This is a beautifully-produced books with haunting photogrpahs of a Brazil that has largely vanished. The focus is on people, and the photographer captures their humanity. Excellent analysis and history too.

The photographer, Genevieve Naylor, went to Brazil after working for the Associated Press and the Roosevelt administration's photographic corps. She brought to her assignment a wonderful eye for composition and an affection for the simple aspects of Brazilian life. This is a compelling book that is beautifully printed and handsomely presented. The author does an excellent job of setting the scene, too.

Genevieve Naylor was a PSA photographer hired by Nelson Rockefeller to travel through Brazil and document how American's wartime allies lives and worked. Her large format, beautifully printed photos reveal the texture of life in a proud and vibrant country. The author of this book provides clear and highly insightful analysis of the historical context in which to understand and appreciate Naylor's genius.

This is one of the most beautiful photographic essays I have ever seen. It is so intense, it is almost too much (like the movie Moulin Rouge); but because it is a book rather than a movie, you can take it in at your own pace. The colors, excitement, and sensuality of Carnival are captured in a way that makes you glad you, too, are a member of the human race. The CD which comes with the book is a nice addition, but doesn't come close in vividness and stimulation to the photos.

This book and CD are the next best thing to going to Carnival in Rio. Carnival is the Brazilian equivalent of Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Except the scale and intensity of Carnaval dwarf Mardi Gras. Few of us will ever get to Brazil to enjoy the spectacle, but we can enjoy it from afar thanks to Helmut Teissl and his experience over 12 Carnivals.

Before praising this work further, let me put out a caution. This book contains images of bare breasts and barely covered buttocks and private parts that will offend some. If those images are troubling to you, I suggest you avoid this book. For those who are neutral on the subject, I found the displays of female anatomy to be consistent with portraying the event, rather than being present for inappropriate reasons.

One of the great strengths of this book is that it explains about the competition among the Samba clubs that is the key feature of Carnival. I learned that there are many requirements for how these are conducted. For example, there must be a group of at least 70 women over the age of 45 wearing skirts. The costumes of these women can weigh as much of 33 pounds each. That's a lot for a small woman to bear. There is also a large group of male pushers, who roll the floats ahead with hand labor. The music section that produces the Samba beat will often exceed 300, and each Samba club has its own unique Samba sound, which you can hear on the CD.

The photographs cover preparations throughout the year, as well as Carnival itself. Some of the images are of people standing, and others use a long exposure to capture the astonishing motion of the dancing. These latter images are like abstract art. In each case, the images are in vibrant color, like plumage of exotic animals in the Amazon jungle.

There is also a lot of social commentary in the photographs. In several cases, performers are wearing very expensive costumes and display smiles featuring the rotting and missing teeth of the poor. In other cases, you see expensive orthodontia in the smiles among the featured women of the Samba clubs. The costumes and the gaity seem to be pushing back against the blackness of night, the darkness of death, and the risk of damnation. In some ways, you will feel like you are watching a voodoo rite in a James Bond movie, rather than a fun parade.

After experiencing Carnival, I suggest that you think about the key rituals of our own society. What positive and not-so-positive qualities are represented? As a starting point, you might begin with Halloween and then move on to Thanksgiving. Then consider your town's Memorial Day parade. I leave it to you to choose your rituals after that. How can you and your family develop and nurture rituals that will be good for each of you and the whole family?

Feel the beat!

Here I am living in New Orleans, the home of Mardi Gras with a passion for Carnival and happy feet that move uncontrollably when I hear a samba beat! As a photographer and ethnomusicologist, I am most appreciative of a job well done. This book with its vibrant stop action YOU ARE THERE photos of beautiful dancers in colorful feathers and minuscule sequins and beads, wild frenzied crowds, happy musicians and Rio de Janeiro excitement really takes you there! The text is fascinating too and gives insight into the people, preparation and parades that make this legendary event happen each year. Plus wait there's more, folks! This package goes beyond what most books of its kind offer-it brings you the SOUNDS of Carnival music in a rockin CD. Corny as it may sound, this IS the next best thing to being there! It's always a party here in The Big Easy and I can enjoy this book and CD during Jazz Fest as well as Mardi Gras, it is timeless. Austrian author and photographer, Helmut Teissl is an artist and I'd sure like to see what he could do with Mardi Gras! Come on down, Helmut, I'll throw ya some beads from my French Quarter balcony!

an excellent book. sad, funny, always interesting. just enough elements of cinema to draw a reader in, seduce them into thinking they're getting nothing more than a well-written drama--which it is, only with depths that movies don't bother to ever aspire to find. the subtle, sad undertones floating throughout the story make this book a humane but dark book. i wish all adpeople would read it and recoil at how shallow most of our lives are.

Dee's book has a moral weight that you rarely see in American fiction, but the writing is not at all heavy-handed. An excellent accomplishment.

Main plot: retiring professional meets reclusive neighbor who turns out to be a wanted man. Good piece of fiction that develops the characters well. Characters become well known and the main character guides the reader to an understanding of how little it really takes to get us out of our little civilized shells into a bigger, scarier world beyond the US borders and beyond our sense of humanity. The initial smoothness of the reading makes the transition to deeper thoughts all that more involving and tedious.

Macunaima, the typical hero of Brazil, as the author introduces the book, passes through many weird and fantastic situations told as legends, ancient myths, that actually are aspects of the Brazilian culture. Macunaima, the hero, creates many traditions of Brazil during his adventures. Mario de Andrade style of writing is funny by itself, and the whole story is very ingenuous, funny and interesting. The author plays with the popular way of distorting the truth taking facts that are told later as legends and fantastic myths. This was the best book I ever read of Brazilian literature!

Mario de Andrade's Macunaíma is a "Sui Generis" book that shows the high-level of Brazilians authors literature, with a so well-humorated and creative history that keeps you hooked with the book all the time. The mix of all brazilians folklore is something great and nice to read and learn. Try...It's pretty good!!!!!!!!!

Mario de Andrade - writer, folklorist, musician, poet - published "Macunaíma, the hero with no character" in the 20s. It's a fantastic trip throughout Brazilian culture, music, ethnic origins, geography, folklore, all sewed together in the delicious adventures of the ultimate Brazilian, Macunaima. He's born an Indian, becomes Black, and then White, and never loses contact with his previous lives. It's not just exotic, magic and adventurous. It's intelligent, challenging, first class literature.

A very sweet story.. beautifully illustrated! As a bilingual mom of a 5 month-old baby, I enjoyed reading this book. Although the title suggest a book in Spanish, it's actually beautifully written in English.

I loved this book! We're a bilingual family and when we first read this story in Spanish, my children and I laughed and squealed with delight. The language is uniquely latin, and the author uses the words pu-pu for poop, and pipi for pee which made us really laugh.

But the sweetness of the story is really how the little white bunny fell in love with the little black girls' striking beauty, and determined that if he himself could not look like her, then he would seek to marry a black and beautiful rabbit, and perhaps have children who were beautiful and dark.

This is a delightful story about a white bunny who falls in love with a beautiful Black girl. The bunny tries everything to turn himself Black. In the end he marries a Black bunny and they have grey, black and white bunnies. A very positive book which deals with racial bias, and racial differences. A positive story for children of all races.

My 7 month old loves this book. His face lights up when he hears the rain "plinka, plinka" and the wind "Wooya, Wooya". He also loves the pictures. I know this will always be one of his favorites.

Both my three year old daughter and I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It's rhyming verse is fun to read and the pictures are captivating. The actual story of how the carefree monkeys avoid making their night-time nests is light-hearted and amusing. My daughter and I borrowed this entertaining book from our local library. We liked it so well that I intend to buy it for her collection of favorites.

Never mind the review that says this for age 3+. My 14 month old won't go to bed until we've read this at least three times. He's barely talking but he picks up the books and says "Whee!" And his older brother (age 4) chimes in with the "Jibba Jibba Jabba" every time!

The name Jorge Amado has been largely ignored by most of the English-speaking world. His passing did not even warrant a note in the NY Times despite his works having been translated into thirty-one languages, filmed, and serialized as soap operas. His books contain some of the most beautiful prose written. There is no limit to the quality of this, in my opinion, his best work. Amado's talent for showing the beauty and glory in the mundane is unmatched. That minor gesture, this habit, those pecularities of character, all become mountains. The protagonist, Pedro Archanjo, is both a free-spirited, entertaining, beloved rogue and a fierce activist for social justice. The locale of Bahía is the home of this tale and the setting could not be better. After an American intellectual celebrity 'discovers' the writings of Pedro Archanjo, a race is on to show who was the biggest supporter of the man who has now become a hero, posthumously. The story occurs along two lines, one is in Archanjo's lifetime and the second during the hoopla generated decades later by the professor from Columbia University. Both tales are resplendent reflections of Bahían life. One has the poverty-stricken barrio of Archanjo's residence with cardsharks, gangsters, capoeiristas and sporting houses. The other modern discos, celebrity worship, and the fantastic possibilities of memory. The tale demonstrates well and humorously the appropriation of history by the present for its own purposes. There are too many wonderful aspects of this novel to describe in this small space. I recommend this novel to anyone who asks for the reason that even with the strife that takes place in it, this book contains a world completely enviable because the people in it seem far more alive than almost any we meet in life.

To me, this is the most important and the best book by Jorge. The book is about the life of Pedro Archanjo, a mulatto man who spent his whole life fighting prejudice. The book teaches you about the Roguish lifestyle Archanjo lived, his growth and maturity and his death. It is very interesting how the interest for why Archanjo wrote grows exponentially as you keep reading. Also, the book deals with the commericalization of Archanjo after his death when an American Genius tells the Brazilian press about his respect for the land of Pedro Archanjo. Within a few days the newspapers make a big deal and lie about the life of Pedro Archanjo to sell ads. The author, a poet suffering the pangs of love, tell you about Archanjo, but also about his personal life. You may ask why I call refer to the author by first name. The reason is because after reading most of his books, I feel like I know him and I tell that this is a must read(this book has the most untraslated terms than any other of Jorge's books, which makes it so much better). If you like Jorge, please email me.

The pursuits of knowlegdge and the importance of true friendship come together well in this book. The characters are so vivid, you might as well be there in person. If you want to live the adventure, Amado is the one to read.

After having an intense conversation about Jorge Amado on a flight to SF, my husband received this book in the mail as a gift from his flight companion. I picked it up recently and became enthralled with the story and the plot. Amado has the ability to tell a story like no other and make you fall in love with the characters. He words will feast your eyes and dance the most elegant dance with your mind.

Amado at his best. The episodes are spellbinding and the reader falls in love with the characters.

Tereza Batista : Home from the Wars is a great read. The characters can be silly, heroic, or evil beyond words, but they're never boring and the story is engrossing.

A poignant illustration of the landless plight in Brazil! As evidenced by another reviewer, this book has the ability to thaw the heart of even the most ultra conservative (e.g. "Most of the people in these photographs have extremely difficult lives, due to a twist of fate rather than a personal choice.") They are landless because most middle-class Brazilians view the landless as making horrible life choices as opposed to being pushed by the wind of fate...and ironically they think descendents of Africans in the United States have much to teach "their" Amerindians and African populations about success. The irony! Yes, read it, see it, and see yourself.

I took a look at this book in a book store, here in Berkeley Ca. The people you meet as you flip thru the photos make you want to re-examine your own life. Most of the people in these photographs have extremely difficult lives, due to a twist of fate rather than a personal choice. Salgado has not photographed them for pity or to gain sympathy from you, as much as he has shown you a side of yourself... and I am not talking about a "mirror" either. (I am talking about the side that you CAN'T see without Salgado's camera)

These people struggle and may suffer personal tragedies, but there is dignity in their souls. When you see these people, they may not be in control of their fate, whatever terrible fate it may be, but they are in control of their hearts. The blood that runs through the veins of the people Salgado introduced me to, in the photos from the other side of the globe, flows deeper, and redder, and richer than does the blood in my world...

Their lives are fleeting and so is yours my friend, but I believe they have wings; we do not. While you and I are burdened with the weight of unfunny jokes and political scandals, they are free, burdened only with broken hearts and bones that heal fast and clean...

I could not afford the price of the book myself, I could barely afford to stand there as long as I did reading the book; I mean how long can one view a side of oneself so rarely llumiminated?

Once I thought, all I needed to know was God, or to know a beautiful woman, or maybe just smile to bystanders... but I realize I KNOW NOTHING... and that leaves a lot for me to want to know, still. Good luck to you if you should get this book.

Once again, Sebastiao Salgado is back, and with two heavy weights by his side: Jose Saramago (preface) and Chico Buarque (poems).
Like all his previous works, the camera that made 'Terra' points to the heart of all human being worthy of that classification; with Chico's poems pointing at each ones soul and Saramago's pen pointing at our conscience (and that of God), if this book does not make us see the world in a whole different way, then we better worry before looking at the mirror...
Fernando Gouveia (fgouveia@marao.utad.pt), Vila Real, Portugal

The myriad stories begun throughout the series are brought together here, as plot-threads you didn't know existed are revealed and then woven together (and none of them are dissatisfying cheap tricks, either). Many questions are answered, but not all of them.

The scope of the finish here is the biggest I can remember, and the poignacy of the end is distinct from the triumph or anti-climax at the end of many other major science fiction tales.

I've read this entire series four or five times completely, and it was worth it every time.

This is the first in the series that I have read,but unlike most series novels the history and characters are well explained thus able to comprehend the situations.Brazil the perfect hero is not the classic hero as he uses deceit and other human prows to achive his goals.It is noted that a lot of classical work shows the hero as a moral,'justice for all',... character while true human nature of corruption and other and philosophy that the ends justify the means are ignored.Such greats as Alexander The Great have employed ruthless methods and it is seen that Brazil is the same.As conclusion compared to classic good versus evil and pure fantasy fiction this novel is a work of art.

I have to say the Twilight is in my opinion the best Well World novel that has been written. It brings back my favorite character, Nathan Brazil, and it also explains more about the history of the Well and even why Nathan Brazil was really left as a Guardian. I thought that it also incorporated some good villians and and subplots and left a very big opening for many new Well World novels. All in all, I say it is a very good book and a must have.