No comments about Fodor's Spanish for Travelers (Phrase Book), 3rd Edition (Fodor's Languages/Travelers).

5 comments about On Pilgrimage.

1. Just finished the book and found it very poetic in some parts and kind of confusing in others. There were two errors that I found, and maybe it is nit-picking, but it made me wonder about other information that was given. First, Henry II married Eleanor of Aquitaine in the cathedral at Poitiers, not in Lisieux, and Abelard is buried in Pere Lachaise Cemetary in Paris with Heloise, not in Cluny. Well worth reading, tho, especially if you've been to some of the places mentioned, or plan to visit others. I found it fascinating that she most always found a room wherever she stopped whatever the time. Obviously she spoke French well.



2. Jennifer Lash, who appears to be the mother of the actors Ralph and Joseph Fiennes, made a solo trip of pilgrimage through France in l993 after winning a battle with cancer (for awhile). As a non-practising Catholic in late middle age, she knew her theological territory when traveling from convent to monastery to basilica to pilgrimage camp; but she approached her visits in a determined spirit of not-knowing. I found that intellectually or maybe morally refreshing; it served as a Carlos-Castaneda-like bridge role which helped me, the reader, someone else who does "not know". Her experience of moving on repeatedly reminded her that travel brings us back up against our selves. She feels strongly and works transparently to understand her feelings; the sorting-out process which the pilgrimage crystallizes for this writer can illuminate whatever journey her reader is on.
   
   Her writing is both erudite and humble. She was a sophisticated Briton who had spent much of her life raising her very large family. From miracle site to miracle site on the French trains, carrying her baggage on an injured back, she tells us the stories of the saints whose cults have given rise to these sites, and describes the religious communities which maintain them. In between, she tells us about the people she meets and re-meets. She is often wry, but never sarcastic; describes ridiculousness sharply but never cruelly. She learns as she goes, and as she learns she teaches, in the kindest way. She is a LADY - decent and sincere, and also funny and engaged.
   Her descriptions make the feel of each place most vivid - the baroque, fully alive Santiago de Compostela, the gloomy, cold Rocamadour, the wild emotional Gypsy pilgrimage in the Camargue are all made quite visible, audible, smellable, each entirely different from the others - and there are about fifteen of these places in the book.
   The book is horribly proofread - the commas are in the wrong places, so that Ms. Lash reads like a rather bizarre speaker - a peculiar pauser for breath in funny places. There are outright mistakes that no one caught - the word "paramount" is confused with "tantamount", for example, and a priest is described as wearing a "scapula", the shoulder blade, when she meant "scapular", a liturgical garment. We know what she means, but we have to wade along doing our own corrections.
   This strange aberration makes reading the book feel like chatting with a deeply imaginative, thoughtful, unselfconsciously wacky human being, rather than "a writer". But what a writer, and what a significant story this journey is when told in her voice.



3. It was too wordy and because I don't know much about the Catholic Saints it was very confusing. This was not fun or enjoyable to read. It was more like an assignment than for pleasure, which is why I didn't bother finishing it. There are too many other good books out there to read than to waste my time finishing this one. My book club read this and all of us found it very blah. If you do decide to read it I hope you find it as interesting as the other reviewers did -- but notice that they even found a lot of problems with the prose and editing.



4. My motivation for reading this book was to gain insight into the astounding acting talent and integrity of one of Jennifer Lash's sons, Joseph Fiennes.She was the formative influence in his life and I was curious as to what is was about her that could produce such results.
   She took her pilgrimage as a result of having survived cancer and now questioned some of the beliefs on which she had heretofore based her life, namely her Catholic faith. Non catholics may have a difficult time understanding the significance of the holy sites that she visits on her pilgrimage. However, this is not a syrupy, God is Love kind of tome. She does not necessarily believe in God and is objective about the arcane practises that have grown up around these "holy" places. Women, particularly, will identify with her need to go off on a solo journey at midlife. They also will understand that as she attempts to find answers she only comes up with more questions.



5. ...so comforting. Her tone is so easy to relate with, her writing is prosaic and full of feeling, totally uncontrived. She goes to all these Catholic shrines seeking something she's not quite sure of and in the end we're fairly sure she has found an elusive truce with her God. The characters we meet on the journey range from heartwarming to simply disgusting (like [...]priest and the freak on the train to Spain (just read the book). This book made me very glad to be a Jew. We don't have to traipse all over the globe seeking out Marian apparitions or mythical magical global Christian Hot Spots, all we need is Israel. Anyway, my favorite piece is where she's feeling disconsolate and alone in a café and suddenly she sees an apparition of her husband walk in and she's flooded with peace.
   Here's hoping we get a re-release of Jini's older work an perhaps a new edition of On Pilgrimage with proper copyediting.

No comments about Espana, patrimonio de la humanidad.

No comments about Travellers Catalonia, 2nd (Travellers Guides).

1 comments about Fodor's Seville, Granada & Andalusia, 1st Edition (Fodor's Gold Guides).

1. This book was our second most used travel guide (of 3) during our recent trip to Portugal and Andalucia. Our favorite was Time Out (a relative judgment.) Fodor's gave a competent appraisal of the relevant tourist attractions- hardly a difficult task in Southern Spain (1. go to cathedral 2. go to bull ring 3. go to castle.) The restaurant recommendations were mostly useless- very dowdy and focused on traditional options. My thought is that Fodor's is focsued on an older crowd (wife and I are in low 30's.) I wouldn't recommend Fodor's, even though the specifity of a Andalucia focused guidebooks makes it superior to the Michelin Spain guide.

3 comments about One Room in a Castle: Letters from Spain, France & Greece.

1. This is a travel book in more ways than one. Connelly provides interesting stories of her travels in Spain, France, and Greece (and a little at-home time in Canada). She also opens up her own life and experiences, sharing her observations, insecurities, and pleasures, along with short fiction and poetry along the way. Connelly's approach to travel writing reminds me of my favorite Mary Morris travel books and I've given it as a gift to friends who also enjoyed Morris's books.



2. Karen Connelly does a wonderful job of recreating the experiences and thoughts she had while on her journeys through France, Greece and Spain. One Room In A Castle is a textured, rich account of the cultures in which Karen Connelly connected. Although I have not yet had the pleasure of visiting these countries, I truly felt, as I read the poetry and prose, a love for the land, people and experience which compelled the writing in the first place. Travel Literature, at it's best, is absolutely captivating, taking the reader to the core of the experience. Karen Connelly does this in ONE ROOM IN A CASTLE. I highly recommend the text to anyone interested in Travel Literature.



3. This is like opening a treasure and discovering all the beauty of the world around us, and the worlds within us. Karen shoots from the heart, she gives us her thoughts, her stories, her people. It's not a travel book, not a rough guide to anywhere, it's a search. Karen is searching for herself, discovering herself, discovering all the parts of herself as she travels. We are all of us, many things to many people, but we all need to learn how to be happy in our own skin, and Karen is definitely searching. Sure she goes to Greece, France and Spain and paints us accurate pictures of the places and people she encounters, but the bigger search is within herself.

No comments about Naïve & Abroad: Spain: Limping 600 Miles through History.

4 comments about Lonely Planet World Food Spain (Lonely Planet World Food Guides).

1. As frequent world travelers, we have certain "rituals" we perform prior to departure. Chief among these is "studying" food - reading and preparing dishes from appropriate cookbooks. We're going to Barcelona and Costa Brava in May, and have prepared numerous Paella dishes. The recipe in this book is much easier to prepare than most and equally excellent in flavor. We had read in Saveur Magazine a bit about Sidrerias. (Cider Houses, but not as in the bestselling book.) The Lonely Planet guide gave much more information. The one downside to this book is the lack recommendations of good restaurants, bars, etc. Perhaps their travel guide does this, but it would have been much better to incorporate this into the volume under discussion. The book is extremely well organized, and it's easy to access information on virtually any food-related subject. This would be a great addition to the library of anyone interested in Spanish cuisine. The section on "Fit & Healthy" does a much better than usual job of explaining potential risk factors for American tourists, and how to deal with them. This will be one of three books we bring with us to Spain. I look forward to acquiring any other titles published in this series. Kudos to Lonely Planet.



2. As frequent world travelers, there are certain "rituals" we perform prior to departure. Chief among these familiarizing ourselves with the local cuisine, and preparing dishes we expect to be eating. This little volume does the best job I have ever seen in explaining local food and drink, food preparation tools and techniques, and regional variations on all of these. Some recipes are included: the paella is the easiest I have ever prepared, and equally flavorful. The book is beautifully illustrated and whets one's appetite for travel to Spain as well as eating there. Descriptions of restaurant types are excellent: do YOU know what to expect at a horno asador, versus a terraza? And just what sort of drink WOULD you find at a sidreria? The one downside of the book is the lack of specific recommendations of restaurants, tavernas, etc. This is somewhat countered by a very precise guide to recommended stalls to visit in the Barcelona market. However, other guide books would have to steer you to eating establishments. The section on "Fit and Healthy" eating should be read by any traveler to a foreign country. Kudos to Lonely Planet. We look forward with great enthusiasm to their editions related to other cuisines.



3. We travel quite a bit and spend a lot of time beforehand getting information about the food where we're headed. Before taking off for Turkey some 3 years ago we bought "Eat Smart in Turkey," (there are several countries covered in that series), which was just what we were looking for. We used LP guides a lot, so welcome the debut of their food guides. Bought the one on Spain for an upcoming repeat trip and expect this guide to be helpful. No McD's for us!



4. I have three lonely planet food guides: Italy, Portugal, and Spain. I have used the other two extensively on my travels, each very informative on regional cuisines..no easy task, especially for Italy.
   
   Disappointingly, this book lumps Spain together in only 4 regions: Mediterranean, Atlantic, Pyrenees,and Heart of Spain, and barely touches its diverse cuisine. Actually there are 17 regions (not 4 as this book would have you believe) in Spain -each with its own regional specialties. For example, in Mallorca (where I have just visited) they have beautiful rustic brown bread, a pizza-like pastry called Coca, a dish not unlike ratatouille called Tumbet. But you won't know that from this book, which mentions none of these. Mallorca is only cited in the book as a place where rice grows in Spain. The book does not even consider the Canary Islands! These are just 2 examples of things left out. I could go on: the winter-like gazpacho made of game served in Valencia's interior region,the famous veal "ternera" from Galicia, caffe carajillo a typical after dinner coffee served with alcohol (your choice) or caffe bonbon served with sweetened condensed milk. No, none of these are mentioned in the book, either.
   
   On the whole, the book skims the surface of Spanish cuisine...describing what most already know about Spain, ie: tortilla, jamon, sangria, paella, manchego cheese. I seriously wonder whether the author even visited Spain or wrote the entire book from his arm-chair somewhere far far away from Spain.
   
   If you'd like to learn about regional Spanish food for your trip, better look elsewhere. You'll be sadly disappointed with this book.

No comments about Retiring in Spain: A Survival Handbook.

1 comments about The Rough Guides' Ibiza Directions 2 (Rough Guide Directions).

1. This book is definitely more useful than the alternative, "Ibiza Travel Pack", which I also purchased. It focuses evenly on different geographic regions of the island, even though some of these are more heavily trafficked than others. The book lacked information about Playa d'en Bossa, which is the area I am interested in--it does not review any hotels in this area--so I had to turn to the Internet for more info. The book also failed to note how so many of the airline departures and arrivals occur between midnight and 4AM.