January GeoCAT Destination: South America

South America consists of twelve independent countries and three dependent territories. The cultural and ethnic perspective has at its base the interaction between indigenous peoples with European conquerors and immigrants and, in some parts, African slaves. Given the long history of colonialism, the majority of South Americans speak Portuguese or Spanish (around 200 million speakers of each) and society tends to reflect those Western traditions.



Independent Countries (links go to Wikipedia):
Argentina
Bolivia
Brazil
Chile
Colombia
Ecuador
Guyana
Paraguay
Peru
Suriname
Uruguay
Venezuela
Dependent Territories:
Falkland Islands (UK)
French Guiana (France)
South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands (UK)

South America has a huge amount of well-known authors, but rarely show up in any larger number on "official" reading lists. Below is a tiny sample of authors (for those of you who are reading Nobel winners, I've listed those) whose works are available in English (if you are able to read in Spanish or Portuguese - or Dutch in the case of Suriname, the works available are much more numerous and I want you to know I am very, very envious!):

Argentina: Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar, Ernesto Sabato
Bolivia: Nataniel Aguirre, Jaime Sáenz
Brazil: Jorge Amado, Hilda Hilst, Moacyr Scliar, Adriana Lisboa
Chile: Pablo Neruda (Nobel), Gabriela Mistral (Nobel), Isabel Allende, Roberto Bolaño, Pablo Neruda
Colombia: Gabriel García Márquez (Nobel), Laura Restrepo, Evelio Rosero
Ecuador: Demetrio Aguilera-Malta, Nelson Estupiñán Bass, Abdon Ubidia
Guyana: E. R. Braithwaite, Wilson Harris, Roy Heath,
Paraguay: Augusto Roa Bastos, Nestor Amarilla
Peru: Mario Vargas Llosa (Nobel), Daniel Alarcón (grew up in the US), Alfredo Bryce Echenique, Julio Ramón Ribeyro
Suriname: Cynthia McLeod
Uruguay: Eduardo Galeano, Mario Benedetti, Juan Carlos Onetti, Horacio Quiroga
Venezuela: Rómulo Gallegos, Teresa de la Parra

For the dependent territories, I've only managed to find one indigenous writer and that is Terence Severine Betts from the Falkland Islands. There are, however, books written about the territories.

I plan to read Willoughbyland about the history of what is now Suriname. If I have time I'll also read Love in the Time of Cholera.

The Informers by Juan Gabriel Vásquez (Columbia)

I'm thinking of Kamchatka (Argentina) and/or Ines of My Soul (Chile)...

I am hoping to read two books for this Cat in January, both set in Brazil. Roosevelt's Beast by Louis Bayard and Buried Strangers by Leighton Gage.

I'm planning to read The House of the Spirits (Chile) for this CAT.

Parking but I'll update my post once I decide what I want to read.

ETA: The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vasquez

I plan on reading the novel Don Casmurro by Machado de Assis (Brazil) & some poetry by Gabriela Mistral (Chile). If time allows, I'd like to get to the short stories in Ficciones by Jorges Luis Borges (Argentina) as well...

I'm planning to read Love in the Time of Cholera; I read One Hundred Years of Solitude last year and really enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to a slightly shorter read from him!

>9 leslie.98: The Borges stories are great, I hope you get to read some!

I got bogged down in One Hundred years of Solitude and did not finish it when my real life book club read it several years back. I hope to get er done this time.

I'm reading Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges. I wanted Ficciones, but my library had it in Spanish only, and my Spanish is nowhere near good enough to manage someone like Borges.

My plan for 2016 is to reduce my tbr collection that has a few candidates. I'll be choosing from:
Perfect Hatred by Leighton Gage (Brazil)
Miracle in the Andes by Nando Parrado (Uruguay/Chile)
Bandits by Elmore Leonard (Nicaragua)

Before I choose my own reading I want to give a strong recommendation to the novella The Tunnel by Ernesto Sábato (Argentina) which I read earlier this year.

I've got a shortlist to decide from:
Andean Express by Juan de Recacoechea (Bolivia)
Blow up & other stories by Julio Cortazar (Argentina)
The Peron Novel by Tomás Eloy Martínez (Argentina)
Near to the wild heart by Clarice Lispector (Brasil)
Money to burn by Ricardo Piglia (Argentina)
News of a kidnapping or Clandestine in Chile by Gabriel García Márquez (Colombia)
The secret in their eyes by Eduardo Sacheri (Argentina) - loved the film

>15 avatiakh: I read Blow-Up and Other Stories last year - strange but definitely worth reading if you like short stories.

Thanks for the feedback, the back cover blurb does draw me in even though I don't read that many collections. Just thought it would be a good way to sample a new-to-me writer.

I'll be reading two picture books about Saint Martin de Porres for January's challenge: The Pied Piper of Peru and Martin de Porres: The Rose in the Desert.

I'll be reading The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vasquez who hails from Columbia ... which will also knock an outstanding country off my 'Reading Globally' challenge list, and one from my TBR challenge list (digital).

I've been wanting to read The News from Paraguay by Lily Tuck.

South America was tricky for me last year, as well (based on my tbr). This one is broader, but will include South America (and various points within):

1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus / Charles C. Mann

Nothing like starting the year with a 500+ page book!

These are my options:
The Informers by Juan Gabriel Vásquez (Colombia)
The Deep Rivers by José María Arguedas (Peru)
Meet Me Under the Ombu Tree by Santa Montefiore (Argentina)
Not sure yet what I'll pick up in the end.

I have borrowed The Seamstress from the library, set in Brazil. I have seen quite a few good reviews for it on LT. Hopefully I will get time to read it in January.

I'm planning on reading Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Márquez (Colombia) for this month. Other books I may get to that would also fit, The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño (Chile) and The Secret in Their Eyes by Eduardo Sacheri (Buenos Aires).

>23 Roro8: That's a good one. It's a lot of fun.

>23 Roro8: Thank you for reminding me of The Seamstress! I may also read it for this CAT.

If I can get to it, I'll read Excavation by James Rollins.

While at the library today, I picked up the audiobook CDs for Isabel Allende's Daughter of Fortune :)

I finally found time to dig through my TBR piles and have come up with the following possibilities for this GeoCAT:

On Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Columbia
Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende - Chile
The Storyteller by Mario Vargas Llosa - Peru

I'll have to investigate my TBR pile and list. Just hoping I have time to get around to it.

I've started The News from Paraguay by Lily Tuck, with the intention of finishing it in January. It's lovely so far, although we are all still in Paris.

>29 lkernagh: - Lori, I really enjoyed Daughter of Fortune when I read it a few years ago.

>32 katiekrug: - Excellent! Moving the Allende book up to the top of the pile. Thanks Katie! ;-)

I have books picked out for every sovereign nation and one of the territories (French Guiana). Actually, I have several books picked out for each and there's no way I'll be getting to them all - I'm looking forward to picking, though.

I'm beginning with San Rafael, Camba Town: Life in a Lowland Bolivian Peasant Community. Originally published in 1973, I'm reading the second edition published in 1995 which includes an extensive 'retrospective.' The book is based on Steadman's experiences as a Peace Corps volunteer, but was written as she was pursuing graduate degrees in anthropology (she retired from UCF as a full Professor in 2008). It's quite good so far, so I'm off to a good beginning to the GEOCat!

>29 lkernagh: & >28 leslie.98:, I also enjoyed Daughter of Fortune when I read it.

I think The Seamstress will be the next book I read, moved to the top of my list.

Well, I stopped by the library yesterday & picked up 4 more books for this CAT:

· two poetry books by South American Nobel Laureates: The Heights of Macchu Picchu by Pablo Neruda & Selected Poems of Gabriela Mistral translated by Langston Hughes (both from Chile)
· short stories by Borges, Ficciones (Argentina)
· novel by another Nobel Laureate: The Discreet Hero by Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru)

Don't know if I will actually be able to get to all of these but have already started the Neruda & Borges...

I picked up my interloan for Clandestine in Chile the other day and hope to start it fairly soon.

I pulled The Sea and the Jungle from my shelves for this. The jungle of the title is along the Amazon River system.

I just finished, and really enjoyed, Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Just finished Miracle in the Andes: 72 days on the mountain and my long trek home by Nando Parrado. I'll be thinking of this book for a long time.

Finished Love in the Time of Cholera. Too much sex and duplicity for the likes of me. Sense of place was well done, though; perfect for this CAT.

Just finished The Informers by Juan Gabriel Vásquez. Interesting topic, but the way the book was written was not my cup of tea.

I'm reading The Seamstress, so far I am thinking it is pretty good. I am annoyed at night when my eyes disobey me and won't stay open any longer to allow me to continue with the story. All those great reviews I have read on LT were spot on. I'm around halfway so far. I hope it keeps getting better.

A friend of mine gave me a bunch of books by Gabriel Garcia Marquez a couple years back, and I also picked up his autobiography, Living to Tell the Tale, so this is a great opportunity to work on Mt. TBR.

I finished the Brazilian classic, Dom Casmurro.

I have finished Roosevelt's Beast by Louis Bayard. Using the River of Doubt Expedition that Roosevelt went on, the author writes a fictional story of a few days when Teddy Roosevelt and his son, Kermit embarked on a side adventure.

I finished In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin. Seemed to me that Mr. Chatwin couldn't decide what he wanted this to be, in addition to a travel book. Sometimes he told a dense history or mythology of a place he visited, sometimes linked a place to events and people which would most likely be known to the reader (particularly Butch Cassidy and Charles Darwin), sometimes it seemed to be a personal journey with links to his childhood and family. I felt the book was most effective when he visited ex-pats from around the world and revealed the varying degrees to which they clung to certain aspects of their homelands.

I finished another one for this month, The Secret in Their Eyes by Eduardo Sacheri. This was a very good Argentine mystery.

I read the novella, No One Writes to the Colonel, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The colonel and his wife live in poverty in an unnamed Colombian town where he waits for his promised pension (for 15 years he's been waiting)and for the big cockfight coming up in January. A spare little story, filled with the lyrical language Marquez is known for.

I think I will also read Of Love and Demons, another short one by Marquez.

I a trying to work my way through Love in the Time of Cholera, but it's a chore. I hope it gets interesting soon or else I will have to Pearl Rule it.

>50 LoisB: I hear your pain -- I found that slow moving but nowhere near as painful as One Hundred Years of Solitude! I may join >49 LisaMorr: in reading Of Love and Demons as it is indeed short. I checked it out of the library just in case the spirit moves me... but next up for me is The Discreet Hero by Mario Vargas Llosa

I've finally started Clandestine in Chile which should be a quick read. I also found a Chilean memoir on my shelves, Feeding on Dreams: Confessions of an Unrepentant Exile by Ariel Dorfman though I won't be reading that this month as I found my copy of The secret in their eyes.

I'm halfway through The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vasquez. There is a comment in there of one of the characters trying to read One Hundred Years of Solitude and writing her grandparents in the US to please send her something by Graham Greene.

I've read three children's books about Saint Martin de Porres, an Afro-Peruvian who was born the son of a slave in colonial Lima and rose to become a respected healer and religious figure, for this month's challenge.

Saint Martin de Porres and the Mice is the most overtly religious of the three, as fits a book I picked up at my church's parish bookstore. An easy reader book, it focuses on his life and the various wonders Martin supposedly worked. If you are looking for a book focusing on the Catholic aspect, this is the one you'll want.

The Pied Piper of Peru is a picture book covering the story of how Martin convinced some mice destroying food and linens in his priory to move outside instead—told from the Mice's point of view. It was alright, but something was lacking in both the text and the illustrations.

Martín de Porres: The Rose in the Desert is another picture book and the best overall of the three. It is a general biography of Martin's life with much of the religious aspect filtered out (most of the stories mentioned in Saint Martin de Porres and the Mice are alluded to in a single page). It's the perfect combination of concept, text, and illustration.

>53 luvamystery65: lol!

I finished Excavation by James Rollins which is about an archeological dig in Peru that uncovers a unique substance that seems to have magical qualities and which some rather unscrupulous people are willing to do anything to obtain. It was OK. I wouldn't recommend searching it out, but if it's already on your bookshelf and you're looking for something to fill this CAT, it'll do.

I finished The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vasquez. It was beautifully written. The story was interesting but it didn't fully engage me or draw me in. It was a solid read that I would recommend but not one I would insist you read.

I have finished The Seamstress, a solid 4 star read. I really enjoyed the setting as I can't remember reading anything set in Brazil before.

I'm almost finished with Kamchatka, about a 10 year old boy growing up in Argentina during the "dirty war" of the 1970s. It's episodic and fragmented and very engaging. Should finish it in the next day or so.

Just finished Chronicle of a Death Foretold--I can't say that it lived up to the other works by Gabriel Garcia Marquez which I've read, but I did enjoy it very much.

I finished Ficciones (Argentina). Now reading the newest book by Nobel Laureate Mario Vargas Llosa, The Discreet Hero for Peru...

I finished another one for this month, The Savage Detectives by Chilean author, Roberto Bolaño.

>62 staci426: How did you like it? I've got it on my TBR list - not sure about tackling it this month.

>62 staci426: Oh that is an epic read. I hope you enjoyed it.
I've finished Clandestine in Chile by Gabriel García Márquez, it's nonfiction and was interesting. I have The secret in their eyes sitting by my bedside table but I'm not sure I'll get to it before the end of the month as there seem to be a lot of challenges about that I've expressed interest in.

I finished Kamchatka and very much enjoyed it. My review is on my thread:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/206723#5429690

>63 LisaMorr: and >64 avatiakh: I'm still trying to process it, but overall, I did enjoy it. I listened to the audio edition, it had two narrators who I think did an excellent job. It was quite long, but it moved at a fairly quick pace for most of the book.

I'm a fan of audiobooks and I think this might be an excellent way to experience the book. Maybe when I eventually get round to 2666 I should go for the audio version.

I'm hoping to get to Doña Bárbara by the Venezuelan author Rómulo Gallegos next week.

I finished The Storyteller by Mario Vargas Llosa. The story focus is Peru. It also was a good fit for the BingoDOG "by/about an indigenous person person". A richly textured read worthy of a reader's full, undivided attention.

1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus / Charles C. Mann
3 stars

What were the Americas like before Christopher Columbus arrived? Charles C. Mann has done some research and believes that there were many more “Indians” here than previously believed. Also, there may have been more wear and tear on the environment than we've been led to believe. It just may not be what most of us have been taught.

This book is a mix of anthropology, archaeology, history, science... It was interesting, and through the first half I would have rated it 3.5 stars (good). However, half-way through, I was extremely distracted and had trouble focusing throughout the rest of the book, so I've given it, overall, 3 stars (ok). Had things been different without the distractions, it may have ended at 3.5 stars.

Keeper is a wonderful YA story that takes place in Brazil.

>69 lkernagh: Query about the "indigenous people" square & Llosa: I also recently read a Llosa novel and I debated whether it fit the indigenous people square. Perhaps it shows a racist side to myself that I was unaware of but I thought that indigenous people were the original peoples of a land (the Aborigines of Australia, the Maori, the Native Americans, etc.) and so I was unsure whether the contemporary inhabitants of Peru were indigenous or whether they were more similar to the average American or Australian -- descended from European immigrants. Sorry if this is the wrong forum for this question.

I'm by no means an expert, but I've always understood that unlike in North America, the majority of the population in South American countries is descended from the indigenous population.

According to the Wikipedia article on Peruvians:

The Peruvian census does not contain information about ethnicity so only rough estimates are available. Some international reliable references, estimates it to be composed of Mestizos: 45%, Amerindians: 30%, European: 16%, Asians: 2%, Afro-Peruvians: 7%.

(footnotes deleted because they confuse the touchstones)

Many years ago, on a trip to Peru, we were told that you could tell the indigenous people just by looking at them - short in stature, round faces, soft features. I have no idea if there is any validity to that statement, but Mr. Llosa does not look like the native population that we saw in Peru.

I read Willoughbyland: England's Lost Colony, which has nothing to do with Sense and Sensibility and everything to do with the history of Suriname. And even though there's no Jane Austen, Aphra Behn has a large role in the book.

I completed Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende. This was a wonderful story about the Gold Rush and a woman who makes a treacherous journey from Chile to San Francisco to look for her lover. Completely swept me away.

>76 sturlington: - I liked that one a lot, too, when I read it a few years ago. I believe that Portrait in Sepia is a sequel of sorts.

>70 LibraryCin:

I read that book too. Very interesting. I don't remember being distracted by it.

I believe it is relatively uncontroversial now to hold that there were many more natives in the Americas prior to European arrival than we had thought. However the exact numbers are harder to pin down.

>71 mamzel: I just read Keeper by Mal Peet. You are right, it is a wonderful YA book about soccer, the Brazilian jungle, and a shadow/ghost who teaches a young boy how to be the greatest goalkeeper in the world, plus it includes a painful look at the rampant destruction of the Brazilian rain forest.

>79 dallenbaugh: And without getting preachy about it!

I also loved Keeper, there are two more Faustino novels. Exposure is especially good.

I have Exposure in my library, too. I have a number of soccer fans in my school so I will make an effort to read it.

>78 sirfurboy: Really, it was external things that were distracting for me, unfortunately.

I just finished Of Love and Other Demons by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - I thought it was very good. There are some authors where I can't wait to get past their descriptions and back to the story - with Marquez, I'm enjoying the pictures he paints with words just as well as the story.

I have several more by him, but I just noticed that I also have Blow Up and Other Stories and Labyrinths. I found the first book but couldn't find Labyrinths and then went back to look in my LT catalog and found out that it's a cassette! Who even has a cassette player anymore?

My experience with listening to audiobooks goes back about 25 years. I was living in the LA area and I had to drive up to Bakersfield regularly. I thought with all that driving (and traffic) audiobooks would be great. I started with Stephen King's The Gunslinger - I think it was narrated by King. I'm a Stephen King fan and when I eventually read The Gunslinger, I loved it. But I could not for the life of me follow along with the audiobook. I could not focus on the book and I was constantly rewinding to catch what was said - I didn't want to miss any of it. I think I'm a pretty good multitasker, but when I want to envelope myself in a book, I don't want to really do anything else but read! I'm a bit envious of those of you who can do other things while listening to audiobooks.

With that being said, I don't think I'm going to listen to Labyrinths on cassette. So I think I'll look at Cortázar's short stories.

I am reading River of Doubt by Candice Millard. It's very good. A book about Teddy Rosevelt's trip to Brazil to explore the Amazon River area.

Starting Doña Bárbara by Rómulo Gallegos

>85 Kristelh: River of Doubt was a good book. A great adventure story. I read it a couple of years ago.

I finally finished The Seamstress by Frances de Pontes Peebles, which is set in Brazil during the 1920s and '30s. Loved the historical detail, but the pacing is super slow.

This morning I read a graphic novel by Brazilian brothers, Fabio Moon & Gabriel Ba, Two Brothers which was a great family story set in Manaus. As I was reading it I thought this would make a great novel only to find at the end that it was a graphic adaption of Milton Hatoum's The Brothers. Anyway recommended for lovers of graphic novels and I've added the novel to my 'to read' list though it will have to wait for the story to fade a little.

I've requested from the library The Eternaut, a scifi graphic novel from Argentina. It's from the 1950s but has only recently been published in English.

>84 LisaMorr: As I mentioned earlier, I really liked Blow Up and Other Stories though the stories were on the strange side. I had to chuckle about your comment about "who has a cassette player anymore" as I must be one of the remaining dinosaurs who do! However, I don't think that I would like Jorge Luis Borges in audiobook form so it probably worked out for the best :P

I have Of Love and Other Demons checked out from the library but have not loved the other books I have read by him so I have been putting it off. I do think that the short length is a favorable sign! I would like to get to it as that would mean I read at least one book from each of the 4 Nobel Laureates in Literature from South America (Pablo Neruda, Gabriela Mistral, Mario Vargas Llosa and Gabriel Garcia Marquez).

Which reminds me that >50 LoisB: and I have both been doing an AwardsKIT focus for this CAT and are thinking about making it more 'official' by setting up a thread and wiki. Any feedback, advice or comments are welcome.

Last night I finished a second book for this cat: Meet Me under the Ombu Tree by Santa Montefiore. It is a chunkster (the German translation has 590 pages), set mostly in Argentina and partly in Europe. It combines a family saga with a love story, which I enjoyed reading.

I've just finished Andean Express by Bolivian writer Juan de Recacoechea. It's a quick read, all the action takes place overnight on a train between La Paz and Arica in Chile. Sort of whimpers to an end but was interesting all the same.

COMPLETED Doña Bárbara by Rómulo Gallegos, set in Venezuela

My review:
As his inheritance diminishes due to corrupt judges settling disputes against him, Santos Luzardo returns from Caracas to his estate near the Arauca river where he decides to fight against Doña Bárbara, who has gained possession of the neighbouring estate by seducing Santos's alcoholic cousin.

Any attempt to summarise the plot makes it sound like a Mills & Boon or soap opera (in fact the book has been turned into a telenovela), but there's actually some quite meaty stuff here about how adverse circumstances can mar a person's character, how we are the result of the choices we've made, and reflections on how and whether a good man can survive in a society where might makes right.

The book may be a jewel of Spanish prose for all I know, but the translation does seem rather clunky and over-literal at first, but I got used to it and am glad I persevered.

>90 leslie.98: Good to hear about Blow Up and Other Stories - I like strange! And I know I have a cassette player around here somewhere...

Hoping you will enjoy Of Love and Other Demons.

I have completed Buried Strangers by Leighton Gage. This is the second in a mystery series set in Brazil.

Love in the Time of Cholera

This book was a chore to read. I had to force myself to read 20 pages a day just to finish it. Yes, it was a nice story, but I found the writing to be too wordy for my taste. I probably would have enjoyed a Readers Digest condensed version.

I just finished The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder. I read this short 1928 novel for the Pulitzer Prize challenge but it fits this challenge as well since it is set in Peru. I thought the book was excellent. A book not to everyone's taste I imagine, but I was captivated by the characters, the writing, and the exploration of human nature and destiny.

I finished The secret in their eyes by Eduardo Sacheri and have added his Papers in the wind to my to read list. Having seen the film a few years ago I knew how the book was going to end, still it was a treat to read this and I'll be revisiting the film asap.

>96 LoisB: I listened to the audio last year and it helped tremendously because the author sounded so Ay yi yi! Very distinguished and a little sexy. ;-) He could have read the menu from McDonald's.

>99 luvamystery65: {Like}

I finished The Sound of Things Falling which was a great read. I really like South American literature on the whole. I can't say what it is - the style, the atmosphere, the characters, I don't know - but books from this continent really catch my imagination.

>72 leslie.98: and >73 Robertgreaves: - Sorry for being so long in responding... I haven't been back to this thread until know. The Llosa book I read did focus on the Machiguenga people who are an indigenous people of the Amazon Basin jungle regions of southeastern Peru. I wasn't including the Llosa story as a fit for the BingoDOG because of the author. I realize that my post at >69 lkernagh: wasn't very clear on that point.

>102 lkernagh: Thanks for the clarification. Guess I will keep searching!

I finished The House of the Spirits last night. It was my first Allende, but if the rest of her works are anything like this, there will be more! Great epic story, this one, and it was her debut novel as well!

I finished La casa de los espíritus last night, a sweeping family saga from Chile. I have to say the magical bits are not really my kind of thing...

I had the idea in my head that I might be able to read a book about/from each of the South American nations and two of the three dependencies. Well, that didn't happen, but I did pretty well.

I didn't get to the Falkland Islands (although I have read a book about them in the last few years), Peru (about which I have read a great deal over the years) and Suriname (about which I have read very little). When I first saw that Carrie >3 cbl_tn: was going to read Willoughbyland about Suriname, I almost ordered it from Book Depository, but I resisted. I wish I'd gone ahead and gotten it!

Here's what I did read:

Argentina: Blood Tango by Annamaria Alfieri A good historical mystery set during a pivotal week in Argentine history in 1945.

Bolivia: San Rafael, Camba Town: Life in Lowland Bolivian Peasant Community by Allyn MacLean Stearman Very interesting Community study.

Brazil: Fordlandia by Greg Grandin More Henry Ford than Brazilian Amazon, but very readable.

Chile: Clandestine in Chile by Gabriel Garcia Marquez Fascinating tale of an escapade to show up the Pinochet regime.

Colombia: The Lost Amazon by Wade Davis Excellent photos by and bio of Richard Evans Schultes.

Guyana: Coolie Woman: The Odyssey of Indenture by Gaiutra Bahadur Often fascinating look at the indentured servant or coolie trade from India to British colonies, particularly British Guiana / Guyana. Focus on women.

Ecuador: The Panama Hat Trail by Tim Miller Entertaining and informative travel book. The hats are from Ecuador, you know.....

Paraguay: Invisible Country by Annamaria Alfieri Another historical mystery.

Uruguay: The Tree of Red Stars by Tessa Bridal Nice YA coming of age story (with a little CIA sponsored torture) set in 1960s Montevideo. I also read an Uruguayan novella, The House of Paper by Carlos Maria Domingue, about the dangers of book obsession.

Venezuela: The Hacienda by Lisa St Aubin de Teran I'm still not sure how I feel about this memoir of the author's years as a very young woman in Venezuela in a horrible marriage.

French Guiana: Equatoria by Richard Price and Sally Price. It's the tale of this married couple's trip in French Guiana to collect art / artifacts for a new museum in French Guiana. Having worked extensively with the Maroon groups (slaves who escaped their plantations and set up their own societies long ago) they're perfect for the job, but truly ambivalent about museums, collecting and the definition of art.


I had so much fun with January, I'm really looking forward to February and Central Asia, an area about which I know very little!

>106 Dejah_Thoris: That quite an accomplishment! Congrats!

>106 Dejah_Thoris: Wow, well done!

>106 Dejah_Thoris: Wow, that is amazing! Good for you!

>106 Dejah_Thoris: Impressive start to the GeoCAT year.

>106 Dejah_Thoris:, wonderful, looking forward to your February tour.

>106 Dejah_Thoris: Wow! What a great reading list. Well done!

>106 Dejah_Thoris: I'm really impressed with your South American reads. So Panama hats are really from Ecuador? You are disillusioning us all.

>106 Dejah_Thoris:
Beautiful list! Kinda wishing I had done a pure GeoCAT month now!

I finished my book for Colombia today - even though it is now Feb. I am counting it! I read Of Love and Other Demons.