Author interviews, book reviews, editors picks, and more. Born in Morocco of Albanian descent, Zyke has had a life of daring and adventure on several continents, earning money by gambling, fighting and other activities that skirted lawlessness. This book concerns his doings in Costa Rica, where he followed rumors of an exceedingly rich source of gold in that country's mountainous jungle and found them to be true. And so, surrounded by mud, snakes, malaria-carrying mosquitoes and jealous rival prospectors, he set up a camp, peopled by ex-convicts and fugitives, to mine gold. Zyke's venture prospered for a while, until his fellow entrepreneurs betrayed him to the police, who charged him with drug trafficking, counterfeiting and intimidation. While awaiting trial, he fled to Panama with only 3000 grams of gold as a souvenir of his Costa Rican mine. The story of Zyke's wenching, drinking and drug-taking is hardly unique in the contemporary world, but Oro was a bestseller in France, perhaps due to its racy situations and lively, slangy prose.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. Off to a promising, swift start, this first-hand account quickly settles down into running in place. Zyke, a self-described adventurer who roams the world in the "search for increasingly ambitious projects," sets out for Costa Rica's Osa Peninsula in pursuit of gold and quick profits. Along the way he dabbles in grave robbing and selling fake pre-Columbian gold and spends time in jail. Eventually he jumps a claim in the Osa jungles and begins the daily grind of prospecting with his rag-tag band of misfits and ex-cons. All the elements for a true-life Indiana Jones story appear to be here, but in fact are not. Instead, Zyke is blustery and brutal; and the story is ultimately boring. Jerry Maioli, Western Lib. Network, Olympia, Wash.Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. Publisher: St Martins Pr; 1 edition (May 1987) 9.3 x 6 x 1.2 inches Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces #1,461,621 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
in Books > Travel 5 star92%4 star8%See all verified purchase reviewsTop Customer ReviewsHow not to think about Indiana Jones. Do yourself a favor and read the ...|The original Science of Stripping!|This book is AMAZING! I literally couldn't put it down. It reminded me so much of The Science of Stripping by Darren Michaels, the way the main characters both talked and pursued their goals in a hilarious way. I highly recommend both of them.In NYC I knew MemoHigh Adventure - and more Overview of Platform architecture, design and key features. This section will help to understand better platform design Layout Structure and Placeholders 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars (first published January 1st 1985) To see what your friends thought of this book, To ask other readers questions about Be the first to ask a question about Oro Lists with This Book This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Add this book to your favorite list »
1 2 3 next » new topicDiscuss This Book There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »The requested page title contains invalid characters: "%C3". Return to Main Page. Edited by Henry Rueda, Alastair Gordon Dream of Building or the Reality of Dreaming UNFOLDED: How Architecture Saved My Life The RMIT Urban Spaces Project 1996-2015 Jigsaw City: AECOM's Redefinition of the Asian New Town Austere Gardens and the Most Beautiful Gardens Ever Written Public Art / Public Space For other uses, see Golden Book. Il Libro d'Oro della Nobiltà Italiana The Libro d'Oro (Italian: Golden Book), once the formal directory of nobles in the Republic of Venice (including the Ionian Islands), is now a privately published directory of the nobility of Italy. Following the Second World War and the decision by a referendum to abolish its monarchy, democratic Italy officially ended its recognition of titles and hereditary honours in its new Constitution, so ceased to maintain the Consulta Araldica, an official government body regulating the nobility which had been a department of the Ministry of the Interior.
All titles are now not recognized. Only those families bearing titles before 28 October 1922 (i.e. before the rise to power of Fascism) were permitted to use predicates of such titles as a part of their names.[1] These laws did not apply to the nobility of Rome, insofar as their titles had been created by the Pope, when he was a sovereign head of state (i.e. until 20 September 1870).[] After a period of uncertainty, the Italian aristocracy continued to use their titles in the same way as they had in previous centuries.[2] This behaviour was cemented by the continued publication of Il Libro d'Oro della Nobiltà Italiana, published as much to prevent self-styled aristocrats from social climbing as to list the established nobility. The Libro d'Oro della Nobiltà Italiana ("Golden Book of the Italian Nobility") is regularly published by the Collegio Araldico of Rome. It lists some of Italy's noble families and their cadet branches. First published in 1910, it includes some 2,500 families, and may not be considered exhaustive.
Included are those listed in the earlier register of the Libro d’Oro della Consulta Araldica del Regno d’Italia and the later Elenchi Ufficiali Nobiliari of 1921 and of 1933. The Libro d'Oro should not be confused with a social register - wealth, status and social contacts are of no consideration on the decision as to whether a person may be included in the book, the only consideration is the blood or marital relationship to the head of a noble family. Nor is it a peerage reference such as those published in Great Britain (e.g., Debrett's Peerage & Baronetage, Burke's Peerage). The currently published Libro d'Oro is not an official publication of the Italian state, which currently does not have a civic office to recognise titles of nobility or personal coats of arms. The most recent (24th) edition of Libro d'Oro della Nobiltà Italiana was published in September 2010. In addition to the Libro d'oro of Venice, such books had existed in many of the Italian states and cities before the unification of Italy.
For example, the Libro d'Oro of Murano, the glass-making island in the Venetian Lagoon, was instituted in 1602, and from 1605 the heads of the Council of Ten granted the title cittadino di Murano to those heads of families born on the island or resident there for at least twenty-five years.[4] A Libro d'Oro was also compiled on each of the Ionian Islands as a nobiliary of the members of local Community Councils (Zante 1542, Corfu 1572 and Cephalonia 1593)[5][6][7][8] After the Ionian Islands were conquered and annexed by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1797, the Libro d'Oro was ceremoniously burned [9] In the reformed Republic of Genoa of 1576 the Genoese Libro d'Oro, which had been closed in 1528, was reopened to admit new blood. By extension, a Libro d'Oro is a by-name for any nobiliary directory, as when Al. N. Oikonomides refers to "the recently published 'libro d'oro' of the wealthy ancient Athenians (J.K. Davies, Athenian Propertied Families 600-200 B.C. (Oxford 1971)".[ ^ Il libro d'oro di MuranoAnnales.