To be a woman in revolutionary Nicaragua meant to take an active role in reshaping a country. Daisy Zamora came out of that experience as a poet who found her own voice in the context of extraordinary popular struggle. CLEAN SLATE: NEW & SELECTED POEMS is a collection that embodies a spirit of personal and political liberation. This collection includes works written between the years 1968 and 1993.

"Through her introspective early work, as well as through previously uncollected recent poems, we see the poet at her lyrical best." --Publishers Weekly

"..its real value is that those who read only English can through this bilingual edition appreciate Nicaraguan poetry and the writings of one of the greatest women exponents of the recent life and times of its people." --World Literature Today

"Zamora [was] shaped by revolution and gender, but [her] voice is true and universal, transcending political boundaries and sounding clear notes of sanity in times of madness. Highly accessible for general readers and indispensable for Latin American and women's studies collections." --MultiCultural Review

"Clean Slate: New and Selected Poems," by Daisy Zamora, is a fine volume of poetry by this Nicaraguan author. The poems have been translated into English by the mother/daughter team of Elinor and Margaret Randall. The poems are presented in a bilingual format, with the Spanish originals and English versions on facing pages.

Many of Zamora's poems are about feminist issues and/or the Nicaraguan revolution. Her work is graced my moments of both hope and paradox. Many poems recall the lives of various women: a female guerrilla ("Commander Two"), an oppressed wife ("Loyal Housewife"), a nurse enraged at United States action in Nicaragua ("Emilia, the Nurse"), and more. There is even a poem about the women of Greco-Roman mythology ("Alter Ego").

One of the collection's most distinctive pieces is "Radio Sandino," a long poem which evokes scenes from Nicaragua's civil war. Zamora frequently evokes or pays tribute to other poets: Gabriela Mistral, Sylvia Plath, Ruben Dario, etc. Overall, an impressive collection by a strong voice in Latin American literature.

Her poetry truly touches the heart. I think every woman can relate to some aspect of her poetry.

For Gioconda Belli, a woman's sexuality and female identity are inseparable from an expansive and nurturing love of the world. In her poetry, the longing for a society in which people construct a future together is animated by an inextinguishable erotic, maternal, and transcendental loving desire. The poetry in FROM EVE'S RIB, a selection that includes Belli's early as well as recent work, is revolutionary in that it links an intense eroticism with the insurrectionary spirit of the Nicaraguan people.

"Her poetry [is] at once extremely sensual and politically direct...a kind of public love-poetry that [comes] closer...to expressing the passion of Nicaragua than anything I ever heard." --Salman Rushdie, The Jaguar Smile (Penguin, 1987)

"Her lessons in eroticism and her deeply engaged social conscience and her feminism, her historical perspective and her personal, passionate imagination have marked her poems with the indelible hand print of originality." --American Book Review

"From Eve's Rib" is a collection of poetry by Gioconda Belli of Nicaragua. Her work has been translated into English by Steven F. White. This is a bilingual edition, with the Spanish originals and English versions on facing pages.

Belli's voice is passionate, lusty, sensual, tender, and politically aware. Many of her poems are woman-centered; she writes about menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth, physical love, and pride in being a woman. Many poems deal with the Nicaraguan revolution and its aftermath. One of the best poems in the collection, "The Dream Bearers," is a prophetic poem of hope in which Belli celebrates those who dream "not of the world's destruction, / but of building a world of butterflies / and nightingales." Also memorable is "Conjunction," in which Belli reflects on the women writers of past generations. This is a fine collection of poetry that I enthusiastically recommend, particularly to those with an interest in women's studies or Latin American literature.

This collection of writings by the founder and editor of IKON fuses art and politics to give an eyewitness account of the controversies of the last three decades over feminist, political, and literary issues as only a poet and political activist totally engaged in the events could perceive and write about them. THE COLOR OF THE HEART looks back at struggle and change and offers not only a look at the past but keeps the struggle alive by looking towards the future.

"THE COLOR OF THE HEART is an exhilarating document that charts high points in the interesting life of anti-imperialist artist Susan Sherman." --The Guardian

"This is a sensitive, thoughtful collection from a woman who learned long ago that 'to retain freshness of experience' one must be 'willing to face the strangeness and horror of it.'" --Publishers Weekly

Margaret Randall is known in many contexts as writer, feminist, oral historian, translator, political activist, teacher, and defendant in an important case challenging the unsuccessful attempts of the INS to deport her for the political nature of her writings. This collection, which span a time period from 1982 to 1987, from Nicaragua to Albuquerque, shows another side of Margaret Randall, as a poet speaking out passionately for love, liberation and justice.

"[Her] voice is always compassionate as well as committed." --Library Journal

"[These] poems tell us how our memories can liberate us from a history of world and family oppression." --Sonia Sanchez

Margaret Randall presents a dynamic collection of 14 personal interviews with Nicaragua's most important writer-revolutionaries who played major roles in the 1979 revolution and the subsequent reconstruction. These artists speak of their writing and their pratical tasks in constructing a new society. Among the writers included are Gioconda Belli, Tomás Borge, Omar Cabezas, Ernesto Cardenal, Vidaluz Menéses, Julio Valle-Castillo, and Daisy Zamora.

"This is a book that encourages and empowers those of us who are poets, those of us who write and those of us who work to change society to fit the hopes and dreams of the common people." --Alice Walker

"..the truthfulness as they tell their lives...as literary workers in a revolutionary time...the happiness, the toll, the sacrifice that's part of the process. And...the pride of being heard, your next poem waited for-your trade 'poet' respected and emulated by the young." --Grace Paley

Very occasionally, in this busy and distracted world, we come upon a writer who consistently keeps her eyes focused on what most other people prefer not to see. Margaret Randall is such a writer. When I Look into the Mirror and See You is one of her finest accomplishments. Apart from all the necessary literary virtues: a compelling story, well-told, a keen sense of character and driven narrative, there is a tragic, tormented piece of history here we can't afford not to know. Without this book, we might well not know it. This is, in short, a book we must read.

Where They Left You For Dead/halfway Home showcases thirty-eight poems by Margaret Randall, who wrote them to her lifetime companion who suffers chronic pain. An accomplished poet and author of some eighty published titles, this compendium is remarkable for making connections that are intimate and integral as they weave thoughts into words, and words into feelings. Time Changes: This week, reduced to the rapidity/of surprise,/ends almost before it begins./I do not speak of measurable time./Yes, I do know Monday defeats Sunday,/Tuesday rounds the inevitable turn/in the road, and Wednesday/crests the mountain ridge/as we fall backward/toward the week's end./Action slows then speeds/like the small wooden boat/as it slips off the tongue of water/into the churning rapid./I am talking about time/moving too fast for comfort,/altogether now,/and salty, not sweet./Or perhaps it is the other way around:/each gesture so mindfully sweet/that I stand/here turning it in my hands:/bereaved, astonished.

Hunger's Table continues a theme established by Laura Esqivel in Like Water for Chocolate : the relationship between a women and the food she prepares, serves, and eats. Unlike Esquivel, Randall conveys these parallels through a collection of poems, most of which double as recipes, some for delicious meals, others for life itself.

In the thirty-five poems tucked inside the covers of Hunger's Table, Randall addresses how food is more than nourishment for the body, it is also nourishment for the mind and soul. The quantity and kinds of food eaten are often influenced by various factors and events in our lives--family reunions are celebrated around a bountiful table, a woman depressed about her love life (or lack thereof) may comfort herself with a pint of Ben and Jerry's, etcetera. Taking everyday situations as these, Randall creates a series of powerful, beautiful poetry.

As of now I am completing drivers Ed. We take tests over this book, and I feel it is rather outdated for what it is being used for. The pictures are helpful, but the text I found boring and most of the text seemed just to be fill. They streched out simple procedures, and filled the usefull information with unimportant details. If you want to pass the test, read your state drivers manual. If you think this will help you, try it, but I warn you, its not worth it. Your state drivers manual is worth you time, check it out!

I have read some of the reviews and it appears to me that the ones who don't like this book are the children who had to read it. First of all this book is not written for each state, so you will have to check on your own state or county laws along with this book. As for this book not helping you pass the "TEST". Responsible drivers know that their is much much more to driving then passing the "TEST", which this book goes into great detail letting its readers know. I've been A police officer for almost 9 years and now work at a school and deal with children all the time and a lot of thing seem boring to them. But we as adults must continue the teach, and hope that some of what they read sinks in. When dealing with driving a vehicle, learning by experience a lot of times ends up to late. This book doesn't teach you how to pass the "TEST" it teaches you how to be a better driver, something we all need to be...

This driver's ed curriculum is outstanding! My son knows things I don't. I would fail the final test if I had to take it. It is thorough and keeps the reader's interest with colorful illustrations. My son passed the DMV test with flying colors.

Randall's examination of the role women played in the Nicaraguan revolution is interesting for its unique look at a fairly commonplace civil war fought in the klieg lights of the Cold War. The author interviewed many women who had spent years working with and for the FSLN and later became involved in the Sandanista government.

That the book was first published in 1981, so soon after the Sandanistas assumed power and before the term "Contras" had become ubiquitous, gives it an eery, time-warp feel. Read from the perspective of 1999, the frequent use of words like "comrade", "cells", and "revolutionary struggle" seems rather quaint.

This book is not really journalism in the traditional sense, as the author has little interest in exploring the possible government-related problems of post-Somoza Nicaragua. But the overall reading experience does reinforce the old adage that journalism is the first draft of history.

In short, Sandino's Daughters is worthwhile for those readers who want a better feel for the ideological mood of Central America in the early 1980s, and who are interested in how non-traditional revolutionaries (i.e., women) played a significant role.

Sandino's daughters is required reading for anyone who wants to understand the history of the Nicaraguan revolution and for feminists everywhere! The stories in this book are sometimes painful, sometimes triumphant, but always powerful. This is a classic and a beautiful book.