The book The Gold of Dreams by Jose Maria Marino is an enchanting tale about a young Mexican boy who goes on a treasure hunt with his godfather and an old family friend. The book was quite good except for the fact that the book started out fairly slowly. During the boy's journey, the purpose was to find treasure. The purpose soon became to survive...
I would recommend this book because it is exceptionally exciting towards the middle of the book. The different characters are explained with great detail and are extremely realistic. Take Miguel, for instance. He is a fifteen year-old boy and the decisions and thoughts he comes up with resemble those of an average 15 year-old. There is nothing that is obviously unbelievable. The different events have a lot of action (in the middle) so the reader wants to continue. Another reason this book is well written is because the characters all have unique stories of their own. Miguel, for instance, has a missing father and has always wanted to know him. The characters seem to be carefully and realistically planned out and have little secrets that one might not notice from their first description. These are the little things that many people overlook but make this book what it is.
People might dislike this book because it starts out slowly and seems to be a boring book at first. The action starts towards the middle but this is usual for most books. This should definitely not be reason to stop someone from reading this book. The action at the end is definitely worth it. All of the parts come together to weave this book together. The reader gets to see what happens to all of the different characters, which you usually get very into. The end is clearly the best part of the book also because when one finds out what happens, they get a good feeling inside seeing how the characters progressed and developed from the beginning. Miguel learns many things about his different friends from the journey that he takes because they all have to work together to survive. This book is truly a very engrossing and informative book about the Mexican culture. I strongly advise the reader to read this book if you he/she is considering it.

The beginning of The Gold of Dreams by Jose Maria Merino was slow but after the story progresses it becomes more intriguing. It is very realistic which would be hard for the author because the story does not take place in modern times. It is about 15 year old Miguel, son of a Conquistador, who goes to an adventure to find gold in South Mexico with his godfather and companions. During their trip they fight Indians, battle a giant squid, search for gold, pearls and other treasures and Miguel learns the truth of some surprising things. I would recommend this book even though it is a historical book it is exciting, parts of the book keep you reading. The main character Miguel learns a lot about his life and some of the truth about his friend Juan, his father, and the friar. The two cultures he has, the Christian from his father and the Indian from his mother's side, confuse him. You understand much more about the times around the Spanish Conquistadors. I can see why some people might not like this book and I agree with them. Many parts were either dull or exciting. Also some parts were so detailing that it was disgusting. Sometimes, since it is a Spanish translation, they used many Spanish words without a glossary to explain them which made parts confusing. Everything seems to revolve around Miguel so much that it would not be realistic but it is a book and it does what it has to to keep the reader interested, which it does.

Two men and two women, all mentally ill, meet in a desolate French convalescent hotel and become their own tiny insular society. They spend much of the book engaging in conversations and semierotic acts which seem utterly pregnant with meaning despite lacking any sort of meaningful foundation whatsoever. This book is built around a whirling nihilistic emptiness which grows more and more pronounced as it proceeds. In the final pages the void roars in every word. Minimal, terrifying.

The interview with Duras that constitutes the second half of the book ranges from the provocative to the opaque.

The New Portuguese Letters written by the Three Marias is based on a volume of 17th century letters, supposedly written by a young Portuguese girl, Mariana Alcoforado, whose father placed her in a religious convent when she was sixteen. When she was 25, she had a love affair with a young French officer who, subsequently, abandoned her and returned to his country; he later became a Marshall of France. Her five love letters to him were published in France.

TheThree Marias have written letters between the nun and her former lover. In addition to those, they have created/invented poems, letters, essays to, by, and between a multitude of characters whose lives, directly or indirectly, through the generations have touched Mariana's.

The writing is , by turn, lyrical, haunting, heart-breaking, sensuous, condemning of the male-dominated society and begging to be read. The voices of women are being heard: a daughter who is [seduced] by her father; a mother who rejects the daughter she bears after being impregnated by a man other than her husband; a woman whose husband leaves for the New World and never sends for her; a daughter forced to marry a man she does not love; a dowry-less daughter exiled to a convent and condemned to a celibate life; women who are raped, actually and symbolically, by their husbands.

The letters, essays, poems reflect not just women in the 17th century, not just in Portugal, but today and in countries all over the world. The Three Marias speak for all women who have been or who are silenced... Although I enjoyed the book and recommend it highly, I gave the book a "4" rating because I found the poems difficult to understand.)

I've found it a pleasure for reading and, what is more, very interesting and useful for my work.

Some of the sites are informative -- for instance, if you are doing academic or "serious" research, the search engines, etc. provided are great. But as far as real "spy" stuff, there's not much new between the covers here.

The title should be: "The Best Places to Spend Your Money on a Whim, and Lordy, I Hope You Got Time". Lane's book is well-written, researched, and simple to understand. It covers an enormous number of topics and is actually quite useful--IF, and yes, that's a capital IF, you wish to find things as a way of making money or starting a business. The book gives you many ideas and starting points, but it, and it's official review are somewhat misleading. There is plenty of info about where to find minor stuff (geneaology, search engines, et cetera) on the 'net, but most of the good stuff (credit reports, skip tracing, legal records, criminal records, et cetera) requires you to sign up and PAY for things like Nexis-Lexis, Knight-Ridder Databases, and Dun and Bradstreet, depending on what you would like to find. For a corporation that needs these information constantly, or someone trying to learn what is available, and where to look, "Naked" can be very informative. But for those of us who just want to find someone/thing once in a while, "Naked in Cyberspace" is not worth the money nor the time spent. Bought it--returned it. 'Nuff said

I'm referred to often by talk-show hosts as 'expert on personal safety and privacy', and yet - here is a resource that is an endless wealth of information on Web resources and a few tricks even I did not know.

I have to disagree with the 'yawn' offered by another reviewer - this book isn't aimed at professionals who have already been around the block, though they can still benefit to a degree. It's aimed at people who don't have the tools and skills already at hand. Further, the best part is that there is a well-maintained Web site that keeps all the links and information up to date - more like an insider's association membership than a book with respect to usefulness. That's a value to all, especially a professional who is too busy applying what he knows to continually research the narrow topic on their own.

I've even tracked down former intelligence community types using her advice. With a table of contents 20 pages long, its in there. While the book focuses on trying to help you find someone, it logically follows that if you are trying not to be found - knowing what you are up against and how it works can help you defeat the system.