OH MY GOSH! Did you know that in the book Muggie Maggie, a girl in the 3rd grade does not want to write in cursive? When her teacher sends notes to other teachers, Maggie wants to read them, but she does not know how to read cursive. At the end of the book, Maggie teaches herself how to write in cursive. I would recommend this book to anyone. I like this book a lot.

Muggie maggie was a book about a girl that didn't want to write cursive. It all started in Maggie's class. They were learning cursive, but Maggie said she doesn't have to write cursive because she has a computer. I would recommend this book because I think it is great. I might call it Teasing Maggie, because sometimes they think its funny that Maggie writes her name Muggie in cursive.

I liked the book because it was exciting and fun to read. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes Beverly Cleary books and to all who like exciting books. I read Muggie Maggie by Beverly Cleary. It was about a girl who had to learn cursive writing. She didn't like writing in cursive because she had a computer and she knew how to write in print that was all she needed. But when she got in trouble and wasn't allowed to use the computer in anymore, she started to learn cursive.

I have two of her books, this one and the Tapas book. The Tapas book is really great. The paella book is really a bit too much. I mean, how many kinds of paella can you really eat? This is probably my own fault for buying the book- I should have figured that an entire book of paella would be overkill. But a friend of mine, whose culinary tastes I respect, suggested it, so I bought it site unseen. If you are an afficionado of paella, by all means you should get this book, but for me it's not worth it. I really like paella, but I dont' make it once a week or anything like that. I make pizza once a week, and frankly even then the "Chez Pannise" pizza cookbook I have is far too much for me. Who needs a recipe for venison, duck sausage and baby octopus paella, for crying out loud? Some do, most don't. Now, Casas' "Tapas" book is a MUST have- she's a tapas godess. Well worth the investment. But unless you are a total rice freak and can't get enough of risotto, suchi, jambalaya and paella, each of which in umpteen gazillion different forms, you'll be spendng a couple dozen greenbacks on a book that will realistically yield about four or five recipies you are likely to make with any degree of frequency.

I think this is a great book my rice was not mushy at all and my vegetables and meat came out nice and tender. I got this book last week and yesterday the spanish rice I ordered online arrived and I made the chicken and eggplant paella. It was deeeeeeelicious!! I can't wait to make the other recipes. They are very easy to make and the hardest part is actually getting all the ingredients ready and cut to make the paella. After that, your home free!! I would definitely recommend this book!!!

Penelope Casas has come up with yet another indispensable addition to anyone's library of Spanish cuisine. This book greatly expands our knowledge of Spain's great rice dishes and I highly recommend it. Although many paella and arroz recipes seem daunting, if you follow Ms. Casas instructions you will find that, except for prepping the dishes, good paellas are surprisingly easy to make, colorful on the table, and usually popular with everyone. These enjoyable dish can even be reheated by micro-wave the next day, if indeed, there is any left. (My advice is to make double the amount you think you will need.) Making paella is a great family endeavor and the dish is a great dinner party, picnic, or outdoor barbecue dish. The variety of rice dishes in Casas's book gives an idea of the great diversity of Spanish cuisine.

This is the first time I have been unable to finish a book. Tariq Ali is not a bad writer but the rhythm of his prose is constantly drowned out by the relentless grinding of his axe. Every time one is beginning to settle into the story, a group of the Muslim characters, who are otherwise well drawn, are made to engage in some wooden dialogue about the wicked uncultured Christians in a wholly unnatural way.

Tariq Ali has found a very interesting subject for a novel but he is unable to let the story speak for itself. He just can't stop himself from ramming his opinions down the reader's throat. It reads like a novel punctuated by political speeches from his student days. If the subject matter were any different it would be laughable; as it is, it seems that it is just too PC to point out the very obvious shortcomings in this book.

Ali's "Shadow of the Pomegranate Tree" provides not only a great reading, but an extremely useful corrective to the general western misconception about Muslim society. His work while a fiction, has clearly been thoroughly researched. The openness, tolerance and cosmopolitanism of Islamic society during the Moorish period is clearly presented with accents and touches that ring true. While westerners are inclined to view Islam as a monolithic entity, Ali brings out the division and tension that existed within the societies of each period.

"Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree" is set in Spain after the fall of Granada. The story of the Banu Hudayl, a landed aristocratic family, the book explores the fateful decision that the Muslims of Spain had to make in the aftermath of the Reconquista. Shadows opens with the Muslim community having been recently shaken by the burning of their books on the order of Ximenes de Cisneros, Isabella's confessor. Sent to Granada to debate theology, Cisneros was verbally bested by the Muslim scholars. Defeated, he ordered all Muslim books to be destroyed two million manuscripts burned. "They set our culture on fire...The record of eight centuries was annihilated in one day", Umar the head of the Hudayl, laments. The only books to be saved from this wanton destruction were 300 medical and scientific works, spared by the petitions of Christian scholars who realized their superiority, and those books that the soldiers carrying them to the square discarded, judging the books' importance by their weight.

Cisneros, a man of the church is hell bent on destroying all vestiges of the Muslim society and culture in Granada. He sees force as the only way to win the conversion of the Muslims to Christianity, unlike his predecessor, who had given orders for the priests to learn Arabic and have Christian works translated. Yet his actions also have a personal element, as others whisper about his apparent Jewish features. Cisneros cruelty is interestingly contrasted to the outlook of Don Ignio, the civilian governor of the Granada region, and a life long friend of Umar's. Don's entrouge consisted of Jewish and Moors, and he tells Umar "For me a Granada without them is like a desert without Oasis. But I am on my own" When Umar comments that the current situation would never have arisen had the Moors used the same tactics that the Christian were now employing, Dons's response is: "Instead you attempted to bring civilization to the whole peninsula regardless of faith or creed. It was noble of you now you must pay the price."

The reason I find this an excellent read is because Ali treats western history with the same thoroughness and brutal honesty, he demolishes the myth that the episode was a victory of one sort or the other of western society, simply by incorporating facts into the narrative. The triumphalism and sheer blood thirstiness of the Christian west is underscored most clearly in "Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree".

A poignant account of an aristocratic muslim family in Moorish Spain, Tariq Ali spins a brilliant tale of empires lost and heroism re-discovered. One of my personal heroes from his days as a student leader in the 60's, Ali is as always brilliant in his penmanship. I was introduced to his writings by my father, a close personal friend of the author and Iv been hooked ever since. One of the very best accounts you could find of Moorish Spain and the end of an empire that gave the world such architectural masterpieces like the Al-Hambra.

This is not like most Michener books, which are generally fictional; this is his personal travelogue of his impressions of many travels all over Spain. It should be understood that it was published in the late 1960s and that much has since changed in Spain since that time. While 'Iberia' is normally taken (in the USA, at least) to incorporate Portugal, Michener is writing almost exclusively about Spain in this book.

Michener clearly loved Spain and knew many Spaniards as friends. He discusses Spain's history, culture, art, literature, dance, geography, sports, and spirituality. Rather than putting all that into nice neat little buckets, he weaves it all together to paint an entrancing picture of the Spanish soul as he knows it.

Unlike many such authors, Michener uses photos very carefully to illustrate aspects of Spanish culture, from the assuredly adamant eyes of the Guardia Civil to the warm smiles of the poorest people. He also takes a lot of time to explain words that are difficult to translate and what they tell us about Spanish culture.

Recommended with equal enthusiasm whether from the viewpoint of history, religion, culture, or art. Also of special value to those living in Spanish-speaking countries or regions with large Hispanic populations, as Spain's influence on those cultures, as a mother country, is readily apparent.

Bravo, Sr. Michener. Faltan mucho a Ud.

Although I have read literally thousands of histories, geographies, and anthropologies over the years, I had always avoided Michener thinking he was a "popular writer" not an academic. After reading 'IBERIA', I know now that not only is he popular but is a knowledgable and insightful observer and analyst. He writes about Spain in a personal yet authoritative manner and manages to cover most of the major themes of the Spanish way of life without being pedantic. The only shortcoming I would ascribe to this book is that being written almost 40 years ago towards the end of the Franco regime, the book, in parts, is dated by more recent developments in Spanish history, politics, and societal change. This, of course, is to be expected in a book largely a history of then contemporary Spain. Michener has given us a snapshot of Spain as he knew it during the 1930's, '40s, '50s and '60s. Although Spain has changed along with and in many cases more than other parts of the world due to not having changed much for so long, Michener's descriptions and insights remain largely accurate and relevant even for readers in the 21st century. Even if some anachronisms are included, they still hold interest as a description of how much Spain has changed in the 25 years since Franco's death.

For my hundredth review, I wanted to describe a book that meant something very special to my husband and me. Although "Iberia" was originally published in 1968 (and spent the next seven months on the "New York Times" best seller list), we used it eleven years later to plan our first trip to Spain. It had not gone out-of-date. If it had aged at all, it was in Michener's less-than-balanced account of the Spanish Civil War (of course the same could be said of Hemingway).

"Iberia" is a massive, thousand-page love affair with Spain, part history, part travelogue, and part parador-and-tapa-bar guide. It is not 'merely' a tour guide to Spain, any more than Rebecca West's "Black Lamb and Grey Falcon" is 'merely' a tour guide to Yugoslavia. With the possible exception of his Pulitzer Prize winning "Tales of the South Pacific", I believe this to be Michener's finest work.

My opinion (or prejudice) is based on our unforgettable journey through Spain. Michener took us places we never would have found in the standard tourist guides. We pigged out in his tapa bars-"first comes the seafood--- the anchovies, eel, squid, octopus, herring, shrimp, salmon, five kinds of sardines, five kinds of fish; next come the boiled eggs, deviled eggs, egg salad, potato omelets cut in strips, vegetables, onions, salads; third are the cold meats in great variety, including meat balls, York ham, Serran ham, tripe, brains, liver in a variety of styles, beef, pork and veal; and finally the hot dishes..."

I booked us into many of the paradors that he recommended. Paradors are combination hotel-museums, which serve some of the best food in Spain---"Where practical, the paradors are housed in ancient buildings, such as old convents, monasteries, castles no longer in use, hospitals dating back to the age of the Catholic Kings, or inns in which Columbus may have slept."

In Merida, we stayed in a parador that is housed in the 500-year-old Convento de los Frailes de Jesus (Michener's personal favorite). Then there was the castle-parador, the parador that is built within the Alhambra, and the modern, ski-resort parador on the slopes of Monte Perdido. We stumbled across the last-mentioned resort while lost in the Pyrenees, and had it literally to ourselves (and one other couple), since the season was late spring.

My one regret is that we did not get to attend the ancient horse fair that follows Holy Week in Seville, and is so lovingly described in "Iberia." This fair dates back "two thousand years to the days when Romans came here to buy horses for their generals...If a man likes horses, this rough-and-ready market with no rules and little order would delight him. It is conducted under a blazing sun and has about it a strange and ancient quality. I have attended at three different times and found it difficult to believe that I was in the twentieth century..."

If you are planning a trip to Spain, book yourself into the paradors well in advance of your trip (at least a year in advance if you plan to visit during or immediately after Holy Week), try to attend Seville's ancient horse fair, and above all, buy and read Michener's "Iberia."

We've all done things we didn't want to do just to make other people happy. In the book, Shadow of a Bull by Maia Wojiechowska, a young boy named Manolo Oliver has a dream of becoming a doctor, but that dream is quickly shattered when his hometown of Arcangel, Spain, look to him to bring the spirit of bullfighting back to the small town since the death of his father. Six men, friends of his father's, take Manolo to many bullfights and teach him everything there is to know about the sport. Manolo knows what the whole town wants from him. He just doesn't know if he is capable to give it to them. But in the end, his dream comes true in a way that pleases both him and the town when he becomes the doctor he wanted to be. The suspense and drama you feel while reading this book is all due to the great descriptions that Maia Wojiechowska uses. She describes the pressure that Manolo feels of following in his father's footsteps. You become very interested in the story and you don't want to put it down.

Book Review: Shadow of a Bull

Do you think you would have enough courage to fight in a bullfight? Well, Manolo did. Manolo's father was one of the greatest bullfighters to ever walk the face of the Earth, and everyone expected Manolo to be the same. However, Manolo could not perform anywhere near his father's standards, and often wished he did not have to live up to those expectations. When he saw his first bullfight Manolo started to enjoy bullfighting more, and realized he could be as good as father. He practiced every day and got better, and better. Finally, he fought in his first bullfight. He did very well with the cape, but did not perform as well in his other competitions. Then an old man gave Manolo the choice to either become a doctor or a bullfighter. This was a very difficult choice for Manolo to make.

I guess you will have to read the book to find out what he chose.

In my opinion, Shadow of a Bull was a good book for several reasons. First of all, it was a quick easy reader. Second of all, I think that the author did a wonderful job describing the bullfight and the Spanish culture. The reader feels like he is at the bullfights cheering on Manolo. Next, I think that many people have faced intimidating challenges similar to the Manolo's. This makes it easy to sympathize with Manolo throughout the book. Finally, in addition to being a book about Spanish culture and bullfighting, Shadow of a Bull is a fable. The lesson to be learned from this book is that hard work pays off and that working hard is the only way to achieve goals. That is a very important lesson to learn in life. I would recommend this book.

Shadow of a BULL is one of the greatest books i have read. It's easy to see why this book recieved a Newberry award. Manolo Olivar is the son of Juan Olivar the greatest bullfighter in all of Spain. Young Manolo is expected to do the same. Manolo thinks he is a coward and really doesn't want to fight the bull on his 12 birthday. Six men train Manolo for the fight. He was trained well and thought he could do it. Secretly Manolo wanted to be doctor. When Manolo went to see the doctor, he said he could help around the clinic. When Manolo was forced to fight the bull, he did well at the begining of the fight but, when it came time for the bull to be killed, Manolo choked and couldn't do it. After that, he went to work for the doctor. This book is a great book and i recomend it to anyone who wants to read a good book!!

More political history than battlefield history, Anthony Beevor's recount of the Spanish Civil War is a complex look at the proxy war that took place in Spain just before the outbreak of the Second World War. A large portion of this book is devoted to the politics inside Spain both before and during the conflict, and the struggles within both "sides," as the political realities of the mid- to late thirties in Spain forced some incompatible ideologies together, eventually leading to the demise of the Republican government.

The best thing about this book is that Beevor finds a way to break down the political struggle along three axes of conflict. While he often bounces back and forth from the battlefield to the political arenas while presenting mountains of complex information, he always finds a common thread and manages to pull all the facts presented back into the theme presented in a given chapter.

Beevor's sympathies seem to lie with the Anarchists, though it seems that this is more a result of the fact that the Communists and the Fascists had foreign support from governments which history shows were less than benevolent. The Anarchist cause is typically portrayed in a more sypathetic light than the Communists and Fascists, whose aspirations were more totalitarian than the anarchists, who (at least as they are presented in this book) simply wanted the right to govern themselves. To his credit, however, he does not spare any party in the description of the murderous brutality between all participants. He takes extra time to explain the propaganda battle (a very important aspect of the conflict), from the atrocities committed against the Church to the efforts of both sides to win victories based on propaganda, rather than military, goals.

Some of the political conundrums of Spain in the '30s are also presented. One of the most interesting is the plight of the Anarchists. They had a massive party capable of wielding immense power, but since they rejected the idea of elections, they were reduced to being bystanders in the political world. The compromises they made once the war started, as a result of the aggressive nature of the Communists (backed by the Stalinist USSR), and the backlash against the Communists near the end of the conflict, are a couple of the major underlying themes of this book. Beevor expalins it best when he says that "The Nationalists defended a common view of the past; the Republican coalition in contrast, had widely differing visions of the future."

This is a very infomative book, and the reader will take a lot of understanding away from it. I would, however recommend two things, the first of which is to read and bookark the list of political parties and organizations on pages 285 through 287, before reading the rest of the book. The second is to take the time to write down the names of important individuals. This will significantly ease the reader's efforts to remember the mass of information presented. While this book is roughly 285 pages long, it is a very long 285 pages, as previous reviewers have noted, and is not an easy read.

The Spanish Civil War, by Anthony Beevor, is a fairly detailed survey of the history of this occasionally confusing period. Beevor spends a few chapters giving much needed historical background. The detail is necessary but a little dry and perhaps exhaustive to read as an introduction. The social and economic history of Spain is dealt with in enough detail to put the civil war in context. After covering the events leading up to the war, the bulk of the book is devoted to a very detailed, more or less chronological history of the war itself.
The events leading the to defeat of the Spanish Republic are sometimes referred to as a civil war within a civil war. Much attention is paid to distinguishing the various factions and personalities on both sides of the war. The Carlists, the Falange, PUOM, the Communists, the anarchists, et al, are all dealt with in detail so the reader is never really confused about how their aims, and why they did what they did. Beevor also spends time discussing regional differences among various factions. Lots of attention is paid to how the Republican forces were consumed largely from within, and how the various Nationalist factions also suffered some degree of discord.. In the end, fractionalization of Republican forces, Soviet style purges, a Communist take-over and just plain bad military and political leadership led to their inevitable defeat.
Beevor is dispassionate in his treatment of both sides. There's no real moralizing: I saw no obvious agenda. Instead, he gives detailed descriptions of the agendas, excesses and strengths and weaknesses of all sides and factions.
Against all of this was the background of foreign intervention. Again, Beevor goes into detail about the German, Italian and Russian interventions, and the lessons learned (or not learned) by each. The book also covers the incredible failure of the European and American democracies to do anything stop the war, and the hypocrisy involved in all their policies vis-a-vis Spain and the treatment of the various factions.
Overall, this book is an excellent history of the war. The detail is thorough enough to make some parts a little slow to read. All sides are covered in detail, with no evident political agenda. Events are covered in extreme detail and all the factions are thoroughly explained. I would not call this the 'definitive' history of the war, but this is an excellent, detailed overview and a must read for anybody interested in this period.

This is a standard history of the Spanish Civil War by military historian Anthony Beevor. It's deceptively small in size (the type in the book is about the smallest I've ever seen, short of a footnote or something) but full of detail. The author doesn't, however, pull any punches, and he doesn't think much of the communist leadership in the war, so those of a liberal bent who want to read the good vs. bad story of this war should look elsewhere. In the author's mind, the combatants were different flavors of bad, though he seems to sympathize somewhat with the non-communist Republicans, especially the anarchists and the Trotskyists.

The author spends a good deal of time going over the background to the war, and a similar amount of time dealing with its aftermath. He also works hard to argue that some of the stories of the war are myths: in his view, the airlift the Luftwaffe provided to Franco's forces to get the Moroccans to Spain has been overestimated. All in all, this was an interesting book, though the author was new to being a writer when it was written (1983) and the prose is a bit wooden, to be truthful. A good effort nonetheless, and a useful alternative to Hugh Thomas' masterful but massive tome on the same subject, which runs to well over a thousand pages in its current edition.

The Ages of Lulu is erotic, but by the end you want someone to save her from herself. There is a great scene where Lulu's lover shavs her. The part where she has blindfolded sex with her brother is wierd - I imagine especially for those who have a brother. As Lulu matures she gets into some wierd activities, including tagging along for sex with otherwise gay men. Glad I read it. No nightmares. But I felt bad for Lulu, and the urge to be more chaste, by the end.

Perhaps my standards are low, but I've plowed through a fair bit of erotica, and this currently stands at the top of my list. More accessible that "Story of O" or "Justine" and less pedantic and plodding than any of Anne Rice's erotic writings, Grandes' work finally makes proper use of the power of words in conveying sexual imagery. The protagonist's sexual forays allow us to enjoy that element of sex so often ignored by most erotica and pornography: the tease, the suspense, the yearning, the quiet obsession. To tie it all together, Grandes provides readers with a poignant story of sexual birth and maturation, to give, as they say, a "plot" to all the naughtiness.

I read this book several years ago while in high school. I found this book to be very refreshing, fun, erotic, and interesting. I related to some parts of Lulu's experiences, and that to me is incredible because it made it more vivid. As I read this book, I could mentally picture each scene as if it was a movie, I could imagine Lulu's expressions of her emotions, and the emotions and expressions of the other characters too. I really enjoyed this book, I've read it more than once and passed it along to my friends who also enjoyed it immensely.

No, this isn't the definitive book on bullfighting -- it wasn't intended to be, and very few english-language books even pretend to address the subject well. This is a fine companion piece to the voluminous Hemingway "Death in the Afternoon," now almost 70 years old, and in its way better, since it is thoroughly researched and analyzes bullfighting as a window onto the spanish soul without as much romanticism -- or at least, the romanticism is salted with Kennedy's mordant reflections. It also brings current the state of the corrida, discussing contemporary matadors along with the legendary ones.

This is not a book for a summer read on the beach, or a light flip-through; it insists on strict attention. But the careful reader will come away learning something of Federico Garcia Lorca, the poet; and duende; and many tricks of the corrida that only the true aficionado knows. and anyone who has ever attended a bullfight will nod appreciatively at this line: "The spectacle appears to be photogenic, but not filmic -- to show best in frozen moments of poise, set aside from the vagaries of the bull, the slips and fumbles of the man, the interludes and distractions which continually break the sustained artistry described in tales of the matador greats."

The reviewer below who claims the author viewed perhaps four bullfights is well off the mark; while Kennedy never says exactly how many, my count has the number of corridas well into double digits, with six bullfights each.

A.L.Kennedy's extraordinary book leads us from her own near-suicide in Scotland to the gaiety of the Fiesta Brava in Spain. Her work is here somewhat shaped by her own ill-health, and much of the book is a meditation on death. Do not be put off by this idea, for the whole thing is exquisitely written and makes use of unusually moving images: the result is positivley inspirational. Kennedy has studied toreo in great detail, and has a good grasp of her subject; she neither condones nor condemns. My only criticism is that the book runs out of steam towards the end when the author relies less on her stunning abstract and philosophical ideas, and gives a semi-journalistic account of the corrida. There has been a lot of very bad literature about bullfighting (including some by Hemingway!) but Ms. Kennedy's book is of the highest quality, well researched and written, and deserves a very wide audience.

I found Ms. Kennedy's work emotional and passionate and a very good addition to taurine-related literature. It's refreshing to have a woman's take on the bloody and beautiful spectacle of bullfighting. I'm a huge fan of the corrida, toros bravos and toreros. But other than Sarah Pink's study into women and the corrida, I have read no other booklength works from a female perspective. Ms. Kennedy paints a fresh and feminine view on an ancient and often misunderstood ritual and brings the corrida to a set of readers who may otherwise be confused or bored with more technical pieces or a complex insider's book like Hemingway's Death in the Afternoon.

It was also good to see that her assignment swept her away from a potential nasty self-inflicted ending that would have left us without a very good piece of writing. This work is worthy of two thumbs up.

Basically an aside from the main 11 novels in the Sharpe series (between no. 3 and 4), Sharpe's Battle highlights the conflict between one of the British Army's best officers against the French best. Cornwell manages to convincingly combine actual events and people with his imagination to create a setting for adventure, action, and drama. I believe this is the only Sharpe novel where a newly introduced lady does not fall for/bed Sharpe:) I couldn't put the book down until I had finished reading all 400+ pages. I too have to add my request for more Sharpe.

I had read all of the Sharpe novels but this one, and I had put off reading it for a long time. I didn't like the fact that Cornwell stuck this into the middle of the series after he had finished it. When I read the first few pages, I had reservations. It sounded like a weak movie script. After a while, however, like most Sharpe fans, I felt the need for more! When I finally bought and starting reading it in earnest, I found it was pretty good. Like all Sharpe novels,it certainly keeps your attention. The opening confrontation with Loup is great, just what we've come to expect from Cornwell. And as the story goes along,I was once again cheering for my favorite literary hero! It had been a while since I'd read Sharpe, and frankly I'd missed him, good old Harps, Hagman,Cooper and the ever wily Major Hogan. (With all these Hibernian heroes, I wonder if Cornwell isn't really a closet Irishman!). The story moves along. the characters are fun as ever, and it's just a plain good read. However, I do agree with critics of the book: somehow, it does seem out of kilter with the rest of the series. I was extremely happy, though, to see that Cornwell had dedicated the book to Sean Bean. As Cornwell has admitted in interviews, once Sean played the role, he really became Sharpe! Like many people (including Cornwell), I can't imagine anyone playing the role but Sean.(I do think Colin Firth might be a close contender, though). When you read this book, you're picturing Sean and Darragh O'Malley as Harper. My only regret about the Sharpe novels is that there aren't a hundred more! Patrick O'Brian's novels tended to fade as time went on, but Bernard's still got it, and Sharpe's Battle shows it better than any evidence I or anyone else can give!

Once again, Bernard Cornwell has written an exciting page-turner of a book. I found it very addictive - staying up late at night to finish it. I recommend it to all who enjoy a good historical action/adventure book in the genre of Horatio Hornblower.

I can't wait to read more books of the Sharpe series.

Preston is obviously an incredible historian and writer. I almost exclusively read history and international affairs books, and this is without a doubt the BEST I've ever read. This book is long, but not because the author must defend his ego with a huge tome as many do today. You almost are sad that the book ends because Preston's prose and great skill at telling the story of Francisco Franco is not surpassed. Every professional historian should read this book, if a Spanish historian or not, to see how great historical writing is done.

Paul Preston's Franco is so comprehensive that a reader with no prior knowledge of the Spanish war or Francisco Franco, could claim expertise on the subject by reading this book. The book is the best documented book I have yet seen. Almost every paragraph is footnoted and bears the proper notation as to its source. This is an academic work that must have taken years to complile into such a magnificent work of history. This book is in a class of its own. Its objectivity is awsome, but never boring.

Written from a moderate-left viewpoint, this book is likely the last important biography of Franco. Yes, the author obviously dislikes his subject; but no one can accuse Preston of being less than the consummate historian. Other reviewers have complained about bias. (Regarding a previous review: the family tales that "contradict" Preston's command of the facts are merely anecdotes.) It is impossible to write about Franco and the end of the Spanish Republic without providing an interpretation. Given the events, the interpretations are likely to be rather polarized. One last point: this book is for those who already have an interest in the subject and who want to explore all the dark corners of Francoism and the man himself.