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Cuba: Connecting with People and Culture

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.

Item EXCBA48. Buy these 6 items as a set for $97 including shipping, 15% off the retail price.
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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)

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 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)

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)

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

by Borch Maps

• 2011
• MAP

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

 

Also Recommended

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)

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

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)

Cuba Confidential, Love and Vengeance in Miami and Havana

by Ann Louise Bardach

• CULTURAL PORTRAIT
• 2003
• PAPER
• 423 PAGES

Investigative reporter Bardach uses the media circus and shenanigans surrounding Elian Gonzalez as a lens to examine heated relations between Cuban exiles in Miami, Castro's government and the United States. (CBA71, $16.95)

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 Nocturne, How the Mob Owned Cuba... and Then Lost It to the Revolution

by T. J. English

• HISTORY
• 2009
• PAPER
• 432 PAGES

English draws on historical sources and interviews in this riveting story of corrupt, decadent Havana during the times of Batista and the Mafia. A great read. (CBA139, $15.99)

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

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)

Primary Health Care in Cuba, The Other Revolution

by Laurence Branch | Linda Whiteford

• CULTURAL PORTRAIT
• 2009
• PAPER
• 138 PAGES

Branch and Whiteford look at Cuba's approaches to child and maternal health, control of communicable and contagious diseases, treatment of chronic diseases, and care for the elderly in this scholarly overview. (CBA147, $24.95)

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)

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

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

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)

Cuba Classics, A Celebration of Vintage American Automobiles

by Christopher P. Baker

• ART & ARCHITECTURE
• 2006
• HARD COVER
• 208 PAGES

Himself a fan of the open road, Baker celebrates the extraordinary cars, the remarkable people who love them and the Cuban love affair with the U.S. automobile in dozens of dazzling color photographs. (CBA158, $29.95)

Cuba, Art and History from 1868 to Today

by Nathalie Bondil

• ART & ARCHITECTURE
• 2009
• PAPER
• 368 PAGES
• OUT OF PRINT

With ravishing color reproductions of murals, posters, paintings and photographs, this magnificent book documents the history of art in Cuba from independence. (CBA127, $49.95)

Cuban Landscapes: Heritage, Memory and Place

by Armando H. Portela | Joseph Scarpaci

• ART & ARCHITECTURE
• 2002
• PAPER
• 464 PAGES

An interdisciplinary examination of the meaning of Cubanness (cubanidad) as manifested through landscape representations. Draws on landscape architecture, art and art history, popular culture, and cultural geography in exploring how insiders and outsiders express aspects of the island's identity and representation (CBA150, $31.00)

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)

Havana, Two Faces of the Antillean Metropolis

by Joseph Scarpaci | Roberto Segre | Mario Coyula

• ART & ARCHITECTURE
• 2002
• PAPER
• 437 PAGES

Two leading Cuban architects/planners and a U.S. geographer present an urban historical overview of Havana's urban-social geography from 1519 until today. An American Library Association Choice Outstanding Book Award winner. (CBA91, $28.95)

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

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)

Conversations With Cuba

by C. Peter Ripley | Bob Shacochis

• TRAVEL NARRATIVE
• 2001
• PAPER
• 252 PAGES

A contemporary profile of Cuba based on the author's interviews and encounters visiting Cuba in the 1990s. (CBA38, $26.00)

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)

Enduring Cuba

by Zoe Bran

• TRAVEL NARRATIVE
• 2008
• PAPER
• 256 PAGES

Bran probes beneath the surface in this absorbing account of meeting locals, a Santeria ceremony and many questions about politics. (CBA84, $14.99)

Mi Moto Fidel, Motorcycling through Castro's Cuba

by Christopher P. Baker

• TRAVEL NARRATIVE
• 2002
• HARD COVER
• 305 PAGES
• HARD TO FIND ELSEWHERE
• OUT OF PRINT

Baker's lively account of a three-month tour through Cuba on a big, red BMW. No shrinking violet, the popular guidebook author includes his many bar and bedroom scenes in this down-to-earth, personal portrait of contemporary Cuba. (CBA41, $24.95)

The Motorcycle Diaries, Notes on a Latin American Journey

by Ann Wright | Ernesto Che Guevara

• TRAVEL NARRATIVE
• 2004
• PAPER
• 175 PAGES

The adventures of the 23-year-old Ernesto "Che" Guevara, as he wanders through South America in 1952 with his companion Alberto Granado, before he became a famed revolutionary. (SAM20, $14.95)

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

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

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

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)

Chango's Beads and Two-Tone Shoes

by William Kennedy

• LITERATURE
• 2012
• PAPER
• 328 PAGES

His life radically changed by an encounter with Ernest Hemingway in Cuba, journalist Daniel Quinn embarks on a turbulant journey marked by such historical events as the Albany race riots, the rise of Fidel Castro and the assassination of Robert Kennedy. (CBA160, $16.00)

Cuba and the Night: A Novel

by Pico Iyer

• LITERATURE
• 1996
• PAPER

A vivid first novel about an American in contemporary Cuba who falls in love with a local girl. (CBA21, $15.95)

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)

Dirty Havana Trilogy

by Natasha Wimmer | Pedro Juan Gutierrez

• LITERATURE
• 2002
• PAPER
• 392 PAGES

A novel of contemporary Havana's steamy underbelly, originally published in Spain -- and banned in the author's native Cuba. (CBA44, $14.99)

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)

Fidel's Last Days

by Roland Merullo

• MYSTERY
• 2010
• PAPER
• 268 PAGES

A clandestine scheme to assassinate Fidel Castro spirals into paranoia, betrayal, and deceit in this dazzling thriller. (CBA171, $15.00)

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)

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)

Travelers' Tales of Old Cuba, From Treasure Island to Mafia Den

by John Jenkins

• ANTHOLOGY
• 2010
• PAPER
• 175 PAGES

This collection of first-hand accounts documents the evolution of Havana from a port popular with Caribbean pirates to the tourist-centered urban paradise of today and everything in between. (CBA137, $15.95)

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)

A Photographic Guide to Birds of the West Indies

by Allan Sander | G. Michael Flieg

• FIELD GUIDE
• 2000
• PAPER
• 144 PAGES

A compact shirt-pocket guide. With a map of the islands and 300 color photographs. (CRB127, $15.95)

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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