3 comments about Culture Shock! Brazil: A Guide to Customs & Etiquette.

1. I had to wait for either this book to be released or reprinted (I cant remeber what the delay was)and now I see its even hard to find on Amazon! But that being said....its worth it! I bought it before moving to Brazil...even though I did not experience any "culture shock" I did learn alot from this book!Great language phrases and help plus I loved the portuguese proverbs of type it occasionally included. Once I was speaking about the "Brazilian Miracle" and some other stuff to an American friend and my Brazilian buddy said "man, you know more about Brazils history than me"....it was just info. I picked up from this book. Great info. about contacts, visas, food and much more. If you are going to stay any time in Brazil (other than a weeks vacation...say 30 days or more) then its a must have!



2. I had told my new boyfriend a lot about my country, and the way Brazilian culture is. It was amazing when he came home with this book, and read some parts to me. The writer gives an incredible description of the Brazilian soul, our culture and passions, and things I never realized are part of our life. The author of "Culture Shock" probably knows more about us Brazilians than we do, probably because you see better when you see from outside.
   I was so impressed by the way Volker Poelzl describes what I am, the details given in the book made me feel like I was looking at the mirror.Whenever I start learning about a new culture, I won't hesitate to buy one of his books. By seeing the wonderful job that "Brazil (Culture Shock!)" is, I have no doubts about how brilliant this guy is.



3. This book was very informative. When I found out that I was going to Brazil I went out and bought about 6 different books about the country. All lot of the books showed the "touristy" side of Brazil without really informing you about what to expect. I flew through this book quickly because it was really interesting and informative. It really got me prepared for what I needed to have a nice trip while not putting me to sleep! Its worth the ten bucks!

3 comments about My Last Chance to Be a Boy: Theodore Roosevelt's South American Expedition of 1913-1914.

1. Ornig provides the first detailed account of one of the most exciting adventure stories of the 20th century -- Theodore Roosevelt's exploration of the River of Doubt in Brazil's Amazon. The story is more incredible when you think that Roosevelt was a 55-year old former President at the time of the expedition. As we approach the 100th anniversary of Roosevelt's presidency, and as we consider our relationship with the earth, it is worth taking another look at this great outdoorsman. Ornig weaves together the political and diplomatic origins of the expedition and how Roosevelt, his son Kermit, and the rest of the expedition got much more than they bargained for. There's murder, there's drowning (and a question of whether Kermit Roosevelt was accountable), there's frustration, and there's a former President on the brink of death. After you read it, you'll want to read Roosevelt's account, "Through the Brazilian Wilderness." You'll enjoy that one too



2. TR's 1913-1914 expedition down the River of Doubt (subsequently renamed Rio Teodoro in his honor, and later Rio Roosevelt) is an astonishing piece of history - one often refered to in passing by other TR biographers, but not often fully explored, as it here. Author Ornig tells an exciting tale well, from the multitudious details of planning and executing a massive exploring expedition in the early 20th century, to vivid portraits of the characters involved. This book would be a wonderful companion for any adventure traveller (or even armchair adventurers).

   Best of all, Ornig is no run-of-the-mill TR hagiographer (and there are plenty of them out there), nor is he interested in taking unfair potshots at the great man (plenty of those folks out there, too). Ornig simply relates events as they occured, and doesn't care a whit whether they cast TR in a favorable or unfavorable light: TR was a poor shot (due to his poor eyesight) and became grumpy and embarassed when he missed easy targets. TR was delighted with the impact on his waistline when the expedition was forced to subsist on reduced rations -- and argued against the restoration of full rations even though others were suffering. Do these facts detract from the TR legend, or add to it? I have never been a fan of Marble Men, and found that I loved TR even more after glimpsing some of his human flaws in MY LAST CHANCE TO BE A BOY. No student of TR should be without this volume.




3. Ornig's book is the first full account of this amazing adventure since Theodore Roosevelt was alive to tell it himself. Thanks to the author's years of meticulous research, we get to see the ex-president up close as every ounce of courage and determination that can possibly be required of a human being is exacted by this perilous expedition. Why would a man, having already carved his name in history, literally risk his life in service to exploration? The book title is informative; it was the kind of thing he loved to do. Roosevelt's passion for for life was abundantly demonstrated on the River of Doubt as he and his party encountered one life-threatening obstacle after another. If it wasn't the hostile natives who tracked them, it was the piranhas. If it wasn't a lack of food and supplies, it was flesh-eating disease.... As if fighting just to survive the forces of nature weren't enough, there was also the recklessness of some, including his own son. And there were personal conflicts among the explorers--disagreements, arguments, theft--and a murder. This wilderness adventure had it all--and it wasn't reality TV. No camera crew, no global positioning system, no one to bail them out at any point. In this age of apathy and plasticized existence, this story is all the more striking.
   
   Thus, out of this book emerges a fresh portrait of Theodore Roosevelt. We learn a great deal about him under conditions of maximum stress. We also get to know the group of explorers who accompanied him. And the generous 48 pages of maps and photographs are a real plus. Many thanks to the author for rediscovering this story and dusting it off for us with such literary finesse. For a non-fiction history work, it reads like a novel.

No comments about Insight Pocket Guide Rio De Janeiro And Its Coast (Insight Pocket Guides).

5 comments about Travelers' Tales Brazil (Travelers' Tales Guides).

1. The book is unique in its wide range of viewpoints and subject matter. Interesting to see Brazil covered this way. I found it very helpful when I went to Brazil, along with the books "Lonely Planet: Brazil" and "The Brazilian Sound" (Temple University Press).



2. I so enjoyed reading about the people and places of Brazil in this book. I am hooked on "Travelers' Tales" books now. I am excited to have a deeper knowledge now of the heart of this place in preparation for my trip there. The short story format is ideal for me and the variety of entries paints a colorful picture. Anyone traveling to Brazil should pick this up for before and after the trip.



3. After returning home from a 10 day missions trip to Brazil I found myself scouring the book shelves for books on Brazilian culture and history. The stories captured in Travelers' Tales : Brazil, truly brought me right back to Brazil. Each tale awoke a memory, a scent, a feeling that could only be brought on by "saudade". I look forward to my next trip to this rich country armed with a book full of ideas for my next adventure.



4. The Travelers' Tales are just that - fifty stories mostly written by occasional or short-term visitors to Brazil. While it's often fun to tune in to their wonder and amazement at the things they discover, there are occasional disappointments. The stories range in quality from the very strong (Alma Guillermoprieto discussing evangelism, Bill McKibben on the orderly city of Curitiba, Alexander Shankland on Canudos); to the so-so (Downs Matthews on the nineteenth century flight of American confederate sympathizers to Brazil - a good topic but written in a silly sappy prose); to the downright unreadable (Christopher Hall on Candomble, Rachel C. Derrick searching for Africa in Salvador, John Krich on Ipanema, and Gilbert Phelps' pointless and themeless final chapter).

   Predictably, most of the stories discuss Rio, the Amazon, and Salvador. Useful and colorful, no doubt, but the gems are those that get off these well-chronicled paths and surprise a reader with something really new. Like most travel-style writers, many here offer their own novice attempts at Portuguese words, often amusingly wrong, but earnest. Brazil is a vast, shocking, wonderful country. This book is fairly successful at presenting different facets and different perspectives. Perhaps it's not the only book you'd want to read if you were going to spend some time in Brazil, but it's among the handful that would help you understand the people and the place.




5. Travelers Tales Guide of Brazil should be required reading for anyone applying for a Brazilian visa. The 50 travel essays capture the essence of Brazil. They're brief, mostly well-written, sometimes entertaining, and always revealing the people and culture of this dynamic country. I expected to find mostly stories about the Amazon and Rio; they're there as are so many other diverse places from Curitiba to Belem.

   As an aficionado of Brazilian music, I particularly enjoyed the two articles by John Krich: Simply Irrisistible and The Guy from Ipanema. Alma Guillermoprieto gives great samba instructions for both men and women. And I learned about cachaca and capoeira, though both are fluid, one a drink and the other a beautiful martial arts performance.

   It made my trip to Brazil more enjoyable.

3 comments about The Brazilian Photographs of Genevieve Naylor, 1940-1942.

1. Genevieve Naylor was a PSA photographer hired by Nelson Rockefeller to travel through Brazil and document how American's wartime allies lives and worked. Her large format, beautifully printed photos reveal the texture of life in a proud and vibrant country. The author of this book provides clear and highly insightful analysis of the historical context in which to understand and appreciate Naylor's genius.



2. The photographer, Genevieve Naylor, went to Brazil after working for the Associated Press and the Roosevelt administration's photographic corps. She brought to her assignment a wonderful eye for composition and an affection for the simple aspects of Brazilian life. This is a compelling book that is beautifully printed and handsomely presented. The author does an excellent job of setting the scene, too.



3. This is a beautifully-produced books with haunting photogrpahs of a Brazil that has largely vanished. The focus is on people, and the photographer captures their humanity. Excellent analysis and history too.

No comments about Brazil Country Map by Hema.

5 comments about Rio de Janeiro (Writer and the City).

1. As a lover of Rio de Janeiro (like every carioca), I was amazed by Ruy Castro's inspired view of Rio. He manages to make this book as interesting for someone looking just for a travel guide as for the most serious student of the city's history and soul.
   
   Rio is more than just a beautiful city, and he captures it. No one who's ever been to Rio or who lives here can ignore the fact that the city, with its problems and wonders, like a being greater than its buildings, streets, beaches and mountains, is a major character of our lives.
   
   He pictures everything the make us cariocas: the history, the geography, the habits, the music of the city.
   
   This is no common book about Rio. Ruy Castro offers, in a good-humored and elegant style, a guide to the carioca soul: a fresh, original and colorful view of the city and the people that make it the best place to live in the world.



2. Castro seems to work pretty hard at sounding like a real writer. The result is a lot of over-thought poeticisms, overstatements and generalizations for the sake of the book and at the expense of a real look at Rio. Crudely crafted and flippant at times.



3. I first read Ruy Castro's 'Bossa Nova' and wanted more! Then I found this book, and loved it. I also went on to read Ruy Castro's next book (translated into English) Garrincha which is about a Futebol star. I am not into soccer but I loved the book.
   I recommend this book.



4. Ruy Castro's slim volume on Rio de Janeiro provides the casual reader a compelling portrait of that most intriguing of cities. Providing a rapid history of the city from the first Portuguese explorers to the celebrations of the dawn of the 21st century, he tells the tale of a city that has at times been the height of fashion, that has provided the world with at least its share of memorable movie scenes, more than its requisite portion of compelling rhythms, and a plentiful supply of legends, scandalous and otherwise.
   
   Seemingly influenced by the flaneur approach to writing on cities (though not adopting the majority of that form's conventions) and with the long memory that comes of living in and loving a city for his whole natural life, Castro gives plentiful insight into a genteel experience of the city. He tells how Rio rose over its first few centuries, and then fell into the same morose situation that afflicted so many metropolises through the Cold War years, a conflation of the effects of over-exposure that turned an exciting, exclusive experience like early Copacobana into the banality of over-exposure, and a structuralist approach to cities that sucked them of life. Alongside the allusions to many a scandalous encounter, there are nods to the less glamorous aspects of Rio's underbelly, but the favelas, the drugs trade and Brazil's notorious crimeworld are skipped over with only the scantest of mentions.
   
   Despite the vivid picture he draws, for all the talk of hypnotic rhythms, the book never quite grips the reader or imparts the carnival spirit on which its first half is almost entirely focussed. It may be that that detachment is telling of a divorce that has taken place between the Rio of legend and the Rio as experienced by a man who has lived through the city's awkward middle years and is still trying to work out a place in a new age, but it results in a less engaging book than one might hope this city would inspire. As a quick read, Rio is worth a look, but its not quite the mesmerising experience readers may be looking for.



5. Castro is a fair writer, presenting an honest view of the city. I've never been, so I cannot base this on my own experiences. The book presents a little bit of everything which seems to be central to Rio: the nightlife, Carnival, the cuisine and, most importantly for me, the history. The problem with small books such as this one, which in a standard layout would maybe top 130 pages, is that the writer is prohibited from straying from the main path of introducing the city to the reader. I would say this book is the equivalent of spending two days in a major city - seeing the major sights, creating opinions and generalizations without really getting to know any citizen or neighborhood too well. However, the book did succeed in what I took as its major goal: to get the reader to go to Rio. Brazil is now definitely near the top of my travel list.

No comments about Journal of a Residence in Chile During the Year 1822, and a Voyage from Chile to Brazil in 1823.

5 comments about Samba.

1. Samba is a highly personal account by a journalist who takes us into the center of the carnival experience in Rio, seen from the point of view of a very poor neighborhood with a rich carnival tradition. Through this we learn worlds about Afro-Brazilian culture, the notion of "exotic" as often applied to the tropics, and about Ms. Guillermoprieto's fascinating way of understanding and relating, as a Mexican, to a powerful Latin tradition quite other than hers. While there are some problems of organization, this is a very informative book, but mostly I found it fun, and it made me want to be in Rio and to dance.



2. This is a good book written by a journalist who consistently produces some of the most insightful work on Latin America in the U.S. print media. Writing from a journalist's perspective about her own experiences as a white Mexican living in Brazil it's a great read. I was captivated when I read it. Other reviewers are correct, there are better studis of all the subjects she covers, and as a Latin American historian, lusophile, and student of Capoeira I could find flaws to; here historical sections are simplistic, etc. But why bother? She did live there and join a Samba school, she freely admits her limitations, concerns, and desires, and she writes like a dream. That is hard to find and worth reading.



3. For an author whose first language is spanish, her skill in writing in english has to be commended -but she ain't Borges. Planning a research trip/adventure for a year in Rio, and then writting about her life there obviously demonstrates Guillermoprieto's ability to earn money by doing what she likes. Her style is journalistic and if you've never visited a third world country you can get a good idea from her observations of what living in one, as an average citizen, is like, eg. people accustomed to little prosperity evidently will go to great lengths for entertainment, and to achieve a feeling of importance. If you want to learn about samba, well- guillermoprieto is not omniscient. Conclusion: If you want to read something, you could do a lot worse than this book, but it's not a keeper. get it from the library.



4. Guillermoprieto is both a skilled writer and a serious scholar. That combination makes this erudite, and exceedingly detailed study of the black underclass in Brazilian society both readable and engaging. She employs an inductive approach, using the culture surrounding the Samba and Carnival in Rio as a base for exploring the status of blacks in Brazilian society and the many contradictions and ironies in light of their prevailing influence in all levels of Brazilian culture.

   The story is fascinating and the author admirable, because in order to learn and effectively represent the culture of the Samba and black Brazilian society (which she pretty effectively demonstrates are in many ways largely synonymous) she not only joined a Samba club in order to participate in Carnival, but also moved into the favelas of Rio.

   Guillermoprieto depicts the injustice of the blacks' fate in Brazil in a dispassionate, yet also very poignant and sympathetic manner. She allows the compelling facts to represent themselves without embellishing them with personal assessments, which makes her writing that much more powerful.

   This is really a great book: a fascinating story about the complex organization and serious part of the Brazilian economy that the Samba and Carnival comprise, and a distinctive and holistic representation of black Brazilian society and the rest of that nation in its reflection.




5. If you are interested in learning the true roots of Samba and Brazilian Carnaval(and not just the obligatory blurbs that you see in guidebooks), then this book is an absolute must for you to read. Alma Guillermoprieto does a superb job describing the rich religious, historical, and socioeconomic roots of Brazilian Carnaval and Samba - both of which have become famous around the world, yet remain remarkably poorly understood.

   Guillermoprieto writes in a very engaging, enjoyable style, which occassionally seems more like an engrossing novel than a non-fiction work. If you have ever been curious to learn more about Brazilian culture, this is the book to start with!

3 comments about Brazil, 5th (Footprint - Travel Guides).

1. As someone who has taken a walk around the block a few times in my lifespan, I have read a few travel guides to pave my way. I bought this one as it was the most recent available as a fresh publication, and on the positive reviews this series has scored on Amazon. I prefer to have cultural sites and restaurant information listed separately.
   
   This book jumbles everything you may see by neighbourhood in the larger cities, and one might not choose to go a location if one doesn't know what is there to see as far as museums and historical sites. Also, i like to search for restaurants by type. It is convenient for people with special diets or preferences (vegetarian, seafood, certain ethnic types).
   
   If you have time to read the WHOLE book, including the other chapters where information on other Brazilian cultural information is hidden (football, food and drink), then you may get more out of it than I did. As for myself, I found another publisher's guide that had been printed back in 2003 more useful.



2. After Lonely Planet the dense Footprint format gets a bit of getting used to but the information within the guide is far superior; especially if you are looking to understand the country rather than just pass through. I found the listings better too - with a higher quality of hotels and restaurants, especially in the middle and upper ranges.
   
   This is one of Footprint's better books - covering this vast continent sized country with real love and understanding. I found it a great companion on my journey in Sao Paulo, Rio, Bahia and Central Brazil - where it helped me find places in the Chapada dos Veadeiros and Pirenopolis just not listed anywhere else.



3. This year (Sept/Oct 2007) I spent a month traveling through Brazil. I took three guides: Footprint 5th edition, Lonely Planet and Frommer's. Footprint would have been my first choice, BUT, it has some weak areas that need improvement.
   
   First, what works. The maps in this guide are plentiful, they are easy to use and read. It has excellent full color maps at the front and the back of the guide. Footprint rivals Lonely Plant with it wide sweeping coverage of Brazil. Kudos. If you are going off the beaten path, this is a outstanding guide to take with you. If you are going to go just to the Amazon, then this is the best guide available (70 pages). Also, Alex Robinson's descriptions of cities, significant locations and sights to see are top rate. His sidebars, and highlighted information sections, are excellent.
   
   However, if you are looking for a guide to help you with the Carnival (Rio/Salvador/Recife) keep looking. This guide has an abysmal 2 pages on the event (The best Brazil guide for Carnival is Frommer's). Robinson's restaurant choices are disappointing and his descriptions are very terse and often trite: "Excellent seafood in a street side restaurant", or "Hamburgers, juices, sandwiches." Other guides have restaurant write-ups that make you want to try the food, i.e. Frommer's, "We tried the filet of mignons in cassis sauce and grilled figs and the lamb in tamarind sauce on a bed of cassve puree."
   
   Robinson's bland descriptions continues with the accommodations:"Good value for the category." Hum. What category? Like the restaurant choices, the accommodations recommendations are hit or miss. One of the worse hotels we used was highly promoted in the guide (Recife Monte in Recife - Avoid! - see TripAdvisor) .
   
   About money: Brazil is not `cheep'. This guide incorrectly states that the prices are "about a third of those in the USA". NOT. The dollar's fall makes Brazil about as expensive as the USA. In Rio, a decent hotel (not great a hotel, just decent) is at least $100 and up. A good, not great, meal is at least $20 to $30. I traveled during the "Low Season" and I found that I needed $100-$150 a day to travel at a 3-4 star level and eat OK (not including my airfares). You should add at least 20-30% in high season and at least 60% at Carnival.
   
   Finally, I found Culture Shock! Brazil 2007 by Volker Poelzl (highly recommended --see my review) to be a `must read' if you want to better understand this dynamic and diverse country. Overall, Footprint Brazil 2007 is a good guide, but Frommer's is better for restaurant and accommodation recommendations. 3.5 stars