This book is fascinating! After spending an hour with this book I felt like I really knew what time has meant to Borinquen. Hearing family stories is one thing, but seeing pictures from when they were growing up is another. Anyone interested in Puerto Rican history should have this book.

I simply love this book. As a starving college student, I still haven't come up with the money to buy it, but...someday I will. I've leafed through it a million times and never get bored by it...as a native Puertorrican living abroad, this is simply my favorite photographic work on my homeland. Delano did an amazing job.

The pages of this pictorial opus expresses the legacy, struggle, beauty, misery, joy of Puerto Rico of days past. Second, third generation Puerto Ricans will reconnect with their roots page by page. This is surely an enlighting photo memoir of our People, the images speak louder then words. The power of photograph comes to light in these pages, and Delano did it so well. Delano saves the spirit of Puerto Rico's past, once thought to be lost with faded memories. This is a book to keep for oneself, it strenghtens one's soul.

Once the thesis that Santos are art "is established and proved, the word comes alive, the image reveals itself in all its splendor, its meanings and power amplified, and the reader, who now believes in the beauty and expressiveness of the Santos and is able to participate in the enjoyment of them, wants to continue the 'fiesta', to inhabit for a while longer the temple that the book has built for the carvings." (From comments by Antonio Martorell, artist and professor at the University of Puerto Rico, delivered at the Museum of Puerto Rican Art on June 25th, 2003.)

"Is it possible to take advantage of the extraordinary conceptual development of the euro-centric academic disciplines...in order to study...the 'art of the other' (be it in terms of civilizations such as non-european or in socioeconomic terms such as the rural or 'popular')? Irene Curbelo's book represents "the most important Puerto Rican contribution to this incandescent international debate." (From comments by A.G. Quintero Rivera, sociologist and professor at the University of Puerto Rico, delivered at the Museum of Puerto Rican Art on June 25th, 2003).

"In this bilingual edition, with magnificent illustrations, Irene Curbelo questions the way a work of art that obeys canons different from those accepted traditionally in european art is judged and evaluated...In Chapter V, titled Understanding the Santos, this scholar contributes powerfully to increase...the pleasure that contemporary art lovers feel when viewing the Santos...It offers a fascinating account of the whole artistic vocabulary constructed in terms of their function...The reading of this chapter offers an opportunity to observe the Santos more closely as it analyzes the elements that particularize them. It clarifies the ways in which the artists interpreted their world and utilized their artistic materials expressively...As a result, these pieces acquire an expressive value that places them on an artistic plane well beyond the mere artifact." (translated excerpts from the literary review by Carmen Dolores Hernandez published in San Juan by El Nuevo Dia, June 8, 2003, pg. 14).

Eve Bunting takes her readers on journey with a Mexican family going home for Christmas. The text she uses is elegantly written. Through the feelings expressed by Carlos and his family you get a real sense of the Mexican culture and the importance of family. David Diaz's illustrations lead you into the journey with Carlos and his family. With the use of collaged background and inset illustrations the pages come alive. The text of Bunting and the illustrations of Diaz give you the sense of being there. This is a book that a child of any age would enjoy.

This book is very touching...it sensitively portrays the sacrafices Mexican immigrants have to make to move to America for their children to have a better life. Very well done themes of parental love, long car trips, the sadness of leaving one's home country, sibling realtionships, husband and wife being romantic (tasteful and age-appropriate), and a child's growing understanding of the complexities of life. Buy and read it to every child (and adult) you know.

This story is well told, with a nice pace and sense of language. Diaz is up to his usual standards, creating a colorful world that you just want to hop right into. Judge this book by its cover - it's beautiful!

This book was a gift from my brother for the holidays. Being a native from Puerto Rico, I believe this book is invaluable for those of us who have been raised in Puerto Rico and like many others, like Mr.Labrucherie expresses in his book chapter "Jibaro", have pursued a more progressive lifestyle in the mainland. Nowhere have I read a book about Puerto Rico, its history and culture, that illustrates the true essence of Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rican as this book does. The author has an amazing ability of providing insight about the Island not only for the tourist but particularly to us that have lived there and are away. In its own way an analytical review of the Island's background, the book has been written in such a way that not only you learn but mostly you navigate through the book. When you finish each chapter, you feel that you have become part of the story told. Of course, the photography is superb, taking you to the heart of the topic for an extraordinary display of the profound beauty of Puerto Rico. A real pleasure and joy to read. Thank you, Mr. Labrucherie, for making me fall in love with my Island all over again. Cheers, for a fantastic photojournalism and writing exceptional gift!

I've been travelling to the islands of the Caribbean, including Puerto Rico, for over 25 years, and I have quite a collection of coffee-table books on the region. This author is a master of getting "inside" the county, the people, the culture, the history. Incredible pictures -- this man is a true artist. (The photo notes say he took over 15,000 pictures to put the book together!) The text is chock-full of info, for those who actually take the time to read this sort of book. Actually, I had not intended to read the text, but I started reading a bit here and there and ended up reading it cover-to-cover. This book covers it all -- I couldn't recommend it more highly.

In a word, Wow! This is a superb "portrait" of this island. The photographs are absolutely stunning. But this isn't just a "postcard" view of Puerto Rico -- there's lots of coverage of the people, history, and culture, too. The author-photographer has been traveling to Puerto Rico for over three decades, and it shows both in his photographs and his extensive text, which gives a solid but concise presentation of Puerto Rico's history in a very readable way without being dry. (Kind of National Geographic style.) And the picture captions are in-depth, presenting little gems of info about the picture subject matter if you're in too much of hurry to read the whole text. I've lived in Puerto Rico, and this has the feel of an insider's view, not just someone who has breezed through the island and shot a few pictures.

Excellent It bailed us out when we ran out of light before getting into the anchorage at Philipsburg and got us into several beaches that were completely deserted.

A bit dated is spots (it is 7 years old) For example, Saba has installed a number of excellent mooring on the south and west sides on the island, making it much easier to get either by the traditional landing or LLadder Landing on the West side. There is a road down to that now (no more 1000 steps to climb). However it was out when we were there (4-1-00)

We've sailed and chartered in the USVI and BVI numerous times and ALWAYS take this guide with us. From little known anchorages (Mermaids Chair on St. Thomas) to the most frequented (Great Harbor on Yost Van Dyke)this guide is without equal.

Although I have been sailing for 40 years, this was the most useful and informative sailing guide I have ever read. It adverted me from several unknown and possibly costly collisions...and I'm not referring to other boats. His harbor guides and navigational charts were indispensible! BUY BUY BUY!!!!

I received this book on Saturday and finished it Sunday . An excellent, detailed account on life in a Puerto Rican Hacienda. Wonderful illustrations of people of the time and details of sophisticated equipment used in those time. A true picture of how life was then. My grandfather was a farmer and worked on a plantation so this gives light to some of the stories he told me about. An excellent books for anyone that wants to know about their roots and is especially interested in the Ponce area although this was probably typical of all plantations. A must read!!!

If your really into history Colonial days you should really put your hands on this one. It takes you on a drive full of feeling to that era. Im Italian and it made me recall my grandparents village in Palermo... I give Gullermo A. Baralt an A+

(From Planeta journal): This new English-language translation of an established Caribbean classic traces the history of the Buena Vista estate in the foothills of Puerto Rico's central mountain range. Now a living history museum, Buena Vista gained its initial success producing food for the town of Ponce, proving that raising crops for local consumption could be as profitable as sugar or coffee for export. The text spans almost a century -- a time in which slavery ended and technology expanded at a phenomenal rate. This is an exceptional book, one that any visitor to Puerto Rico should read before making an obligatory visit to the island's Living Museum of Art and Science.

I had heard about this book from someone I know and was rather anxious to read this "incredible story"... SO...After managing to get my hands on a coveted copy of James Stevens-Arce's 'Soulsaver' I dove into the pages with a tremendous amount of excitement. I had heard good things about the book and I was anxious to see if Soulsaver was able to live up to the expectation I had blatantly placed upon it. It took me ONE day to read this fantastic book. Now, I'm an extremely picky reader and I usually don't thoroughly enjoy books the way I did enjoy 'Soulsaver'. I read Sci-fi often enough but my true love lies with the classics. Jim Stevens has himself here a classic with this spectacular fable of a world on an extreme edge. The book is not too fantastic that it's unbelieveable, this book hits so close to home that I had chills knowing that the world he portrayed is only but a few years away. If anybody reading this loves dystopian stories like: 1984, Brave New World and is also a fan of religious lore and representation...this novel has it! Don't be pushed away by the sci-fi shroud that surrounds it. Just try picking it up and reading it if you're a fan of reading good..nay...excellent stories. This one is a definite keeper!

A novel that uses first person, present tense is not easy to find, probably because there are not many convincing reasons to use it. In Soulsaver, James Stevens-Arce does it well.

This book is an interesting and fast-paced satire. The protagonist, Juan Bautista Lorca, is a callow youth blinded by the society in which he lives. That Stevens-Arce chooses to tell his story from this little twerp's viewpoint is daring for the reader doesn't take immediately to him. Stevens-Arce carefully mitigates that problem in several ways.

First, he doesn't get inside his head much until the character begins to change, and to grow. We can never be certain but I believe this was a conscious decision because poor Juan doesn't have a deep thought stored anywhere in there, anyway. It is a perfect approach to this kind of character building.

One of the difficulties of using this method is that the reader gets less insight into the character than we have become accustomed to. Any we do get comes from the dialogue and/or what is happening around Juan. There is an advantage here, as well. The action moves forward very quickly and we find ourselves immersed in the time (The Year of Our Lord 2099) and the place (San Juan, the capitol city of our 52nd state). And, surprising, this is enough. The author has carefully balanced what the reader is likely to miss with what she gets.

As Juan develops and finds his own depth, we find that Steven-Arce is a writer with a first-class instinct for words as well. For those of us who long to see, hear, and feel when we read, this novel is not a disappointment. We must wait, but we get wonderful similes like, "...the sun...looks like a communion wafer pasted against the sky," and "...the Swiss cheese of pigeon holes cut into the ancient wall..." Stevens-Arce has crafted a book where there is only straightforward, uncluttered writing until the reader is hooked. Only then do we find passages that are pure poetry. By that time we find ourselves literally gobbling it up.

Stevens-Arce has one more trick to keep the reader hanging in there while this shallow youth ogles breasts, bounces to the music blasting into his headphones and relishes his own benign happiness with himself and the god-awful world he doesn't see around himself. He uses present tense. I hate present tense. Yet I hardly noticed. It propels the novel forward when it needs momentum. After it has done its job the reader becomes so used to it, it is no longer a factor.

If I were still teaching English, this book would become one of my texts. It's not often that one finds first person, present tense put to such carefully crafted use. It's also not often that one finds a book that lauds the often-maligned ability of thinking for oneself. Next to Holden Caulfield, Juan Bautista Lorca may be the best literary example for youth in recent times.

I was fortunate enough to see the bound galleys for James Stevens-Arce's first novel, "Soulsaver." I remember reading a short story of his by the same title in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine in the early '80s. Stevens-Arce has developed that original intriguing glimpse of a dystopic future into a dizzying journey to the end of the 21st century, when Puerto Rico is the 52nd state in an America taken over by a televangelistic theocracy.

The world Stevens-Arce evokes is richly textured and detailed. The book's narrator, Juan Bautista Lorca, is a rookie technician in a squad whose mission it is to quick-freeze suicides for subsequent "re-animation." The fascinating, fast-paced, occasionally sexy and frequently hilarious narrative tracks Juan's voyage of discovery as all the tenets of his faith and sense of self are challenged and rearranged. The book's climax hinges on the most outrageous second coming since "A Canticle for Lebowitz."

In the grand tradition of Orwell, Huxley and Brunner, Stevens-Arce has given us a terrible, fascinating and convincing vision of a future that just might be only a hundred years away.

Ricky Martin's book was very interesting and i enjoyed it very much. Although there was a few bad bit's which I didn't enjoy and spoiled the book. I gave this book a 3 star rating because of this. I give him the best of luck with his next single and hope he gets to number #1 again

This book was just so great. I think I've already read it twice. I'm a new Ricky fan. But I'm trying to make up for lost time.

I just want to say that Ricky is my favorite performer. I never can stop listening to his songs. He is hot and gorgeous, and I like this book about him. ....everything about Ricky puts me in a good mood.

I recommend this book to anyone who loves poetry. Mercado's use of imagery and music in her work is new and inspirational. She is one of the more exciting new Nuyorican voices on the scene. Honest, clear and down-to-earth, there's no pretention here. Buy this book, you won't be sorry.

In clear, passionate and moving poems Nancy Mercado brings us the full flavor of life. She speaks on a personal and universal level for people who are on the outside; people of all colors.

These are celebritory poems that affirm the ability of the human spirit to servive. As Piri Thomas has said of her work, "Nancy Mercado has learned that words can be bullets or butterflies, that one must say what one means and mean what one says."

Maria M. Gillan
Executive Director of Poetry Center

Passiac Community College

It concerns the madness was real. I lost myself behind the author's passion for poetry, and her fond memories of Puerto Rico. The rhythmic flow of expressions reached down into my soul and took me "home"....

I fealt that Chupacabras and Other Mysteries was a good book if your into it. It had some loco information on the feared bloodsucker. The only thing that upset me was that it only had drawings of the beast, but I suppose any actual pictures would be disturbingly cheesy. If your looking for information on this creepy guy, this is definately the book to choose.

I must admit I bought this book as a rather light read. I expected to be finished within a few months. Bathroom material only. However as I got past the first chapter I began to read it more steadily. AFter only three days of owning the book I had read the entirety of the book and had began to search for small details. Anyone interested in Chupacabras or crypto-zoology, or even "Goblin universe" phenomena should check this book out. It reads easily and has a very nice style. I thought something would be lost in the translation, however I do not think so. All ideas are given a footing here (although not always equal) and it makes the mystery of Chupacabras very intriguing.

The Chupacabras remains a paranormal phenomenon not well understood where it appears, and even less so with interested US readers. Chupacabras and Other Mysteries provides the first substantive English work dealing with the bugger. It relies on the primary research and work of Jorge and Marleem Martin, who made first-hand investigations of animal mutilations attributed to the Chupacabras in the Puerto Rican municipalities of Orocovis and Morovis, and the book also uses the work of Jose Victor Ramirez, Willie Durand Urbina, Salvador Freixedo and other researchers, plus countless journalistic sources (El Vocero, El Nuevo Dia, The San Juan Star.) Chupacabras and Other Mysteries includes a photo section, none of the elusive creatures, but of kittens they "exsanquinated," haunts, and the original sketch based on eyewitness memory. Chupacabras is not a run-of-the-mill hide and seek type bigfoot. A wide variety of paranormal activity attends its visits. As UFO researcher Marc Davenport points out in the introduction, the creatures' reported eye-beams do not behave like the bio-luminesence of fireflies and deep sea fish. Chupacrabras is something else again, and this volume contributes greatly to helping figure out what.

Kenn Thomas, Steamshovewl Press