Caribbean Books

Considering I've had the good fortune of sitting in one of Prof. Leonard's classes I'm confidant to say that the details of this text are throughly researched and credible. This man cares mightily for the people of the U.S., Caribbean, Central & South America and understands the social, cultural, religious and revolutionary political influences that continue to transform the region. This book is a good investment in ones education about the Castro Revolution.

This is the absolutely best Cayman Island Dive Guide I have read and seen. It gives great details all of the best dive sites to visit. Has excellent detail on where to exactly go, water depths, plant and aquatic life in certain areas... An absolute must for the Cayman diving enthusiast.

This is the first White Star Guide book I have purchased. It is loaded with helpful information about planning your dive. There are numerous color pictures about the creatures and plants that you might expect to find in the Caymans.

Che lives in the Cuban revolution. If you don't believe it read this book that contains articles on Cuba reprinted from the Militant newspaper in 1997, the 30th year after Che was murdered in Bolivia. They are mostly interviews with Cuban revolutionists, summarizes of debates in Cuba, and speeches and writing about Che by his comrades, his friends, and by his daughter. They show how Cuba's communist leaders aim to continue and deepen the revolutionary struggle for socialism Che led. Whether it is the interviews with Pombo and others fought alongside Che in Cuba, Africa, and Bolivia, or the speeches by Cuban communist leaders on why they reject the Soviet model of socialism and why they continue to fight for revolutionary communism, this is an inspiring historic collection of documents and reports.

Former Algerian President's Ahmed Ben Bella's article from Le Monde Diplomatique about Che and Cuba's collaboration with the Algerian and African revolutions is worth the whole price of this book by itself. Also recommended: To Speak the Truth, Che Speaks, Capitalism's World Disorder, Pombo: A Man of Che's Guerilla, The Opening Guns of World War III

The sparkling freshness of the poems in _Certifiable_ belies the seasoned career of Pamela Mordecai, author of several poetry collections, plays, cultural histories, and essays. This recent volume, like those which preceded it, prove that this crafty wordsmith refuses to settle for variations of the same theme or a proven formula. Rather, she approaches her art with the same spunkiness and flair evinced by many of the female personae in the poems: one female speaker, after enumerating the many qualities that recommend her as "well fixed / for all love's traffic" patly challenges, "So tell me, brother, / What have you to give?" A poet well known in Caribbean circles, she is unjustly overlooked by most of the critical audience in the Caribbean, the U.S., and Canada where she has lived for several years. West Indian and Canadian, her work straddles the two worlds with aplomb. While a poem like "Jus a Likl Lovin" addresses the hardships facing adolescent convent girls in Jamaica, "Blessed Assurance" portrays an old subway evangelist determined to help "one prodigal / find him way back to him Pa" in spite of the pain she experiences in daily negotiating Toronto subways. Mordecai will appeal to both connoisseurs of poetic form and fans of performance, vernacular poetry. She combines the same grace with form and voice reflected in poets like Elizabeth Bishop, Michael Ondaatje, and Lorna Goodison. While her imagery can be startlingly precise, it never feels contrived or manipulated: an abandoned pregnant young woman is "aglow with a rain / of black hair that just / stirs in the burp / of the subway's hot air." The vernacular flow of those lines are equalled or surpassed by the infectious rhythms of lines like these: a creole boy child on Shakespeare's _Tempest_ isle "him tongue twining with curses / Muttering glossalalic nonsenses / him find him can decline him pain in verses, start spirits with words...." As well, a wry humour sharpens the ironic edge of several poems: to the radiologist's caveat that breast exams be paid in cash for "too much handwritten money is funny these days," she quips, "Well, it's nice that my doc / has his procedures straight." At ease in the cultural and literary traditions of North America as well as Caribbean, Mordecai will please readers of contemporary American poetry, Caribbean poetry, performance and slam poetry buffs, cultural studies scholars, and anyone who enjoys a good way with words.

This book examines state policy and higher educational reform in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. The dearth of attention to the postsecondary experience of the Spanish-speaking Caribbean makes this a very special contribution to the literature in the field, where present literature focuses primarily on Central and Latin America, the larger context of globalization, or specific issues like financing, equity, and quality. The authors weigh variables of economic environments, political institutions, and culture as they analyze the evolution of higher educational policy and post-secondary institutional change. Their analyses at once show the commonality of problems across Caribbean national boundaries, and illuminate the ways in which processes of educational change and reform differ between the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and Puerto Rico.
The authors conclude that the convergence of higher education trends and reforms in Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic are not serendipitous (including the shared experience of "brain drain" emigration to the continental United States), underscoring the need for Caribbean post-secondary institutions and their respective states to explore new linkages and deepen existing transnational interconnectedness. Numerous barriers and challenges remain; the book ends with an extensive discussion of future agendas in higher education and public policy on these islands and in New York City.



Hardcover Info:
ISBN 1-55876-323-6
268pp
$69.95

Also available in Paperback :
ISBN 1-55876-324-4
268pp
$24.95
About Silvio Torres-Salliant:
Silvio Torres-Saillant, Syracuse University, is the author of Caribbean Poetics: Toward an Aesthetic of West Indian Literature.

About Maria J. Canino:
Maria J. Canino, University of Puerto Rico, is the co-editor of La politica social ante los nuevos desafios: Cuba y Puerto Rico.

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Chance The Tide: How To Cruise To The Bahamas For The Winter by mechanical engineer and sailing expert Kenneth Mowbray is a practical and "user friendly" how-to guide for enjoying a Bahamas cruise in the wintertime. Individual chapters discuss a wide variety of different boats ranging from sail to power and in terms of how they are best utilized, what equipment to bring, how to navigate the Bahamas, enjoying life while living in a relatively small space, and more. A useful guide filled with sound advice for cruise lovers everywhere, Chance The Tide is especially commended to the attention of novice sailors while having a great deal to offer even the most experienced when cruising Bahamian waters.

If you're an antique car lover then Chariots of Chrome by Simon Bell and George Fischer is the book for you. Lavishly done with rich, full color, well done photographs, Chariots is a feast for the eyes. Cubans, it seems, have maintained hundreds of vintage American cars while most of the world has "moved on." Cut off from the American car market, Cubans, once the largest importer of Detroit automobiles, have been forced to nurse along what they have. Whether equipping these cars with Russian truck engines, hand forging their own replace parts, or taking parts from cars no longer able to keep rolling, the Cubans of the last half of the twentieth century have proven themselves very adept at improving. This book is as much a tribute to their resourcefulness as it is to the cars pictured between the covers.

If you're a lover of things old and wonderful photography then Chariots of Chrome is the book for you. You'll also come to respect the mechanical genius of the Cuban car owner and mechanic.

Historian Frank Niess presents Che Guevara, an in-depth biography of social revolutionary Che Guevara (1928-1967) that separates myth from reality. Expertly translated from the original German by Nathaniel McBride, Che Guevara covers Guevara's upbringing, his involvement in the Cuban Revolution, his desire to spread his ideology to other nations of South America and Africa, and much more, illustrated with vintage black-and-white photographs. "Che Guevara might not have become the revered revolutionary idol he did had he been satisfied with his part in just one, namely the Cuban, revolution... He had hopes of bringing about radical political change in his own country of Argentina, and, as one would expect of a dedicated internationalist and pan-American, he dreamed of a revolution across the entire continent. Following his years of political apprenticeship in Guatemala, he had become convinced that this region would one day become one of the most important arenas of revolutionary struggle." Notes, a chronology and an index round out this in-depth portrait of a charismatic and courageous (if at times ruthless) man who dedicated his life to his beliefs.

Vivimos tiempos de confusion e incertidumbre. Tiempos que requieren una profunda reflexion y puesta dia de algunas ideas que permitan concebir el futuro de otra forma. Ernesto Guevara (1938-1967), el Che, se propuso pensar la realidad desde otro angulo y actuar con esas ideas hasta dar su vida por ellas. Su rostro es, pese al tiempo transcurrido desde su muerte a manos del ejercito boliviano, un simbolo universal de rebeldia e inconformismo.

Mario Pacho O'Donnell, biografo de renombre internacional, ha escrito un libro singular, profundo y definitivo con el fin de desvelar aspectos hasta ahora desconocidos de la mitica figura del Che. Tras su rastro, investigando con minuciosidad, el autor ha recorrido el mundo entrevistando a personas que trataron directamente con el en differentes etapas de su vida. Desde Rosario Lopez, su ninera, y los amigos de infancia y adolescencia, a Gary Prado, el capitan de los rangers que le capturo en Bolivia, o Urbano, uno de los escasos supervivientes cubanos que compartio con el comandante Guevara todas sus aventuras revolucionarias. Gracias a estos testimonios y al conocimiento psicologico del personaje, O'Donnell ha sabido reconstruir con amenidad y rigor el pasaje humano, politico y sentimental de uno de los grandes iconos del progresismo y la izquierda.

Hoy en dia, y gracias al amplio y variado movimiento antiglobalizacion y al vigoroso sentimiento antiimerialista por la invasion a Iraq, la figura del Che Guevara es recuperada por una juventud que quiza, por el tiempo transcurrido desde su muerte, no conoce con la suficiente profundidad el trabajo y la valentia, la contradicciones y errores de este legendario guerrillero argentino y cubano.
--- from book's back cover.