1 comments about Travels in the Interior of Mexico in 1825, 1826, 1827 and 1828: In Baja California and Around the Sea of Cortes (A Rio Grande classic).

1. Este libro es la relacion de un hecho veridico.
   Hardy fue el comandante de un barco britanico el cual se interno por el delta del rio Colorado...de pronto la marea bajo a su minima expresion y la nave de Hardy quedo varada en las dunas de arena...los nativos (presumiblemente Cucapa's) pronto empezaron a acercarce a la embarcacion... este suceso fue veridico y es uno de los pocos casos documentados de contacto entre la cultura de los indigenas Cucapas y europeos.

No comments about The Mexico City Metro, a user's guide, cultual and historical tour (Metro Guide).

No comments about Mexico in Focus: A Guide to the People, Politics, and Culture (In Focus Guides).

2 comments about Ghost Towns Alive: Trips to New Mexico's Past.

1. Visiting a ghost town can leave you wondering but never knowing what stories lurk behind the crumbled adobe walls, abandoned wagons, and other relics of lives once lived.
   
   Author Linda Harris does a suberb job of introducing the characters who helped form these old towns--the curmudgeons, the criminals, the benefactors, and the adventurers.
   
   Harris also offers the filter of her own heart, soul, and considerable knowledge as an area historian to breathe life into each narrative.
   
   Ghost Towns Alive isn't just a mere recitation of facts, statistics, and driving directions, although you'll find plenty of useful information to get you to your destination. Instead, this book is an absolute must to guide you through an intimate experience of New Mexico's past.



2. Not only is this book a good guide to many of New Mexico's ghost towns, but it is also incredibly readable. It is by far, among my very favorite books on the subject.
   Plus, it passes the one-question test I give to all New Mexico ghost town books: "Does it include Hagan?"
   Hagan, New Mexico--the greatest, most overlooked of all ghost towns anywhere. Many ghost town books just include all the obvious ones, like Shakespeare and Steins, but only the good ones know about Hagan. Not only does this book include Hagan, but it also has a fact or two about it that I've never come across in the rest of my reading.
   Buy this book, stock your car's CD player with Caribou and the "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" soundtrack, and set off driving.
   There's a lot out there waiting for you.

5 comments about The Law of Love.

1. Reading all of these reviews many people compare this book to her first one. Had this been a sequel for the her first novel, then go ahead and compare it. But this is an entirely different book with different characters. Many authors go through different stages in their lifes and many times it shows through in their writing. I enjoyed this book because I had no high expectations for it. I was dissapointed with the CD because I felt that it didn't fit the book as well as it could have. I did enjoy the past lives, but I did also feel that 'magical' things appeard to help the characters out of a tight spot. (Which actually, helps the story move along quite rapidly if you just accept things as they are and not question them.) Enjoyed the book, didn't enjoy the CD so much, loved the pictures and the general idea behind it. Good bathroom reading.



2. Since you read the title, you must guess it is not a realistic book (Can anybody really mention A Law of Love??) Yet, it is really entertaining. What the author mentions in her story is the idea that people reincarnate several times until they settle any conflicts existing in previous lives, and to do so, it is necessary that in the following lives the people who you had these conflicts with, reincarnate close to you. I think this was really a fun book not only for the plot itself that is quite creative, but also because it as a multimedia book. It includes an audio CD and lively illustrations to make you feel as part of the book. For instance, if the person in the book is listening to some music that makes her dream of something, you can also listen to that same music with the aid of the CD while you see the illustrations and share her dreams. Isn't this innovative enough to be worthwhile reading it?



3. Fortunately I have not read Like Water For Chocolate, and so I didn't have particularly high expectations concerning the quality of prose in this book, and reading the jacket prepared me for a rather sappy story. Nevertheless, this was both the most poorly written and poorly conceived book I've read in a long time (if ever!). The writing style reminded me of that of an overstimulated teenager, and the characters were all but empty of substance. What I found most appalling, however, were the ridiculous new-age pseudophilosophies, and the horrendous misinterpretations of karma and reincarnation. Honestly, the whole thing was so bad it was just embarrassing. So glad it was a loaner, not a purchase!



4. After all the hype regarding Like Water for Chocolate, and in view of my deep interest in reincarnation in fiction, I had greatly anticipated this book. It had a compelling start, in detailing the karmic events set into motion with Rodrigo and Citlala, but the switch to the futuristic setting, with all its fantastical and foreign new technologies and philosophies, was too much far, far too soon.
   
   Problems I identified were: poor, scanty characterization; almost total lack of blocking (description of setting); and comprehensive, almost omnipresent 'telling' instead of 'showing'. We are never allowed to draw our own conclusions about the characters from their actions and words-- Esquivel informs us, either through her narration or that of a guardian or demon, exactly what we are to think of everyone. And both the preachiness and massive breadth of the metaphysical 'stuff' was intrusive and annoying, giving the impression she's telling us what to believe, as well.
   
   The ending is, as with so many novels nowadays, rushed and insufficient, a mere wrap-up chapter telling us what happened to all the main characters after the fact, the lazy man's (woman's?) way of getting the damned thing over with. We aren't shown how any of these things occurred, though it would have been both interesting and satisfying to see how these people came to their rewards or punishments.
   
   And worst of all is the pat and ludicrous resolution of the distance between Azucena and Rodrigo. After their initial meeting at the start of the book, they are separated, and the story basically details (with many flourishes) Azucena's travails in finding him again. But when they do find each other, he doesn't remember her any more, and only has eyes for the reincarnation of Citlala, of whom his violation in a prior life was so lovingly recounted in the first chapter.
   
   Azucena, then, finds love with Teo, and enthusiastically copulates with him at every opportunity. This is explained away with a few convenient sentences by Esquivel, who gives Azucena's reunion with Rodrigo the same treatment in her rushed ending. "Oh, Rodrigo remembers Azucena and leaves Citlala and now only has eyes for his soul mate." Just that easy, was it?
   
   I guess a scene of such power and emotion wasn't important enough for her to render for her readers, but I was left wondering if he felt shame for forgetting Azucena was his soul mate and taking up with Citlala, if Azucena harbored resentment for it. Of course, knowing how Esquivel prefers to tell us what to think, she'd have just informed us with a sole paragraph how it all went down, so I suppose that we're not missing anything by her leaving it out.
   
   Also ludicrous is how easily Azucena forgives Isabel's transgressions against her and the others-- again solved with a convenient telling instead of showing. Esquivel proves how poor her grasp of human nature, and how inadequate she is at rendering it in words for her readers, if she thinks that being murdered and abandoned repeatedly by the same person over multiple lifeties can be erased with a sentence or two.
   
   The multimedia aspect of the book feels gimmicky. The music is redundant in style and theme, and the graphic novel parts feel more like Esquivel couldn't be arsed to describe the scene herself, so got someone else to draw it. If a picture is worth a thousand words, she saved herself about 25,000 of them with the artwork. Convenient for her, but ultimately dissatisfying for us.
   
   In general, this book felt like a wacky sci-fi concept that Esquivel wanted "out there" but didn't feel like bothering to put any effort into. Her heavy-handed treatment of both the story and philosophical issues too many 'WTF' moments, where we have to stop and thing hard about what in the world is happening, gives her an overlooming presence that prevents the reader from becoming absorbed in the book; we're too aware it's written, rather than unfolding before us.



5. I bought it in its spanish version. I loved the way that Laura Esquivel wrote "Like Water for Chocolate" all this funny situations and romantic inspirations not to mention the recipes. So, I decided to look a work besides that one. I have the theory that, if you get in love with a book, is pretty uncommon to find a writer that could make a new book surpass its predecessor. This is one of this cases. I got it and started to read, it just got me involved in all this reincarnation theme and how much does it cost find love. Is a book you'r definitvely will get involved and enjoy.

1 comments about The Best Public Golf Courses in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean and Mexico.

1. This book does a great job highlighting several of the better courses in each state (as well as Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean). It does include resort courses, with tips, phone numbers, etc. to help you get tee times with ease - all in all, a great resource for a golfer who travels for either business or pleasure.

5 comments about Yucatan & Mayan Mexico, 2nd.

1. I spent 3 weeks in the Yucatan this fall and this book helped make my trip very enjoyable. I traveled to Merida, campeche, cozmel, cancun, plus many of the ruin sites and this book proved to be an acurate and reliable friend! If you like to travel on your own and seek out those outta the way places this is the book for you. I also enjoyed "Tourist in the Yucatan" fun thriller adventure novel set in the yucatan.



2. This book is jam packed with in-depth information about the Yucatan including a full chapter on the Maya, another chapter on the history of the region, on top of all the important travel-related information that you usually see in travel books. I have a few books on the region and I think this is one of the best!



3. I took this book on my trip to the Yucatan, and it proved to be an absolute gem. The itemized, unreadable lists of hotels, restaurants, and sights that comprise most of the other guide books here are kept to a reasonable length. Instead, there is vivid -- and very readable -- prose, organized logically. What you can see by driving down southward along the Mayan Riviera, with histories of the region, histories of every little town. It's all put in context, like a novel. The detailed walkthrough of Chichen Itza made me a bigger expert on Mayan history, architecture etc. than the guide we hired. Overall, I highly recommend it!



4. I'll add my voice to the chorus of praise, with one very small caveat. Comprehensive, in-depth, great historical background to put everything in perspective. We traveled with this and the Lonely Planet, but eventually just left the Lonely Planet in the car at all the sites, as Nick covered things so much better. But this is starting to get a bit out of date - published in 2002, so much of the info is now 4 years old. While there was more practical information (restuarants, hotels, etc.) here than I expected, it's worth the few extra bucks to get another, more updated guidebook as well.



5. I have just returned from a two week driving vacation that visited 23 Mayan ruins and several museums and cities between Cancun and San Cristobal de Las Casas. I used it for hotel reservations as well as Mayan site and city visits and found it to be excellent, much better than the Moon guide or the Kelly guides to ruins. It let me down only once, in Cuidad de Carmen, where it had no map of the city, and its hotel recommendations were incomplete and misleading. Otherwise it was accurate and up to date. I recommend it highly to travelers who want comfort but not luxury, and who like to travel fast and intensively.

No comments about American Map Arizona, New Mexico: State Map (Travelvision State Maps).

No comments about Land, Sky, and All That Is Within: Visionary Photographers in the Southwest.

1 comments about Guide to Bandelier National Monument.

1. Two friends and I recently went on a four day backpacking trip into Bandelier. While one guy dealt with the rangers to get the permit, I wandered the book racks and found two guidebooks. I asked the ranger which one he'd recommend and he indicated the Dorothy Hoard book. He was right. Good basic info about what you'll see in different corners of the park--plants, animals, etc. It also features excellent drawings of the terrain and trails, done in a three-dimensional style that clearly shows what you're crossing.