July GeoCAT: South America, Caribbean, Central America

Map: amChart CC BY-SA-NC

In July, we’re going to read authors from or writing about the Caribbean, Central America and South America. The latter are also often referred to as Latin America because they were colonised by the Spanish and Portuguese, whose languages are descended from Latin. These languages are still the main languages of the continent. The islands in the Caribbean were hugely important and much fought over when they were the main source of sugar, which is why many of them use French or English as their main language, a heritage from their days as colonies.

The area reaches from dry Mexico across the tropical rainforests of Amazonia to the icy Tierra del Fuego, climbing huge mountains and volcanoes in the Cordilleras. You could discover the nature of the subcontinent by reading a book about Humboldt climbing the Chimborazo, about Darwin studying finches on the Galápagos islands, exploring the Amazon basin, etc.

You could read about the pre-Columbian civilisations, the arrival of the Europeans and their exploitation of the natural resources and/or their importation of African slaves, the liberation movements, rebellions and revolutions of the 19th century and the changeable politics of our age.
Or you can explore the rich fiction of these countries which have produced six laureates of the Nobel prize for literature:
Derek Walcott (Barbados)
Gabriela Mistral (Chile)
Miguel Ángel Asturias (Guatemala)
Pablo Neruda (Chile)
Gabriel García Márquez (Columbia)
Octavio Paz (Mexico)
Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru)

Other well-known authors are José Luis Borges, Ernesto Sábato, Carlos Fuentes, Julio Cortázar, Juan Carlos Onetti, Gioconda Belli, Roberto Bolaño, Isabel Allende, Laura Esquivel, Alejo Carpentier, V.S. Naipaul. Less familiar names include Elena Poniatowska, Luisa Valenzuela, Ángeles Mastretta, Eduardo Galeano, Horacio Quiroga, Laura Restrepo, Teresa de la Parra.

Magical realism is often associated with literature from South America, as in Hombres del maíz or Cien años de soledad.

On a less serious note, you could read a piratical adventure set in the Spanish Main like Captain Blood, about treasure hunters looking for sunken Spanish galleons, mysteries set in Cuba by Leonardo Padura, historical fiction about the Aztecs in The heart of jade, or a sweeping family saga like La casa de los espíritus. The possibilities are endless. Tell us if you know a book or an author you admire!

And please remember the wiki. https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/2020_GeoCAT#July:_-_Theme:_Central_and_S...

Map will follow

I think my choice for this one is going to be Orphans of Eldorado by a Brazilian writer, Milton Hatoum

I would recommend Memory of Fire by Galeano. It is an excellent epic book that covers just about everything mentioned above from The Beginning (Genesis) to the more current history. Century of Wind.

I am thinking of The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares. I'd also like to read Dominicana by Angie Cruz.

I read my choice for this challenge earlier in the year: Our Man in Havana, by Graham Greene. But I might have to pick up Captain Blood as well!

I've had Like Water for Chocolate for a couple of years, so it's time to read it!

Unfortunately I don't have (I don't think) any books by authors from the region that I can think of, so I'm planning to read a couple of travel books, The Penguin Lessons by Tom Michell, and Between Extremes by Brian Keenan and John McCarthy.

I think I will read A Trip to the Beach: Living on Island Time in the Caribbean by Melinda and Robert Blanchard.

Looks like my best bet is Murmur of Bees by Sofia Segovia which is set in Mexico.

>9 LittleTaiko: Ohhhh, I have that one, also!

I have four books in my stacks that would count for this challenge:

The House of Spirits (Isabel Allende ) #Chile
Love in the Time of Cholera (by Gabriel Garcia Marquez) #Columbia
Murmur of Bees (by Sofia Segovia) - Picked this up fro, AMZN on World Book Day 2019 #Mexico
The Cay (by Theodore Taylor) - Children's/MG book that's on my Kindle?! #Caribbean
The Power of the Dog series (by Don Winslow; narrated by Ray Porter) - Loved the first book in this series, but it's been a few years so I feel like I should start over to catch up. Hmmm, probably not going to make time for this one. #Mexico

I just read, The Passion According to Carmela (by Marcos Aguinis; translated by Carolina De Robertis) last month and gave three stars:
This is one I picked on Word Book Day in 2019 and for some reason, decided that I wanted to start three weeks ago despite having a bunch of other unfinished books waiting patiently for my return! It's the story about a Cuban woman who joins Fidel's revolution in the 1950s and, her ascendancy and disillusionment as populist Fidelism turns into dictatorial communism. In tandem with her political awareness is her romantic involvement with an Argentine immigrant whose idealism has lead him to join the revolution. This is a translated work that sometimes seems over simplistic and, at other times just strangely worded (e.g when the gaze between the lovers is often described a "bridge of glass"). There was something too, about the artless style in which Aguinis presents communism versus capitalism that seemed to render the whole work rather propaganda-like.

I am going to be reading The Country of the Bad Wolfes by James Carlos Blake and I am also going to be reading Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy which I believe is partially set in Mexico.

I suspect I'm going to be putting a round peg in a square hole twice, I'm going to make Latinx fit both ere and in Non-fiction CAT.

I have a few choices for this month: I have a few books by Isabel Allende and a couple by Laura Esquivel already on my TBR pile, but since I have a Nobel Prize winners category this year, I may try to get a book by one of them.

>11 Tanya-dogearedcopy: I read The Cay and also Timothy of the Cay with my middle grade students. Both still abide on my shelves!

I also could read The Feast of the Goat and also have the World Book Murmur of Bees, Tent of Miracles by Jorge Amado. More; Indigo by Marina Warner set in Caribbean.

I have Gods of Jade and Shadow, a type of magical realism, fairy tale, inspired by Mexican folklore.

>16 Kristelh: Recommending The Feast of the Goat. You might not expect a page-turner from a Nobel prize winner, but it is.

I've started The Savage Detectives. It's long, so will last into July.

I have Bel Canto and Isabel Allende's Ines of My Soul on MT TBR. I will definitely read one or the other, although probbly not both.

So many to choose from! I recently bought a copy of Gabriela Clove and Cinnamon by Jorge Amado, but I also have two books set in Colombia that are on my pile to read soon; Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras and Like This Afternoon Forever by Jaime Manrique.

I was finished with my last chunkster so I started reading early......Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel is part fairy tale, part romance; or what modern critics call magical realism. The book has 12 chapters, one for each month of the year; however, there is no significance to the actual year/month, they are just titles. At the beginning of each chapter there is a recipe. The story takes place during a Mexican revolution in the early 1900's. Tita, the youngest daughter of the family, is destined (doomed) to be a spinster and care for her mother until her death; thus prohibiting her from marrying the man she loves and who loves her. The remainder of the book revolves around how that plays out and how Tita uses cooking food to sublimate her emotions. I feel this book promoted the usually false narrative of passionate, enduring love at first sight over the more realistic common goals/trust relationship. I find this magical realism theme throughout most of Latin American writings and I'm not a fan. That being said, this book was a diversion and I'm glad I read it. 222 pages 3 stars

I might have time in July to read another.......I have The Murmur of Bees

Instead of The Savage Detectives, I'm going to read Dominicana.

I'm thinking of reading The Tide Between Us, being partly set in Jamaica in the early 19th century.

I have a ton of nonfiction for this challenge, but I haven't much felt like weightier subjects lately - I'm not sure what I'll end up with.

One nonfiction possibility is Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, which was published today

I'll be reading In the Midst of Winter by Isabel Allende. It just came through on Libby after a long wait. Looking forward to it. I've only read one other of her books, The Japanese Lover and that was a four star for me based primarily on her writing style and wordsmithery.

>25 beebeereads: I read In the Midst of Winter last year and rated it 3 stars. I hope you enjoy it. Others have said it is the most "unlike" Allende book they have read because it lacks magical realism.

I'm reading The Indigo Notebook by Laura Resau set in Ecuador.

I have completed my read of Country of the Bad Wolfes by James Carlos Blake. This is the beginning of a series about a family who emigrated to Mexico. This first book covers 3 generations and as we read about the family, we are also reading about the history of Mexico.

I finished In the Midst of Winter and rated it 3.5 stars. I went up 1/2 star because it is sticking with me days after I finished it. Although I've read a bit about the violence in both Guatemala and Chile, I found it useful to learn more in story form. I also appreciated that the love story was focused on aging and reflection, similar to the one in The Japanese Lover.

I finished Latinx It was interesting, but got rather dense and hard going.

I finished Conquistadoren und Azteken, a non-fiction history of the conquest of Mexico which was very good and quite fresh, it was published last year.

I read A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh which is British lit and assumed to be set in England but the last part of the story is set in Brazil in the Amazon.

I read American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins which is about a mother and child travelling north to escape one of Acapulco's drug cartels. Yes, there was some controversy around the book earlier in the year. While it was fairly light I enjoyed it for what it was, a well paced read.

The August thread is now up: https://www.librarything.com/topic/322401

COMPLETED Orphans of Eldorado by Milton Hatoum

I've just started Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton, which is set in Cuba.

I just finished An Embarrassment of Mangoes by Ann Vanderhoof. It was cool that I had visited some of the islands to which they sailed.

I've started The Blue Hour by Alonso Cueto which is set in Peru. The main character must investigate his father's role in the Peruvian Civil War of the 1980s. So far I'm enjoying this.

I read Just Add Salt by Jinx Schwartz, which is set (for the most part) in Baja Mexico. 1.5*

I am just about to start The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas by Machado de Assis, a Brazilian author of the 19th century...

Touchstones don't seem to be working at the moment...

For this challenge I read the quite extraordinary The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, set in (unnamed) Chile. It's taken a lot of time as my copy had more than 400 pages with lots of words on each page. But it was worthwhile. The first half has much magical realism; the second half is more realist than magical. As a fictional history of the 20th century in Chile, this is appropriate as the political turmoil of the 1970s is central to the last quarter of the book. Lengthy and in some sections very painful to read, but highly recommended.

I finished Bel Canto last night. It takes place in an unnamed South American country. At a gala birthday party, 200 guests, including a famous opera singer, are taken hostage by terrorists.

Although not the happiest of endings, I did think that the ending was bearable - and it did not end the either the way I thought it might, or the way I hoped.

I had started it in 2017 and put it aside, anticipating Bad Things Happening. I'm glad for the GeoCat nudge to read a book set in Central or South America this month. I think it's my favorite by Ann Patchett that I've read to date.

I finished The Red Umbrella by Christina Diaz Gonzalez today. It is a great coming of age story told from the perspective a teenage girl in 1961 Cuba (a few years after Castro took power).

I finished a short collection of mythical tales: Cuentos míticos latinoamericanos which is a bilingual edition for beginners learning Spanish. The adaption was a bit too modern (measuring distances in metres).

I've finished Between Extremes by Brian Keenan & John McCarthy, an account of the former Beirut hostages' road trip through Chile a few years after their release from captivity. I loved it.

I'm not going to have time to start the other book I had wanted to read this month, The Penguin Lessons by Tom Michell. Maybe I'll pick it up in December for the catch-up month.

Another short one from the Beck Wissen series: Die Konquistadoren about the conquistadores. Useful introduction to the subject.

I finished The Blue Hour by Alonso Cueto which is set in Peru.

I read Aunt Julia and the scriptwriter by Mario Vargas Llosa (in French). It takes place in Peru.
The book is readable but basically I failed to see the point. The story is both about a young man falling in love with his aunt Julia (who isn't biologically his aunt but is his uncle's sister in law), and about a man who writes serials for the radio. The chapters alternate between the story of these characters and the stories of these serials.
I did not understand Julia at all. Why did a 30-something woman fall for an 18 years old, after saying she would not have an affair with a minor? The chapters about the radio serials were interesting but felt weird because there was a lot of description and very little dialogue, which feels like the opposite of a radio show.

I have enjoyed other books by Llosa and will keep exploring this author but this one didn't work for me.