ouverture revolution khrushchev mesoamerica

books:

1 review
Peter Moruzzi

Gibbs Smith, Publisher, 2008

Nostalgia at its best!
My wife and I escaped Cuba during the early sixties. Almost certain that we might be returning within a month or two (50 years ago) we did not bring along photographs, memories, or keepsakes of any kind. "Havana Before Castro" is the best collection of memorabilia ever to touch my hands. Thank you, thank you, thank you. You've made my day! Andrew J. Rodriguez, author of: "Adios, Havana" a ...

A Small Place

28 reviews
Jamaica Kincaid

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000

Kincaid's Mad as Hell, and She's Not Going to Take it Anymore
Published in 1988 Kincaid's "A Small Place" is an unflinchingly angry portrayal of post-colonial, post-slavery life on the island of Antigua. To put it simply: Kincaid is as mad as hell, and she's not going to take it anymore. If you're white and can shelve your defensiveness for a moment this book is actually really enjoyable, it's written in first person and directed at "you," the British ...

Wide Sargasso Sea: A Novel (Norton Paperback Fiction)

119 reviews
Jean Rhys

W. W. Norton, 1992

The horror... the horror... Wide Sargasso Sea is a searing indictment
Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea is a dreamlike feverish novel awash in passion and trauma. Forget for a moment that it's a sequel to "Jane Eyre" or that it is a seminal text in Feminism and Colonialist studies. Simply as a story of trauma and madness executed in a modern stream of consciousness style it is brilliant. Disorienting, agonizing, nightmarish yet stunningly beautiful; I was forced to read ...

Borges: Collected Fictions

68 reviews
Jorge Luis Borges

Penguin (Non-Classics), 1999

A book you and your doppelganger will both enjoy
There are works of fiction that change the way you look at life, and then there is the work of Jorge Luis Borges, which just might alter the way you look at everything, including yourself. The best way to explain Jorge Luis Borges is to compare him to painters - if you combined Picasso, Dali and Escher's imaginations into a writer, you would have Borges. His visions of doppelgangers, puzzles, ...

Voces de Hispanoamerica: Antología literaria

3 reviews
Raquel Chang-Rodríguez, Malva E. Filer

Heinle, 2003

Textbook
Typical literature textbook. Layout is nice because of chronological groupings. Also, I like the biographical information about each author.

Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History

14 reviews
Sidney W. Mintz

Penguin (Non-Classics), 1986

Political Economy Canon; A Classic That Remade Anthropology and Cultural Studies
Sidney W. Mintz's Sweetness and Power situates economic analysis in consumption rather than production. The author believes that a producer's labor and exploitation is not enough to understand the exploitation of production. One must unpack the mythos of demand. Central to this is the idea that rational choice leads liberal individuals to consume products because it is in their best interest. ...

Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates

106 reviews
David Cordingly

Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2006

A History Major's Review
As a child pirates fascinated me, but as a college student studying history I found that serious forays into the historical truth of piracy were few and far between. My boyhood fascination and adult inquisitive nature both found outlets in Under The Black Flag. The book is written with the general population in mind but has enough for historians to gain further insights into the lives of ...

One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War

18 reviews
Michael Dobbs

Knopf, 2008

So close to the abyss
In reading "One Minute to Midnight", one gets the sense that, in a way, we are living those thirteen days in 1962 all over again, but in an extended fashion. This definitive book about the Cuban missile crisis is riveting from cover to cover as the author, Michael Dobbs, charts a timeline of horror and heart-stopping drama. What one side didn't know about the other must seem truly remarkable now, ...

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

172 reviews
Junot Díaz

Riverhead Hardcover, 2007

spanglish Is Swonderful
Diaz's Pulitzer Prize winning novel didn't get any awards for its plot--it shines for its language. The intricate web of family history in a traditional Dominican upbringing is slowly unfolded with each long and eloquent sentence. Every sentence could be re-read four times over and still be appreciated for every deliberate diction choice Diaz makes. I often found myself pausing in the middle ...

Havana Nocturne: How the Mob Owned Cuba and Then Lost It to the Revolution

22 reviews
T. J. English

William Morrow, 2008

A Very Interesting Read
I'm an older person and remember reading about some of the details of the book when they happened, but this is a broad story and gives lots of inside facts that were not well-known, at least to me. Knowing how it all came out was not a hindrance at all, but made it all more engrossing to see how Fidel Castro gathered his men and overtook the opposition. The gambling details of the various ...

The Art of Mesoamerica (World of Art)

2 reviews
Mary Ellen Miller

Thames & Hudson, 2006

An Excellent Survey of Mesoamerican Art and Culture
Note: You're "helpful" votes are appreciated. One Mormon reader likes to automatically give my reviews negative votes because of my negative reviews of books on the Book of Mormon. Oh, well, and Thanks. Miller's book is a must for anyone interested in the cultures of ancient Mexico and Central America (mesoamerica). It is full of quality photos of the artifacts and ruins. Miller points out ...

The Essential Neruda: Selected Poems

18 reviews
Pablo Neruda

City Lights Publishers, 2004

A New Translation
"I became saturated with his poetry and began to translate his poems. Although there were many beautiful existing translations, many others did not flow as I felt they should and I often had interpretive differences with them." ~ Mark Eisner, translator "The Essential Neruda Selected Poems" is the best translation I've read so far. The words are alive with beauty in a way that feels authentic ...

Where Is Joe Merchant? A Novel Tale

94 reviews
Jimmy Buffett

Harvest Books, 2003

An Annual Ritual
I've had this book for many, many years. It's become an annual ritual - a rite of passage for the Summer - to read it at the beach. Preferably with a Boat Drink in hand. Thanks Jimmy...

Pirates of the Caribbean: Jack Sparrow #12: Bold New Horizons (Pirates of the Caribbean: Jack Sparrow)
Rob Kidd

Disney Press, 2008

Captain Jack Sparrow was once a teenager too! This series tells original stories about the scrapes the young pirate found himself in, and how he got out. Books 10-12 finish up a time-stopping story arc-literally! As Fitzwilliam's timepiece exhibits strange powers, Jack and his crew must make their way back to the present...and prevent their enemies from getting their hands on this dangerous technology!

Pirates of the Caribbean: Jack Sparrow #11: Poseidon's Peak (Pirates of the Caribbean: Jack Sparrow)

4 reviews
Rob Kidd

Disney Press, 2008

Familiar faces return...
Jack Sparrow is floating in a small boat, not even worthy of being called a dingy, as he begins his next strange, unusual and always exciting adventure. Once he lands upon a very small island, he meets a very bloody, very broken man who has no idea who he is or how he got there. The only thing he knows is...Jack. Jack, of course, is full of sarcasm, but helps the beaten and bloody man all ...

The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution

21 reviews
C.L.R. James

Vintage, 1989

Caribbean person's review of Black Jacobins
My interest the book was kindled by Michener's reference to it in his book 'THe Caribbean' which I only read recently. When I would see black people holding high office in the US army I would see it as evidence of the enlightened attitude of the American society. I now know that that 'enlightenment' wast the result of a lesson taught by Haitians since the 1790's. An excellent work which ...

The Farming of Bones

59 reviews
Edwidge Danticat

Penguin (Non-Classics), 1999

"The Farming of Bones" is a chronological work of art.
Danticat moves beyond the stream of consciousness of "Krick Krack" and takes us on a voyage to the Dominican Republic and opens our hearts to the drama of a terrifyingly real era of hatred personified. Moving away from the quiet life of a plantation type existence. The novel lands us in a holocaust situation where the host country becomes murderous and ravenous. The exciting adventure builds ...

The Hedonist: World Travel Guide

54 reviews
Dr. Brett Tate

Professional Bachelor Publishing, LLC, 2005

Yes Yes YES!
Wake up guys. Getting plastered and watching flabby drunk chicks flashing and screaming "WooHOOO" is a total waste of time and money. Lake Havasu, Daytona Beach; it's embarrassing looking back on the whole nonsense. For the best bachelor vacations available around the world, The Hedonist is the answer. Killer places around the world with sexy girls looking to hook up; you will hook up...and ...

The Dew Breaker

45 reviews
Edwidge Danticat

Vintage, 2005

One of the great, great books of the new century
Danticat has written some great stories prior to this collection (see "Night Women," especially, and "Caroline's Wedding"), and she's no slouch as a novelist, either. But The Dew Breaker is a breakthrough book, a hybrid of story collection and novel so good that the reader need not worry about which it is. Each of these stories is working on at least five levels: (1) as a readable narrative in ...

Death and the Maiden: Tie-In Edition (Plays, Penguin)

7 reviews
Ariel Dorfman

Penguin (Non-Classics), 1994

Is justice ever really served?
Ariel Dorfman was a Chilean exile who feared that he might "disappear" if he attempted to live and work under the Pinochet dictatorship. "Death and the Maiden" is a sort of autobiography for Dorfman. The play centers around the character of Paulina, a woman who ultimately kidnaps the man she suspects of holding her prisoner and presiding over her torture and rape many years ago. It's a ...

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