Peruvian author Ricardo Palma (1838-1919) was one of the most popular and imitated writers in Latin America during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As head of the National Library in Lima, Palma had access to a rich source of historical books and manuscripts. His historical miscellanies, which he called "traditions," are witty anecdotes about conquerors, viceroys, corrupt and lovelorn friars, tragic loves and notorious characters. Humor, irony and word play characterize his collection of over five hundred traditions written between 1872 and 1906, whether describing violent deeds or amorous misadventures. Unlike many of his contemporaries in the second half of the nineteenth century, Palma did not write transparent didactic fictions and defend elite cultural forms. Rather, he reveled in ironic approaches to written sources, political authorities and church institutions as well as popular speech and knowledge. Both fiction and history, Palma's delightful Peruvian Traditions represents a hybrid literary form that constructs historical memory distinct from the dominant literary trends of the time.

At a small gallery in Florence, a Peruvian writer comes across a photograph of a tribal storyteller deep in the Amazon jungle. As he stares at the photograph, it dawns on him that he knows this man. The storyteller is not an Indian at all but his university classmate, Saul Zuratas, who was thought to have disappeared in Israel. As recollections of Zuratas flow through his mind, the writer begins to imagine Zuratas' transformation into a member of the Machiguenga tribe. In The Storyteller, Mario Vargas Llosa has created a spellbinding tale of one man's journey from the modern world to our origins.

At a small gallery in Florence, a Peruvian writer happens upon a photograph of a tribal storyteller deep in the jungles of the Amazon. He is overcome with the eerie sense that he knows this man...that the storyteller is not an Indian at all but an old school friend, Saul Zuratas. As recollections of Zuratas flow through his mind, the writer begins to imagine Zuratas's transformation from a modern to a central member of the unacculturated Machiguenga tribe. Weaving the mysteries of identity, storytelling, and truth, Vargas Llosa has created a spellbinding tale of one man's journey from the modern world to our origins, abandoning one in order to find meaning in both.

From light-up scarves to solar-powered backpacks to health monitoring fabric, innovative combinations of electronics and textiles are becoming more prevalent and impressive all the time, making appearances everywhere from the runway to medical settings. In the near future, these wearable technologies will be a standard part of daily life. E-textiles, including soft circuits, conductive fabrics, and sewable electronics, may not be familiar to all library patrons now, but the way that e-textile projects combine STEM topics with fun, familiar crafts make them popular for library programs, interesting to diverse groups, and a great tool for teaching new skills and techniques. Best of all, e-textile projects can be designed to fit into budgets of all sizes and to appeal to patrons of any age and level of technical proficiency. In this book, you'll learn everything you need to know about the tools, supplies, techniques, and science behind e-textiles and find out how your library can design successful collections and programs around this hot new topic. The book features key information about the materials and techniques you'll need to know, examples of libraries that have found success with e-textiles, step-by-step advice on program creation, and projects that can be used for fun and engaging library programs. By the time you finish reading, you will have everything you need to develop a program that will generate excitement within your community and introduce your patrons to new and useful skills. Keep your library on the cutting edge of technology with exciting and engaging e-textiles programming!

The story of Fray Servando's life in exile is a vivid account of the adventures of one of the most original ideologues of Latin American independence. On December 12, 1794, Fray Servando preached a sermon in Mexico City claiming that the Indies had been converted by St. Thomas long before the Spaniards arrived. This was a subversive and controversial notion because it took away the rationale for the Spanish conquest of the New World - the conversion of the heathen. Colonial authorities arrested him and he was exiled to Spain where he was imprisoned by his own Dominican order. Servando escaped and spent 10 years in exile travelling throughout Europe disguised as a French priest, issuing revolutionary manifestos and sermons. He returned to Mexico after Independence and served the new government before his death. This is the only English translation of The Memoirs of Fray Servando Teresa de Mier available.

Cecilia Valdes is arguably the most important novel of 19th century Cuba. Originally published in New York City in 1882, Cirilo Villaverde's novel has fascinated readers inside and outside Cuba since the late 19th century. In this new English translation, a vast landscape emerges of the moral, political, and sexual depravity caused by slavery and colonialism. Set in the Havana of the 1830s, the novel introduces us to Cecilia, a beautiful light-skinned mulatta, who is being pursued by the son of a Spanish slave trader, named Leonardo. Unbeknownst to the two, they are the children of the same father. Eventually Cecilia gives in to Leonardo's advances; she becomes pregnant and gives birth to a baby girl. When Leonardo, who gets bored with Cecilia after a while, agrees to marry a white upper class woman, Cecilia vows revenge. A mulatto friend and suitor of hers kills Leonardo, and Cecilia is thrown into prison as an accessory to the crime.
For the contemporary reader Helen Lane's masterful translation of Cecilia Valdes opens a new window into the intricate problems of race relations in Cuba and the Caribbean. There are the elite social circles of European and New World Whites, the rich culture of the free people of color, the class to which Cecilia herself belonged, and then the slaves, divided among themselves between those who were born in Africa and those who were born in the New World, and those who worked on the sugar plantation and those who worked in the households of the rich people in Havana. Cecilia Valdes thus presents a vast portrait of sexual, social, and racial oppression, and the lived experience of Spanish colonialism in Cuba.

Amalia was one of the most popular Latin American novels and, until recently, was required reading in Argentina's schools. It was written to protest the dictatorship of Juan Manuel de Rosas and to provide a picture of the political events during his regime, but the book's popularity stemmed from the love story that fuels the plot. Originally published in 1851 in serial form, Marmol recounts the story of Eduardo and Amalia, who fall in love while he is hiding in her home. Amalia and her cousin Daniel protect him from Rosist persecution, but before the couple and the cousin can escape to safety, they are discovered by the death squad and the young men die. Similar in style to the romantic novels of Walter Scott, Amalia provides a detailed picture of life under a dictatorship combined with lively dialogue, drama, and a tragic love story.

This publication "Authoritatively documents the many accomplishments of NASA's Space Shuttle Program from its origins to the present. Beginning with a Foreword by astronauts John Young and Robert Crippen, this compelling book provides clear, accurate, and authentic accounts from NASA's best subject matter experts, including aerospace engineers who worked with the shuttle program, and leading experts from the science and academic communities. The book captures the passion of those who devoted their energies to the program's success for more than three decades. It focuses on their science and engineering accomplishments, the rich history of the program, and the shuttle as an icon in U.S. history. Its comprehensive overview of the shuttle and its accomplishments, combined with its lucid prose, makes Wings in Orbit a unique resource for anyone interested in the history and achievements of American space exploration." The first great age of space exploration culminated with the historic lunar landing in July 1969. Following that achievement, the space policymakers looked back to the history of aviation as a model for the future of space travel. The Space Shuttle was conceived as a way to exploit the resources of the new frontier. Using an aviation analogy, the shuttle would be the Douglas DC-3 of space. That aircraft is generally considered to be the first commercially successful air transport. The shuttle was to be the first commercially successful space transport. This impossible leap was not realized, an unrealistic goal that appears patently obvious in retrospect, yet it haunts the history of the shuttle to this day. Much of the criticism of the shuttle originates from this overhyped initial concept. In fact, the perceived relationship between the history of aviation and the promise of space travel continues to motivate space policymakers. In some ways, the analogy that compares space with aviation can be very illustrative. If the first crewed spacecraft of 1961 are accurately the analog of the Wright brothers' first aircraft, the Apollo spacecraft of 1968 should properly be compared with the Wright brothers' 1909 "Model B"-their first commercial sale. The "B" was the product of 6 years of tinkering, experimentation, and adjustments, but were only two major iterations of aircraft design. In much the same way, Apollo was the technological inheritor of two iterations of spacecraft design in 7 years. The Space Shuttle of 1981-coming 20 years after the first spaceflights-could be compared with the aircraft of the mid-1920s. In fact, there is a good analogy in the history of aviation: the Ford Tri-Motor of 1928. But here the aviation analogy breaks down. In aviation history, advances are made not just because of the passage of calendar time but because there are hundreds of different aircraft designs with thousands of incremental technology advances tested in flight between the "B" and the Tri-Motor. Even so, the aviation equivalent compression of decades of technological advance does not do justice to the huge technological leap from expendable rockets and capsules to a reusable, winged, hypersonic, cargo-carrying spacecraft. This was accomplished with no intermediate steps. Viewed from that perspective, the Space Shuttle is truly a wonder. No doubt the shuttle is but one step of many on the road to the stars, but it was a giant leap indeed. That is what this book is about: not what might have been or what was impossibly promised, but what was actually achieved and what was actually delivered. Viewed against this background, the Space Shuttle was a tremendous engineering achievement-a vehicle that enabled nearly routine and regular access to space for hundreds of people, and a profoundly vital link in scientific advancement. The vision of this book is to take a clear-eyed look at what the shuttle accomplished and the shuttle's legacy to the world. This book will serve as an excellent reference for building future space vehicles.

The Space Shuttle is an engineering marvel perhaps only exceeded by the station itself. The shuttle was based on the technology of the 1960s and early 1970s. It had to overcome significant challenges to make it reusable. Perhaps the greatest challenges were the main engines and the Thermal Protection System. The program has seen terrible tragedy in its 3 decades of operation, yet it has also seen marvelous success. One of the most notable successes is the Hubble Space Telescope, a program that would have been a failure without the shuttle's capability to rendezvous, capture, repair, as well as upgrade. Now Hubble is a shining example of success admired by people around the world. As the program comes to a close, it is important to capture the legacy of the shuttle for future generations. That is what "Wings In Orbit" does for space fans, students, engineers, and scientists. This book, written by the men and women who made the program possible, will serve as an excellent reference for building future space vehicles. We are proud to have played a small part in making it happen. Our journey to document the scientific and engineering accomplishments of this magnificent winged vehicle began with an audacious proposal: to capture the passion of those who devoted their energies to its success while answering the question "What are the most significant accomplishments?" of the longest operating human spaceflight program in our nation's history. This is intended to be an honest, accurate, and easily understandable account of the research and innovation accomplished during the era.

This work by the renowned Peruvian author allows us to glimpse into the key years of his youth until his candidacy for President of Peru. These are stark, unadorned truths revealed through his hypnotic and masterly prose. The strained relationship between the author and his harsh, violent father; the discovery of his calling as a writer as a means to oppose parental authoritarianism, the precocious bohemia, the hasty wedding with la tia Julia (aunt Julia) and the short, yet intense, political career of the writer.

Deep within the remote backlands of nineteenth-century Brazil lies Canudos, home to all the damned of the earth: prostitutes, bandits, beggars, and every kind of outcast. It is a place where history and civilization have been wiped away. There is no money, no taxation, no marriage, no census. Canudos is a cauldron for the revolutionary spirit in its purest form, a state with all the potential for a true, libertarian paradise--and one the Brazilian government is determined to crush at any cost.
In perhaps his most ambitious and tragic novel, Mario Vargas Llosa tells his own version of the real story of Canudos, inhabiting characters on both sides of the massive, cataclysmic battle between the society and government troops. The resulting novel is a fable of Latin American revolutionary history, an unforgettable story of passion, violence, and the devastation that follows from fanaticism.

With meticulous observation and the seductive skill of a great storyteller, Vargas Llosa lures the reader into the shadow of perversion that, little by little, darkens the extraordinary happiness and harmony of his characters. The mysterious nature of happiness and above all, the corrupting power of innocence are the themes that underlie these pages, and the author has perfectly met the demands of the erotic novel, never dimming for an instant the fine poetic polish of his writing.

'A novelist of immense power ... uncompromising and original' Colm Toibin 'I can feel the passage of time, as though it were coursing through my veins, along with my blood...' One June day in 1955 Alejandra, last of a noble yet decaying Argentinian dynasty, shoots her father, locks herself up with his body, and sets fire to them both. What caused this act of insanity? Does the answer lie with Martin, her troubled lover, Bruno, the writer who worshipped her mother, or with her father Fernando himself, demonic creator of the strange 'Report on the Blind'? Their lives entwine in Ernesto Sabato's dark epic of passion, philosophy and paranoia in Buenos Aires. 'Bewitched, baroque, monumental' Newsweek

Legend has it that Count Julian opened the gates of Spain to the Moorish invaders and introduced eight hundred years of Islamic influence. The narrator dreams of another invasion of his fatherland. Destruction will be total - myths central to the Hispanic psyche will crumble: the myth of the Christian knight always ready to do battle to defend the faith, the myth of the macho male and its inverse the virgin female, and the myth of the heroic Spanish personality forged in the rout of Islam. The hatred of Spain is intense but it is a hatred that recognizes the debt the exile owes to his homeland.