Caribbean Books

I got this for my 2 year old Guatemalan adopted daughter. It is a great addition for her collection of books and means a lot that it is a Guatemalan variation of a well known theme.

In The Race Of Toad And Deer, American Latina author Pat Mora has deftly written a poetic adaptation of the Mayan version of the tortoise and hare fable specifically designed for children ages 2 to 5. The arrogant deer Venado boasts of his strength and speed. The wily toad Sapo challenges deer to a race. All the jungle animals (jaguar, tapir, armadillo, and toucan) watch the race take place. Toad may not be as large as Venado, but he has many friends to help him. Sapo wins the race and proves the value of brains over brawn while doing so. Domi's wonderful artwork is the perfect enhancement for Mora's entertaining and highly recommended version of a classic Mayan folktale for children.

Rainy Season is an awesome book. If you havent yet read the editorial reviews on this page, DONT. this book will take your breath away, but they give away something important.
Rainy Season is immensely realistic- it is painted with the kind of details one notices in every day life. Lane's thoughts especially are written ultra naturally- ms. griffin doesnt try to emphasize the important ones or censor the less focused ones, they just come out the way anyone's would.
some of the reviews made a big deal about the whole panama canal issue in the book, maybe im just ignorant about the importance of it but i didnt find it to play an enormous part in the plot. It and the conflicts were definitely mentioned and described, but in the way that any 12 year old girl would describe her surroundings.
i don't want to give too much away, but i can't suggest enough that you read this book. it is meaningful and haunting and also just a fast-paced, enjoyable read. i found it randomly at the library years ago and read it without knowing really what it would be about, and therefore was stunned to find the story unfold. I know that I for one often am forced to be careful about what I read, trying as hard as I can to guarantee I'll enjoy a book before investing time in it. This is one book you can take the chance on without needing to know the specifics of what you're getting into. The book's more meaningful if you discover each page.
Enjoy :-)

Adele Griffin is a master of dialogue and puts together an incredibly compelling children's novel in a fascinating place -- the Panama Canal zone. The book is so well paced it just really builds steam... A fantastic book!

This is one of the most beautiful books one can ever read. "LLanto por Ignacio Sanchez Mejias" is a very powerful poem. The strong rhythm will dazzle you. "Romancero Gitano" is written with an eloquent spirit and you will enjoy it as much. I strongly recommend this book and any of Lorca's works.

This work by Lorca fortifies and makes the poetry richer. It gives it emotional, moral, and mental strength absent in the literary works of the late 19th and the early 20th century.

This book is everything I want in an art book! A lot of large color reproductions, mainly. Also bioigraphical info and pictures of the artist and his milieu. And a reasonable price!

"Romare Bearden: The Caribbean Dimension", co-authored by Sally Price and her husband Richard (both of whom are professor of American Studies, Anthropology, and History at the College of William and Mary in Virginia) showcases the life and work of the African American artist Romare Bearden (1911-1988) and his Caribbean work during his last twenty years with its themes of 'enchanted places and lush forest settings for sensuous female nudes. Also included is his 'Carnival' series revealing through an artist's eye the quintessential nature of this annual Caribbean celebration. Best known for his paintings and collages of jazz and the rural South, Bearden's work was postumously recognized with an exhibition at the national Gallery of Art in 2003. Enhanced with the inclusion of 130 paintings, as well as a profusion of photographs of Bearden and his friends, "Romare Bearden" also incorporates poet Derek Walcott and writer Albuert Murray's critical assessments of Bearden's enduring legacy, along with the thoughts of such luminaries as James Baldwin, Alvin Alley, and Ralph Ellison. Simply stated, no serious academic library American Art History collection can be considered complete or comprehensive without the inclusion of "Romare Bearden: The Caribbean Dimension".

The research here is remarkable. The scholarship is first-rate, the information exhaustive (although never definitive since world music grows with leaps and bounds moment by moment).

I love dipping into this attractively illustrated, logically organized, and utterly helpful guide to find whole realms of sound which I not only didn't know existed but also could not even have imagined existed without the help of these fine fans of the music about which they write so clearly and well.

The world today is a depressing place. Sorrow is everywhere one turns. But this celebration of music continually energizes and revivifies. Buy it; enjoy it; and expand your CD collection.

... this one is for Latin & North American, Caribbean, Indian, Asian/Pacific idioms. I picked up the original '94 edition to explore World Beat rhythms in improvisatory settings, and was excited to hear the new edition would cover two volumes. I am NOT displeased !!

This cookbook is fantastic! I was a little concerned when I got it that I wouldn't be able to prepare anything in it, but how wrong I was! The ingredients are fairly basic, and the instructions are simple enough that a supervised child could prepare some dishes.
I HIGHLY reccomend this to anyone in search of a great cookbook!

The food in this cookbook by Chef Rudi Sodamin is totally delicious! I heard about this book from a friend who went on a Royal Caribbean cruise and thought the food was great. I'm not usually a big fan of carrots, but these baked carrots with olive oil, dill, and a little maple syrup were just fantastic. The Osso Buco was the best my family ever had. Other dishes my family loved were the Grilled Island Strip Steak with Caramelized Onion and Rum Glaze, the Pasta, Shrimp, and Salmon Salad, and the Rigatoni Pesto.

Some other dishes I haven't tried yet but want to are the Chilled Roasted Peach Soup and Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes.

We love desserts, and one of them is worth the price of the book alone - the Flourless Chocolate Cake, a decadent treat that's a chocoholic's dream

Unlike some other cookbooks I've used, this is easy to cook from. The directions are simple and clear, and give you tips that make it foolproof.

It's organized to help you put together a whole meal - it goes from appetizers, soups and salads and follows through with pastas, entrees, and desserts. There are some delicious-sounding recipes for people watching their weight, too - like a Crunchy Chicken Salad with Granny Smith Apples and Bulgur.

For people looking for new ideas that are fun and so good your friends will ask for the recipe, this book really works!

This book is not only about healthier recipes but it tells you so much about health issues that the Hispanic community should be aware of. In a scale of 1-10, i'll give it a 10.

An excellent cook book with lots of color pictures. The food is interesting and full of great flavors. The author shows a great appreciation for people who love food, love to cook but are required to eat a low fat diet. People not on low fat diets will never know it's low fat and healthy if you don't tell them.

I have given this book to a lot of children and they all love it.
The story captures childrens' imaginations; the pictures are beautiful.
A really unique and special little book.

The School that Sank is a charming story for young children who are learning to read. It's both whimsical (adorable scene of sea life in the sunken school's classroom) and teaches the lesson of children, even at a young age, caring about and having an impact in their community. The book is well written and beautifully illustrated. Great addition to any child's collection!

Fulani is one of the best, and most underappreciated, writers working today. This is one of my favorite books. Her rendering of the relationships between an immigrant Jamaican family in England is heart-breaking. Her characters are fully realized, and all too human. She is one of the most important voices of her generation.

Seasons...is a great book for anyone interested in the culture and history of Blacks in England, and especially for readers who are familiar with Jamaican dialect. The story unfolds as told by a master story-teller and Fulani's use of Jamaican patois is so realistic that the dialogue echoes out loud from the pages adding a rich cultural dimension to the characters. There's something for everyone in this book: love, sex (not gratuitous or explicit, though), drama, mental illness, racial conflict and social consciousness. The context for all of these themes is an intriguing story of a young woman whose examination of her family's migration from a small Caribbean village to England in search of material well-being ultimately leads her back to her roots in Jamaica. I loved the book and eagerly look for more to come from this promising new writer.

Es un libro muy bien escrito y muy respetuoso. Diria que es una investigación muy original de la obra de Borges y que estimula la lectura de Borges No se si se publicara esto porque no esta en ingles.Pero quiero expresar mi admiración por este libro.

The complex, labyrinthine writings of Jorge Luis Borges are approached in this book from a Freudian perspective by an Argentine psychoanalyst and writer. Like a detective, Woscoboinik searches for clues, reiterations, bridges between different Borgean works. He avoids free-wheeling imaginative inferences and personal interpretations. In the course of his research he has gathered information on Borges's life from various and sundry sources, including numerous in-depth interviews.

Through close readings of several short stories, Woscoboinik follows Borges's path as he evolved from his "narcissistic solipsism" to the establishment of Oedipal links. He borrows the title of this book from Borges himself, who in "The Sect of the Phoenix" refers to sexual intercourse as "Secreto," understanding it only as an act of procreation. Hence Woscoboinik follows the track of fantasy associations, among them those relating to the "primary scene." Further chapters deal with the treatment of feminine characters in Borges's short stories, with the dreams and nightmares constantly retrieved and reiterated through his work, memory and the challenges of self-identification, and with the Borgean view of the problem of time.

Readers of this book need not have specialized knowledge either of literature or of psychoanalysis. Borges fans will find a respectful, non-reductionist interpretation of his work that will increase their admiration for him.