Cuba Books - Page 6

Insight Guide Cuba (Insight Guides Cuba)

Danny Aebenhard

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

This guidebook combines the interests and enthusiasms of two of the world's best-known information providers: Insight Guides, whose titles have set the standard for travel guides since 1970, and Discovery Channel, the world's premier source of non-fiction television programming. This guidebook combines the interests and enthusiasms of two of the world's best-known information providers: Insight Guides, whose titles have set the standard for visual travel guides since 1970, and Discovery Channel, the world's premier source of nonfiction television programming. The editors of Insight Guides provide both practical advice and general understanding about a destination's history, culture, institutions and people. Discovery Channel and its website, www.discovery.com, help millions of viewers explore their world from the comfort of their own homes and also encourage them to explore it first-hand. "Insight Guide Cuba" is carefully structured both to convey an understanding of the island and to guide you through its attractions. You can find information on every aspect of Cuban life past and present, from the Batista regime, the ensuing Revolution of 1959 and the Castro presidency which has been in place since, to an indepth look at the capital city, Havana and Cuba's other major areas including Santiago and Pinar del Rio.

Mea Cuba (Spanish Edition)

Guillermo Cabrera Infante

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

During the course of an exile that began in 1965, Cabrera Infante has taken part in each and every one of the controversies that have arisen since Fidel Castro took hold of Cuba. Mea Cuba recounts an event that has often repeated itself during the twentieth century: the story of yet another dictatorship that silences, represses, lies and murders; and the story of all the talented individuals that have been condemned in a battle of propaganda alive to this day. Key figures in the Island’s tragedy and its literary world file through the pages of this book. Mea Cuba is the most important anthology on Cuban politics since José Martí’s.

Description in Spanish: Cabrera Infante no ha dejado de intervenir -a lo largo de un exilio que comenzó en 1965- en ninguna de las diversas polémicas suscitadas desde que Fidel se hizo con el poder en Cuba, de ahí que en este amplio escenario desfilen los principales personajes de la tragedia cubana y los de su vida literaria. Aquí están todos los escritores estigmatizados: desde Heberto Padilla, al difunto Reynaldo Arenas; aquí están también todos los que por diferentes razones y con distintas actitudes se quedaron en Cuba, desde José Lezama Lima hasta Alejo Carpentier. Y detrás de todos los actores, moviendo los hilos, el máximo titiritero, Fidel, definido como un Cristobal Colón a la inversa. Humor negro en muchos momentos que relata con detalle la historia que tantas veces se ha repetido a lo largo del siglo XX, la de una dictadura que amordaza, reprime, miente y mata y la de los talentos por ella condenados en una guerra de propaganda que todavía hoy no ha terminado. Es la compilación de escritos sobre la política cubana mas importante desde la que hiciera José Martí.

The Cruising Guide to Cuba

Simon Charles

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

The best book on Cuba by land or by sea. 5 out of 5 stars.
53 of 56 people found this review helpful.

The "Cruising Guide To Cuba" covers in great detail in a first person narrative the entire coast and all of the coastal cities, ports, and harbors, i.e., about ninety percent of what is worth seeing in Cuba. Written as a first person memoir, the book is extremely readable as a novel, with local customs and situations described extensively to place the reader in Cuba, at the docks, talking with the friendly Customs guards and mechanics. Having been to Havana many times, I find the character of the country better captured in this book than in any travel guide or any other book about Cuba, including "Our Man in Havana". With humor, fairness, and keen insight into the truly comfortable Latin American way of doing things such as living intelligently with spontaneity and vitality, Charles goes farther than anyone to rectify the embedded Yanqui mistrust of Cuba by describing actual experiences which let the reader know that the embargo against that counrty has resulted in a great loss to our people: knowledge and understanding of one of the most beautiful places, and most enlivening cultures on earth. This seems to be one of those classics like "Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" which some readers will dismiss as too narrow for their general interests. This book is as much about boats and cruising as that classic was about machinery: it is in there, but there is a wonderful, on-going essay about cultures, philosophy, and, without asking it directly, the one big question: who has lost the most in the ridiculous campaign of hatred against this proud, historically magnificent country, us or them? There are other cruising guides to Cuba which are dry and obviously format and budget driven. There are similar travel guides by the usual publishers for inland excursions. "The Cruising Guide To Cuba" stands out because it is obviously a labor of love, written by a man and his mate who have spent years in research and preparation; some seven months alone for the second edition just to circumnavigate the island one more time. Other authors write of Cuba as they would any other assignment, with predictable and often useful factual results, as if they are writing about a beautiful actress they saw on stage and later interviewed. This book goes far beyond the quick glance infatuation, as if the author went to the beautiful woman's house and lived with her intimately and came away with enduring respect and admiration. A sage exile architect I know listened to my account of feeling miserable for not having been to Havana in over a year. "Yes," he said, "it started as lust, but then it turned to sincere love, and you cannot forget her, can you? None of us can." Forget the leg shows and cigars; Cuba without those pop buzz topics is a direct shock to the heart, it will leave you wondering why we remain so poorly informed about one of the most relaxing and desirable places on earth. Charles' book brings that message across, with respect and admiration for what is actually there and what it is like to be there. In the same way that "The Old Man and The Sea" was not necessarily about fishing, this cruising guide is not necessarily just about boats and charts, although as just that, it is worth the price.

Six Days in Havana

James A. Michener, John Kings

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Pretty good.... 4 out of 5 stars.
13 of 13 people found this review helpful.

"Six Days in Havana" is Michener's companion volume to the novel "Caribbean." Though the narrative is rather short, Michener's tradition of never failing to please holds up here, and the brevity is more than made up for by John Kings' absolutely fantastic color photos of Cuba. This volume serves both as a behind-the-scenes tour of the Cuban chapters of "Caribbean" and as the closest tour of Cuba an American is likely to get anytime soon. Perfect for the almost-complete Michener collection. (Also features a short section by Kings.)

Six Days are not enough 3 out of 5 stars.
8 of 9 people found this review helpful.

I will admit right off that I am biased because, as Public Affairs Officer in the U.S. Interests Section, I hosted James Michener's stay in Havana while he collected data for "Caribbean" and later collaborated with John Kings on the photography used in the book. Despite his glowing praise for my services (page 27), Michener was an old hand at adapting to circumstances and hardly needed me to orient him. He arrived with a fixed agenda and stuck with it. We departed from the agenda from time to time as his curiosity grew and Cuban contacts of mine beguiled him. As for his impressions, they are lucid, provocative, insightful and of course superficial. To know Cuba requires years of delving into the psychology of the quixotic Cuban people and their turbulent history. Michener's kitchen Spanish was adequate in restaurants but hardly up to a good conversation. I wondered how his early masterpiece "Iberia" could be so complete without a solid knowledge of Spanish? Anyway, he asked me to take 1000 photos of Havana which I did happily under the watchful eyes of Cuban security forces. His editors selected 70 or so of mine and 12 of Kings for inclusion. (No reference to my photopgraphy is given in the book by my own request as a diplomat shouldn't be caught moonlighting for the presses). I believe Michener used them for references to his quick glimps into Cuban society. His light comments tell the tale of a tourist abroad who is infected with the aura of Cuban life under the tyrant...,excuse me "comandante en jefe" Castro. Not a bad read for someone who likes their rum with coke--better known as a Cuba Libre. Viva Michener! Comments to jerrywscott1@cs.com

Editorial Review:

When James Michener visited Havana with his associate John Kings, he was only researching Cuba for a new novel on the Caribbean, but he found much more to excite his interest. Michener's insightful text and Kings's evocative photographs record their impressions of Havana thirty years after the Revolution.

To Cuba and Back. A Vacation Voyage

Richard Henry Dana

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Editorial Review:

This Elibron Classics edition is a facsimile reprint of a 1859 edition by Ticknor and Fields, Boston.

Havanas: For Pleasure

Philippe Hupp

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Editorial Review:

Tasting Havana is always an emotional moment, and this is undoubtedly why we prefer them to all other cigars. Always capricious, often imposing, sometimes disappointing, the Havana comes on stage with an attitude, and in this world of calibrated pleasures, can still surprise us. With aromas ranging through the floral or woody, roasted or animal, whether matte or lustrous, oily or dry, firm or soft, it appeals to all the senses. Indifferent to the haste of modern times, the Havana helped us to tame time, to become detached, and sometimes even to choose our friends better. It may sometimes be unrewarding or a little stingy, but we always forgive it because it is so good a companion.

Overseas American: Growing Up Gringo in the Tropics (Willie Morris Books in Memoir and Biography)

Gene H. Bell-Villada

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Born in 1941 of a white father and a Hawaiian mother, Gene H. Bell-Villada, grew up an overseas American citizen. An outsider wherever he landed, he never had a ready answer to the innocuous question "Where are you from?"

By the time Bell-Villada was a teenager, he had lived in Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and Cuba. Though English was his first language, his claim on U.S. citizenship was a hollow one. All he knew of his purported "homeland" was gleaned from imported comic books and movies. He spoke Spanish fluently, but he never fully fit into the culture of the Latin American countries where he grew up.

In childhood, he attended an American Catholic school for Puerto Ricans in San Juan, longing all the while to convert from Episcopalianism so that he could better fit in. Later at a Cuban military school, during the height of the Batista dictatorship, he witnessed fervent political debates among the cadets about Fidel Castro's nascent revolution and U.S. foreign policy. His times at the American School in Caracas, Venezuela, are tinged with reminiscences of oil booms and fights between U.S. and Venezuelan teen gangs.

When Bell-Villada finally comes to the United States to stay, he finds himself just as rootless as before, moving from New Mexico to Arizona to California to Massachusetts in quick succession. His accounts of life on the campuses of Berkeley and Harvard, during the tumultuous 1960s, reveal much about the country's climate during the Cold War era.

Eventually the "Gringo" comes home, finding the stability in his marriage and career that allows him to work through and proudly claim his identity as a "global nomad."

Wallpaper City Guide: Havana

Editors of Wallpaper Magazine

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Editorial Review:

Wallpaper* City Guides not only suggest where to stay, eat, and drink, but what the tourist passionate about design might want to see, whether he or she has a week or just 24 hours in the city. The guides feature up-and-coming areas, landmark buildings in an `Architour', design centers, and a selection of the best shops to buy items unique to the particular city.

Wallpaper* City Guides present travelers with a fast-track ticket to the chosen location. The edited guides offer the best, the most exciting, and the most beautiful of the featured city.

In addition to looking beautiful, the guides are expertly designed with function as a priority. They have tabbed sections so the tourist can easily find what he or she is looking for. Also included are color-coded city maps, rate and currency cards, and an easy navigational tool. They are the ultimate combination of form and function.

Compiled by the well-traveled editorial team of Wallpaper* and by an extraordinary network of international correspondents, the guides are truly the insider's guide to each featured city. The contributors to these guides have put their heads together to come up with fascinating, efficient guides that keeps the hip, urban traveler with his or her finger on the pulse.

The City Guides are being published as Wallpaper* magazine celebrates its tenth anniversary. For the past decade, Wallpaper* has been the first to uncover and enticingly present the best in new design and urban travel spots across the globe. The City Guides are the perfect way to present a decade of experience in one precisely edited guide to each of the 40 cities to be published in 2007.

Superfinos Popular: Photographs from Havana

Thierry Le Goues

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Fascinating Portrait of a Surreal Havana 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

A fascinating coffee table book of orginary people and nude models in the decrepit surroundings of Havava, Cuba. No captions or explanations, just photos.

Editorial Review:

New from high-profile fashion photographer Thierry Le Goues comes a lavish artist's book, Popular--an earthy, luring tome of the rarely shown Havana social scene. In Le Goues' provocative duotone and sensuous four-color photographs, we're seduced by a culture of great joy amongst great poverty: raucous, heat-soaked street parties; spirited sparring matches in crumbling gymnasiums; voluptuous nudes plying their wares in derelict mansions; wizened balladeers savoring impossibly large Cohibas...Le Goues' models are drawn from the street: a mixture of Buena Vista Social Club stars and underground legends, the miscegenation of which, in Le Goues' expert fashion sense, serves to create a raw, sexy style--one of abandon out of necessity, out of a lust for life--a spirit Le Goues sees in Cuba as ubiquitous as the cigarettes from which the book draws its name.

Real Life in Castro's Cuba (Latin American Silhouettes)

Catherine Moses

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

This new book provides a first-hand, grassroots look at life in Cuba, including very vivid descriptions of its people and places. Real Life in Castro's Cuba illuminates the human face of Cuba, which over the years has largely been hidden in the shadow of Fidel Castro.

Real Life in Castro's Cuba is written by Catherine Moses, who lived and worked in Cuba as a press secretary and spokesperson for the United States from 1995 to 1996. This compelling, compassionate portrait contains personal observations about the Cubans' struggles, triumphs, hopes, and daily compromises to survive. The Cuban population lives with a deteriorating infrastructure, forcing many hardships on the people, including a scarcity of food, fuel, clothing, medicines, and other basic needs.

The author's detailed cultural account of Cuba introduces the reader to everyday Cubans from party officials to dissidents to everyone in between. It shows how Cuba's socialist system works and gives reasons why Fidel Castro is still in power. Real Life in Castro's Cuba also describes the significant role of religion and spirituality in the life of Cubans. Although Moses expresses regret over the state of U.S.-Cuban relations, the purpose of the book is not to choose up sides. Instead, the book is designed simply to introduce readers to real life in Cuba.

The book's unique approach allows an intimate picture of life in a faded Marxist regime. As the author writes, Cuba is a curious mixture of Spanish Caribbean, socialist ideals gone awry, memories of what was, and a desperate need to survive.

This fascinating new book will appeal to all readers who are interested in getting a closer look at what life is like in Cuba today.