200 Conspicuous, Unusual, or Economically Important Tropical Plants of the Caribbean  •  John Kingsbury FIELD GUIDE •  1988 •  PAPER  • 220 PAGES A general purpose plant identification guide to Caribbean shores, also useful for subtropical Florida. Written for a popular audience, it features color photographs and short descriptions. (CRB01, $20.00)
Adios Hemingway  •  Leonardo Padura Fuentes  •  John King MYSTERY •  2005 •  HARD COVER  • 229 PAGES Following Padura's popular four-book series, Cuban detective Mario Conde, righteous and Marlowe-like, returns to investigate a murder that occurred on Ernest Hemingway's estate over 40 years before. This is the first Padura book translated into English. (CBA100, $20.00)
Amphibians and Reptiles of La Selva, Costa Rica, and the Caribbean Slope  •  Craig Guyer  •  Maureen A. Donnelly FIELD GUIDE •  2004 •  PAPER  • 420 PAGES This comprehensive guide, intended for the field, covers all the frogs, lizards, snakes, and other reptiles and amphibians of the Caribbean slope. (CRB177, $24.95)
Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana  •  Stephanie Elizondo Griest BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  2004 •  PAPER  • 416 PAGES The offbeat memoirs of a native Texan who spent four years as a volunteer in Moscow, a propaganda officer in Beijing, and a belly dancer in Havana. You may have come across Griest's distinctive voice in a collection of Travelers' Tales, where she is a regular contributor. She's young, a witty observer with a way with words, and utterly passionate about travel. This is her first book, as much memoir as travel account, spanning four years and three continents. (RUS242, $14.95)
Art Cuba, The New Generation  •  Holly Block ART & ARCHITECTURE •  2001 •  HARD COVER  • 174 PAGES Art historian Holly Block celebrates the work of 60 contemporary Cuban artists in this book featuring 100 color plates. With four essays on the contemporary Cuban art scene by experts living in Havana. (CBA48, $49.50)
A Brief History of the Caribbean, From the Arawak and the Carib to the Present  •  Jan Rogozinski HISTORY •  2000 •  PAPER  • 324 PAGES Written for a scholarly audience, this concise history presents the full sweep of Caribbean geography, culture and commerce from aboriginal inhabitants through European colonization and modern developments. Revised with new chapters on the economy and recent history of Cuba and Haiti. With maps and photographs throughout. (CRB38, $17.00)
Caribbean Art  •  Veerle Poupeye ART & ARCHITECTURE •  1998 •  PAPER  • 224 PAGES A survey of art found throughout the Caribbean and created by artists of Caribbean descent, highlighting the multitude of influences from Africa, Europe, Asia and South America. Organized thematically, the book features 177 illustrations (76 in color). A volume in the "World of Art" series, it includes the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Sonia Boyce, Wifredo Lam and many other artists. (CRB76, $14.95)
Communism, A History  •  Richard Pipes HISTORY •  2003 •  PAPER  • 192 PAGES A short, fiercely critical history of communism from the ideas of Karl Marx to the end of the 20th century by the Harvard historian and critic of the Soviet Union (which is the focus of much of the book). A volume in the excellent Modern Library chronicles series. (GEN367, $13.95)
Companero: The Life and Death of Che Guevara  •  Jorge G. Castaneda BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  1998 •  PAPER  • 456 PAGES A masterful portrait of Che, drawing on archives and interviews with family and associates. Castaneda, a professor of political science at the University of Mexico, sees Che Guevara as an idealistic, willful figure, driven by a passion for travel, politics and power. (CBA60, $16.95)
The Complete Guide to Caribbean Cruises  •  Linda Coffman GUIDEBOOK •  2006 •  PAPER  • 600 PAGES (CRB186, $22.95)
Cuba  •  David Alan Harvey  •  Elizabeth Newhouse CULTURAL PORTRAIT •  1999 •  HARD COVER  • 252 PAGES A collection of photographs of the people, vibrant street life, monuments and landscapes of Cuba by veteran National Geographic photographer David Alan Harvey. With accompany text by staff writer Newhouse. Harvey, whose photographs have been featured in several articles in the magazine, has returned to Cuba many times since 1996. (CBA65, $50.00)
Cuba and the Night: A Novel  •  Pico Iyer LITERATURE •  1996 •  PAPER Veteran travel writer Pico Iyer's vivid first novel is about an American photographer who washes up (emotionally) in contemporary Cuba and falls in love with a local girl with big ideas. "On almost every page you can smell the dust, the cheap perfume and the rum of Havana today, or better still, tonight," wrote the Los Angeles Times. (CBA21, $14.95)
Cuba in Mind, An Anthology  •  Maria Finn LITERATURE •  2004 •  PAPER  • 304 PAGES A wide-ranging collection of satisfyingly long excerpts from travel accounts and eyewitness reports over the decades. The writers included, all working in English, range from Anthony Trollope and Steven Crane to Graham Greene, Oscar Hijuelos and Pico Iyer. Organized into Travelers, Aficionados, and Exiles. (CBA94, $14.00)
Cuba Libre  •  Elmore Leonard LITERATURE •  1999 •  PAPER  • 405 PAGES Set against the backdrop of the Spanish-American War, this is the novel of an American cowboy who travels to Cuba to sell horses but gets mixed up in a gun-running operation, kidnapping scheme and romance with the mistress of a wealthy sugar planter, among other adventures. The fast-moving story begins with the sinking of the USS Maine in Havana harbor and provides a glimpse at the fight for Cuban independence. From the author of "Killshot" and "Out of Sight." (CBA24, $7.50)
Cuba, A Traveler's Literary Companion  •  Ann Louise Bardach ANTHOLOGY •  2002 •  PAPER  • 234 PAGES A collection of mostly contemporary short fiction in the excellent series. Organized geographically, the anthology includes contributions by Reinaaldo Arenas, Alejo Carpentier, Jose Lezama Lima and many other Cuban literary giants. (CBA58, $13.95)
Cuba, Between Reform and Revolution  •  Louis A. Perez HISTORY •  1995 •  PAPER  • 538 PAGES A scholarly history of the island from Pre-Columbian times through the varied and sundry interventions and rebellions, well researched and beautifully written. Fully half the book is devoted to chronicling the project of building a socialist society. (CBA22, $28.95)
Cuba, Going Back  •  Tony Mendoza CULTURAL PORTRAIT •  1999 •  PAPER  • 156 PAGES An illustrated account of Tony Mendoza's trip back to Cuba after 36 years -- with camera and notebook in hand. He includes 80 full-page duotone pictures of people and life in Cuba, snatches of conversation and his own impressions of Cuba. He's no great fan of Fidel Castro or the Cuban revolution. Mendoza teaches photography at Ohio State University. (CBA61, $22.95)
Cuba, The Contours of Change  •  Susan Kaufman Purcell  •  David J. Rothkopf HISTORY •  2000 •  PAPER  • 155 PAGES In this brief book, Editors Susan Kaufman Purcell, vice president of the Americas Society and Council of the Americas, and David Rothkopf present a collection of articles on contemporary Cuba, especially its economic and political future. Contributions include Cuba: The Shape of Things to Come (William M. LeoGrande); Whither the Cuban Economy? (Andrew Zimbalist); After the Deluge? Cuba's Potential as a Market Economy) Manuel Pastor, Jr.); Castro's Cuba: Continuity Instead of Change (Jaime Suchlicki); Why the Cuban Embargo Makes Sense in a Post-Cold War World (Susan Kaufman Purcell); A Call for a Post-Cold War Cuba Policy . . . Ten Years After the End of the Cold War (David Rothkopf); Conclusion: Cuba's Dilemma, and Ours (William M. LeoGrande). (CBA92, $16.95)
Cubana, Contemporary Fiction by Cuban Women  •  Mirta Yanez ANTHOLOGY •  2002 •  PAPER  • 213 PAGES A highly regarded collection of short stories by 16 women writing in Cuba today, edited and with an introduction by Mirta Yanez. Digital-print edition. (CBA80, $20.00)
Culture Smart! Cuba  •  Mandy Macdonald GUIDEBOOK •  2006 •  PAPER  • 168 PAGES A concise and practical guide to local customs, etiquette and culture. (CBA105, $9.95)
Dancing with Cuba, A Memoir of the Revolution  •  Alma Guillermoprieto BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  2005 •  PAPER  • 304 PAGES Guillermoprieto was a dancer before she became a journalist. In this lovely memoir, she writes with insight, wit and lucid prose about teaching at National School of Dance in Havana in the 1970s . Guillermoprieto, who writes regularly on Latin America for The New Yorker, also wrote Samba. (CBA97, $13.95)
Deep Cuba, The Inside Story of an American Oceanographic Expedition  •  Bill Belleville EXPLORATION •  2002 •  HARD COVER  • 273 PAGES (CBA99, $27.95)
Dirty Havana Trilogy  •  Natasha Wimmer  •  Pedro Juan Gutierrez LITERATURE •  2002 •  PAPER  • 392 PAGES A semi-autobiographical novel portraying a decrepitly sensual Havana. In Gutierrez's interconnected stories, the protagonist Pedro Juan, an ex-journalist, scours the lowest rungs of Cuban society to make a living, from prostitution to the black market and drugs. Natasha Wimmer's excellent translation captures the no-nonsense, streetwise language of the Spanish original. (CBA44, $14.95)
Divided Soul, A Journey Through the Secular and Religious in Hispanic Life  •  David Alan Harvey CULTURAL PORTRAIT •  2003 •  HARD COVER  • 176 PAGES A culmination of a photographer's two decade quest to capture the Hispanic spirit on film from its Spanish roots to its diaspora in the New World. (SPN191, $49.95)
Eastern Caribbean Cruise Tour Guide  •  Coastal Cruise Tour Guides 2000 •  MAP A handy guide and booklet that unfolds to a six-foot-long full color map. Designed for the ship-based traveler, it features historical background, visitor attractions and maps of all the islands from Puerto Rico to Trinidad. (CRB135, $15.95)
Enduring Cuba  •  Zoe Bran TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2008 •  PAPER  • 256 PAGES An account of the Welsh novelist and travel writer's visit to Cuba. Bran, who writes wonderfully, probes behind the surface, meeting locals, witnessing a Santeria ceremony and asking questions about politics. It's an absorbing portrait of contemporary Cuba. (CBA84, $14.99)
Eyewitness Guide Cuba  •  Eyewitness Guides GUIDEBOOK •  2007 •  PAPER  • 328 PAGES A comprehensive, illustrated guide with excellent maps, hundreds of photographs and succinct listings. With a very useful 60-page section on Habana Vieja (old Quarter), Centra Habana and the Prado area, including detailed street finders and large-scale neighborhood maps and innovative 3-D color diagrams of cathedrals, palaces and museums. (CBA67, $25.00)
Footprint Cuba Handbook  •  Sarah Cameron GUIDEBOOK •  2004 •  PAPER  • 464 PAGES A detailed, comprehensive guide to travel in Cuba by the venerable British publishers of the "South American Handbook." Much of the book is devoted to suggested excursions and activities throughout the island. With a few color photographs, decorative black-and-white illustrations, a color map section, and dozens of very useful local sketch maps. (CBA33, $21.95)
Gay Cuban Nation  •  Emilio Bejel LITERATURE •  2001 •  PAPER  • 257 PAGES An in-depth, scholarly study of homosexuality -- and homoeroticism -- in Cuban society, both before and after the revolution. Bejel looks at a wide variety of novels, short stories, autobiographies, newspaper articles, and films to demonstrate an underlying homoerotic tension in Cuban culture. The author is a professor of literature in Colorado. (CBA50, $22.00)
The Ghost with Trembling Wings  •  Scott Weidensaul NATURAL HISTORY •  2003 •  PAPER  • 352 PAGES The search for lost species, not a quixotic as it seems, absorbs Scott Weidensaul (Living on the Wind) in this unexpected series of encounters on the trail of beasts as varied as the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, coelacanth, Cone-billed Tanager and the Loch Ness monster. Weidensaul presents his triumphs and diappointments with wit and considerable insight into evolution and ecology. (CON24, $16.00)
A Girl like Che Guevara  •  Teresa de la Caridad Doval LITERATURE •  2005 •  PAPER  • 340 PAGES This debut novel by the Cuban-born Doval tackles issues of race, spirituality, revolutionary fevor and, of course, romance and sex, though the story of Lourdes, a teenager from working class Havana at School-in-the-Fields in Pinar del Rio -- a place where the students repeat everyday that they'll be like Che. (CBA95, $13.00)
A Guide to the Coral Reefs of the Caribbean  •  Mark D. Spalding  •  Sylvia Earle FIELD GUIDE •  2004 •  PAPER A diver's guide and atlas of coral reefs of the Caribbean, with color photographs, detailed maps and an overview of each island reef system. Organized geographcially, it also includes chapeters on Mexico and Central America and South America. (CRB176, $25.95)
Havana Bay  •  Martin Cruz Smith LITERATURE •  2008 •  PAPER  • 368 PAGES In this atmospheric thriller, the author of Gorky Park and Red Square takes his detective hero Arkady Renko to Havana to identify the drowned body of an old comrade from the Russian embassy. He teams up with a Cuban detective, a woman who's a "steamy mix of revolutionary zeal and Santería spirits" -- and goes exploring the wildly exotic, crumbling city. (CBA23, $15.00)
Havana Black  •  Leonardo Padura  •  Peter R. Bush MYSTERY •  2006 •  PAPER In the final Inspector Mario Conde book of the quartet series (the second of the books translated into English), the righteous, Marlowe-like Conde -- aka "The Count"-- resigns from office, but not before taking on the case of a brutally murdered Cuban defector in the wake of a torrential hurricane headed for Havana. (CBA104, $14.95)
Havana Red  •  Peter R. Bush  •  Leonardo Padura MYSTERY •  2005 •  PAPER  • 233 PAGES When a diplomat's son is found in the Havana Woods, strangled by a red ribbon and wearing a flashy red dress, the righteous, Marlowe-like Inspector Mario Conde -- known as "The Count" -- must unravel the controversial mystery under the eyes of the 1989 Communist Party. The third of four Havana detective novels featuring Inspector Conde and the first of the quartet translated into English. (CBA103, $13.95)
Havana, Two Faces of the Antillean Metropolis  •  Joseph Scarpaci  •  Roberto Segre  •  Mario Coyula ART & ARCHITECTURE •  2002 •  PAPER  • 464 PAGES Here's an in-depth history of the physical transformation of eclectic, decentralized Havana from 1519 through the post-Soviet era. As the title indicates, the authors (Cuban and U.S. ) are especially interested in the contrast between colonial heritage and modern impulses, capitalist past and socialist present. With 17 maps, contemporary and historical photographs. Originally published in 1997. (CBA91, $23.95)
Hemingway in Cuba  •  Hilary Hemingway  •  Charlene Brennen HISTORY •  2003 •  HARD COVER  • 146 PAGES This sepia-toned tribute, with 160 mostly archival photogaphs, surveys the life and work (and many fishing trips) of Hemingway from 1939-1960, drawing on letters, diaries and recollections. It includes chapters on sojourns in Bimini and Key West, several wives and mistresses, work at the Museo Hemingway and Castro. Proper homage is paid to his original digs on the island at Hotel Ambos Mundos, Hemingway's Finca Vigia and La Floridita, his favorite and still popular bar. (CBA81, $34.95)
A High Wind in Jamaica  •  Richard Hughes LITERATURE •  1999 •  PAPER  • 290 PAGES First published in 1929, this is the thrilling novel of a group of children who set off to England on a ship after their home in Jamaica is destroyed by a hurricane. Their vessel is taken over by a crew of pirates and the Caribbean adventure becomes part hallucinatory fantasy, part unsentimental commentary on the realities of the child mind. For readers of all ages, this classic was named one of the 100 best novels of the 20th century by the Modern Library. (CRB57, $14.00)
Islands in the Stream  •  Ernest Hemingway LITERATURE •  1997 •  PAPER  • 448 PAGES Published after his death, this is Hemingway's story of Thomas Hudson, an artist and adventurer whose travels take him from the island of Bimini to the offshore waters of Cuba during World War II. Made into a film starring George C. Scott. (CRB71, $16.00)
Jose Martí Reader: Writings on the Americas  •  José Martí  •  Deborah Shnookal LITERATURE •  1998 •  PAPER  • 276 PAGES The legendary 19th century Cuban independence fighter Jose Martí was, along with Bolivar and San Martín, one of a triumvirate of great Spanish American liberators. But he was also an important modernist poet and a prophet of the American century that was looming on the horizon. This book draws material from Martí's classic political texts, letters to family members and "Simple Verses" (the source of the lyrics for the song "Guantanamera"). (CBA15, $19.95)
Knopf Guide Cuba  •  Knopf Guides GUIDEBOOK •  2001 •  PAPER  • 276 PAGES A slim, handsomely produced guide to Cuba, packed with high quality color photographs, drawings, illustrations and maps. With a map section, siggested itineraries and a 100-page, illustrated overview of history, nature, architecture, and culture. Knopf enlisted Cuban and international specialists as contributors to the guide. (CBA34, $25.00)
Knopf Mapguide, Havana  •  Knopf Guides GUIDEBOOK •  2006 •  PAPER  • 48 PAGES A practical and handy passport-sized guide to the city, featuring fold-out maps. (CBA106, $9.95)
Last Dance in Havana, The Final Days of Fidel and the Start of the New Cuban Revolution  •  Eugene Robinson TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2004 •  HARD COVER  • 288 PAGES Robinson, an assistant managing editor at the Washington Post, looks at the music scene in Cuba, not just salsa but also hip-hop, and its potential to confront the status quo. The book is a journalist's account from street level, interviewing anecdote, interview and observation. (CBA96, $25.00)
Looking For History, Dispatches From Latin America  •  Alma Guillermoprieto CULTURAL PORTRAIT •  2002 •  PAPER  • 303 PAGES This collection of essays, originally appearing in The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books, displays Guillermoprieto's flare, heart and knowledge of the region. She's not only an outstanding writer but an incisive reporter and portraitist. With chapters on Eva Peron, Columbia's drug wars, Che Guevara, Havana, Fidel Castro, Vargas Llosa and contemporary Mexico. (SAM60, $14.95)
Loving Che, A Novel  •  Ana Menendez LITERATURE •  2005 •  PAPER  • 240 PAGES Menendez evokes the excitement and upheaval of Havana in the 1960's in this acclaimed, inventive debut novel. The daughter of Cuban exiles, she draws on her grandmosther's life in revolutionary Cuba. (CBA98, $13.00)
Machos, Maricones and Gays: Cuba and Homosexuality  •  Ian Lumsden CULTURAL PORTRAIT •  1996 •  PAPER  • 304 PAGES A history and analysis of homosexuality in Cuba, issues, attitudes, prejudices and preconceptions. (CBA90, $30.95)
The Messenger  •  Mayra Montero  •  Edith Grossman LITERATURE •  2000 •  PAPER  • 224 PAGES The story of a romance between Enrico Caruso and a Cuban woman, Aida Petrirena Cheng, as told by their illegitimate daughter, eyewitnesses and the lovers. Cuban-born Montero uses the actual visit of Caruso to Havana in 1920 -- and his brief disappearance after an explosion at the national theater -- as the jumping off point for her layered, richly imagined tale. (CBA55, $13.00)
Mi Moto Fidel, Motorcycling through Castro's Cuba  •  Christopher P. Baker TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2002 •  PAPER  • 305 PAGES A lively account of a three-month tour through Cuba on a large, red BMW motorcycle. Hunt, who has written the excellent Cuba Handbook and Havana Handbook, must have been quite a sight. No shrinking violet, he includes his many bar and bedroom scenes in this down-to-earth portrait of contemporary Cuba. (CBA41, $14.00)
Murder in Havana  •  Margaret Truman MYSTERY •  2002 •  PAPER  • 373 PAGES The 18th in the wildly popular series of crime novels (and certainly not her best), Truman nonetheless sprinles her hijinks and turns of plot with enough geography to keep the interest of the Cuba traveler. (CBA70, $7.99)
Musica! The Rhythm of Latin America: Salsa, Rumba, Merengue, and More  •  Sue Steward MUSIC •  1999 •  PAPER  • 176 PAGES This exuberant, marvelously illustrated book traces diverse Latin American musical styles from their origins in Cuba to Puerto Rico, Santo Domingo, Columbia, Miami and New York. With a focus on musicians and an excellent discography. Afro-Cuban jazz gets a chapter. The book concludes with pop sensation Marc Anthony. Willie Colon provides the preface. (CBA87, $22.95)
National Audubon Society Field Guide to Tropical Marine Fishes: Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, Florida, the Bahamas and Bermu  •  C. Lavett Smith FIELD GUIDE •  1997 •  FLEXI-BOUND  • 720 PAGES A photographic guide to coral reef fishes found in the Caribbean, Florida, the Bahamas and Bermuda. This portable, pocket-size book features 417 excellent color photographs, each with a range map and description. Species are grouped according to taxonomy and shape. (FG24, $19.95)
Odyssey Guide Cuba  •  Andrew Coe GUIDEBOOK •  1999 •  PAPER  • 314 PAGES A compact, illustrated guide to Cuba with excellent maps and photography by Rolando Pujol. Nicely written, the guide stands on its own as a pleasure. (CBA63, $19.95)
Paradiso  •  José Lezama Lima  •  Gregory Rabassa LITERATURE •  2000 •  PAPER  • 478 PAGES A mesmerizingly baroque, wonderfully strange novel. There is no obvious narrative structure although much of this excellent book is set in Cuba, the writer's homeland, where the publication of this book in 1966 caused huge controversy. If your daily experience involves people morphing into talking manatees, then you'll love this brilliant work of realist fiction. Ostensibly a coming-of-age story of Jose Cemi, this challenging book combines memoir, fiction, poetry, and a number of explicit homosexual interludes. Ably translated by Gregory Rabassa (no small feat). (CRB128, $14.50)
A Photographic Guide to Birds of the West Indies  •  Allan Sander  •  G. Michael Flieg FIELD GUIDE •  2000 •  PAPER  • 144 PAGES A compact and convenient guide to more than 250 birds, covering Jamaica, Cuba, the Bahamas, Dominica, Hispanola, the Virgin Islands, San Andres, Providencia, and the Lesser Antilles. Includes 306 color photographs and maps of the region. (CRB127, $15.95)
Reyita: The Life of a Black Cuban Woman in the Twentieth Century  •  María de los Reyes Castillo Bueno BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  2000 •  PAPER  • 168 PAGES In this oral history, María de los Reyes Castillo Bueno (1902-1997), recounts her remarkable life story, beginning with her grandmother's abduction by slave-traders in Africa. As told to her daughter Daisy. Reyita was a mother of eight, community leader, activist and healer. Daisy is is founder of the Fernando Ortiz African Cultural Centre in Santiago de Cuba. (CBA86, $19.95)
Santeria Enthroned: Art, Ritual, and Innovation in an Afro-Cuban Religion  •  David H. Brown RELIGION •  2003 •  PAPER  • 432 PAGES In this richly, detailed, scholarly book, David Brown traces the development of the symbols, rituals, and institutions of religious practice in Cuba from the 19th- century to the present. With 16 color plates and 114 black-and-white photographs. He shows how Afro-Cuban Santería (or Lucumí) has thrived -- and changed -- in post-Colonial Cuba, using case studies from both the United States and Cuba. Beware, the author isn't shy about theory or metaphor. (CBA85, $38.00)
A Simple Habana Melody, From When the World Was Good  •  Oscar Hijuelos LITERATURE •  2003 •  PAPER  • 352 PAGES An unlikely love story and lyrical tribute to Latin music by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Mambo Kings. Loosely based on a real-life Cuban composer, Hijuelos spins a tale of Israel Levis, a composer whose 1928 song, a Rumba, took the world by storm -- and propelled him from Havana to 1930s Paris and, ultimately, Buchenwald (and back to Cuba). He captures the heyday of Cuban music, and the longing, frustration and failed ambition of his complex protagonist. (CBA72, $13.95)
Singing from the Well  •  Reinaldo Arenas LITERATURE •  1990 •  PAPER  • 224 PAGES The first in a series of five novels, based loosely on the author's own experience coming of age in Cuba just before the revolution. A poignant testimony to imagination, rich in details of rural life. By the author of "Before Night Falls." (CBA51, $15.00)
Strawberry and Chocolate  •  Juan Carlos Tabio  •  Tomas Gutiérrez LITERATURE •  1995 •  NTSC VIDEO The heartwarming story of three neighbors, daily life and intellectual seduction in contemporary Havana. Shot on location, the glimpses of the crumbling glory of Old Havana is among the films many charms. The three principal -- cultured and flamboyantly gay Diego, disillusioned David and off-balance Nancy -- make a great ensemble. Nominated for an Academy Award. (CBA68, $19.99)
Streetwise Cuba Map  •  Streetwise MAP A laminated, folded map of Cuba at a scale of 1:1,650,000. (CBA66, $7.95)
Sunken Cities, Sacred Cenotes and Golden Sharks: Travels of a Water-Bound Adventurer  •  Bill Belleville EXPLORATION •  2004 •  HARD COVER  • 248 PAGES (CRB184, $29.95)
Tango for a Torturer  •  Daniel Chavarría MYSTERY •  2007 •  PAPER (CBA108, $15.95)
Telex from Cuba  •  Rachel Kushner LITERATURE •  2008 •  HARD COVER  • 322 PAGES Coming of age in mid-1950s Cuba where the local sugar and nickel production are controlled by American interests, Everly Lederer and K.C. Stites observe the indulgences and betrayals of the adult world and are swept up by the political underground and the revolt led by Fidel and Raul Castro. (CBA111, $25.00)
A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf  •  John Muir BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  1998 •  PAPER  • 224 PAGES A vivid portrait of post-Civil War South. This slim book is the diary of 28-year-old Muir. It is the record of a botanical expedition along the eastern seaboard south to Florida -- and a good introduction to this popular writer. It includes a long chapter on the swamps and forests of Florida. Although he scatters botanical information throughout the book, it is really the story of a wonderful adventure. (FLA09, $11.95)
Time Out Havana, And The Best Of Cuba  •  Ismay Atkins GUIDEBOOK •  2005 •  PAPER  • 252 PAGES An up-to-date guide on what to do and where to go by the people who publish Time Out Magazine. (CBA101, $19.95)
Top 10 Cuba  •  Eyewitness Guides GUIDEBOOK •  2008 •  PAPER  • 128 PAGES A compact, illustrated guide in the popular series, featuring favorite attractions. (CBA110, $12.00)
A Traveller's History of the Caribbean  •  James Ferguson HISTORY •  1998 •  PAPER  • 320 PAGES Ferguson delves into the history of the Caribbean Islands, consulting with local historians to create a thorough and dynamic portrait of the region. Beginning with a description of the islands' formation and geologic attributes, the chapters of the book carry through the first civilizations in the region up to the modern tourism boom. (CRB42, $14.95)
Waiting for Fidel  •  Christopher Hunt TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  1998 •  PAPER  • 259 PAGES Where's Fidel? Without so much as a letter of introduction, the author sets out to meet with the man himself. Hunt spends the winter wandering the canefields and back streets of Havana talking to rumrunners, Santería practitioners and ordinary Cubans struggling to survive during the "special period" that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union. What results is a camp but vivid portrait of daily life in a place where they're continuously making up their own rules. (CBA01, $13.00)