Zach's Lie

Book Description

Jack Osborne's life changes forever the night men in masks break into his house, threaten Jack and his family, and ransack their home. Jack then discovers the reason these men have come into their lives-his father has been arrested for drug trafficking. Jack, his mother, and his sister are then forced to enter the Witness Security Program. Jack becomes 'Zach' and moves to Elko, Nevada, a town in the middle of nowhere. There he meets Sam, the strangest school custodian he has ever encountered, and Catalin, a girl who might make Zach's uprooting worth the trouble. But just as Zach finally begins to piece together a new life, he finds himself in danger again-and this time his actions could determine the fates of everyone he cares about.

Customer Reviews:

Zach's Lie.......2007-06-06

Jack Osborne is a 12 year old boy in the 7th grade with an imaginary friend named commander IF (Imaginary Friend). Three men broke into their house in the middle of the night; Agent Pelton said it had something to do with their dad. Agent Pelton said he found their dad down in Texas and said they locked him up down town because he was transferring drugs throughout North and South America. Agent Pelton said his dad worked for a man named Alonzo. Alonzo has warehouses throughout America. Jacks Dad wants to put his family in the Whiteness Security Program. The Osborne's changed their names and hair color. Their new names are the Grangers and they moved to Elko, Nevada. Will Alonzo ever find the Grangers in Elko, Nevada?

I believe this is a great book and I recommend it for kids and adults that read fluently. I like this book because it keeps you thinking and they travel all around trying to become people that their not and trying to fit in.

Zach's Lie.......2007-06-06

Jack Osborne is a 12 year old boy in the 7th grade with an imaginary friend named commander IF (Imaginary Friend). Three men broke into their house in the middle of the night; Agent Pelton said it had something to do with their dad. Agent Pelton said he found their dad down in Texas and said they locked him up down town because he was transferring drugs throughout North and South America. Agent Pelton said his dad worked for a man named Alonzo. Alonzo has warehouses throughout America. Jacks Dad wants to put his family in the Whiteness Security Program. The Osborne's changed their names and hair color. Their new names are the Grangers and they moved to Elko, Nevada. Will Alonzo ever find the Grangers in Elko, Nevada?

I Believe this is a great book and I recommend it for kids and adults that read fluently. I like this book because it keeps you thinking and they travel all around trying to become people that their not and trying to fit in.

Students will love it........2007-05-08

I think this is a great read aloud. Lots of action and drama. A must read.

Zach's Lie's reveiw.......2007-04-16

The title of the book I chose is called "Zach's Lie." The author of this book is Roland Smith. The genre of the book is realistic fiction. My opinion about this book is that the book was amazing how it turned out. This book is very emotional at times and also it very adventurous. To admit it I almost cried twice! Kids, teenagers, and adults would love this book. My favorite part in the story is in the ending when... wait I'm not able to tell you. You are just going to find out yourself. The style is adventurous, emotional, and a mystery -find the bad guy- kind of book. When you read the book you can find out what your opinion is. I am not forcing you to read it, but I wish you could because it is the greatest book you will ever read. Just in case you did not understand the book's theme is about a family in trouble and how they try to get out of that situation.

zachs lie.......2007-04-11

ZACH'S LIE
What would you do if somebody broke into your house and threatened to kill you? This is an investigation book that tells all about a kid's life that gets turned around when people break into his house for his dad.

This book title is Zach's Lie. The author is Rolan Smith. The genre: this book has action, adventure, and it also has investigation in it.

This extraordinary book takes place in Portland, Oregon the main characters are Zach, the janitor, his mom and dad and his best friend.

The plot is when Zach is trying to figure everything out why the bad guys are trying to kidnap him so he doesn't figure out what is going on.

What I liked about how the author wrote about the story is that she made it sound like something was bad every second which was cool and how she made it adventurous.

I think somebody that would like this book would be 9 year old and up I am "ten years old" and I loved this book.

I thought this book was great, awesome and just so amazing. I would love to read it again! I think it is better than a lot of books.

The Basque History of the World: The Story of a Nation

Average customer rating:

Reading in situ at the Guggenheim, Bilbao
fascinating subject, but only a so-so book
A Useful Introduction into the Basque Culture
An Amazing History of an Inspiring People
Recommended

The Basque History of the World: The Story of a Nation
Mark Kurlansky
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0140298517

Amazon.com

The buzz about the Guggenheim Bilbão aside, the Basques seldom get good press--from the 12th-century Codex of Calixtus ("A Basque or Navarrese would do in a French man for a copper coin") to current news items about ETA, the Basque nationalist group. Mark Kurlansky, author of Cod, sets out to change all that in The Basque History of the World.

"The singular remarkable fact about the Basques is that they still exist," Kurlansky asserts. Without a defined country (other than Euskadi, otherwise known as "Basqueland"), with no known related ethnic groups, the Basques are an anomaly in Europe. What unites the Basques, above all, is their language--Euskera. According to ETA, "Euskera is the quintessence of Euskadi. So long as Euskera is alive, Euskadi will live." To help provide a complete picture of the Basques, Kurlansky looks at their political, economic, social, and even culinary history, from the valiant Basque underground in World War II to medieval whalers to modern makers of the gâteau Basque. The most affecting chapter focuses on Guernica, a small market town bombed by German planes for over three hours on April 26, 1937, and uses interviews with survivors to illustrate the horror of the attack.

Kurlansky is clearly enamored of the Basques, which leads him to see them in a uniformly positive light. That rosy outlook aside, The Basque History of the World is an excellent introduction to these romantic people. Are they the original Europeans? Kurlansky doesn't weigh in on the issue, preferring instead to honor the Basque request Garean gareana legez--let us be what we are. --Sunny Delaney

Book Description

Straddling a small corner of Spain and France in a land that is marked on no maps except their own, the Basques are a puzzling contradiction-they are Europe's oldest nation without ever having been a country. No one has ever been able to determine their origins, and even the Basques' language, Euskera-the most ancient in Europe-is related to none other on earth. For centuries, their influence has been felt in nearly every realm, from religion to sports to commerce. Even today, the Basques are enjoying what may be the most important cultural renaissance in their long existence.

Mark Kurlansky's passion for the Basque people and his exuberant eye for detail shine throughout this fascinating book. Like Cod, The Basque History of the World blends human stories with economic, political, literary, and culinary history into a rich and heroic tale.

Among the Basques' greatest accomplishments:

• Exploration-the first man to circumnavigate the globe, Juan Sebastián de Elcano, was a Basque and the Basques were the second Europeans, after the Vikings, in North America
• Gastronomy and agriculture-they were the first Europeans to eat corn and chili peppers and cultivate tobacco, and were among the first to use chocolate
• Religion-Ignatius Loyola, a Basque, founded the Jesuit religious order
• Business and politics-they introduced capitalism and modern commercial banking to southern Europe
• Recreation-they invented beach resorts, jai alai, and racing regattas, and were the first Europeans to play sports with balls

Customer Reviews:

Reading in situ at the Guggenheim, Bilbao.......2007-05-25

This very readable book will greatly enhance a visit to the Guggenheim in Bilbao and touring in the surrounding area. The Basque region is geographically and culturally very different from the rest of Spain. Much of it's history is unknown to the ordinary traveller history buff. Kurlansky's book will be a pleasure to have along.

fascinating subject, but only a so-so book.......2007-05-22

I have to admit to not finishing this book. The history of the Basque people is a fascinating tale, but this book was a dreadful slog. The writing style was too loose and chatty resulting in a narrative which was more of a jumble of anecdotes than a cohesive history. There is altogether too much space devoted to the Franco/WWII years. I did like the recipes and the food commentary. Historians often forget that food is an integral part of a national identity.

Perhaps this book improved at the end. However, as mentioned previously, I couldn't get through it.

A Useful Introduction into the Basque Culture.......2007-05-08

I found this book particularly interesting because I am part Basque and Spanish. Prior to reading this book, I had been confused about the Basque culture. Where could this group of people have derived from given that their language has no direct relation to other European languages?

Were the Basques' related to the Celts? American Indians? Why is it that their language has similarities to Hebrew, Persian, Hungarian, or Finnish? Could they be related to the Roma people (incorrectly referred to as Gypsies)? Are they descendants from the hypothetical people of Atlantis? Are they perhaps Russian? or relate to those living in Georgia? Could they even be descendents from Asia? or one of the lost tribes of Israel?

After reading Kurlansky's book. I offer a far more simple explanation on the "mysterious origins" of the Basque people. Perhaps they always lived in the valleys between the Pyrenees Mountains and because of their isolation from other cultures, they maintained an unconquered language and culture despite not being recognized as an official nation.

Perhaps they descend from no one and perhaps they are not as complicated as pointed out by linguists, anthropologists, and historians. What Kurlansky's book brilliantly points out is that because the Basque People have never had their own officially recognized country, their history has been obscured, twisted, and distorted by other countries where their land has been.

Where the French established the notion of "witch hunts" and the spanish persecuted any who associated with Jews, the history books have inaccurately documented this culture who had not been outspoken about what their culture is or what their language is.

This book is a great introduction on the Basque Culture and explains their role in European history from the beginnings of Capitalism and as discoverers of the New World.

It seems that because the Basque's yielded their land to the Romans with free access to the land of the Gauls (France), their language and culture survived without being conquered by Romance language influences as what occurred in France and Spain.

Ironically, their loyalty to the Roman Empire, which gave birth to this culture's loyalty to the Roman Catholic Church, eventually led to their near demise by the Spanierds.

This book goes into these aspects of history. However, in between history lessons, Kurlansky tries to spin off history with Basque culinary ideas and link the two. I found that style a bit tiring and distracting. Making a history book and recipe book into one is not the most efficient manner in which to explain the Basque culture and as a result, makes the book unnecessarily complicated.

I enjoyed the first 70 pages which discusses the Basque's contribution in shipping, whaling, capitalism, and trade.

It's given me a tremendous insight on my own personality and my cultural roots.

An Amazing History of an Inspiring People.......2007-03-14

Excellent, pleasant to read, informative, and inspirational. This book is an affectionate look into the history of the Basque people and their language, from their first settlement of Europe to the modern times. I would recommend reading this book to anyone concerned about the plight of indigenous peoples anywhere or with a curiosity about the Basque language, history, or culture.

Recommended.......2006-07-26

Have you ever been to San Sebastian in Spain? Have you ever been to a Basque Restaurant in Bakersfield, California or any other place? Have you ever heard of The Basque People? Especially if your answer is "no" to the above, you can learn about these surprisingly enterprising people who live in The Pyranees Mountains. They have existed as a people and a culture since 200 BC and earlier. They existed during Roman times and they still exist. And they have a rich, active, history that matches the accomplishments of entire countries. They have been successful entrepreneures for two thousand years of recorded history! This book is worth reading. I promise!
Email:boland7214@aol.

Unfit for Marriage: Impotent Spouses on Trial in the Basque Region of Spain, 1650-1750 (The Basque Series)

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Unfit for Marriage: Impotent Spouses on Trial in the Basque Region of Spain, 1650-1750 (The Basque Series)
Edward J. Behrend-martinez
Manufacturer: University of Nevada Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Social Theory, Roots and Branches: Readings

ASIN: 0874176999

Book Description

In early modern Europe the sacrament of matrimony represented a life-long commitment, and the Catholic Church accepted few grounds for the dissolution of an unhappy marriage. One of these was an unconsummated marriage owing to the sexual impotency of one of the partners. Even then, an annulment was granted only after a Church court had conducted a lengthy investigation of the case, soliciting testimony from numerous witnesses as well as from the aggrieved couple, and had subjected the allegedly impotent spouse (and sometimes both spouses) to an intimate physical examination.

Historian Edward J. Behrend-MartÃnez studied the transcripts of eighty-three impotency trials conducted by the ecclesiastical court of the Spanish diocese of Calahorra in La Rioja--an area incorporating both Basque and Castilian populations and including urban and rural parishes. From these records, he produced a detailed account of private life and public sexuality in these early years of the modern era.

Book Description

One union, one currency - and an abundance of languages; Europe's intrigue lies in its variety. When you find yourself on a busy feast day in Chios, in a smoky Maltese kazin, or courtside at a Basque pelota match, don't let the moment escape - say something!

Covers: Basque, Catalan, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Irish, Italian, Maltese, Portuguese, Scottish Gaelic, Spanish, Turkish & Welsh

join in the sport & festivals from Athens to Belfast
menu decoders for trying the tastiest local dishes
tools to help you break the ice and plunge in
essential transport talk to get you from Ankara to Lisbon

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Quick Reference.......2006-07-15

An excellent quick reference for all your travel language necessities in Europe. And it's a handy little size too.

Minority languages.......2005-06-15

it is great to see the smaller langauges of Europe in this guide!!

WE DO EXIST REMEMBER!!

Irish, Scots Gaelic, Welsh, Basque and Catalan take their positions as European languages of note!

All BRITISH and SPANISH people should know some words in THEIR lesser used languages! Otherwise they are not really British/Spanish!!!

Even covers Welsh! .......2005-03-18

If you plan to travel all over Europe, this book may get you through and save the time and trouble of carrying a different phrasebook for each country. It is small, just slightly larger than the average palm and full of basic phrases.
It doesn't cover every language but DOES include Basque, Catalan, Welsh, Spanish, Turkish, Italian, Dutch, French, German and a wealth of others.
WHat I especially liked:
1. The tips on how to break the ice in each country and join in conversations
2.Menu decoders and suggestions for each country
3.Essential words to get you through transportation checkpoints and on your way
4. Some of the basic sports and festivals in each country.
5. Written FOR the traveler with a strong emphasis on the most essential situations when a phrasebook might be needed.

compact comprehensivephrasebook with pronunciation.......2002-07-12

This book has several advantages over other phrasebooks:
* Its got most of Europe (except Eastern) covered, including Irish!
* It is small - about the size of two decks of cards.
* It has the english phrase, the phrase in the translated language and then in blue how you actually pronounce the phrase. The pronunciations are spot on - the best thing about this book.
* It has phrases on absolutely everything - I even got to use my Greek phrase for "I would not like it extracted please" when I spoke to a greek student at the Oktoberfest who was studying dentistry. Everything's covered: getting on buses, going to the laundromat, getting directions, etc. About 20 pages on each language with everything that you will need to get by for a while.
* It's cheap and all in one book.
* A must have for anybody going to Europe who doesn't speak all their languages - I think that's everyone.

Very Useful but Missed out on Eastern Europe.......2001-12-14

This book is a useful guidebook to many languages of Europe, however some of the omissions are a bit strange; It includes Catalan and Basque but not Eastern European, or Scandinavian languages. It's convenience lies in being able to look up the same phrases for different languages.
I suspect it covers a lot of material from other Lonely Planet Phrasebooks, such as the Spanish one, just not as comprehensively.

Lieutenant Nun: Memoir of a Basque Transvestite in the New World

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Life's more fun as a man than a nun
A Different Conquistador

Lieutenant Nun: Memoir of a Basque Transvestite in the New World
Catalina De Erauso
Manufacturer: Beacon Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0807070726

Amazon.com

Marjorie Garber (Vested Interests: Cross-Dressing and Cultural Anxiety), provides a lively introduction to this picaresque autobiography of a 17th-century nun turned cross-dressing soldier. De Erauso's story itself is a swashbuckler's catalogue of sword fights, daring escapes, damsels in distress, and witty repartee. Even if only half of what de Erauso claims about herself is true, it's a life well worth remembering and an utterly wonderful read.

Book Description

One of the earliest known autobiographies by a woman, this is the extraordinary tale of Catalina de Erauso, who in 1599 escaped from a Basque convent dressed as a man and went on to live one of the most wildly fantastic lives of any woman in history. A soldier in the Spanish army, she traveled to Peru and Chile, became a gambler, and even mistakenly killed her own brother in a duel. During her lifetime she emerged as the adored folkloric hero of the Spanish-speaking world. This delightful translation of Catalina's own work introduces a new audience to her audacious escapades.

Customer Reviews:

Life's more fun as a man than a nun.......2004-06-25

Celebrated in Spanish legends and folklore as the marvelous Lieutenant Nun, Catalina de Erauso was born to a prosperous Basque family in 1585 and sent to a convent at age 4. Destined to become a nun, there she remained until age 15. Days before she was to take her final vows, she escaped, taking only needle, thread, scissors and a few coins.

Despite her previously sheltered existence, de Erauso plunged into her new, wordly life as a man with unusual gusto, as described in her memoir, Lieutenant Nun.

Written some 20 years after her flight, when she correctly deemed confession of her ruse and her still virginal state might save her from the rope or an even more ignominious fate, the memoir describes at breathtaking pace a life of soldiering, banditry and dueling in the wilds of Peru and Chile.

While this slim volume is packed with action, there is little self-reflection or explanation. Transforming her convent undergarments to boy's clothing, she quickly obtains a position with a scholar, runs off when he apparently exhibits too much attention in the boy, and becomes a page at the king's Court.

But when her father (who does not recognize her) appears at court, distraught over his daughter's disappearance, she slips away again. After two comfortable years as a page elsewhere, she quits, "for no more reason than it suited me," returns to her hometown, sees her mother in church (who also fails to recognize her) and leaves, drifting until she finds work as a cabin boy on her uncle's galleon.

While convent education may have fitted her for work as a page, nothing had prepared her for shipboard life. "The work was new to me and I had a hard time at first," is all she has to say about that.

Finding favor with her uncle, who knows her only as another Basque, she jumps ship in the New World, stealing 500 of his pesos and makes her way aboard merchant ships, beginning a pattern of prospering until some slight to her pride causes her to retaliate with knife or sword, necessitating flight or, if captured, jail time, church sanctuaries and scantily described negotiations among law officers, churchmen and the aggrieved parties.

Needing money she signs on as a soldier, serves with an older brother she had never met, and endures "three years of misery" fighting Indians "with everything but discomfort in short supply" .

Following a disastrous duel in which she kills her brother, de Erauso's career takes a downswing into banditry and the life of a gambler with brawling and knife fights involving several brushes with the gallows.

Although wounded in battle and once "stripped" for the rack, de Erauso never explains how she conceals her gender. Her attitude seems entirely that of the colonial male. One murderous knife fight, for instance, is justified when "my companion, with plenty of people around to hear it, told me I lied like a cuckold."

Her well-timed confession to a sympathetic bishop not only saved her from prosecution, but made her a celebrity. She was later granted dispensation by the Pope to live as a man and she finished her life as a merchant in Mexico.

De Erauso's delivery is deadpan and devoid of introspection. There is no purple prose, quite the opposite. While the pace is headlong, it raises more questions than it answers. But Michelle Stepto's useful introduction fills in much of the essential historical and social background, yielding a fascinating portrait of a very peculiar adventurer's life in colonial Chile.

A Different Conquistador.......2000-07-31

Catalina de Erauso grew up in a Basque convent, but spent most of her days as a soldier in the Spanish army in the mid-1600s. This brief autobiography is not a typical tale of military exploits. Although brawling constitutes much of the action, this is the story of a female transvestite. De Erauso dressed as a man to escape from her convent in 1599. Keeping up the disguise for reasons that included an attraction to "pretty faces," she traveled to the Americas in 1603 and fought in the conquest of Chile. When finally forced to reveal her true sex, de Erauso attained brief celebrity in the Baroque world. In 1624, the pope granted her permission to continue her life garbed in male attire. A forword and an excellent introduction by the translators places this fascinating story in historical context.

Average customer rating:

Basking in the light of literature
A BASQUE MAGIC WORLD
Synopsis not totally correct.

OBABAKOAK: A Novel
Bernardo Atxaga
Manufacturer: Pantheon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0679424040
Release Date: 1993-03-23

Customer Reviews:

Basking in the light of literature.......2007-02-04

I'd never read any Basque literature before reading OBABAKOAK. Probably that was because there isn't a lot of it. Many Basque writers might have written in Spanish or French--maybe that's one reason why--and then for centuries, Basque was always given low status, "not modern", "just for villagers", "not a proper language", and so on. So, I was very curious to know what kind of novel would come out of Euskadi, that region on both sides of the Pyrenees inhabited by an ancient people with a unique language. Now I know. The answer is....a very strange one. OBABAKOAK reminded me of one of those intricate Chinese balls carved from ivory in which there's a whole series of smaller and smaller balls inside. They have not been placed there, no, they were carved from one piece of ivory.

OBABAKOAK is above all a paean to literature---life is nothing but a collection of stories, and stories can only reflect life. We may be born in small towns like Obaba with definite character, but when we depart to swim in wider seas, we lose the ability to go back, all the old mysteries of childhood remain just that, though we may try to unravel them from remote distances in time. Nothing is what it seems, though everything is, as in a dream, quite familiar. We turn to stories then, trying to explain life and loss to ourselves. That lizard of longing penetrates our brains. Perhaps we may even go crazy if we persist. Myths and superstitions loom large. We must give up the search for truth even if the desire to continue remains. OBABAKOAK means "the things having to do with Obaba village" and so, I supposed, it would be a novel about life or lives in a Basque village. Wrong ! While Obaba does play some role, the tales are far more wideranging---in time, subject and place---the Amazon, Hamburg, 9th century France, Baghdad, the Himalayas, some mythical Chinese cit, plagiarism, sex changes, murder, and escape. Nobody can escape their fate. Atxaga is intoxicated by literature, by the art of the story. His characters are both fictional and fictional-within-fiction. I often felt that the book had dissolved into a collection of diffuse stories with few connections. While most of the stories were indeed engrossing, some magical, some clever, some sharply didactic, I wondered why they belonged together. A couple characters from within the stories told did emerge into the overall story---that Chinese ball effect again---but many did not. Atxaga writes with a dry humor and a certain irreverence which I liked very much, but if there were literary allusions, I have to concede that I could not pick them up. The novel may fascinate you for some hours, but in the end, you may find yourself puzzled. They say that even the devil couldn't learn Basque. Maybe he couldn't really understand OBABAKOAK either.

A BASQUE MAGIC WORLD.......1999-09-21

A lot of good short stories written by one of the best basque authors. A great book in order to get know that country.

Synopsis not totally correct........1997-05-19

Originally written in Basque language, the book was translated into spanish by the writer himself. The novel is built as a compilation of entirely fictional short stories and has nothing to do with the real life in a "exotic Basque village", as the synopsis says. It is not the aim of the author to represent the reality of life in the Basque country. In fact, the action could be located anywhere in the world

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Gripping, but doesn't deliver
Brilliant
Meticulas story telling
extraordinary literature..
serendipity

The Summer of Katya: A Novel
Trevanian
Manufacturer: Three Rivers Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1400098041
Release Date: 2005-06-28

Book Description

In the golden summer of 1914, Jean-Marc Montjean, recently graduated from medical school, comes to the small French village of Salies to assist the village physician. His first assignment is to treat the brother of a beautiful woman named Katya Treville. As he and her family become friendly, he realizes they are haunted by an old, dark secret . . . but he can’t help falling deeply in love with Katya.

Jean-Marc is warned by Katya’s brother that she is delicate and that he should curb his attentions, but he is young, hopeful, and in love . . . and he is certain that Katya returns his affections. When Jean-Marc learns that the Trevilles are planning to leave the village forever, he insists on a final meeting with Katya. That meeting and the events that follow turn what was an idyllic romance into an unending nightmare. Katya’s secret is revealed in a thrilling tale that is part love story and part psychological thriller, and the chilling climax will stay with the reader long after the last page is turned.

Download Description

Trevanian’s books have been translated into more than fourteen languages and have sold millions of copies worldwide. He lives in the French Basque mountains. His new novel, The Crazyladies of Pearl Street, is now available in hardcover.

Look for these other Trevanian classics from Three Rivers Press: Shibumi, The Eiger Sanction, The Loo Sanction, and The Main.

From the Trade Paperback edition.

Customer Reviews:

Gripping, but doesn't deliver.......2006-08-02

When Trevanian passed away last December, I was intrigued by the descriptions of his thrillers in the obituaries, and decided to try them out. Though I haven't yet read his most famous book, Shibumi, I've now completed Incident at Twenty-Mile and The Summer of Katya.

I found both books gripping. Trevanian likes to play with pacing, point-of-view, and plot twists in such a way as to draw you relentlessly on, even as you're aware on some level that you're being had.

At the same time, neither book delivers in the end on the suspense that has been so well crafted. Instead, the plots in both novels are resolved by eruptions of violence that arise randomly, rather than organically from the story and characters. And I was surprised to find that both books relied on the hoary device of an amnesiac killer.

Brilliant.......2006-03-29

I was reluctant to read this book. I got into Trevanian because of his pre-X-gen notion. "Nothing matters", no holds barred. This one became a page-turner. Damn me and Trevanian! Too many good books...He gets me every time, no matter what! I imagined, the Iternational-Espionage Master bringing me into an exciting World of the Fearless. This one goes somewhere else. Can't explain...you just gotta read.

He tested things I could never imagine. Turns out Trevanian has a heart. This book will fool you if you know the author. A good read, for sure. Romantic at least, confusing at best. You don't know the story until the end...it's tragic, sort of. Won't give away the end...a good journey. There is no side-show. Something else comes into play here...and it writes beautifully.

Meticulas story telling.......2006-01-18

Trevanian is a wonderful writer, best known for spy thrillers, his artistry however, is most impeccable in this mysterious love story. As it opens, Jean-Marc Montjean, begins telling his story and it flows from there with casual, yet poetic prose, evolving like the day, bright with possibilities in the early hours, full of hope, yet soon twists to the inevitable dark of evening. The reader feels compelled back in time and into the shoes of the narrator. It is tight, organic and fluid. Goes down in history as a classic along side Rebecca and Wuthering Heights.

extraordinary literature.........2005-09-16

This really is a work of genious. A love shadowed by the burdens of a painful past. A must read!

serendipity.......2005-05-03

I came across The Summer of Katya by accident, and am happy to have discovered both the author and the novel. This is a witty, often amusing little story, with dialog that you can practically hear and a mystery that remains a tantalizing, just-out-of-reach secret until the end. Both of the male characters are vitally human - Katya, the love interest, is superficially charming but strangely wooden, the first clue that something is seriously wrong with this picture. The plot epitomizes the old adage that love is blind; although the reader is not sure what the problem is, you know there is one, a discovery that Jean-Marc stubbornly refuses to see until it is literally forced upon him. This book is a little known gem; a quick, enthralling reading experience.

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Fantastic and healthy foods from the Basque country

The Basque Table
Teresa Barrenechea
Manufacturer: Harvard Common Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 1558323279

Product Description

Spanish food is hot! Not spicy hot (well, sometimes), but definitely the "it girl" of the culinary world. This award-winning, internationally acclaimed cookbook celebrates what is often considered the best of Spanish cooking--Basque cuisine. This simple cooking reflects the bounty of the land and sea, with fish and shellfish, meats, cheeses, olives and olive oils featured in boldly flavored pinchos (Basque tapas) and succulent main dishes. Renowned author Teresa Berrenechea, born and raised in the Basque country, captures the unforgettable flavors of her native land.

Customer Reviews:

Fantastic and healthy foods from the Basque country.......2006-02-06

Basque food is incredibly good, and this cookbook provides 130 recipes that will convince you again and again of this fact. From the wonderful pinchos -- super appetizers -- to delicious salads, hearty stews and soups, and amazing main dishes, this book is like a fountain of delights. I nearly changed my name to Rex Rabbiteater after tasting the braised rabbit in red wine sauce. It is easy to imagine that the time-honored Basque cooking will emerge as one of the top global cuisines of the early 21st century, given the wonderful job that Teresa Barrenechea has done in presenting it to the world.

A Time We Knew: Images of Yesterday in the Basque Homeland (Basque Series)

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A snapshot of the oldest continuous civilization in Europe
"The time between dogs and wolves"

A Time We Knew: Images of Yesterday in the Basque Homeland (Basque Series)

Manufacturer: University of Nevada Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

Spain | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

Travel | Writing | Reference | Subjects | Books
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The Basque Hotel (Basque Series)

ASIN: 0874171571

Customer Reviews:

A snapshot of the oldest continuous civilization in Europe.......2006-07-28

The Basque people are certainly an interesting race; it is believed that theirs is one of the oldest languages in Europe. Where they came from and how they ended up in northern Spain has been a point of contention between anthropologists for some time. They suffered terribly during the Spanish Civil War in the 1930's; the famous painting by Picasso represents some of the suffering in the Basque city of Guernica. The people of that city had the dubious distinction of being the first in history to have been the victims of the deliberate terror bombing of civilians. The Euskadi Ta Askatasuna or ETA has been engaged in a decade's long struggle to create an independent homeland for the Basque people out of the Basque areas in Spain and France.
This book is a collection of photos taken in the Basque regions in Spain and France. It is a rugged, yet beautiful land; most of the buildings are very old. While there are some modern devices displayed in the pictures, the majority could have been taken decades ago and some perhaps over a century ago. People are meeting over drinks, coffee and traditional food. Some of the beautiful pictures of the villages in the valleys could have been taken at the turn of the century.
When people appear in the photo, one thing is clear. The Basques are a very proud people, they have lived on and worked their land for centuries and will continue to do so. Rugged mountains and terrain breeds rugged, hardy people and that certainly describes the Basques. No small set of photographs with associated explanations in a book can truly describe any culture, especially one this old. However, it can both literally and figuratively give you a snapshot and that is done very well in this book.

"The time between dogs and wolves".......2001-05-12

"A Time We Knew: Images of Yesterday in the Basque Homeland" is the product of a fascinating collaboration between photographer William Albert Allard and the dean of Basque-American literature, Robert Laxalt.

In the fall of 1967, Allard spent two months in the Basque country of northeastern Spain and southwestern France, capturing with his camera the everyday life of the people who lived there. Although Allard spoke no Basque and was linked to the Basque country only through his Basque wife, his stunning photos evoke the tremendous power of the Basque landscape and people: the haunting flanks of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques at evening; the gloomy mountains of the northern coast of Spain just at the approach of a storm; a rough-hewn woman with a scythe at Behorleguy, on the frontier between youth and age, in whose face is reflected the painful past of the ancient Basque people. From a technical point-of-view, these incredible photographs are so good that they could truly be "images of yesterday": the color is brilliant. Alas, though, "yesterday" in the Basque country is no more. The years since 1967 have seen the heavy industrialization of both the French and Spanish sectors of the Basque homeland and the gradual passing of the ancient ways Allard captures here.

Laxalt's contribution to this book is his prose vignettes, some of the best of his characteristically exquisite prose-poetry. A second-generation Basque-American whose father grew up in the French Basque country, Laxalt knows the region as well as probably anyone in the United States. While one cannot miss the heavy dose of romanticism in his prose ("Girls slender as reeds walking hand in hand down the lane, singing an ode to spring in soprano voices pure and light as air") and even pastoralism (exacerbated by the fact that the Basques are some of the world's greatest shepherds), it is obvious that Laxalt is a remarkable writer.

Book Description

The Basques, one of Spain's most distinct ethnic minorities, played a remarkably influential role in the creation and maintenance of Spain's vast colonial empire, including the Philippines. Basques were members of the Magellan expedition that discovered the Philippines in 1521, and a Basque-led expedition subsequently laid the foundation for Spain's conquest and pacification of the archipelago. Despite the small population of their native provinces, the Basques' unique skills as shipbuilders, navigators, businessmen, and scribes, their evangelical zeal, and their ethnic cohesion and work-oriented culture made them well suited to serve as explorers, colonial administrators, missionaries, settlers, merchants, and shippers in the trans-Pacific galleon trade between China, Manila, and Acapulco, Mexico. After the Wars of Independence deprived Spain of most of its American empire, many Basques settled in the Philippines, fleeing political persecution and increasingly limited opportunities in their homeland. Basque emigration from Spain to the Philippines continued through the first half of the twentieth century.

Basques played prominent roles in the governance, defense, and cultivation of the Philippines until the end of Spanish sovereignty in 1898, and an active role in Filipino resistance to the Japanese occupation during World War II. They were leaders in the economic development of the hinterlands, as well as the advancement of industry, transportation, inter-island trade and shipping, and the establishment of Catholicism as a dominant national religion. Filipinos of Basque descent continue to contribute in significant ways to the culture and economy of the contemporary Philippines.

This work breaks new ground with its study of the Basque diaspora in the Far East. It also addresses the long-unappreciated history of the Philippines as a vital part of the Spanish Empire, closely connected through trade and personal ties to the American colonies, and crucial to the European penetration of East Asia. Basques distinguished themselves in many areas of Filipino life, and their story, as told by Marciano de Borja, is rich in vivid characters and fascinating detail, while at the same time filling an important void in the scholarly literature about the Basque diaspora.

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