This is an excellent edition of an important work. The english translation is well done and the introduction is wonderful. Schulman provides useful and interesting background information as well as thought-provoking insights.

SylverHawke, my eldest sister to whom I owe my life. -Claudia!

This is the single best layman's book I have ever found to explain animal behavior. Lavishly illustrated with black and white drawings, thoroughly modern in its approach to animal behavior, and absolutely readable, "Beastly Behaviors" is a book any animal lover will enjoy reading. Chock full of facts, the book is aimed at an audience stretching from junior high to adults; parents interested in the book for their children should be aware that sexual behavior is described very frankly, should that be a concern. Buy this book; you won't regret it!

It is difficult to determine where to begin addressing a review as contradictory and pointless as the one offered by Kirkus of Suarez's exciting new focus on kitsch, camp, and fetishism in the Gay Underground Cinema of the the 60's.

To begin with, Kirkus misses or entirely avoids recognizing that this "slightly new conception" of the history of this cinema is an immanently Queer one, fixing as it does on those aesthetic elements which even most theorists of the avant-garde would have preferred not to let out of the closet. The Kirkus review fails to acknowledge how and why Saurez's reassessment of this tradition bears upon the object of this inquiry-- why Peter Burger's notion of the avant-garde as a rejection of decadent aestheticism is particularly problematic for the queer underground-- why Clement Greenberg's derogation of kitsch cannot possibly account for this cinema-- how Theodor Adorno's strictly negative dialectic fails to record the more positive relations established between the avant-garde and mass culture.

Though Kirkus seems to regard the first fifty pages of Suarez's book as pointless, I see them as absolutely essential. Without the context of these earlier notions of the avant-garde, Suarez's formulations would seem to have come out of thin air-- devoid of any relation to those earlier discourses formed and informed by particular socia land ideological circumstances. Instead, Suarez not only offers a new account, but also reveals how and why a number of elements particularly important to the study of Smith, Anger, and Warhol have been systematically overlooked in the theory which precedes him. Ideas never come out of thin air; it is difficult to understand how the detailed framing of a discursive context could be a waste of time.

This rebuttal itself would be meaningless if the Kirkus review hadn't preceded it.

To write a biography of John Paul II, George Weigel leaves with advantage. He is a Professor of Ethics as the subject, and well known for his articles about religion and public life. Weigel also understands and professes the Catholic faith. If we add his privileged access to very close collaborators to the Pontiff and several hours of encounters with the Pope himself, the result should overcome any precedent biographies. We are before a work of remarkable dimensions, with two very clear parts: before and after the Cardinal's Wojtyla election like as Pontiff. Weigel has spoken with many direct witnesses of the polish times of the Pope's life, which gives this section of the work the freshness and novelty than the pontificate years of his work back. He gives the impression that these years are dominated by the documents, the speeches and the points of view, while he losses the essence of the inher character .

A wonderful and too often overlooked masterpiece of the middle ages. Written by a clergyman, the Archpriest of Hita, who questions the distinction, if there is any, between sacred and profane love. Through a loose narration of often-time hilarious tales which recount the archpriest's amourous adventures, the author questions the notions of the sign, meaning, morality and love. Ultimately it represents a meditation on the religious notions of salvation and sin. The book in fact was written in part as a love manual for those who wish to experience sexual pleasure (through a reading of the book) but do not want to fall into the mortal sin of fornication. _The Book of Good Love_ was also instrumental in Fernando de Rojas' construction of his masterpiece, _La celestina_.

This book was fist published in 1950 (yes, 50 years ago!) and although it has not achieved the "fame" as others latin american books that later exploded in the so called boom, ABL was the first in many things:

1) It created the concept of a new way to write. The mixture of reality and fiction and then this two again (but is this not magical realism?) permits the reader to ellaborate many a book within the book, as then a lot of writers did

2) Onetti is usually "benchmarked" with Faulkner. Yes, they both created their own space (Santa Maria) but there is where the similarities stop. Santa Maria is the first Macondo, the newest, paradoxically, way to be at leisure in its own territory.

3)Onetti's book was not an instant hit, but in certain circles , and thru viral marketing, ABL virtually dissappeared. The same happened later with other books, especially with the first edition of 100 years of Solitude.

Finally, ABL created the first step in the ladder of extraordinary works of art that came out of Latin America in the 50/60s, that, again, was badly depicted as a boom. It was more the creation of a new current, and a new way to say, new, and old things.

This book will allow you to fully understand this period, and it will open and broaden the way you read

Dr. Nelson's grasp of the complexities of the satiric tradition and how Infante's work reflects and builds on this tradition, make her critical monograph a classic for the study of Infante's work.

This bilingual picture book tells the story of poet Juan Felipe Herrera's early years with his parents who were migrant farmworkers in California. Herrera's love for his poor hardworking parents is evident. The vibrant, vivid pictures by Elly Simmons combine with Herrera's Spanish/English text to make a delightful children's book that readers of all ages will enjoy!

This book is written on facts. I highly recommend it to others.