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Discover Brazil & Argentina

READING AND TRAVEL GUIDE

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Enrich your travels with reading! Here's a hand-picked list prepared for your journey in conjunction with the book experts at Longitude.

Essential Reading

Item EXSAM194. Buy these 4 items as a set for $56 including shipping, 20% off the retail price.
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Lonely Planet Buenos Aires

Lonely Planet Buenos Aires

by Lonely Planet

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 256 PAGES

The best of Buenos Aires is included in this practical guide, along with a pullout map and insider recommendations on shopping, eating, sleeping and day trips. (ARG10, $19.99)

Long After Midnight at the Nino Bien

Long After Midnight at the Nino Bien

by Brian Winter

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2008
  • HARD COVER
  • 336 PAGES

A journalist posted to the capital during the economic crisis, Winter captures the rhythms and character of Buenos Aires with fearless, profane wit in this wise and rollicking portrait. (ARG80, $24.95)

Buenos Aires Map

Buenos Aires Map

by Borch Maps

  • 2006
  • MAP

A laminated street map of Buenos Aires and surroundings at a scale of 1:15,000. (ARG38, $8.95)

Rio de Janeiro Map

Rio de Janeiro Map

by National Geographic

  • 2011
  • MAP

With an index, inset maps and points of interest. (BZL25, $8.99)

 
Portuguese, Start Speaking Today (Brazilian)

Portuguese, Start Speaking Today (Brazilian)


by Language/30

  • LANGUAGE & PHRASEBOOKS
  • 1998
  • CASETTE TAPE

A 90-minute primer on Brazilian Portuguese following the foreign service method. (BZL36, $24.95)

Bossa Nova, The Story of the Brazilian Music That Seduced the World

Bossa Nova, The Story of the Brazilian Music That Seduced the World


by Ruy Castro

  • HISTORY
  • 2003
  • PAPER
  • 372 PAGES

Journalist Ruy Castro interviewed everyone who had anything to do with Boss Nova for this animated history, capturing not only the personalities of pioneers like Antonio Carlos Jobim and Joao Gilberto but also the spirit of Rio de Janeiro in the 1960s. (BZL47, $17.95)

Buenos Aires, A Cultural History

Buenos Aires, A Cultural History


by Jason Wilson | Alberto Manguel

  • HISTORY
  • 2000
  • PAPER
  • 249 PAGES

This well-referenced book offers a look into the geographical history of the city and goes in hand nicely with a more traditional guidebook. The city's underlying themes are laid out: Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortazar and the European literary tradition; tango, the longing and despair of the music and its roots; the cult of Evita Peron; European-influenced architecture and cafe life; totalitarian politics; and the nearly religious importance of soccer. (ARG21, $15.00)

Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro


by Ruy Castro

  • CULTURAL PORTRAIT
  • 2004
  • HARD COVER
  • 224 PAGES

Castro brings journalistic insight to this marvelous, diverse portrait of Rio, its history, diverse culture and contemporary challenges. (BZL42, $16.95)

Tango, The Art History of Love

Tango, The Art History of Love


by Robert Farris Thompson

  • HISTORY
  • 2006
  • PAPER
  • 384 PAGES

A probing cultural history of the tango, its working class origins in 19th-century Buenos Aires and Afro-Argentine roots. (ARG56, $17.00)

Tango: the Dance, the Song, the Story

Tango: the Dance, the Song, the Story


by Simon Collier

  • CULTURAL PORTRAIT
  • 1997
  • PAPER
  • 208 PAGES

A spirited, illustrated tribute to the tango, the now-elegant dance born in the brothels among the working class of 19th-century Buenos Aires. (ARG14, $29.95)

The Brazilians

The Brazilians


by Joseph Page

  • CULTURAL PORTRAIT
  • 1996
  • PAPER
  • 540 PAGES

A clear, comprehensive and compelling introduction to Brazil, covering politics, history, economics, ecology, conservation and culture. (AMZ16, $22.95)

The Brazilian Sound: Samba, Bossa Nova, and the Popular Music of Brazil


by Chris McGowan | Ricardo Pessanha

  • MUSIC
  • 1998
  • PAPER
  • 248 PAGES

A wide-ranging history of popular music in Brazil, revised with an undated discography of 1000 titles. The authors write for Billboard magazine. (BZL52, $31.95)

A Death in Brazil

A Death in Brazil


by Peter Robb

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2005
  • PAPER
  • 329 PAGES

Peter Robb (Midnight in Sicily) flourishes his mastery of the complexities of Brazilian travel, politics, culture and history. This book is impressive for its prose, insight and the author's sheer bravura. (BZL43, $18.00)

Evita, The Real Life of Eva Peron

Evita, The Real Life of Eva Peron


by Nicholas Fraser

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 1996
  • PAPER
  • 222 PAGES

Separating fact from myth, Frazer traces Evita's life from her humble origins to her place as a revered cult figure, also exploring Peronism and Argentine politics of the 1930s and 1940s. (ARG03, $15.95)

Far Away and Long Ago

Far Away and Long Ago


by W.H. Hudson

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2006
  • PAPER
  • 338 PAGES

Hudson's enthralling childhood remembrances are rich with descriptions of the landscapes, birds and nature of Argentina. (SAM11, $34.95)

Samba

Samba


by Alma Guillermoprieto

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 1991
  • PAPER
  • 244 PAGES

A memorable account of life and music on the coast of Brazil by the talented and wide-ranging Guillermoprieto. A dancer herself, she lived for a year in Manguiera, a favela near Rio known for its samba school. Nominated for a National Book Award. (BZL38, $16.00)

Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands

Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands


by Jorge Amado

  • LITERATURE
  • 2006
  • PAPER
  • 576 PAGES

The best known novel by Brazil's much loved author. Amado spins a satiric tale of a young cooking teacher in Salvador, Bahia, who is haunted by her first husband, a philandering ne'er do well who dropped dead at carnival. (BZL35, $15.95)

Imagining Argentina

Imagining Argentina


by Lawrence Thornton

  • LITERATURE
  • 2003
  • PAPER
  • 240 PAGES

A brilliant first novel that captures the hope and spirit of Argentina during the military rule of the late 1970s. This inventive tale focuses on Carlos Rueda and a group of citizens whose relatives disappeared. (ARG01, $15.00)

The Buenos Aires Quintet

The Buenos Aires Quintet


by Manuel Vazquez Montalban

  • LITERATURE
  • 2012
  • PAPER
  • 377 PAGES
  • COMING IN FEBRUARY

Montalban comments on not just wine, women and song, but also much of Argentina's political and cultural history in this riveting detective tale set against a backdrop of 1970s Buenos Aires culture and the era's repressive military junta. (ARG48, $14.95)

The Silence of the Rain

The Silence of the Rain


by Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza

  • MYSTERY
  • 2003
  • PAPER
  • 272 PAGES

A businessman is killed and Inspector Espinosa, an intellectual with a wandering heart, is on the case in this bestselling Brazilian mystery, memorably set in Rio de Janeiro. (BZL61, $17.00)

The War of the End of the World

The War of the End of the World


by Mario Vargas Llosa | Helen Lane

  • LITERATURE
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 576 PAGES

An unforgettable historical novel about the rebellion of the lower-class citizens of Canudos, Brazil, in the late 19th century. (BZL18, $17.00)

More Recommendations

Here are some other groups of books that might be of interest

Longitude provides recommended reading for travelers in partnership with the leading tour operators and travel programs for hundreds of destinations worldwide. We've got the classic, new and hard-to-find books and maps to help you get the most out of your adventures.