1 comments about Amazon Stranger: A Rainforest Chief Battles Big Oil.

1. This book is at once an adventure story, a profile of a fascinating individual, a heartbreaking account of one of the greatest environmental crimes taking place in the world today (the destruction by oil companies of one of the world's richest ecosystems, Ecuador and Colombia containing the greatest biodiversity of the entire Amazon Basin) and a David-and-Goliath story of a tiny Amazonian tribe, the Cofan, battling for survival against multinational corporations. As all of those things, it bears comparison with Joe Kane's "Savages," but the Cofan have already dealt with much more destruction than have the Waorani, and this book spends more time on first-hand descriptions of both the riches of the Ecuadorian rain forest and the consequences of oil exploration. (I would recommend this book not only to activists who are trying to save the Amazon, but also to those who are working to save the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from oil exploitation, to explode to smithereens the notion that oil exploitation would not devastate the ecology there.)

   The editorial reviews here cover just about everything else I would say about this book, so I won't repeat their comments, just direct the reader to them.

   ...One factual error this book makes repeatedly that I would like to correct: although they speak the same language as the Indians of the Andean highlands, and although they expanded northward into Cofan territory relatively recently, the Amazonian Quichua are NOT migrants from the highlands and NOT newcomers to the rainforest. They are true Amazonian people, distinct syncretic cultures created from the remnants of various destroyed Amazonian tribes who blended together and adopted their lingua franca (Quichua) as their first language. Though the Amazonian Quichua have been influenced (=weakened) by missionaries for much longer than the Cofan, their roots in the rainforest are every bit as deep.

No comments about South America, Surprise! (Our Amazing Continents).

1 comments about Argentina, Una Travesia Aerea/argentina, Air Flight.

1. I bought this book in a store in Buenos Aires for 150 pesos (U$S 42). The pictures are breathtaking and remind me of the trip I took to Patagonia earlier this year. I highly recommend this book - it has maps of each region and where each photo was taken. It covers all of Argentina, from the romance of Buenos Aires, the beauty of Patagonia (like Alaska for us Americans), and the desolation of the Salta in the north (salt flats). I only wish I would have bought a second copy to give as a gift to family - I figured Amazon would have stocked it, given the quality. Worth the wait and price even if you have to get it here and pay list!!

No comments about Travels with Tooy: History, Memory, and the African American Imagination.

No comments about The Deep South: Smithsonian Guides (Smithsonian Guides to Historic America).

No comments about On a Hoof and a Prayer.

1 comments about Scats and Tracks of the Great Lakes: A Field Guide to the Signs of Seventy Wildlife Species (Scats and Tracks Series).

1. What I like best about this book is that it is simple enough for my 3 year old to put into use. He loves hiking and even going in our backyard and trying to match the pictures in the book with the tracks in the snow and mud. Very useful, filled with great information for myself.

No comments about Colombia, 3rd: Tread Your Own Path (Footprint - Travel Guides).

1 comments about Atlantic Cruising Club's Guide to Florida's East Coast Marinas: Fernandina, Florida to Key West, Florida (Book & CD-ROM).

1. This is a great reference for a Northwesterner,with little knowledge about Florida's cruising grounds and moorage availability and cost. We plan on buying a boat in Florida, fixing it up, the then sailing the Caribbean, so this book is an invaluable resource. It's also a great reference, since I am a co-editor for the Bluewater Cruising Associations (BCA) magazine, "Currents", which is published for members interested in going offshore.

3 comments about Terra: Struggle of the Landless.

1. Once again, Sebastiao Salgado is back, and with two heavy weights by his side: Jose Saramago (preface) and Chico Buarque (poems).
   Like all his previous works, the camera that made `Terra' points to the heart of all human being worthy of that classification; with Chico's poems pointing at each ones soul and Saramago's pen pointing at our conscience (and that of God), if this book does not make us see the world in a whole different way, then we better worry before looking at the mirror...
   Fernando Gouveia (fgouveia@marao.utad.pt), Vila Real, Portugal



2. I took a look at this book in a book store, here in Berkeley Ca. The people you meet as you flip thru the photos make you want to re-examine your own life. Most of the people in these photographs have extremely difficult lives, due to a twist of fate rather than a personal choice. Salgado has not photographed them for pity or to gain sympathy from you, as much as he has shown you a side of yourself... and I am not talking about a "mirror" either. (I am talking about the side that you CAN'T see without Salgado's camera)

   These people struggle and may suffer personal tragedies, but there is dignity in their souls. When you see these people, they may not be in control of their fate, whatever terrible fate it may be, but they are in control of their hearts. The blood that runs through the veins of the people Salgado introduced me to, in the photos from the other side of the globe, flows deeper, and redder, and richer than does the blood in my world...

   Their lives are fleeting and so is yours my friend, but I believe they have wings; we do not. While you and I are burdened with the weight of unfunny jokes and political scandals, they are free, burdened only with broken hearts and bones that heal fast and clean...
   
   I could not afford the price of the book myself, I could barely afford to stand there as long as I did reading the book; I mean how long can one view a side of oneself so rarely llumiminated?

   Once I thought, all I needed to know was God, or to know a beautiful woman, or maybe just smile to bystanders... but I realize I KNOW NOTHING... and that leaves a lot for me to want to know, still. Good luck to you if you should get this book.




3. A poignant illustration of the landless plight in Brazil! As evidenced by another reviewer, this book has the ability to thaw the heart of even the most ultra conservative (e.g. "Most of the people in these photographs have extremely difficult lives, due to a twist of fate rather than a personal choice.") They are landless because most middle-class Brazilians view the landless as making horrible life choices as opposed to being pushed by the wind of fate...and ironically they think descendents of Africans in the United States have much to teach "their" Amerindians and African populations about success. The irony! Yes, read it, see it, and see yourself.