Reviewing the listing of books in connection with Chile's former President Augusto Pinochet, I detect that in English there is a lack of impartial publications regarding the difficult years of the so-called "Unidad Popular" (Allende's regime), which drove to Chile's military government. In Chile there is plenty of information on all sides. We Chileans lived the critical years from the end of the sixties to 1990, and obviously for us the opinions on the figures of Salvador Allende and Augusto Pinochet are quite divided. This book is very interesting for Spanish-speaking readers, because it depicts several personal aspects of the personality of former President Pinochet, and has been written by one of Chile's most famous journalists. If books like this one were available in English, the true of the history of Chile would be easier to understand for foreigners.

I think the books give a real good example of the life of a typical Venezuelan Boy how is in love with the game of baseball like all of the venezuelan kids. What I like the most is that is narrated from the boys point of view and the pictures are excellent they go really good with the text.

A very handsome book, full of beautiful color photographs of neotropical wildlife. Definitely the most captivating picture book about the rain forest that I know of. It made me even more aware of the need to preserve the incredibly rich variety of life forms on our planet.

Deliciously inventive stuff

Mary Roldán has authored a masterpiece. She destroys many simplistic viewpoints often used in Washington to justify U.S. aid. The author uses a powerful prism to examine the violence in Colombia. She concludes that paramilitary death squads are one of the greatest threats to democracy in Colombia. Roldán's research is impressive. She deserves loud applause.

Salvador de Madariaga's book, originally publised in 1952, is still hands down one the best and most comprehensive biographies of one of Latin America's greatest men. De Madariaga not only gives us the typical detailed biography of Simon Bolivar, the man, but also delves into the psychological forces that drove his character. The text is filled with commentaries by Bolivar's contemoraries as well as sections of the Libertador's own writings and speeches. Any serious student of Latin American history should consider reading this text as a background not only to Simon Bolivar, but also to the driving forces of the mestizo culture in the 19th century

Bounded Missions: Military Regimes And Democratization In The Southern Cone And Brazil by Craig L. Arceneaux (Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science, California State Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo) is an extensive and articulated survey and analysis of civil-military relations and history, especially during the latter half of the twentieth century. Ranging from revolution in Argentina to the controlled transition in Brazil, Bounded Missions offers extensively researched and detailed data, all while drawing erudite and insightful conclusions on the history and future of nations. Bounded Missions is highly recommended for Latin American Studies, Political Science, and Military History reference collections and supplemental reading lists.

"Brazil in Focus" gives a synthesized, yet complete overview of Brazil's history, politics, society and economy. Anybody travelling through, or planning to live in Brazil would benefit greatly by reading this book, as it will help the reader understand why Brazil is what it is today, and why Brazilians act the way they do. The travel helps section, tacked onto the end of the book in five short pages, is inadequate.

Jim D. Leonard, Missionary, President of Cariri Baptist Bible College Crato, CE BRAZIL

Given Gordon's background, he is THE authority (and luckily THE brasilianist) to write such a piece.

I was a AMAZED by the ammount of good documentation and multiple sources quoted in the text from almost every possible source. Only improvement here is that it seems that the wave of info available on the Internet caught the author by surprise (it could have been much more up-to-date).

One can hardly expect a foreigner to have a deeper understanding of brazil's history than the person who was the US ambassador for several years, and a self-declared brasilianist. A grain of salt comes from the fact that pro-US, pro-trade behaviors and positions are an obvious consequence of Gordon's origin.

It's a shame that the version I read wasn't written after Lula's election and his first day as a president, but I learned more about Brazil in this book than in any other one. Very good job showing data and facts to support the positions and analyzing the underlying facts that took brazil to the position where it is now.

Abdias do Nascimento is a black Brazilian scholar and a very interesting writer. In this book, he claims that all these ideas that Brazil is wonderful because it is so racially-blended are nothing but a racist attempt to erase the contributions of and downplay the struggles faced by black Brazilians. Now that even white American conservatives are embracing multiracial people and activism, do Nascimento's thoughts may rub many the wrong way, especially mixed-race individuals. Still, this is an important Afrocentric text. Black Americans know too little about their brothers and sisters in Brazil. This book introduced me to the term "Quilombismo," a Brazilian concept paralleling Afrocentrism or Negritude. Do Nascimento is trying to change the defaults through which people see his country in order to help the blacks there. He called African Americans "African at heart, but kind of cold like their white English-speaking peers"; I laughed hard reading that. Every Afrocentric reader will learn much by grabbing a copy of this text.