This book is powerful in its simplicity. Stanton's journey is mundane, but from the people he meets and the sites he visits, we learn much about life and travel.Books on the pilgrimage are plenty now, but I would recommend this one for the everyday traveler taking the path.

This is a fascinating book, and will appeal both to those who love travel tales and those on a spiritual quest. No self-described holy man, the author is frank about doubting his faith and his ambivalence in making the pilgrimage. Yet you see throughout the book how the journey emptied then replinished him He draws vivid word pictures about the sights, smells and characters that he encounters. If you have a desire to drop out of the hustle and bustle of life to learn to listen to the great, glorious creation around you and the Creator above, then this book will make your feet itch to begin your personal pilgrimage. I enjoyed this book thoroughly, and was enriched by the reading. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

This is a great book and is a very useful guide to the pilgrimage. It is hard to find, and Amazon is doing a great service in trying to provide it for pilgrims. However extracts from the book with very useful information can be found at the Telegraph Online London web site in the TRAVEL section. Look search under Yahoo for Telegraph Online and then Browse the many pages and articles on the pilgrimage found under the travel section. The book is fully reviewed in the newspapers's travel pages, the site has many useful useful facts about the pilgrimage including a FAQ

This book was an amazing account of the Spanish in North America. Many of the themes that occur during this time period occur in almost every time period and place. Dealing with religious intolerence, slavery, econmoy, unification, and the influence of all people on one another this book captures everything. Themes this book expresses about this time period are even more evident in today's information age as more people from different backgrounds and heritages come together on the internet. This was a good book to read, and made it easy to see the flaws and benefits of the past showing what not to, and what to, repeat.

This is an excellent study of Spain in North America, well written and superbly organized.

Finally a book that takes upon itself to find the truth about the real drive of the Spanish colonization of North America. After decades of mostly subscribing to the Black Legend (the claim that spaniards where just cruel exploiters in search of gold and little else) and partially romanticizing the Spanish presence in this land, a book that puts thing in perspective. The author pays attention to the evolution, not only of the spanish conquest itself but of the interpretations this conquest has had over time. The underlying thesis of the book, namely that the influence of Spain on the natives was reciprocal, not a single sided event is very appealling and well documented. The book is organized in chapters that deal with the spiritual, pollitical and commercial aspects of the settlement. It is by no means a mere account of dates and names; on the contrary, it gives the reader a good feel of the fabric of history: the decline of the spanish impulse that started with the "Reconquista" and the wars against the moors, the uprising commercial ideology that would hand this empire to a younger nation, the obsolescence and impracticality of the religious spanish agenda and conquest methods, the misconceptions about natives and the ambivalent relationship with them, sometimes as fellow citizens when converted, most times difficult and mortal. In general, I enjoyed the book a lot. I recommend it to any serious historian of the Spanish Empire indigested with partial accounts and uncritical acceptance of the myths of our times.

The recipies in the book are easy to follow and I like all the photos. Not every dish is photographed, but I like to know how the food is supposed to look before I prepare it. I am new to Mediterranean Cooking and this book is a great place to start. The dishes are very flavorful and use everyday common ingredients.

I have read so many cookbooks, and never been so impressed. Great little encyclopedia of a facinating medley of Lebanese, Italien, and French works of art. A book to cherish for generations. Every kitchen lover should have a copy.

The Author of this book made an outstanding job of combining the flavorful dishes of artistic Spain with a smart selection of impressive dishes from the old culture hub of Lebanon, in addition to a variety of delightful cuisine from all the landscape in between ...

This book is a witty and very clever look at Spanish society. I found most of what I read to be so incredibly true that I was laughing out loud. There are some parts which I found to be less than accurate, in my experience at least, and for that I give it four stars instead of five. Other than that, I highly recommend it. Do take it with a grain of sand however.

good coverage of all spanish quirks. my friends in spain loved it

I'm a Spanish and I enjoyed this book very much because everything it says is true. All the topics are treated with lots of humour and that makes the book really enjoiable. Furthermore, while you are having fun reading the book you learn of the Spanish way of life...

I don't think I will ever get to visit these places. I bought this book for the drawings of maps and building plans. The photos in this book are good for a budget armchair tour. These two aspects together satisfied my curiosity about the architecture better than most individual history or travel books. Of course many other arts are represented along with short narrative articles on people and places.

Others in the series (Rome and Florence for example) fulfill these expectations as well. Consider them small regional encyclopedias, possibly very suitable for a home schooling shelf.

When I visited my son for two weeks in Seville, Spain, this November (2000), I relied heavily on a popular guide for locating hostals, and for a quick historical background. But, I felt a little empty. While Rick Steves' guide book is essential for quick references to transportation information for each city, hotels, hostals, the four or five must-see attractions, and limited historical info, I always wanted more of the history of the places I was seeing. Toward the end of my visit, a Spanish tour guide, a friend of my son, who knew everything about the country, loaned me a book by this author. I am looking for it at Amazon.com this morning. I think this is it. After having already toured large parts of Andalucia, I was still amazed at not only the photographs but the history that was contained within its pages. It is small for a 500 page book and can be carried in your hand without a problem. As an example, the book gives a brief history of Colombus' remains and beautiful sepulcre in the great Cathedral of Seville - not mentioned in some other guidebooks - and which you could miss by just by visiting the church. The book contains a page and a half on the Inquisition, which had its beginnings in Seville, and even shows drawings and explanations of the main methods of torture and "legal" procedures. I found information about the point of departure by Colombus for the new world (Palos de la Frontera, across the bay from Huelga) and the location of the tombs of the Reyes Catolicos (Ferdinand and Isabela) that I could not get in a regular tour book. After reading only sections of the book, I found that I had a knew found respect for los Reyes Catolicos and particularly Isabela and her effort to found a uniform grammar for the country. In addition, it has a more complete listing of sites of each city. If you want to feel that you know Al Andaluz when you leave, get this. Though this book does not have as much hotel and transportation info as Steves, it is a great supplement if you like history.

Before reading this book,I rarely imagine about how elegant can bridges be. Mr. Calatrava brings those imposibilities to people,especially those who never dream. Maybe I should not talk too much,because words can not bring Calatrava's thoughts to the readers precisely. Through this book,let us try to find a path to discover Calatrava's world.

This book contains a lot of information on Santiago Calatrava's buildings and bridges. It is not just a picture book, it also contains a lot of text which is very insiteful. Color and black and white photos, and Calatrava sketches. One of my favorite Calatrava books. The book's relatively small dimensions is a drawback, and in effect, some detail in the photographs is lost, but it seems to be a more complete collection of his work. Great book for learning more about Calatrava's work at very reasonable price.

Santiago Calatrava; quite a magnificent architect, his work is inspirational, musical, walking through any of his works gives great joy, just like listening to good orchestrated music. This book contains a selection from his work, from bridges (for which he is famous), to monuments to many other examples. the text is concise, photos are nice, but the figures are small in most of the times, trying to keep a small size low cost volume. Needs an experienced eye to understand fully what the figures are. apart from that the book is great, the book's subject is even greater.

I like Spanish Baby Names by J. Sierra for its wealth of Spanish, Basque, Catalan, Galician and Asturian first names (over 5,000 including diminutives). The fact that a selection of first names in the minority languages of Spain is included adds a great value to this book.

But there is one important thing I miss - frequency data. I don't think it's OK to list such exotic (old-fashioned?) Spanish names as Audomaro, Ausencio, Auxencio, Austreberto, Avertano, Averano, Avertino, Azario, Azariel, Azarias etc. (even Atahualpa, the name of a famous Inca ruler is listed!) without mentioning their frequency. I don't believe these (and other similar names) are much in use nowadays.

Fascinating introduction about the history of Spanish names. I especially liked the Basque names and all the nicknames and variations. I would recommend it for families that want traditional names or new twists on traditional names.

Spanish Baby Names is a marvelous, 107 page, A to Z listing of both boy and girl baby names, including both full names and diminutive versions thereof. Each name has a brief description of its origin and meaning in this excellent reference. Enhanced with a one-page bibliography, including a section of online saints' lives and saints' days websites, Spanish Baby Names is a superbly presented baby name idea book for Hispanic families.

I have read both this Book and also "Stories from Puerto Rico",both of which I thoroughly enjoyed,and found very educational from a grammatical and vocabulary point of view. As a student of the language I appreciate the Authors's efforts. Both books would certainly have received 5\5 but for the dictionary at the end of each book.This I feel is uneccessary,and in each case accounts for almost 1\3 of each book.That space could surely have been taken up with more stories.In any event one has the translation,on both sides, so why the need for the dictionary.

Genevieve Barlow's Stories from Spain is part of a series of bilingual books containing legends from Spanish-speaking countries. (See my anonymous review of Barlow's Stories from Latin America, 15 April 2000). This is a good book for anyone learning intermediate Spanish. It contains eighteen legends from Spain, and through these stories, some of which date back to the Moors' conquest of Spain, one can get a sense of Spanish history and culture.

Although I enjoyed the tales, I don't think the book is as good as Stories from Latin America. In that collection, the stories are roughly four pages in length; in this book, they are only two pages long (two pages each of English and Spanish). The writing seems a bit simplified and at times I felt that I was reading summaries of more intricate, and richer, legends. Also, an English-Spanish vocabulary section at the end takes up nearly one-third of the book, leaving only 113 pages for the stories themselves (as opposed to Stories from Latin America, whose sixteen tales total some 149 pages).

I'm glad I have both books in my collection, as this type of book is hard to come by. If you can afford to buy both, read Stories from Spain first, as the writing is a little bit simpler. If you can only afford to buy one, I'd go with Stories from Latin America.

This is a true bilingual book in Spanish and English. I love the format of presenting the Spanish on one page and the English equivalent on the facing page. You can easily go from one to the other. Because the stories are short and pretty basic, if you are trying to learn Spanish it is a great tutoring tool. You should already know some basic Spanish before reading the book, but for the intermediate or advanced beginner it is a great way to increase your vocabulary and practice correct sentence structure. In addition, the stories are from Spain and so teach some of the history and legends to help you get a feel for the country. Finally, there is a small dictionary at the back of the book that contains most of the words that you might encounter in the text.

Whether you use it for a review, to learn Spanish, to increase your Spanish vocabulary or just like the stories, it is a great little book and this style of dual translation books is highly recommended as an adjunct to a Spanish course of any type to recommend to speed your learning of a foreign language.

Ugly stories about ugly people. That about sums it up. Perhaps that was the author's intent? Beats me. So much ugliness in such a small space is hard to endure, which is why I give less than five stars. Now Unamuno was bright and could write, and that is why I give more that one star.

Unamuno was a genius who is underrated as a thinker, philosopher, author, and political critic. His use of the novella as a vehicle for his philosophy and existential thought should put him in every discussion about the likes of Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sarte, Martin Heidigger, and Soren Kierkegaard. These three novellas give us a view, not only of the Spanish mind, but also of what a serious, learned man (who was incidentally Basque) could see as flaws and existential dilemmas in Spanish as well as European culture. Each of the three novellas give insight into the gender roles of men and women in turn of the century Spanish society as well as very real issues of what a man or women should be in a world where title, pride and wealth seem to be more important than acting in an ethical manner.

In the prologue to this trio of novellas, Unamuno declares that the work might be more aptly dubbed "four exemplary novels." "For this prologue is also a novel... the novel of my novels," he adds. And, indeed, I believe him. The prologue itself is wildly entertaining and, by far, the most striking segment of the piece. In some fifteen pages, Unamuno presents hilarious, yet profound (as is his custom -- I love that about him) commentary on the novel as artform and ontological playground. The three stories that follow are all gripping in their own ways. Dos Madres is an Unamunian version of the tale of King Solomon and the bickering mothers. El Marques de Lumbria presents the story of an isolated household that is somewhat reminiscent of Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba. Nada Menos que Todo Un Hombre stars Alejandro, a tough guy, a regular Alexander the Great, who isn't really as strong as he appears. All of the novels are tied together by a common thread of power play and self-doubt among their characters. And the result is a cohesive bundle of words that is truly exemplary.

If you're a diehard Dali fan than read this book, because it's worth it. However, if your just an average reader looking for a book to read for fun, this isn't it. At first it's interesting to learn about Dali and how he's and weird and where all his ideas come from, but after a while it seems like he's just rambling. I got bored. However, people who are into "tapping into their subconcious mind" etc. You people might like this book.

IT IS YOUR SECRET DESTINY TO READ THIS BOOK! Yes, you there, sitting at your computer, you who have stumbled on this review... yes, I know who you are, I can see you clairvoyantly, and I must tell you, this book has been waiting for you!

I found a beat up copy in a thrift store when I was fifteen. I had just finished reading "Atlas Shrugged" and I lucked into a completely radically different tweaking of mind. "Unspeakable Confessions" was the first book I ever read that really shocked me, that made me feel that anything was fair in art. I AM TELEPATHICALLY COMMANDING YOU, IN THE SACRED NAME OF 23 AND THE HIDDEN RHINOCEROS HORNS, YOU MUST SEEK FIND AND READ THIS MINDSTUNNING BOOK AND IF YOU'RE ADEQUATELY IMPRESSIONABLE IT WILL BE WITH YOU FOR LIFE.

To fully understand the motives behind the works of Salvador Dali, it is imperative to read this book- go directly to the source! I have never come in (indirect, albeit) contact with someone so uniquely intriguing and incredibly amazing. Dali writes about childhood memories, philosophies on wealth, contact with the world and how he views the continually shifting events taking place around him. For anyone who looks over Dali's masterpieces as incomprehensible or obtuse, please take a look at this book- Dali appears to defend his motives, making it easier for viewers to analyze his works. However, once you think you have a foothold in the world of Dali, he pulls the rug right out from under you and denounces the practice of analyzation! A delightful journey-- well worth the time!!