When I first read this book six years ago, I was struck by its leisurely pace -- some readers in today's "now" technological age might find the text maddeningly slow -- but that is the delight in a book of this sort, written in 1912. Tomlinson's meditations, ruminations and wanderings are part of the larger adventure reflected in the times in which he took the "Capella" voyage. And, from these digressions come crisp, first-rate descriptions of the ship, its crew, and the surroundings. Even today, I can recall certain passages that still strike me in their clarity and precision (Ex: the huge, turbine arms of the Capella's engines whir and thump with "bird-like alacrity."). This book requires patience and indulgence, but is extremely rewarding for someone in this right frame of mind.

I loved this book for its dramatic yet humorous portrayal of a sea voyage across the Atlantic and an exploratory trip up the Amazon River in the early 20th century. If you can handle long sentences, he is a wonderful writer. I will never forget the passage about the shrunken head!

Tomlinson traveled in a ship hauling cargo to the head of navigation on the Madeira River, cargo for construction of the Madeira-Mamore railway. At that time, the upper reaches of the Madeira were as wild and inaccesible as any place on earth, including Antarctica. It's said that a man died for every crosstie on the railroad, and that's probably not a huge exaggeration. So Tomlinson's trip was a true adventure, even though his writing style is modest.

His account of the Amazon and the Madeira near the beginning of the 20th century is fascinating, and his anecdotes about his time at the construction site are hilarious. He comes across as a modest man with an adventurous streak and a wonderful sense of humor. This book is a delight to read as a sheer travel adventure.

It is also the only easy-reading description I've encountered of what was then the sheer wilderness of much of Amazonia was like before it was opened up by the advent of airplanes and the construction of the Trans-Amazon Highway. Even now, much of Brazil's part of the Amazon basin is wild, but now one can get in and out of all but the most remote spots conveniently. In Tomlinson's day, a million square miles was still mostly unmapped and almost unexplored; reading this book is an easy way of learning what true wilderness was like.

I recommend it highly; it's one of my favorite books.

I have always liked this author; I can always count on him for a good story. I was a little disappointed in this effort. Maybe it is because of the high hopes I had after reading some of his other works, but this book just did not hold my attention. He did a good job with an interesting story, one that I think he had to work more on due to it getting away from his standard fair. The characters drive this book and are done well. I guess I was not looking for a sea story and that is what this book is.

This is truly a classic tale of heroics, patriotism, adventure, and even romance. It is great. Jack Higgins has done it once again with this novel. I, myself, have only read the Readers Digest condensed novel, but even it was excellent. I have always been looking for a great Navy adventure, I think I have found just that. I would recommend this book to everybody and anybody, because it has something for every one. Carey Reeve is a great main character, and the action scenes are quite suspenseful.

This is a reprint of a novel originally published in 1976. The story is set in August-September 1944. A group of German naval officers and seamen, stranded in Brazil, steal the aged 3-masted barkentine "Deutschland" and, using false Swedish papers, set out on a voyage from Belem, Brazil, in an attempt to reach Germany. They have unexpected passengers - a group of five German nuns from a nursing order attempting to return home. Their biggest danger is the weather as storms batter the sailing vessel (they neglected the fact that September is the peak season for Atlantic hurricanes). The voyage becomes an epic battle against the elements, and leads to heroism, sacrifice, tragedy, and unexpected compassion. I personally believe that this is one of Higgin's best novels, if not the best. There are some intertwined plots as events come together to reach a final climax to the story.

I thought that this book would be a bit more wordy. Knowing that some anthropology books tend to get very in depth. I was suprised to find that it related to the non practicing anthropologist in all of us. It was an easy read with very little technical terms, all of which were defined. I enjoyed the fact that Picchi began with a description of fieldwork, not just jumping into the book. I thought that chapter listings at the end of the book makes this book a tool in the classroom as well. Overall this book is a well documented account of a native american group few people know about

I was required to read this book for a topics class at my university. So, of course, I thought it would be rather dull. However, many of my classmates and myself have found this book to be an easy, informative read; Picchi's look at the Bakairi culture is amazing! Personally, I was more interested in the anthropology aspect of this text, so the chapters on ecology and the long chapter about the definition of "fieldwork" did not interest me. For someone studying to be an anthropologist, however, this would be a very good book to look into. For anyone who doesn't know anything about native Amazonians-- believe me, you'll want to learn a whole lot more about them after you read this book! It is such a fascinating topic that I wonder why it isn't researched by more people and even more students.

Musician Tony Kozol is in Brazil for a concert when one of the band leader's gofers introduces him to Rio's criminal underworld. Deep in Rio's favellas, Tony learns that sometimes going along is the only way to stay alive. Still, life is mostly good--he has fallen in love with a beautiful woman, had a paying job, and Rio is in full carnival mode, with some of the world's most beautiful women on full display.

Then the entire thing falls apart. His boss seems to lose faith in him, the gangsters are putting pressure on him to support them in a major heist, and his girlfriend seems to have a powerful boyfriend who wants to see Tony out of the way no matter what it takes. Tony, along with his friend and sidekick Rock Bottom, will have to move fast to stay ahead of the wave of disaster bearing down on them.

Author J. R. Ripley does a convincing job portraying Rio de Janeiro in high carnival season. The samba beat, the contrasts of extreme wealth and abject poverty, and the curious position of law enforcement (being sometimes more dangerous than the people they are supposed to protect against) all ring true. The mystery itself is less convincing. When Brazil's Federal Police finally ask Tony and Rock for their assistance, one can only wonder why--it certainly isn't explained, nor does it make a great deal of sense. As a mystery reader, I also expect to learn all the clues that the point of view protagonist learns. In THE BODY FROM IPANEMA, a key clue was withheld from the reader but not from Tony, making the mystery perhaps more interesting from the reader's perspective, but fundamentally cheating on the implicit contract between author and reader.

Set in the festive Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, The Body From Ipanema: A Tony Kozol Mystery by J.R. Ripley is an exciting, tangled web of criss-crossing motivations and cold-blooded murder. Protagonist Tony Kozol is back, this time working for a beautiful and sensational Latin pop singer. But the streets of Ipanema have muggers too - and one of them, after mugging Tony, mysteriously turns up with a cut throat. This is only the start of a whirlwind chain of events to lure Tony in ever deeper into a dark and wild urban maze of deadly human motives, in this gripping mystery. Also very highly recommended are the earlier novels in the Tony Kozol mystery series: Stiff In The Freezer (1892339048, ...); Skulls Of Sedona (0373263902, ...); and Lost In Austin (0373264178, ...).

This book attempts to cover the whole gamut of wildlife for the Amazon basin and Pananal. It can't do it; no book can. It did make an admirable attempt and as such is a great book for the tourist traveling to the area. On a recent trip north of Manaus, it covered 98% of the bird life. It is concise enough that the occaisional bird wathcer will be able to identify most birds. It is not quite as adequate for other species- fish are very superficial, as are reptiles. I would like to see these expanded. This is a terrific guide for the tourist- concise, adequately complete, and easy to use.

I used this book for a recent trip to Brazil's Pantanal. The book is specific to only two geographic areas: The Pantanal and the Amazon, admittedly, Brazil's biggest natural draws. However, since the Pantanal and the Atlantic rainforest were my destinations, the book's usefulness was only partially utilized. Also, it is a heavy volume, and when considered with the other guidebooks I packed and used for cross-referencing, this book was by far the heftiest.

The book does fill a unique niche, that of ecology and natural history guide to these two unique wild places. No other book that is easily carried provides as much enjoyable natural history reading on the Amazon and Pantanal. The illustration plates are uniformly excellent, but it is not noted whether species occur outside of the Pantanal and Amazon. Many species do occur outside, as I quickly found out. Eliminating the rest of Brazil all together just seems a bit restricting. An average traveller to Brazil is most likely to make a stop in Rio de Janeiro, perhaps visit the easily accessible Parque National de Tijuca, and wonder if what they're seeing is that similar looking bird in their book.

Brazil is a big country, and no guidebook has yet to cover all its flora and fauna in one volume, in English, and travel-sized. This guidebook attempts to cover at least the animals and birds of Brazil's largest natural treasures, and succeeds for the most part. Given its quality of illustrations and plates, written descriptions of behavior, ecology and geography, this book is a good when used in conjunction with other bird and mammal guides.

This book was semi-informative and has some decent graphics

My Brazilian friend living in New York with an American family bought this book for her "host" father as a Father's Day gift. Out of all of the books on Brazil she could have chosen, she selected this one because of its nice graphics and wide-variety of information about her native country. She recommend it so highly, that I bought one for myself.

This book is very educational. It helps you learn about a man who strives for what he wants. He wanted the tree cutters to stop cutting down his people's trees. The trees were rubber trees. And the town people are rubber tappers. In order for the people to go on with their lives they all needed the trees. Chico was a very patonate man, and we all should be greatful that he risked his life for the forest.

"The Burning Season" discusses the life and importance of Chico Mendes, the founder of Brazil's ecological movement to preserve and save the Amazon rainforest from the destruction by herders, miners, and other companies wanting to exploit the region's rich natural supplies.

Mendes, who led a movement from the small frontier town of Acre, became an international celebrity after he went on Brazilian television to fight the destruction of the Amazonian Rainforest. With the ban on Argentine beef, Brazilian farmers saw the Amazon as being an emerging area to raise cattle in order to meet the world demand for beef. Miners, who were moving onto Indian lands to mine for gold, copper, and other minerals were also effecting the rainforest's ecology.

Mendes, who was a "seringuiero," or "rubber-tapper," relied on the Amazon's vast supply of rubber trees in order to make a living. Seeing that his source of income was in peril with the elimination of trees in order to make room for miners and farmers, Mendes began a national movement to awaken the consciousness of the world about the obvious dangers that lurked nearby if the rainforest was cleared. However, his life will take a tragic turn when he was only starting to gain international awareness and support for his movement.

The first few chapters of the book discuss the importance the rainforest plays when it comes to the spectrum of life on earth. The rainforest's vast fauna, flora, and wildlife have allowed many native cultures to survive for centuries, before and after the arrival of the Spanish and Portuguese conquistadors. The Amazon's emergence as a battleground for the discovery and development of cures and vaccines for various diseases and maladies has become more important in recent years, especially as pharmaceutical companies search for an AIDS vaccine. The rest of the book discusses Chico's early life, his career, family, and activism, and all events of importance to his movement after his death, especially the trial that brought those responsible for his death to justice.

This is a must-read book for everyone. Chico Mendes' mission to educate the world of the immense importance that Brazil's rainforest is to world's climate control should not die in vain. This important, ethical book will awaken your awareness of what the Amazon's destruction and development will have on the world's population

This book derives from a conference about the Confederados and it occasionally suffers from the attempt to edit together a group of papers that frequently overlap. With this one caveat, I must say that The Confederados is fascinating. Despite the occasionally kludgey back and forth references to other essays and chapters (and the repetition of material), the Dawsey's have assembled a fine book that examines the impact and legacy of post-Civil War immigrants from the U.S. South to Brazil; it also points out the contributions of other immigrants from the North and Europe who came to Brazil at roughly the same time. Especially interesting is the memoir of a Confederada, written late in her life, but rich in details about her childhood exodus from Alabama and the difficulties in getting to and starting a new life in Brazil. Also interesting is the study of the preservation of Southern dialect by the Confederados.

Neither an historian nor a scholar, but as a fluent Portuguese speaking American (born in Portugal) who spent half a century, both as a long time resident in Brazil and the southern United States, collecting data and contacting descendents of the Confederate migration to Brazil after the Civil War, I find this book the first real scholarly effort on an interesting, rather forgotten epic, though minor, of American history. Factually it appears correct to what I know of the people involved, then and now, from 1865 up to 1974 when I last left Brazil. However, as as academic production I find it lacks a certain feel for the "humanity" of those involved: the happiness and the tragedy, the bits and pieces of human interest that history (as do descendents changing actuality to pleasanter visions!} prefers not to speak of. There was as much sadness in the migration as there was happiness, as much failure as there was success. The human feeling, I find, is missing. Otherwise, this is a tremendous and most commendable effort. on a subject long forgotten. Perhaps, though small, one of the largest planned emigrations from the United States in its history.

I first learned of this book when I bought "Journey of the Pink Dolphins" and saw that it was one of the books mentioned in the bibliographic section. Curious to learn more about the pink river dolphins and their place in Brazilian folklore, I bought the book, and I found it a very fascinating look at the folklore of the Brazilian Amazon. One of the intriguing aspects of the book is Slater's focus on the ways ordinary people tell and retell stories about the pink river dolphins and other supernatural creatures, and how the stories apparently reflect the changes taking place in the Amazon, plus other issues such as "the double standard" and the conflict between organized religion and pre-Columbian religions which the botos (the Brazilian name for the pink river dolphins) and creatures such as the Cobra Grande (the anaconda) are representatives of (according to Slater). However, to me, the most fascinating part of the book are the tales of the botos themselves. Unlike the Cobra Grande and other supernatural creatures of the Amazon, the botos can be endearing, amusing, and extremely attractive. Certainly they've fascinated me while anacondas probably never would do that. In short, I really liked the book and would recommend it, especially to those interested in folklore.

A facinating book. About modern Brazilian folklore about animal transformation, particularly the were-dolphin, but also includes were-pigs, were-horses, were-snakes, were-jaguars and the werewolf. Many Brazilians still believe that many of the Amazon river dolphins are human beings who have temporarily transformed. Refreshingly, we don't hear any of the standard European "cannibalism" and "devil worship" theories that are so often associated with the werewolf and were-animals in general. Instead, those who transform are usually nothing worse than spooky... the were-dolphin is notoriously fun-loving, often plays a musical instrument in human form, and is very seductive. The folklore is saturated with folk beliefs centered on shamanism, and the stories are a facinating look into the belief systems and views of these people. It's nice to see a non-western viewpoint of the shapeshifter.

I was very dissapointed after reading this book that this is the impression Americans are getting about race in Brasil. I am a Brazilian of mixed black/white/indian heritage like many Brasilians, and I can tell you that France Winddance Twine has misinterpreted race relations in my country. The idea of "white supremacy" does not exist in Brasil. Of course there is racism, but it would be very hard for an American to understand Brasilian miscengenacao (racial mixing). Many white Brasilians do not consider themselves to be white, and share the same afro/mestico culture as the rest of Brasilians, while many wealthy dark skin Brasilians may consider themselves to be white. However, it is so different than the American situation that you cannot begin to compare. Brasil is not divided by race like America is, however we are very divided by class. If you ask most Brasilians what race they are they will likely reply: Brasileiro!! This book analyzes our race situation from an American point of view on Race.

The suggestion that Brazil is divided only by class is the argument that Twine attacke directly in this book. It is precisely the maintenance of a white supremacist social system that has convinced both whites and people of color in Brazil that racism does not exist. Time and again her interviewees insist that racism does not exist, despite mestizo and black Brazilians being paid slave wages for hours and hours of work or the absence of people of color in the government, economy, or the elite, rich, ruling class. There is just enough mobility for people to deny racism in Brazil exists, but Twine dismantles this argument piece by piece...

Ms. France W. Twine has written a superb analysis on how race is still, in the end of the 20th century, perhaps the main factor determining an individual's social and economic position within Brazilian society. This is truly a myth-shattering book; and it is impressive how an American student (though the fact of being African-American may have helped her not to swallow the official, non-racist myths of official propaganda) has managed, after a stay of only a few months, to understand a reality that has eluded dozens of academics and experts who've written about Brazil in the last decades.

According to Ms. Frances, it is only in the lower classes that the myth of a "non-racial" Brazilian society broadly corresponds to reality; in fact, there are no "black" or brown" ghettoes in Brazil - in the favelas one may find people of all colours, even if darker skin usually predominates. But to gain access to the middle or upper classes while being black or of mixed race is virtually impossible in Brazil (with the possible exception of soccer stars and a few outstanding musicians) - thanks to the deadly efficient system of "polite and hidden" racism that Ms. Frances has understood and analysed so well. A Brazilian citizen, after reading this book, can only say: "obrigado, senhorita Frances!".