Best of
Spain

2007

MoVida: Spanish Culinary Adventures


Frank Camorra - 2007
    With delicious recipes and wonderful information about Spanish ingredients, cooking methods, and culinary traditions, MoVida captures the essence and exuberance of Spanish cuisine. Australian Gourmet Traveller has said that Frank’s Melbourne restaurant MoVida is "the best Spanish restaurant in the country." You will feel the buzz of MoVida and be able to delight in the taste sensation that is Frank's food with his fantastic first book.

Grammar Lessons: Translating a Life in Spain


Michele Morano - 2007
    Living and traveling in Spain during a year of teaching English to university students, she learned to translate and interpret her past and present worlds—to study the surprising moments of communication—as a way to make sense of language and meaning, longing and memory.    Morano focuses first on her year of living in Oviedo, in the early 1990s, a time spent immersing herself in a new culture and language while working through the relationship she had left behind with an emotionally dependent and suicidal man. Next, after subsequent trips to Spain, she explores the ways that travel sparks us to reconsider our personal histories in the context of larger historical legacies. Finally, she turns to the aftereffects of travel, to the constant negotiations involved in retelling and understanding the stories of our lives. Throughout she details one woman’s journey through vocabulary and verb tense toward a greater sense of her place in the world.    Grammar Lessons illustrates the difficulty and delight, humor and humility of living in a new language and of carrying that pivotal experience forward. Michele Morano’s beautifully constructed essays reveal the many grammars and many voices that we collect, and learn from, as we travel.

Because She Never Asked


Enrique Vila-Matas - 2007
    The author first writes a piece for the artist Sophie Calle to live out: a young, aspiring, French artist travels to Lisbon and the Azores in pursuit of an older artist whose work she’s in love with. The second part of the story tells what happens between the author and Calle. She eludes, him; he becomes blocked, and suffers physical collapse.“Something strange happened along the way,” Vila-Matas wrote. “Normally, writers try to pass a work of fiction off as being real. But in Because She Never Asked, the opposite occurred: in order to give meaning to the story of my life, I found that I needed to present it as fiction.”

The Gypsy Chronicles: The Gypsy Has Three Truths


Alison Mackie - 2007
    And the notion of charmed matrimonial beds? No reader could ask for more to spark so many levels of the imagination. Alison Mackie has created a mystical world, beautiful in its undertaking, that will lure even the most cynical souls to seek the mysterious ways of deep love and Gypsy magic." Meredith Blevins, Author of The Hummingbird Wizard..... Upon each Matrimonial bed that Tzigany de Torres makes, he bestows a potent charm, one which guarantees a lifetime of pleasurable love making within the marriage. And together with his matchmaking wife Gitana, they are in the business of making love happen........Old fashioned values rub shoulders against modern sexual mores, creating a certain frisson, in this charming Spanish tale.

Northern Spain (DK Eyewitness Travel Guide)


Maria Betlejewska - 2007
    The fully updated guide includes unique cutaways, floor plans, and reconstructions of the must-see sights, plus street-by-street maps of key cities and towns. The guide is also packed with photographs and illustrations leading you straight to the best attractions the region has to offer.The uniquely visual "DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Northern Spain" will help you to discover everything region by region; from local festivals and markets to day trips around the countryside. Detailed listings will guide you to the best hotels, restaurants, bars, and shops for all budgets, while detailed, practical information will help you to get around by train, bus, or car. Plus, DK's insider tips and essential local information will help you explore every corner of Northern Spain effortlessly."DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Northern Spain" -- showing you what others only tell you.

A Memorandum for the President of the Royal Audiencia and Chancery Court of the City and Kingdom of Granada


Francisco Núñez Muley - 2007
    Written by Francisco Núñez Muley, one of many coerced Christian converts, this extraordinary letter lodges a clear-sighted, impassioned protest against the unreasonable and strongly assimilationist laws that required all converted Muslims in Granada to dress, speak, eat, marry, celebrate festivals, and be buried exactly as the Castilian settler population did. Now available in its first English translation, Núñez Muley’s account is an invaluable example of how Spain’s former Muslims made active use of the written word to challenge and openly resist the progressively intolerant policies of the Spanish Crown. Timely and resonant—given current debates concerning Islam, minorities, and cultural and linguistic assimilation—this edition provides scholars in a range of fields with a vivid and early example of resistance in the face of oppression.

Peeling Oranges


James Lawless - 2007
    Derek's mother, who is ailing, is unwilling to discuss the past, forcing her son on a quest that will plunge him into the early history of Irish diplomacy, taking him to Spain and later to Northern Ireland, until he discovers who his real father was-with tragic consequences. Peeling Oranges is a novel full of personal and political intrigue, fraught with ideology, as it intersects the histories of two emergent nations-Ireland and Spain. It is also a beautiful and lyrically written love story of childhood sweethearts-the apolitical Derek and the passionate nationalist, Sinead Ni Shuilleabhain.

Barcelona 1900


Teresa-M. Sala - 2007
    As Barcelona changed around them, modernist artists including Pablo Picasso, Isidre Nonell, and Ramon Casas produced work fueled by and focused on political and humanitarian concerns. Barcelona 1900 portrays the artistic, cultural, social, and political history of the city at this crucial turning point. Featuring more than 192 color and black-and-white illustrations-paintings, sculptures, drawings, and objects of applied art-the book illustrates the development of the modern city, Art Nouveau, and modernism alongside Barcelona's tumultuous social conflicts, the daily life of the middle classes, the anarchist movement, and the anticlerical sentiment of the day.In a series of thematic chapters, Barcelona 1900 explores the city's artistic flowering in all its dimensions: paintings by Picasso, Casas, and Santiago Rusiñol; the Art Nouveau jewelry of Lluís Masriera; public and domestic architecture by Gaudí, Domènech, and Josep Puig; posters, advertisements, and other ephemera by Casas and other proponents of modernisme; and works of Catalan literature.Accompanied by a wealth of historical and contemporary photographs of the cityscape, this book-which also serves as the catalog for a landmark exhibition of the same name organized by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam-invites the reader to promenade along the most remarkable spots in the city, from Las Ramblas, the Gran Teatre del Liceu, and the Palau de la Musica; to Els Quartes Gats, the cafe where Picasso and his friends met; and Parc Güell and Gaudí's Sagrada Familia.

Spanish Houses: Rustic Mediterranean Style


Joaquin F.D.S. Martin-Artajo - 2007
    The Spanish approach to residential style is a mixture of luxury and rusticity-wooden beams complement whitewashed ceilings, and worn leather furniture is set off against Moorish arches and wrought ironwork. The vibrant photos and detailed, practical text explore all the elements that become integral parts of a living space, from windows to doors, floors to ceilings, furniture to accessories and even gardens. From romantic homes in Spain's woodsy sierras to grand manors in the southern plains, many of these estates boast unusual features like hidden courtyard gardens or secluded balconies. None are ever open to the public.

Comrades and Commissars: The Lincoln Battalion in the Spanish Civil War


Cecil D. Eby - 2007
    Despite U.S. laws banning participation in foreign conflicts, American volunteers began pouring into Barcelona in January 1937. The most famous of these anti-Franco groups was the band of 2,800 American fighters who called themselves the Abraham Lincoln Battalion. In Comrades and Commissars, Cecil D. Eby pushes beyond the bias that has dominated study of the Lincoln Battalion and gets to the very heart of the American experience in Spain.Controversy has plagued the Lincoln Battalion from the very start. Were these men selfless defenders of liberty or un-American Communists? Eby has long been regarded as one of the few balanced interpreters of their history. His 1969 book, Between the Bullet and the Lie, won accolades for its rigorous and fair treatment of the Battalion. Comrades and Commissars builds upon that earlier study, incorporating a wealth of information collected over intervening decades. New oral histories, previously untranslated memoirs, and newly declassified official documents all lend even greater authority and perspective to Eby's account. Most significant is Eby's use of Lincoln Battalion archives sequestered in a Moscow storeroom for sixty years. These papers draw renewed focus on some of the most provocative questions surrounding the Battalion, including the extent to which Americans were persecuted--and even executed--by the brigade commissariat.The Americans who served in the Lincoln Battalion were neither mythic figures nor political abstractions. Poorly trained and equipped, they committed themselves to back-to-the-wall defense of the doomed Spanish Republic. In Comrades and Commissars, we at last have the authoritative account of their experiences.

Moon Handbooks Spain


Candy Lee LaBalle - 2007
    Laballe is the perfect tour guide providing unique trip ideas like "The Art & Architecture Tour," "The La Costa Verde Tour," and "The Best Way to Explore Spain in 21-Days." Packed with information on dining, transportation, and accommodations, Moon Spain has lots of options for a range of travel budgets. Every Moon guidebook includes recommendations for must-see sights and many regional, area, and city-centered maps. Providing endless ideas for travelers like attending a bullfight in Granada or hiking the Camino de Santiago, Moon Spain gives travelers the tools they need to create a more personal and memorable experience. With expert writers, first-rate strategic advice, and an essential dose of humor, Moon guidebooks are the cure for the common trip.

Rereading the Black Legend: The Discourses of Religious and Racial Difference in the Renaissance Empires


Margaret R. Greer - 2007
    Challenging this stereotype, Rereading the Black Legend contextualizes Spain’s uniquely tarnished reputation by exposing the colonial efforts of other nations whose interests were served by propagating the “Black Legend.”A distinguished group of contributors here examine early modern imperialisms including the Ottomans in Eastern Europe, the Portuguese in East India, and the cases of Mughal India and China, to historicize the charge of unique Spanish brutality in encounters with indigenous peoples during the Age of Exploration. The geographic reach and linguistic breadth of this ambitious collection will make it a valuable resource for any discussion of race, national identity, and religious belief in the European Renaissance.

A Brief History of the Spanish Language


David A. Pharies - 2007
    In what will likely become the introduction to the history of the Spanish language, David Pharies clearly and concisely charts the evolution of Spanish from its Indo-European roots to its present form. An internationally recognized expert on the history and development of this language, Pharies brings to his subject a precise sense of what students of Spanish linguistics need to know.After introductory chapters on what it means to study the history of a language, the concept of linguistic change, and the nature of language families, Pharies traces the development of Spanish from its Latin roots, all with the minimum amount of technical language possible.  In the core sections of the book, readers are treated to an engaging and remarkably succinct presentation of the genealogy and development of the language, including accounts of the structures and peculiarities of Latin, the historical and cultural events that deeply influenced the shaping of the language, the nature of Medieval Spanish, the language myths that have become attached to Spanish, and the development of the language beyond the Iberian Peninsula, especially in the Americas. Focusing on the most important facets of the language’s evolution, this compact work makes the history of Spanish accessible to anyone with a knowledge of Spanish and a readiness to grasp basic linguistic concepts.Available in both English and Spanish editions, A Brief History of the Spanish Language provides a truly outstanding introduction to the exciting story of one of the world’s great languages.

Revisiting Al-Andalus: Perspectives on the Material Culture of Islamic Iberia and Beyond


Glaire D. Anderson - 2007
    Together with examples of recent Spanish scholarship on medieval architecture and urbanism, the volume s contributors (historians of art and architecture, archaeologists, and architects) explore topics such as the relationship between Andalusi literature and art; architecture, urbanism, and court culture; domestic architecture; archaeology as a tool for analyzing economic and architectural history; cultural transfer between the Iberian Peninsula and the New World; 19th-century rediscovery of al-Andalus; and modern architectural and historiographical attempts to construct an Andalusi cultural identity. Contributors include: Antonio Almagro, Glaire D. Anderson, Rebecca Bridgman, Maria Judith Feliciano, Kathryn Ferry, Pedro Jimenez, Julio Navarro, Camila Mileto, Antonio Orihuela, Jennifer Roberson, Cynthia Robinson, Mariam Rosser-Owen, Antonio Vallejo Triano, and Fernando Vegas."

Juan de Mariana and Early Modern Spanish Political Thought


Harald E. Braun - 2007
    His treatise De rege et regis institutione libri tres (1599) is dedicated to Philip III of Spain. It was to present the principles of statecraft by which the young king was to abide. Yet soon after its publication, Catholic and Calvinist politiques in France started branding Mariana a regicide. De rege was said to empower the private individual to kill a legitimate king. Its 'pernicious doctrines' were blamed for the murder of Henry IV in 1610, and it was burned at the order of the parlement of Paris. Modern historians have tended to build on this interpretation and consider De rege a stepping stone towards modern pluralist and democratic thought. Nothing could be further from the truth. The notion of Mariana as an uncompromising theorist of resistance is in fact based on the distorted reading of a few select sentences from the first book of the treatise. This study offers a radical departure from the old view of Mariana as an early modern constitutionalist thinker and advocate of regicide. Thorough analysis of the text as a whole reveals him to be a shrewd and creative operator of political language as well as a champion of the church and bishops of Castile. The argument as a whole is informed by a Catholic-Augustinian view of human nature. Mariana's bleak, at times downright cynical view of man imparts focus and coherence to a text that challenges well established terminological boundaries and political discourses. In the first instance, his deeply pessimistic appraisal of human virtue justifies his disregard of positive law. He is thus able to mould diverse elements extracted from Roman and canon law, scholastic theology and humanist literature into a deliberately equivocal discourse of reason of state. Finally, this secular interpretation of the world of politics is cleverly yoked to a thoroughly clerical agenda of reform. In fact, reason of state is made to propagate an episcopal monarchy. De rege is exceptional in that it strings together a curious scholastic theory of the origins of society, a conservative ideology of absolute monarchy and a breathtakingly radical vision of theocratic renewal of Spanish government and society. Juan de Mariana and Early Modern Political Thought elucidates the differentiated nature of political debate in Habsburg Spain. It confirms the complexity of Spanish political life in the later sixteenth and early seventeenth century. Complementing recent work on Catholic political thought, the European reception of Machiavelli, and Spanish Habsburg government, this study offers a more complete and holistic picture of early modern Spanish political culture.

Dying in the Law of Moses: Crypto-Jewish Martyrdom in the Iberian World


Miriam Bodian - 2007
    By examining closely the Inquisition dossiers of four men who were tried in the Iberian peninsula or Spanish America and who developed judaizing theologies that drew from currents of Reformation thinking that emphasized the authority of Scripture and the religious autonomy of individual interpreters of Scripture, Miriam Bodian reveals unexpected connections between Reformation thought and historic crypto-Judaism. The complex personalities of the martyrs, acting in response to psychic and situational pressures, emerge vividly from this absorbing book.