A masterpiece in the tradition of the Decameron and the Canterbury Tales, Juan Ruiz's fourteenth-century Spanish narrative poem combines the comic and the serious, the bawdy and the practical, the satiric and the tender, the devout and the blasphemous. In a first prose translation, Professors Mignani and Di Cesare succeed in conveying the vitality and sly humor of the original. The poem consists of a loosely unified series of fourteen amorous adventures of the Archpriest of Hita, interlaced with debates, fabliaux, fables, and exempla. Ruiz suggests that while man ought to seek buen amor (true love, or love of God), he is prone to loco amor, or worldly love. The Book proposes to show human folly so that men may be forewarned of the bad and choose the good. The episodes related in the stanzas and in songs in various lyrical styles parody such conventions as courtly love, epic battle, or church ritual. Ruiz was clearly fascinated by the concrete, as well as the allegorical, for his episodes have dates and actual settings, and popular speech is incorporated into his verses. In their introduction, the translators survey the major scholarly studies of the poem and offer their own critical reading of it. Their annotated bibliography and notes to the translation will be useful to students as well as scholars.

A beautifully packaged edition of one of García Márquez's most beloved novels, with never-before-seen color illustrations by the Chilean artist Luisa Rivera and an interior design created by the author's son, Gonzalo García Barcha. In their youth, Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza fall passionately in love. When Fermina eventually chooses to marry a wealthy, well-born doctor, Florentino is devastated, but he is a romantic. As he rises in his business career he whiles away the years in 622 affairs—yet he reserves his heart for Fermina. Her husband dies at last, and Florentino purposefully attends the funeral. Fifty years, nine months, and four days after he first declared his love for Fermina, he will do so again.

Featuring a beachful of bare-bellied hippos—including one tiny baby who can only say “Bee Bo”—the Belly Button Book is a quirky addition to the phenomenally successful Boynton on Board series. Every page captivates with Sandra Boynton’s inimitable illustrations and joyful rhyming text: Soon after dark, upon the beach, we sing a hippo song, and if you’re feeling in the mood, we hope you’ll sing along: “Belly Belly Button, you’re oh so fine. Ooo, Belly Button, I’m so happy you’re mine.” Shiny and sturdy, and featuring a great (navel-shaped, naturally) die-cut cover, the Belly Button Book provides enduring, giggly, read-aloud fun. Oversized lap edition also available—perfect for more reading aloud!

Unconditional love is eagerly promised at weddings, but rarely practiced in real life. As a result, romantic hopes are often replaced with disappointment in the home. But it doesn’t have to stay that way. The Love Dare, the New York Times No. 1 best seller that has sold five million copies and was major plot device in the popular movie Fireproof, is a 40-day challenge for husbands and wives to understand and practice unconditional love. Whether your marriage is hanging by a thread or healthy and strong, The Love Dare is a journey you need to take. It’s time to learn the keys to finding true intimacy and developing a dynamic marriage. This second edition also features a special link to a free online marriage evaluation, a new preface by Stephen and Alex Kendrick, minor text updates, and select testimonials from The Love Dare readers. Take the dare!

In this sweet little book with a special message, words of romance and devotion explore the emotion that is at the very center of human nature. Whimsical illustrations accompany each musing, capturing the excitement of all the forms that love can take, from long distance relationships and marriages to puppy love and being crazy in love. A wonderful example that a small gesture can be the best way to demonstrate affection, The Book of Love is the perfect gift for any loved one. En este pequeño libro dulce con un mensaje especial, palabras de romance y devoción exploran la emoción que está al centro de la naturaleza humana. Ilustraciones caprichosas acompañan cada meditación, capturando el entusiasmo de todas las formas del amor, desde las relaciones de larga distancia y los matrimonios hasta el amor adolescente y el estar loco de amor. Un ejemplo magnífico de que un pequeño gesto puede ser la mejor manera de demostrar el afecto, The Book of Love es el regalo perfecto para cualquier ser querido.

A "beautiful and sensitive" tale of true love that transcends time, from the multi-million bestselling author of Many Lives, Many Masters (Gary Zukav, author of Seat of the Soul). Recommended by Kendall Jenner. In Many Lives, Many Masters, a skeptical Dr. Brian Weiss found his life changed profoundly after curing a patient using past-life therapy. Now he takes his research into transcendental messages one breathtaking step further. He portrays two strangers, Elizabeth and Pedro, who are unaware that they have been lovers throughout the long centuries -- until fate brings them together again. He shows how each and every one of us has a soulmate whom we have loved in past incarnations and who waits to reunite with us now. And he opens up entirely new worlds for all of us everywhere, based on a single, powerful truth...

One of the great ironic moral comedies of the late Middle Ages, Libro de Buen Amor holds a place in Spanish literature comparable with that of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in the English tradition. This edition presents, on facing pages, the Salamanca Old Spanish text (dated 1343) and the first English-language verse translation since 1933. The fictional autobiography of the picaro Archpriest of Hita, Juan Ruiz, is a treasury of fables and fabliaux, mock heroic allegory, joyous parodies of churchly and legal ritual--all digressions to the hilarious tale of the persistent but abortive adventures of the author as lover. Lord Love and Lady Venus advise with their Ovidian Arts of Love. The Archpriest himself consistently maintains that his "models for sinning" will be read virtuously by the virtuous though salaciously by the wicked--in this moral ambiguity resembling Boccaccio of the Decameron and Chaucer of the bawdier tales. Although the Salamanca text is used, as the most complete extant version of Ruiz's work, gaps are filled from the Gayoso manuscript, and variant readings are given from this and the Toledo fragment. Textual spellings are changed to conform with modern Spanish usage, but without sacrificing the phonological characteristics of Old Spanish. The translation (which starts from a draft by the late Hubert Creekmore) attempts to approximate the techniques of the medieval poet. Within the demanding limits of a verse form faithful to the original, the translation uses devices of medieval rhetoric, particularly wordplay. A Reader's Guide follows the text and translation, as a means of avoiding the distraction of line-by-line annotation, and an annotated bibliography leads to major critical themes and controversies still surrounding Ruiz. The introduction describes the poet's virtuoso display of poetic forms, which relate this intensely Spanish work to the literature of medieval Europe, and appraises the poet's consciousness as one relevant to modern social tensions.