No comments about Gardens of Portugal.

No comments about Lonely Planet Barcelona (Lonely Planet. (Spanish Guides)).

No comments about The Basque Country: A Cultural History (Landscapes of the Imagination).

1 comments about The Diario of Christopher Columbus's First Voyage to America, 1492-1493 (American Exploration & Travel Series, Vol 70).

1. This is the largest fragment of Columbus's first voyage log, as abstracted by Bartolome de Las Casas. Of the many editions in print, Dunn & Kelley stands head and shoulders above the rest. The format has a new Spanish transcription on the left-hand pages, exactly as hand-written in the original manuscript by Las Casas: same abbreviations, strike-outs, diacriticals, and marginal notes. The right-hand pages contain an English translation.

   But perhaps the most valuable addition for the scholar is the Spanish concordance of the entire text, giving folio and line numbers for every appearance of almost every word. (Common words such as prepositions are given only with word counts, not references.) All in all, a must-have for any serious scholar or afficianado of the Admiral of the Ocean Sea.

3 comments about Following the Milky Way: A Pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago.

1. This account of the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, made in 1982, before the current resurgence, contains everything you need to know about history, architecture, myth and legend along the ancient route across northern Spain and more. It is a personal account, but one chock full of customs and lore, as well as facts and individual musings on the nature of pilgrimage and what drives a pilgrim to leave home and hearth to trek 500 miles to the medieval end of the world.

   Elyn tells her story with humor and pathos and ask the reader to consider just what the pilgrimage route and the symbols contained therein might really mean for today's pilgrims. It is, after all, both an inner and outer journey.




2. Elyn Aviva has written an excellent book on walking the Camino. She includes the human interest angle as well as interesting info about the history, cultural aspects, and architecture. The fact that her walk was in 1982, before the Camino became the popular pilgrimage route it is now, is quite interesting. I consider this book to be a great addition to my growing library of books on this subject.



3. The review heading is a quote from day 10, July 18, 1982 in Elyn Aviva's fascinating tapestry of trail journal and scholarly insight. This story was first published in 1989. The 2nd edition was published in 2001. Prior to the 2nd edition, the author walked the Camino again in 1997 and again in 2000.

   The Camino in 1982 was a vastly different experience from the modern Camino, and for this reason the author has left the text of the body unchanged except for some editing. She has added an 18 page Introduction to the 2nd Edition where she describes some of the changes over the last twenty years and talks about the other pre Christian pilgrimage routes that some believe evolved into the Christian Camino.

   I had never read the original edition, and really enjoyed the account of Elyn and her friend Bill's journey. They had never backpacked before, and started out carrying heavy packs, wearing new boots, and throughout the book I emphasized with the experience of new backpackers, gradually becoming fit. In 1982 there were few refugios compared to today, and frequently they slept under the open sky. The trail was poorly marked, sometimes non existent compared to today. Sometimes they had to hitch. Particularly in the earlier part of the trek, the local people did not look on pilgrims with favor.

   Each day gets a section in the book, with a little map showing maybe a third of the entire Camino, with a little bracket showing the distance walked for the day. The first day has a similar map of the entire route - not a map for detailed info, but a simple line with place names. Day 1 starts in St. Jean Pied de Port and the book ends with Day 47 - leaving Santiago.

   Anyone who has walked the Camino will appreciate this story, and anyone about to travel the route will benefit from the history included with the day to day narrative.

   Modern day walkers - read this for background, but be sure to get the Confraternity of St. James The Camino Frances guide to take with you, as well as either John Brierley's guide or Davies and Cole's guide. Also, check the forums such as GoCamino and Santiagobis and websites such as backpack45.

1 comments about Insight Guides Southern Spain: Costa Del Sol, Andalucia (Insight Guides).

1. This was a great guide for a recent trip to Spain; both I and my young daughter thouroughly enjoyed looking through the photos...sometimes when I couldn't find the book, I'd look in her room and she'd have fallen asleep with it in her hands--no doubt dreaming of adventures to come! The info within is limited to Andalucia, so be aware of this if your travels take you beyond the borders of Southern Spain.

No comments about Cool Restaurants Madrid (Cool Restaurants).

4 comments about Grammar Lessons: Translating a Life in Spain (Sightline Books).

1. Not since Tobias Wolffe's This Boy's Life have I been so moved by a work of nonfiction. Ms. Morano's economical prose, keenly observed detail and emotional honesty are a triple-threat. The essays work that magic of translating what your imagination conjures into an experience which you feel is now a genuine memory, something about which you and she have secret and sacred understanding. Everyone who has had their heart broken by their crazy boyfriend while travelling through Spain should read this book, and then everyone else should too, because after a glass of madeira or a cup of cafe con leche your mind might trick you into reminiscing about that year in Spain when your crazy boyfriend ...



2. The book was delivered before the estimated delivery date. The book was in the stated condition- good.



3. I loved every essay in this book. Beautifully written. Insightful. Entertaining. Thought provoking. Brilliant but never pretentious.



4. In Grammar Lessons, Michele Morano takes the reader on an unforgettable journey, a treat to the senses. She invites us to explore her thoughts and feelings as she experiences daily life in Spain in the early 1990's, while teaching English at the University of Oviedo for a year. While in Oviedo, she enrolled in a Spanish language course for foreigners or "extranjeros."
   
   In thirteen personal essays, Morano captures the reader's heart with her descriptive and poetic style. Her themes evoke a feeling of familiarity, for her stories are organized around topics such as food, travel, and solitude versus loneliness. "I'm hungry in both body and spirit," she writes. "I crave not just a meal, not just the take-out supper I can carry to the emptiness of my room, but a complete dining experience." One pressing issue during the year in Spain was her longing for the man she left behind in New York.
   
   Morano prefaces her book by explaining that grammar is not simply words strung together to form sentences, but the mannerisms, gestures, and ways of life that accompany language. The book is organized into three parts. The essays in Part One reveal her struggle to learn the Spanish language while living the culture. The essays in Part Two revolve around her later trips to Spain. Part Three reflects her attitude toward travel along highways and how it shapes the individual. Morano's sentiments about travel and saying farewell to relationships are reflected in these lines:
   
   "If you move about in the world, if you live fully and fall in love--with friends, acquaintances, and places and periods of time, your heart is going to break again and again. Each time you say good-bye, you'll feel the ache of impermanence, of inevitability, of your own finite days."
   
   I connected with this book because I would have benefitted greatly from studying in foreign lands while I was studying Spanish as my college major. However, overseas travel and study programs were not as prevalent in the late 70's or early 80's as they are now. I have since made many excursions to Mexico and Spain, although at this point in my life I live vicariously as an eager armchair traveler. I comfortably travel to many faraway places through others' spoken and written accounts.
   
   As I read Grammar Lessons, Morano took me on a vivid tour of her daily discoveries of cultural life and relationships in Spain. The pages held me spellbound, and I wished the journey did not have to end.
   
   by Sharon Blumberg
   for Story Circle Book Reviews
   www.storycirclebookreviewsorg
   reviewing books by, for, and about women

No comments about Frommer's Spain's Best-Loved Driving Tours: 25 Unforgettable Itineraries (5th Ed).

No comments about Walking in Andalucia: The Best Walks in Southern Spain's Natural Parks (Santana Guides) (Santana Guides).