South America Books

never take it to the field with me of course, but is the érfect complement to the Volume of IDENTIFICATION GUIDE... full of text, sometimes not superbly updated (specially for Colombia) but worth the money!...get it.

See my review for the set of both volumes.
This is the Species Accounts volume, while the other one can be regarded as the true field guide of the two. Best to have them both at hand, however.

It's the most complete book published of the High Andes birds,its a classic.

Basics: 1990, hardcover, 880 pages, 64 color plates, 1100 species, range maps

"Magnificent" would be a good word to start the review for this book. Three things stand out about this book. One, is the apparent experience and knowledge of the authors. Two, is the documentation of the salient information written down and shared with the birder. Three, are the excellent color plates showing over 2000 different plumages.

The first 80% of the book is dedicated to the species accounts. Each bird receives 1/3 to 2/3 of a page. Nearly half of the text describes the bird and its various plumages. Other solid information is given for habits, voice, breeding, habitat, and range. A great deal of attention is also given to the subspecies.

As for the plates, they are very good. The artist has a unique style or flair that is different but appreciated. The illustrations might not be called small, but they are a little below the average size found in a field guide - if this book even is a field guide. With the smaller sizes, some plates are slightly crammed with 40+ plumages. However, I prefer the wealth of crammed illustrations over the alternative of having fewer useful images just to have a cleaner look. In addition to the plates, hundreds of b&w drawings are distributed throughout the book.

The range maps are typically tailored to cover the bird's region, as opposed to using a standard all-South America map. Despite the tailored maps, the ranges don't always stand out with their b&w format. Restricted, small ranges sometimes demand your attention.

Is this a field guide? No, for four reasons. First, this is a thick and heavy book. You can take it, but a satchel will be needed for toting it around. Second, the binding on this book is weak. This is noticeable upon first picking up the book. The book's thickness and weight only compound its fragility. A couple of my friends made the mistake of taking their books to South America. One trip was enough take its toll on the book. Third, it is too expensive to expose to field dangers. Four, the book loses its effectiveness when you drop down out of the Andes and into other habitats.

Use this masterpiece of a book at home as an excellent shelf reference and take a country-specific guide with you to South America instead. There are several good ones to use.

Other Related Books:
1) The Birds of Machu Picchu and the Cusco Region by Walker/Fjeldsa
2) Birds of Chile by Jaramillo/Burke/Beadle
3) Las Aves de Chile by Martinez/Gonzalez
4) Birds of Chile and Adjacent Regions of Argentina, Bolivia and Peru -- Volumes I & II by Johnson et.al.
5) Birds of Peru by Schulenberg et.al.
6) A Field Guide to the Birds of Peru by Clements/Shany
7) Aves de las Nubes by Plenge
8) Birds of Argentina and Uruguay by Narosky/Yzurieta
9) Birds of Ecuador by Ridgely/Greenfield
10) Guide to the Birds of Colombia by Hilty/Brown

Black Roots in Southeastern Connecticut, 1650-1900, represents a milestone in the publishing of African-American genealogy. Authors Brown and Rose spent eight years gathering every shred of information they could find on approximately 2,000 African-American families who inhabited one or more of 26 counties in Southeastern Connecticut. Their sources consisted primarily of U.S. census records from 1790 through 1870 and secondarily on manumission records, deeds, probate records, diaries, church records, and military records. In particular, Brown and Rose have amassed an amazing amount of information on blacks who were living in an area that, on the eve of the Revolutionary War, had one of the largest slave populations in New England. The authors cite the specific source for each element appearing in their genealogical sketches. The brief introduction summarizes some of the challenges of investigating black roots, while the bibliography, name index, and subject index at the back of the volume make using the book quite easy.

Clearfield Company would like to express its appreciation to the New London County Historical Society, the publisher of these two books, for allowing us to make them available to our patrons.

this book is a must have for blacks aswell as Native americans in Rhode Island and Conneticut it has 90 % of what most people are looking for ancestors and concrete genealogy so if you find it get

This book is a rare find. Incorporating history, life, travel and art, the reader will discover a wealth of information, a beautiful travelogue and a strong desire to leave home.

This book is by far the most worthful piece of art seen in a long time. It combines design, arts, architecture, literature and Argentine culture in a marvellous way. Being a coffee table book as well as an interesting source of information about the country, its hotels and history, it serves as a magnificent object of decoration and at the same time makes the reader feel the lust to go and see this beautiful country, staying in these breath-taking hotels and get to know this colourfully mixed culture of Argentina. Students, Profs, Travellers and Connaisseurs de vie will all profit from the intimate short stories as well as the fascinating pictures of a wonderful country and its inviting places to stay.

I never actually read the book, but I have read a lot about the book and I absolutly loved what I read. I would like to know more!

It is fasinating to read the actual writings of Christopher Columbus. I learned more about what drove him to discovering the Americas. His faith and passion for the Bible and other prophecies was unexpected. He strongly believed he had a great work to do, so he compiled many of the prophecies that meant alot to him, which brought his life into focus for him. You'll learn more about the real Columbus here than you could ever learn in a history book. Hard to understand at times, but there are enough jems in this book to make the study worth your time.

I read this book aloud to my middle school students and we were all so hooked we couldn't stop reading. What an engaging, realistic story.

Sonny, aka Shorty, hasn't been in a classroom in years, and he spends his days doing odd jobs on the dangerous streets of Medellín, Colombia, South America. He and his best friend Alberto have a regular gig running cigarettes for a convenience-store owner, and in this line of work Alberto meets El Fantasma, a soft-spoken crime leader with a reputation for being merciless.

Soon after Alberto starts spending time away from Sonny, he shows up with a gun and fifty American dollars. Sonny knows Alberto is involved with something illegal, but rather than try to stop Alberto, he's intrigued with his friend's new secrecy and possessions. After all, the criminals in Medellín have better lives than everyone else. They have money and power and they know they're in control. Sonny, following Alberto's lead, convinces El Fantasma to take him on as an employee, specifically an assassin. What he doesn't know is that El Fantasma sees him as nothing more than a disposable object.

Don't be fooled by the title and setting of this book. Even though Sonny lives in poverty, abuse and violence, he is not a violent or evil person. In fact, he cares greatly for his friends and takes the assassin job because he believes it will help him support his mother. Matt Whyman doesn't beat the reader over the head with morality and lessons, either. Instead, he lets Sonny, a basically good kid who does the wrong thing for what he believes is the right reason, speak for himself.

BOY KILLS MAN is inspired by the true story of child assassins in Colombia.

--- Reviewed by Carlie Webber

Of all books I have read about Brazil, this is certainly the one that presents the best analysis over the formation of the Brazilian people. By reading this book one will be able to understand how Brazil was created, how its own identity was forged and how this was linked to its economical cycles.
The Book also presents how the history of Brazil has been marked by the cruel elimination of indigenous people as well as the africans and dismisses the view of Brazil as a peacefull country without great civil wars in its history.

This book is really amazing because you'll find the historical formation of Brazil. Since colonial period till today.

The author will explain the formation of this great country and the complex formation of brazilian people. There's no how to understand Brazil without read this book before. This is one of the most complete book I've read abou this country

The original Bruchko book is one of my favorite books of all time. So when I heard he had written a second book which updated his story into the present day, I purchased it quickly. It was like getting reacquainted with an old friend. You see Bruchko grappling with the losses of Gloria and Bobarishora. You see his spirit rekindled after hearing a couple of the younger Motilones speaking at a peace conference. You feel his joy as the nation of Columbia recognizes that 420 acres of jungle land belong to the Motilone people (truly known as the Bari people).

The first 36 pages rehash the first Bruchko book, while the rest of the volume brings the story into the present day (with occasional looks back into the past).

You get to read the details of Bruce's entanglements with terrorist groups and drug dealers. You get his first person account of his brutal 1988 abduction by the ENF and his mixed feelings about the current direction the Motilones are taking. You get the sense that the younger Motilones want to modernize more and to forego some of the tribal traditions that Bruce has been trying hardf to safeguard. Yet Bruce is confident in the Lord that God will continue to raise up Motilones who walk in our Lord's trail.

If you love the first book, you'll definitely want this one, too. But this is also a good place to start even if you have never heard of Bruchko.

After hearing Bruce Olson speak over a year ago and reading his first book, Bruchko, I have researched every magazine article and other source I could find on the life of this very special man. So when the sequel came out I was very excited to order my copy. It does an excellent job of filling in the later years, right up to the present.

The gripping story of Olson's unorthodox life in the Amazon jungle challenges every stereotype we may have of missionaries. As a passionate and driven 19-year-old, he left a comfortable, bookworm existence in Minnesota and followed his God-given dream to travel to South America, where he was violently captured by a reclusive, murderous tribe of stone age Indians. And he has lived with them ever since!

Bruchko and the Motilone Miracle unfolds all the events that have happened in Olson's life with the Indians, who are now transformed into a productive and positive cultural force in Colombia. It covers the account of Olson's unbelievable response to his kidnapping and captivity in 1988 by one of the armed rebel groups using the jungle as their base of operations.

There are so many reasons why I was attracted to this story. It's a high adventure journey filled with love, suffering, resurrection, social redemption, and victory over evil. I'd like to see the movie made -- and made on a big scale, because it would enthrall audiences more than the most elaborate Hollywood action film. In this case, truth is stronger than fiction!

Prof. Christopher Dunn has written an impressive book about music and its role in the history and development of Brazilian Counterculture. "Brutality Garden: Tropicalia and the Emergence of a Brazilian Counterculture" begins by covering the history of Brazilian intellectual modernism (modernismo), focusing on the contributions of Oswald de Andrade and Mario de Andrade, as well as the early development of a progressive political impulse in early to mid 20th century Brazil. Two elements emerge early: the growth of a 'orthodox' socialism in the arts and music, and a concern over the authenticity of Brasilian cultural production both for internal consumption and external export. Musically, this concern with authenticity focused on the dual phenomena of Carmen Miranda, and Bossa Nova, both of which carry either heavy non-Brazilian influences and uncomfortable racial stereotypes.

Meanwhile, the progressive impulse is subverted in a right-wing military coup (supported and encouraged by the United States) which profoundly affects the Brazilian arts and the public. Television and Opera maintain a certain degree of freedom from censorship at first, but revolutionary socialism seems unable to articulate an effective resistance.

Enter Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil. In this matrix of poltical and nationalistic uncertainty, and through the use of pastiche, dissassociative imagery, irony, parody, and a concern with the everyday frustrations of Brazilians, they construct an insurgent music that gains a wide reach and audience, while mostly flying underneath the dictatorship's radar screen. Refusing the government's attempts to force a highly nationalistic concept of unity on the populace, Tropicalia uses deploys the benign imagery of tropical paradise, only to subvert them with references (sometimes overt, sometimes oblique by necessity) to social and political trauma. The more orthodox leftists, of course, criticize Tropicalia for not directly inciting the masses to act, and instead promoting escapism. Yet Tropicalia's moment in the sun is not only threaded in the past of Brazilian historical discourse on modernity, but serves to feed a growing countercultural movement in Brazilian culture throughout the late 1960s and 1970's. By foregrounding areas of Brazilian socio-economic underdevelopment, Afro-Brazilian religion (Macumba, Candomble), and the historical legacy of Portugese colonialism, Tropicalia stakes out a lasting ground, and a usable past for Brazilian counterculture.

The book is heavy on history, and light on the explicit citation of theory, although its playful and trickster hermeneutic (well suited to its subject matter) is everywhere. Also playing a prominant role in the book is Candomble. Candomble religion plays an imporant role in the history of Tropicalia, and in the larger history of Brazilian metaphor and music. Candomble practices and practitioners occur in artistic discourses concerning the nature and center of Brazilian modernismo. Such as the 1971 painting "Primeria missa no Brasili" by Glauco Rodrigues, the song "Batmacumba" on "Tropicalia , ou panis et circensis" and on Os Mutandes first recording , Veloso's "Triste Bahia," a 1970's pop revival with roots as early as the 1930's. but especially prescient with Gil Gilberto and Veloso, and Gal Costa's tour of "Doces Barbaros" in 1976. 1977 saw Veloso's album "Bicho" and Gilberto Gil's "Refavela," both intimately concerned with Black consciousness and Candomble. Even as 1997 Gil's album "Quanta" wove discourses of the Internet with Orisha worship.

A dense book that weaves from literary and painting analysis to economic development theory and musical hermeneutics--this is a carefully written and edited interdisciplinary work of Cultural History and American/Atlantic Studies.

The author recommends the CD "Tropicalia Essentials" for use with the book. It is available on Amazon.com

After reading the book , I would also suggest "Tropicalia, ou panis et circensis" -- the original release of which appears to have been a crystalizing moment in the Tropicalia movement.

An outstanding history of the late -1960s surrealist-hippie rock movement known as "tropicalia." Although tons has already been written about Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil and the other heroes of the tropicalia scene in the Brazilian press and academia, it's been pretty slim pickings in the English-speaking world... up until now, that is! Christopher Dunn, who co-edited "Brazilian Popular Music & Globalization," skillfully combines hard academic research with a relatively light, conversational prose. This is dense yet captivating material, as Dunn deftly explores the historical and philosophical connections to tropicalia -- an art movement that was originally conceived as cross-genre and multi-media -- and previous Brazilian movements such as modernismo, which was Brazil's homegrown 1920s variant of the "futurist" philosophy that swept through Europe in the early 20th Century. Dunn also deftly tells the story of tropicalia's explosive growth as a subversive, psychedelic musical genre, and the harsh political repression it was met with by the dictatorship which held power from 1964 to 1985. This is a vital book, of interest to the many newfound fans of this wild musical style, or to art historians tracking the worldwide path of dada-ism and surrealist art. Highly recommended.

The book offers a variety of photos from throughout Buchanan County, both past and recent. It covers historical events, places and buildings. A history in pictures.

I grew up in Southwest Virginia, just south of Buchanan County. My father grew up in Buchanan County, and this book gave me a way to visit the landscapes he experienced as a child. The book, consisting primarily of photographs, gives a vivid picture of the lives of coal miners and other laborers. The photographs of the devastating flood of April 1977 and its aftermath are especially compelling.

Novelist Lee Smith grew up in Grundy in Buchanan County, and the book includes a photograph of the building (now demolished) that housed the Ben Franklin Store her father owned. I'm a devoted Lee Smith fan, and that picture was a bonus for me.