A must-have for any student of Monet. Volumne I contains covers his biography proper, while volumes II-IV provide a COMPLETE record of the artist's body of work.

Wilderstein protrays Monet life for the most part as that of a debtor. However to his credit, he tempers the romantic "suffering artist" idealism with insight into Monet the creditor. By illustrating what a jackass the artist could also be, the author creates a deep and lively narrative.

Most of the personal insight into Monet come to us by way of coorespondance with Alice Hoeschede. Due to 'appearances' however she requested of Monet her letters be destroyed immediately and thus we're sadly left with a one-sided portrait of the man. While his artistic talents we're unparalled, it's his devotation to correspondance that allows Wildenstein to bring him back to life. Without giving away the ending, it's Monet's inability to write rather than paint that signals the end.

If you are in love with Claude Monet's Water Lily Pond paintings, this is the best book for an explanation as to their origins and where Monet found his inspiration. There is a photograph from 1926 showing the bridge covered with climbing plants.

The Japanese Bridge at Giverny, 1924 is just one of the outstanding paintings in a series of works devoted to the bridge that preoccupied Monet during his final years.

Monet loved his garden at Giverny with such a passion that one could say it bordered on obsession. Harmony in Green, The White Water Lilies, The Water Lily Pond are all explained in detail. There is even a picture of Monet photographed in his beloved garden in 1917.

In every life there is beauty and sadness. The beauty of the water lilies contrasts with the pain Monet felt when he painted Camille on her death bed.

When Monet's wife died, she not only left him without a companion, he then had small children depending on him. He spent most of his meager earnings on his wife's medical treatments and he was also deeply depressed and alone.

This type of revealing information makes him so very human and the paintings then contain a certain depth when these secrets are revealed.

I loved this book! The pictures were wonderful and the readings that went with them were as well. Learned many things that I did not know about his artwork. VERY informative...give it a try, it would make a great gift book!

I was given the whole Cienfuegos series (six books in total) as a Xmas present and I didn't stop until I read all of them. The plot is full of action and attractive characters and you learn a lot of History as you enjoy it. Vazquez Figueroa takes you on board the Santa Maria to discover the New World and feeds you with lots of true information about those first and critical years of conquest and colonization. I have not read other books by this author, but I am sure I will in the future. One thing I don't like, though, is the poor literary quality of the text (in the Spanish version). Sometimes you wonder how some of the more obvious mistakes went past all editing controls. Other than that, a wonderful read.

I haven't actually read Cienfuegos - yet. However, I purchased Caribes via the internet purely because I had been recommended the author and did not realize until I received it that it was the second of a series. Today I was looking for the third in the series - Azabache as I simply have to find out what happens to Cienfuegos next! Caribes is the first spanish book I have read cover to cover and I can't wait to get hold of the next . Great characterization. Vasquez - Figueroa certainly has a vivid imagination which constantly surprises you while instilling a sense of history about the conquest of the New World. Please, please please can Amazon get in ALL of the books in this series as well as Tuareg and Yaiza which I have also been highly recommended (untranslated)

Cienfuegos is yet again another fantastic book from this Canarian author.

I taught myself Spanish translating a book by Alberto Vazquez Figueroa - Iguana, and as yet haven't managed to put one of his books down. The Yaiza trilogy was completely unmissable (especially as I was in the Canary Islands when I read them), Sicaro, Tierra Virgen, Ebano, Marfil, and as for Tuareg.......WOW!

This author has also invented a fully functioning system for purifying salt water into drinking water and deserves recognition beyond the soil of Spain for his achievements, plus support to finance the solution to one of the most acute problems on this planet - drought and the human misery and suffering it causes.

As far as I know Plaza and Janes have not translated all of his books into English and I wish they would. Then his work could reach a much larger audience, all of whom would surely benefit from his breathtaking writing, astute observations of the world and its people, the emotional roller coaster he is able to create with his words, and his experience from his time travelling as a journalist.

I am translating Tuareg for some friends as they are desperate to read it.

I know that one book - Ebano - was turned into a film with Michael Caine (Ashanti) but all these books deserve a far wider readership than they currently have.

My opinion: if you find a book or anything written by this man, read it. I learnt his language so that I could read his work and have never regretted a moment of it.

Gracias, Alberto. Y más libros, por favor!

If so she succeeded, because "Man Flies" certainly reads like one. It's not just that her cloyingly cute and vaguely condescending writing style would quickly become grating on any reader much past adolescence. Winters accomplishes the incredible feat of making a deeply moving and compelling true story seem almost tedious with an analysis which seldom rises above the comic-book level. And her research is really no better than her writing. Her arrogant claim that she was the one to "uncover the story of Alberto Santos-Dumont" is an insult to all serious students of aviation history, who are not only quite familiar with Alberto but can easily spot the sloppy inaccuracies in this book.[i.e., Winters' flatly stating that Santos-Dumont was the first to achieve powered, steered lighter-than-air flight. He wasn't; others beat him to it by over a decade.] But the most compelling question about Alberto is this: how could a man once almost universally hailed as the father of flight [the very first newspaper story about the Wright brothers was headlined "Local boys emulate the great Santos-Dumont"!] be so generally forgotten today? It is a question Winters barely even mentions, much less answers. Alberto deserves so much better a biography than this. In fact, he got one: "Santos-Dumont: A Study in Obsession" by Peter Wykeham. [Now out of print, but well worth looking for.]

Like the previous reviewer, I agree that the writing is simple and there is a lack of depth in the presentation. However, unlike the previous reviewer, I don't believe that that spoils the project. This little volume was meant as a general intro to a subject with many chapters and even more footnotes. For readers with just a passing interest, this will be sufficient information. For others, it will whet their appetites (a short bibliography is included). Either way, there is no denying that this little book is very handsomely produced and a delight to behold. The many vintage photos and illustrations are outstanding - they compensate nicely for the sparse text . If you only read books found in univeristy libraries, this project will probably disappoint. But if you like smartly produced picture books and the story of early flight is of interest to you, you will be happy to have Ms Winter's work. At a mere 5 in. X 8 in., this little volume travels well, too.

I have just read the book, and it's great. It's really well written, and even if it doesn't go too deep (and I believe that was never Mrs. Winters' goal with this project), it goes deep enough to raise a few eyebrows, and make us wonder: how come the real inventor of the airplane can be almost forgotten nowadays?
After all, his vehicle, the 14-bis, unlike the Wright Brothers Flyer, could fly by its own means...

Es un buen recorrido por el estado del arte (antes de 2000) en cuanto al VIR. Recomendado para iniciarte y sobre todo para estudiantes de ingeniería informática que quieran adentrarse en la recuperación de información multimedia. Para los estudiantes de doctorado es excelente porque para mi lo mejor es la ingesta cantidad de referencias bibliográficas y documentales que contiene cada capítulo.

There are only two books which cover the
principles of this area. Other books such
as conference proceedings require the user
to already be an expert.

The other book by Prof. Lew is best at covering
the state of the art and is appropriate for
the graduate student level.

Prof. Del Bimbo's book gives a better introduction to
the subject and is most appropriate for the
undergraduate level.

- John

This book is intended for graduate students. Particularly, researchers trying to develop VIRS. The book provides many good references for further reading. I hope that in the future, book like this will be in large amount, each explaining different/ specific area in depth. Basically, you want to get several ideas in developing your system with the most updated information. I`m quite satisfy for the time being. This book is definitely worth to buy!

Like Vignettes 2, I wish this was bigger. The book is small and that is the only reason it didn't get the full 5 stars. None of the artwork is repeated on the 2 VIGNETTE books so get them both. Vargas is my favorite artist and this book shows a lot of examples of his WWII era art. A lot of these pin-ups also appeared on the WWII bombers. There are about 30 works represented and they are all beautiful.

The book has a nice set-up as the pinups are printed nicely with good color reproduction. I use them as reference for painting nose art on A-2 flight jackets and the quality really allows me to get some really nice detail for my purposes.

At $10 it is worth getting but I would also recommend VARGA by Robothman which is a lot bigger format so it really allows you to fully appreciate the art with the bigger format. Also, check out THE GREAT AMERICAN PIN-UP as that has a lot of pin-up artists represented and shows the rich history of Pin-Up art

I wish this was bigger. The book is small and that is the only reason it didn't get the full 5 stars. Vargas is my favorite artist and this book shows a lot of examples of his WWII era art. A lot of these pin-ups also appeared on the WWII bombers. There are about 30 works represented and they are all beautiful.

The book has a nice set-up as the pinups are printed nicely with good color reproduction. I use them as reference for painting nose art on A-2 flight jackets and the quality really allows me to get some really nice detail for my purposes. ....

I came across pin-ups during my studies in history in college. And that's where I fell in love with Vargas' Women. Never before had I feasted my eyes on such beauty and innocence which he had the ability to create. "The Esquire Years, (Vignettes)is a beautiful book depicting most of his works. I've never seen a more complete collection of Vargs' work ever before printed. The one problem I had was the extremely small size of the book. I had hoped that this book would be much larger, at least 8X11". If the size was somewhat larger I would've enjoyed this beautifully done book much more. In this situation size does matter when it is a Vargas!

For anyone interested in central or south american beliefs or mysticism, this book will be an absolutely wonderful read. As with any book of this nature, the first question is: how authentic is this person? Can we believe what they have written about, or is it a work of fiction? The only way that I've been able to pass that judgement is simply through the feeling of whether the prose evokes authenticity. This book (and their other book, Island of the Sun) create images which are a wonder to experience, and take you on a journey which sweeps you right into the author's shoes. I enjoyed every minute of the book and have recommended it to many folks.

This book is a must read for anyone seeking a greater understanding of the world, within and without. Particulary for a social scientist. This is a text book for other viewpoints, seperate from what can be found in a Noth American psychology text book about understanding our relationship to the world and our place in it.

This is one of the best book I've read. It's so vivid. So mesmerizing. It really takes you on a journey. Reading this book is like actaully experiencing what the character in the book experience. It is one of the book that has a big impact on me and changed the way I see life and Nature. It's just a great book. I've read it two times and plan to read it again soon.

Frankly this book brought Sticky to new depths of sadness and depression as Adriana (the titular Woman of Rome) abandoned all hope and care and sunk to prostitution and risotto. It is the latter which saddened Sticky the most, our protagonist creating ever more bland risottos with every turn of the page, and forsaking the sticky rice teachings of the kind Chinese laundry gentleman who ran the little laundry on the Via Di Consolazione.

A devastating read...

Moravia's elegant novel takes the familiar theme of unfulfilled dreams and invests it with quiet strength and descriptive authenticity. Months after reading "Woman in Rome," it is the voice of Adriana, the woman of the title, that lingers in my memory. By telling in the 1st person his story of a young woman whose beauty, poverty, passivity and kindness lead her to prostitution and abandonment, the author shows us how such a fall from hope and grace is a gradual, imperceptible process, one day after the next. Moravia writes in a deceptively simple style that keeps the reader close to his heroine's actions, so that her losses become our own. Near the end of the novel there is an astonishing paragraph, in which the narrator imagines herself drowning. This heartbreaking paragraph encapsulates the downward pull of the entire book, the longing for oblivion in the face of lost dreams. It is too long to quote in full, but here are some excerpts. (Note, too, the beautiful translation.)

"I obeyed and he undressed in the dark and got into bed beside me. I turned toward him to embrace him, but he pushed me away wordlessly and curled himself up on the edge of the bed with his back to me. This gesture filled me with bitterness and I, too, hunched myself up, waiting for sleep with a widowed spirit. But I began to think about the sea again and was overcome by the longing to drown myself. I imagined it would only be a moment's suffering, and then my lifeless body would float from wave to wave beneath the sky for ages. [...] At last I would sink to the bottom, would be dragged head downward toward some icy blue current that would carry me along the sea for months and years among submarine rocks, fish, and seaweed, and floods of limpid seawater would wash my forehead, my breast, my belly, my legs, slowly wearing away my flesh, smoothing and refining me continually. And at last some wave, someday, would cast me up on some beach, nothing but a handful of fragile, white bones [...] a little heap of bones, without human shape, among the clean stones of a shore."

Alberto Moravia was a leading mid-Twentieth Century Italian novelist and short story writer. Although his works were quickly translated into English, they were little read in the United States. Fortunately for interested readers, many of his books are now in print again and accessible, including his 1949 novel, The Woman of Rome.

This is a story of Adriana, a beautiful, poor, and uneducated young woman who begins as an artist's model at the age of 16. Although she dreams of a quiet, modest home with a loving husband and children, she becomes both a prostitute and a thief. As a prostitute, she is involved with a number of men with competing ideologies and interests including Astarita, a Fascist chief of police, Giacomo, a student revolutionary against the Fascists and Sozmogo, a criminal and a thug.

The story is told in the first person. Adriana is always on stage and the character of highest interest. The reader gets to know her well. The book is told in a linear, easy-to-follow style which builds to a large cresendo, for me, at the end of the first part. The second part of the book loses slightly in dramatic intensity and in construction.

As with any work of depth, this book functions on a number of levels which reject easy paraphrase or simple meaning. Many readers see the book as a picture of corruption in Rome while others see it more as the story of Adriana. I am more inclined to the second view. As far as I can tell, however, there is a strong spiritual theme in the book which sometimes gets too little emphasis in the pull of conflicting readings.

There are no less than four pivotal scenes in The Woman of Rome set in a church. Although the book is replete with sex, violence and raw brutality, it is also highly internalized. Many of its most effective moments are those in which Adriana relects (in church or out) on her life and on the course it has taken.

The German philosopher Frederich Nietxche (Adriana does not mention and would not have known of him) used the phrase "amor fati" to describe the wise person's attitude towards life. The phrase means loving one's destiny or, to use another related Nietschean phrase, "becoming who one is". The specific facts of one's life may be determined by circumstance. What is not determined is one's attitude. A person can understand his or her life and accept it joyfully, regardless of its state. It is in the acceptance and understanding that choice resides and that gives life its value and dignity.

The novel shows the attempt of a poor, but intelligent woman to find "amor fati" and to become who she is. She struggles to accept her nature and her being as a prostitute. Many of Adriana's reflections in the church are quite explicit and insightful. Adriana, alas, is no more successful than are most people in staying with her insight into herself. That, in my opinion, is the tragedy of the story which leads to the downfall of the men involved with Adriana.

The spiritual tone of the book goes well beyond Nietsche. Together with the theme of amor fati, there is a religiosity that emphasises, in the context of Western theology, God as merciful and as all-forgiving rather than God as a moralizer or judge. This God -- or self-understanding is open to all regardless of creed or station. The religion that seems to be espoused in the book recognizes the sinful, fallen nature of people and their frequent inability to change. It seems to suggest the possiblity of atonement and forgiveness offered to everyone by a turning of the heart, even if, perhaps, behavior cannot be changed. It is a powerful picture of a God of mercy and forgiveness who holds the possiblity of love out to all.

This is a first-rate or nearly first-rate Twentieth Century novel.

OK. first than anything, i got to say that Alberto (the author), have an exelent style on his writing and you can see it on Bad vibes, and if you know spanish, you also can read Bad vibes on this idiom. The name of the book?... MALA ONDA.

When i say that Alberto Fuguet have an exelent narrative, if you want to, i mean that he writes as he wants, not following any rules of the chilean literature, and that is something cool for the young people of this country, and my opinion is based on my own experience as a chilean teenager reading somebody that speaks as any person of my age, making the book easy to understand. I also think that the idea to edit the book for the "gringos" was cool 'cause it deserves it, i mean that the message in the book, as i see it, is an x-ray of the damn culture of those years here, in chile, and gives you an idea of somebody like Matìas Vicuña, trying to live a complicated life, doing it in the wrong way sometimes but giving that perfect example for the people that read Bad vives to make a meditation of his own life. that is my vision, that is the main idea of my comment, not forgeting to tell'ya that this book is very fun too. Read it, if you are not chilean, it will be a lot better, if you look to expand your vision of the world, the life, the people...i don`t know. Bye.

Im a chilean project writer and I must say that the first novel of Fuguet is better than all the boring literature that I had to read at school. With a great slang language, full of typical idioms, this book is a great company for every moment, a book that Me and my friends revisit every time to laugh, to meditate or just to ebjoy with the dialogs. Inmerse in the false boom of the early 80s, full of drugs and desperation, Matias Vicuña reaches his limit in a city with the world record of mental illness: Santiago de Chile. To my point of view, it is the first step of literature aparted from the mainstream and that talks to topics that most chilean youth lives every day. Unfair in the treatment of Pinochet goverment, the left-handed ideas of Fuguet cannot destroy the main value of the novel: a simply and caotic story, a mirror of a very strange latin society and a particular political moment. (This book is also recommended now in many schools here, in Chile, for Literature classes) END

I lived in Chile two years ago and the book everybody was reading was Alberto Fuguet's MALA ONDA or Bad Vibes. I'm so excited i's finally coming out in English. It's a very cool, contemporary politcal story told by this rich kid who hates disco music, dances during the curfew, hangs out with surfers, snorts his dad's coke and reads american books and magazines. Bad Vibes is a fresh hurrican to come out of the typical magical realistic Southamerican landscape. This book is hip, real, funny and emotionally compelling. It's quite american and, on the other hand, it's so chilean. It's wierd how a dictatorship can affect a teenager's view. Matías Vicuña (the narrator) is still a teenage though, no matter what he sees. He just has to cope. I really recommend it. Ralph Anderson, Tucson, AZ

It's sad that one of the greatest distance runners of his generation has lent his name to a book that purports to require a couple of hundred pages to transform people into 12-15 mile per week fitness joggers.

Here's how to do it in 150 words, instead of 50,000:

(1) Buy appropriate running shoes from a running store (they'll tell you what's appropriate for you).

(2) Go outside and walk/jog for 15 minutes, or until you are really tired, whichever comes first.

(3) Repeat step (2) three to five times per week, increasing both the percentage of time you are jogging rather than walking, and the total time spent moving briskly, until you reach a point where you are jogging for at least 30 minutes without walking or stopping. Reaching this stage will take some people a few days and others several weeks. (Salazar recommends taking 52 weeks to reach this level, which is absurd).

That's all there is to it -- really. You don't need to pay a former world class marathoner for this information.

This is a superb book for beginners. Anyone who questions its "slow and easy" approach has never watched friends take on fitness programs with great enthusiasm, only to get hurt or lose interest a couple of months later. This book's number one goal is to keep that from happening by setting goals that Salazar describes as "so easy that you'll always be wanting more." It gains credibility coming from Salazar, who was renowned for his grueling training schedules. My guess is that a lot higher fraction of people who listen to him will be running a year from now than of those who risk an accelerated program not suitable for untrained beginners. The book is also loaded with answers to questions that beginners ask all the time, including many that will apply to beginning racers. If you've been running for a year or two, you may already know most of the answers, but in those first few months it's all new, and this book covers the ground nicely, in a pleasant, easy-to-read style. It's also loaded with entertaining a necdotes. Did you know that Salazar once ran several miles of a marathon with a side stitch so bad it hurt for weeks afterward? No wonder he had what it took to win! Also fun is the fact that Salazar shares the stage with his co-author, giving the book a mix of world-class and "average runner" perspectives. It's an unusual approach that works nicely, because the co-author can write from experience about issues that front-running Salazar never had to face. Bottom line: if you've been sedentary for a few years and are wanting to do something about it, this is your book. If you've been running for a few years (as I have), it's a great gift for that friend who's thinking about starting an exercise program.

I have always heard (and observed) that runners have better endurance and overall fitness. I had tried jogging, mostly after dark, to try and get "up to speed" with other people in my biking club, but gave up after feeling faint. After reading this book, running doesn't seem as intimidating; I am gradually improving my cardiovascular fitness, so I can excel at the sports I love. The discussion about breathing, form, and stretching were especially helpful. The book was inspiring to me.

Me interesa mucho este libro. Estudio español en una universidad y lo usé para una presentación. Si sería usted un estudiante, que estudia español y se interesa la cultura chinana, se ayuda mucho, creo.

The stories in this book are refreshing and resonate with the experience of many latin americans who live or visit the U.S. Some of them are just plain good stories. It's great to hear from the new generation of "latin american" authors whose views of the U.S. (and life) are very different from those of the names we are used to reading and hearing from. What a great collection - especially for us generation X-ers!

He disfrutado mucho de esta antologia editada por dos magnificos escritores jovenes latinoamericanos. Gracias a esta recopilación he podido conocer a magníficos escritores de los que antes nunca escuche. No se pierdan el segundo o el tercer cuento: Pequeno diccionario del spanglish.