Libros en Espanol Books

I would say that it has bright and lovely pictures that you would love! Buy this book for your children!

I bought this book with the hope that it could replace the videotape that my four-year old son is wearing out. He likes for me to read this book to him but he always stops me so he can fill in the gaps in this adaptation. He was especially touched by the scene in the movie where Buzz fails to fly and realizes he is a toy, but this scene is omitted from the book, so we always have to recreate it, which can be fun. Still, he was disappointed not to see it in the book and always, I mean always, asks why it was not included. The illustrations are very good; they appear to be straight from the movie but, overall, this book doesn't capture the spirit of the movie. It is a good option for travelling if you don't want to bring the video or dvd and you can act out the omitted scenes with your child.

My four year old son loves this book, mainly because of the large pictures from the movie. These pictures are of an excellent quality. And for the dads (and mums) there's not too much text so you still have an evening left after reading this book before your child goes to sleep!

an interesting book about people and their efforts to survive in Madrid during the second world war. The heart of the story is Dona Rosa's cafe, where all different kinds of people meet, laugh, argue, cry and generally having a hard time. It is interesting to read about all the different destinies in this difficult world, but the problem was that there were too many people, I lost track after a while. An advice to other readers is to write down the names of all characters and a short personal description. After a while, you will realize that they all are connected in one way or another.

With his characteristic ironic humor Mr. Cela centers "La Colmena" in the most dramatic period of Spain's 20th century history: the postwar. The characters are exquisitely molded into poor wretches, intransigent manipulators, neurotic business owners, garrulous salesmen, diffident bourgeois and aloof poets. The synergy is powerful because of its contrasts: each a survivor of the war and condemned to lead an egregious life. However, Cela's main theme is not just survival or improvisation, but imagination. The cafe dwellers are mostly penniless intellectuals hoping to trade a labored sonnet for a cup of coffee; or forlorn creatures longing for lost (and never-known) ones. An admiral of modern Spanish literature, Cela is a nobel prize laureate.

Those who try to write the names of the characters down or even try to center the novel in any particular place completely miss the point of this novel. This is a novel about a community, a wolrd, where names and places are irrelevant. The only relevant thing is the city, Madrid, and the struggle of the people we read about in this novel. A wonderful masterpiece, a fast-paced cinema-like novel that beautifully portrays the suffering during the years of Franco's regime

El Sol de Breda es el tercer libro de la saga del Capitán Alatriste. Si no has leído los anteriores dos (Las Aventuras del Capitán Alatriste, y Limpieza de Sangre) entonces no leas éste...claro lo puedes leer pero te vas a perder una serie de detalles necesarios para entender a los personajes que ya son recurrentes en este seriado. Si eres atento a los pormenores podrás comenzar a sospechar cuál es La Venganza de Alquézar (uno de los libros que sigue en la serie, y aún no publicado)...si te gusta la lectura que mezcla con precisión matemática la historia con la aventura, entonces adéntrate en esta España de soldados obligados y monarcas decadentes, inquisidores y espadachines, damiselas y bibliotecas en llamas, nombres conocidos y hombres borrados de los libros. Extraordinario.

In this third volume of the Alatriste series, Captain Alatriste and his young ward Inigo Balboa are back in the army. Alatriste has left Madrid and its intrigues behind, to resume his life as an old soldier in the battlefields of Flanders. A stupid, meaningless, soul-sapping war that was ultimately doomed to failure. A war for the Catholic faith against the heretics (i.e. protestants). A war for king and country--but why??

Author Perez-Reverte describes the life (and death) of these soldiers in gritty, horrifying, numbing detail. The tedium, the insects, the crawling through tunnels, the battles without quarter, the explosions of merciless savagery. The author packs his work with historical details about weapons and equipment and military tactics. The sense of realism is startling. And to make things even more fascinating, he ties his fictional characters in with real figures from Spanish history and culture, particulary the great painter Velasquez. Not only can you not put this book down, you begin to wonder if it's fiction or history.

I'm enjoying the series immensely and this one especially. The Spanish is not too difficult, although (as with the other volumes) he uses a number of archaic terms for weapons and articles of clothing. Never mind, you can feel the dampness and cold. You keep reading. I recommend this book very highly. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber.

Este libro me ha resultado muy aburrido, porque el autor se pierde en divagaciones. Las descripciones son demasiado exactas, y casi siempre no vienen a cuento de la trama. Me hubiera gustado más que el autor se centrase en la aventura y en la acción, y evitado en lo posible enrollarse con detalles que hacen perder el encanto de loa novela. Quizá parezca raro, pero para mí el final(en el que Íñigo Balboa cuenta lo sucedido en Breda a Velázquez para que pinte el cuadro), es lo mejor del libro.

Personalmente, prefiero las dos primeras novelas de la saga del capitán Alatriste, y recomiendo, porsupuesto, al lector amante de la intriga, "La tabla de Flandes" y "EL Club Dumas."

I keep marvelling at Mr. Pérez-Reverte's enviable style and lexicon. Yet another gem of a novel with microscopically researched historical footnotes. However, it looks at times like Iñigo Balboa is kicking Diego Alatriste out of the limelight. This is the first of the books I have read on the series where the young squire is coming of age and eventually coming into stage. He is the narrator, but also the executor of pivotal scenes. Regardless of this meaningless observation, the book is fascinating - yet again. The afterword puzzled me for nights. The editor describes the history of Diego Velázquez's "Surrender of Breda", one of the greatest - if not the greatest - painting of the Baroque period. In it he points out that perennial idiosyncracy of the Sevilian master, namely, redoing his canvas with different scenes or even characters. Was the explanation about Velázquez's self-portrait, perched on the left side along the defeated Dutch army, truly accurate, i.e., was Alatriste originally portrayed in its place? Or is the afterword part of the novel's unconventional fictionalization?

El éxito de sus novelas sobre las aventuras del capitán Alatriste, cuya publicación comenzó en 1996, constituye un acontecimiento literario sin precedentes en España. El sol de Breda es el tercer volumen de la serie. Flandes, 1625. Alistado como mochilero del capitán Alatriste en los tercios viejos que asedian Breda, Íñigo Balboa es testigo excepcional de la rendición de la ciudad, cuyos pormenores narrará diez años más tarde para un cuadro famoso de su amigo Diego Velázquez.

El Capitán Alatriste abandona la villa y corte de Madrid para marchar hacía Flandes y sus sangrientas batallas. Hasta el momento muchos dicen que El Sol de Breda es el mejor de los tres libros que han sido editados yo creo que los tres son muy entretenidos. Dejando a un lado las intrigas de la corte, Don Diego Alatriste vive y hace vivir la crueldad e injusticia y realidad de la guerra en 1625. Haciendo gala de un rigor histórico, Reverte refleja un período de España del que se ha publicado muy poco y que para muchos es hoy en día desconocido. Otras obras recomendadas del mismo autor. El Husar y La sombra del Aguila ambas inspiradas en las guerras Napoleonicas.