists.

The people created by Renoir are always filled with the warm joy of simply being alive. Of the many illustrations in this book, most are in color, allowing us to both study and participate in the "joie de vivre" that Renoir, more than any other artist, communicated to the world.

There is a short analysis of the evolution of Renoir's technique and we learn why he abandoned the dark, sombre colors of the Old Masters and turned to the brilliant reds, blues, yellows and greens of which he was so fond.

We learn how and why the feminine form became a stronger and stronger element in his paintings, especially those of his later years, and we see how, in the last ten years of his life, he limited his palette to only a few colors--cinnabar, ochre, Naples yellow, black and some white, yet managed to create playful visions of a sun-bright world, seemingly devoid of weight; paintings in which contours of people and surroundings are blurred and all is joined in a concord of color and naturalness.

Renoir: The Crown Art Library is a wonderful introduction to the life and style of this master Impressionist, the world's most joyous painter. Those looking for a biography of Renoir would be better off choosing Renoir, My Father, by Jean Renoir, the artist's middle son. In-depth analyses of Impressionism and Renoir's own technique in particular, are also better covered in other books such as Rewald's History of Impressionism.

But for the vast majority of people, laymen who only want to increase their knowledge and appreciation of the world's greatest artists, Renoir: The Crown Art Library offers a wonderful starting point. With is lavish illustrations and lively text, it will broaden the scope of anyone's understanding. The book is a joy to browse and once insight is gained into the how and why of each painting, that joy is only increased.

While certainly far from exhaustive, Renoir: The Crown Art Library, is a lovely book and anyone with even a passing interest in Renoir and Impressionism will find it well worth their while.

This books is good for several reasons. First its packaged with Caldera OpenLinux 1.3 (and includes the KDE Desktop and Star Office 4.0). Second, it is well thought out. I liked the idea of starting with Xwindows and KDE then working into the shell. The other books that I read started right into the Linux shell -- which, I suppose, is fine for those coming over to Linux from UNIX but a bit "geeky" for those of us who are moving over from DOS/Windows. The author can communicate and he's found the right balance between the extremes of techno-babble and talking down to his readers. I think the KDE Desktop is going to make a lot converts to Linux from the Windows world and I think Mr. Ricart's _The Complete Idiot's Guide to Linux_ is to be one of the main 'textbooks' in this conversion process. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to get started in Linux and especially for those moving over from Windows 95 and NT.

May I congratulate the author on an excellent book. I bought the book 4 days ago. I haven't had so much fun/enjoyment with a book and its acccompanying CD before. The X Windows KDE graphical interace and the explanations are both excellent. A great beginners book and very good value for money.

It is possible to sit down at your PC and have a Linux system with a Windows graphical interface in a few hours. The author's explanations are concise and the book's graphics are most helpful. The book covers both Linux in a Graphical Environment and working at the command line. A great introduction for a computer user looking for an alternative to Microsoft Windows or looking to find out about Linux.

Any book that is titled "The Complete Idiots Guide" will certainly not be exhaustive in all that can be known on the given topic. However, this book is a great beginner's guide. The author is well aware that his audience may not be experts' in Linux or Unix and caters to them just fine. I certainly do not know Unix, yet I found myself up and running productively in a reasonably short period of time. Caldera's 1.3 version of Linux which comes with the book installed with little trouble and the KDE GUI interface will be no problem to anybody familiar with Windows. This book and Caldera's version of Linux gets two thumbs up!

I was told that Mistry's other novel, "A Fine Balance" is a far better book than "Such A Long Journey". If so, I'm looking foward to reading that one, because I thoroughly enjoyed "Such A Long Journey".

I novel centres on the Mumbai Parsi, Gustad Noble. He and his family have seen better days and are now struggling to get by in 1970s Mumbai. Gustad becomes involved with a scheme run by the mysterious Jimmy Bilimoria - what is the meaning of this, and how will it turn out?

Apart from this mystery, the main delight of the novel is how Mistry weaves the central plot into a kaleidoscope of descriptions of life in Mumbai. I have Parsi friends, so I was not completely at sea with the descriptions Mistry uses. Yet, his account of the Parsi funeral ceremony culminating at the Tower of Silence was both moving and intriguing (for those not familiar with Parsi funeral rights, it's scarcely believable, but nonetheless true).

It was Sartre, I think, who said that "hell is other people". Mistry doesn't go as far as that, but he does give the impression of an India teeming with life, full of people invading each others' space. As such, coping with this becomes a daily chore - others are both invasive of privacy and frequently unreliable when you depend on them. And yet, that is only part of being human - for all their faults, most if not all people have redeeming characteristics.

Recommended.

Mistry is a modern author whose writing compares to author's of "the Great Books". Such a Long Journey gives a stunning idea of life during Indira Gandhi's reign. Besides the cultural lesson on India you receive from reading this book, you also come away with the struggles of loyalty a man faces with friendship and family. This book is not as engaging as A Fine Balance, but a wonderful read nonetheless.

Not as tragic or as huge in scope as A Fine Balance, this book chronicles the life and struggles of a middle-class Parsi family in Bombay with all the detail and delicacy that Mistry is capable of.

Like A Fine Balance, though, it shares an underlying critique of the corruption of Indira Gandhi's regime which is just scathing, and is essential reading even for those who know little else about modern Indian politics.

This book was in a way, my first introduction to shamanism. Although quite familiar with the works of Carlos Castaneda, it was only after reading this book that I realized that the type of 'sorcery' described by Castaneda is at its essence, a form of shamanism.

Dr. Villoldo's writing style is engaging and reflects an inner elegance and sobriety. He has learned much and has much to teach us. His training as an Anthropologist in the Western world coupled with his extensive training with Incan shamans allows him to convey and adapt ancient teachings in to a form that is compatible with the mind-set and lifestyle of the modern day person. In addition, the book provides practical exercises that one can use to begin one's own personal journey on a Path of Knowledge. I recommend this book to anyone with a true interest in shamanism.

Also recommended: 'The Chakras'(Patricia Mercier), 'The Path' (Esmeralda Arana)

I've read Dr. Villoldo's other books and this one is his best yet. It is very easy to read and clearly describes the energy medicine of the Inca: how it works, how to use it, and provides simple exercises to experience the reality of energy medicine. I have been studying the medicine wheel tradition with Alberto and have found that there truly does exist a world of energy connections and interactions that are largely invisible to most of us. Invisible because we have learned how not to see or experience them. But these connections, from our own luminous bodies to every other being out there, are valuable in learning to shape our own lives. We can learn how to live more deliberately on this earth. There is great personal experience and power (over our own destinies, not over others) available to us if only we learn to 'see' it. Alberto clearly and concisely describes his own interpretations of this very ancient tradition. I highly recommend this book for all healers and for those interested in the mysteries of life.

In SHAMAN, HEALER, SAGE, Alberto Villoldo spells out practices for personal and collective transformation of consciousness. The techniques elaborated are his own synthesis and interpretation of ancient healing practices. He strongly emphasizes that they must be employed with the highest code of ethics and integrity. What can heal can also hurt. Therefore, much of shamanic training is dedicated to developing ethics and values grounded upon a deep reverence for all life. To Villoldo's mind, energy healing from someone with inadequate training is basically black magic, regardless of one's good intentions.

Shamanic energy healing is not about rules or ideas. It is about vision and spirit - about realizing our luminous nature in infinity. It is about being caretakers of the Earth - speaking with thundering rivers, whispering mountains, and hearing the voice of God in the wind. In the world of the shaman, there are no divisions between mind, spirit, and matter. There is nothing to transcend and nothing in need of yoking. Said his teacher, Don Antonio, "We are luminous beings on a journey to the stars."

As Villoldo portrays it, the Illumination Process of the shaman is a direct interaction with the forces of Spirit. It allows us to taste infinity and renew ourselves from the source that animates and informs all life. In experiencing infinity, the illusions of old age, disease, and death are shattered. Every cell in our body is informed and renewed. Our immune system is unfettered, healing is accelerated, miracles and spontaneous remissions become common occurrences.

According to Villoldo, The Luminous Energy Field contains an archive of our personal and ancestral memories. That informs the chakras which organize our physical and emotional world. Erasing negative imprints in the Luminous Field enable the immune system to efficiently eradicate an illness. Amazon shamans believe that when all the chakras are cleared, one acquires a "rainbow body." One can visit the spirit world and die consciously because one knows the way home. One is not stalked by death, but claimed by life.

In the shamanic view, the four survival instincts - fear, feeding, fighting, and sex - are mirrored in the first two chakras. An unbalanced first chakra manifests as feelings of scarcity. When cleared, we know with every cell of our body that we are cared for and sustained by the universe. The second chakra has the capacity to digest negative emotions and expel them as waste. The tool of the third chakra is visualization. Balancing the third chakra improves the surrounding world since, according to the shaman, we dream our world into being. The nature of the fourth chakra, the heart, is impersonal love. The fifth chakra, the throat, gives voice to the feelings of the heart. In the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth chakras, development becomes transpersonal as we explore ever more subtle domains. We master death, time, invisibility, and the ability to keep a secret. It is said that all the desires of one with an awakened third eye come true. Therefore, a number of healers holding the same vision can manifest its truth for the planet.

To develop the shaman's way of seeing, we need to see with the eyes of the mind and the heart. Villoldo gives visualization meditations as to how to develop and strengthen those connections. The result is primary, direct, immediate, multisensory perception (synesthesia). The seer learns to track the origin of illness across time by finding the wounded "face" of the patient. Once it appears, it will reveal its story.

Before healing, the shaman summons the organizing principles of the Universe and aligns himself with them. He invokes a sacred space for healing and maintains it through the purity of his intent. That protects him from absorbing negative energies. After completing his work, he closes the sacred space so that it will not become contaminated. Otherwise, the forces of nature would no longer respond to his call. Villoldo says that he has seen healers who neglected to close their own sacred space absorb toxic energies from their client and become ill themselves.

Villoldo gives detailed steps for the Illumination Process of energy healing. It works by combusting and digesting toxic wastes that obstruct chakras and fuel imprints. Clear light is employed to overwrite information contained in the blueprint to prevent reorganization of the disease. Thus, the Illumination Process integrates and transforms emotional wounds into sources of knowledge and wisdom.

According to Villoldo, every form of energy has consciousness and frequency of vibration. Just as the brain has receptor sites for specific chemicals, we have receptor sites for specific energies. Villoldo cautions his students that negative energies are attracted to those with whom they share an affinity. Students may be drawn to work with those having similar psychological issues. In that case, an afflicted energy might change hosts -- passing from the patient to the healer.

According to Inka prophecy, we are now in a period of great chaos and upheaval. It will last until the year 2012, when "the paradigm of looting and pillaging the Earth brought by European civilization will end and the ways of the Earth peoples will make a comeback. The conquistador will perish by his own blade." The Inkas speak about a new human, Homo Luminous, being born - a being connected by luminous threads spanning across time, anchored in infinity. Says Villoldo, "We are that new human. Our question no longer is can we make a quantum leap into who we are becoming, but rather dare we do so."

In that dynamic, courageous vision, SHAMAN, HEALER, SAGE offers great hope and promise for our world -- for the individual and collective transformation of consciousness necessary to heal our planet. It inspires and encourages us to realize our luminous nature in infinity -- in the birth of a new humanity in harmony with the forces of nature, at one with all life, and at peace with the world.