Tales within tales

Advantages: wonderfully strange
Disadvantages: a bit short

...Isabel Allende is a Chillean author. She is a member of the Allende family who were in power before Pinoche took over, and she has seen the horrors of Chillie first hand. Many of her books refelct this - some with dark realism, some with a desire for subversion. In many ways, Eva Luna is a deeply subversive text. As far as I know, Eva Luna is only available in translation, having originally been written in Sanish. Eva Luna herself, the narrator, is a strange girl to say the least. Her mother was a servant of Spanish extraction, her father was a Chillean native on what at the time appeared to be his deathbed. Her mother worked for a man who liked to preserve bodies, so Eva grew up in a world inhabitted by mummified people - perhaps leading to some of her strangeness. Eva's life is not an easy one - untimely death leaves her alone in...

Bryn_Pearson 20.05.2002 · Read review
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Review of Eva Luna - Isabel Allende

Fate weaves a web

Advantages: inspiring
Disadvantages: none

...For those of you who have read other novels by Isabel Allende, 'The Infinite Plan' is going to be something of a surprise. Allende normally favours tales about young women of south American extraction. 'The Infinite plan' is about a white man growing up in America. The plot: it isn't about plot, it is instead the intertwining narratives of several people's lives, and like lie there is a mixture of weird coincidence, total randomness, things that never tie up neatly and things that never quite happen. The characters - Gregory Reeves begins life on the road, his father is preaching his vision of 'the infinite plan' and the family are nomadic. When the father falls ill, they finaly settle down, living in a barrio full of latinos. Gregory grows up a misfit, bright but unable to find his place in the world. We follow him through jobs...

Bryn_Pearson 17.12.2002 · Read review
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Review of The Infinite Plan - Isabel Allende

Isabel, Rocco and me!

Advantages: An incredible read.
Disadvantages: None!!!

...I seem to have got out of the habit of reading just recently, I have this really bad habit of still buying books even though they are just piling up next to the bed. So upon another visit to my local library and spotting a sale table I felt the urge to investigate, this time there was a wonderful array of books for my attention, so after much deliberation I chose three and was on my way. One of the three books I finally chose was a book called "Isabel and Rocco" by Anna Stothard, I have never been one of these people that finds a writer they like and read every book they have ever written?.well aside from Virginia Andrews but I maintain the reason for that is I had youth on my side. To be truthful the reason I chose this and nearly ever other book I have ever read is due entirely to the front cover, if the cover looks interesting...

sarahbarrow 09.06.2008 · Read review
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Review of Isabel and Rocco - Anna Stothard

Journey to freedom

Advantages: A breathtaking wonderful novel
Disadvantages: You will not want to put it down

...This book was recommended to me and having already enjoyed "The Infinite Plan" by the same author, I needed little persuading. Daughter of Fortune is a wonderful novel with a narrative style that holds your interest throughout. It has crowds of colourful characters and moves at a pace that leaves you breathless. This is a romantic adventure novel but it is deeper than that, it is about a young girl's journey of discovery and her development into a free woman that would find resonance in today's world. Allende like many South American novelists has the skill to introduce the spiritual and the imaginative in a believable way as if it were as natural as drawing breath. Eliza Sommers story starts in Valparaiso in the early 19th century, where she was found on the doorstep of "The English Import Export Company" she was adopted by Rose...

silver40 11.08.2003 · Read review
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Review of Daughter of Fortune - Isabel Allende

Epic Family Saga

Advantages: Intensely passionate epic story
Disadvantages: It had to end :(

...although I never did see what was coming until it was upon me. When I finished the book I felt satisfied with the conclusion but also wanted to know more about what would happen next to the characters as I felt so drawn in. I will seek out more books by Isabel Allende after reading this. I would say this book has a wide appeal, it has some romance, spiritual sense (subtle and not over played), political awareness and social relevance about events which have happened for real in South America. £7.99 Black Swan paperback...

flumpet 01.08.2005 · Read review
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Review of The House of the Spirits - Isabel Allende

When the Jaguar met the Eagle!

Advantages: Very original to what I have read before!
Disadvantages: Hard going in places!

...City of Beasts by Isabel Allende was given to me as a gift for Christmas just gone. On a first glance I didn?t consider it to be a book for me but I gave my friend the benefit of the doubt as she always comes up trumps with books for my son! Isabel Allende was born in 1942. She worked as a journalist, playwright and children's writer in Chile until 1974 and then in Venezuela until 1984. Her first novel for adults, The House of the Spirits, was published in Spanish in 1982, beginning life as a letter to her dying grandfather. It was an international sensation, and ever since all her books have been acclaimed and adored in numberless translations worldwide In City of Beasts, we are taken deep in to the heart of darkness the Amazonian Jungle. A community which is still ruled by evil spirits and fountain of eternal youth is threatened...

kerryzach 16.04.2004 · Read review
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Review of City of the Beasts - Isabel Allende

Also for frightened men and melancholy women...

Advantages: Playful, sensual, erotic, beautiful, delicious!
Disadvantages: Need more opportunities to test recipes!

...Chilean-born author Isabel Allende believed she would never write again after "Paula" (1996), the beautiful, moving book in which she traced in equal parts the heart-rending story of her young daughter's brief life as well as her own family's history. She would soon emerge from that dark period of grieving and sorrow, travel to South America, swim in the Amazon River (among other daring feats), and rediscover inspiration to, happily, produce this delectable work that will tickle every sensualist's bliss. "Aphrodite" (1998) departs from her previous novels, but also strays little from them in subject matter. In this "Memoir of the Senses," she writes about the two greatest physical pleasures in life: food and sex, "the sensual art of food and its effects on amorous performance" (read: aphrodisiacs). With the help of her mother...

zerbine28 15.04.2003 · Read review
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Review of Aphrodite: A Memoir of the Senses - Isabel Allende

Fortune's friend.

Advantages: a fantastic book.
Disadvantages: It stops eventually.

...text are tales of other lives - Tao't tragic marriage, Eliza's adopted family and a journailst trying to repair his name. This is a fascinating bok, rich with characters and ideas. Fans of Allende's work will love it. If you have read and liked Margaret Attwood, this may well appeal. There are't many writers who compare to Allende - whose work is both exotic and familiar, often laced with magic and never predictable. This book has little of the magical relaism that typifies her other books, but her explortion of Chinese culture and medicine is amazing. Brilliant summer reading - both intellectual and enjoyable, a great combination....

Bryn_Pearson 16.07.2001 · Read review
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Review of Daughter of Fortune - Isabel Allende

A must read!

Advantages: everything!
Disadvantages: it has to end

...This is such a great book that I really do not want to ruin it for you by giving away the plot! This may mean that this review is not that long but please mark it on quality not quantity. The story begins in San Francisco with the legendary bed of Paulina del Valle, bought to show up her estranged husband. Allende is skilful in the way that she can begin a novel with a minute detail that instantly involves the reader. Paulina del Valle is of Chilean origin. She has a brilliant sense for business and has made herself and her husband (Feliciano Rodriguez de Santa Cruz) very rich not through the gold rush (although it is set during this time) but through her keen intuition of demand and supply. In recent years she has become fat through eating too many of Eliza Sommers? delicious pastries. Eliza Sommer has opened the pastry shop...

ali3986 31.01.2005 (02.02.2005) · Read review
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Review of Portrait in Sepia - Isabel Allende

Forget me not - Isabel Wolff

Advantages: Great read for those that like Sophie Kinsella
Disadvantages: None

...~ Background ~ Isabel Wolff was born in Warwickshire and studied English at Cambridge. Her first novel was The Trials of Tiffany Trott it was an international bestseller. This was followed by three further bestsellers - The Making of Minty Malone, Out of the Blue and Rescuing Rose (due to be released in hardback in may) all of which have been published worldwide. Her latest novel Forget me not was released in march 2007. ~ Story ~ This book is based around Anna Temple. Anna was very close to her father who decided to move to London so that he was closer to her and to escape the memories of his late wife. Mark her brother lived in San Francisco and she also had a sister Cassie who she didn?t really get along with. After the sudden death of her mother Anna decides to have a career change she goes from working in the city hedge...

superstar1212 25.04.2007 · Read review
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Review of Forget me not - Isabel Wolff