Caribbean Books

I thought that "For the life of Laetitia" was an excellent book. I really got into the story and when her father started to get nasty I really wanted to meet him and slap him! My favourite part must have been when she got to go home with her grandmother and grandfather. But I also liked reading about the fun that her and Anjanee had. I was so upset when Anjanee died. I would recommend this book for ages 12-15 as some of the parts are for older children rather than younger.

This book was very good. It was about a girl, Laetitia (pronouced La-tee-sha) who lives in the islands. Sh got exepted in a secondary school, and lives with her father

"For the Life of Laetitia"is a wonderful book about a young girl who lives in the Carribean. Lacey is the first of her family to go to secondary school. This sparks sudden interest from her father, who she barley knows. Lacey exceeds above all of her class mates at her new school. She meets a new friend who she grows to love and need. In the long run, Anjanee (Lacey's friend) helps Lacey more than she could ever know. This book is essential for young people to read. It tells of determination,pressare, hard ships and struggle. Differances , family, friendships, and the simple things that bring happiness to life.

I've been a fan of Frida Kahlo since high school, and as an artist, I've been on a quest to find a book that includes all of her paintings and portrays their colors and contrast accurately. Many books increase the contrast so much that you can no longer see definition in the dark areas of her painting, but not this one! Likewise, many books only show a few of her more popular paintings, but this large volume dug many up from obscurity and presents them in vivid, full-page detail.

If you would like to own one book that covers all of Frida's works, this is it--look no further! This has a poetically written account of the political and social conditions she grew up and flourished in, as well as details of her paintings that are amazing.

Tired of reading all the Kahlo biographies full of facts in a "documentary style" format..? Then this book is for you. This Kahlo biography, with a splash of Mexican history, presents an in-depth look at the private life of this famous Mexican painter in the style of a novel. This book is written for young adult readers and is very well written, well organized, easy reading and full of tidbits of information not found in other books. Once you start to read it you can't put it down. When you're finished you will know and understand the real Frida Kahlo. Highly recommend this book to readers of all ages.

If you are looking for information on her paintings you won't find it here. Not much is said about her paintings and there are only 6 small color and 3 black & white illustrations of her paintings and 6 black & white photos. In the back of the book there is a very brief chronology.

This book is amazing. If you're a fan of Frida Kahlo, don't hesitate to check it out. For one thing, the book itself is well crafted. Along with the gorgeous prints (and various fold outs to show details), there's a good amount of photographs and a well-written biography.

Another great book on Kahlo is "Frida Kahlo: The Painter And Her Work" by Helga Prignitz-Poda. It has a slipcase so perhaps it'll appear to be "better," but Lozano's book is less than half the price, a bit larger and contains just as much, if not more.

I'd imagine poring over this book is as close as one can get to viewing her work in person without actually being there.

Iris Bannochie was one of the most influential horticulturalists in the Caribbean. This book contains vast amounts of information on plantings in general, specific plants, soil maintainence, pests and recommended plants for various settings and purposes.

This book was written toward the end of Mrs. Bannochie's lifetime of gardening in the Caribbean and contains many, many seemingly insignificant details that are gold to the tropical gardener. Upon her death, she bequeathed her home to the Nation of Barbados, and the site is now the famous Andromeda Gardens.

This book deserves five stars because it is the only gardening book extant that covers issues and concerns important and specific to Caribbean gardening. Had Mrs. Bannochie lived to see her book published, it is quite probable that it would have been far more comprehensive.

Chapter Two is invaluable for providing information on how to propagate specific climate appropriate plants. Chapter Four continues in the same vein, providing a comprehensive listing of tried and true favorites and pointers on how to grow them. My only criticisms are that the photographs (plates) in the center of the book are not of better quality and larger, that the tables at the end of the book fail to evaluate soil type on all the islands, and that there are so few diagrams or illustrations generally. Of course these paltry concerns may be remedied in a future revision. It is apparent that the co-author, Marilyn Light, faced a significant challenge in completing the book, and she is to be complimented for remaining true to Bannochie's vision.

Bannochie's writing style can be compared to having a conversation with an experienced, hands-on gardener while she strolls with you through her garden pointing out her favorite plants. Thus, I believe that one can actually sense which parts of the book were written by Marilyn Light after Bannochie's untimely death.

My copy of this book was lost or water damaged when my home was destroyed by hurricane on two different occasions. That I searched for and purchased it three times, is an indication of how important a reference it is for obtaining a general knowledge of not just Caribbean gardening, but gardening in any similar tropical climate.

This book deserves five stars because it is the only gardening book extant that covers issues and concerns important and specific to Caribbean gardening. Had Mrs. Bannochie lived to see her book published, it is quite probable that it would have been far more comprehensive.

Chapter Two is invaluable for providing information on how to propagate specific climate appropriate plants. Chapter Four continues in the same vein, providing a comprehensive listing of tried and true favorites and pointers on how to grow them. My only criticisms are that the photographs (plates) in the center of the book are not of better quality and larger, that the tables at the end of the book fail to evaluate soil type on all the islands, and that there are so few diagrams or illustrations generally. Of course these paltry concerns may be remedied in a future revision. It is apparent that the co-author, Marilyn Light, faced a significant challenge in completing the book, and she is to be complimented for remaining true to Bannochie's vision.

Bannochie's writing style can be compared to having a conversation with an experienced, hands-on gardener while she strolls with you through her garden pointing out her favorite plants. Thus, I believe that one can actually sense which parts of the book were written by Marilyn Light after Bannochie's untimely death.

My copy of this book was lost or water damaged when my home was destroyed by hurricane on two different occasions. That I searched for and purchased it three times, is an indication of how important a reference it is for obtaining a general knowledge of not just Caribbean gardening, but gardening in any similar tropical climate.

"On February the 14th, 1985, the winds whistle over an open pasture where the waters of Gros Islet Marina flow deep into the land. At the water's edge, a fishing vessel, manned by six youths, is quietly set afloat into the Marina. The captain and co-captain are no more than 20 years old, while the rest of the crew range in age from thirteen to nineteen."
Thus starts an epic voyage that will end in tragedy with only one survivor. This is a really wonderful story about a real life event. It follows in the tradition of great "cast-adrift" stories, but the navigators in question are all from the small fishing village of Gros Islet in St. Lucia. Some are young fishermen, three are school kids, kicked out of school for the day because of rowdy behavior. It is a tragic story, but one with light and optimistic moments, and by concentrating at the end on the survivor (whose troubles are far from over when he staggers ashore and collapses in Columbia), it is book that will affect you emotionally, but leave you on a high note. I have read quite a few "adrift" accounts, and none have left me with such a feel for the humanity and simple kindness of the characters as this.
The first part of this book paints a picture of Gros Islets as experienced by the author as a child. Some of the main preoccupations are school, church, and sports, especially cricket. During this section we meet and watch the main characters growing up.
This is a tragic tale of young men pushed into a situation for which they were totally unequipped in both knowledge and gear. What is even sadder is even today many fishermen loose their lives this way in the Caribbean every year (I heard about 4 boats that were lost from one island alone last year, one with six people on board). It has always amazes me that fishermen will go far offshore with a single outboard, no radio, no flares, and sometimes a cell phone (but often without bothering to make sure it is fully charged).
Given that fishermen may well end up at sea with little water, a broken outboard and no other means of propulsion, our Caribbean education and fishing traditions completely fail to provide them with the knowledge they need to survive, even though the methods have been known since 1952 when Bombard set off on a 62-day voyage across the Atlantic without food or water. He lived off what the sea provided, along with the rainwater he caught, just to show mariners that they could survive indefinitely at sea.
These young men had at most half a gallon of water with them, when that ran out they started drinking saltwater. Drinking saltwater alone, is a sure recipe for disaster causing dehydration and ultimately, sickness, hallucinations, madness and death. The behavior of the youths in this voyage who went crazy, attacked their mates and swam away from the boat, is the same as in other similar sea stories where salt water was drunk.
This young group also had the means to survive; they caught fish and dried them in the sun as a food source. They needed instead to eat the fish whole and raw, and to squeeze the blood and juices out of them and drink it. Such juices are not very salty and can provide the much needed fluids. It is sad that such simple knowledge is not part of our maritime culture.
Religion plays a role in this story, even the boat's name is "IN GOD WE TRUST", and Therold himself regards the emergence of Kennedy Phillip (the survivor) as a miracle. I find this attitude interesting in light of Therolds early attitude towards the church.
"Father "H" may not know this but those marble steps are from the contributions of many who have since died in extreme poverty, after donating all their land and money to the Church. In fact, I have sometimes wished that someone would tell him about the sacrifices that were made, and about the many lives that were affected, instead of feeding him the gossip about the private lives of fellow parishioners. Maybe they can begin by telling him the story of Mr. Styles, and how his mother had left her only son to languish as a pauper, after giving her property and all her money to the efforts of constructing the church".
Therold himself, who had received communion, was thrown out of the Catholic Church, because his mother left the Catholics to join the Seventh Day Adventists, and this angered the priest who was apparently intent on passing the sins he perceived in the mother onto the son. At some points Therold sees with clarity that the role of the church, and that of the English colonial administration were often far from benign. Yet at the same time the Catholic tradition was such a dominant force in his youth it colors all his perceptions:
"Among "the wise (meaning communicants) is a very old woman who stands with a pink and purple mushware (head-band) over her head. She is barefoot and seems to walk in a state of absolute absorbtion. By this time I am not the only one who is distracted; so are George, Kennedy, Ronnie, and countless other children who know her quite well. In fact the whole church knows about her and what we know is not pretty at all. Today in the house of the Lord, and in broad daylight, the proxy of the devil is at work."
Therold and his friends think that is that this is an evil women working obeah with religious sacraments, a charge that could easily be based on nothing more than that she is very strange, possibly the result of a psychiatric problem. We have burnt witches for less.
Ultimately Therold comes to terms with the Catholic Church and sees the newer priests as being more in touch and community minded. If he has given thought to, and struggled with, such issues as: the subservient role of women in the church, and how they face the same kind of lack of opportunities as did black people in the earlier colonial times, or to the effect the ban on contraception has on the fight against aids, he does not mention it here.
Was Therold right in considering Kennedy's survival a miracle? If God wanted a miracle, why not save all - a little change in the currents or winds would have done it. Giving God the credit for anything good and never the blame for anything bad lacks logic. It is a bit like having a tailor in town, and every time he sews a wonderful suit that fits perfectly, praise the tailor. Every-time he produces an ill-fitting or badly sewn garment; blame the thread or the sewing machine.
Therold's book is a great tribute to Kennedy and his crew, and by extension to all the other Caribbean fishermen who have been lost at sea, whose life and death struggles have gone unregistered except by a small story in the local paper. Walcott's Omerous is a tribute to St. Lucia fishermen at the poetic and mythical level, this book does it in a down-to-earth simple story.

Reviewed by Danielle Feliciano for Reader Views (1/06)

Glory Days and Tragedy is the true account of 6 young men who become lost at sea during a routine fishing trip. However, it is much more than that. It is a story of lifelong friendships, loyalty, and of the will to survive. And, it is ultimately the story of how to rebuild your life after tragedy has hit.

Mr. Prudent begins this tale by bringing the reader into his childhood in the St. Lucian town of Gros Islet. It is there that we get to know the author and his friends, and are treated to a small taste of island life. This book is so detailed and clearly written that it is easy to picture the town as you are reading the book. You become immersed in the lives of Mr. Prudent and his friends, which makes it all that much more heartbreaking to read about the tragedy that follows.

The second half of the book focuses on a routine fishing trip taken by 6 young men from the island. It tells the story not only of what happens on the boat, but also the story of what happens to those left behind. You are with the people of the town as they learn the young men are missing, as they attempt a rescue, and as they slowly come to grips with the reality of what must have happened. At the same time, you are with the men on the boat, suffering fear, illness, starvation, thirst, and hope. It is impossible not to mourn the loss of each of the young men as they succumb to the circumstances. It is also impossible not to celebrate when hope no longer seems false and rescue seems imminent.

In the end, this book runs the reader through a gamut of emotions, leaving you optimistic about the chances of the survivors, and the island, to go on with their lives in the wake of such tragedy.

Detailed and engaging. Therold Prudent subtly reveals man's search for meaning and the culture which helps create that meaning. One sees that the drama of youthful dreams begins the path to our destiny. A good source for literary analysis for the classroom.

The author is a professor at the art school I go to and I got the priviledge of seeing her book and hearing about the process of making it. It is, perhaps, the most beautiful children's book I have ever seen. All of the art is made from sewn fabrics and has the most brilliant colors. The story is fun, and most importantly, cultural. Every kid should have this book, and adults too. I am 20 and I already put it on my Christmas list!

This book is amazing. I've never seen anything like it. Its both cultural, smart and wonderfully done. U should buy it.

This is a beautiful tale from the islands with lush illustrations written in the wonderful language of St. Thomas. A must read.

In this book four men from very different backgrounds tell the story of how they were won to the Cuban Revolution and devoted their lives to defending it. In the first interview you'll get a fresh perspective on the question of land mines and the never-before-revealed story of how Cubans training in the SovieUnion reacted to the October 1962 Missile Crisis. It just gets better after that.

When these generals published their longer memoirs, it caused a sensation in Cuba. We learned of how they were won to the revolution, and of struggles of Cuban soldiers from the Bay of Pigs, to Bolivia, from America to Vietnam, and in Cuba itself. Those memoirs and these interviews are a clear sign that the Cuban revolution and its leadership, especially the armed forces that the US has tried to get to subvert the revolution were holding true to the revolution, and they explained some previously unknown achievements of the Cuban military. Read these interviews, done by Socialist activists from the US, and see why. The interviews in this book explain the stories of the leaders of Cuba's armed forces, the stories of fighters who changed themselves and the world and continue to want to fight.

While this book is not always available on Amazon, it is always available from BooksfromPathfinder, an Amazon Z store that you can get to by clicking on New and Used further up this page!

Revolucionarios cubanos y norteamericanos plactican
La gente 'común' que hicieron la revolución cubana está retratada en este libro pequeño y poderoso. Son entrevistas conducidos por dirigentes socialistas norteamericanos (¡sí, existimos !) con generales de las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Cuba. Los oficiales explican como fueron reclutados inicialmente al Ejercito Rebelde y el Movimiento 26 de Julio, sus experiencias en la guerra contra Batista, la batalla de Playa Girón y la crisis de octubre de 1962, sus misiones internacionalistas en Angola, Argelia, el Congo y Bolivia bajo el mando de Che Guevara, en Siria y otros países. En el curso de las entrevistas, los conductores resuman sus experiencias en actividades en defensa de la revolución cubana en los EE.UU. durante esos mismos eventos históricos, además de sus experiencias hoy en día de los militantes de un partido obrero revolucionario en distribuir libros y periódicos en inglés y español que dicen la verdad sobre Cuba y plantean el ejemplo de la revolución cubana para la clase trabajadora la sigue algún día dentro de las entrañas de la bestia imperial yanqui. A veces, este titulo no está disponible en amazon ( dice " not available on amazon") pero siempre se puede comprar de booksfrompathfinder"; imprime el frase "new and used" encima de la pagina al lado del titulo del libro.

This amazing author just got my attention. He writes in a way I have never seen before. He caught my eyes to the book cover, and its content. Good poems, which tell us how gay man lives in Brazil. A country side city can both gives you a real lover, as put your sexuality in doubt... How to go on living, if you do not accept to be as you are??? Find answers in this wonderful author words.

...Dear writer, You were SO lucky when God choose you to write poems for the gay people. It is the most amazing book I ever saw and maybe it won't appear another similar book... You are so hearty when you tell about your lovers throu poems. Thanks God for that gift and keep writting, because you OWN the tool.
Your book was so helpful to me: I was crying my pains and now I am smiling when I open the book and see poems like "My Love Gel" (page 18). (...).

Do you know when you read a book and you can not stop reading and even when you read it all, you don't realize the book is finished??? That was my impression to this book. I read and read it again and now I will pass to my nephew (he is an not open gay) and hope it can bring him some strengh to come out from the closet, just as Valdeck did.

I got this book because we planed to go to St. Kitts for vacation and I wanted something more interesting then "Sandy Beaches of Caribbean's" or "Where to Eat on St. Kitts" kind of books. This is what I looked for and it fulfilled my curiosity for history of this small island.

Most of the people don't want to spend time learning about people and places before they go for vacation - so you see people from New Jersey with skies on their cars while visiting Montreal in July or Texans asking Parisian waiter about French salad dressings or expecting to see cheering people on the streets of Baghdad. Anyway, it is interesting to see how lives of people were influenced on this very exotic place.

This book tells a lot about last 400 years history of this place. It's written in easy and interesting manner. It talks about pirates and rich sugar plantations, German U-boats and first president who was a socialist. I would only prefer to have a bit more about last 30-40 years of island history.

We just changed our plans and we will go to St. Lucia instead, and it's really bad there is no another Vincent Hubbard living there to learn more about that island. I might consider moving there, open scuba diving place and start writing books about St. Lucia history - just as Vincent Hubbard did at St. Kitts and Nevis.

Well I must say that this book first interested me on my honeymoon to St. Kitts last year. The people of both St. Kitts and of Nevis were so kind and accomodating. Being there led me to want to know more about the island nation of St. Kitts-Nevis. I was fortunate that my new wife purchased this book for me while visiting Alexander Hamilton's birthplace on Nevis. This book was great for giving me an understanding of the life and history of St. Kitts. I am only sorry that we did not also get the book Mr. Hubbard wrote on Nevis.

The book consists of 182 pages and also contains a number of pictures and illustrations of the island. Mr. Hubbard has the ability to breathe life into the history and people of this sugar producing island (which he does magnificently). By chapter, this book covers the:
1) Natural History
2) Indians
3) European Settlement
4) The Spanish Attack
5) The Coming of "King Sugar"
6) The Birth of the French Caribbean Empire
7) The Birth of the British Caribbean Empire
8) Imperial Conflicts
9) Pirates and Privateers
10) The Eighteenth Century - The Best of Times and the Worst of Times
11) The Nineteenth Century - the Decline Sets In
12) The Twentieth Century

Mr. Hubbard has a talent for writing that goes beyond the usual historic writer. He keeps you moving along on this rollercoaster of island life. Before reading this book, I would have never guessed the huge importance of these two small islands in the Caribbean.

I most heartily recommend this book to the reader interested in the politics and history of the Caribbean region. Enjoy.

Epigram from Vince Hubbard's Foreword by Captain Southey:

"The history of the West Indies presents little more than a melancholy series of calamities and crimes." Chronological History of the West Indies, Vol. III.

I had hoped to meet Mr. Hubbard during my last trip to Nevis in 2004, having loved his first book, Swords, Ships, and Sugar, and wanting to find out geneaological information from this gent who was described to me as "a walking encyclopedia" by an innkeeper on Nevis. The office of the inn, which 200 years ago concerned itself with administrative/accounting tasks related to sugar cane sales/production, contained this book for sale which was published during the intervening years of my first trip to Nevis in 2001. (St. Kitts and Nevis are separated by only two miles of water.) In the foreword of this book, Hubbard explains that the first Europeans came in 1623, sugar cane came to St. Kitts in 1643, the first caribbean island to receive it.

I enjoyed this book as much as Hubbard's History of Nevis. Found myself laughing out loud on the airplane reading about some unruly pirates who wooed and wed some 'timid orphans' from Paris whose previous occupation was prostitution. The scheme was masterminded by the French hoping that the troublesome pirates would settle down. In Hubbard's retelling he includes the marriage oaths: "I take thee without knowing or caring to know, whom thou art.....I do not desire thee to give me an account of thy past conduct.....I acquit thee of what is past [then striking his hand on the barrel of his pistol] This will revenge me of thy breach of faith...]!!! Colorful history-telling as always from Vince Hubbard. (Michener's Caribbean is equally good but covers the history every island in the region; Michener's novel, of course, is grander in scale and colorful in the sense the Caribbean inherently generates given the very diverse languages, geologies, ecologies, cultures etc. that are displayed in that region of the globe.)

What I enjoyed most from his book, surprisingly, were the final chapters on the twentieth century making me ponder at the curious evolution of government on these islands. Independence was procured from Great Britain in 1983 which seems to me, if I may use the term, reverse colonialism in that self-government was ordained yet membership in the British Commonwealth continued. (Maybe, that's wise given that piracy of a different sort abounds in those straits today: drug smuggling/money laundering. The Caribbean islands being the intermediary focal point of this modern, slaveless triangle trade between South America (substituting for Africa as the third link) and North America.) It's interesting to see the failures of the federations as well as the tenuous one remaining between St. Kitts and Nevis today. Will the individual islands be like colonial states, will they or won't they have some form of federal government governing them all? Is that at all possible, given the geographical separation of them by miles upon miles of sometimes hurricane tossed waters? Could their economic situation improve as a result? Could the American Revolutionary experiment of 300 plus years ago be a paradigm/godsend for them. Or am I dreaming an impossible dream?

I love these islands, these peoples. The natives of St Kitts and Nevis are some of the sweetest people I've ever met; they are ingenuous but are also clever. Their lives are very simple. Distancewise, these isles are the same distance from Florida as D.C., but in so many ways, I feel always like I'm living in an entirely different world.

Is it paradise, perhaps???

Updated and enlarged Paperback edition with a new introduction.
Just published
Reviews of the hardcover edition:

"A comprehensive and tolerant study, devoid of jargon. . . . Calder,a historian at the University of Illinois at Chicago, fairly describes the mixed results of the occupation. . . . Some readers may disagree with Mr. Calder's assessment of the occupation's long-term costs-Dominican hostility to the United States and, less directly, the Trujillo regime that began in 1930-but this is nevertheless an excellent study." -The New York Times Book Review
"A work of exceptional historical analysis. . . . Calder is to be commended for his forthright analysis of the American occupation." -American Historical Review
"A particularly good summary of U.S. imperialism at the turn of
the century and a clear description of Dominican society and the
political system at that time." -Political Science Quarterly

BRUCE CALDER, University of Illinois, the author of Politics of Spirit,wrote a new introduction to this book.

"A comprehensive and tolerant study, devoid of jargon. . . . Calder,
a historian at the University of Illinois at Chicago, fairly describes
the mixed results of the occupation. . . . Some readers may disagree
with Mr. Calder's assessment of the occupation's long-term
costs--Dominican hostility to the United States and, less directly,
the Trujillo regime that began in 1930--but this is nevertheless an
excellent study." --The New York Times Book Review

It's pretty depressing that this book is number 1,773,851 on the Amazon sales list. Let's see: Invade and occupy a country to bring it stability and democracy, provoke a stubborn insurgency, antagonize the populace, find it difficult to complete ambitious infrastructure plans, alienate your allies. Where have I heard this before? Let's hope the epilogue-- a 31-year rule by a brutal despot-- doesn't repeat as well. This is a superb treatment of the US occupation of the Dominican Republic that began in 1916; it's thorough, fair, and well-written. If more citizens--and more policy makers--read books such as this, America would be a humbler, wiser, and stronger country. Why has the Uiversity of Texas Press stopped printing it?

"In Miserable Slavery" is the copilation of Thomas Thistlewoods 10,000 page diary that he kept while he was an overseer in colonial Jamaica. Douglas Hall has done an excellent job of distilling this document into a readable version of approxamately 300 pages. What we find in Thistlewood is comentary on everyday life in colonial Jamaica without racial bias. Thistlewood is frank about all aspects of his experience, from his sexual relations, to whom he dined with, and the intricate opperations of the plantations where he was employed, and the one which he finally owned. This is primary source material that gives a humanity to slaves and those who enslaved them, which is extremely rare and of high value to historians. All of that and it is excellent reading as well.

Hall does an outstanding job of putting together the diaries of Thistlewood. You really get a good picture of slave life in Jamaica

Thistlewood's diaries contain a fascinating account of his interaction with his slaves. Thistlewood was not an English Gentry, but an overseer who left his employ with the established Cope family and ventured on his own. He learned that he could hire his slaves to the crown, and gave them more freedom than most slave owners of the time. Because of his "good treatment"sic he developed some very interesting relationships with the slaves he owned. His meticulous documention of his sexual involvement with the slaves shows what a voracious man he was. It also showed how much power his favorite slave Phibba had.