Amazon.com's Best of 2001
Readers of Black Hawk Down know Mark Bowden can tell an exciting story about as well as any writer at work today. Killing Pablo is further proof. It describes the rise and fall of Pablo Escobar, a notorious Colombian drug lord who became one of the narcotic trade's first billionaires. Pablo--Bowden refers to him by his first name throughout the book--started out as a petty thief and wound up running a massive smuggling empire. At his height in the 1980s, he owned fleets of boats and planes, plus 19 separate residences in Medellin, each with its own helipad. Violence marked everything he did: "He wasn't an entrepreneur, and he wasn't even an especially talented businessman. He was just ruthless." He bought off police, politicians, and judges throughout his country, and killed many others who wouldn't cooperate. The Colombian government tried to capture him, but without much luck; he evaded them time after time. "Now and then the police achieved enough surprise to catch him, literally, with his pants down. In [1988], about one thousand national police raided one of his mansions," writes Bowden. "Pablo fled in his underwear, avoiding the police cordon on foot." He got away, again, but his days were numbered. He was making powerful enemies in both Colombia and the United States. The final straw probably came when Pablo's men murdered a popular politician and, three months later, planted a bomb on a plane, killing 110 people, including two Americans.
The bulk of Killing Pablo describes what happened when the U.S. government put its resources behind the hunt for Pablo. Bowden describes the search in gripping detail, from the massive electronic-surveillance effort to bureaucratic infighting between rival U.S. agencies. This is an outstanding work of reportorial journalism, too: in the epilogue, Bowden drops tantalizing hints that it was an American--not a Colombian--who delivered the killing shot to Pablo in 1993. Readers looking for a real-life thriller--or any kind of thriller, for that matter--won't do much better than Killing Pablo.
Book Description
A tour de force of investigative journalism-this is the story of the violent rise and fall of Pablo Escobar, the head of the Colombian Medellin cocaine cartel. Escobar's criminal empire held a nation of thirty million hostage in a reign of terror that would only end with his death. In an intense, up-close account, award-winning journalist Mark Bowden exposes details never before revealed about the U.S.-led covert sixteen-month manhunt. With unprecedented access to important players-including Colombian president César Gaviria and the incorruptible head of the special police unit that pursued Escobar, Colonel Hugo Martinez-as well as top-secret documents and transcripts of Escobar's intercepted phone conversations, Bowden has produced a gripping narrative that is a stark portrayal of rough justice in the real world.
"The story of how the U.S. Army Intelligence and Delta Force commandos helped Colombian police track down and kill Pablo Escobar is a compelling, almost Shakespearean tale." (Los Angeles Times)
"Absolutely riveting. . . . Mark Bowden has a way of making modern nonfiction read like the best of novels." (The Denver Post)
Customer Reviews:
Too long.......2007-08-25
Mark Bowden wrote Black Hawk Down, as everybody knows. I was looking forward to any book by Mr. Bowden, but this one is too much. If there was ever a guy who needed to be killed it was Pablo Escobar. However, reading the endless corruption and stupidity of Columbians was depressing, and furthered my low opinions of them. There is hardly a living soul in this sorry country who is not vile or evil. Anyway, the book runs on too long and I finally just turned to the page where he was finally shot, almost by accident.
A decent true-life thriller, but that's all........2007-08-21
If you want a vivid portrait of Pablo Escobar, his personality, and his methods, this book does the job. Halfway through the volume, though, it just becomes another thriller, the story of a chase that could have taken place anywhere on earth (with of course lots of detail on surveillance gizmos, military hardware, and the colorful individuals involved--a bit like Tom Clancy). But there is virtually no backbround, nothing that helps explain why Colombia became such a huge supplier of drugs. (If it hadn't been Pablo, it would've been some other guy.) Moreover, Bowden takes for granted the notion that the cause of the drug problems is the evil men in Colombia, while never considering the fact of enormous drug demand in the U.S. Without the vast gringo appetite for drugs, there would have been no Pablo. Supply and demand is a two-way street!
On another note, Bowden's referring to the Contras in Nicaragua as "pro-democracy" forces is questionable. Those people were terrorists who killed some 50,000 people.
Runs Too Long.......2007-07-16
Black Hawk Down is one of my favorite books. From page 2 onward, there's not one dull moment. I wish the same could be said for Killing Pablo. This book really drags and at about the halfway point you're wishing that they'd cut to the chase already and kill the SOB.
A gripping account of one of the greatest out-laws and the country he lived in .......2007-04-28
Despite the apparent flaws the previous reader and reviewer points out, this is still a well researched book and these flaws do not take away from this thrilling and appalling story of Pablo Escobar. What I really liked was the description not only of Escobar but also of the country he grew up in and that let him live such a violent life and have such a horrific career. A very good read!
finding Pablo.......2007-02-22
Killing Pablo was alot easier then finding Pablo...go behind the scenes of the drug war as Pablo is hunted down with all the latest eletronic gadgetry and eventually located..Mark Bowden writes a compelling, page turner...Pablo Escobar rises to the top of the drug cartel much like Scarface only this is a true story just as compelling..
Average customer rating:
- This book is in my Top 5 Favorites.
- The most unintelligible piece of #### I have ever read
- Funniest book ever! Read it.
- His books will put you in a TRANCE of hilarious adventure
- laugh out loud
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Cosmic Banditos
A. C. Weisbecker
Manufacturer: NAL Trade
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ASIN: 0451203062
Release Date: 2001-03-06 |
Book Description
Thousands of fans agree-Cosmic Banditos has been out of print for way too long. So here it is, back by popular demand: A.C. Weisbecker's rollicking novel of high times and hard times-in which he hilariously chronicles the adventures of a group of pot-smoking, number-crunching banditos-in-hiding.
Customer Reviews:
This book is in my Top 5 Favorites. .......2007-10-15
Super entertaining book! Easy read. I truly laughed out loud when reading it. I don't know of any other books I can say I did that. It is refreshing to read a book that isn't cerebral and deep. This book touches on the quantum theories in an extremely humorous and entertaining way. It is a great story about a great adventure full of drugs, smuggling and the follies of some true friends.
The most unintelligible piece of #### I have ever read .......2007-10-13
Basically the characters in this book get high, drunk, pass out and then spew fourth random misinformation about physics. This is repeated for 200 mind grueling pages. I love satire and comedy but this is not it.
Funniest book ever! Read it........2006-10-22
I admit, I have never read a book which made me laugh as hard as this book did. Let's see... "I grabbed a banana and held it up. 'What are bananas made of?' The old Indian licked his lips. 'Banana stuff,' he replied. This was more or less what I'd hoped he would say. 'And what is banana stuff made of,' I inquired smugly. The old Indian's response to this question took me by surprise. 'The Great Spirit,' he answered without hesitation." Well, I have to say that his answer took me by surprise as well! I just can't say enough how ridiculously fun to read this book. Amazon have to put "guaranteed laugh or your money back" to market this book.
His books will put you in a TRANCE of hilarious adventure.......2006-09-27
Allan Weisbecker is hands down one of the most captivating writers of our time. This book will will not only cause you extreme stomach cramps from laughing so much....it will rip your brain out and throw it to the cosmos....transporting you into oblivion....never to return.....to your own mundane reality. You will then have to read IN SEARCH OF CAPTAIN ZERO to continue your experience within his uniquely hilarious mind and then read his latest masterpiece CAN'T YOU GET ALONG WITH ANYONE. This one I read in a 59 hour marathon ( with a 2 hour catnap in my lazyboy which was unintentional because....) I literally....COULD NOT PUT THIS BOOK DOWN.....He lets it all hang out....ditched by his USA publishers because they didn't have the balls to publish it. You can only get it on his web site...aweisbecker dotCOM ....Trust me....you won't be dissappointed.
laugh out loud.......2006-07-07
I read this for the first time on a plane trip to somewhere. Laughed out loud the entire book. Am reading again to get myself into the mood for his new book coming out this fall. Cannot wait - but in the spirit of the Don Juan law: anything that can go wrong already has and will be that way forever - so you never know. Some bandito may off him and steal the book before it comes out. If that doesn't make sense to you - you gotta read the book to know what it means. Weisbecker simply rocks.
Book Description
Set in an unnamed Caribbean seaport, Garcia Mrquez's extraordinary Love in the Time of Cholera (1988) relates one of literature's most remarkable stories of unrequited love. "This shining and heartbreaking novel," Thomas Pynchon wrote in The New York Times Book Review, is one of those few rare works "that can even return our worn souls to us."
Mary Wesley on Garcia Marquez's Love in the Time of Cholera:
"This is the funniest, most moving book I have read and re-read. Each reading discovers fresh delights, a true classic. Garcia Marquez is the greatest South American writer who doesn't hesitate to write of the spiritual and mundane in the same paragraph."
Customer Reviews:
The Ageless Tale of Unrequited Love.......2007-10-05
This story is tragically beautiful and Gabriel García Marquez is a master at creating flawless prose. After young love is broken apart by a well meaning father trying to protect his daughter's status, her starry-eyed suitor pines over her for half a century. Meanwhile, she marries, and he goes on to have numerous lovers in an attempt to fill the void she left but doesn't let any of them penetrate him emotionally. When her husband dies, he returns to declare his love for her.
Throughout "Love in the Time of Cholera" I was reminded that a decision made by one person doesn't just affect that person, it rockets off in all directions and inflicts many. The story gives one hope that love is timeless--probably less so in real life. It's almost too much to believe that reuniting after 50 years makes up for all the pain and agony of missing your one true love. Gabriel García Marquez's literature is a pleasure to read and in the most perfect form. "Chronicle of a Death Foretold" is another one of his that is a must read.
Greatest love story.......2007-09-30
I have always enjoyed Marquez's work (I encountered The General in His Labyrinth in a bookstore in Guatemala and recently read his marvelous small work on aging, Memories of My Melancholy Whores), but for some reason had never read what many consider his greatest work, Love in a Time of Cholera. I have just completed it, and it is one of the finest books I have read in my 60+ years of reading. It is a complex luminous tale of unexpected magic, and the most wonderful love story in my experience. When I told my sister about it, she said she often give copies of it as wedding gifts. The book is fine literature, a marvelous story, highly creative, and deeply satisfying.
Wonderful Examination of Love.......2007-08-20
Every now and then a novel comes along that plays games with me. It's not until I can view it in it's entirety that I can sort out my opinions on it. Marquez's Love in the Time of Cholera was one of those novels for me. It started out fantastic, a unique story with a well developed setting and well defined characters that I enjoyed. As I continued with the novel, my thoughts began to blur. The characters became blurry for me. I didn't know how to feel about them. My thoughts would change from page to page. Characters that I loved would suddenly seem vile and vice versa. But by the time I finished the novel, Marquez had sealed the deal for me. His beautiful words had won me over and I'm so happy that I chose to read this wonderful work of literature.
Love in the Time of Cholera is a love story. It is not your typical love story, however. This story is honest. The characters admit that sometimes love is feigned and at other times love comes as a surprise. It is the story of Fermina Daza, Juvenal Urbino, and Florentino Ariza; three characters that will remain with me for a long time. The setting is Colombia in the early 20th century and Marquez does an amazing job at placing the reader in that setting with it's warm landscape, almond trees, and markets. Florentino Ariza pledges his love to Fermina Daza when they are both in their youth, but the relationship is forbidden by Daza's father. Fermina Daza marries Juvenal Urbino, a doctor who saves the town from the cholera epidemic, and Florentino Ariza spends the next fifty years having various affairs with women who will never match up to Fermina Daza while observing her from the sidelines. When Urbino dies, Ariza once again pledges his love to Daza.
This book won the Nobel Prize for literature and I can't argue with that. I don't know if this book would be for everyone though. It is not a fast moving book at all, and I think that it is best read slowly. I'd also recommend that it be read in the summer as it goes nicely with the weather. This book reads like a memoir, a history of lovers. There are emotional highs and lows; anger, betrayal, love, passion, death, deceit, hilarity, honesty, and contentedness. There were times when I found it hard to stick with the book because it seemed stagnant, but it all comes together when observed as a whole and that final picture is a beautiful one. I'm glad that I saw this one through. Marquez has written a true masterpiece of literature and I look forward to visiting some of his other works.
Dry, boring trash.......2007-08-14
This novel, unlike captivating stories, was hard to pick up rather than put down. While reading it, I felt like I had returned to eighth grade where reading was an assignment. It was incredibly hard to trudge through the seemingly endless and uneventful first chapter. Perhaps, had the story been told first person rather than third, it could have been better. But I doubt it.
Wonderful book.......2007-07-15
I really liked the book. it was very nicely written. and the story is quite catchy. However, I still have one little critisism and it is about the names in it. There are too many names used in the book and sometimes I really found it difficult to follow them. Even it took me a while to distinguish Fermina and Florentino from each other. I don't know why Mr. Marquez had decided to use such similar names together. I wish he hadn't chosen them that way. But apart from that it was a great reading for me :)
Book Description
Describing all of Colombia's birds, Steven Hilty and William Brown bring together information on one of the world's largest avifaunas-nearly 1,700 species. Over half of all the species of birds in South America are included, thus making the book useful in regions adjacent to Colombia, as well as in the country itself. The primary purpose of the work is to enable observers to identify the birds of the region, but it also provides detailed species accounts and will serve as an important handbook and reference volume. Fifty-six lavish color plates, thirteen halftone plates, and ninety-nine line drawings in the text illustrate over 85% of the species, including most of the resident birds. Notes on the facing-page of each place, and range maps of 1,475 species, facilitate identification.
Written with the field observer in mind, the text gives special attention to comparisons of similar species, transcriptions of voices, and comments on behavior, status, and habitat. It also provides ranges, breeding data, and references. Notes outline taxonomic problems and briefly describe species that eventually may be found in Colombia. Introductory chapters and photographs highlight Colombia's geography, climate, and vegetation, and discuss migration and conservation questions, and the history of Colombian ornithology. Appendices contain a large bibliography, a section on birding locations, and coverage of two of Colombia's far-flung island territories, Isla San Andrés and Providencia. Maps depicting vegetation zones, political boundaries, national parks, and the most text localities are included.
Customer Reviews:
Amazing.......2007-03-09
I live in Medellín, Colombia, South America, I was looking for this book in the spanish edition, but it's hard to find it, so I bouhgt the enlgish version.
This book is an excellent knowledge tool and it will open the eyes of the readers to one of the many wonders we have. A Guide to the Birds of Colombia is just AMAZING. For those who love animals, in special birds, consider buying it, you won't regret it.
The finest guide to birds in Colombia.......2004-09-10
"A Guide to the Birds of Colombia," by Steven L. Hilty and William L. Brown is mandatory reading for serious field observers. This book treats all of the 1,695 species of resident and migrant birds known to have been reliably recorded in Colombia and on its island posessions of Gorgona and Malpelo prior to 1984.
Moreover, this massive Princeton University Press text (836 pages) includes sixty-nine color and black and white plates by Guy Tudor (one of the most talented living bird illustrators in the world) & others. And before I forget this book includes superb line drawings by Michel Kleinbaum.
I found the sections on Topography, Climate, Vegetation, Habitat Descriptions, and Conservation & National Parks excellent. In addition, the review of Colombian Ornithology and the Range Maps are valuable field observer tools. In conclusion, this is a meticulous text with an expert index that will absolutely fill all the needs of serious field obsevers. Recommended.
Bert Ruiz
¡Qué belleza!.......2003-01-18
Es un libro que no debe faltar en la biblioteca de ningún ornitólogo. Describe casi la totalidad de especies de aves del país con más especies de aves en el mundo. Excelente.
An example for every Field Guide.......2002-04-08
This work is all a bird watcher could wish for. The splendid paintings by Tudor add to the very helpful in-depth descriptions. Completed by nearly 1500 distribution maps there's nothing left to wish, except go out there and see them. I used it when birding in Peru and I could still determine nearly all the birds I saw.
It's an example for every bird field guide.
Made birding in Amazonia easy.......2000-09-27
Since no definitive bird guide is available for the Amazon region and Brazil in general, I was forced to choose between this guide and the Birds of Venezuela. I ended up with Hilty and Brown's book by sheer coincidence, and I was not at all disappointed. The text and information is superb throughout, and I was able to identify several species on habitat description alone. For example, the authors clearly describe the preference of many taxa for varzea (seasonally flooded) or terra firme forests, which made a fleeting glimpse more of a certainty, and the range descriptions were invaluable. If I have only one very minor criticism, it is that I have never found plates in black and white particularly helpful, and since several artists were employed, there were differences in visual interpretation in several groups (e.g. the Picidae). However, these are minor detractions from an outstanding volume.
Book Description
Discover the best kept secret in South America. Colombia is safer than ever, affordable and still blissfully uncrowded - an independent traveler's dream. Laze on palm-fringed Caribbean beaches. Canoe slient rivers through lush rainforest. Stroll Cartagena's colonial old town. Salsa all night in Cali. Packed with practical advice and valuable tips for trouble-free travel, our peerless guide enables you to explore with confidence.
THE BASICS - detailed maps, tailored itineraries and easy-to-use directory help make the most of your trip.
ADRENALINE RUSHES - the best spots for diving, rafting, hiking, rock-climbing and other thrills.
STRAIGHT TALK- honest advice on where to go - and still risky spots to avoid.
DISCERNING REVIEWS- opinionated authors give the lowdown on where to sleep, eat and pain the town.
COLOMBIA 101 - in-depth background chapters provide insight into the country and its people.
Customer Reviews:
Well, normaly I try to be positive.... but in this case..........2007-05-13
I was pretty dissatisfied with the book. I am the type of person who usually ignores bad reviews and buys things that I want... and I am usually glad that I did. However in this case, I did not pay attention to the bad reviews because this is basically the only Colombia guidebook available... and I have not even used it once. I am here in Cali for 2 months, and the small amount of info that was in the book I had already easily obtained from 2 minutes on Google. In my opinion the maps are incomplete, the recommendations are narrow, and the overall meat of the book is cut VERY LEAN. Try the free "poor but happy" Colombia guide on the internet.
Worst LP Guidebook I Have Ever Used.......2007-01-29
I just returned from a 2 week trip to Colombia. We stayed one week in the mountain town of Pasto, where my Ecuadorian wife has friends, and one week in Cartagena. The section on Pasto was OK. But the section on Cartagena was terrible. The hotels mentioned were mostly limited to cheap backpacker places in Getsemani, the worst part of town. I have stayed in many $5 places myself. But my wife, like most Latinas, knows that super cheap hotels often double as brothels or "love motels" in Latin America and refuses to stay at them. They also don't mention any hotels in Bocagrande, where most Colombians on vacation stay. I understand that Lonely Planet caters mostly to foreign tourists on a tight budget. But LP also offers the only current guidebook to Colombia and needs to cover a much broader price range in order to be of use to all types of travellers.The restaurant info was also very limited and of little use.
Furthermore, the 2006 edition offers practically nothing new in its "update" to the 2003 edition. A waste of money!
Did They really visit Colombia?.......2007-01-26
This is a very poor Lonely Planet book. I think the reason is that Colombia is still considered dangerous, though for the tourists it is not, and LP authors don't go to dangerous places. The example of that would be Haiti - no guidebook, no update in the new Caribbean guidebook, due to "unstability". Well Rough Guide Authors didn't have a problem with visiting Haiti and french Petit Fute has a recently updated book all about the island. And it isn't dangerous. Lonely Planet just chickend out. I think we have the same problem here. After Mr. Dydynski, noone s just brave enough at LP to visit "risky destinations". The question is, why write a guidebook like this at all.
Anyway, I've visited Barranquilla and Cartagena with this book. The part about Cartagena was OK, though the choice of restaurants was limited and I'm not sure they chose the best ones. The chapter on Barranquilla was laughable. I know it's not really a pretty tourist town, but people do visit it (and not only for the carnival), so LP authors should really write a bit more pages about it. It's a large city and got the amount of info as small towns do in other LP guides.
Well, to sum it up. Colombia is a very interesting country of over 40 million inhabitants and numerous atractions... now look at the number of pages in the book - small countries get 2-3 times fater LP guides... well, case closed - it can't be good!
Disappointed.......2007-01-17
I have just returned from Colombia (December 2006), using solely the Lonely Planet guide for 3 1/2 weeks. I followed the Essential Colombia itinerary, which the book states will take 5+ weeks, in 3 weeks fairly comfortably. I started in Ipiales, worked my way up to Cartegena and back down to Bogota. There were the usually small errors, but by the time I reached Mompos, I wondered if the authors had visited Colombia recently. Permit me to describe some of the errors in just Mompos.
Mompos is reached by an 8-hour bus ride from Categena. The book describes that you may also reach Mompos more quickly by boat, and also leave upsteam by boat to El Banco. I checked with several locals in both Mompos and El Banco who stated there were no boats going to/from Mompos. I also did not see any boats along the river during my stay there. The book states that you can take a colectivo from Calle 18 (near the markets) at Plaza de Bolivar. Well, the colectivos moved from this location over two years ago. The local market moved 3 years ago. In sum, the material on getting and leaving town was dead wrong. Then there was the little stuff. The town can be walked easily, you don't need a bike. I couldn't find the bars listed in the book. I am a little surprised this was published in its present form. Senderos Felices!
Book Returned.......2007-01-16
The book was ordered and did not arrive in time( more than three weeks ) to give it as a gift so was returned via the shipper on arrival. I have not heard anything from Amazon on the return nor have I been credited with the return.
I can find no other electronic avenue to contact Amazon to make note of this matter so have used this book review route.
Please contact me in this regard.
Hugh Minielly
Book Description
The eastern savannas of war-ravaged Colombia, known as the llanos, are among the most brutal environments on Earth, an unlikely setting for one of the most hopeful environmental stories ever told. Here, more than twenty-five years ago, an intrepid visionary named Paolo Lugari set out to create a village that could sustain itself agriculturally, economically, and artistically. He reasoned that if a community could survive in the Colombian llanos, it would be possible to live anywhere. The new village was named after the graceful river terns common in the area, los gaviotas.
The early inhabitants of Gaviotas soon realized that if they wanted even basic necessities, they would need to be very resourceful. So they invented wind turbines that convert mild breezes into energy, super-efficient pumps that tap previously inaccessible sources of water, and solar kettles that sterilize drinking water using the furious heat of the tropical sun.
They even invented a rain forest! Two million pine trees planted as a renewable crop have unexpectedly allowed the rain forest to re-establish itself. Paolo Lugari and the Gaviotans, in their quest to create a model human habitat, serendipitously renewed an entire ecosystem. This is why Colombian author Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez has called Lugari as “The Inventor of the World."
Customer Reviews:
Must Read.......2007-03-15
This is an amazing story about an amazing REAL place... It is an obligated reading for all of those who care about sustainability and renewable energy and wonder whether there is an alternative for our society.
Read this and you will be full of hope and energy for action.
Engaging Style.......2006-04-04
This book shows people solving ecological problems as a community. Weisman engages the reader by showing the people involved, not only the ones with training in certain disciplines, but also natives with practical solutions for living in a Columbian village. Even the children got involved in problem solving in Gaviotos.
They have learned to live in a place where there are many dangers due to drug wars, yet their survival skills are exceptional.
I highly recommend this eye-opening book
Barbara Spring
Not DIY.......2005-03-14
The vision described in the book is inspiring and very hopeful. The idea is to use our ingenuity in ways directly adapted to our environment so that small towns can be self-sufficient. Along the way, very clever uses of wind and water are discovered and described. If the reader is looking for great general ideas or approaches, this book would be hard to beat. On the other hand, if you are a garage-tinkerer and would delight in building the clever devices described, this book is close but no cigar. The drawings offered in the book purposely omit the most important details required to fabricate the devices in a proper working form. If you are a tinkerer and want to build these "goodies," you have three options. In the U.S., you can e-mail with the "Sustainable Village" web site and get the plans (eventually---they are not quick in responding). You can contact the Gaviotas offices in Bogota, Colombia. You can, of course, also take the basic idea and think through the details for yourself. That could take longer and be a little more expensive---perhaps. If you primarily want the ideas and the inspiration, then buy the book, by all means. If you primarily want to tinker and build, go straight for the plans.
interesting.......2004-12-17
In 1998, journalist Alan Weisman collected and presented information about a little known, yet quite monumental, village known as Gaviotas. To get there, one must travel 16 hours by car from the nearest major Columbian city, Bogotá. Even then the path there is not a smooth one; rough, muddy roads and severe political unrest serve as some major barriers in getting to Gaviotas. So why then is such an arduous trip worth it; in essence, Gaviotas is yet another tiny village located in a generally uninhabitable region and possesses none of the modern modes of transportation or communication that we are accustomed to. While in a sense these aspects may be true of Gaviotas, it is also undeniable that this community holds as one of the most efficient, supportive, and thoughtful communities on the planet.
Started in 1971 by a group of Bogotá scientists, Gaviotas originally was created as a sort of scientific experiment, a reaction to the way things were - which clearly wasn't working. A Gaviotas saying goes "the real maturity in life is to realize your dreams" and the founders of Gaviotas did just that when they decided to create their own society. The harsh life and extreme poverty that had been rampant in developing urban areas paired with the blatant depletion of natural resources was enough to spark the idea that maybe there should be a change. Yet instead of trying to make changes in the system already in place, this group of determined individuals took on the radical notion of creating an entirely new, segregated, yet completely self-sufficient, place to live. And that is just what happened.
Wonderful, Inspiring, Hopeful!.......2003-05-06
It was one of the best books I've ever read.
Go get it right now!
Book Description
Internationally acclaimed for the virtuosity and power of her fiction, Laura Restrepo has created in Delirium a passionate, lyrical, devastating tale of eros and insanity.
Aguilar, an unemployed literature professor who has resorted to selling dog food for a living, returns home from a short trip to discover that his wife, Agustina, has gone mad. He doesn’t know what has happened during his absence, and in his search for answers, he gradually unearths profound and shadowy secrets about her past.
On one level, Delirium reads like a detective story, as the reader pieces together information to discover the roots of Agustina’s madness. But it is also a remarkably nuanced novel whose currents run much deeper, delving into the minds of four characters: Aguilar, a husband passionately in love with his wife and determined to rescue her from insanity: Agustina, a beautiful woman from an upper-class Colombian family who is caught in the throes of madness; Midas, a drug-trafficker and money-launderer, who is Agustina’s former lover; and Nicolás, Agustina’s grandfather. Through the mixing of these distinct voices, Laura Restrepo creates a searing portrait of a society battered by war and corruption as well as an intimate look at the daily lives of people struggling to stay sane in an unstable country.
Delirium already has been awarded the 2004 Premio Alfaguara, the 2006 Grinzane Cavour Prize in Italy, and was shortlisted for the prestigious Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger in France for best translated fiction. It is an ambitious and deeply affecting masterwork by one of Latin America’s most important contemporary voices.
Translated from the Spanish by Natasha Wimmer.
Customer Reviews:
Beautiful and Splendid.......2007-04-26
A great piece of literature. A master at her best. A female writer who understands not only human behavior but the effects of society on people and the power of memory. A great read for anyone looking for something different. This book is not only a representation of Colombia but a representation of Latin America.
Book Description
This comprehensive reference book provides the most current information available in a concise, portable format. The Third Edition includes 17,000 entries, over 50,000 cross-references, 210 maps, 100 photographs, and more than 100 tables, charts, and illustrations.
Customer Reviews:
Out of date.......2006-01-30
I enjoyed and used the first edition of this book throughout the 80s, but hey, Columbia! Seventeen years have passed since the second edition was published! The world has changed. In this edition, the Cold War is still on and 9/11 never occurred.
Clearly the publisher has decided never to update or republish what was for a while a very useful book. Columbia has made the full ecyclopedia available online for free at http://www.bartleby.com, so this dated reference work no longer has any purpose.
Columbia Concise Encyclopedia.......2005-09-15
Book was listed as lacking jacket but was quite readable. I ordered it expecting a used book. It appeared to be brand new when delivered in a timely fashion. Product, ordering, delivery and price were all one might expect and more.
One of my favorite reference tools . . ........2002-11-05
I purchased the 1983 edition of this wonderful little reference when it first came out and have used it extensively over the last 19 years. I've rarely been disappointed in the accuracy of information, or the ease of use. As an 8th grade teacher, I find my students are constantly seeking answers. Often, the larger encyclopedia are too wordy and difficult for my students to comprehend on first reading. If I hand them my Columbia, they can get a pithy summary of their topic, which then enables them to understand the more in-depth entries.
In addition to containing an amazing amount of information in a compact format, the illustrations are clear and informative, and the typeface is easy on the eyes.
In short, this is a wonderful tool and I have been known to recommend its purchase to students and parents -- whether or not they already have a full set of encyclopedia at home.
Book Description
Colombian-born Fernando Botero (b. 1932) is a painter, sculptor, and draftsman renowned for his extravagantly rounded figures combining the polish and excess of Spanish colonial baroque with the social realism of the Mexican muralists. Their humorous exaggeration belies the more serious content of Botero’s work—commentary on colonialism, political instability in Latin America, and the vernacular artistic traditions of the region, as well as European art history.
Accompanying the artist’s first American retrospective in over thirty years, The Baroque World of Fernando Botero is the most extensive study of his life and work to date. Drawn exclusively from Botero’s private collection, the 100 works featured in this book, including previously unpublished paintings and drawings, represent the full scope of his oeuvre from a uniquely personal perspective. Many of these—portraits of friends and family members and remembered scenes—have remained in the artist’s possession since their creation, while others he has bought back over the years as markers of significant developments in his career. Three essays examine the artist’s creative life, from the aesthetic environment in which Botero developed his unique style to his catalyzing influence on the Colombian art world of the 1960s and 70s.
Customer Reviews:
Baroque Botero, Beautiful Book.......2007-09-22
Most important in such a book is that the reproductions are well done and these are. Excellent reproductions of Botero's masterful paintings, drawings, and sculptures. If you aren't able to see the exhibit firsthand, the catalogue is not a bad substitute. The text is interesting and succinctly written. Even the orange ribbon page-marker is a nice touch. This luscious book is a shining example of what an art catalogue should be.
Customer Reviews:
Still a great read 16 years later..........2005-05-27
Originally published in 1989, Guy Gugliotta and Jeff Leen have written an astonishing account of the rise of the Medellin cocaine cartel. The book is well researched and the pacing keeps you turning pages. The authors were able to connect a number of separate dots which give the reader a clear picture of the enormity of the drug trade in the late 70's and early 80's. The organization of the drug lords (Escobar, Ochoa, etc.), the men aligned against them and the other bit players caught in between are all brought to life in a fascinating and well written book.
An Inside Look at Drug Trafficking.......2002-06-18
The power of the Medellin Cartel is frightening. This is a story of corruption. The overwhelming amount of drug dollars pouring into Colombia contaminated large portions of society. In many ways Colombians lost their moral compass. However, we must never lose sight of the fact that without demand...this is no market for illegal drugs.
Kings of Cocaine ............2000-10-05
This is one of the best books I have ever read, about any subject....I have told anyone who will listen, to read this book, it's frightening, but very realistic, I just couldn't put it down.....I have read it twice, and it's one of those books you would call a 'keeper'....if you haven't read it, find it and read it....it will BLOW YOUR MIND......
The first book to pull back the veil of secrecy........1999-01-28
Having wallowed in the mire of politicized pseudo-drug wars for over two decades, I can state without reservation that this book pounds hard on a drum of pessimism, a durge that rang true with me. This is a must read and was an astounding forecast of a later government venture known in certain corridors of power as operation "Pseudo Miranda," profiled cinematically in another great book called "C.I.A.: Cocaine In America."
An eye openning account about the war on drugs........1998-04-02
Let me say that this book was read before I had a chance to see a video titled the Clinton chronicles. After seeing this video and reading this remarkable book it's easy to see why the present White House Administration is bogged down with scandal after scandal. I recommend this book, and I recommend getting your hands on the video. You'll be amazed.
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