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    Como agua para chocolate
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    Como agua para chocolate
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    Como agua para chocolate
    Audiobook5 hours

    Como agua para chocolate

    Written by Laura Esquivel

    Narrated by Yareli Arismendi

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Escucha el best seller que encandiló al mundo. Una novela que sabe a clásico.
    No siempre tenemos a mano los ingredientes de la felicidad. Tita lo había aprendido desde pequeña, cuando crecía en la cocina con Nacha y se le negaba toda posibilidad de vida propia desde su nacimiento. Pero lo que también es que los ingredientes no son lo más importante para cocinar un buen plato, sino todo el amor con que seas capaz de hacerlo. Pero Tita se dio cuenta de que sus platos no solo tenían el poder de deslumbrar por sus sabores y texturas. Su tristeza, su alegría, su deseo o su dolor a la hora de prepararlos se contagiaban irremediablemente a todo aquel que los probaba.
    A través de esta alegoría que vincula con maestría los sentimientos y los elementos culinarios, Laura Esquivel conquistó el parnaso de la literatura hace veinticinco años construyendo un relato que se asienta en la tradición del realismo mágico, se recrea en la cultura mexicana y que traspasa todo lo anterior para convertirse en una novela universal.
    «Y así como un poeta juega con las palabras, así ella jugaba a su antojo con los ingredientes y con las cantidades, obteniendo resultados fenomenales.»
    LanguageEspañol
    PublisherPenguin Random House Grupo Editorial Audio
    Release dateJul 8, 2015
    ISBN9786073136310
    Unavailable
    Como agua para chocolate
    Author

    Laura Esquivel

    Laura Esquivel was born in Mexico City in 1950. Her first novel, Like Water for Chocolate, has sold more than four and a half million copies around the world and remained on the New York Times bestseller list for more than a year. She currently lives in Mexico.

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    Reviews for Como agua para chocolate

    4/5

    99 ratings73 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Excelente libro, una historia de amor inolvidable que entrelazada la pasión por la comida y el amor
    • 5/5
      la película me gusto, pero el libro realmente me cautivó. Una maravillosa narrativa que me permitió hacer mis propias imágenes mentales, mezclada con olores y sabores.
    • 5/5
      Es algo muy interesante u padre chida y buen libro y me parece perfecto se los recomiendo
    • 5/5
      The whimsical way of reading it was perfect for a book as this.
    • 4/5
      Este es un libro muy entretenido y conmovedor. Muy recomendable.
    • 4/5
      I adored movie made by this book, and the book was even better. I loved the organisation of chapters - how each chapter is a recipe and how writer trough description of preparing the meal told us about event related to Tita's and Pedro love story.
    • 4/5
      very enjoyable read about food and love with hints of magical realism!
    • 4/5
      Como agua para chocolate (Like water for chocolate) is a novel based on family traditions, love,passion and food.The protagonist of the novel is Tita (a round character) , suffers throughout her whole life due to family traditions and the fact that she is forbidden to be wed and must endure the marriage of her sister Rosaura to the love of her life Pablo. Throughout the novel we see how Tita's character evolves and how she matures and deals with all her hardships.The tone of the book is generally informal and very intimate. Whether Tita is cooking or describing her feelings for Pedro , the reader can feel the passion.The antagonists (villains) in the book are Tita's mother, Mama Elena and her sister Rosaura. Both are portrayed as stubborn characters.The book is narrated in a mystical way, with many extreme uses of metaphors and strongly depicts a more latin american culture with machismo and stubborn characters. The book can in some ways be compared to works done by latin american author, Gabriel Garcia Marquez who also uses a large amount of metaphors and mystical descriptions.In my opinion, it is a lovely book, which will engage the reader. However, i also believe that if the reader does not have any latin american relation, background, it might be harder for them to understand the characters described in the book and this may lead to the reader not feeling so connected to the characters.
    • 4/5
      Esquivel's writing has a unique tone and this semi-mythic tale of thwarted love, family conflict and food is the perfect vehicle for that voice. Tit's is our heroine and her mother has decided that she may not marry but must remain at home to care for Mama in her old age. Tita complies but her love never dies; it simply goes underground as her emotional turmoil manifests in the food she cooks. The results are never predictable and the book is charming.
    • 3/5
      Overall, I think my expectations were a bit too high for this book and it didn't quite measure up. That being said, I still really enjoyed it and some parts I downright adored! I loved the fact that Tita's emotions came through in her cooking and manifested in those who ate her food (reminds me a bit of Garden Spells). However, some of the mystical elements were a bit too out there for me. The term "magical realism" is too tame for this novel - it is better described as more of a family myth.Tita was an emotional and endearing protagonist so you can't help but cheer for throughout the book. She, Nacha and John are very loveable characters (although I happen to quite like the fiery Gertrudis as well); whereas, Rosaura and Mami are quite horrific villains. I'm sure that the reader is supposed to like Pedro as well, but I just didn't care for him at all. He seemed short-sighted, egocentric, and at times a bit bratty (I have no idea what Tita saw in him).While I loved some of these characters...none of them were quite three-dimensional for me. So, if you are strictly a character-driven reader, this book is probably not for you. Recommended to fans of foodie fiction and to those who like magical elements in their reading.
    • 5/5
      What beautiful storytelling.I picked this up at the library this afternoon and didn't put it down again until I finished. The magical realism is just subtle enough to add a hint of otherworldliness, to remind you that this isn't real. The book is centered around food, and I wonder if this is where Aimee Bender got the idea for The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake.The story is haunting. I don't usually give books five stars so quickly--I usually give four or four and a half until I make sure that the story will stick with me, that it has made a lasting impression. There's no need to wait in this case. It will, and it has.
    • 3/5
      CONTAINS SPOILERS!A cleverly written novel structured around the recipes of the main character, Tita's life as she is doomed to watch her sister, Rosaura marry her the man she loves. As the youngest daughter, Tita is supposed to remain single and live at home to care for her mother as she ages. Pedro, Tita's love, chooses to marry Rosaura in order to remain close to Tita, but this may cause more harm than good in Tita's life. This book is definitely not for readers who like realistic fiction as there are some mysticism/folk elements to the novel. I found the book to be entertaining and it was easy to be sympathetic to the main character, Tita even though she eventually chooses to commit adultery with Pedro. An easy quick and romantic read, that I felt didn't really live up to all that I had heard about it.
    • 1/5
      Reviewed by Brittany (Class of 2014)Have you ever heard of a Mexican love story, filled with romance and cooking? In the book Like Water for Chocolate Tita and her mother (Mama Elena) cook up new recipes each month. The Narrator of this story was Esperanza, Pedro’s daughter.Tita and her family live on a ranch in Mexico, during the Mexican Revolution. When Tita found out that Mama Elena has accepted the marriage of Pedro and Rosaura, she was furious. The tradition is, the youngest daughter (Tita) has to take care of her mother until the day she dies. Tita only gets to express her feelings while she is in the kitchen cooking. A few months passed when Rosaura discovered she was pregnant. She and Pedro were going to name the baby Roberto. A month after having the baby, Mama Elena tells Tita that the baby has died. Later on in the year, Tita’s mother makes her go to a mental hospital. Tita loves cooking, she grew up cooking. Later Tita discovered Rosaura was pregnant again. This time Rosaura was having a girl, which she named Esperanza. About a month later, Pedro had an affair with Tita. Tita became pregnant, and had to break the news to Pedro. Later on Mama Elena and Rosaura die. Pedro and Tita shared their love together. Tita goes about cooking, and living on the ranch. This book had good things I liked and bad things I didn’t like. I liked how Tita got to share the rest of her life with Pedro, and the baby (Esperanza). I didn’t like how Tita had to take care of her mother until she died, because she was the youngest. I liked how the book put cooking and romance together into one. I liked how the setting was set up, because it took place in Mexico. I didn’t like how Tita’s mother treated her, I thought that was unfair. Mama Elena hit Tita with wooden spoons, smacked her in the face, and put her into a psychiatric ward. The author of this book is Laura Esquivel. Laura was born September 30th, 1950, in Mexico (Wikipedia). She wrote this book to teach people a lesson about life. Laura thinks that the kitchen is the most important part of the house. This book was the number one selling book in Mexico, for three years in a row (Wikipedia).Overall, I disliked this book. I didn’t like how most of the book seemed to only talk about sex. I also didn’t like how Tita had to wait to get married, because she had to take care of her mother. To me this book was too vague.
    • 1/5
      MAY CONTAIN SPOILERSIn the beginning of this story, our dear little Tita and Pedro have fallen in love. Her mother denies Pedro's marriage proposal and, instead, gives him the hand of Tita's elder sister. Pedro reassures Tita that he still loves her, and that's why he married her sister. Later on, Tita has the chance for true love when the doctor nurses her back to health after a tragic blow to her psyche, but instead rushes back into Pedro's arms when the good doctor's back is turned. When nothing else is standing in their way, Pedro and Tita still choose not to marry, taunting the doctor for over a decade, showing the reader that they are nothing but lustful thrill-seekers. Their conclusion was, in my eyes, completely justified, but it does not justify reading this book. Furthermore, I always use milk with my chocolate. Water makes it taste bland - a good superlative for this book.
    • 4/5
      I like the strangeness and uniqueness of the story. The magical realism was clever. The historical aspect of the era, family dynamics, and family traditions were constructed well that I fully sympathized with Tita and all the heartache and mistreatment she had to endure. It was a short and easy read but witty and full of passion.
    • 4/5
      Okay, so maybe more of a 3 1/2 star. I have a love/hate relationship with magical realism and, if anything, part of my disappoint with the novel comes from the fact that there's not as much "magic" as I had hoped for (I prefer Isabel Allende's House of the Sprits by comparison). However, I still enjoyed the novel as it was unique in its structure and the conduit for the magical aspects of the novel--food--was beautifully rendered in the recipes and descriptions of the connection between food and culture, as well as food and memory.Tita, the youngest daughter in her family, is doomed by tradition. She grows up knowing that she will never marry as it is her fate to take care of her tyrannical mother as she enters old age. Tita might have been able to resign herself to her destiny if it weren't for Pedro, the man with whom she falls passionately in love with at first sight. Tita's mother, of course, forbids the marriage and instead does the unthinkable--offers Pedro her eldest daughter Rosaura's hand in marriage. Pedro, the effin' fool that he is (oh, that's my other complaint with the book; I did not cotton to Pedro, although, to be fair, he's not a very well-developed character and so his actions come across as moronic since his only driving impulse is to be with Tita), accepts because it is the only way he can be near Tita. Oh, yeah. You know that's a plan that's going to end in a fustercluck. Tita is both elated to know that Pedro is only marrying her sister out of love for Tita and depressed by the fact that their love is to go unconsummated as long as her mother's eagle eye ensures that the two are kept apart. Unable to express her innermost desires, they instead surface in her famed cooking. Ordinary meals become an emotional feast as those who eat her food are consumed by Tita's suppressed passion, anger, and resentment.The episodic structure of the novel is genius, separated month by month and beginning with the recipe around which the story will revolve. The characters are somewhat one-dimensional, but given that the novel has a fairytale quality to it and reads more as myth than reality, I'm willing to forgive that. What ruined the entire novel for me was the ending. I don't want to ruin it for other readers, so I will simply say that I don't think Tita chose the right man and leave it at that.
    • 3/5
      Our book group was divided on this book. Some enjoyed this folk tale, magical style, while others clearly did not. Some comments were....."The story was entertianing but the characters were not likeable" ...."difficult to grasp the sybolism" ....."recipes with intructions interesting" ....."wish i could make some of the recipes" ......"enjoyed the book"........."Did not really like it, perhaps because I found some of the culture too different"..."Though it was a good summer read ....enjoyed that magical qualities of the story"
    • 4/5
      Let me say first the words "magic realism" doesn't exactly lead me to shout "bring it on." I found some of the fantasy elements annoying at first but did get use to themand got caught up in the story. At the end I found it a delighful and evocative love story. This is the review written after I read the book in 2004. Since then I would have to say that I have developed a greater appreciation for magic realism. I suppose it says something of my consideration of the novel that I bookcrossed back in 2004 and then regretted not having it. When I saw a copy a the Friends of the Library sale, I scarfed it up right quick
    • 4/5
      I thought this book was like reading a folk tale. I really liked all the flavors and tales that are in this book.
    • 5/5
      I found this story to be really cute. There is just this innocent feel to it that I really loved about it. I also enjoyed Magical Realism elements very much. My one complaint is that I would have preferred it if she had ended up the man that she didn't end up with in the end.
    • 5/5
      I was given this book to read during World History year in my English class. I fell in love with its magical realism and the heart-wrenching love story. The novel takes you into another world, where food parallels emotions and love truly is magical.
    • 4/5
      "Like Water For Chocolate" is a book written by the wonderful author Laura Esquivel wrote about a young women named Tita who is the youngest in here family. This story takes place in Mexico. Tita is put through a lot and struggles brutally to get her identity and independence and most importantly pursue true love. Every chapter of the book begins with a recipe and also a month that they are in. And the main focus for each chapter is to use the recipe they have set fourth in the begging of the chapter. Well in the book Tita falls for a man named, Pedro Muzquiz and he comes to the ranch were Tita lives to ask for her hand in marriage. But since Tita is the youngest in her familia she is forbidden to get married in her mother's eyes. Pedro ends up marrying Tita's older sister Rosaura instead, but claims to have done that to get close or stay close to Tita which is his true love. Rosaura and Pedro moved onto a ranch and Tita would cook for them. At one point in the story Tita cooks a special meal for her sister and Pedro with the pedal of a rose that Pedro gave her. And there love for each other was transmitted into the food which made Tita's older sister Gertrudis go into a lustful state and leave the ranch into a soldier arms. Then later on Rosaura gives birth to a son who is delivered by Tita. Tita takes care of her new nephew as if it is her own child. she even comes to the point where she develops breast milk to feed the baby when her older sister couldn't. But to make a long story shirt Tita ends up marrying Pedro and the make love and die while in the moment because there passion for each other had set the room on fire and killed them both.
    • 1/5
      The novel “Like Water for Chocolate” by Laura Esquivel was very unique in its own way. I must say when I decided to read t his book that it was going to talk about the Hispanic culture and that the recipes dealt with something about life. Yet when reading the book I was proven wrong in one way. This book mostly talked about the life of a certain girl named Tita. Tita had a different childhood compared to her sisters. First off Tita and her family were born on a Mexican ranch in a Mexican town. Tita was the youngest out of her siblings and was treated like Cinderella except her real mom was the evil step mom that wouldn’t allow her to do anything she wanted and would treat her like a slave. Since Tita was the youngest this was the role she had to play according to her mother’s family traditions. The more you read the book the more you learn and see the story about Tita’s life. For me this book isn’t what I expect to be with its fairytale story. I really don’t like the fairytale story and this book was it. It wasn’t a bad book either it just wasn’t the book that I thought it was. Yet if you’re the type that love book that are more of the fairytale kind I recommend this book to you. Yet if you decided to read this book I recommend that you read this book with an open mind and read it like a fairytale because it is so like the Mexican version of Cinderella.
    • 4/5
      This was quite a book - part folklore, part cookbook, part romance, part angst.Tita, the main character, goes through a lot, but describes the most emotional events in her life through the food she prepares. I have to admit, that I didn't agree with all her decisions -- and some were too long in coming.The story was like one of the meals Tita prepares - every plot thread has its place, blending and enhancing the others. An interesting read, but kids be warned - it's right on the edge of PG-13.
    • 4/5
      My first exposure to the story of "Like Water For Chocolate" was in the form of an Indian drama series called "Margarita" - I was completely absorbed into the story, and began searching what the drama was based on, and landed on this book. Must have been a stroke of luck, because had that not happened, I may never have actually picked up the book on my own because I usually do not end up reading books like these.Boy, was I surprised when I picked up this novel, because as far as "magical realism" goes - Like Water for Chocolate is a masterpiece. A tender, magical and evocative tale of love, tradition, family values and secret recesses of a girl named Tita. Tita is the youngest of three daughters in a traditional Mexican familia - being the youngest it is her duty to stay a spinster and take care of her mother till the day she dies. Although adventurous at heart, Tita accepts her fate until she falls in love with Pedro. But being as he cannot ask for her hand in marriage, Pedro who is desperately in love with Tita, is forced to ask for her sister's hand in marriage so that he can remain close to Tita. From here on out, the story of Tita's life unfolds with many twists and turns - and for each twist and turn, Tita who is unbelievably creative and resourceful in the kitchen, pours her emotions into her cooking - which is then transferred into the people that eat her food. It is through her food that Tita finds her release. Laura Esquival writing is powerful, and forces you to experience all that Tita experiences, her sorrow, her disappointments, her heartache, her redemption and her resilience. A strange, yet absolutely wonderful tale, beautifully constructed, mystical and erotic, appealing to all the human senses, and touching at the strings of your heart - this novel is sure to leave you lusting for the culinary masterpieces that Tita creates, and craving more of the magical realm in which Tita resides.
    • 4/5
      I loved the uniqueness of this story, the fantastical elements woven seamlessly into the everyday. Loved the whimsy and passion and the little taste of traditional Mexican cooking was a bonus. Very easy read but enchanting, definitely recommended.
    • 2/5
      This quick read is a romantic fable centered around a traditional Mexican family. Fables are generally great exaggerations that are meant to tell how things come to be. This is no exception.Tita, the youngest daughter of Mama Elena, is destined to never marry and to take care of her mother until she dies. This is the tradition of the family. Tita ends up finding love in Pedro, but is forbidden to marry him. Pedro instead marries Tita's older sister so he can stay close. A complicated mess, but somehow it works out.Tita is a gifted cook and, through some fable-y magic, imbues her moods into her cooking. When she is happy and passionate, her food makes everyone passionate. When she is sad, everyone eating her food ends up crying and upset.This isn't the type of book I normally enjoy and while it was entertaining, it's not in my top books. I appreciate the recipes given but they appeared right in the middle of the stories and just seemed odd.
    • 4/5
      Laura Esquirel's "Like Water for Chocolate" is delicious. The story follows Tita, who by family custom is prohibited from marrying the love of her life because she needs to care for her mother. So, she channels all of her energy into food. The mystical story, set amongst the Mexican Revolution, complete with recipes at the start of each chapter, is beautifully written and entertaining. It is filled with images that stay with you after you've closed the book for the last time. Truly enjoyable!
    • 1/5
       Like Water for Chocolate attempts to spin a Cinderella yarn in turn-of-the-century Mexico, but ends up being represented mostly by cutesy touches (such as recipes representing each chapter) that end up not feeling very cute at all. I’m no resident expert on magical realism, but even I could feel the patent artificially of its employ, lacking the unspeakable subconscious visceral manifestation qualities and instead, being used as a story-telling crutch and another in the long line of gimmicks. I would’ve wanted to slap all the characters for being so stupidly selfish by the end, except to be honest, the whole thing is written so thinly that the overall impression is that of a calculated enterprise that the characters don’t come across as any sort of people at all.
    • 2/5
      This book is a bit of a dark fairy-tale - a magical, melodramatic love story.The story revolves around Tita, the youngest of three daughters, who falls in love with Pedro, but is not allowed to marry him, though they struggle to be together. Tita's mixed emotions throughout the story flavor her cooking and influence all those who eat her meals.While recipes and cooking are central to Tita's character, I found the intermingling of recipes forced. The traditions and relationships of the characters are somewhat interesting, but I did not find the characters themselves, or the plot, engaging. I was also very disappointed in the ending, though it is in true fairy-tale fashion. Perhaps too much of the story was lost as it was translated.