Customer Reviews:
Does it get any better.......2007-10-14
I am 1/3 of the way through this book and I am stalled -- I have read 2 other books since starting this work. It just isn't a rewarding experience for me. There is no driving beat in the book to drive me on.
a novel worthy of reading.......2007-08-16
This book poignantly describes the challenges of trying to assimilate into a new culture while maintaining the old. Alvarez does an exceptional job capturing the difficulty of trying to fit in, while trying to follow the beliefs and culture of the old country.
This is definitely a book to consider, for it will reveal the complications of assimilation, the love for our family, and the bond of sisterhood. Overall, this is a novel that provides insight towards a new culture.
Poor little rich girls. .. ........2007-08-15
I found this book to be well enough written but the story was so-o-o whiny. Somehow I had trouble empathizing with these poor little rich girls who have to move away from their fancy lives but soon enough spend summers back on the island, go to New England boarding schools and live well again, albeit with fewer servants.
The Girls Who Lived.......2007-08-10
Ms. Alvarez writes about her two homelands, the Dominican Republic and the United States, with such believability that I kept checking to see if I was reading a memoir rather than a novel (it's the latter). Her most famous work, In the Time of the Butterflies, is her imagined account of the lives of historical people who gave their lives in resistance to General Trujillo's dictatorship in the Dominican in the first half of the 20th century. "Garcia Girls" covers some of the same period, but tells the story of girls who lived, eventually to emigrate to the U.S. to struggle in different ways.
The structure of the novel takes some getting used to as Alvarez writes from now to then--starting with vignettes about grown women and working her way back to stories about their early childhood in the Dominican. She also switches voices among the four sisters--each has a distinct personality and life, but their similarities had me checking back sometimes to remind myself exactly who was speaking.
Fans of Ms. Alvarez who haven't read this book should do so. Newcomers might better start with "Butterflies" and then try "Garcia Girls", given that the latter switches among both place and narrator ("Butterflies" does the latter as well), and works its way back in time. "Butterflies" also gives some historical perspective about life under Trujillo that is important to understand to appreciate the travels of the Garcia family. Both books are appropriate for teenagers as well as adults.
A Good Read.......2007-05-29
I was assigned to read this book for my college class--the history of the women's movement. It was very good and funny. I laughed out loud in many places. I finished the book in two days which is good for me since I am a slow reader. It held my interest the entire time.
Book Description
In 1493 Christopher Columbus led a fleet of seventeen ships and more than twelve hundred men to found a royal trading colony in America. Columbus had high hopes for his settlement, which he named La Isabela after the queen of Spain, but just five years later it was in ruins. It remains important, however, as the first site of European settlement in America and the first place of sustained interaction between Europeans and the indigenous Taínos. Kathleen Deagan and José María Cruxent now tell the story of this historic enterprise. Drawing on their ten-year archaeological investigation of the site of La Isabela, along with research into Columbus-era documents, they contrast Spanish expectations of America with the actual events and living conditions at America's first European town. Deagan and Cruxent argue that La Isabela failed not because Columbus was a poor planner but because his vision of America was grounded in European experience and could not be sustained in the face of the realities of American life. Explaining that the original Spanish economic and social frameworks for colonization had to be altered in America in response to the American landscape and the non-elite Spanish and Taíno people who occupied it, they shed light on larger questions of American colonialism and the development of Euro-American cultural identity
Customer Reviews:
A Tremendous Example of Historical Research.......2004-05-18
I read it in three days.
A must have book for anyone interested in the Conquista and early colonization of the Caribbean and America in General. I also believe that anyone interested in the life and deeds of Christopher Columbus should read this work.
The authors' combination of archaeological excavation with documentary research is excellent and should serve as an example for future research projects. Furthermore, some of the discoveries they made will be quite unexpected and surprising for the general public, and even for those familiar with their work.
Despite the fact that both Deagan and Cruxent are highly regarded experts in Caribbean archaeology, they have written a book that can be enjoyed by the general public.
Amazon.com
In a 1930s Dominican Republic village, the scream of a woman in labor rings out like the shot heard around Hispaniola. Every detail of the birth scene--the balance of power between the middle-aged Señora and her Haitian maid, the babies' skin color, not to mention which child is to survive--reverberates throughout Edwidge Danticat's Farming of Bones. In fact, rather than a celebration of fecundity, the unexpected double delivery gels into a metaphor for the military-sponsored mass murder of Haitian emigrants. As the Señora's doctor explains: "Many of us start out as twins in the belly and do away with the other."
But Danticat's powerful second novel is far from a currently modish victimization saga, and can hold its own with such modern classics as One Hundred Years of Solitude and The Color Purple. Its watchful narrator, the Señora's shy Haitian housemaid, describes herself as "one of those sea stones that sucks its colors inside and loses its translucence once it's taken out into the sun." An astute observer of human character, Amabelle Désir is also a conduit for the author's tart, poetic prose. Her lover, Sebastian, has "arms as wide as one of my bare thighs," while the Señora's complicit officer husband is "still shorter than the average man, even in his military boots."
The orphaned Amabelle comes to assume almost messianic proportions, but she is entirely fictional, as is the town of Alegría where the tale begins. The genocide and exodus, however, are factual. Indeed, the atrocities committed by Dominican president Rafael Trujillo's army back in 1937 rival those of Duvalier's Touton Macoutes. History has rendered Trujillo's carnage much less visible than Duvalier's, but no less painful. As Amabelle's father once told her, "Misery won't touch you gentle. It always leaves its thumbprints on you; sometimes it leaves them for others to see, sometimes for nobody but you to know of." Thanks to Danticat's stellar novel, the world will now know. --Jean Lenihan
Book Description
In 1937, Rafael Trujillo, President of the Dominican Republic, decided to rid his country of the many Haitians who worked in the cane fields. The characters here are fiction but the story is not. Amabell Desirt is a young Haitian orphaned at age eight and rescued by a Dominican family where she later becomes a maid. She is in love with a cane worker on a nearby farm. When she fears that the army has taken him, she gathers her few belongings and begins the long trek over the mountains in hopes of meeting him across the Dominican/Haitian border. What follows is a story of heartbreak, despair and terror. It is also a story of love, barbarity, dignity, and the only triumph possible for the persecuted: to endure.
"Ms. Danticat has successfully balanced what could have simply been a tale of woe with the redeeming power of bearing witness...eye-opening and delicately written." (New York Times Book Review)
Customer Reviews:
Moved..........2007-01-11
This was the first book I read from this author and I can tell you, it will not be the last. The writing is amazing. This author has an amazing gift with imagery! She will make you see (and feel) what she is writing about as if you are there in the story. It simply took my breath away! A must read. Tears came from my eyes as I read the last few lines in the book. The story captivated me.
"The Farming of Bones" is a chronological work of art. .......2006-12-12
Danticat moves beyond the stream of consciousness of "Krick Krack" and takes us on a voyage to the Dominican Republic and opens our hearts to the drama of a terrifyingly real era of hatred personified. Moving away from the quiet life of a plantation type existence.
The novel lands us in a holocaust situation where the host country becomes murderous and ravenous. The exciting adventure builds from a quiet from a pastoral love story into a fight for survival of Annabelle, the main character, who will be caught in your mind for days afterwards. Sebastien and Annabelle make an adoring couple, even though they are so young. Danticat masterfully evokes the atmosphere of hatred and terror of the massacre of Haitians by Dominicans through the eyes of Amabelle, who at the same time have only a few memories of her childhood and is incredibly uncertain future.
I thought this book was an excellent representation of how life was treated back in 1937 in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Not only was this a pure love story, but it was so factual and real. Danticat does an excellent job with her writing this novel, and deserves an applause. This book was touching and gripping at the same time. As a Haitian American I have always had an interest in understanding the history and problems which exist and have existed in Haiti, but in reading several texts I often find that the language of the genre is often uninteresting. For me Danticat changes that, she takes a historical event in Haitian history and structures it magnificently through the eyes of her young female character. I am glad that there is someone like Ms. Danticat in the literary world to help young Haitians like myself gain a better understanding of Haiti and its culture.
A Must Read! A Beautiful Book!.......2006-10-13
A beautiful book inside and out, I donated my copy to my school library where I work. I think this book about the life in Hispaniola or Haiti and Dominican Republic from the Haitian author's point of view is done poetically. If you have any interest in reading about the life and times in Haiti, this book should be on your must read list. It is one of those books that you don't forget about easily. You remember the story, the plot, the characters, and the crisis in Haiti at the time. Now with Haitian immigrants in our country, the problems are still there and we must not forget them too. This book is a beautiful piece of work that should be read in the classroom.
Fantastic/Horrific story.......2006-08-16
This book is a must read for anybody truly wanting to understand Haiti's history and its relationship to its neighboring countries. Although I felt like the story kind of fell apart at the end, none the less, it was a terrific, informative, important story to be told.
The Lovesong of Amabelle...........2006-07-04
Danticat's depiction of the life and times of Amabelle and her life-long love, Sebastien, is once again truly captivating. Set in the Dominican Republic in 1937, the author provides the backdrop for what came to be one of the most horrifically violent massacres in Haitian history. Yet, similar to Breath, Eyes, Memory, the scenery/historical backdrop does not fully dominate the text; that is, the individual stories of Amabelle and Sebastien are not shadowed by the Haitian massacre, but rather framed by it. The creative effect which Danticat achieves is very simple: she is able to render a distant massacre into a personal event which has the capacity to touch the lives and consciousness of the readers, moving us to action. Essentially, she brings public Haitian history into a private sphere by presenting the lives and tribulations of Amabelle and Sebastien. And, like the other texts which came before them, The Farming of Bones truly strikes a chord. Its simple truths resonate, and the characters are vivid, honest, and three-dimensional. A very public story becomes a personal one which brings the reader at the forefront of the Haitian massacre atrocities, as well as face to face with Amabelle and those who fell and rose before her.
Amazon.com
With ten stories that move from the barrios of the Dominican Republic to the struggling urban communities of New Jersey, Junot Diaz makes his remarkable debut. Diaz's work is unflinching and strong, and these stories crackle with an electric sense of discovery. Diaz evokes a world in which fathers are gone, mothers fight with grim determination for their families and themselves, and the next generation inherits the casual cruelty, devestating ambivalence, and knowing humor of lives circumscribed by poverty and uncertainty. In
Drown, Diaz has harnessed the rhythms of anger and release, frustration and joy, to indelible effect.
Customer Reviews:
Provocative, Compelling & Heartbreaking.......2007-07-11
Only the second Dominican writer to be published in English in the US, Junot Diaz writes with such an authentic voice, such a clear cadence and rhythm, that your response to these perfect short storeis is a visceral as the writing itself. Often on the top of many people's favorite collections, these stories are exquisitely rough gems, bulletins from the abyss that simultaneously make you laugh out loud and wish you could hang with these sweet tigres. A must for anyone interested in learning how to develop voice, also essential for adolescents interested in global perspectives right in their own backyards.
Drowning in the Richness of Junot Diaz.......2007-04-26
This story collection started off a little choppy;
the best stories are at the end. The author
employs a stream of consciousness that reminds
you of Toni Morrison.
The characters' evolution as young adolescent teenage
boys is juxtaposed with Diaz's linear narration that
recalls the immigrant's life with desperation. Time
is not an issue in Diaz's work; the characters move
at their own paces and learn about life in their own
ways.
Though the machismo is a bit stifling at times, Diaz
is a gifted writer whom readers can expect many great
things from in the future.
Literary Mosaic.......2006-11-10
I read this book as part of my Latino Literature course at the University of Arizona. It's an amazing read that offers multicultural insight. The author 's writing style feels somewhat like Toni Morrisson's stream of consciousness effect. The book is not a linear straight-forward read, but rather separate pieces of writing that together act as a literary mosaic. It's a beautiful, at times surreal and other times gritty, read. I highly recommend; you will not regret the time spent invested in this book and will walk away with much.
A vision of hope.......2006-10-21
There are several recurrent themes running through this collection (the lost father, the regained father, the lost love, brotherhood, betrayal--often sexual) but the one I found most striking was that of facelessness.
You would think that facelessness is synonymous with invisibility, but here it is not. There is something within that facelessness, which makes the person all the more visible--scorned, pitied, hated, feared, and by some, treated with great kindness. The faced want the faceless to be gone for good because they represent the worst fear: That you, too, might one day suffer this fate where all that defines you to the outside world is stripped away, where you are a stranger in a strange land--where you are unloved and unlovable.
"Ysrael" is the boy with no face, his face having been mostly chewed off by a pig when he was an infant. Because of this he wears a mask and awaits a humanitarian intervention in which doctors in Canada are meant to restore his face. But this day never seems to come and he is scorned and beaten, but he is also an object of intense interest. There is something about him that fascinates the other boys; if only they could just see behind his mask. But even when they do, it infuriates them, repulses them. There is nothing in seeing his face that makes them feel better about themselves. It only makes them feel worse, more powerless.
Then when the reader sees the world from his point of view in "No Face," we understand that though he is deformed and maligned there is still great hope and beauty in his world, though he might not realize it. There is something strong deep within that will keep him alive despite the obstacles. He is a survivor. He will run.
So Ysrael stands for the best hope of all of the faceless within these stories--and the message is to keep going, keep running, keep moving forward no matter how people will push you down and try to keep you from being seen.
In that, a book, which might otherwise be bleak, I found quite hopeful. And so, in the end, what you have is a collection of stories that are beautiful, necessary, and heartbreaking. Read it.
I don't know what else to say........2006-10-10
I had to read "Drown" for my ENC1101, Written Communications I class. I was sorely disappointed in the school for making us read something that was offensive, poorly written, grammatically embarassing and just downright boring. The stories were disjointed, and read like a diary...which I didn't find a plus.
I then was assigned to write a number of essays on the book, which was SO hard because there isn't much to write about. The best way to approach this collection of short (very short) stories is to imagine yourself in the writer's shoes. Otherwise, you're not going to care about his crappy childhood or the women he abuses.
I have an opportunity to meet Junot Diaz this Thursday at my school. I will not attend because I'm sure that, although he is apparently an English professor, I could convince even him that his book requires some serious rewriting.
As a middle-class white female, I don't connect with the author or with his opinions, which makes the book hard to digest. Unless you are a poor Dominican male with an absentee father, it is difficult to understand the point Diaz is attempting to make, if he is attempting it at all. I would suggest that this book be removed from college curriculums. Please, stop making us read this garbage.
Average customer rating:
- A let down!
- Tia Lola book reveiw
- Tia Lola book review!
- Review by BillyBob Buttertoast
- Excellent Piece
|
How Tia Lola Came to Stay
Julia Alvarez
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In the Name of Salome
ASIN: 0440418704
Release Date: 2002-08-13 |
Amazon.com
With her brilliantly hued flower-print dresses, her maracas and tambor, and the migrating beauty mark over her lipsticked mouth, Tia Lola stands out in Vermont like a tropical bird in a snowstorm. Her nephew, 10-year-old Miguel, just wants to fit in to his new home. He and his mother and sister have just moved here from New York following his parents' divorce. With his black hair and brown skin, it's hard enough already without the flamboyant antics of his friendly, nutty aunt, visiting from the Dominican Republic. But even while she is dancing her merengues in front of his new friends and painting the white farmhouse purple, Tia Lola is also weaving a magical spell of love and support that Miguel and his wounded family sorely need. Miguel's growing appreciation for his crazy aunt's ways, and the entire town's admiration and respect for an outsider who, without even speaking the same language, wins the hearts of all, is a funny, uplifting story.
Julia Alvarez is the author of many award-winning novels, including How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents and In the Time of the Butterflies, and the picture book The Secret Footprints. She writes with a warmth and humor that crosses all boundaries. (Ages 9 to 12) --Emilie Coulter
Book Description
A delightfully entertaining story of family and culture from acclaimed author Julia Alvarez.
Moving to Vermont after his parents split, Miguel has plenty to worry about! Tía Lola, his quirky, carismática, and maybe magical aunt makes his life even more unpredictable when she arrives from the Dominican Republic to help out his Mami. Like her stories for adults, Julia Alvarez’s first middle-grade book sparkles with magic as it illuminates a child’s experiences living in two cultures.
Customer Reviews:
A let down!.......2007-05-04
I thought that this book was so bad it was annoying. It was hard to read because of all the Spanish words and sentences. I didn't want to continue the
book because I got lost in the language. I had to continue because it was a school project. I reccommend not to but this book because you're wasting money. How Tia Lola Came to (Visit) Stay
Tia Lola book reveiw.......2007-05-03
I liked the YANKEES game and the big party. I thought that the spanish helped my spanish. Parts of the book got boring but it was ok. I thought Miguel was a good tuff odd characher. I thought Junita acted like a baby. Tia Lola was a very good story characher. The book was very good.
Tia Lola book review!.......2007-05-03
How Tia Lola Came To Stay is a decent book. Not good not bad just decent. I liked the spanish in other words... It is about a family that just moved from New York to vermount and the parents just got divorced the mom and kids go to vermount while the dad stays in New York. Their aunt vistits vermount from the Dominacan Republic and she knows litel english that is all i am going to tell you for the rest buy the book!
Review by BillyBob Buttertoast.......2005-04-04
Tia Lola Came to Stay is a pretty good book in the terms of the morals in the story, but I didn't really like the way it was written. It seems to be a book for kids much younger than I am, because it was very jumpy. The story line would jump around a lot, and it seemed as if one moment it was the middle of the winter, and the next it was mid July. That tended to confuse me a little bit. The author also placed a lot of Spanish words in the text, without any clues as to what they are. That got confusing also.
The story's morals are okay though. The children learn that change happens. If you don't stay negative about change and look at the bright side of things, things may turn out okay. The kids find that they would be devastated if Tia Lola went home to the Dominican Republic, rather than wishing that she would. So, the moral is one of the highlights of the book.
There were definitely aspects of this story that I could have done without, such as the explanations after every set of dialogue, but I did enjoy the meaning of the book and the plot. I didn't care for the sudden Spanish words springing up all over the page, but I would still probably give this book about 3 stars.
Excellent Piece.......2004-09-03
There is always someone in our family that stands out. There is also someone that's an influence.
Amazon.com
In Nelly Rosario's beautifully written family saga Song of the Water Saints, Graciela, an unwilling mother and a halfhearted wife, spends her days imagining sea voyages and tracing shapes in the clouds. She is so restless, yet so trapped in Dominican village life, that she wakes at night to rub camphor oil into her itching feet. Finally, a fortuneteller advises her to "stop living between nostalgia and hope." It is up to Graciela's daughter and her children to make use of the freedoms that eluded Graciela, whose life was shaped not only by poverty but also by the brutal U.S. military occupation of the Dominican Republic, the brief flowering of a belle époque in the 1920s, and the 30-year military dictatorship of Trujillo. With an almost painterly attention to foreground and background, Rosario stresses the importance of these events without letting them overshadow her richly imagined world. Song of the Water Saints is an unusually assured debut from a promising writer. --Regina Marler
Book Description
“The circle of myth, history, longing, and grief in Song of the Water Saints will envelop the reader as it does the lives of Nelly Rosario’s beautifully realized characters.”
—Maureen Howard, author of A Lover’s Almanac
Poetic, transporting, and heartbreaking, this debut novel traces the lives of three generations of courageous Dominican women.
First there is Graciela: a young girl rebelling against the strictures of her poor, rural life in the Dominican Republic in the early 1900s, she searches for her true destiny even as it lures her away from her husband and baby daughter. . . . Then there is Mercedes, passionately devoted to the Church, who rears herself after the death of her beloved stepfather, eventually marrying and moving with her husband to New York City, where she will bring up her granddaughter. . . . Coming of age in the freewheeling 1990s—and bringing the story full circle—Leila has without a doubt inherited the restless genes of great-grandmother Graciela. . . .
The intimate details of life in New York and the Dominican Republic, the broad strokes of history, the subtleties of familial connection amid changing notions of home and obligation—all are rendered with grace and gritty realism in this remarkably accomplished novel.
Customer Reviews:
Beautifully written.......2005-09-19
I had a difficult time putting this book down, it's been a while since I've read a novel where I could actually empathize with the charachters. Nelly Rosario follows 3 generations of a Dominican family as they search for happiness and purpose in life.
Beautiful Story.......2005-08-18
Very poetic and beautifully written although a little bit hard to follow if you are not an avid reader.
Resonates With Elegance.......2003-09-14
SONG OF THE WATER SAINTS is yet another stellar contribution to the fast-growing field of works by young escritoras dominicanas [Dominican women writers] of superior caliber and grace. Nelly Rosario, obviously undaunted by the number of novels that readily plunge the reader into the immigrant experience, adds an exciting new dimension. She clevery and artfully interweaves the delicate threads of myth, history, longing, and pain into a passionate tale of three generations of bold, intrepid Dominican women in search of their respective destinies. The interconnected stories of Graciela, Mercedes, and Leila are unforgettable. Rosario's irresistible prose reads like epic poetry; her style evokes imagination and a deep resonance of remembrance. This is a well-written novel that undergirds our continuing faith in the future direction of Latina Literature. Very Highly Recommended.
Alan Cambeira
Author of AZUCAR! The Story of Sugar (a novel)
Song of the Water Saints.......2002-09-27
I loved this book. Though written in prose, there was so much written UNDERNEATH all of the words it was like reading poetry. It was beautifully elequent and the way she tied all three generations together was excellent. The women in this story were so intense and full of spirit, and selfish too. Both sexually liberated and aware, and intent on getting what they want out of life. These were not women to give in to anyone. I was exposed to a whole new striking culture, and I can't wait to read what else Nelly has to say.
Not at all what I was expecting.......2002-07-29
I purchased this book because I am from the Dominican Republic and was hoping to read this novel for the familiarity of the country. Not only was this novel very hard to follow but the description of my homeland were not as detailed as I would have hoped. I still have the novel on my kitchen table waiting to finish reading it and it's been several months. This is very hard to consider because I am a very avid reader and have never left a book unread.
Amazon.com
The heroine of Julia Alvarez's Yo! is an author who writes what she knows--much to the chagrin of her close-knit immigrant family. During the first chapter, one of Yolanda (Yo) Garcia's sisters explains the basic problem: "I always was a reader, but now, whenever I open a book, even if it's something by someone dead, all I can do is shake my head and think oh my god, I wonder what their family thought of this story." Yo's friends and family members, many of whom appeared in Alvarez's earlier novel, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, take turns narrating this book. They draw a vivid portrait of the writer, describing her big mouth and high-strung nature as well as the details of her youth in the Dominican Republic. They're often more keenly aware of class, gender, and racial divisions than is Yo herself. When Yo returns to the Dominican Republic to spend a summer reconnecting with her roots, for instance, the servants at the family estate regard her as a very strange (but likeable) foreigner. In another segment, Yo's landlord, whose husband beats her, describes the writer's efforts to save her from the abusive relationship. In these episodes and others, Yo comes across as a woman who doesn't quite fathom the complexity of the events going on around her but has so much good will and verve that people forgive her small transgressions. It is a pleasure to hear all these diverse voices; some are funny, some wistful, but all of them seem to think Yolanda Garcia is the bee's knees. Yo! is a thoughtful, entertaining novel about the immigrant experience and the impact writers have on the lives of their peers. --Jill Marquis
Book Description
At last! A zesty, exuberant follow-up to the wildly popular How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, full of Julia Alvarez's keen observations and tender affection for her characters. The Garcia Girls are back, most notably Yolanda, or Yo, who has grown up to be a writer. In the process, she has managed to get kicked out of college, break more than a few hearts, have her own heart broken many times, return for extended visits to the Dominican Republic her family fled when she was a child, and marry three times. She has also infuriated her entire family by publishing the intimate details of their lives as fiction. The injured parties--her mother, her sisters, the Dominican cousins, the maid's daughter, her teachers, her lover, want to tell their side of the story, and Yo! hands the microphone to them. Cousin Lucinda shrugs off Yo's characterization of her as a Latin American Barbie with a size three soul, saying, Looking at her in her late 30s, knocking around the world without a husband, house, or children, I think you are the haunted one who ended up living your life mostly on paper. This brilliant novel is a full and true exploration of a woman's soul, a meditation on the writing life, and a lyrical account of the immigrant's search for identity and a place in the world. Yo!'s bright colors, zesty dialogue, warm feeling, and genuine insight could only come from the palette of Julia Alvarez.
Customer Reviews:
A life story.......2007-04-16
The author uses this book to describe how an author develop materials for a book for which she is writing. This is a story of family with all its craziness.
The Interesting Book.......2006-12-07
Initially our thoughts, about the book called ¡Yo! Are that it is an impressive novel. This novel represents the thoughts that people have about the girl name Yolanda Garcia. Therefore our opinions about the author Julia Alvarez way of writing the book ¡Yo! Are that the book's paragraph structure is challenging to understand. Julia Alvarez writes the book ¡Yo! Using many points of views from different people targeting Yolanda Garcia. To conclude our opinions about the book ¡Yo! We would like to say that the book is interesting yet challenging.
Great Book!!!!.......2005-08-29
!Yo! by Julia Alvarez is a great book to read. I thought it was easy to follow because of the good sequence it had. Its characters were very diversified and were all connected through Yolanda Garcia, the main character of the book. This book will definitely make you want to read more of Alvarez' books. I also read In the time of Butterflies by the same author and I was equally excited when I finished reading it. I would definitely recommend this book.
Arriba!.......2003-10-22
On my daily treks to my local library, I searched for a novel by Isabel Allende. Once I found the desired Allende work, I noticed another name that sounded intriguing : Julia Alvarez. Hmm, that's a pretty cover. (Yes,it's true for me) This work didn't fail to please me. Reading this novel proved to be a delicious experience.
my review.......2003-05-02
I really enjoyed reading this book. I honestly was unsure at frist and i didnt think that i was going to enjoy a spanish based book, but i did. It had a lot of stuyff in it that interested me in real life. I thought that some part where a little bit slow, or uninteresting, but over all it was a good read. There where some parts of the book that i loved, for example, yo was almost always in the back round when it came to boys and socialising, and her sister would always be the one that had to boys asking her out. Now yo is the center of attention.
This book started out when Yolanda and her family where younger Yo enjoyed doing things such as writing poetry and she really never had a boyfriend. She finally got one when she was older, YO and her sister almost battled each other when it came to boys. Yo finally got someone, as they grew older together, Yo was realizing that he was bad news, he was turning into a pothead and was never there for her as much as he should have been. Now other guys where looking at Yo, and wanted to know about her. In the end she finds she can count on her family.
I think that the book was at times confusing, but i would recommend it to any one that likes a read that is always filled with action. There was occational swearing but it as an excellent book.
Average customer rating:
- beautiful and inspiring.....
- At last! Nonfiction from Alvarez!
- Take time to visit with Alvarez
- Great straight thoughts about the bi-cultural experience
- A marvelous chat with a fantastic author.
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Something to Declare
Julia Alvarez
Manufacturer: Plume
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0452280672 |
Book Description
The first nonfiction work by acclaimed novelist Julia Alvarez--twenty-four personal essays on the experience of immigration and the writing life
The rich and revealing essays in Something to Declare offer Julia Alvarez's dual meditations on coming to America and becoming a writer. In the first section, "Customs," Alvarez relates how she and her family fled the Dominican Republic and its oppressive dictator, Rafael Trujillo, settling in New York City in the 1960s. Here Julia begins a love affair with the English language under the tutelage of the aptly named Sister Maria Generosa. Part Two--"Declarations"--celebrates Alvarez's enduring passion for the writing life. From the valentine to mythic storyteller Scheherazade that is "First Muse," to a description of Alvarez's itinerant life as a struggling poet, teacher, and writer in "Have Typewriter, Will Travel," to the sage and witty advice of "Ten of My Writing Commandments," Alvarez generously shares her influences and inspirations with aspiring writers everywhere.
"Reading Julia Alvarez's new collection of essays is like curling up with a glass of wine in one hand and the phone in the other, listening to a big-hearted, wisecracking friend share hard-earned wisdom about family, identity, and the art of writing."--People
Customer Reviews:
beautiful and inspiring............2005-07-24
I am a great fan of Julia Alvarez's writing, and am also greatly appreciative of her strength of character as an inspirational Latina writer. Many of you may be familiar with her books "In the Time of Butterflies" and "How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents." In this book, we get a better sense of Julia Alvarez, the woman, the writer, the artist and (in her words) a "hyphenated American." (i.e, Dominican-American) These twenty-four essays offer a glimpse into her life, and what inspired her to persue writing. Alvarez had a lot of great material from her childhood, growing up the daughter of a revolutionary who was part of the opposition against Trujillo, the former dictator of the Dominican Republic. Julia also possessed a great wit and imagination, throughout her academic and personal life.
We are so honored that this great woman decided to convey her thoughts and stories through writing. This is definitely her true talent. What a true inspiration for all aspiring writers (Latina and otherwise). This book is engaging, warmly accessible and insightful. Highly reccomended!
At last! Nonfiction from Alvarez!.......2003-08-18
Alvarez has mined deeply into her childhood in Dominican Republic and her family's flight from Trujillo to Queens, NY, as sources for her lyrical fiction and poetry. At last she launches herself into nonfiction, and the result is Something to Declare. The book is a collection of 24 autobiographical essays focused on her life and her personal writing process. The first part chronicles her girlhood in DR, surrounded with a rich and varied cast of characters comprised of her huge family, the servants, her classmates and nursemaids. It ends with her family's escape to America and documents the beginning of the difficult assimilation process.
In the second part of Something to Declare, Alvarez talks about her writing process, the difficulty balancing a writing life with teaching and her "real life," and concludes with her Ten Commandments for writing, a poster of which hangs above my computer.
This book is a gift from Julia Alvarez to her many fans, and we thank her for it.
Take time to visit with Alvarez.......2001-02-26
Ever since reading In the Time of the Butterflies, I have been convinced that Julia Alvarez was a gifted writer. This collection of her essays was purchased for our library to add to our creative writing teacher's curricular tools. I couldn't resist being the first to sample same. Alvarez has a way of talking to the reader that makes her essays ever so readable. I especially love the personal illuminations of her family in the Dominican Republic and in the states. What a fascinating immigrant story! One of my favorite essays is "Chasing the Butterfies" which put chills on me as I recalled the power in her novel that made me into her fan. I am not surprised that she is connected to the Bread Loaf writers. What quality comes from that group! I was a late-in-life discoverer of writers outside of the CANON, but I never again shall believe that only the canon has quality. The multicultural writers that I have discovered since 1992 as a member of the NEH sponsored Common Ground at the University of Houston, have enriched my life and the lives of my students. Any would be writer should read these Alvarez revelations. Being able to come and go from the entries makes the work so very user friendly. Brava, Julia!
Great straight thoughts about the bi-cultural experience.......1999-09-18
In Something to Declare Julia Alvarez give us rich insights into the process of being a writer and living the full but difficult life of a bi-cultural citizen. Her book helped me a lot to understand my dual citizenship, but also it helped me to deal with the voices that fill my mind in at least two languages. A must for anyone who enjoys ethnic literature, or emmigrant fiction.
A marvelous chat with a fantastic author........1999-06-28
Julia Alvarez lets readers into her thoughts and imagination with a wonderfully readable collection of essays in "Something to Declare".
Book Description
In this important book, Kathleen Deagan and José María Cruxent present detailed technical documentation of their ten-year archaeological excavation of La Isabela, America's first colony. The artifacts and material remains of the town offer rich material for comparative research into Euro-American cultural and material development during the crucial transition from the medieval era to the Renaissance. The period when La Isabela was in existence witnessed great innovation and change in many areas of technology. The archaeological evidence of La Isabela's architecture, weaponry, numismatics, pottery, and metallurgy can be precisely dated, helping to chart the sequence of this change and revealing much that is new about late medieval technology. The authors' archaeological research also provides a foundation for their insights into the reasons for the demise of La Isabela.
Book Description
A Cafecito Story is a story of love, coffee, birds and hope. It is a beautifully written eco-fable by best-selling author Julia Alvarez. Based on her and her husband's experiences trying to reclaim a small coffee farm in her native Dominican Republic, A Cafecito Story shows how the return to the traditional methods of shade-grown coffee can rehabilitate and rejuvenate the landscape and human culture, while at the same time preserving vital winter habitat for threatened songbirds.
Not a political or environmental polemic, A Cafecito Story is instead a poetic, modern fable about human beings at their best. The challenge of producing coffee is a remarkable test of our ability to live more sustainably, caring for the land, growers, and consumers in an enlightened and just way. Written with Julia Alvarez's deft touch, this is a story that stimulates while it comforts, waking the mind and warming the soul like the first cup of morning coffee. Indeed, this story is best read with a strong cup of organic, shade-grown, fresh-brewed coffee.
Customer Reviews:
One of Those Amazing Little Book Finds Discovered Unexpectedly Between Two Behemoth Titles on the Shelf.......2007-05-20
While perusing an independent bookstore in Pasadena, CA, I discovered *A Cafecito Story* in between two giant tomes of little interest; but somehow, this slime volume caught my eye and then my interest as I read the back cover and flipped through the book to see the wonderful woodcuts by Belkis Ramírez.
This is the simple story of Joe, the son of a farmer in Nebraska. Disaffected by the direction of farming as the corporations buy up family farms - including his families when his father is forced to sell a large part of the land to pay the bills - and the ruin this brings to the local economies, Joe decides farming is not for him. He moves to the city, marries a city girl, becomes a teacher, divorces the city girl, and at 40 finds himself near burnout and realizing that he can't even enjoy a cup of coffee. So, he decides to take a vacation.
His travels and budget land him at a resort in the Dominican Republic; but, soon he is bored with sitting by the pool and the sterility of resort protected behind walls and guards from the population of the land. At the recommendation of one of the resort's employees, Joe visits the mountains and the coffee farm of the employee's relative. Here is where Joe's life changes forever.
This semi-autobiographical novella by Julia Alvarez (writer-in-residence at Middlebury College and who was born in the Domincan Republic) is a metaphor for the discovery that the author and her husband made while visiting the place of her birth. It is also the story of how people can change the way things are done for the better and in the course of it all begin to change the world. If you are familiar with the concept of Fair Trade in the world of coffee and chocolate and the like, you will really enjoy this look at some of the movement's roots - if you aren't familiar, this book will open your eyes.
A Cafecito Story.......2007-01-10
Delightful, charming story, based on a true, organic, working coffee farm in the Dominican Republic. Illustrations are delightful and enhance the story and the imagination!
A Cafecito Story by Julia Alvarez.......2007-01-10
Beautifully written & illustrated! A little disappointment: I bought this as a gift and there was a small knife slit in the paper cover. I taped it over & hoped my daughter won't notice. Please, be more careful in handling. Thank you. Kathryn Russell
Coffee and love .......2005-12-08
This short work, is the story of coffee, "a social beverage that bridges nations and unites people in trade, in words, in birds, and in love . . . through the eyes of Joe, a man with farming in his blood but an increasing sense of dislacement from the natural world."
Joe is the son of Nebraska farmers. He loves to farm, the small farms go under, and he winds up teaching, though he still yearns for a connection with nature. Then, he takes a vacation in the Dominican Republic. Escaping the gated resort where he is staying, he goes into the mountains and discovers coffee and the coffee growers. They, too, are threatened by agribusiness, companies that spray the coffee with veneno (poison).
Joe buys a parcel of land, and, with another grower, forms a cooperative. Others join them. But they do more than grow coffee the "old-fashioned" way. They promote literacy, and sustainability.
There is also a love story here, not, they are careful to say, the story of Alvarez and her husband, but I think there is something of them in Joe and "the woman behind the counter".
There is an afterword by Bill Eichner about their coffee farm, as well as a list of resources.
The woodcuts by Dominican artist Belkis Ramírez are wonderful. I especially like the one of "the woman behind the counter", as she sits with the steam from the coffee rising, and her hair, flowing out and upwards, has visions of a coffee farm in its curls.
Praise for Alvarez.......2005-06-01
I picked this book up purley by chance. It was on a featured book table at my local library. I don't normaly real a lot of fiction but something made me check it out. I brought it home and started reading it the next morning while having my morning coffee. Theres something in the author's writing style that just makes you want to read more and more. I will most deffinently be purchasing this book and cherishing it forever. Thank you Julia Alvarez!
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