Caribbean Books

This product is fantastic! It's not a book for the light weight as it is physically heavy to hold. However due to its enormous size, it means you get to see all Rivera's amazing detail close up.

The commentary is interesting and informative about the history and politics that influenced Rivera's art. Seeing the vast number of murals he painted in his lifetime in one book, makes one appreciate his skill and patience.

My one criticism - the excessive packaging by Amazon. It arrived in a massive box full of plastic - this really was unnecessary and I hope Amazon will reduce the amount of packaging it uses.

I own several books on Diego Rivera, this new Taschen book is the only one I'd ever need. It's HUGE with to start with, then it has nearly poster sized fold-out illustrations, beautifully crisp close ups of his murals (yes, all of them). The book also includes some of his easel paintings, although the emphasis is on his mural work plus preliminary drawings. If only there was such a book on the rest of my favorite painters, this one is a milestone in art-book publishing, period. Like it's tailor made for artists, and a bargain at the price.

Taschen's XL art series is wonderful in it's own right but this just might be the best they've yet produced. This enormous tome is superb in it's execution. The picture quality is the absolute best and several of the murals are presented as foldouts allowing the rich colorful images to pop off the page. Copious amounts of information, including photos and diagrams are included to give the history and make-up of the pieces even more depth. If you have the money and the space this is the best book on Rivera that you will find.

I've read Lennox Honychurch's Book THE DOMINICA STORY and it is the most comprehensive book you will ever get on the history of the island of Dominica. From the arrival of the Caribs and Awaraks on their flimsy conoe to the arrival of Christopher Colombus and the Europian invasion on the island.The early politics on the islan is disected and put together as you turn the pages revealing the rich history of the "nature island of the caribbean".

I had started this book on a trip to Dominica but had to leave it behind and could not wait to get a copy of my own to read. The copy is in great condition and was received very quickly. I'd buy again from this source.

I've read Lennox Honychurch's Book THE DOMINICA STORY and it is the most comprehensive book you will ever get on the history of the island of Dominica. From the arrival of the Caribs and Awaraks on their flimsy conoe to the arrival of Christopher Colombus and the Europian invasion on the island.The early politics on the islan is disected and put together as you turn the pages revealing the rich history of the "nature island of the caribbean".

"Hey Mr. Pinochet - It's foreign money that supports you. One day that money's going to stop. No wages for your torturers..."
- Sting from/ Nothing like the Sun

Firstly, kudos to the nourishing, feline finesse of the Translation Posse (most especially Gene Bell-Villada, Helen Lane, and Catalina Parra) -- speleologists and awakeners all -- whose alchemical gifts rouse hibernators from a decade(nt) 'leaden (casket) slumber.' Your surgical stapedectomy transfigured a seemingly deaf, often tin (shamefully monolingual) ear. Having finally stumbled aboard Christ's qui/(e)xotic craft, an alloy of stainless, steely nerves and Marian-heart -- who astonishes each time he, by sage Morphean example, cautions to "trust your nervous system" (to quote another iconoclastic guru, a.k.a. Richard Alpert) -- through the body artist, E. Luminata. The Translator's Afterward serves as a cornerstone and lucid catalyst towards apprehending the full splendor of the text. My deepest appreciation for the gentle mercy and unfathomable generosity of your labors to "unveil her peerless light." (Milton)

Foremost ~ Brava to the enchantress, Diamela Eltit, whose luminous prose throughout her lyrical labyrinth has offered a formidable and unflinching example; and, perchance, a buoyant, life-giving transfusion of l'ecriture feminine. Like the silent Chilean protestors with no Spanish to speak -- reminiscent, perhaps, of tall, shy, young-hearted women in untimid lumpen/garb -- your outcry reverberates, as the slashes on your arms haunt (the visual cover art and the deeper cuts of the photograph within). Knowing interior realms of personal agony, my unmarred skin reflects back, as I seek to comprehend the political crucible that would demand such public displays of self-immolation.

It recalls for me -- the new translation to celebrate the Centennial of Neruda's birth -- "The Essential Neruda" edited by Mark Eisner. As though E. Luminata spoke out to me, as Neruda, saying: "Sube a nacer conmigo, hermana/From the deepest reaches of your/disseminated sorrow, give me your hand.../potter poured out into your clay/bring all your old buried sorrows/to the cup of this new life/Show me your blood and your furrow.../the silent and split lips/and from the depths speak to me all night long/as if we were anchored together.../Fasten your bodies to mine like magnets/Come to my veins and my mouth/speak through my words and my blood." [Heights of Macchu Picchu: XII - Rise up and be born with me]

Truly, I am in awe of the interior resources and powers of discernment it took to compose this symbolic duende/dance, the brave focus amidst such perilous circumstances. My psyche has literally been transfigured by reading this textual masterpiece. Henceforth, I will be eternally indebted to E. Luminata. Gracias for singing our freedom...Muchas gracias.

"How now Witte, whether wander you?" -- Shakespeare

E. Luminata is truly exquisite, preternaturally so. A symbol of existing under vexing duress, this defiant minefield dance ("from my own poor, particular trenches" - Eltit) is a promenade of linguistic efficacy and daring imaginative prowess. The protagonist crosses a public square, as the women protestors once did -- dancing as the only allowable form of (silent) protest for the holocaust of the invisible/tortured Chilean men -- during the cesspool of Pinochet's dictatorship. From this embankment, E. Luminata apprehends her anguished sphere of existence through the gaze of those who encircle her; those who bear witness as she bewails, bodily, the treacherous, swirling rapids of the city she inhabits. It is textual performance art and embodies the troughs of the infernal prance, with rollicking glimpses of salvific crests, towards a techno-baptismal. The experience of reading E. Luminata is, at once, a starling/refuge and the throwing down of a linguistic gauntlet (as in, la fleur of "a city reconstituted/out of some operetta") -- by true wit-mongering maestro(s):

As Diamela Eltit wrote in the Author's Forward, "Writing in that space was something passional and personal. My secret political resistance. When one lives in a world that is collapsing, constructing a book perhaps may be one of the few survival tactics...The part of me that writes is neither comfortable nor resigned and does not want readers who are not partners in dialogue, accomplices in a certain disconformity. The (ideal) reader to whom I aspire is more problematic, with gaps, doubts - a reader crossed by uncertainties...pleasure and happiness, but disturbance and crisis as well."

My acquaintance with E. Luminata brought such unexpected depth to a song that I've always loved by Sting, "They Dance Alone (Cuerca Solo)" -- but never fully appreciated, multi-dimensionally, as I now do (as a teenager in the 80s, the preoccupation was more about Madonna's latest re-incarnation, rather than grasping the political surrealities and nightmares that loomed on distant shores). To read Diamela Eltit, we must travel "...as Portia's suitors come 'as o'er a brook' to see her..." (Shakespeare's Imagery by Caroline Spurgeon), checking our vanity or arrogance at the door and, instead, apprehending - with our hearts - her pencil's portraiture. In the wake of reading this novel, I witnessed our former Great Communicator & President's elaborate state funeral, and had to consider what Chilean women (devoid of the remains of their husbands/fathers/sons) must have thought -- witnessing a shining city upon a hill: the resplendent homage, the bereaved widow -- when they endured silently those inexplicable disappearances, still without a trace, the result of our evil empires clash. A Belmont versus Venice debate (in contrast to our binary wonts for black & white contrasts - or white-washing portrayals; the cry for a more nuanced perspective, a ying/yang distinction)...

Reading Diamela Eltit's novel thrusts us into the very experience of these women and their anguished dances in ways both unsettling and liberating. It also calls us forth, challenges us in our own literary dances with the taboo, our tendency to look askance when faced with linguistic beckonings, pleading that we bear witness to the suffering of others. This literati and her eroticized veterinary/venatorial allusions to mounting for 'top-dog' dominance contextualize Sting's opening lyrics: "Why are these women dancing on their own?/Why is there this sadness in their eyes?/Why are the soldiers here/Their faces fixed like stone?/I can't see what it is they despise/They're dancing with the missing/They're dancing with the dead/They dance with the invisible ones/Their anguish is unsaid." (from: Nothing Like the Sun) E. Luminata, by its stark contrast and avalanche of unfamiliar/ities, displays true bravery amidst great risk and the very real threat of torture and censorship. It's a visceral reading of another time and place, with its profound fragility of consciousness -- a Trojan Horse fingerpointing to a ravaged Troy (where the sudden disappearance of innocent/civilian/loved ones can occur before one's very eyes) -- something, perhaps, unfathomable to us, collectively, before 9/11.

This reading might mirror back to us -- by its bald contrast with our pulp fiction -- the dynamics of our often more Pirandellian world: for the most part less tragedy, more problematic comedy, or the tragi-comedy of which we partake, which blurs the real/unreal (think, 'reality tv') of our society and its convention/alities.

This recalls the work of another Latin American writer, Manuel Puig, and his ingenious depiction in the play "Under a Mantle of Stars" -- as when we provoke another until at their wit's end, and compelled to scrawl names within yellow wallpaper's mirror, signifying 'how' we occur, if not who we are (as in one case, mine very own - the coinage 'pamelodrama' in fury's hallway scribbled - by an exasperated yet, still collegial/kellner housemate, for my viewing edification each morn, a woefully/truly true tale). After pouring over E. Luminata's text, trying to envision the experience from which it's drawn -- the source of Chile's societal madness under dictatorship -- I was reminded of the opening quote of Shoshana Felman's book Writing and Madness: "But the gift a man makes of his madness to his fellow creatures, can it be accepted and then returned without interest? And if that interest is not the insanity of the one who receives the other's madness as a royal gift, what might its recompense be?" -- Georges Bataille

Certainly Diamela Eltit, within this translation's chrysalis, has made a royal gift -- edifying us/U.S. -- about the conditions of our military coup, as in my/America's spurious overthrow of their/Latin American democracy, and its anguishing results. Consider that without the artistry of such writers (as Eltit or Isabelle Allende), our collective conscience might have willingly/fully lost its memories. As Ronald Christ writes, in the Translator's Afterword, "Authors, Eltit herself, are different dictators, sayers, governors of words. Her governance resisted still another - deadly - outside as well as inside her book."

In spite of my grandiloquent dances within Zagazig towns, cryptic & baroque (to the utter, grammatical dismay of Wily Sirs), this rare and ground-breaking literary narrative is quite deserving of a broadly attentive English-speaking audience (hearty bards w/ bardic hearts unite): "That light we see is burning in my hall.../How far that little candle throws his beams!/So shines a good deed in a naughty world."

L. Luminata is a very clever book. Lector must be compromited with each pages, each lines. The literary space is Chile under the Pinochet's dictature that shows the torture, the horrors and marginality whom that was out his goverment. The woman is symbol of breaking, of opossition and unhapiness.

This book is a wonderful resource geared towards American South and Caribbean foods. It includes an extensive exchange list for these foods so people will know how they fit in their overall diet. The book also includes helpful information on how to control diabetes.

I found "Eating Soulfully and Healthfully with Diabetes" a wonderful resource with clear-cut guidelines to follow for African Americans and other people with type 2 diabetes. Constance Brown-Riggs made each chapter build on the last, answering many common questions. As a registered dietitian, I highly recommend this book--a first step in understanding the important dietary and lifestyle factors and learning practical and useful diet and food information.

As a registered dietitian, I am always on the lookout for practical, user-friendly books to recommend to friends, clients, and the lay public. Here, Constance Brown-Riggs has come up with a winner. This book is a comprehensive resource for those who are plagued by or at high risk for diabetes. Addressing the particular needs and preferences of African Americans, the author provides instruction and education without being preachy for those who wish to take charge of their lives and fight diabetes with diet. She makes following a healthful, disease-fighting diet for life easy. The exchange lists are particularly helpful. Highly recommended!

Esta es una ventana al mundo ilegal en que el aparato secreto del comunismo Cubano opera, narrado por un argentino con lazos en las altas ramas de este aparato secreto que opera fuera y dentro de la isla.

Un aparato que justifica, estimula y apoya actos criminales cometidos alrededor del mundo para recaudar fondos, estos actos criminales son cometidos generalmente por y para el beneficio de dos grupos, el primero es cometido por miembros del propio gobierno comunista Cubano y se extienden desde el trafico de marfil proveniente de tierras africanas hasta el trafico de narcóticos, el cual es justificado como una forma de burlar del bloqueo Estado Unidense y un arma para crear conflictos sociales dentro de suelo norteamericano. El segundo grupo esta constituido por Latino Americanos simpatizantes del gobierno comunista Cubano, los cuales cometen actos criminales que van desde robo bancarios hasta el secuestro para financiar la lucha armada, lo cual esta estimulado y apoyado, económica y logísticamente por el gobierno comunista Cubano en su afán de exportar y duplicar el modelo Cubano a través del continente Latino Americano.

Un libro interesante de lectura facil y amena. Lo recomiendo para quien quiera saber un poco sobre las cosas ocultas que ha hecho el gobierno de Fidel Castro.

En este libro, Jorge Masetti expone su camino de vida en Cuba. Críado como "hijo de la Revolución", de hecho trabajando para los servicios secretos de Castro desde muy bien dentro del sistema, pasó a través de esos caminos de dudas ideológicas (además de situaciones de dramas prácticos) que muchos cubanos enfrentan. Y luego vino su desilusión, que lo llevó a emigrar a Francia y pasar su vida en el exilio, en la disidencia, entre Europa y el "centro de la contra-revolución" de Miami. Este libro es la historia de un cubano, y es una historia de espionaje. Y sobre eso hay que decir dos cosas. Primero, muchos cubanos han contado o pueden contar historias verdaderamente escalofriantes sobre su vida en Cuba, pero muy pocos de ellos pueden contar lo que vivió Jorge Masetti, y que nos cuenta en este libro. Segundamente, en el mundo pueden haberse publicado muchas novelas de espionaje, pero pocas son historias reales - esta, de hecho, es una historia muy muy real, que tiene lugar en la Cuba de hoy, a noventa millas de la Florida. Con suma maestría y excelente prosa, con un estilo muy fluido, fácil de leer pero sin embargo denso y rico, el autor fascina los lectores - los más informados sobre Cuba, como los que no sepan nada del tema. Sus cuentos parecen a la vez haber salido de una gran novela o pelicula de espionaje de los tiempos de la Guerra Fría. Pero esta no es ninguna novela, sino la pura realidad. Y digamos enfín: aunque haya quién pueda no creer todo lo que cuenta el autor, eso no disminuye la magnificencia de esta obra. Quiera Usted leer cosas fascinantes sobre el país de la tiranía castrista, o quiera Usted una "novela real" de espionaje, este libro no los desilusionará.

Yo lei este libro como parte del curriculum de una estudiante de primaria en mi querida Guatemala en los anos 70's. En ese entonces no me identifique tanto con las atrocidades que ese libro discute por mi corta edad y la inocencia de una infancia que deseo que mis hijos tengan. Ahora tengo deseos de leer esta obra maestra de nuevo, en Ingles, para darme cuenta si la magica forma de escribir de Miguel Angel Asturias se pierde en la traduccion.

este libro es una obra maestra de la literatura, es lirico, por la forma de expresion de sus personajes, es coloquial en sus expresiones, es de alcance enorme en su tematica. un dictador que tiene control absoluto sobre todo y todos y utiliza el mejor servicio de inteligencia del mundo:el miedo de las personas que las hace delatar hasta lo mas minimo de sus vecinos, amigos o familiares.. es tambien una historia de amor, de un amor especial, lirico onirico frustrante, que termina mal. es tambien la historia de un general cobarde que huye de la muerte dejando a su hija, solo para darse cuenta de que ha estado muerto todos estos anos al estar al servicio de quienes explotan al pueblo. es la historia de una madre que ve morir a su hijo en sus brazos y no puede hacer nada, solamente perder la razon, pues cuando la cordura es tan irreal solo la sinrazon nos queda como alternativa viable para seguir vivos. esta novela tambien esta llena de experimentacion con el lenguaje a un nivel y con una altura excepcional, se nota que el escritor trabajo arduamente en su obra, mas de 10 anos para terminarla y utilizo elementos de faulkner y de joyce, bastante bien usados y pertinentes en esta novela. creo que el abrio la puerta de las letras latinoamericanas para la experimentacion y el avance.

no me basto con decir que este libro es excelente tuve que explicar porque es excelente para que no pase desapercibido y se pierda como joya en la tormenta....

LUIS MENDEZ

crazzyteacher@hotmail.com

Libro que lanzó a la fama Miguel Angel Asturias ganando el premio nobel de literatura en 1967. Señor Presidente retrata la epoca del dictador guatemalteco Estrada Cabrera,y denúncia las atrocidades cometidas por los que estaban en el poder.Realmente muy impresionante.

I agree with ginnymurphy that this is one of the very best books about Cuba and how the state is now that I've ever read. There's no propaganda (at least, that I could discern) here. Zoe Bran uses her investigative skills (in figuring out & explaining the lack of toilet seats, for example) and also her intense yet sensitive journalistic skills in interviewing (in Spanish) so many average Cubans, as well as several diplomats and Cuban officials, to get an all-around perspective of the situation there. She's very good at what she does, and she also sounds like the kind of person I'd like to be with on a visit to Cuba, a place that fascinates us norteamericanos, whether we admit it or not.

Ms. Bran's book so closely mirrors my own impressions and experiences in visiting Cuba with a natural history tour group in early 2001 that it is spellbinding. Her objectivity and the breadth of her experiences provide a reader with a more than reasonable facsimile for an actual visit to the island. The many small details that she notes are particularly noteworthy for a past traveler to Cuba: the lack of toilet seats, the rationing of soap and toilet paper, the constant search for food by the populace,the CDR painted on the cement residential buildings, the Chocolate Factory outside Baracoa, the intimate social activities along the Malecon, the political slogans, the presence of Che Guevara today, the furtive conversations, the marvellous music, the wonderful hopeful spirit of the population. If you read just one book about the current social experience in Cuba today, run to enjoy Enduring Cuba. I couldn't put it down!

This is one of the very few really good books on Cuba available right now, mostly because it's much much, more than just a travel book. Unlike many so-called experiences of the island, Bran's book doesn't sentimentalise but gives the real experience of someone visiting Cuba with a clear, unbiased eye. There's history here and personal experience and a whole lot of great description of people and places. Bran's range of knowledge is considerable and I particularly liked her Graham Greene-style meetings with the foreign correspondent who got thrown out of the country because he upset Castro by constantly referring to his age! I'd definitely recommend this to anyone wanting to know more about Cuba and what's it's really like in the dying days of a communist state.

I have been cruising the Bahamas for over 30 years. For all these long times there was just one cruising guide available. And it was quite limited in scope. The along came Stephen Pavlidis. He has singlehandedly upgraded the quality and safety of Bahamas cruising . His Exumas Cruising Guide is the most complete information you can get for that area. I wouldn't think of cruising the Exumas without it. Stephen Crow, K4CPX

I have cruised the Exumas four winters on my Jeanneau 41. I wouldn't think of doing it without Steven's wonderful book. He includes, for example, many chartlets not to be found in any other guide. Hence, I was able to find anchorages not well known (and which had, as a result, more lobster!).

Don't even think of visiting the Exumas without this book (or any other area included in his other guidebooks without its associated book).

I found the book to be the Bible for getting in and around the Exuma Cays. More importantly, the book nicely deals with the history, geography, flora and fauna of the cays. There is no way that a person should consider sailing, motoring or paddling into the Exumas without this book in hand. Too bad it was not printed on waterproof paper and bound with stainless steel staples. If your headed for the Exumas be sure to read and bring a copy along. It might also help to secure it in a large zip lock plastic bag.

Gives the facts on why the Cuban resistance won, when so many in the Latin America of that epoch did not. Good summary of Castro's conscious drive to unity of workers and farmers, refusal of any political cosying-up to ruling figures... he really had/has unshakeable confidence in the capacity of ordinary people to fight and win. His 1953 courtroom speech, History Will Absolve Me, is included in the book -- a stirring, sensitive condemnation of the brutality of the dictatorship. Very concrete, educational, seeking to reach the ears of the people to explain why they can move into action on their own behalf.

The Cuban revolutionary experience is something fighters for fundamental social change can benefit from to this day. Fidel Castro began to organize a movement of revolutionaries gathered around a leadership core of militants educated in Marxism years before the revolutionary war that overthrew the dictator Batista was begun. The revolutionaries came to be the uncontested leaders of a broad front of the bulk of the political forces that opposed the U.S.-backed tyrant. When the Cuban equivalents of "our own" Democrat-Republican capitalist hack politicians tried to snatch the leadership away, from Miami no less, they were outmaneuvered by the July 26th Movement and the Rebel Army, and their principled politics and armed struggle. This book, written by a Chilean-Cuban journalist, is a rich mine for the those who choose to resist imperialism's drive towards a New Depression, more and more wars, and fascist barbarism. Most especially, this book is for those who oppose the Empire from inside, which is where the decisive battles will take place. The inclusion of Fidel's masterful defense speech at his trial for insurrection, a classic example for stating the need for revolution-"History Will Absolve Me"-rounds this book out perfectly. Like Fidel said in Chile in 1970 (strongly similar to today's Venezuela), use these revolutionary experiences applied to your own country creatively and intelligently, and you'll win. Provided you have his same confidence in the ability of "average", "ordinary" working people to change themselves and the world through revolutionary struggle.

The thirtieth anniversary of the bloody U.S.-engineered coup in Chile just past in August 2003. So what is the difference between Allende's Chile and Fidel's Cuba? In this little book on "Fidel Castro's Political Strategy," Chilean writer Marta Harnecker takes up exactly this point, how Fidel always sought to mobilize Cuba's revolutionary people. Castro and the July 26 movement always avoided either sterile electoral reform or a simple coup that focuses on the hated ruler-in this case Batista, the U.S. supported dictator of Cuba in the 1950s. Fidel's strategy was always based on progressively mobilizing and inspiring the Cuban people to take the stage of history, and he and the Cuban people have succeeded in defending Cuba's revolution pretty well also. If the Cuban people were not ready at a moment's notice to defend the revolution, do you think it could have lasted a day-and almost forty-five years later, it's still strong. Also of great value in this book is the magnificent speech, "From Moncado to Victory," which Castro gave as his defense before being hauled off to Batista's prison in 1953. While amazon may list this book as unavailable from time to time, it is always available from booksfromPathfinder--click on "new and used" at the top of this page.

excellent review, easy to use. breaks down various types of vacations to the Caribbean, such as emphasis on water sports, site seeing, etc.

This is book #2 of the caribbean that I have purchased, it has great info on where to go, what to see and not spend a fortune. When traveling especially by cruise ship, your time is limited and you want to see all you can without spending it all! Very informative...

I am a big supporter of the Fodor's books - for my money, they are the only travel guides you need. Fodor's Caribbean is a good case in point. This book is for two kinds of travelers: those who already know what island they are going to, and those who want to go to the Caribbean, but are unsure which island(s) to visit.

If you don't know exactly where you want to go, Fodor's will give you the rundown. The "What's Where" section has a map of all the islands and a brief description of each one. Fodor's always addresses issues of cost, atmosphere, and what type of vacationer comes to the island. Next, you have the "Island Finder" - a chart with each island rated in each category, such as "Beautiful Beaches" and "Fine Dining." This is followed by the "If You Like" section, which rates the best in each category. Then there is the "Calendar" telling you when to go and what events happen when.

If you know where you want to go, Fodor's has each of the islands (or island clusters) listed separately. Each entry begins with a few pictures, a map, a brief essay, and everything you could possibly want to know about the island (where to eat, where to stay, what to do) broken down into an easy-to-read format.

IF YOU OWN A PREVIOUS VERSION. I had the 2005 version of this book. It's true, there are changes. The book is physically smaller this year, although there are actually MORE pages (maybe they use a smaller font?). It is organized somewhat differently: the "Smart Travel Tips" section is at the end (not the beginning) which had me fearing they'd done away with it. There are more pictures in this version. However, I've only noticed a few changes in terms of content - an extra hotel or restaurant here or there. If you own last year's book, you may be able to slide by without getting a new one.