No comments about Lonely Planet Barcelona Encounter (Lonely Planet Encounter Barcelona) (Best Of).

5 comments about Buenos Aires: A Cultural History (Cultural Histories Series).

1. This is not a "travel book" in the usual sense -- you will not, for instance, find anything about where to stay or eat. Rather, this is an historical, cultural, and literary guide to Buenos Aires that will make your time there more interesting and worthwhile.

   Progressing geographically through the city's most important streets, plazas, and neighborhoods, Wilson uses the observations of writers, artists, foreign visitors, politicians, academics, and others to give the reader a "feel" for both the city and its inhabitants. These observations are supplemented with just enough historical framework to provide context. Buenos Aires is a city filled with buildings, streets, and monuments that stir up a great deal of emotion in its inhabitants; what this book does is help to explain why these locations are so important and how they fit together -- geographically, historically, psychologically -- to make up the city.

   This book was along with me during my recent trip to Buenos Aires and undoubtedly made my time there more satisfying. Its only real deficiency is a lack of good maps -- there is one, but it is very general and doesn't cover enough territory. Nonetheless, I would strongly recommend this book to anyone traveling to Buenos Aires.




2. I loved Mexico City by Nick Caistor in this series but this was a HUGE disappointment. There is way way too much name dropping and quoting of other sources rather than getting the author's actual feel of the city of Buenos Aires as it is today. I understand this series is subtitled as "a cultural and literary companion" but I'd have preferred way more emphasis on the culture as it stands now and less of the literary references. It was like reading Footnotes 101.

   Stick with Miranda France's Bad Times in Buenos Aires.




3. I spent a week in Buenos Aires and brought this book with me with the hope that it would introduce me to the uniqueness of this contradictory and culturally rich city - it did not. I have not read a more disjointed, dysfunctional guide than this one.
   
   Jason Wilson uses the word 'Babylonic' to describe Buenos Aires, and in a Freudian way, that very word describes how this book reads. Wilson uses the words of other writers to express (evidently he cannot) the soul of this city. All the multitude of quotes muddles your mind and the book ends up sounding like babble.
   
   Quote after quote assails you from writers you will be sorely pressed to recognize. This book could, maybe, work best in an Argentinian Literature course where the readers would have a pejorative understanding of the writers quoted. BUT, it is not, in any way, suitable for the average, or even above average, traveler in Buenos Aires. If you want an understanding of Argentina's Culture, then you should consider 'Culture Shock! Argentina' (however it too could be seriously improved, see my review). Not Recommended



4. Jason Wilson is an editor of travel writing collections of some note, and I have much enjoyed other books in the Cities of the Imagination series (most notably Elizabeth Nash's Madrid volume), so I looked forward to the arrival of this book from Amazon with much anticipation.
   
   I was, for the most part, greatly disappointed.
   
   The book was intensively researched, and you can count on several apt quotations per page. Hardly a signicant writer about Buenos Aires in the last three centures goes uncited, and it seems as if every block on the city grid gets its moment.
   
   The flaw - and it is a near fatal flaw - lies in the organization. Wilson organizes the book rigidly according to geography, going more or less block by block around the city, and detailing who lived in this building or what writer set a scene in that block of apartments.
   
   Whereas Nash weaves the history and neighborhoods of Madrid into broad thematic stories, Wilson tells no stories. He bludgeons you with facts and literary quotations, tied together only by geography. It is a hard and boring slog, and even if you push through, you emerge with no unifying concepts that might help you understand this vast and magical city.
   
   It's a shame, really, that the book is so dull and mechanically structured, because the research that went into it clearly was extensive, and because Buenos Aires seems to offer more potential than most cities for a proper Cities of the Imagination treatment. It reads, unfortunately, as if time ran out for the actual writing of the book, and the writer delivered a data dump organized by zip code.
   
   If you drive a tour bus around Buenos Aires for English speaking tourists, this book will prove a handy reference, barrio by barrio, street by street. If you are researching your own book on Buenos Aires, the bibliography alone will save you months in identifying the books you should read. If, however, you are planning a visit to Buenos Aires and want one cultural guide that will help you understand the living, breathing city, this is not the book to choose.



5. Because the book is organized around the cafes, theaters, and other cultural landmarks of particular streets, the book was an enormous help in understanding the city. By reading it beforehand, it allowed us to prepare our daily itinerary from a cultural-historical perspective. Forget the naysayers, here is no better book in understanding and appreciating the city of Buenos Aires as Jason Wilson's book. I've given it to all my friends.

5 comments about Madrid: A Cultural and Literary Companion (Cities of the Imagination).

1. The author's knowledge and understanding of Madrileno culture, history, literature, art and psyche are impressive. She brings all these elements together to form the big picture, and the result is a potrayal of Madrid that goes deep beyond the surface. A fascinating account.



2. Part way into a year in Madrid, I found this book in a bookshop near the Puerto del Sol. Having read -- mostly with disappointment -- guidebooks of the "eat here, sleep there" variety, as well as of the "observe famous site on the left" variety, I have been absolutely entranced with this book.

   What it does is bring alive the stories of Madrid. It's not a guidebook, per se, although I think it would be an invaluable book to have on any visit to Spain. It's more a collection of stories, of anecdotes, that pull you into the actual life of the city as it is and as it was.

   A typical example: almost all guidebooks mention the Cafe Gijon, and cite it as a good place to eat where generations of Madrid literati have dined. You are left wondering, which Madrid literati, what was the appeal, and what did they do there? Rather than leave you hanging so, Elizabeth Nash guides through the society of "tertullias" (informal but somewhat stable idle discussion groups) that once flourished in these cafes, quoting from some of the novels written about this literary life, pulling up diverse quotes and recollections. By the time you are done you even know the name and the politics of the man who sells cigarettes at the stand just inside the Cafe Gijon's door.

   That's the sort of thing the book does throughout. Rather than just identify sites and give you a summary description, it takes you into tales of selected important areas of Madrid. Some are on everyone's tour itinerary, such as the Plaza Mayor and the Puerta del Sol, while others, such as the college residence hall where Dali, Bunuel and Garcia Lorca discovered each other, art and life, do not figure in the packaged tours.

   While drawing on marvellously deep and diverse sources, it's also a very good read. It moves quickly.

   I recommend it highly.




3. This little book is a delightful read: informative, well-written, and entertaining. I can't imagine a better book for anyone planning a trip to Spain.



4. I read this book prior to going on a recent trip to Madrid. While not a tourist's guide specifically, I loved the mix of history, art, literature, and local color of Madrid. An excellent read before your trip and equally fascinating to re-read after your trip to Madrid.



5. This is a well-written book about the history and culture of Madrid. I gained a better understanding of the culture of Madrid and how the Madrilenos live and think. For example, the lifestyle described centering around the cafes and the tertulias ("the gathering of people who meet regularly to converse or amuse themselves") enables you to visualize life in Madrid during the 1880's. The book is worth reading and instills a desire to learn about Spain's history and culture.

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

5 comments about Camino Chronicle: Walking to Santiago.

1. Reviewed by Paige Lovitt for Reader Views (6/06)
   
   In 2001, Susan Alcorn and her husband Ralph journeyed to northern Spain to hike the Camino de Santiago Pilgrimage Trail. This incredible journey took them over 400 miles through a vast array of landscapes and adventures. What I really loved about this book is that while Alcorn is journaling her current experiences, she is also educating us on the history and culture of the areas that they pass through. This gives much richer detail to the story. It is also interesting to read about how this part of Spain differs from the American culture.
   
   Initially, I wanted to read this story to learn about someone else's adventure, however after having read it, I have gained the desire to do this pilgrimage myself. Alcorn doesn't sugar coat her experiences, there are some rough patches along the way. Reading her journal, I learned about the positive and negative aspects of such a journey. The personal growth that she gains from this experience seems to overcome
   everything. She has also taken on much grander challenges since this one.
   
   I highly recommend this book to armchair travelers and to those who are willing to take on an adventure like this. The daily accounts of Alcorn's experiences would prepare you for the journey and the historical information would really enrich your experience. This would be the perfect piece of equipment to have in your backpack!



2. A good book with a lot of history and also where you are, how to get there. A must to walkers of the camino.



3. Camino Chronicle: Walking To Santiago is the travel journal of a wife who walked across Northern Spain in 2001, following a venerable pilgrimage trail called the Camino de Santiago, retracing the footsteps of such famous historical figures as Charlemagne, St. Francis of Assisi, King Fernando and Queen Isabel. Historical notes and personal experiences and inspiration blend into a highly readable day-by-day account, and numerous legends or cultural notes on Spain about everything from bullfighting to Spanish Olives are included, with their own quick-reference index. A most enjoyable tour especially recommended for armchair travelers, and the next best experience to flying to Spain and hiking the pilgrimage trail personally.



4. I had heard a podcast interview with Susan about the Camino and read her website, so my expectations for the book were very high. I think it does a good job of laying out the experiences of being a pilgrim and the unique one of being on the Way during 9/11. She is complete in her descriptions and the book is well laid out.
   Having just read a few Camino books so far I think they fall into three categories: Logistical descriptions that help you with day to day planning, Historical anthologies that explain the importance of the Camino and its various sites, and personal accounts of individuals experiences.
   Camino Chronicle is the later and a balanced book to read.



5. Camino Chronicle details Susan and Ralph Alcorn's 500-mile, 36-day trip on the Spanish leg of the Camino de Santiago to Santiago de Compostela.
   
   What makes Camino Chronicle unique and a very enjoyable read is its rich, multi-faceted approach.
   
   Author Susan Alcorn weaves journal entries from the trip with historical and cultural information, letters from home as they walk the Camino on September 11th 2001, reflective comments on the impact of the journey
   as well as practical tips on how to prepare for such a pilgrimage.
   
   The daily journal entries pull you into the experience. They're honest. Susan talks about her initial apprehension, the discomforts of the long-distance hike, the challenges of securing refugio accommodations.
   As the trip progresses, we see our hikers ground themselves in the moment, in the company of fellow pilgrims and in their surroundings which Susan describes with a clear and vivid voice.
   The side notes on local legends, such as the legend of the river of death or the chickens of Santo Domingo, add a touch of magic to the trip. Insights on local olive production or bullfighting customs add depth to the experience.
   
   Clearly, the journey is more than just a 36-day hike, and the book does a great job at describing the experience in all of its aspects.
   
   If you're considering a similar trip or looking for a thoughtful, informative and entertaining read, I highly recommend it.

5 comments about The Rough Guide to Andalucia - Edition 5 (Rough Guide Travel Guides).

1. Keeping in the tradition of the insight, clarity, and usefulness which has made Rough Guide among the best of guide book series, the Rough Guide to Andalucia is the definitive book for any tourist interested in visitng that region.

   Uncluttered, with honest facts AND opinions about where to eat, landmarks, hotels, hostels, and more, the Rough Guide is peerless in it's thorough usefulness.

   This book does an excellent job of presenting more than your usual tourist traps. Special needs travelers (pets, children, handicapped) can also get a sense of what may and may not be good ideas for your Andalucian odyssey.

   All in all, if you're looking for a guide book that presents what you NEED to know without a lot of editorial musings, you will find the Rough Guide to Andalucia not only at the forefront of this genre, but without competition when it comes to giving you all things the "non-touristy tourist" wants to know.




2. I found this book extremely helpful, if a bit bulky. One shortcoming is that the book does not include prices for the accommodation it recommends. Prices are always helpful if you're traveling on a budget; even though they become outdated quickly, they at least give you an idea.
   
   Including the frequency of bus and train routes was very helpful, but they should also include web sites to check current schedules.
   
   I do recommend this book.



3. This high-quality guide is 50% thicker than the Lonely Planet guide to Andalucia, yet it's not too big or heavy for a light packer. (But I wouldn't want one any heavier than this.) There's no filler; it's dense with practical information.
   
   The "Let's Go" guides are written by undergrads and have excellent lists of accommodations and eats, but the rest of it tends to be immature and alarmist purple prose. (I'll never forget this comment on Morocco: "But be careful, camels have been known to carry syphilis." OK, how many people do you know that have caught syphilis from a camel?!) I call it "Let's Not Go" because they always try to scare you. Other travelers I've met had similar comments and once upon a train ride we had some laughs swapping ridiculous citations.
   
   Rick Steves is just too political for me. His "guides" read like tiresome negative campaign commercials or anti-American polemics.
   
   This guide is about Andalucia. It starts off with a section called "34 Things Not To Miss" with a nice color photo of each, includes a good index, clear and legible maps, and a section on Gibraltar. All the opening/closing times were accurate for the places I went. Those who enjoy intelligent historical and background commentary will like this.
   
   There's no logistical info on Madrid but that's OK: those who land there can go to the prominent "i" booth in Barajas airport or Atocha (the main train station) for free maps and friendly information in English.
   
   Accommodation prices are absent because they vary by season, but good values are pointed out. The money section should warn about the blue "EXACT Transfer" exchange booths in train stations which charge exorbitant fees (like 25%!) and refuse to cancel the transaction once they have your money. (They display different rates for three amount ranges, but charge the highest rate regardless of your amount; it would be a crime in most places.) Note that prices on everything have skyrocketed since the advent of the Euro: the Ave ("AHH-vay") fast train between Madrid and Sevilla cost 70 Euros each way (!) and taxi fares were what I would expect to pay in the U.S. (Tapas is still a deal.) I also suggest a free glance at the State Department's consular information sheet online --your tax dollars at work.



4. After just spending 10 days in Andalucia, I have to say that I wished I had gotten the Lonely Planet guide. This one just did not have enough truly useful information to justify its considerable weight. For example, it would say "a bus takes you from the train station into town," but did not tell you the number of the line. Or it would say "there's a lively market on thursdays on c/ borroso" in Sevilla, but it did not give you any orientation as to where "c/ borroso" was in the city or on a map...and do you know how many tiny streets there are in Sevilla? Also, while it gave numerous restaurant reviews, it did not give them relative cost ratings (e.g. $, $$, $$$). This would have been really helpful, as I often would seek out a restaurant only to find it out of my price range.
   
   That said, if you're not planning on getting audioguides at the historical sites and have time to read the descriptions, you will undoubtedly get more out of this book than I did. And when they had the necessary details, their recommendations of things to do were spot-on.
   
   After browsing through other travelers' Lonely Planets, I think those guides are arranged much more intuitively.



5. This guide was so bad I ended up ditching it half way through the trip, since it was basically as useful as carrying a brick around.
   
   I had been to Spain before, previously using Rick Steve's guide, and I have usually rely on Lonely Planet - which I used in India - so I thought, since I had been to Andalusia before I would try something different. What a mistake!
   
   a. Inaccurate information - for two nights I had no hotel reservation (because I was coming from Morocco and wanted that portion of the trip to be open ended - I tried using the guide in two cities I was unfamiliar with - Ronda and Alegris. The hotel information for Alegris was vague and the hotel they described as sparkling was literally a roach filled dump. In Ronda, the first hotel I tried to call I got fax number, the second, I was able to make a reservation but the hotel listed in Rough guide under hotel listings was different than the hotel shown on the map - I ended up getting a nice hotel out of that for cheap (turns out there were two hotels with the same name) but through no fault of the guide! Now I can understand one or two mistakes but out the three hotels I tried all three had inaccurate information.
   
   Walking around Ronda, I got the distinct impression the writer had never been there and was simply copying things from other guides - the way things were described was so vague that I simply ended up relying on the nice tourist office, a map provided by them and information from the sites. Ditto for Sevilla and Granada. Often -very often the way things were labeled by Rough Guide was NOT how they were labeled in reality or on the map. I tried the tapas/rest. recs - and found for Ronda they were again vague and inaccurate -'good tapas off such and such square' - that I simply ended up finding a place myself - the same in Granada where the writer described one place as spit and sawdust' when in reality it was cafeteria like!.
   
   b. Self righteous politicizing - I don't like people sticking their political opinions in places they don't belong - especially in places like Spain which has a complex history. The writer(s)'s PC bias was clear describing Isabell and Ferdinand as "liberating" (in quotes!) Granada as if the Iberian people taking back their own land was a bad thing, in Ronda the writer can't bring himself to say that it was Franco supporters who were executed by being flung off the bridge (which drops into a steep gorge) and (again) vaguely says 'the prisoners were executed on this brigde) never referring to who or when. In many ways this is worse than a bad guide since it seems to be deliberately distorting information in between telling us that Gibraltar 'can and should' be returned to Spain without telling us why they think so other than their own warped political views (Gibraltar was won by treaty and the majority of Gibraltons want to stay part of Britian, so much for democracy for PC jobworths)
   
   c. lastly HORRIBLE connection and transportation information. No estimated travel times between major cities like Seville and Granada, no number of trains/buses a day - and as seems to be consistent for this crappy guide, vague often inaccurate information.
   
   I will never use another Rough Guide again. Honestly if you're going to spain for the first time and standard' trip - use Rick Steves - its light but gives you everything you need to know - getting a bit more off the beaten path, use Lonely Planet.
   
   Yes there is some 'good' information in here about sites and such - but it was probably just copied from somewhere else.

5 comments about Rick Steves' Spain and Portugal Map: Including Barcelona, Madrid and Lisbon (Rick Steves).

1. You can't say that Amazon reviews don't get noticed. Previous editions of this book (in the Alhambra section) repeated what Daniel Boorstin called a "vulgar legend": that the Spanish court resisted Columbus because it didn't believe that the world was round. This was pointed out on Rick Steves' web site in 2002 and here in 2003. The 2004 edition finally acknowledges the truth: that the Spanish court resisted Columbus's proposals because they thought he underestimated the size of the world and the length of the voyage, not because they thought the world was flat. The estimates they used were far more accurate than Columbus's. The book also stops saying that Spain's Socialist party is in power. (Of course there's no acknowledgment of the errors. The information on Columbus is presented in the same know-it-all tone, even though it's 180 degrees different from what Rick Steves said before.)

   But the leopard hasn't changed his spots. The architect of Ronda's impressive bridge did not fall off of the bridge to his death while inspecting his work. Spain For Dummies sets the record straight. The discussion of the Spanish Civil War omits the information that Stalin supported and eventually took over the Republican side. Since Steves mentions that Hitler and Mussolini supported the Nationalists, there's no reason for leaving out Stalin's role except that the author doesn't want readers to know. (Perhaps Rick Steves doesn't want readers to know how radical he is; at his web site he suggests that America brought on the terrorist attacks and sympathizes with a suicide bomber.)

   Mr. Steves lacks the confidence to summarize history in a straightforward manner and let readers decide for themselves; he never passes up a chance to indoctrinate. For reliable history of the Spanish Civil War see the definitive account by Hugh Thomas, Paul Johnson's summary in Modern Times, or George Orwell's classic, Homage To Catalonia. If you browse through Amazon or your local bookstore you can find many fine books on various aspects of Spanish history.

   Fortunately history is only a small part of the book. There is good practical information on hotels, restaurants, sites, local transportation, and travel strategies. For example, Madrid's Hotel Gonzalo is an excellent value near the Prado. If you're in Andalusia budget some time to visit one of the Pueblos Blancos villages, such as Ronda. Tours only make short stops here, but they're worth several days. Wherever you go, look out for pickpockets.

   If you're going to Spain or Portugal, this book is an excellent travel resource. But when you read history in a Rick Steves book keep in mind that he's trying to indoctrinate readers to his point of view.




2. Some thoughts about Mr. Steves' largely excellent book. Highly recommended.

   Pros:

   * Mr. Steves provides excellent help in prioritizing your time in Spain and Portugal. I find this activity to be the hardest when planning a trip. How many days in Barcelona, how many in Madrid, etc?

   * An incredibly valuable feature of the book, in my opinion, is that Mr. Steves provides a one-page listing of the primary sites in each city, ranking each site from zero to three stars based on how important it is to see each site. While I may not agree on his prioritization, the page makes for a quick checklist while you're walking or waiting for public transportation.

   * Mr. Steves is particularly good at recommending out-of-the-way lodging and restaurants that you might not otherwise find in a given place.

   * Mr. Steves' book is also very good for budget travelers, providing lodging and dining in every class of service.

   Cons:

   * As mentioned in several other reviews, the book is laden with historical factual errors. I won't go into that here.

   * In a cutesy manner, many of the maps are handwritten and the street names are omitted. Specifically, if you try to drive around Sevilla using only this book, you will live to regret it.

   * Much if not most of the visitor information (hours and days of availability) for tourist sites is wrong. I strongly suggest doing what we did: arriving in a particular town the night before you wish to visit its sites, walking around to see the real hours displayed, then planning your itinerary over dinner.

   Some other thoughts, not particularly specific to his book but useful for your trip:

   * PORK: Spain is completely obsessed with pork. More or less every menu item has pork on it. Even if it says vegetarian and you ask if it's vegetarian and they assure you it's vegetarian, the odds are pretty high that it'll have a six ounce hunk-o-bacon in it. If you are committed not to eat pork for any reason, seriously consider whether it's worth having to cookies out of a bag for the duration of your trip.

   * There are department stores called Corte Ingles scattered around every city in Spain. They have grocery stores and everything else you might need. Knowing where they are is very useful on a long trip.

   Best of luck!
   Lydia




3. Surprising for an RS travel book. I've used his books heavily in planning many a trip. His team usually does a nice job of providing a balanced view of a country or city. This one showed mostly the unpleasantness and mediocrity of Portugal. Can't speak for the Spain section, as I'm not considering travel to Spain in the short term, and did not review that as carefully.



4. My wife and I just spent 9 days driving down the coast of Spain from Barcelona to Denia and then north of Barcelona to Cadaques. Very few of the chapters were pertinent to the towns we visted on our trip. The map we purchased lacked detail and could be obtained free from inside of another tour book we purchased from Amazon.



5. i'm thrilled with the purchase of our first rick steves travel book. his website and tv shows are VERY informative and practical and this 2008 book on Spain does not disappoint. it's not too clunky to take with us on our travels - yet, for day trips, we're photocopying a few "walking tour" pages so we don't have to take the book with us when we're travelling lighter. ... while he doesn't highlight EVERY inch of spain, he surely hits all the highlights! NO complaints and we look forward to experiencing more of the world through his expertise!

5 comments about Madrid (City Guide).

1. First and foremost, this book states that the Madrid Metro is "safe". This is not true for foreign males! The central part of the Metro (near the art museums and the city center) is rife with pick-pockets. We caught 1 attempt each day, or first 3 days there. The perpetrators were not, as some claim, "South Americans".

   Many restaurants listed are gone. All prices in the book are quoted in pisitas, which is annoying now that everything is in Euros.

   The maps are barely useful, being rather too small to read street names easily.

   I have enjoyed other Lonley Planet Guides very much, but this one is a real stinker.




2. I spent 5 days in Madrid last August and found this book to be a useful guide. it will lead you to a good time in madrid, which consists of going to the museums, a bull fight and eating a lot. also, i recommend going to one of the sherry bars mentioned in the book.



3. Looking at the dates, it seems like the reader reviews for this book are all for the old guide. The new version just came out, and I think it looks and reads a lot better, so maybe it's time to put up some new reader reviews.



4. I have been reading the last 3 editions of Lonely Planet Madrid and it contains tons of innaccurate information over and over.
   As in Spain one can not fine a lot of Australian wines, they draw the conclusion that "Spaniards do not take leaps into the unknown"
   It is like everytime they make a new edition the stay 2 days in Madrid and take everything of the last edition, fading Madrid's feeling, culture, way of life and thinking.
   
   Photography is also awful but this is just my opinion.



5. I bought this book recently (the new edition). I have read through it in planning my upcoming trip. Although I have yet to test the accuracy of the information in person, the book strikes me as practical. First, the book is paperback and fairly slender-- so not too bulky or heavy to actually carry around while you're traveling. The second thing that struck me is that it provides maps, including a metro line map. Although the maps may not be the most user friendly with their small print, they'll do fine for the trip planning stage of the trip (I usually get a good city map for navigation once I arrive to my destination city). The sections seem thorough, with an entire chapter on the history of the city. I was pleased with the day trip chapter as well, which lists many options for day trips, how you can get there, what you can do there, and how long it takes to travel there.
   As far as the accuracy issue, I have yet to find a guidebook that is completely accurate. That being the case, I view them as one source of information among many and do not rely exclusively on a single guidebook.

5 comments about Malinche's Conquest.

1. I really enjoyed reading this book. I have since bought several copies for friends and family members. It is a wonderful look at the way that society views one of the most important women in the Americas in the past 500 years. People are quick to judge her as a traitor or whore, but after reading more about her life as a slave and the conditions around her, I feel that she was an incredible survivor who became the mother of a new generation of people. This book which chronicles Anna Lanyon's journey through Mexico to discover who Malinche was, inspired me to learn more about the Conquest and Mexico's history, as well as more about who the flesh and blood woman "Malinche" might have been. I have since read, "La Malinche in Mexican Literature - From History to Myth", and "The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico" by Bernal Diaz. I recommend it highly.



2. For a brief moment in the 16th century, a teenage slave was the most influential woman in the world. Malinche, to use one of her many names, was the translator and go-between in perhaps the pivotal cultural drama of the last millennium - the moment when the Old World represented by Hernan Cortes, conquered the New World in the form of Montezuma's Mexico.

   Anna Lanyon, an Australian backpacker, stumbled onto the story of Malinche while travelling in Mexico in the 1970s. Intrigued, she returned home, studied Spanish and Portugese to literary translation level, and revisited Mexico in search of this enigmatic woman.

   So few are the clues, and often so contradictory, that Lanyon works like an archeologist with a soft-haired brush to bring Malinche's life into relief from its bedrock of myth.

   In official Mexican history, Malinche is the "betrayer". Her name forms the root of a modern-day word for traitor. Lanyon finds a teenager blessed with intelligence, intuition and a sharp instinct for survival. Her options were few. Given as a sexual slave to the conquistadors, Malinche became Cortes's concubine, adviser, and mother of his first child. She died in obscurity, probably before she was 30.

   But those close to her admired her. Lanyon makes the point often forgotten in facile renderings of the conquest: to vast numbers of people in what now is Mexico, Montezuma's "Aztecs" (more accurately, the Culua-Mexicans) were the feared and hated enemy. Malinche was therefore not a betrayer so much as a warrior, within her own context. But even more than that, she was a woman, condemned to slavery as a child, "assigned" to alien men when not yet 20, who simply did the best she could.

   While the full personality of Malinche may be irretrievable from what history has left us, Lanyon does great work in debunking many of the myths about her and in exploring how national myths come about. And tantalisingly an impression emerges of this accidental figure of history: a woman we would like to have known, a woman from the lowest rungs who took a hand, for better or worse, in changing the world.




3. Not only was it great to find a book on Malinche, but also a book that looks at her in a light other than as the evil betrayer we all thought she was. I started the book thinking "How could she have done that?" and ended up feeling sorry for her predicament in life. Or at least understanding why she made the choices she did. This book wasn't just a defense of her actions, but it explained why she became the enemy she has become and who and why made her that way. She was used while she was alive for political purposes and she was manipulated and used for political purposes hundreds of years after her death also.



4. In a world of information technology and instant gratification, I admit I skim over books to grasp only the information I need in the least amount of time. In looking for information on Malinche, I didn't think that I was interested in reading about the author's journey in piecing the puzzle together. I just wanted her to get to the point!

   I was so wrong! Beautiful story, priceless information, and a rare balance of sensitivity to the subject while maintaining objectivity.

   Highly recommended, especially to Latina women.

   Thank you, Ms. Lanyon, for your priceless contribution to history.




5. This is a very good read. For anyone interested in history, interested in learning about a remarkable woman, interested in just good writing, try this book. Lanyon covers it all including Malinche's seminal importance to Mexican history. The author also explores the development of Malinche as traitor, an idea that many are now taking another look at. It began in the 1800's with an elitist nationalist movement that needed a scapegoat to rally round. At any rate, Malinche's life is one that even the most jaded can marvel at.

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