1 comments about Top 10 Lisbon (EYEWITNESS TRAVEL GUIDE).

1. I gave this guide to my daughter and son-in-law who were staying in Lisbon for a week and they said it was indispensible. They used it for restaurants, sites, and shopping. She had brought other guides with her but none, she said, were as good as this one.

1 comments about Pocket Map and Guide Madrid (EYEWITNESS TRAVEL GUIDE).

1. I recently spent one day in Madrid and bought this guide to help me get the most out of my 24 hours. And it was great! The book touches on the major sights organized by the city's 3 areas. It has a metro map as well as an excellent fold-out street map of the city center. This is not a book I would necessarily purchase for a longer trip, although it would be a very good supplement.

5 comments about Spanish in 10 Minutes a Day® (10 Minutes a Day Series).

1. This text is either for the very beginning beginner or a good review for the person who has been away from Spanish for a time.
   It is done in a logical manner and in workbook form. It has stickers for nouns and cutouts for flashcards of the important beginning vocabulary in the book. It is fun to do and quick to finish.



2. I first checked this book out from the library. It is so good , I purchased a copy from Amazon. This book has the normal words used everyday. It is easy to follow and you do it at you own pace. You are learning how to speak in easy short sentences. It has flash cards that speed up the learning process. Of all the reference books I have, this is the one I pick up first. This book will be great if you are going on vacation and only need to know certain things :)



3. The seller misrepresented this workbook, and I was quite disappointed when I got it. It was advertised as being in excellent condition, and all of the flash cards were torn out of the back.



4. For those with basic but not great Spanish skills, this was a great book for refreshing your vocabulary for basic things you may need for travel. I'm sure my grammar is horrible and this book certainly did not focus of ensuring I spoke in the correct verb tense all the time, but it did enable me to communicate and transact basic needs , such as checking into a hotel, ordering at a restaurant, or getting directions. Hey, I'm just a gringo trying to show the decency and respect to speak a little bit of the language when traveling; for this purpose, this is an excellent resource.



5. This book got the "usted" verbs wrong starting on page 42. For example, "you speak" is supposed to be "usted hablas", not "usted habla". "el/ella habla" means "he/she speaks". Otherwise, this book is OK for tourists who hadn't studied Spanish before. For the "Spanish veteran" who wants a review, you might want to try Ultimate Spanish by Living Language, Rosetta Stone, or better yet, take a college Spanish class.

1 comments about Michelin Spain & Portugal/Michelin Espana & Portugal: Tourist and Motoring Atlas (Michelin Tourist and Motoring Atlas : Spain & Portugal).

1. This is an excellent and highly detailed driving map. My only negative comment is that it is so detailed, a magnifying glass may be needed to read certain roadway areas.

1 comments about Let's Go 2008 Spain & Portugal (Let's Go Spain and Portugal).

1. This book is packed full of information. It's also large. However, the maps it provides are both truncated and not in color. The layout of the articles on each city are not as well formatted and readable as other guide books. The "Rough Guide to Spain" is by far a better buy.

5 comments about Driving Over Lemons: An Optimist in Spain.

1. I opened this book with great anticipation because of my previous happy trips to Provence with Peter Mayle and Tuscany with Frances Mayes. Though Stewart's reporting of his experience as an ex-pat living on a rustic farm in Spain is serviceable and may be useful to someone planning a comparable adventure, the book never achieves the transporting quality of the best of this genre. When I closed it (half-way through), I missed enjoying that delicious sense of having made a trip to a new place without leaving my own armchair.



2. What a pleasure it was to read this book. I just came out of National Poetry Month here on the NH Seacoast -- six weeks (it's expanding in both directions from April) of poetry readings with a festival of jazz and poetry as its centerpiece. I attended, hosted, read at, and otherwise participated in nearly 30 events during this period. When it was over, I needed a break; my brain hurt. At that point, I ran into a bus-driver friend who is also a reader. I asked him what he was reading and he recommended Driving Over Lemons. I usually plan my reading months ahead of time; but this time I bought it on impulse. What a treat. Totally laid back. Exciting but not sensationalist. Interesting but not preachy. A cast of genuinely quirky characters -- thankfully, not a "normal" one among them. And sheep, dogs, herbs, heat, flies. All bisected by a willful river. If you approach this book desiring anything more than something that is a simple pleasure to read, you're doing it a disservice. It certainly got my mind out of poetry long enough for me to regain my balance so I can now go back in fighting.



3. Read every one of Chris Stewart books and will continue to read as long as he keeps on writing.



4. I found this to be a rather odd book, reading like a series of snapshots of the author's life in rural Andalusia. Stewart spends many pages at the beginning of the book recounting a lot of disagreeable time spent with the man who sold him his Spanish homestead in the province of Granada. It isn't until he has cleared this particular barrier that the story got more interesting for me.
   
   There is some good writing in this journal about living off the land in a country not your own, but the same story has been told countless times by others. (What is it about the English that sends them off to the Continent to live rough so often?) Not sure that there are many revelations here that would drive you to buy this book. Still, it is pleasant reading in many of its parts and if you are interested in things Spanish, this might be a good read for you.



5. This story provided a wonderful escape as I read it and pictured the valley and the mountains, the river and the sheep...it does a great job of making me want to take on a similar adventure!

No comments about Fodor's Spain 2008 (Fodor's Gold Guides).

5 comments about The Camino : A Journey of the Spirit.

1. I love this book. Shirley Maclaine is an excellent writer. I have never read a book as quickly as I read this one and I am going to read it again. This is a phenomenal book and I highly recommend it.



2. I've read this book twice. I don't know if I believe everything that Ms. MacLaine claims but it was a fun read and I enjoyed every bit of her journey.



3. Interesting read until she got into her dream visions about the beginning of time and adam and eve and paradise, etc... I mean, yes, possible but it sounded too cookie cutter to me. Like she made it up and tried to make it fit into a mold we already know and threw some sparkles in there for good measure. I like Shirley and have believed what she's been through in the past but now I have my doubts. I think the experience of the camino and her dealings with her environment there is a much more interesting read. She should have stuck to that.



4. Since marrying a Spaniard, most of our vacations have been to Spain. As a result, I tend to key in on books dealing with Spain. When I picked up "The Camino", I anticipated a quirky tale on hiking the Camino (i.e. an entertaining quick read). The book initially met my expectations. She explained her Camino decision and within a few pages was starting her pilgrimage on the trail. As expected, she meets some "unique characters" along the way and provides insight into the trail conditions (or lack thereof). However, the book slowly turns into a "vision quest". As you progress through the book, descriptions of the trail and modern day pilgrims are replaced by detailed descriptions of dreams and visions as well as her run-ins with the Press. The ending is anti-climatic and rushed. If I had paid full price for the book, I would be kicking myself for the purchase. Fortunately, I found the book in the bargain bin. Ignoring the purchase price, was the book worth reading? I did gain insight into the Camino trail conditions. However, I paid a high price for that insight. Only my determination to not leave a book half read got me through this relatively short book. All in all, I cannot recommend this book.



5. As a longtime reader of Shirley's book's, this was the next one for me. I learned alot and at this time, learning is very important to me.

5 comments about Kinky Gazpacho: Life, Love & Spain.

1. Lori Tharps describes herself on " My American Meltingpot ":
   
   * Gender: Female
   * Occupation: Writer/Teacher/Mom
   * Location: Mount Airy : USA
   
   Black-American Female. Wife of Spanish Male. Mother to 2 SpaNegro boys. Writer. Author. Teacher. Chameleon. People Person. Aspiring Icon.
   
   Kinky Gazpacho expands that information in a factually interesting, emotionally interesting way. She grew up in a white suburb of Milwaukee Wisconsin. For a reason she doesn't really explain, at an early age she decided her destiny lay in Spain. She didn't know anyone there, had never visited the country and barely spoke Spanish. (She equally unrevealing later in the book about why she joined the the Baha'i faith.)
   
   Part of her reason may for seeking an identity may lie in this passage about International Day from her grade school days:
   
   "The activities started at lunchtime. Our usual family-style meal was a smorgasbord of international flavors. We had bratwurst and apple turnovers, Swedish meatballs and some sort of Chinese stir-fry with crunchy noodles. No snails, though. After lunch we headed to the gym and were met with a riot of color and noise and information. We went around as a class first, visiting the different booths. Each booth represented a different country and was manned by volunteer parents in costumes. And then we were free to roam around, playing games, sampling sweets, and reading about distant lands. As I meandered around the gym, I completely forgot about my lack of heritage and just enjoyed all the activities with my friends. And then it was time for the parade of costumes, and I moved to the edge of the floor. I wasn't the only one without a costume, though. Other kids had forgotten or couldn't find anything to wear. I tried to act like I belonged with them.
   
   "By the time International Day was over, I felt like I had been holding my breath and I could finally let it go. All day long I had been praying nobody would ask me where I came from and why I wasn't wearing a costume. The fact that they didn't ask made me realize that they all probably knew and didn't want to make me feel bad. Everybody knew that Black people came from nothing."
   
   Tharps attended Smith College and spent a year studying in Spain. Her "innocent dreams of a place where race doesn't matter are shattered." She learned that southern Spain is a very racist area, with a long and complex history of Black slaves from Western Africa. Her researches indicated that the history of slavery is suppressed by the Spanish Government and forgotten by the Spanish public.
   
   On the personal side, she is chased down the street by kids and pointed at by adults. She learns that chocolate covered peanuts are packaged in "little plastic statues of a naked Pygmy with oversized red lips, bulging eyes and and a spear in his little hand" called " Conguitos ". [Google the word; it's almost shocking how the image leaps off the computer screen.] A Spanish mother struggling with her child, points to Tharps and says: "If you don't behave, I'll give you to that." An article in a Sunday paper discusses "the Black woman's hypersexuality through their intrinsically savage nature."
   
   Despite the culture shock, Tharps stays in Spain and eventually meets Manuel. One of the most moving passages describes how Manuel introduces Lori to his family. His grandmother spies on her; his grandfather is warm in his welcome, but tells her many racist jokes. Lori is careful to collect her hair in the bathroom after washing and drying it.
   
   Thaps's hair provides important insights. In an interview with "Ebony", Tharps says "I had just finished writing my first book, Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America, and it seemed everything about the Black experience in America could be traced back to our hair. I was joking with my husband that my next book would be the story of how we met and fell in love and that it should be called Kinky Gazpacho -- the Kinky referring to me and my kinky hair and the Gazpacho being the traditional tomato soup from Spain that my husband could not live without."
   
   This wonderful book is a memoir, a travelogue and most of all a love story. It taught me a great deal about the Black experience in the US, about slavery and racism in Spain, and about the human heart.



2. I could not put down Kinky Gazpacho!!! Lori's delivery of her story was heartfelt and warm, as well as insightful and educational. It has made me even more determined to broaden my life experiences by travelling to other countries (including Spain!!), and immersing myself in different cultures. Kinky Gazpacho leaves the reader hopeful, inspired, and ready to engage life fully.



3. Tharps' story about her love-hate relationship with Spain was high on my list of must reads for this summer - and it turned out to be time well-spent. Tharps chronicles her youth in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where she was the only Black girl in her predominately white classes, to her undergrad days at Smith college, where she is one of the few Black women on campus. Tharps struggles to find herself and determine where she fits in. As a youth, she develops a strong love for Spain and vows to see this country that she has fallen so deeply for. Tharps takes her readers to Salamanca and we watch as her adoration for this country slowly turns to something else when she encounters its citizens and learns its hidden truths. This is simply a love story - and in the end, I think Tharps eventually learns to love the thing that is most important - herself.



4. This memoir by Lori Tharps, who also the co-authored of Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America, was a nice, easy, lightweight coming-of-age story. The book got a little whiny at times as the author tried to reconcile the differences between the Spain of her imaginations and the real Spain especially as it related to the treatment, ideas and attitudes of Black people. But I was completely on-board as she struggled to figure out her identity as a Black person. She grew up in an area that was predominantly White and was never really confident in her Blackness especially when dealing with other Black people. As a first generation Nigerian born and raised in the states, that has been something I too have struggled with. If you speak English properly, enjoy reading and the Opera, well, then, you are not really Black. We know that's not true but I think it's something that many young, upwardly mobile, intelligent Black people face. What does it mean to be truly Black? Ms. Tharps story is inspirational in that she finds her own way to be authentically Black. I felt like she glossed over some things (like her children's birth and her practice of the Ba'hai faith) but these, I suppose, were not the focus of her book. She is, however, refreshingly honest about herself and her feelings/emotions in her page-turning memoir. I think it's that candor that makes you want to continue reading because there is nothing overly exciting going on in the book. It's her story. And it's just life. The ups. The downs. And the in-betweens.
   
   Great summer reading.



5. I must admit that I vacillated between sorrow and anger for Lori. She seemed to have such a hard time identifying with her Blackness and I didn't realize young Black people struggled with this identity crisis while coming of age in the '80's. Having lived through the turmoil of the '50's and '60's, I assumed that people of African descent living in America were Black and Proud.
   
   I'm happy that Lori is finally appreciating the blessing of being born Black, one manifestation of the Source of all of us.
   
   Now she will be able to impart to her children and others that on a spiritual plane, all of us share the same Source even though the multitude fails to realize that the breath of life, the air that sustains us all is the same. Many will go through life not realizing this simple fact and will continue to erect barriers/walls to separate us.
   
   Her memoir is a gratifying read and many will enjoy her awakening.

2 comments about Azores, 3rd: The Bradt Travel Guide.

1. This book was very helpful for my week long trip to the Azores. There are useful appendices in the back detailing flora and fish native to the islands (this helped alot ordering fish in the restaurants!) There is also a good section on photography which I did not expect. Although, I am more accustomed to the format of lonely planet guides this one proved to be organized ok. Nice sections on walks and hiking trails. A bit lacking in the transport department but don't worry, the islands are small and cabs are affordable and easy to find.



2. My wife and inlaws are natives of Pico, Azores and I purchased this book as reference material for a upcoming family trip to Pico. We all found valuable information in the book and my inlaws even learned a few things they didn't know about their homeland. Well worth the money. Strongly recommend buying the Azores road map too.