This is quite a good Spanish-language novel about how war changes people.

The characters, simple hill folk, are slowly but surely sucked up into the Mexican civil war rapidly becoming more and more callous toward the very people they are supposed to be representing.

They become the stuff of legend but along the way they betray every one of their ideals, falling in with murderous and deranged fellow-travellers until they finally become practically undistinguishable from the Federales they have set out to defeat.

"Los De Abajo" is rather vague on historical detail and there is practically no attempt to show the reader "the big picture" or the background to the war, but in a way, this doesn't really matter. This is a book about ALL wars. The powerful live off the powerless and the poor are murdered and downtrodden no matter who is in power.

It SOUNDS like a pretty good read, and it is. The only problem I have with this book is that I'd already read "One Hundred Years of Solitude" where the subject of war and the way it corrupts is given a much better treatment.

On the positive side, where "One Hundred Years" is concerned with the one character, "Los De Abajo" has a lot more "vignettes" showing the common people and their attitude toward the civil war. The writer also has a good ear for dialogue (although at times, the poorer characters are a bit hard to understand). The descriptions of the revolutionary armies, gaudy, barbaric and bloodthirsty but so very much alive are also quite good.

All in all, "Los De Abajo" is a good if somewhat bitter and depressing book which could have been better, but it's still well worth reading.

I do not agree with you teh review given by Vince Cabrera. First of all, although the Laberynth of Solitude is indeed a great book. I consider that Octavio Paz enhanced Los de Abajo. Tell me if I am wrong, but many folkloric characteristics of mexicans are brightly depicted in Los de Abajo. For instance, you may see that macho man behavior in every protagonist of the story; the fact that for many people the mexican revolution was a disoriented fight, and even the bad words that are used...
I think this is a very good book. However, I do not recommend it to everyone because understanding it, fully, requires a little bit of mexican cultural immersion to know more deeply what they are talking about. Oh yeah, and interest fact is that one of the protagonist of the story has a MANY similarities compared to Mariano Azuela, many people that this book was something lik eis autobiography. (although he does not explicitely says so)

More than a review this is a comment to those who wrote reviews before me.
First of all, this is NOT a history book. If you're interested in learning about the Mexican Revolution pick up a history book.
Second of all, you didn't get the point. It's not about the life of rural Mexico, or how people lived, or how they lost their ideals. It's about joining "la bola" the mass of people fighting for no particular reason. The "campesinos" didn't really join the fight because they believed they were getting land and freedom, they joined because they believed in their leaders, joining the fight for the love of their "jefe" or simply to join "la bola".
I'm sure many of you will disagree with me, and I'm sure there were exceptions to what I'm saying, but I'm only commenting on what Mariano Azuela was trying to get across; don't forget, Azuela fought in the war.

An avid reader, though not necessarily a fan of either the sci-fi or private-eye genres, I highly recommend this book for anyone looking for an enjoyable romp through the future. A future which includes the great lawyer purge (Are the authors visionaries??? Hey, wait, I'm a lawyer!), android exotic dancers, and supercomputers implanted in your brain. Sounds scary, but this book is funny, intelligent, and chock-full of action scenes that left me wondering how the heck one man can take so much punishment and keep up the good fight. Pick it up!

This book is not a typical detective fiction. ...This book is a detective fiction essentially designed to pick on every aspect of the whole detective fiction genera. So it's a book with ridiculous action, jokes on top of corny junks, and crazy idiotic characters all played up to be probably one of the world's funniest bashes on detective fiction. It's great fun and non-stop laughs.... Buy this if your looking for a joke book with a story-line.

Writing amusing science fiction must be difficult because so few authors are able to do so. John Zakour & Lawrence Ganem don't seem to have this problem. The Plutonium Blonde is both humorous and action-packed. In addition to some of the best witty banter I've had the opportunity to read, the story revolves around an engaging mystery. Highly recommended!

This book was such a pleasure to read with the most endearing characters ever. People on the subway must have thought I was strange when I was snickering to myself over this book. I just fell in love with Trim! Don't read this with the idea that everything will make perfect sense, let it take control of you and you will fall in love with the nonsensical writing in about 50 pages or so. As I was reading along, I just couldn't wait for Shandy to change the subject again, make more phallic references or tell another funny story.
I docked one star off because starting in volume seven some of the chapters really get off track (to the point where I didn't know what he was talking about at all) as if Sterne wasn't sure where he wanted to take the book at that point and the reader has to read his thoughts as he tries to sort it out. It soon gets back on track again and moves along nicely until the end (or was it?).

As an undergraduate English major, I was recently dragged through this book kicking and screaming. "There's nothing happening!" I kept arguing in vain. How wrong I was. Fortunately, my Professor saw the value in making me continue. This book continues the work that Shakespeare began in the English language and that Joyce would later undertake. All explore the human condition excellently, but none do it in as funny a way as Sterne. Within marbled and black pages, instructions to re-read chapters and descriptions of courtships as battles, we see not only Sterne going through the growing pains of being a novelist, but the novel itslef going through its own growing pains. Sterne helped to define the genre and created a scathing farce in the process.

Tristram Shandy has a cult following -- although few people have actually read it, most of us have read something directly influenced by it. Sterne was a creative genius, and pulled no punches when telling the story of Tristram Shandy, gentleman. Not only is this a shaggy-dog story, and a prototype for "experimental" writers like James Joyce and William Burroughs, but it is also a (remarkably early) meditation on the self-referentiality of literature, and the fine (nonexistent?) separation between a book's abstract textual form and its physical, material, paper-and-ink form. Like a good postmodernist, Sterne realizes you can't very well separate the two.

You didn't like this book? Well maybe Sterne didn't want you to like it. Maybe likeability should not be the primary project of a text. One of the meta-statements Sterne seems to be making is he has no respect for your time, nor your desire for narrative cohesion -- and why should he? Defiant, Sterne is. Very defiant. Cool.

After a more thorough review, I realize now that I gave this edition of the New American bible a rating which was too high. Really it should get 2 stars, perhaps 3 at best. A much better edition of the New American Bible would be the St. Joseph's Edition, Classic edition. The St. Joseph's Edition and the Catholic Study Bible have the same introductions and notes, except that the additional materials in the St. Joseph's Edition are better. The Catholic Study Bible's reading guides and the guide to the lectionary reflect current trends among some popular theologians, but do not do much to illuminate the Church's teachings. The material in these reading guides one can get out of a decent introduction to the Bible. In addition to the good introductions and decent notes of the New American Bible, the St. Joseph's Edition provides a bible dictionary, a biblical/doctrinal index with citations to key texts supporting Catholic doctrine, and helpful illustrations and maps. The St. Joseph's Edition also contains the text of the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation from Vatican II and a helpful guide to reading the Bible. I would say that the St. Joseph's Edition is, for the money, a much better buy and a safer guide to reading the Bible from an orthodox Catholic perspective.

I would like to retract the last 2 star review that I gave, it is somewhat excessive. I stand by my comments from the first review that I gave, and I would suggest that those interested in the Catholic Study Bible also consider purchasing the St. Joseph's Edition of the New American Bible instead. The Doctrinal Index and Dictionary are very helpful, while the information in the reading guides of the New American Bible can be obtained in an inexpensive introduction to the bible. The Catholic Study Bible is a fairly good edition of the Bible, unfortunately it lacks the excellent Doctrinal Index of the St. Joseph's Edition. Also, in some of the reading guides, there is perhaps, I slight tendency to overemphasis the distinction between the Bible as lived in the Church today and the bible in the history of the Tradition.

The beauty of this NAB is that it offers two services in one. First, it is a faithful translation of the ancient and ever-new inspired scriptures. This is the product of the finest Catholic Biblical scholars in the English-speaking world today. Secondly, it provides helpful footnotes and excellent introductory articles which offer readers an orientation to the Bible ingeneral, contemporary study and scholarly conclusions, as well as a sketch of the issues and background that concern each book of the Bible. I differ with the two other reviewers above in regard to this Bible. I believe it is not only for the serious scholar, but indeed can help the new Bible reader and the "average" reader appreciate the Scriptures more deeply. This version of the Bible can help support Catholic Christians, and Christians of any denomination by helping them to appreciate the important place of the Bible in their life of faith, and to incorparate this timeless wisdom into their everyay life more faithfully. I have found it helpful personally in my own study, and I always recommend it to people who ask what Bible they might purchase.

... As the Introduction makes clear, this book was written to chronicle the associations between the Titanic and the town and people of Southampton. ... it is a fascinating and detailed record of considerable interest to any true Titanic historian, (as opposed to someone whose knowledge of the ship is based entirely on that dreadful movie). ... This is a fine collection of anecdotes, letters and photographs, many of them not found in other books, and a fitting tribute to the 686 crew members who were residents of Southampton who died in the disaster.
Also recommended - The Odyssey of C.H. Lightholler by Patrick Stenson - the astonishing life story of Titanic's Second Officer.

Titanic Voices presents vivid accounts of the construction, victualing, sailing, and sinking of this virtually unsinkable ocean liner. An exhibit in Southhampton, England spurred the creation of this book, which utilizes period newspaper articles, oral histories, and many previously unpublished photographs to help people understand the personal significance of the disaster. A highlight is the inclusion of accounts of many crew members, who are often ignored in other volumes on the disaster

THIS BOOK IS FANTASTIC. IT STARTS IN 1907 WHEN IDEA OF THE "TITANIC" AROSE. IT DESCRIBES THE HARDSHIPS PEOPLE AND COMPANIES HAD TO GO THROUGH TO MAKE THE TITANIC FANTASY A REALITY. IT SHOWS IN-DEPTH PHOTOS OF THE TITANIC,PASSENGERS,CREW,WATERLOO STATION,ETC. THE BOOK ITSELF IS PUT TOGETHER SO BEAUTIFULLY. TRUST ME ON THIS ONE, BUY IT TODAY AND START YOUR OWN TITANIC LIBRARY.

The book had too many poor photos. They were often so blurry they could hardly be seen. The better pictures were all split in the crack of the book and the good quality photos were of nonsense.

Mr. Reynolds covers a wide range of territory and does a real service to the ballroom dancing community with this book. I found it to be very well-written and informative. I think this is especially good because it was not written by a dance instructor, but a musician with a sharp eye and a love for the human pageant. This is perhaps best suited for beginners, amateurs, and spectators since it is essentially non-technical, yet it's very explicit regarding why people dance and otherwise sacrifice their lives to it.

OK...if you are a professional ballroom dancer, maybe you will find flaws in this book. I've read your criticisms of this book in the Amazon reviews. But, to an amateur (like me) who has only had 25 lessons, I thought this book was thrilling! I loved the color photography of the dancers in their glitzy outfits. I loved learning about what goes on before and after a competition. I loved learning about the history of the dance steps and famous ballrooms. This book gives you a wonderful inside look at ballroom dancing and I recommend it. It also makes an excellent coffee table book. People who don't even do ballroom dancing are fascinated with it and enjoy talking about it. So there!

I just ordered a number of the Andrew Lang books from Amazon. The Blue Fairy Book arrived yesterday, and I could not have been more disappointed. It came in a very plain blue hardback. I opened it up, and NOWHERE inside is Andrew Lang mentioned, nowhere are any of the illustrations, from either of the two other versions I know. The production quality -- the paper, the binding -- is poor, and the "author" is listed throughout as "Anonymous." The publisher of this book is IndyPublish.com. I don't know the deal, or how they get listed under Andrew Lang, but I recommend that if you want a real Andrew Lang book, don't buy one of the IndyPublish books.

Andrew Lang's series of fairy-tale books are some of the fundamental children's reading of the twentieth and late nineteenth century. The stories are not "original": there's no such thing when they were almost without exception passed down orally; but they are in old, not very modernized tellings.

Many readers who have only seen or read modern, Disney-fied versions of Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty or Snow-White will not recognize some of the darker twists in these tales. For example, in Sleeping Beauty, when the Prince wakes the Princess and marries her, the story is by no means over. The Prince's mother is an Ogress, whom his father married for her wealth, and it's suspected that she likes to eat little children; that "whenever she saw little children passing by, she had all the difficulty in the world to avoid falling upon them". The happy couple have two children, named Day and Morning, and the Ogress decides to dine on them one day when the Prince is away. Yes, it still has a happy ending, but Disney it isn't.

The illustrations--8 full page, plus 130 smaller ones--are all from the original 1891 edition. They're black and white woodcuts; very atmospheric, and I think most children will like them.

The only thing that might have to be explained to a child is the occasional use of vocabulary that is no longer current. Most often this is the use of "thee" and "thou"; but a few other words will crop up. However, they're usually inferable from context, and the stories are marvellous entertainment regardless.

"The Blue Fairy Book" is amazing. I am planning to collect all of Andrew Lang's color fairy tale books. It has an excellent group of stories from different fairy tale writers, including Perrault, d'Aulnoy, and Grimm. This book was originally printed in the 19th century. It has not been abridged, nor have any of the original pictures been taken out. (Be warned, they're *artistic*) These are the original, unaltered by Disney versions, and contain the nightmarish plots they were meant to have. Anyone who collects fairy tales should have this.

The Fatal Knot is the only book that I could find that focused on the "guerillas" in the first guerilla war. This is particularly strange considering the importance of "guerilla" wars in South America and Africa, not to mention Vietnam. There were of course wars that contained non-regular soldiers, such as the wars against the Indians in North America, but this was the first war (or "little war," "guer-illa") that pitted regular, conscripted soldiers against irregular combatants. According to Carl Schmitt, it was one of the first cracks in the established rules of international law. The author does a good job of bringing out the most important points, and demonstrating the social basis of the support for the guerillas. He also shows why the virulence of guerilla wars is a function of the force of the regular army and not just of the "banditry" of the irregular combatants. (Interestingly, even during this war there were POWs). In many ways, this war was the first modern war, and it deserves more study than it has attracted so far. The author makes a good first step.

Disregarding the historiographic tradition associated with the guerillas of Navarre, John Lawrence Tone provides a much-needed social and economic analysis of the Spanish province in The Fatal Knot: The Guerilla War in Navarre and the Defeat of Napoleon in Spain. Tone's sophisticated approach and copious evidence give a clear picture of the motivations and influences of the Navarrese guerillas and the failures of the French from 1808-1813.

The first two chapters, what tone calls his "portrait of Navarre", provide the background necessary to understand the vigilance and success of the guerilla movement and its leaders. Contrasting the upper and lower regions of Navarre, Montana and Ribera, Tone is able to evaluate and pinpoint sources of rebel instigation. More explanatory passages are sprinkled throughout the narrative portion of the book, so the separation of social and narrative history is neither harsh to the reader nor boring. The final chapter, clearly defined as "Why Navarre Fought" sums up Tone's arguments for the success of the movement in Montana. The prevalence of private land ownership, a large percentage of nobility, and clerical poverty all contributed to the movement's social and economic background but the political autonomy the region enjoyed under the Spanish Monarchy was possibly the most important factor in instigating the guerilla wars.

Tone's arguments would have benefited from a comparison of the situation in Spain with that in the Kingdom of Naples. General Reynier, for example, was successful in defeating guerrillas in the similarly harsh territory of Calabria, yet he was unable to resist them in Navarre, further evidence of the importance of political sovereignty in Navarre. For now the Calabrian guerillas remain subject to the stereotypes once associated with the Navarese. (see Milton Finley, "The Most Monstrous of Wars")

I successively declare each Lawrence novel I encounter to be the best I've read, but in my opinion, "The Rainbow" is especially brilliant in its painstaking and accurate depiction of the universal experience of adolescence...and especially noteworthy in its spot-on description of the evolving feelings and thoughts of adolescent girls. Lawrence's feeling for and understanding of his female characters is astounding, particularly when compared with that of other writers of his time.

This work is sometimes criticized because of "repetitiveness" in the writing, but I find the repeated phrases add to, not detract from, the power of the novel. As in Lady Chatterley, he also manages to work in many brilliant and cutting observations of the price of progress in an industrial society, and document in careful, keen-eyed accuracy the varying responses of his characters--and, through them, archetypal human responses--to that society.

Make no mistake: I would not have read this book unless I was compelled by, say, a teacher. And compelled I was. After finishing it, I think it's a great book and I'm glad that I read it, but paradoxically, I don't think I would do it again.

The only way to describe "The Rainbow" is that it would be more of a masterpiece if you didn't have to read it. If there was somehow a method in which you could absorb this book without cutting through Lawrence's prose, this would be undoubtingly be one of the greatest books ever [not] written.

Unfortunately this is impossible, because the style is inextricably connected with the thematics and direction of the book as a whole. So we as the reader must deal with the prose, because the text is as close as the reader will ever get to the novel, although I think that one of Lawrence's central themes is that the text cannot itself represent life. Hence you have text that attempts to depict life, text that knows implicitly that it will fail at this task, yet text that will try as hard as it can to draw out this picture of three generations of a family.

In class we listed a few adjectives that would describe Lawrence's style for "The Rainbow":

+Repetitive
+Lyrical
+Oppositional
+Fecund
+Slow-motion
+Translated
+Intense

...and the list goes on. If you are very patient and can deal with the text beyond the text, so to speak, you will like this book. If you are like me, you will not like this book, but you will be glad that you read it.

Lawrence's fame (or notoriety) rests on his sexual frankness, but what a lot of readers overlook is how well he wrote about parent-child relationships and family dynamics. The beginning of this novel is absolutely brilliant: Tom Brangwen and the Polish widow marry in haste, then find that they still haven't worked out their relationship. Her young daughter is an uneasy third party, and the child's sensitivity to the unease in their household is beautifully described, as well as her stepfather's gentle efforts to befriend her. As Lawrence continues the family history, his usual obsessions surface. But in general, it's a good story: sex is an organic part of his characters' lives rather than the mainspring of the whole plot (as in some of his other novels). And the characters come across as multi-dimensional human beings rather than talking heads (or other organs) for Lawrence's comments on life. A good novel for people who "don't like D.H. Lawrence."

I am a vegetarian. I've read the book and found numerous errors. Some are little, some medium, some of the worst are omissions. I have read two reviews of this book that pan it. One in Environmental Ethics, the other in Ethics. I respect the author's intentions and respect him for them.

Though I've only read Chapter 4, "The Argument for Global Ecology," for an ecology class, I found it to be very eye-opening. It, and a supportive and like-minded friend, have convinced me to go mostly vegetarian. Hill uses clear writing, sobering facts, and a balanced perspective to make his case for environmental vegetarianism. The reason I gave it only 4 stars is because, while I haven't read the other chapters, I'm not generally convinced by animal rights or health reasons for vegetarianism. However, Chapter 4 alone changed my life.

This is the book that convinced me to become a vegetarian. The arguments are well-presented and the author addresses many important issues such as myths about vegetarianism.