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Click on Essential Reading for the featured set of Cuba books and a map. We offer free shipping on anything else you order with the travel books package.

Essential Reading

Item EXCBA36. Buy these 6 items as a set for $100 including shipping, 15% off the retail price.
With free shipping on anything else you order.

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Cuba, What Everyone Needs to Know

Cuba, What Everyone Needs to Know

by Julia Sweig

  • HISTORY
  • 2013
  • PAPER
  • 336 PAGES

Director for Latin America Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, Julia Sweig traces the geography, history and identity of Cuba in this admirably succinct portrait of the island nation and its role in world affairs. This just-released second edition includes Sweig's 2010 interview with Fidel Castro and key events of the last few years: Raul Castro's assumption of power from his brother Fidel, economic and political reforms since Raul came to power, and the changes in US-Cuba relations following the election of Barack Obama. One in a series of balanced, concise guides by Oxford, which also includes China, Turkey and Burma. (CBA126, $16.95)

Cuba, A Traveler's Literary Companion

Cuba, A Traveler's Literary Companion

by Ann Louise Bardach

  • ANTHOLOGY
  • 2002
  • PAPER
  • 234 PAGES

Bardach (Without Fidel) samples terrific contemporary writers for this anthology, organized geographically. (CBA58, $14.95)

Cuba

Cuba

by Pierre Hausherr | Francois Missen

  • CULTURAL PORTRAIT
  • 2010
  • PAPER
  • 272 PAGES

With full-page photographs, introductory essays on history, architecture, music, food and more, this oversized, illustrated paperback by Pulitzer-prize winning journalist Francois Missen and photographer Pierre Hausherr captures the spirit of Cuba, its people, nature and culture. (CBA143, $24.95)

Our Man in Havana

Our Man in Havana

by Graham Greene

  • LITERATURE
  • 2007
  • PAPER
  • 240 PAGES
  • FAVORITE

The classic story of a British vacuum cleaner salesman who gets accidentally drawn into cold war espionage with disastrous results. (CBA19, $15.00)

Moon Handbook Cuba

Moon Handbook Cuba

by Christopher P. Baker

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2010
  • PAPER
  • 684 PAGES

Baker's comprehensive, indispensable guide leaves no stone unturned, covering the natural, cultural and political life of the island with style. (CBA04, $24.95)

Cuba Map

Cuba Map

by Borch Maps

  • 2011
  • MAP

A detailed, double-sided laminated map at a scale of 1:1,000,000. (CBA20, $10.95)

 
Streetwise Cuba Map w/ Havana

Streetwise Cuba Map w/ Havana


by Streetwise Maps

  • MAP

This very convenient, accordion-fold, laminated map shows the island on one side and a very good inset of Central Havana on the reverse. (CBA39, $12.95)

Culture Smart! Cuba

Culture Smart! Cuba


by Mandy Macdonald

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2006
  • PAPER
  • 168 PAGES

A concise, well-illustrated and practical guide to local customs, etiquette and culture. (CBA105, $9.95)

Insight Guide Cuba


by Insight Guides

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 384 PAGES

This illustrated, surprisingly informative guide includes excellent color maps and thoughtful short essays on history, culture and attractions. (CBA131, $24.99)

National Geographic Cuba

National Geographic Cuba


by Christopher P. Baker

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2012
  • PAPER
  • 272 PAGES

A traveler's guide to the history, nature, culture, and attractions of Cuba, thoroughly illustrated in dependable National Geographic style. (CBA109, $22.95)

Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba

Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba


by Tom Gjelten

  • HISTORY
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 432 PAGES

Gjelten chronicles the rich intersection of power and politics, community and exile in contemporary Cuba through the saga of the Bacardi family. A fixture in making 1920s Havana a playground for the rich and famous in the prohibition era, Bacardi -- and its proprietary yeast strain -- famously left Cuba for Puerto Rico during the revolution. (CBA117, $17.00)

Cuba, A New History

Cuba, A New History


by Richard Gott

  • HISTORY
  • 2005
  • PAPER
  • 384 PAGES

British journalist Gott casts a fresh eye on the history of the Caribbean island from its pre-Columbian origins to the present. (CBA165, $22.00)

Havana, A Cultural and Literary Companion

Havana, A Cultural and Literary Companion


by Claudia Lightfoot

  • CULTURAL PORTRAIT
  • 2002
  • PAPER
  • 256 PAGES

An illuminating guide to the city, its history and geography, as the inspiration for writers, artists, musicians and intellectuals. (CBA49, $15.00)

Inside Havana

Inside Havana


by Julio Cesar Perez Hernandez

  • CULTURAL PORTRAIT
  • 2011
  • HARD COVER
  • 240 PAGES

This handsome book showcases the diverse architecture of Havana, from modernist masterpieces to splendid baroque palaces and traditional businesses such as the Partagas cigar factory, one of Havana's oldest and finest. With expert writing by Hernandez and rich color photographs by Gianni Basso. (CBA102, $29.99)

Obi, Oracle of Cuban Santeria


by Ocha'Ni Lele

  • RELIGION
  • 2001
  • PAPER
  • 184 PAGES

Ocha'Ni describes the lore, ritual and customs surrounding the Obi, the oracle of the Santeria faith. (CBA172, $14.95)

That Infernal Little Cuban Republic, The United States and the Cuban Revolution

That Infernal Little Cuban Republic, The United States and the Cuban Revolution


by Lars Schoultz

  • HISTORY
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 745 PAGES

Drawing on a rich array of firsthand documents and interviews, Schoultz explores the efforts of ten U.S. administrations to end the Cuban Revolution. (CBA128, $29.95)

The Boys from Dolores, Fidel Castro's Classmates from Revolution to Exile


by Patrick Symmes

  • HISTORY
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 352 PAGES

Teens will particularly enjoy this remarkable tale of a group of boys, chosen for leadership -- and swept into war, revolution, and exile by two of their own number, Fidel and Raul Castro. (CBA196, $15.95)

The Cuba Reader: History, Culture, Politics

The Cuba Reader: History, Culture, Politics


by Aviva Chomsky | Barry Carr | Pamela Maria Smorkaloff

  • CULTURAL PORTRAIT
  • 2004
  • PAPER
  • 723 PAGES

Organized chronologically, this multi-faceted portrait of a nation, with most of the selections by Cuban writers, includes not only history, journalism and literature but also songs, paintings, poems and cartoons and speeches. (CBA93, $29.95)

The History of Cuba


by Clifford L. Staten

  • HISTORY
  • 2005
  • PAPER
  • 162 PAGES

Staten covers the sweep of Cuba's history from its earliest days as a Spanish colony, through its wars for independence and the U.S. occupation to Batista, the Cold War, and the Special Period, when Cuba fell into crisis after the breakup of the Soviet Union -- all in under 200 pages. A Palgrave Essential History. (CBA195, $20.00)

Walker Evans, Cuba

Walker Evans, Cuba


by Andrei Codrescu | Walker Evans

  • CULTURAL PORTRAIT
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 96 PAGES

The original 1933 photographs of Cuba by the great social realist Walker Evans. (CBA56, $24.95)

Without Fidel

Without Fidel


by Ann Louise Bardach

  • HISTORY
  • 2009
  • HARD COVER
  • 176 PAGES

A PEN award-winning journalist who has covered Cuba for 15 years, Bardach (Cuba Confidential) brings knowledge, tenacity and verve to this report on the future of the country. (CBA112, $28.00)

Cuba and Its Music, From the First Drums to the Mambo

Cuba and Its Music, From the First Drums to the Mambo


by Ned Sublette

  • MUSIC
  • 2007
  • PAPER
  • 688 PAGES

A thorough and entertaining history of Cuba and its music by the popular radio producer, music historian and cofounder of Cuban record label QbaDisc. (CBA129, $21.95)

Havana, History and Architecture of a Romantic City

Havana, History and Architecture of a Romantic City


by Maria Luisa Lobo Montalvo | Hugh Thomas

  • ART & ARCHITECTURE
  • 2009
  • HARD COVER
  • 320 PAGES

This magnificent history of Havana, featuring 480 color illustrations, shows the city and its growth from Spanish colony to independence. (CBA46, $85.00)

New Art of Cuba

New Art of Cuba


by Luis Camnitzer

  • ART & ARCHITECTURE
  • 2003
  • PAPER
  • 456 PAGES

A survey of Cuban art since 1981, all by young artists who have come-of-age since the revolution, and revised to reflect more recent developments Twenty-four new color plates augment the 200 black and white illustrations. (CBA79, $29.95)

Before Night Falls

Before Night Falls


by Reinaldo Arenas | Delores Koch

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 1994
  • PAPER
  • 336 PAGES

A deeply moving autobiography, highly critical of the Castro regime. Arenas tells the story of his youth in poor, rural Cuba, his time with Castro's rebels, and his emergence as a writer. Seen as a political dissident both for his political views and his homosexuality, Arenas fled to New York, where he died of AIDS in 1991 (shortly after this book was completed). (CBA37, $16.00)

Cuba Diaries

Cuba Diaries


by Isadora Tattlin

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2003
  • PAPER
  • 304 PAGES

In this rousing memoir, subtitled An American Housewife in Havana, Tattlin writes with verve of her family's "rowdy, ambiguous, ironic and sometimes exhilarating time" living in 1990s Cuba. (CBA74, $15.00)

Hemingway's Boat

Hemingway's Boat


by Paul Hendrickson

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2012
  • PAPER
  • 531 PAGES

Focusing on the years 1934 to 1961, from Hemingway's pinnacle as the reigning monarch of American letters until his suicide, Paul Hendrickson traces the writer's life through the story of his beloved boat, Pilar. On display at Hemingway's Finca La Vigia in San Francisco de Paula, east of Havana, it is easy to see how this sleek craft attracted Hemingway, the setting for so much of what the writer loved and the leitmotif of Hendrickson's supple elegy. (USA454, $16.95)

The Sugar King of Havana

The Sugar King of Havana


by John Paul Rathbone

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 304 PAGES

John Paul Rathbone recounts ""elegant, decadent and whirligig years" of pre-revolutionary Havana and the dramatic life of Julio Lobo, the richest man in Cuba (until Castro's revolution did away with such men). Surviving assassin's bullets and making and losing two fortunes, Cuba's last tycoon went from glittering man about town in pre-Revolutionary Havana -- and one of the world's richest men -- to solitary exile in Spain. With a mother that traveled in those same circles in Havana, Rathbone brings depth and the prespective of an insider to this fantastic story. (CBA170, $16.00)

This is Cuba

This is Cuba


by Ben Corbett

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2004
  • PAPER
  • 304 PAGES

Corbett interviews everyday people living on the fringe's of Castro's official Cuba for this account, both a stinging indictment of government policy and a testimony to the Cuban spirit. (CBA157, $18.00)

Trading with the Enemy

Trading with the Enemy


by Tom Miller

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 352 PAGES
  • FAVORITE

Miller captures the openness, sensuality and pride of Cuba and the Cubans in this eloquent account of entertaining travels in Fidel's Cuba. (CBA11, $18.00)

Waiting for Snow in Havana

Waiting for Snow in Havana


by Carlos Eire

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2004
  • PAPER
  • 383 PAGES

A lyrical memoir of a privileged, eccentric boyhood in 1950s Havana. Eire, a historian at Yale, fled with his brother to the United States in the wake of the revolution. (CBA78, $16.00)

Dreaming in Cuban

Dreaming in Cuban


by Cristina Garcia

  • LITERATURE
  • 1993
  • PAPER
  • 244 PAGES

A short, poetic novel of three generations of Cuban women, their reaction to the revolution and the complex relation between those who remained in Cuba and those who settled in the United States. Excellent reading. (CBA18, $15.00)

Havana Requiem

Havana Requiem


by Paul Goldstein

  • MYSTERY
  • 2012
  • HARD COVER
  • 308 PAGES

In this legal thriller by Stanford law professor Goldstein, the charismatic, troubled intellectual property specialist Michael Seeley travels to Cuba to help Cuban musician Hector Reynoso and his friends recover copyrights to their songs. (CBA185, $26.00)

Telex from Cuba

Telex from Cuba


by Rachel Kushner

  • LITERATURE
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 336 PAGES

Kushner re-imagines the world of her mother in this astonishingly wise first novel set in the American enclave in 1950s Cuba. Riveting. (CBA111, $16.00)

The Old Man and the Sea

The Old Man and the Sea


by Ernest Hemingway

  • LITERATURE
  • 1995
  • PAPER
  • 127 PAGES

Hemingway's brief story of a fisherman who after 84 days with no luck finally makes a big catch is also an affectionate portrait of life in Cuba. It won the 1953 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. (CBA02, $12.00)

Natural Cuba

Natural Cuba


by Alfonso Silva Lee

  • NATURAL HISTORY
  • 1997
  • PAPER
  • 173 PAGES

A natural history of the Caribbean's largest tropical island. (CBA25, $24.95)

Birds of Cuba

Birds of Cuba


by Orlando Garrido | Arturo Kirkconnell | Lester Short

  • FIELD GUIDE
  • 2000
  • PAPER
  • 253 PAGES

A compact field guide to the birds of Cuba, featuring 51 color plates, detailed species accounts, and 144 local maps. The authors are curators at the National Museum of Natural History of Cuba. (CBA28, $29.95)

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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.