Caribbean Books

The writing offers frank comments which make you see yourself in perspective. The book is very much to the point without a lot of clutter, and it offers an inspirational ending.

One more great book from a great spiritual writer. It was pleasure reading the book , page by page new experience. I hope she is going to give the world more great books. I will wait for the new one . Thanks for the wonderful experience

Anyone who has ever had their heart broken will relate to this book. It captures all the raw feelings of betrayal - and goes through each stage unblinkingly through sonnet like verses. Dauphin lets it all hang out - the anger, the despair, even the comedy of it all. But there is redemption... a suprise at the end that uplifts, and inspires.

The two reviews preceding mine are excellent and I will not venture to dismiss either in any manner. But let me add this: Martin Conisby's Vengeance - the sequel to Black Bartlemy's Treasure - is said by some to be even finer than the first. Indeed they were originally meant by Farnol to be published as one book but his publisher decided to split the tome in two so as to garner more loot. Seemed like a good idea at the time but this has driven many readers nuts in the pre-Internet Era. Some forty plus years ago, for instance, it took me five years to find Martin Conisby's Vengeance. Now I keep two copies of each on my shelf just as insurance. And, oh yes, for you diehard treasure seekers out there Farnol wrote a prequel to both called Adam Penfeather, Buccaneer. Happy cutlassing!

The Yuletide Kid

I loved this adventure story. The previous reviewer did a good job of summarizing the storyline. I found wonderfully diverse characters, a rollicking story of the high seas, pirates, love, vengeance, courage, survival on a deserted island, and more. I was shocked to have the story end "in the middle" with no resolution!! I immediately found "Martin Conisby's Vengeance" and for another 80 cents I had it in my Kindle in minutes and continued. His writing style reminds me a bit of Robert Louis Stevenson, particularly Kidnapped, with the bond between David Balfour and Alan. I will write a review of the second book, but if you like adventure stories (Haggard, RL Stevenson) you should find this a roller coaster of adventure filled with cliffhangers. Accurate historical details (they prime their flintlocks, patch their musket balls) and ships, ships, ships and life (and death) aboard ships. Courage, fighting, honor -- all in wonderful profusion.

"The Frenchman beside me had been dead since dawn. His scarred and shackled body swayed limply back and forth with every sweep of the great oar as we, his less fortunate bench-fellows, tugged and strained to keep time to the stroke."

Mr. Farnol brings back the pirate days of the Spanish Main in this stirring book filled with picturesque characters. It is a full-blooded, wholesome novel that captivates the reader.

Martine Conisby, Lord Wendover, embittered by his five years of slavery on the Spanish galleon Esmeralda, escapes during a sea fight to an English ship and makes his way back to England, determined to avenge himself on Richard Brandon, who was the cause of his father's death and his own ill-treatment. Broken in body and spirit, he arrives home one night disguised as a tramp, just in time to save from the hands of robbers a beautiful girl, Lady Jane Brandon, the daughter of the man whom he has sworn to punish. In a tavern he meets a pal, Adam Penfeather, who unfolds to him the story of Black Bartlemy, an infamous pirate, and his treasure buried on an island-- treasure of fabuous value that has been the dream and hope of roving adventurers along the Spanish Main for many years.

The engrossed reader will eagerly follow the adventures of the treasure seekers who set sail on the good ship Faithful Friend and the unique experiences of Martin and the fair Lady Jane - whose family the hero hated - as they found themselves alone on the island which contained the buried treasure. He will encounter some rogues as bloodthirsty as any pirates who ever sailed the Seven Seas, and discover love episodes that stir the emotions. Mr. Farnol has never made a wider appeal than in this, his first sea story.

Mario Benedetti, a Uruguayan writer, is well known in South America and Mexico. This is one of his rare collections available in English. This story collection presents a perspective not often used by US writers: that underlying paranoia, cycnicism, fatalism that anyone who has lived through the dictators and hyperinflation and tragic history of South America and Central America is well acquainted with. With recent events, many who have never had to live in fear are now faced with the kinds of dark powers that many others in our world have known for years. Notwithstanding the darker tone and sadness he evokes, the writing is superb and highly recommended.

"Benedetti is Uruguay's most important current writer."--Multicultural Review

"This superb collection...brings together tales of urban romance and political strife from the beloved Uruguayan writer. The fictions, most only a few pages long, are masterful in form, at once succinct and evocative. Many of the early tales...are reminiscent of Kafka-though with none of the weighty mood. Benedetti's language is light and playful..., full of humorous generosity to the reader." --Review of Contemporary Fiction

"What remains...is the singular and surprising nature of Benedetti's stories." --The New York Times Book Review

Uruguayan author Mario Benedetti, one of the most prolific and respected Latin American writers, is little known in the U.S.A. Of 50 years worth of fiction, plays and essays, the two novels published here are long out of print. This collection of 27 short stories should go a long way to bringing him the larger English-speaking audience he so merits.

Benedetti's early work (1940s and 50s) was rooted in and reflective of the middle class milieu of Montevideo. Like all successful regionalists, his keen eye and ear for local ideosyncracy could be bitingly on- target, while transcending the specific to express universal themes. The upheavals of the 1960s added a political focus that was sharpened when he was exiled (and his work banned) as a result of Uruguay's 1973 coup. His writings on political repression and on expatriate life display the same combination of dry irony and warm compassion as his earlier work; while themes change, there is a continuity of artistic vision.

Having enjoyed Benedetti in Spanish, I can recommend this collection. It offers a good cross-section, ranging from 1949 to 1987. I paid particular attention to translation on three of my favorites: "The Budget," a wickedly funny sendup of stultified bureaucracy; "Requiem Over Tea," a beautiful, sad story as told by a 13 year old; "Just Kidding," the chilling tale of a joke gone awry in the era of wiretaps and detention. Throughout, the author's original rythms, his strong sense of narrative voice, and distinctive use of vernacular came across very well.

Walcott's poetry sweeps you along on a series of vivid and memorable images that leave you breathless.

Walcott's photograph on the back of the 1st edition sums up the feeling of Bounty- Sorrow, the grief of the death of friends and loved ones, faith in God seen "as through a glass darkly", the exhaustion of a sensitive man aware of his own mortality. Yet, through it all is the great sense of gratitude for the folk culture of the country that has nurtured him. And if he will not make great declarations of religious faith, he is thankful for the sun on the leaves, the ocean outside his door, the songs of Sessenne the folk singer of St. Lucia. Like Crusoe and Odysseus, this fortunate traveller has returned to his bench on the edge of the sea under the breadfruit leaves, "where stars and fireflies breed." This poet is past posturing. "The only art left is the preparation of grace", and even now, ever the bright eyed poet (behind the tears of the aging sage), he is "going down to the shallow edge to begin again." Walcott's only vocation has been poetry, his universe that of letters. In this he has never lost his faith.

READING THIS IS LIKE PAINTING A PORTRAIT . IT GLIMMER LIKE THE JEWEL OF THE CARRIBEANBLUE TONE IS A DEEP PATHOSOF PERSONAL EMOTION THAT COME ONLY COME FROM THE PEN OF ONE WHO LOVES HIS HOMELAMD AND WRITE ABOUT IT

Here's the recipe: Take a sweet, hard working girl and a passionate but emotionally deficient man, and stir them thoroughly in a confined environment with a breathtaking sea view; when near to boiling, add one villain (who also happens to be a male chauvinist); finally, sprinkle the mixture with a liberal portion of feminine humor, reminiscent of P.G. Wodehouse's "The Girl on the Boat", and let simmer until golden-brown; now you've got a perfect "Caribbean Charade".

In "Caribbean Charade" Louise Perry has created a delightful tangle of misunderstandings, and of innocent and not-so-innocent plots, which makes you gulp the story down. There is nothing along the way to slow your reading, perhaps also because the description of the wonderful places where the plot unravels is so vivid that the reader is transported right there, to the island or the ship deck, where he can feel the pulse of the events.

Although it has been clearly written with a female outlook on life, male readers (the non-chauvinist ones) will also find it entertaining to discover how strange, erratic and illogical their peers may be, when they really get down to it.

So read "Caribbean Charade", don't gulp it... if you can resist the charming flavor of this magic concoction.

Here's the recipe: Take a sweet, hard working girl and a passionate but emotionally deficient man, and stir them thoroughly in a confined environment with a breathtaking sea view; when near to boiling, add one villain (who also happens to be a male chauvinist); finally, sprinkle the mixture with a liberal portion of feminine humor, reminiscent of P.G. Wodehouse's "The Girl on the Boat", and let simmer until golden-brown; now you've got a perfect "Caribbean Charade".

In "Caribbean Charade" Louise Perry has created a delightful tangle of misunderstandings, and of innocent and not-so-innocent plots, which makes you gulp the story down. There is nothing along the way to slow your reading, perhaps also because the description of the wonderful places where the plot unravels is so vivid that the reader is transported right there, to the island or the ship deck, where he can feel the pulse of the events.

Although it has been clearly written with a female outlook on life, male readers (the non-chauvinist ones) will also find it entertaining to discover how strange, erratic and illogical their peers may be, when they really get down to it.
So read "Caribbean Charade", don't gulp it... if you can resist the charming flavor of this magic concoction.

An excellent book for all ages. I loved the characters and the exotic destinations described. I recommend it to anyone looking for a good read.

This book has not only convinced me that I can take my own boat down to the Caribbean, but is helping me plan that trip. Despite being packed with lots of detailed, useful information, it is written in a lively style, with a wonderful dry sense of humor. Since I haven't yet sailed to the Caribbean, I can't vouch for the accuracy of the information, but it appears to be based on extensive experience sailing in this area. Mr. Weatheritt makes a wonderful armchair companion as I dream about leaving the rat race and sailing south next winter.

For those of you who have had pipe dreams of passagemaking in the Caribbean, this guide is full of good information on everything from trade winds to currents, history, harbors, customs and much more. It contains island by island guides on how and when to go. With chapter titles like "Navigation techniques_GPS is better than a hungry pig" or "Out through a window" this book is a great read even if you never make it to the Caribbean.

Just the book for me. The review in Caribbean Cruising caught my eye. If they say its good, it is. I've sailed the Caribbean three seasons now and just done all the wet and nasty stuff beating north. Since getting a copy of this book in Trinidad I've got to Bequia in easy style. Oh boy, it makes the Caribbean feel like Paradise.

This is a fanastic tale, a story of real triumph which we can all achieve. At the end of each chapter I found myself wanting to read the next and the next. I have read many motivational books but this one I would recomend to all who are embarking on a new course so that they would remain grounded and not be derailed by the daily life challenges. If Rudy did it, I can do it. The book is a keeper, one that I will reread over and over. Warning...do not lend it to friends.

Wow! I just returned from St Lucia yesterday. My fourth trip there to the island. My husband and I have been so blessed by getting to know so many of the islanders there over the yrs. They are like family. In fact all of our family of 12 consider them family. We were all there together this holiday and shared a wonderful time with our family and our beloved friends in St Lucia we have gotten to know. Cummulatively my family has travelled there over 12 times since 1996 and the island offers us a place of peace and respite as no other..and this is mostly due to the wonderful spirit of the St Lucians who are so strong and beautiful of spirit. They know how to live life. Rudy's story helps us all to understand what growing up in St Lucia was like for him and so many and also today's corporate politics touch the island as they do everywhere in one way or another. This is an inspiring, heart wrenching at times, story of a man and his strength and his faith and courage and the woman who stands by his side. What a tribute to her as well as he describes her strength and his love for her and hers for him. I look forward to the third book in the trilogy. Real stories of human struggle and triumph should be what we, the reading public, need to support now more than ever. A great learning tool. These books could be great case studies for college business courses. The real world is as it is and we can all learn from Rudy's experience and manner of dealing with struggle.

This is a real account of a life started by poverty and transformed into success through hard work and dedication. This book inspired me and taught me a few things. I particular learned the lesson which was taught to Rudy by his ex-boss when he said never outshine your boss. His tips will last very long in my memory and help me excell. I recommend this book to every St. Lucian, Caribbean person and everyone who want to achieve success but going through hard times. My tale is similar to Rudy but he had it a little harder than me - A St. Lucian like Rudy

Don Bohning, an experienced Latin American journalist and former Miami Herald Latin American Editor enjoyed a personal relationship with the key players, US & Cuban nationals, to accurately write an outstanding story of what has occured in actions against Cuba and why they failed. A must read for those interested in foreign affairs.
Manuel J. Chavez
Lt. Col. USAF (Ret)

Any in-depth political science library, particularly those with close coverage of Cuba, will want to be sure The Castro Obsession: U.S. Covert Operations Against Cuba 1959-1965 is in their collection. Journalist Don Bohning was Latin American editor for the Miami Herald, and here uses his reporter's inspection eye to examine the covert U.S. operations against Cuba at the height of the Cold War. The U.S. tried for economic and political destabilization, hit-and-run raids, and assassination plots during this time: Bohning's The Castro Obsession basically asks "was it worth it" and supports the conclusion "no".

Now at about 75 years old, Fidel Castro is in ailing health. Cuba's economy, as with most of the communist centrally planned economies, is at subsistence level. Average annual per capita income is about $1,500 per person. But still it survives. Two new books go a long ways towards explaining why.

Don Bohning's "The Castro Obsession", talks about the secret (and not so secret) operations conducted against Castro from 1959 to 1965. The appearance of a giant country like the United States arrayed against a small insignificant country like Cuba, and then failing created a groundswell of respect and support for Castro among people and countries that root for the underdog.

Humberto Fontova's "Fidel: Hollywood's Favorite Tyrant", is really two books in one. The main theme talks about the comments from selected Hollywood types, media and political left wing liberals, praising Castro (shades of Hanoi Jane Fonda). The secondary theme is that Castro has instituted a bloody repressive regime that attempts to control all life in Cuba. While this is not a surprise, the details are shocking in that we have so much more information because of the communication with large numbers of Cubans now living in the US but retaining close links with the island.

These two books provide interesting background for the actions that will be playing out over the next few years.

This volume records a debate that reached back to the earliest years of the Cuban revolution. After taking the economic resources of society out of the hands of the capitalists, how can toilers use their power to refashion their world? Some advocated basing themselves on the model of the Soviet Union, with its emphasis on material incentives and administration. Others, including Che Guevara, said socialism can only be built by raising the participation, and political consciousness of workers and farmers, with planning straining to be based on creating new values of human need, and fighting the individualism and greed inherited from capitalism. The importance of this debate, which continues in Cuba today, can be seen in the corruption and collapse of the Soviet model in the USSR and Eastern Europe, and the continuing vitality of the Cuban workers state.

People who do not think there are no politics or political debates in Cuba, or that Che Guevera was just a romantic adventurer, need to read this book. This book contains a debate on Che Guevera's strategy for building a socialist society defended by Waters and Clark, two leaders of the US Socialist Workers party, and by Carlos Tablada, a Cuban Communist Economist whose book, Che Guevara : Economics & Politics in the Transition to Socialism, has won international acclaim and the support of Fidel Castro. Veteran Cuban CP leader Carlos R. Rodriguez defends the more Soviet influenced ideas against Che's ideas. Read this discussion and you will understand why Stalinism in the USSR collapsed and why the Cuban revolutionists who are still intent on following Che's vision are showing the way to world Socialism.


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!

Ernesto Che Guevara explained that without a genuine communist party , that is , a party made up of the most politically conscious and self-sacrificing workers and farmers, a party that leads a struggle for a higher political consciousness in the population as a whole, even on a daily basis on the job, in the factories and on the farms, any revolutionary process will slide back towards capitalism. To this degree he predicted the inevitable collapse of Stalinism - the opposite of communism - decades before the events of 1989-90. In the "rectification campaign" of 1985-90, Cuba tried to put Che's ideas as a guide to action about economics and politics in the transition from capitalism to socialism into practice for the first time on a national level. This campaign and the internationalism , the international solidarity and worldview of the Cuban revolution, that has never faltered from 1959 on, guaranteed the survival of the Cuban revolution as an example of hope for millions who live under the crisis of capitalism of today. The debate in Cuba and around the world about this process is covered in this book ; the northamerican contributions, by leaders of a revoutionary workers party in the Belly of the Imperial Beast, based in the industrial unions, put forward the need to follow this example, applied to the conditions of the U.S.A., in our time.

The fog of time and the strength of anti-anti-Communism have obscured the real Che. Who was he? He was an Argentinian revolutionary who served as Castro's primary thug. He was especially infamous for presiding over summary executions at La Cabaña, the fortress that was his abattoir. He liked to administer the coup de grâce, the bullet to the back of the neck. And he loved to parade people past El Paredón, the reddened wall against which so many innocents were killed. Furthermore, he established the labor-camp system in which countless citizens--dissidents, democrats, artists, homosexuals--would suffer and die. This is the Cuban gulag. A Cuban-American writer, Humberto Fontova, described Guevara as "a combination of Beria and Himmler." Anthony Daniels once quipped, "The difference between [Guevara] and Pol Pot was that [the former] never studied in Paris." - Jay Nordlinger

This is an excellent book about Che Guevara. The articles have been well chosen from expert contributors such as Jon Lee Anderson, Eduardo Galeano, Alma Guillermoprieto and Guevara himself. The chronological order brings forth the evolution of this remarkable man whose life and sacrifices for his ideal of a just world still haunts our minds. From his "motorcycle diary" days a la Kerouac in the 50's to his death in Bolivia in 1967, yes, we must admit, Che definitile lives.

This book brings together the key writings of someone who is better known by one photograph than everything else about them. Hart has made a careful and thoughtful compendium of the writings that most reveal Ernesto Guevara's thinking, one that changed over the years but always held to its guiding principle: "the real revolutionary is guided by strong feelings of love." Both a good starter or introductory book, and one that can serve as a general reference.