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Guyana

READING AND TRAVEL GUIDE

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Get the featured set of Essential Reading, our top picks of what to read, and get free shipping on anything else you order.

Essential Reading

Item EXSAM271. Buy these 4 items as a set for $66 including shipping, 15% off the retail price.
With free shipping on anything else you order.

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Wild Coast, Travels on South America's Untamed Edge

Wild Coast, Travels on South America's Untamed Edge

by John Gimlette

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2012
  • PAPER
  • 358 PAGES

Gimlette sets out for the watery wilds of the Guianas, attuned to history and the eccentric castaways and adventurers he meets along the way. He takes in colonial Georgetown ("a city of stilts and clapboard, brilliant whites, fretwork, spindles and louvers"), sleepy Paramaribo and, especially, the "claggy, overgrown hinterlands." (SAM168, $16.95)

Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice

Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice

by Mark Plotkin

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 1994
  • PAPER
  • 328 PAGES
  • FAVORITE

In this marvelous book, Plotkin recounts his work documenting the use of medicinal plants among remote tribes in the Northwest Amazon of Suriname, Venezuela, Guyana and French Guiana. A portrait of people and their environment, a tale of adventure and, most of all, a moving example of science in the service of preservation. (AMZ15, $16.00)

The Bradt Guide Guyana

The Bradt Guide Guyana

by Kirk Smock

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 312 PAGES

A comprehensive, practical guide in the ground-breaking British series, with recommendations for adventure activities in the jungles, in the mountains and on the coast. (SAM107, $25.99)

Guyana Map

Guyana Map

by ITMB

  • MAP

A colorful, detailed travel map of Guayana with a map of the region from Georgetown west to Paramaribo and Cayenne on the reverse. (SAM05, $10.95)

 
The Penguin History of Latin America

The Penguin History of Latin America


by Edwin Williamson

  • HISTORY
  • 2010
  • PAPER
  • 704 PAGES

Beginning with the Spanish conquest, this brisk history covers questions of empire, colonialism and nationalism through the 1980s. (SAM53, $20.00)

U.S. Intervention in British Guiana: A Cold War Story

U.S. Intervention in British Guiana: A Cold War Story


by Stephen G. Rabe

  • HISTORY
  • 2006
  • PAPER
  • 256 PAGES

Rabe presents convincing evidence of a covert intervention by the C.I.A. in British Guiana between 1953 and 1969, intended to unseat Cheddi Jagan, a Marxist popular among the South Asian majority. (SAM114, $23.00)

Edge of the Jungle

Edge of the Jungle


by William Beebe

  • EXPLORATION
  • 2001
  • PAPER
  • 303 PAGES

A collection of 12 essays on the Amazon and its ecology and wildlife. A scientist-explorer with the soul of a poet, Beebe wrote dozens of books about his adventures in tropical America and Guyana. (AMZ75, $17.95)

Masters of All They Surveyed: Exploration, Geography, and a British El Dorado


by D. Graham Burnett

  • EXPLORATION
  • 2001
  • PAPER
  • 314 PAGES

A lively, well-illustrated account of the 19th-century exploration, mapping and British Imperial adventures in what is now Guyana. (SAM94, $37.50)

The Naturalist on the River Amazons

The Naturalist on the River Amazons


by Henry Walter Bates

  • EXPLORATION
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 409 PAGES

A spell-binding early account of the river and its environs, first published in 1863. This classic chronicle of Bates's scientific adventures, part natural history and part travelogue, has inspired generations of tropical biologists. (AMZ07, $17.95)

The Middle Passage, The Caribbean Revisited

The Middle Passage, The Caribbean Revisited


by V.S. Naipaul

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2002
  • PAPER
  • 232 PAGES

Novelist and travel writer Naipaul tackles the history of the Caribbean and northern South America in this incisive portrait. With chapters on Trinidad, British Guiana (Guyana), Suriname, Martinique and Jamaica. (CRB11, $16.00)

Wanderings in South America


by Charles Waterton

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2007
  • PAPER

The original observations and travels of the early 19th-century naturalist in Guyana. (SAM110, $12.45)

A Handful of Dust

A Handful of Dust


by Evelyn Waugh

  • LITERATURE
  • 1999
  • PAPER
  • 308 PAGES

Satirical novel of Britain between the wars. (GBR190, $14.99)

Buxton Spice

Buxton Spice


by Oonya Kempadoo

  • LITERATURE
  • 2004
  • PAPER

This semi-autobiographical novel captures the culture and flavor of Guyana, and the tensions between the racially mixed East Indian and Afro-Caribbean inhabitants of fictional Tamarind Grove. (SAM112, $16.00)

The Sly Company of People Who Care

The Sly Company of People Who Care


by Rahul Bhattacharya

  • LITERATURE
  • 2012
  • PAPER
  • 278 PAGES

Rahul Bhattacharya sets his first novel in tropical Guyana, casually evoking both the watery landscapes ("The drenched wooden houses on stilts warmed my soul," his character remarks) and the dizzy cultural mix of Indian, African, Portuguese, Chinese and Amerindian. (SAM164, $26.00)

A Neotropical Companion

A Neotropical Companion


by John Kricher | Mark Plotkin

  • NATURAL HISTORY
  • 1999
  • PAPER
  • 536 PAGES

From plants and animals to birds and bugs, it's all here in this wonderfully written overview of the ecology, habitats, plants and animals of Central and South America. (GPS11, $39.95)

Chrysalis

Chrysalis


by Kim Todd

  • NATURAL HISTORY
  • 2007
  • PAPER
  • 330 PAGES

In this illustrated tale of a remarkable life, Todd (Tinkering with Eden) illuminates how 17th-century naturalist Maria Sibylla Merian turned a childhood passion for butterflies into a groundbreaking life of art, science and exploration in the wild Guianas, searching for the secrets of metamorphosis. (NAT250, $15.00)

Tropical Nature

Tropical Nature


by Adrian Forsyth | Ken Miyata

  • NATURAL HISTORY
  • 1984
  • PAPER
  • 248 PAGES
  • FAVORITE

A lucid portrait of the tropics as seen by two uncommonly observant and thoughtful field biologists. Its 17 marvelous essays introduce the habitats, ecology, plants and animals of the Central and South American rainforest. (GPS13, $16.00)

A Guide to the Birds of Venezuela

A Guide to the Birds of Venezuela


by Steven Hilty | Guy Tudor | J.A. Gwynne

  • FIELD GUIDE
  • 2002
  • PAPER
  • 929 PAGES

The classic South American bird guide, revised and expanded by Steve Hilty. A bit hefty for a field guide at just over 4 pounds, but still an essential reference to over 1,400 bird species. Travelers in the Brazilian Amazon will find it especially useful. (FG13, $70.00)

Birds of Northern South America, Vol. 2: Field Guide

Birds of Northern South America, Vol. 2: Field Guide


by Robin Restall | Clemencia Rodner | Roger Williams

  • FIELD GUIDE
  • 2006
  • PAPER
  • 656 PAGES

This comprehensive field guide, featuring an astounding 6400 paintings and 2308 maps, covers all the birds from Ecuador to Guiana. (SAM103, $70.00)

Neotropical Rainforest Mammals, A Field Guide

Neotropical Rainforest Mammals, A Field Guide


by L.H. Emmons

  • FIELD GUIDE
  • 1997
  • PAPER
  • 298 PAGES

Compact enough to slip into your daypack, this field guide to the mammals of the New World tropics features 29 color plates of more than 200 species. (GPS12, $42.50)

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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.