Arquitectura del Vacio is an extensive selection of the architectural works designed by Melvin Villarroel. The 239-page book presents twenty-seven of Mr. Villarroel's finest works understood through a wide array of pictures, photographs, drawings, renderings and sketchs, and easily communicated in Spanish and English. This book encapsulates twenty-five years of experience -- no other architectural "best works" comes close to its breadth, depth and lasting impact. Every page exhibits the natural elements that exist in perfect harmony with his designs. The descriptions of the golf resorts, luxury hotel resorts and harbor resorts are clear, thoughtful and marked by a strong philosophy that is unshakable and visionary. The book is every bit as ambitious as it is a great value. Mr. Villarroel's book is truly inspired, and I recommend it to any reader looking to understand sustainable architecture in all of its glory.

The cover image (La Virgen de la Soledad) and the Macarena Madonna inside alone are worth the price of the book, but it's a fascinating account of a vibrant "performance art" (street processions). See also The Madonnas of Europe and, for another kind of devotional outreach, Gardens of Revelation.

One of the military campaigns that changed world history has been rescued from near oblivion by Albert D. McJoynt, editor of this classic work. The fall of Moorish Granada to Spain's Catholic rulers, Ferdinand and Isabella, was a turning point in establishing the boundaries between Christendom and Islam in the West, boundaries which had been in conflict for nearly a millennium. It also allowed the royal couple to launch Columbus' voyage with its well-known impact on the course of human events.

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Anyone who has not read the mysteries of Roderic Jeffries is in for a real treat. In An Artful Death, the main character, Inspector Alvarez, is presented as a loveable, humane, and underrated detective.He loves his food and his cognac and solving intricate murders. The descriptions of the island of Mallorca are charming, as is the dialogue replete with local idioms. The reader will especially enjoy the phone conversations between Alvarez and his superior, Salas, who treats him as an idiot. Justice comes in and unusual way in this novel.One must read it to see if he or she agrees with it. One thing is sure. Inspector Alvarez comes out smelling like a rose.

Having read this book before it was published, the last line was most entriging as, when a book has a new beganning for the last line, it gives others an opportunity for improvement. a second chance, whatever, as a even better story begins.

John Moffitt's "The Arts in Spain" beckons to us across all those mystifyingly dull art history books hardly worth taking off the shelf. Extremely well-written and accessible to the general reader, it recognizes that great art was created in a social and historical context and explains that context. This approach not only allows us to understand the arts more fully in their own right, but also to use them in studying Spanish history.

Moffitt starts with Spain's fascinating pre-historic art and moves up through the Roman, Islamic, Romanesque, Gothic, and Golden Age periods straight through to the 20th century. Like most studies, he races through the 18th and 19th centuries, but the quality of his remarks makes up for his brevity. As the title indicates, he briefly discusses architecture, sculpture, and the decorative arts as well as painting. This approach puts painting in a broad aesthetic context as well as an historical one.

Additionally, the illustrations are excellent and mostly in color.

I already knew something about Spanish art when I picked up this book, but I felt I learned a lot. If you know absolutely nothing about Spanish art and haven't had much luck with art history books in the past, this is definitely the place to begin.

Book was extremly interesting and exciting. Was an easy book to read in one sitting. The storyline was strong and characters and plot prepared extrememly well. This owuld make a terrific movie. I was in suspense the entire reading.

Whitshaw spends her life in an arid part of Spain trying to put together and understand several pieces of an unknown pre-Roman ancient civilization. Among the pieces of her most interesting puzzle are an ancient but apparently still functioning (in 1928) aquaduct with no discoverable destination, a castle built of multiple layers each from a different era, unusual ancient mining processes in the rich nearby mining fields, a very puzzling rectangular pool cut in the bottom of the Rio Tinto river, several different and very curious water sources one with an unknown "temple" somewhere out under a desert floor, and the fascinating villagers and local natives of a time when this area was very remote and inaccessable. This is one of my all-time favorite books as it gives not only some very real and mysterious puzzles for the mind to gnaw on but a strong flavor for the time and place Elena writes from. She also suggests other aquaducts scattered along the Rio Tinto river and describes how the area guarded by the castle was the entrance to one of the ancient world's richest mineral fields worked by humans and perhaps, well, something else which is too small and peculiar to be human and digs vertical shafts into mineral deposits unlike any later miners. She also searches for the ways that the ancients got the wealth of this vast mineral field out into the wider world. Truly a book full of food for thought.

The title itself is somewhat misleading. The text is not, per se, an autobiography as authored by St. Ignatius but rather, is a transcript written from memory of the results of several interviews with the Saint by a fellow Jesuit. However, the insight into the character of Ignatius through the report of the autobiography is remarkable. Further, the story of his life itself provides wonderful background for exploring the socio-historical context Spiritual Exercies of St. Ignatius.

This is a great little review of highlights in Barcelona. The coupons were accepted happily everywhere we presented them. The book will pay for itself, easily. It should, however, caution people against the muggers who seem to be thriving in the city. I was violently mugged less than a block from my hotel off of La Ramabla. Other similar stories were told by many others. Be cautious-day or night in Barcelona!