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Summary: Pondering Paulo
Review: I was onboard a flight to Verona when I read this journey. Why do I use the word 'Journey'? Paulo Coelho's works each has a journey and a message to share. I do not agree or want to agree with every message, yet the subtleties and the intricate story telling kept my interest and forced me to read on. 'By the River Piedra', is a tale of the power of love and Paulo's explanation of true love. Is love solely discovered with the person you are with, or the person you are?The novel is both spiritual and thought provoking.
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Summary: All about Love
Review: I am an avid reader and have seldom encountered such a beautiful love story. Not starry or rosy, but deep and beautiful as only a Latino writer can offer. It is magical, and shows the pain as well as the glory of love. I highly recommend it.
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Summary: Read for the writing, if not for the author's viewpoint
Review: I've noticed very extreme ratings from 1 star to 5 stars given to this book. This book forces the reader to think about some pertinent issues in life: do we quietly accept or burdens? Or do we fight to change our dull boring lives? Should we let ourselves be mired in habit or should be seek a wonder-filled life? It does seem a touch too chauvinistic - Pilar's friend is too much the perfect guy, the romantic spiritual teacher who teaches her about the meaning of life - but right at the end of the book, the author has redeemed Pilar by letting show her friend some very important things about love. People will rate this book according to whethere or not they agree with the author on these issues, but I rate this work 4 stars anyway for its unusual romantic storyline, and the writing, which is laudable. Read the book. Even if you don't like the author's ideas, you should still ponder the themes relating to life, acceptance and love of the novel. Without this book to open our eyes, many people might just pass through life without ever noticing these issues.
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Summary: An insult to womanhood
Review: Now here~{!/~}s a book I really dislike. I stopped reading it and never got to it~{!/~}s middle. I didn~{!/~}t find any deep spiritual truths or inspirations in it, just preaching. The main characters are shallow. The story is told by the woman, Pilar, but it might as well be told from the point of view of her lover, who seems to be the really strong and know-it-all character in this story, while she is described as weak, dependent, and merely his follower. None of the ideas came as her own inspirations or understandings. He tries to teach her about the female aspect of God, or ~{!.~}the Goddess~{!/~}, so I expected to find some female strength later in the story. It turned out that the female aspect of God is the aspect of surrender. Generally speaking, there~{!/~}s nothing wrong with being able to accept things as they are and to flow with them, but combined with this leader-follower relationship between the two characters, it looks like a downright chauvinistic story. I felt it was an insult to femininity, and I am sorry that this is a best seller.
Rating:
Summary: Disgusting
Review: Compared to other books by Coelho it is a piece of trash. It lacks the spirituality that stems from "The Alchemist" or "Veronika decides to die". It is instead a cheap religious book with some twists on Christianity that may be extremely offensive to both atheists and religious fanatics. The story line is weak and the characters are hardly developed. The love story of the two characters -if it can be defined as such- is pure background to Coelho's true intention os spreading the gospel. Best advice yet: don't buy it, save yourself money and hours of boredom.
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Summary: (Silvia Guzman)Montebello Adult School
Review: Dear readers, I read the book "By The River Piedra I sat down and wept. I think it is a wounderful story of love the two protagonist, Pilar and her love show their feeling and fight to recover their great love that started from their childhood. I recommend this book because is a special story of love.
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Summary: By The River Piedra...
Review: By The River Piedra, I Sat Down And Wept is an interesting book, full of love and spirituality that teaches us that luve during our childhood is so important that a lot of times can culminate an older age. All relationships that exist on this earth should be based on love,because even though the differences if love exists everything is possible. I really recommed this book to people who enjoy reading romance stories.
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Summary: A Romantic and Nice Story
Review: By the River PIedra, I Sat Down and Wept is a poetic story about two people who return to the paths of their childhood.Throughout this story we could perceive important every day moments. If we really pay attention to our feelings, we will discover magic moments and rediscover fogotten dreams. Also we understand how God and our heart could lead us to reach our goals.
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Summary: Candelaria Cabral Montebello high school
Review: This story was very interesting because it's about a young lady that falls in lov with his friend from her childhood even though she knew he wanted to be a priest.In this story we saw how hard we have to fight to defend our feelings and how many things you have to lose for something else. In this story they left everything because of love, and that is great because love is hard to find. If both of them love each other it is wonderful that they got together. This story also showedus that we have the power to reach our goal that no body has to be left out in his or her dreams. If we really want something we have to fight for it because no body will fight for us. Pilar was a good example of this because she fought against everything and she triumphed to get together with her love. So we must never give up, that's the main idea of this great story.
Rating:
Summary: The Book of Love
Review: By the River Piedra I Sat Down & Wept is a book that made me reflect and analyze the relationship between two people who want to seek their dreams, which have always been that of true love forever. I learned that differences and similarities are important in a relationship. Presumably, without these things life will be monotonous and without sense. Obviously, similarities are beneficial in a relatioship. They provide the connection of two people. Also, create a challenge between them because they believe that they are competing. On the other hand, differences make a relationship difficult, because sometimes the way people do things is not how we like them done. In conclusion, the importance of life teaches us to understand and accept the mistakes that our partner has. It helps us to love and respect him or her like person because in this world nobody is perfect. I recomend this book to people who have interest to read a real love story.
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