Bradt Guide Chile  •  Tim Burford GUIDEBOOK •  2005 •  PAPER  • 656 PAGES A comprehensive guide in the popular Bradt series. (CHI59, $24.95)
The Captain's Verses, The Love Poems  •  Pablo Neruda  •  Donald D. Walsh LITERATURE •  2004 •  PAPER  • 176 PAGES A bilingual edition of Neruda's subtle and sweet love poems, translated by Donald D. Walsh. Published in 2004 to coincide with Neruda's centennial. (CHI60, $12.95)
Conquistadors  •  Michael Wood HISTORY •  2002 •  PAPER  • 288 PAGES A lively, illustrated account of the Spanish conquest of the New World by the intrepid writer-filmmaker Michael Wood, who traveled in the footsteps of Hernan Cortes, Pizarro and others, often by horse, raft or other original means. It's an excellent introduction to the overwhelming impact of the Spanish in the Americas, wonderfully illustrated with maps, drawings and full color paintings. (SAM48, $22.95)
A Field Guide to the Birds of Hawaii and the Tropical Pacific  •  H. Douglas Pratt FIELD GUIDE •  1987 •  PAPER  • 409 PAGES An outstanding field guide to the region with long introductory chapters on the islands and habitats, superb color plates and a checklist of birds by island group. (HWI32, $45.00)
Frommer's Chile & Easter Island  •  Stephan Kueffner GUIDEBOOK •  2007 •  PAPER  • 438 PAGES A practical travel guide featuring excellent annotated listings of what to do and where to eat and sleep. With one-color maps and suggested excursions. (CHI76, $22.99)
Insight Guide Chile  •  Insight Guides GUIDEBOOK •  2007 •  PAPER  • 380 PAGES This glossy guide is a full-color introduction to the land, people and history of Chile, written by a team of experts. Brief background essays highlight important topics, and there is some practical travel information interspersed throughout. (CHI03, $23.95)
The Last Time Around Cape Horn, The Historic 1949 Voyage of the Windjammer Pamir  •  William F. Stark  •  Peter Stark HISTORY •  2004 •  PAPER  • 256 PAGES The unstinting memoir of the then 22-year-old rookie aboard the last commericial sailing voyage, a barley run between Australia and Europe. Stark, writing with the perspective of age, captures the thrill and import the golden age of sail. Most memorable is Stark's account of a 44-day slog in the waters below 44 degrees south. His son Peter, an adventurer and writer himself, contributes the epilogue. (PAT69, $13.00)
Pacific Journeys  •  Peter Hendrie CULTURAL PORTRAIT •  2003 •  HARD COVER  • 224 PAGES A striking portfolio of 330 color photographs of the island countries of Melanesia and Polynesia, from Papua New Guinea across to Easter Island, chosen from the Australian photographer Peter Hendrie's 30 trips in the region over the last 20 years. (PAC183, $45.00)
Pimsleur Quick & Simple Spanish  •  Pimsleur Language Method LANGUAGE & PHRASEBOOKS •  2005 •  AUDIO CD Four audio CDs with eight 30-minute lessons in basic Spanish, covering elementary vocabulary and phrases used in travel and everyday situations. The Pimsleur method emphasizes the use of listening skills without reading materials (so there isn't a book to follow along). It's advertised as "Totally audio: hear it, learn it, speak it." (SPN257, $19.95)
Residence on Earth  •  Pablo Neruda  •  Donald D. Walsh  •  Jim Harrison LITERATURE •  2004 •  PAPER  • 366 PAGES A classic anthology in a bilingual edition translated by Donald D. Walsh and re-published in 2004 to coincide with the centennial of the great poet's birth. (CHI61, $14.95)
Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest  •  Matthew Restall HISTORY •  2004 •  PAPER  • 272 PAGES In this provocative book, Restall tackles Columbus, Cortes, Pizarro and the misconceptions surrounding them. The conquisadores most certainly did not conquer the Americas with a handful of men, nor were they received as gods. (SAM52, $19.99)
The Seventy Wonders of the Ancient World  •  Chris Scarre ARCHAEOLOGY •  1999 •  HARD COVER  • 304 PAGES A comprehensive, illustrated overview of the great monuments of the ancient world, much expanded from the original seven wonders to include other significant structures. With a dual focus on the monuments themselves and how they were built, the book includes among others: Petra, the Giza plateau, the Parthenon, Abu Simbel, Nazca, Easter Island, and the Great Wall. With maps, "fact files," diagrams, and photographs. (GEN92, $40.00)
A Short History of Progress  •  Ronald Wright HISTORY •  2005 •  PAPER  • 132 PAGES These succint essays, originally presented as a radio broadcast, analyze the rise and fall of great societies, including Maya, Roman, Sumerian, Ancient Chinese and Easter Island. Wright focuses on the perils of marierialism and the warning signs of overconsumption, unwieldy social hierarchies and environmental collapse. (WLD62, $14.95)
Stolen Continents, 500 Years of Conquest and Resistance in the Americas  •  Ronald Wright HISTORY •  2004 •  PAPER  • 464 PAGES A powerful history of imperialism and resistance in the Americas, with a focus on the Aztec, Maya, Inca, Cherokee and Iroquois. Wright's illuminating account, told largely from the point of view of the losers, details the rapid collapse of cultures and societies in the Americas following the arrival of the Europeans in 1492. Wright draws on an impressive range of archival material in reconstructing this classic account, originally published in 1993. Wright is also the author of Time Among the Maya. (NAM20, $17.00)
Three Weeks With My Brother  •  Micah Sparks  •  Nicholas Sparks TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2006 •  PAPER  • 368 PAGES This remarkable account of family, friendship and travel takes as its point of departure a three-week around the world odyssey by private jet. The brothers (Nicholas a popular novelist) reconnect and ruminate on a jaunt that takes in Machu Picchu, Easter Island, Maya temples, the Taj Mahjal; and remote stone cathedrals in Ethiopia. (TVL34, $13.99)
Traveling with Che Guevara, The Making of a Revolutionary  •  Alberto Granado  •  Lucia Alvarez de Toledo TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2004 •  PAPER  • 240 PAGES This is Alberto Granado's companion book to Che Guevara's well-known Motorcycle Diaries (and one of the sources for the movie). It's Granado's own account of travels with Che via motorbike through Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia, and Venezuela. (SAM68, $14.95)
Yanomami, The Fierce Controversy and What We Might Learn from It  •  Robert Borofsky CULTURAL PORTRAIT •  2005 •  PAPER  • 397 PAGES A scholarly reader and study of the controversy surrounding anthropological studies of the Yanomami of northern Brazil and neighboring Venezuela. It follows in the wake of Patrick Tierney's best-selling book, Darkness in El Dorado. With Bruce Albert, Ray Hames, Kim Hill, Lêda Leitão Martins, John Peters, and Terence Turner. (SAM67, $22.95)