Caribbean Books

Puerto Rico! -- Volume 1, featuring majestic photography from Rick and Susie Graetz and Larry Mayer, and written in both Spanish and English by Patricia L. Wilson and Anne Catesby Jones is an amazing look into the beauty of Puerto Rico's enraptured landscapes. From sea-side vistas to observation towers, Puerto Rico! is a full tour of what the complex combination of natural features has to offer. Enhanced with 150 visually impressive photographs, Puerto Rico! gives a brief but thorough description of what the reader is seeing. A very highly recommended book for vacationers having been to, or anticipating the coming trip to Puerto Rico.

If you are just looking for pictures of Puerto Rico...this is one book you need to buy. It emphasize more in the island coast, mountains, and forest areas; a few pictures of cities and people, but great pictures to take a look.It also has a brief history of Puerto Rico in english and spanish I bought 3, two for me and other for a pen-pal of mine in Asia.

Wonderful photography journey into the vast beauty that is Puerto Rico. The book, part of a two-book series on the island (the other is on it's capital) are excellent additions for anyone interested in Puerto Rico and it's diverse physical and cultural beauty. The book's great price, format (paperback) and the excellent editorial team who assembled this book make it hard to put down. Buy one for yourself and one for a friend. You will feel that you are on the island once you open the first few pages.

For anyone familiar or unfamiliar with Puerto Rico, this superb pictorial and eloquently written portrait of this country, its culture, its people and its history, will bring the reader palpably close to the very pulse of the island. Page after page of breathtaking photography and descriptive narrative succeed in transporting you to the the subject matter at hand. Both visually and verbally, this book lifts you right off each page as it gives you a soaring birdseye view of one of the Caribbean's most beautiful island destinations. The overall impact of this book on one's senses can only be exceeded by actually being there. Otherwise, be prepared for some unsurpassable armchair travel.

This stunner provides you with two books rolled into one, a beautiful and timeless collection of more than 100 lush photographs as well as an easy-to-read history of Puerto Rico. It is apparent from the obvious care and attention to detail that went into this book that the author is both dedicated to his craft and enamored of the people and island that he is profiling. The book depicts the great diversity of Puerto Rico -- from the hustle and bustle of its urban centers (including the grand architectural heritage) to the most desolate and pristine parts of the island, shown both in close-up and from the air. The stars of the book are the people themselves, who act as guides to the island and invite you to visit them for the first time or simply to return again as old friends. A highly recommended work.

Having travelled to Puerto Rico dozens of times over the past twenty years (and I lived there for a time as well), I have to say this is absolutely the most impressive and complete "coffee-table" book on the island that I have ever seen. It is large-format, filled with superb color photographs (including a lot of aerials and a fascinating "then and now" chapter of archival pictures side-by-side with the same scene as it is today). And the text doesn't insult your intelligence -- it's a concise overview of Puerto Rico's history. An added plus is the Spanish translation (done by a Puerto Rican translator) at the back of the book -- too many books about Puerto Rico ignore the island's linguistic heritage! I've given several copies to friends who love the island. The jacket blurb says the author was once a Peace Corps Volunteer, and it shows ... this is a real in-depth portrait, not just "post-cardy" superficial coverage.

The author does an outstanding job of telling the story of the events of September 23, 1868, as well as a thorough review of events leading up to it and results of the revolt in the years after. THIS IS MOVIE MATERIAL!

"The text is permeated by a feeling of immediacy that allows one to appreciate the deeds of the flesh and blood individuals involved."
-El Mundo

"The book has the power to cause deep impact upon the reader . . .
fascinating reading that makes us witnesses of an episode in our history that was both great and tragic."
-Sunday Book Review,
El Nuevo Dia

Es sin duda "El Grito de Lares" uno de los acontecimientos que más interés despierta entre los puertorriqueños. Y es ésta la obra a adquirir si usted es uno de ellos. La profesora Olga Jiménez de Wagenheim, basándose mayormente en los expedientes judiciales de los arrestados en la insurrección armada, nos presenta las "caras" de los que conspiraron y se levantaron contra el régimen español (el cura, el zapatero, el esclavo, el hacendado, el jornalero...) en busca de una patria libre para todos los boricuas, sin importar su raza o condición social.

En este pequeño libro se ve el internacionalismo en acción. Nelson Mandela y Fidel Castro explica en discursos dieron conjuntos en Cuba ( en 1991 ) como la ayuda militar, incluye combatientes voluntarios que Cuba dió a Angola combatir las invasiones de las tropas de sudafrica racista ayudó a la lucha independentista de Namibia y también a la revolución democratica sudafricana.. Más que todo, en este libro dos soldados de la revolución mundial plantean un punto de vista cientifica acerca del imperialismo, el capitalismo hoy día llamada " globalizado"que Fidel describe como la esclavitud de hoy en día, y - más importante que todo - ,la capacidad que la gente " común", los trabajadores y campesinos tomar el poder, hacer revolución, y empezar la historia humana. Como Mandela dijo en estas paginas, es el pueblo que hacen la historia - no los reyes ni los príncipes ni los generales.Es una lección indispensible por nosotros los obreros y campesinos en lucha en contra de la clase de superricos hoy y mañana.

Fidel Castro and Nelson Mandela together in Cuba, not simply celebrating the victory of the South African Freedom struggle, not simply celebrating the continued life of the Cuban revolution, but speaking the truth about how the oppressed of the world can fight,can struggle, can win. Just the idea that this little book exists, let alone its stirring, intelligent words, reminds me that though the battles have been tough, working people fighting like these two fighters can win.

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!

Aquí hay dos discursos magníficos por destacados dirigentes revolucionarios: Nelson Mandela de Sudáfrica y Fidel Castro de Cuba, en ocasión de la visita de Mandela a Cuba en 1991.

Mandela acaba de haber salido de la cárcel en Sudáfrica, después de cumplir 28 años de una condena perpetua por su lucha contra el sistema racista del apartheid. Su visita a Cuba tuvo una importancia especial, dado en papel imprescindible de cientos de miles de voluntarios cubanos en la lucha militar contra la invasión de Angola por el ejército sudafricano. La derrota de los invasores en la histórica batalla de Cuito Cuanavale en 1988 abrió una nueva y exitosa etapa en la lucha contra el apartheid. También fue una experiencia importante que fortaleció la conciencia revolucionaria en Cuba, haciendo posible avances contra la presión del capitalismo y el burocratismo.

El título del libro "¡Que lejos hemos llegado los esclavos!" viene del discurso de Fidel, hablando de los raíces africanos de los pueblos de Cuba y de todo el Caribe. Una perspectiva internacionalista incomparable de la unidad de los intereses y las luchas de los pueblos explotados y oprimidos en todo el mundo!

Neruda delivers an uninhibited glimse at human emotions and panges of life in this collection of poems. Neruda jars the soul by explaining in simple verse, how tragic life can be. The reflections and odes collected in this work are a superb display of the skill Neruda has. Residence on Earth is a compilation of poetry from a mature poet who willfully takes risks, and carries through with beautiful prose. Nerudas candid emotional stylizations convince one of the feeling of being consumed by the poetry itself. Neruda is boundless in structure. The easy style allow for the reader to atempt to understand the abundant imagery and symbolism contained traditionally within Nerudas works. One must read this compilation, as one would consume a fine port wine, or richly decadent chocolate-with trepidation. Time to reflect and savor the splendor of this poet is most definately required.

Best surrealist poetry ever written in Spanish. Period.

Moreover...the third part where Neruda turns to his more political poetry is a good preview of what he will expand later in "canto General".

what else can be said about Neruda. He is a genius.

So many poets explore the conditions of the world, attempting to form them together into a theme or idea. Neruda takes the opposite tack, the course of the true dreamer; he takes themes and ideas and tries to form them together into a real world.

The paradox of Neruda is the earthy quality of so many of his poems combined with the idealistic imagery. Neruda was a common man living the life of a folk hero in his own mind, who by placing that life into poetry became a folk hero of substance. He captured the hearts and minds of an entire generation of Chileans, spanish-speaking peoples, and eventually the world. And for good reason. Neruda believes in the power of words. He is a master of image placed into language, a visionary linguist in every sense.

Unlike so many English and American poets, you don't need to be an expert on Greek mythology or on other poets to understand where Neruda is coming from. This is a poetry of the people, accessible to the many, and yet effective enough that it should melt even the most stodgy teacher of English lit.

The third section, written many years after the first two, explores many political themes, as opposed to the more personal images evoked in the first two sections. It's too bad, as I personally enjoy the first two a little more. But even so, it pointed towards new directions that Neruda would explore in his later, more mature works. Yet maturity or no, this is the Neruda that I found most eminently readable, most capable of evoking a sense of obscure appreciation that I can't quite put my finger on. Neruda's poetry is not always as specific as so many authors, and so allows the reader to weave the perfect amount of personal perspective into the story or vision being woven; the words and ideas here can be interacted with on an individual level, rather than simply accepted as good or bad. It's hard not to get carried away with yourself at times: to float above the linguistic quality of the words and forget that Neruda might, at times, be writing about something in particular.

Genuine yet beautiful and ethereal, Neruda stands on his own as one of the most innovative and evocative poets of the twentieth or any other century. And here is one of his greatest works.

This is one of the best novels on Cuba I've ever read. That's a huge compliment, I know, and I will elaborate.

The first thing you fall in love with is Medina's writing. His narrative is so entrancing with its descriptive poetic prose, its gripping longing, and its irresistible humor (to the point that I had to stop reading to laugh) that you cannot put the book down. Even if you find history boring, you continue reading through the first chapter (where he narrates the history of this "fictional" island) because you trust this intelligent guide. In this chapter Medina addresses the island's ever-lasting political conflicts, its dictators, its struggle since the Spaniards came. I applaud Medina on this, because if you want to understand Cuba you must know its history.

The second thing you fall in love with is Medina's grasp of the human soul, the Cuban idiosyncrasy, and how effectively he describes the experiences of exile, loss, nostalgia, quest for roots, first love, patriotism, etc.

When I closed the book I was left with the following quote: "And who ever cared about ideology anyway? The Baratans had never been people of ideas; they were people of passion and allegiance."

Although the novel explores numerous themes, it was this last statement that left me sorrowful, staring blankly at the wall for hours. I was struck by the irony of history, how these people "of passion and allegiance"-who are gregarious and love to dance and share, and live with an open-house policy-have been caught up in this dividing web of politics they can hardly understand. That's what broke my heart. Thankfully, Medina's picturesque and poetic prose was there to bring life back to it.

Pablo Medina sets up a hypothetical and visionary scenario. What if Fidel Castro died (El Campion) and one could travel to Cuba (Barata) freely? Intelligently and creatively written, the main character, a Baratan exile, (Felix Nogara) draws you in to his plight. I couldn't put this book down. While reading this book I kept making analogies between the ficititious island of Barata and Cuba. Mr. Medina obviously has a solid grasp of Cuban history and uses it as the foundation for this compelling story. The chapter that tells the story of El Campion's death is well worth the price of the book! A must read for anyone who has ever wondered, "what if?"......

Pablo Medina, an exile from Cuba, brings a solid knowledge of history and politics, a wide-ranging imagination and a deep understanding of the human heart to his second novel, "The Return of Felix Nogara." The title character is a rootless fifty-year-old man returning to his island homeland of Barata (a thinly disguised Cuba) after 38 years in exile. Nicolas Campion, the feared dictator of Barata, has recently died, and exiles are flocking back to the island, hoping to regain what they lost when they fled. The only things Felix Nogara hopes for are a reunion with his long-lost mother and a sense of closure with his past. Unfortunately, he discovers there can never be any closure with a country in which there is no difference between past and present--only a change in the names of dictators and revolutionaries. Pablo Medina knows well what exile does to the human spirit--both good and bad--and the history he has invented for Barata, while fantastic and outrageous, is grounded in a thorough understanding of both Cuban history and basic human nature. His writing is lean and elegant, his storytelling full of astute and satisfying surprises. Most of all, he makes you care very much about Felix Nogara and the people of Barata--a people who, though they prefer romantic illusions to truth, nevertheless have learned to endure whatever Fate throws at them, and thrive in spite of it. In its combination of magic realism, bawdy black humor and high moral seriousness, "The Return of Felix Nogara" combines the best of Gabriel Garcia Marquez with the best of Graham Greene and Evelyn Waugh.

An excellent introduction to Mexican politics and the reasons behind the 1994 Zapatista uprising. Torti's story skillfully examines the economic and racial oppression of Mexico's indigenous populations and exposes to the reader an ugly side of Mexico known only to few Americans.

-Should be required reading for anyone unclear as to why thousands risk their lives each year trying to cross U.S. borders.

This book is so wide in it,s scope; a must read for anyone wanting to know something about present day Mexico. I love the writing style; personal and credible.

Don't miss it if you want to start knowing a little of what Latin America is

Neruda's early poem, RAPA NUI, (part of CANTO GENERAL) was topographically inaccurate (he had the Moai facing outwards rather than overlooking the settlements) and his Whitmanic expansiveness was pumped-up some. However, late in life, he visited the island and in LA ROSA SEPARADA, he grounds his feelings in the specificity of the place itself, and an authenticity emerges so that the empathic passion is earned. Having visited Rapa Nui myself and published a chapbook, THE MANA OF THE MOAI (Spanner, UK, 2004), Neruda's poem sequence/collage brought back powerful memories of that extraordinary island and its people. Unlike Robert Frost's nasty jingle (first published in TLS in 1947) about a place he had no true knowledge of, and unlike Paul Theroux's even nastier and compassionless chapter about his touristic experience there in his condescending and even racist book HAPPY ISLES OF OCEANIA, Neruda is moved by the strangeness of the place. "Let the great sea protect you" he writes,"from our barren brutality" and, upon leaving, he felt he was abandoning "the limpid clarity of mythology" and returning to his "indecisions, of winter and summer" yet desiring that his "roots adhere" to the mystery, space, and solitude of Te Pitou ou Te Henua, "the navel of the world" - Rapa Nui, "Big Oar" in the Polynesian language, truly a rose apart. Great poetry.

Pablo Neruda (1904-1973) remains one of the most respected and unique of the Latin American poets. His poetry is celebrated even more today than when he was publishing it and winning the Nobel Prize. The gentle man from Chile, beset with scandal regarding his political stance during his life, remains one of the world's favorite voices.

In 1971, two years before his death from cancer, Neruda traveled to Easter Island, that mysterious jetty of earth rising from the ocean keeping its secrets of past civilizations sealed away from contemporary knowledge of the origin of the massive stone figurative sculptures, and there he wrote this long poem as a conversation between Man and Nature. The result is a profound respect for time and the ancients and a disdain for the corrupting man who tries to uncover secrets best remaining occult.

'The transient, the smug traveler, returns/ to his wheels ready to roll, to his jet planes,/ and the deep silence ends, he must leave/ behind the transparent solitude/ of thin air, of water, of pastureland rugged and pure,/ to escape, to escape, to flee the salt and peril,/ that lonely circle in the water/ where the hollow eyes of the sea,/ the vertebrae, the eyelids of the black statues/ chewed at the frightened bourgeois from the cities'...

But a small excerpt from this meaningful poem can only hint at the beauty of Neruda's accomplishment. This is a book that should be in the minds of millions, if we are somehow to survive the ravages of destructing time. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, November 06

"The Separate Rose" is Pablo Neruda's poetic tribute to Rapanui (also known as Easter Island), one of the most remote islands of the Pacific. Although many of the poems in this volume could stand on their own, this book is a truly unified work which should be read in its entirety.

William O'Daly has translated Neruda's Spanish into a simple but sensuous English free verse. In this bilingual edition, Neruda's poems stand side-by-side with O'Daly's excellent tranlations, making the book especially useful to English-speaking students of Spanish (or Spanish-speaking students of English). O'Daly's excellent introduction discusses the history and culture of Rapanui, and also discusses the background of Neruda's poetic interpretation of the island.

Neruda's poetry in "The Separate Rose" skillfully captures the complexity of the world of Rapanui. The poet's generous vision takes in both the motley tourists and the monumental stone sculptures that have made the island famous. In some of the book's most powerful poems, Neruda reflects on Lord Wind, the ancient deity said to have reigned over Rapanui.

And as always, Neruda demonstrates his command of poetic language. Whether describing airplanes as "enormous aluminum geese" (p. 15), reflecting on his own heritage as "apprentice to volcanoes" (p. 19), or addressing Rapanui as "cry / of the mourning petrel, tooth of the sea" (p. 51), Neruda always uses the tools of language in thought-provoking ways.

"The Separate Rose" is more than just an important part of a great poet's canon of writings; it is a moving reflection on a unique and timeless land.

When I started reading Captive Heart, the first in the Trade Wind series, I was getting flashbacks to Chaikin's Buccaneers Series. Then as I read the rest of it I saw the differences. Don't get me wrong their alike in many ways, but the differences jump at you. In my oppion I think that Linda wanted work with Spain and do things in Trade winds that she couldn't in the Buccaneers. Well if it works go for it. I for on wasn't disaponted. In Silver Dreams Devora is sent to a Spanish Dons house to marry. But her heart longs for another. Escape is impossible. Will the one she loves find her? Or will she marry the Don? Who knows, maybe she'll do both!!

I liked this book very much. I learned alot about the Spanish Inquistion, how slaves were brutally treated, how a father could make his own son turn against him, and the Spanish way of life. Linda Chaikin's TRADE WINDS are similar to her THE BUCCANEERS series, they are not exactly the same. I'm going to read this book again and again because I believed that Mrs.Chaikin did an excellent job on the research and plot in this book.

In my opinion this is a very fitting sequel to Captive Heart. I couldn't put this one down either.:O)
Things have just gotten fast paced, and the love story between Bruce and Devora is touching in it's simplicity

Over ten years ago, this book completely changed the course of events in my life for months. Let me explain!: I was wiling away the hours with nothing to do during a 2-week hospital stay in Madrid, going over the notes for my master's thesis about Spanish writer Juan Goytisolo, when someone suggested I read this masterpiece about a Baroque Mexican nun to pass the time. At first I thought the suggestion was absurd, hardly a book that would help the hours go by quickly, but I gave the book a chance (the Spanish-language version, of course) and soon met Sor Juana Inés, with whom my only previous encounters had been on a Mexican banknote.

Sor Juana Inés was so far ahead of her time that it would have been a miracle for her NOT to have been persecuted and ejected from the society of her times. Octavio Paz (could anything less be expected from such an author) makes her life even more fascinating than it probably was in reality, as he examines her comings and goings from birth to death, or at least as much as can possibly be known, since his study is probably the most thorough that exists. Sor Juana's biography is amazing and caused me to drop my thesis and change topics entirely. I spent my whole hospital stay engrossed in her tale of love, erudition and ill-fated struggles for equality. I can't shower enough praise on this book, which opened up my appetite for knowing more about her...since then I have read more and more, as well as all of Sor Juana's works, and never get enough. If you want to see what is was like to know that women deserved full equality, to have the intelligence beyond comparison and be forced to use that intelligence with the utmost care so as not to violate strict social norms, and get away with it for years, sor juana will be your heroine, as she should be for so many more women in this world who are unfamiliar with her.

This would be a great text for any hispanic literature, women's studies, gay and lesbian studies, mexican history or a wealth of other courses, or just as a text of interest to women and people in general.

This book by the Nobel Prize winner Octavio Paz is a great account of the life of one of the best writers of Hispanic literature. Sor Juana created astonishing poems about life, love, and people. It is a pity that only little is known about the facts of her life. As with Shakespeare, must of what we know about her comes from her literary legacy. Octavio Paz is able to solve some of the mystery that surrounds Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz.

This is a balanced, penetrating examination of Sor Juana and the elements that shaped her life. She understood that her passion was the pursuit of knowledge and that she could never fulfill her life's work unless she became a nun. In addition to describing Sor Juana Paz enlightens his readers about the masculine society into which she was born. She was a brave, talented woman who spoke up for what she believed in.