Afrodita By Isabel Allende

Isabel Allende â 3 download

Me arrepiento de los platos deliciosos rechazados por vanidad, tanto como lamento las ocasiones de hacer el amor que he dejado pasar por ocuparme de tareas pendientes o por virtud puritana, ya que la sexualidad es un componente de la buena salud, inspira la creación y es parte del camino del alma Por desgracia, me demoré treinta años en descubrirlo.English Translation: I regret delicious plates rejected by vanity, as much as moan the occasions to make the love that I have let pass to occupy to me of pending tasks or by puritana virtue, since the sexuality is a component of the good health, it inspires the creation and it is part of the way of the core Unfortunately, I was delayed thirty years in discovering it . Afrodita

This was a strange book. Fascinating at times, dull at others, and occasionally plain puzzling (as in, where IS she going with this?). The best way to sum it up is a medley of anecdotes, myths, and personal experiences all regarding food and its role in love, romance, and decidedly kinkier ventures. Aphrodisiacs, if you will. I did love Allende's sauciness and odd split personality very accepting of people's oddities on one hand, and slyly judgmental on the other hand.

By the time I got through the stories and the exhaustive lists of all foods ever possibly considered to be aphrodisiacs (whether by virtue of chemical powers or crude visual insinuations), I must admit that I was too worn out to bother looking through the allegedly rigorously tested recipes at the end of the book, written by Allende's mother. I think the book served to convince me that the mythical power of aphrodisiacs is a bunch of bunk, rather than a tantalizing possibility. 326 pages Isabell Allende is my favorite writer. This is the one book of hers I haven't tried reading because I thought it was just a cookbook. An aphrodisiac cookbook, but still

It's actually a really good essay on what are aphrodisiacs, and how they are viewed in different times, and even in different cultures.

Also, her amazing writing is still very obvious, even if it's not in magic realism form. She's as witty and sarcastic as ever.

I haven't gone through all the recipes yet, but there's some I want to take note of, that's for sure.

Really awesome book and lot better than I was expecting =) 326 pages If you're looking for an aphrodisiac manual, a Vegas wedding chapel for your inner Britney Spears, look somewhere else. As some reviewers have pointed out, almost every food item on the planet is considered to have erotic connotations to Allende, be they visual, olfactory or legendary, she can make it seem sexy.

This is because it's not a serious attempt to prove or disprove aphrodisiac qualities of food, it is, as the title states, a memoir of the senses, a scrapbook of sensuality, and Allende considers cooking and eating to be sensual activities. Read this book and its poetery, short stories, anecdotes, legends, and yes, recipes, and you may come to agree, even if you're not a foodie or an honest pig. Frankly, a lot of the recipes are so rich, involved and time consuming that they could replace actual sex, with all the energy and time spent making and tasting them I'm not sure I could even eat once done, much less do anything else.


It's about zest for life, though; read it after Paula to appreciate Allende's correlation between various forms of appetite and life. She says herself in the intro that when she began to dream of food she knew she was healing after her daughter's death, and this scrapbook of tastes and flavors and textures is as close to embracing life as you can get. Plus, there's a freakin awesome mushroom soup recipe on page 119, and you can read the excerpt including it at: IsabelAllende.Com.
326 pages I tried to read this because it came recommeded from a friend with impeccable taste. Yeah, not so mcuh with this.

It tried to hard to be sexy in a Nigella Lawson way, and just came off like a desperate middle aged, sex starved housewife. While this may be the demographic they're going for it just sat all wrong with me. It felt a bit like buying sexy knickers with your mum. 326 pages i don't think this was the allende book i should have read first when i decided i wanted to explore latin american literature and magical realism in particular. i love the concept of food/sensuality/feminine/spice and enjoy other books on the topic.

however, the book did not quite translate into what i expected.

for example, there is a description comparing a lover's kiss to a 'mussel inserted in your mouth which reminded me of the worst kissers in my life (thus far hopefully ever) zooming in unstoppable and open mouthed before i closed my eyes and braced myself. it did not strike me as a romantic description of a kiss. perhaps it lost something in translation?

there are many different recipes included in the book. most of them i would not make because they are time consuming or filled with ingredients i don't use.

the aphrodisiac qualities of certain foods and spices are listed in the book and that is something i can reread later. the book is also illustrated throughout with sensual latin american influenced illustrations. i don't know if that makes up for the mussel metaphor.

Even though I have forgotten her
I continue to eat
plum after plum.

a haiku by james tipton included in the book.

I remember plums I have eaten with eroticism than I remember the mussel tongued kissers of my life and, unfortunately, most of this book.

recipes that include a slice of white bread as thickener (as many of these do) are not recipes i consider part of a sensual meal. i am perhaps suffering from some kind of prejudice here.



326 pages

Gosh, it is slow to read this book it definitely requires a particulate mood, which I don't possess at all times. 326 pages Hot. That is the only word I can think of to describe this novel. It defintely has the Allende flavor of magical realism and picturesque description. I picked it up thinking it was a food memoir, but it is of an exploration of the connection between food, sex and love. The recipes are her grandmothers'and you can feel the familial connection in the pages. The chapter describing the advice to her stepson on dating was downright funny and quite erotic. I liked the book, but it is not my favorite Allende novel. It moves a little slow in parts. It is provocative and entertaining for a fun read, it just takes a little while to get through. 326 pages If you don't want to get horny read this book. Especially the parts about aphrodisiac cruelty. Why would someone put it in such a book? Also the tale about parents orgy I found distasteful. My parent would definitely be displeased if I wrote something like that about them. Generally, I felt like reading about a woman who is chasing something she doesn't have. If it weren't for funny anecdotes, I could never finish this book. 326 pages