Always Running: LA Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A.

Rating:
Summary: Luis tells it how it is, Real life problems.
Review: This book was the best book I had ever read. It tells how the the gang life is. It makes you think. It shows how life really is in the barrio. This book talks about a lot of important issues. I know some things in this book are bad but, they also help understand the story. Well if you get a chance to put your hands on this book I suggest you do, and I hope it makes you think like it did to me.

Rating:
Summary: real!
Review: very real...shows all the realities of gang influences and life, also shows how someone who would die for can turn on you in an instant

Rating:
Summary: It is a compelling true story of a mexican gang member.
Review: Always Running is a compeling true-story about the gang days of Luis Rodriguez. It takes place in the early 1950's around East L.A. Although this book is rather repetative, it is beautifully written and it's accounts are compelling. from beging to end, Luis holds the reader's attention in the palm of his hand. All throughout the book, Luis battles with drugs, sex, death, drinking, and life. At times I was left thinking about the world in which we live in, cruel and humiliating. Every chapter was a new battle for Luis, but in the end, he would conquer and no longer would he be...Always Running

Rating:
Summary: A compelling book
Review: I thought that this book was one of the best books that I have ever read. All of my life I have always been interested in Barios and spanish Gang Life. This was the best 200 and some pages that I have ever read. I know that some of the parts in the book can be considered a little bad, But he is very discrete and he tells it how it is. Good Book 100 stars.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best gang book's i have read
Review: I thought that this book was so very very cool one of the best i'v ever read.It's about a mexican kid named Lois who at a very young age joined a gang at a very young age. He is telling about his life of gang wars and riots. He talks about the Drugs he's done and how he was in organized crime. He tells about his life with girls and how he always met girls from other gangs and if anyone found out he'd be killed. He tells about his brisk incounters with the police. but he's very bright kid he even writes a book about it but people say he's dumb and stuff i would recomend this book to all my friends and to people i dont know because it's really good.

Rating:
Summary: It's the BOMB! It'll make you cry, laugh, and keep reading!
Review: In Always Running you can visualize even the simplest thing that Mr.Rodriguez describes. It can be inspiring, not only to people who experience a situation like his, but also to anyone who's never lived in a ghetto. This book proves to all Mexican-American people, that we can succeed no matter where and how we grew up. Being a teenager, after reading Always Running I felt that I can make something of myself even if I started off wrong.

Rating:
Summary: THE MOST CAPTIVATING BOOK
Review: This book offers a perspective not found in any of the movies covering this subject. You will not put this book down until your are done. This is for Latinos, an even more captivating book because you will then see the culture you are part of and even though you may not be involved in gangs, after reading this, you will know what it is about.

Rating:
Summary: homeboy is telling it like it is.
Review: I grew up in the same area as Luis, I am just a year younger, and I want to tell Luis thanks for bringing back so many memories. I knew alot of his homeboys and though I was from VNE, I got along with them. Some people just don't understand "Mi Vida Loca" and they just keep trying to put them down, instead of trying to understand the varrios and help make changes for the better. To bad that there is so many ignorant people, who rather critize Mr. Rodriguez book, instead of trying to understand what gang life is all about. Luis thank you again for the memories... El Chino Varrio Nuevo Estrada Dukes, East LA

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding; telling it "like it is" is not "nice."
Review: My review is in reaction to those who cannot see what Mr. Rodriquez is saying. He is telling it like it is and they really don't understand. How can anyone read this and refer to Mr. Rodriquez's morality when it is the morality, or should I say the immoral attitude, of the LAPD that drives so many to violent acts? Having taught in San Diego schools for many years I know how school officials and teachers deny Mexican-American students the opportunity that is essential to develop self esteem. Wake up people! Mr. Rodriquez is telling us something we need to listen to or else we shall reap a bitter harvest. Ernie Neveu

Rating:
Summary: Author Does Not Accept Responsibility
Review: You can read this book cover to cover, backwards and forwards, and vice versa. No where does the author accept responsibility for his actions! He blames the America that he referred to as a foul odor when he first came here. It is my understanding that the Spanish Version does not have the gratuitous and very graphic sexual scenes as the English Version does. Why is this? Could it be that the author does not want anyone in his Hispanic culture to know how he prostituted their trust for the Almighty American Dollar? Nah, he would not have done that, would he?