I had the privilege and honor to be one of Professor Luis Martín's pupils at SMU a decade and a half ago. I recall his playful, excitable and gregarious personality, as well as his trademark lectures in which he typically juggled history, theology, poetry, sociology and hard-core Sevillian gossip!

Such is the trademark of his writing in "Daughters of the Conquistadores." Don Luis artfully stretches the imagination of the reader by plotting in occurences and tribulations of nuns, divorcees, concubines, "tapadas" and "beatas" in the colonial Peru of 1550-1800. In a most authentic and self-bred style, he narrates the mysteries and abuses taking place in convents and nunneries, haciendas and palaces; and underlines the influence of women in a society relentlessly dominated by "Don Juanism" and sternly regulated and probed by an over-zealous Catholic church.

A book tough to research and tougher to write, "Daughters of the Conquistadores" is fun to read, bare of profound insights and laden with satyrical, albeit tragic, anecdotes.

...so thst I may become dried tunny fish in the good Castilian air,where thoughts of a future were lost three and a half centuries ago,and the future is now nothing more than the prospect of decay,an oxhide spread out to dry with the mummifying flesh resembling dried tunny fish,and men like myself who become accustomed to eating dried tunny fish with a glass of wine,and prefer it to caviar,herring,or foie de gras from the Landes.How unfortunate are those of us not fitted for ecstasy!...And I'm like St.Lawrence,you know,that's who I am ,and you turn me over because I'm roasted on this side like the sardines,Lawrence,like the humble sardines,I'm roasted,the sun roasts,I'm being roasted dry.St.Lawrence was a man,he didn'y cry out,he lay there silently while the pagans roasted him over the fire,and history tells us that all he said was:"Turn me over,for I'm done on this side"...

With this ends Time of Silence by Luis Martin-Santos.Elements of Beckett,Antonio Lobo Antunes and Reinaldo Arenas and if you wish Malcolm Lowry...what more could you ask for.Unfortunately it is the only novel he wrote.

There is no intellectual exercise that is not ultimately pointless.
-Jorge Luis Borges

Borge's gnosticism--his sense that the ultimate God is beyond good and evil, and infinitely remote
from creation--is deeply felt. But the sense of dread that informs his work is metaphysical rather
than religious in nature : at its base are vertiginous glimpses of the collapse of all structures of
understanding including language itself, flashing intimations that the very self that speaks has no
real existence.
-J. M. Coetzee, Borge's Dark Mirror (NY Review of Books)

A modern author who spends his life writing two chapters of Don Quijote, not rewriting mind you, but writing the original, a wizard who dreams a son into existence only to realize that he himself is but the emanation of another's dream, an infinite library, a man accepting a challenge to a knife fight which he can not possibly win, these are just some of the elements that Jorge Luis Borges draws upon in his stories. These labyrinthine fictions loop back upon themselves and upon reality in order first to undermine the claims of reason and ultimately to call into question existence itself.

Borges was one of the great conservative authors of the 20th Century--his support for things like the Bay of Pigs invasion and his anti-Peronism are widely considered to have cost him the oh-so-politically-correct Nobel Prize--but his was a very particular conservatism, the conservatism of anti-Reason, of which the other great exemplar was Leo Tolstoy. On first reading War and Peace, I couldn't understand how a supposedly great writer had made such an incomprehensible hash of the battle scenes, but in his great essay, The Fox and the Hedgehog, Isaiah Berlin makes the compelling case that Tolstoy was thereby attempting to show just how unsusceptible events are to the application of human reason. Borges similarly challenges the central place of reason in the modern age, suggesting that existence is simply incomprehensible, absurd, unyielding to human understanding or planning. With this understanding of how subjective our interpretation of life is at the forefront of his work, Borges then proceeds to craft brief, tightly controlled, imaginative, stories which seem to play with the idea that the writer is the god of the literary world that he creates.

Of course, this too is a paradox. Like the Existentialists, he is hoist on the petard of his own ideology. If intellectual exercises are pointless, and his writings are nothing if not intellectual exercises, why devote his life to a pointless exercise? Likewise, one wonders why anyone would produce such carefully constructed stories if all of existence is so essentially dubious. The awkward answer can be nothing but faith. God may be a distant figure to Borges, a non-existent one to the Existentialists, but the very act of continuing to write beautiful stories to argue their point of view, indicates that at some level they do find a purpose to life and do trust in the capacity of their own voices to influence other people and the future. Borges shares a fascination with suicide or at least the acceptance of death with the Existentialists, but like them, he kept on going. Their actions speak louder than their words.

Perhaps because of this central paradox in his work, I found it a little difficult to read the whole set of stories straight through. I got a sense that the author didst protest too much. If everything is mere illusion, why'd he bother to write all of this & why am I reading it? On the other hand, if you read them one at a time and let each roll around in your head, you really get a chance to savor their playfulness and ingenuity and to ponder the questions they raise. I certainly recommend them, but suggest that they are best when read over a longer period of time. Don't get stuck on an airplane with just this book.

GRADE : B

While only a slim volume of about 100 pages, Jorge Luis Borges' FICCIONES is one of the 20th century's most original and influential works. A set of two collections of short stories, ''The Garden of Forking Paths" and ''Artifices", FICCIONES was the world's first exposure to the Argentinian writer and Borges' all-around best work.

The nature of the stories which Borges crafted is so unique and subtle that it defies description. He portrayed unusual occurrences, and peppered his stories, narrated in a faux-scholastic style, with references to colourful sources that, while sounding plausible, are of Borges' own invention and can be found in no library. In the first story of FICCIONES, ''Tlon, Uqbar, Orbius Tertius," he imagines an encyclopedia mysteriously containing a entry for a country that is not to be found - at least not in our reality. ''The Approach to Al-Mutasim" is a review of a book which doesn't exist; here, in a reversal of the usual order, the review brings the book into being. ''The Babylon Lottery" and ''The Library of Babel" are both clever metaphors for the human world. In the first, Borges describes an ancient society which lets all things be decided by chance. In the second, which introduced the concept of the infinite library, the story's setting is an unimaginably vast archive whose librarians from birth to death care for books whose meanings cannot be deciphered.

Jorge Luis Borges often used several key motifs in his books, such as mirrors and labyrinths, and it is this reuse of symbols which has created the ''Borgesian" genre. These symbols and the offbeat constructions which Borges almost singlehandedly invented went on to inspire legions of writers, including Gene Wolfe and Salman Rushdie.

The translation of FICCIONES has long been a divisive issue. While some, such as myself, believe that this versions of FICCIONES follows the original Spanish closely and, in any event, Borges' genius is found not as much in his language as in his concepts, others detest this 1962 version. Andrew Hurley has recently translated all of Borges fictional stories, including FICCIONES, in COLLECTED FICTIONS published by Penguin, but even his translation has sparked new battles. Should one wish to read FICCIONES in English, however, I'd suggest getting this translation. It is less expensive than COLLECTED FICTIONS and contains only Borges' finest work. For those who can read Spanish decently, I'd recommend even obtaining the original language, as Borges' stories do not use vocabulary much outside what one gets after four-years of high school Spanish.

While some readers may not "get" Borges (he can be compared to H.P. Lovecraft in possessing great influence on some but total obscurity to others), I'd certainly recommend trying FICCIONES.

After years of running into this name, "Borges," I felt as though I were falling short of my expectations as a reader to ignore this man and his colossal reputation. Ficciones seemed to be his most widely read and critically acclaimed book, and so I inevitably found myself reading it.

To try to capture the essence of Borges in a handful of words is like trying to capture the Lochness Monster on film: impossible, but frequently attempted. With that understanding in mind, here's my assessment:

All of Borges's stories are very different, and yet they all share a common sensibility, one of understated but very deeply felt anguish. This is not the anguish of an ordinary writer feeling sorry for himself and his fate. This anguish is deep, metaphysical. You get the sense that Borges views life and his fellow human beings at a distance, and yet is able to see more and understand more from this distance. He does not attempt to explain; he simply wants to impart his sense of awe, wonder, and inevitability.

The subject matter varies widely: an infinite library, a scholarly review of the life's work of a fictional writer, a boy with a perfect memory. Some of his stories are Kafka-esqe in a nightmarish sense, while others have the intellectual playfulness of an M.C. Escher drawing: what you thought was 'up' is really 'down,' and yet once you see the big picture you realize that this is the only way it can be. The endings are as inevitable as death, and yet you rarely see them coming.

I'm not so sure that Borges wrote his stories with a specific point or message, although many of them seem to have one. I believe that most of these stories are simply meant to inspire thought and contemplation of the very issues that Borges had been thinking of when he wrote them. One could do a lot worse than to see things through the eyes of this great thinker.

My only complaint is that his stories are not as accessible as they could be, and his scholarly manner may be problematical for some. But the most effective pills are often the hardest to swallow...

Mr. Guzman wrote an interesting and very readable account of his adventures during the Mexican Revolution, but many have failed to recognize that Guzman, himself, considered this an historical novel and NOT a history of the revolution. If you wish more accuracy in describing events of the revolution, look elsewhere.

The Eagle and the Serpent is arguably the greatest book of the literature of the Mexican Revolution. It tells the story of a young student's involvement in the uprising that shook Mexico from 1910-1920 and his incredible adventures with the great "heroes" of the Revolution. Guzmán has an incredibly fluid and poetic style with which he paints detailed portraits of the political and social situation in Mexico at the beginning of the 20th century. He amazes the reader with an artistry and wit that runs throughout his accounts of the famous places and people of the Revolution. If you're not familiar with Mexican Liturature, this is a great place to start your journey: you may never come back!

The author recounts his experiences as an influential ideologist of the Mexican revolution. The adventures he narrates are often hard to believe. The atrocities of Villa. The stubborness of Carranza. The humbleness of the Zapatistas. Countless betrayals on the quest for Mexico City, the golden trophy for all.

trata de los valores morales que deben enseñarse en la adolescencia , se desarrolla en españa y el personaje principal se llama iñaki.

I've read this book many many years ago, no other book has ever impacted my life as "La vida sale al encuentro" . It is the story of the life of a boy going into adulthood. It is nothing we have read before, it is nothing we will read again. It is just plain beautiful, exciting, heart breaking, it will take you places, it will make you think about things long put aside.

Tiempo de Silencio ofrece la oportunidad de leer un libro unico, distinto de otros. Todo esto gracias a un autor que utiliza nuevos recursos literarios e incluso vocabulario medico. El autor describe la ciudad de Madrid en los anos cuarenta y las distintas clases sociales. Recomendo este libro pero no es un libro que se lee para relajarse, de hecho, necesitaria no una pero dos o tres lecturas para que se entiende verdadamente bien.

This novel has a recognizable argument: it's the history of Pedro, a young physician inmediately after Spanish Civil War. Spain was blocked then because his tolerance with the Axis powers during WW II. As it were Pedro only wants to investigate about cancer, but at his institute there's lack of all means. One of these is a special class of mice only available from the USA. Howewer Pedro gets to know that some of these mice have been robbed by a beadle of the research institute and maintained under terrible conditions in the suburbs of Madrid. Pedro goes in search of the mice and so, he contacts with a horrorful underworld of degenerate criminals which owns these animals.
Well, this plot may be more or less appealing, but the real merit of this novel is the form, by nothing realist as XIX century type, but close to "Ulysses" by Joyce or another modern novels. Martin Santos breaks the normal linear discourse of the recit and remakes it with a strong appeal to subsconcious sensations when poverty and impotence predominate. The author dued in a car accident wwhile writing another unfinished novel.

Having previously read Wrox's Professional ASP Programming, I tried this book, hoping for something of equal merit.

This volume is has some decent material, but is marred by a tendecy to sloppiness.

Firstly, as other reviewers have noted, there are too many authors (count 'em - 16!), which is unnecessary, and leads to inconsistencies in presentation. The book could quite easily have been authored by a single writer. There are only a few chapters that required specialist knowledge.

For example, the early chapters are quite good at advising the reader on PHP settings. Since there's no option explicit in PHP,the author correctly advises the reader to increase their error setting to report unused variables. Later, however, much of the code uses uninitialised variables. This is particularly the case in the chapter on form handling, the approach to which is too crude, and uses form variables directly in code, whereas a better approach would be to capture them and process them using isset(). The isset() function isn't even covered in this chapter,but is used correctly in other chapters.

Secondly, while the converstational tone of Wrox books is often appealing, it can also be a problem at times. The presentation is not always comprehensive enough, and Wrox authors have a tendency to give overly clever examples.

Strangely, there's no reference section. I found some of the explanations sloppy and confusing, especially the section of session variables. (I still can't get the WAP application to work properly.)

Thirdly, the chapter on OO design leaves the reader stranded. After a decent theoretical discussion, the writer informs the reader that there will be no code examples, as the reader now knows enough theory to work an example out for themselves! If I've paid for the book, I don't really want to have it set homework for me.

Fourthly, there are an annoying number of errors in the code. Many of these are corrected in the online errata, but there are quite a few that aren't at present. Furthermore, some of them are not typos, but seem to be the result of misconceptions on the part of the writer. This tends to reinforce the impression that some of the authors are relatively inexperienced.

Lastly, there are a large number of errors in the downloadable code. I suppose supplied code should be seen as a bonus, but it's poor quality control, and greatly adds to the user's annoyance.

I learnt PHP3 from Leon Atkinson's Core PHP programming, but i had to refer to the manual and the list archives for several problems.I came across this book recently from KY's review corner - I have been able to raise my level of PHP knowledge after reading through this book.This book is an asset for Professional PHP developers who can refresh their PHP knowledge with the excellent case studies. For beginners there are several examples throughout the book that will help them understand how to use PHP to create fully featured active sites.This book also has extensive database treatment - using PHP with MySQL,PostgreSQL and ODBC.
It is a must for anyone wanting to use PHP or make the move from PHP3 to PHP4!

Another excellent red book on PHP. I have learned PHP through several books, extensive articles, tutorials, and now Professional PHP4 tops the list of useful PHP literature.
Things that i found really helpful:
•Explanation for all those buggy installation problems
•Handling files on the server's file system, and how to upload files from the web browser
•Sending e-mail and posting new articles with PHP, working with SMTP, POP/IMAP and NNTP
•An exhaustive case study (76 pages!) on building a shopping cart application for mobile phones
•Using PHP as a command line script interpreter
•PHP with XML
This book has a pretty exhaustive view of most topics, and is the ideal book for PHP developers wanting to add professionalism to their web application development. I shall continue using this as a reference for all topics PHP (till I get another red book with photos).

This Spanish language book in a series about farm animals gives basic information on the animal's appearance, its breeds, breeding habits, needs, and the agricultural products man gains from the animal. The photographs, while adequate, aren't of the quality of the Zoo Books or Nic Bishop's work in other animal series as they are not as interestingly presented nor as sharply in focus. The information on the animals is presented well and there is an index, a vocabulary list, and a list of characteristics in the back of the book. I am a new Spanish learner so I "translated" it, but I missed knowing some of the words in the book. It is a chance to learn and practice Spanish as well as be useful for those children who already speak Spanish.

Cuba has done an amazing job of switching over to organic, local food production. They did so to survive the assinine embargo of thier island, but in doing so they have shown the way for all of us to move to a sane mode of food production. You would want this book to be a delightful description of that process. You would be wrong. It is a leaden, tedious exercise in socialist writing with all the wit and charm of a phone book. Skip the book and just go to Cuba and see the results for yourself. Then come home and plant a garden.