I never expected to write a review ..., but if it will save someone the money wasted on this book, it is worth the trouble. I am amazed by the inaccurate, positive Editorial Reviews, though I can understand the Customer Reviews. After all, without knowing your surroundings, you can not easily perceive that you have been mislead.

I have resided in Rio for years and purchased the book for visitors whom I can not attend as fully as I would like. However, this book would only serve to gear my guests towards a disappointing vacation relative to what they could experience.

Although the book is written by a Carioca (a Rio native), she apparently has not been out much in the last couple of years, despite the book's year 2000 copyright.

Only 1 of the Top 10 Disco Clubs may be worthy of being listed, whereas the #1 burned down back around 1996 and the #10 virtually went out of business over a year ago. Her #4 "known to be a tourist hangout" is better known as a whore house. Not 1 of Rio's top dance clubs is actually listed here.

The Top 10 Seafood Restaurants fails to include Satyricon, arguably one of Rio's finest, however the author ackowledges it as "one of the best seafood restaurants in town" in her Top 10 Medium Priced Restaurants (though it is not medium priced). The book is full of similar inconsistencies.

The Top 10 Churrascarias (all you can eat steak houses) lists several that are a la carte only, including the (Australian) Outback Steakhouse, an unnecessary destination considering all the great local establishments.

The Top 10 Fresh Juice Shops fails to include some of Rio's best, as well as most famous and popular.

The Top 10 Wine Bars have little or nothing to do with wine, and at best offer a poor selection. And of course some of these establishments have been closed for years.

Admittedly, the book does include many places worth visiting, though not in the order presented. As a first time visitor in 1987 and a first time resident in 1996, with experience hosting visitors from the USA and elsewhere, my suggestions is look for another guide book.

This was a great book I thought until I got to Rio. I bought this book because it was the most recently published (2000). On more than one occasion the book contained dated material. The best example was the Japanese restaurant that was supposed to be in the hotel where I stayed. I was suprised to find out it closed over 2 years ago. Go with the Lost Planet guide. At least they tell you that their information is two years old.

Excellent book! Forget about the comment that some info in the book are dated. C'mon, you are on vacation. Give me that adventure spirit and go w/ the flow. Who cares if that restaurant in the gringo hotel has been closed for two years as long as the Sugar Loaf, the Cristo and most importantly, the Cariocas are all there!!! If everything is so certain and structured, why wouldn't I have my vacation in our boring american suburb? This book conveys the spirit of Rio, which is intensity w/ fun and action, warm and exciting people and lots of new ideas if you leave your American baggage at home. I have been to Rio seven times in the last three years. I think this book is an accurate representation of Rio and Cariocas, that is, if you are not too ANALytical. :) enjoy!

This book would be a nightmare for a beginner because it jumps into Portuguese in such a confusing way. It just throws lists of words for you to memorize, and introduces grammar that is hardly even practiced in the exercises.

This book is also very aloof, and hardly forms a "relationship" with the reader. All the explanations are not in-depth. New grammar and vocabulary is just explained with a sentence, and then the reader is left on his/her own.

Here's an example of an exercise:

Exercise 2

Can you remember what the following are in Portuguese?

duty-free, boarding card, departure board, non-smoking, passport control, departure lounge, departure gate

No, I can't remember what they are-all I was given was a list of words!

Compared to Colloquial Icelandic(which is an EXCELLENT Colloquial course), this book is severely lacking, and that is quite surprising. A language spoken by around 200,000 people is taught so much more in depth than one spoken by almost 200,000,000!

I think this is a poor choice for the total beginner. The audio starts with fairly advanced dialogue, spoken very quickly. While that may well be the way the Brazilians speak, it is useless to the beginning student. The book is comprehensive, but poor for self study - picture your high school Spanish text, without the teacher. I gave up on this one after two fruitless hours, and bought Pimsleur's Audio course. I may go back to Portuguese of Brazil - The Complete Course for Beginners, but only AFTER I finish Pimsleurs.

Although this book was a disappointment when I was first learning Portuguese six months ago, now that I am an intermediate plus Portuguese speaker/writer I find this book an invaluable reference. It is well indexed, making it easy to find the topic I need to review. It includes enough examples to make the point clear (but not enough when I was first learning).

This guide (??) does not do a very good job of guiding one around Rio de Janeiro. Too many cute icons...colored circles...arrows pointing in all directions...squares ...triangles...all mashed together leading to total confusion and frustration. More of a headache than a help. Very colorful....slick package but does not produce.

This guides does a good job on guiding you around Rio. Some of the attractions of this wonderful city, full of magnificent nature and historic buildings, were not mentioned or well described. But this guide is surely one of the best options for the foreign visitor to Rio.

As a native of Rio I have to say I found it simply one of the best and easiest guides about the Wonderful City. Light and essential, it is perfect to be carried everywhere on your trip. It covers all the basics and will be able to take you to all major attractions and sights on this fabulous city. An informal, compact, colorful and useful guide for a fun loving place. Just buy it !

Although this book has wonderful pictures of Brazil, it also provides inaccurate information. Historical facts were completly twisted by the authors of this book who reveal extreme ignorance. I was surprised that they had in fact courage to publish a book like this...Don't spend your money here.

This book was donated to our high school library from a Brazilian exchange student. The large colorful pictures, maps, and diagrams are reminscent of a National Geographic publication. The text is clear and easy to read and includes an extensive index. The format and cover appeal makes it an excellent addition to our collection.

In his introduction, Mr.Font identifies Fernando Henrique Cardoso as a "World class intellectual" and hails his success in stabilizing the Brazillian economy. He then repeats the word 'intellectual' no less than nineteen times in the first five pages. This reminded me of Arthur C. Clarke author of "2001, A Space Odysey" whose definition of an intellectual is "Someone who has been educated beyond his or her intelligence." As for the stability of the Brazillian economy, more later.

The problem with so-called intellectuals in Brazil is that Georg Hegel(1770-1831) of the police-state philosophy and and Karl Marx(1818-1883) economic determinism are the end of history and there is nothing else worth considering. On page 75 Cardoso says "A study of the history of ideas in the twentieth century would show that each generation of critical intellectuals seeks to revive Marxism with anew breath of life. The crust of so-called "vulgar Marxism" is so recurring that it must have something to do with Marxism itself." Perhaps because Cardoso is a former teacher, and recalls the old axiom of "publish or perish", he is prone to taking a clear, concise proposition and expanding it into a chapter obfuscated with dialectic garbage.

Cardoso writes a great deal about democracy and democratization. The reader must recognise that his definitions are much different from ours, particularly "radicalized democracy". Cardoso governs by Medidas Provisorias which require legislative approval (similar to our Executive Orders). When he gets a rubber stamp approval he hails this as democracy in action. If the approval is not forthcoming, he has other less complimentary words. His knee-jerk approach to issuing MPs frequently requires repeated revisions before he gets them right. In the last seven years he has issued 237 MPs requiring 4,032 reeditions.

Cardoso is a friend of Anthony Giddens of the London School of Economics, proponent of what is called "The Third Way". The Third way is not a creation of Giddens. It originated in Germany under Adolph Hitler's National Socialist party. When ask why he did not nationalize industry, Hitler replied "I don't need to, the owners will do what I tell them to do." Cardoso has privatized a great deal of what was government owned industry but for different reasons. Brazil does not have a free market economy but a central planned economy keyed to providing maximum employment. They do not have any understanding or concern for market demand. If an industry such as steel or sugar produces more than the market needs, they look for a wy to dump the excess at below cost. The United States and Canada have both passed antidumping laws which Cardoso calls unfair.

When the Real Plan was introduced on Friday, 1 July 1994, 1 Real equaled 1 US Dollar. On Monday, 4 July 1994 when people went to exchange their money, the value of the Real had been inflated to US$1.05. They were encouraged to exchange their 'weak' dollars for 'strong' Reals. Few people realized that 4 July was American holiday and all US banks and financial institutions were closed. In a short time the value of the Real was inflated to US$1.20. The Cardoso goverment went on a borrow and spend for about three years until it could not borrow any more and had to be bailed out by the IMF to the tune of about 40 billion dollars. Today the Real is only worth about 40 US cents, the public debit is about forty percent of the gross domestic product, electricity is rationed, and Brazil is back at the IMF looking for another 19 billion to tide it over till Cardoso leaves office. What course has he charted for himself, I wonder.

This is an excellent reading to better understand the intellectual trajectory of Fernando Henrique Cardoso, the renowned Latin American scholar turned politician and currently Brazil's President. Through a well thought-out chronological selection of Cardoso's texts by the book's editor Mauricio Font, the reader is able to follow the evolution of Cardoso's views on "dependency," politics and democracy, social organization, development and globalization. As Professor Robert Alexander concludes in his Choice review of November 1, 2001, this book "should be of particular interest to those interested in globalization and its impact on developing nations."

The preface contains the comment that "this is not an authorized biography", so readers may be surprised to find that it is a fawning assessment of former Brazilian president Fernando Henrique Cardoso. While it provides readers with some useful background, it fails at critical balance. It is further undermined by serious factual errors and an overall lack of depth.

Fernando Henrique Cardoso grew up in Sao Paulo, Brazil where he studied sociology and Marxism. He went into exile after Brazil's 1964 military coup, living in Chile and France, before returning to Brazil to found a leftist think tank. Cardoso's 1969 book, "Dependency and Development in Latin America", was a seminal work that established his reputation as a world-class sociologist. Joining the opposition party in the 1970s, Cardoso eventually became a Senator and a key drafter of the 1988 constitution. He captured the Brazilian imagination in 1994 as Finance Minister when his "Real Plan" tamed hyperinflation. Launched by this success, he was elected President that same year.

As the book's analysis demonstrates, Cardoso's greatest asset was his flexibility. For, unlike many of his contemporary intellectuals, Cardoso was not a doctrinaire Marxist who insisted on squeezing modern realities into the mold of his pre-conceived ideology. Instead, he used Marxism and his own dependency theory as working models to identify solutions to real problems. He was, in this sense, a pragmatic and effective applied social scientist. For those readers familiar with Cardoso as president, this book provides useful background demonstrating how he --like the president who followed him, Lula da Silva-- moved from the far left toward the center over his career. This evolution allowed Cardoso, and Lula, to gain the confidence of the financial classes and win national elections.

The book is strongest, not surprisingly, in explaining sociological principles. Author Goertzel is a sociology professor at home describing academic environments and Marxist minutiae. But it is weakest on the economic and political analyses that are critical to understanding Cardoso's terms as president. There are many factual errors whose cumulative effect undermines the credibility of the entire book. Thus the Planalto Palace is incorrectly described as a "two-story office building" (it has four stories); Cardoso ally Antonio Carlos Magalhaes is termed a "distinguished senator" (he is a thoroughly corrupt machine politician). We learn (p.164) that a two-thirds congressional majority is required to amend the constitution (a three-fifths majority is required); and that the 1997 global economic crisis began in Hong Kong (it began in Thailand). The book refers (p.193) to Brazil's congressional districts (Brazil has no congressional districts, all candidates run statewide); and confuses the Bank of Brazil with the government Central Bank.

Even more serious is the inability to balance affection for Cardoso with insightful criticism. From a pointless description of Cardoso's first college term paper to its overuse of the word "brilliant" to describe the subject, the book never rises beyond the level of highbrow fanzine. Though he spent some time in Brazil in the 1960s, the author is no Brazilianist and his analysis of events often slips into facile generalizations ("Many Brazilians of humble means do not want their president to be a common person like themselves."). The worst analysis occurs where complicated events call for critical review, there is just no attempt to criticize Cardoso. Thus readers get apologizes, rather than serious analysis, of Cardoso's failure to implement land reform and intellectual flip-flops that pre-load conclusions most flattering to Cardoso. For example on p.162, readers learn that the constitution limits the powers of the presidency, yet two paragraphs later we read that the president has "formidable powers". There is a similar about-face on the views of economist Rudiger Dornbusch. Overall, the economic analysis is particularly shallow (the author refers on p.164 to alleged "international guidelines" on a country's deficit spending).

The concluding paragraph is so weak that readers who have made it to the end can only shake their heads. For after describing how Brazil in the 1990s failed to implement fundamental reforms, the last page tells us "Congress was rapidly passing much needed reforms", and lamely concludes "If the new commitment to reform can be sustained, the country's long-term prospects are good." The book is not a total failure, but it has serious weaknesses and a grating pro-Cardoso bias that suggests it is the Cardoso fans' attempt to get in the first word on his historical legacy. It is most useful for students of Brazil who will balance it with other readings.

Towards the end of his book on Brazil's current President Cardoso, Prof. Goertzel states, "he is the first professional sociologist to be president of his country". A sociologist himself, the author wrote this biography as a study of Cardoso's academic profile and its possible reflections on his actions as a politician, especially as president. I imagine that such a perspective comes naturally to sociologists. Having lived in Brazil throughout most of Cardoso's political career (though not during his presidency), I think Prof. Goertzel may have pursued something of a shadow. Cardoso is a sociologist *and* a politician, just as Bill Clinton is a lawyer and a politician. Both presidents - who seem to get along well personally - owe their success as politicians to political pragmatism and a great deal of luck. Cardoso's politics were rather leftist as late as the eighties. As a Senator, he voted for many constitutional clauses which as president he had to work hard to revoke. Like Tony Blair, or even Bill Clinton, Cardoso has adapted his policies to economic and political realities. That shows acumen, but not originality or necessarily political courage. The reforms that he has pursued were being advocated long ago in Brazil, but by others - whom Cardoso had often opposed. That he finally saw the light deserves praise, but it is hard to see how his career as a sociologist necessarily played a role.

That said, the book has many good points. It has an excellent analysis of Brazil's politics of the last 8 years. Prof. Goertzel shows a remarkable, even uncanny, penetration of the Brazilian left's thinking. However, the author's knowledge of Brazil's history grows hazier the further he goes back into the past. Up to the seventies the narrative is extremely vague, and occasionally erroneous, when it describes events not related to Cardoso personally. A previous knowledge of Brazilian history and economics is indispensable to understand Cardoso's historical role fully. Those who read this book without such a previous knowledge will, I fear, fail to grasp many essential points, such as the precise nature of Brazil's military regime in 1964-85 and the extent to which inflation dominated - and up to a point still does - Brazil's ecomomy and politics. But it is a well-written narrative, extremely readable.

The brazilian human beings described as "caboclos",surely deserve to finaly become part of the mainstream civilization in their own country! Truth is that it is not an easy task, due to human nature , you know... kind of like human intolerance... It's similar to the concept of "Hiphenated- America"... Antropologists and sociologists wouldn't be able to cure such malade! The heart of the problem and the answer to it could only be fixed by an individual's desire to do better within oneself. To remember Christ's commendment to "Love one another". To mind the "Golden rule" and do unto other as one wants done unto oneself. Children need to be treated with respect, in order to grow up and teach respect to others. Children need to be taught of HOPE, and that is a most important element, one which is missing from the life of the peasant caboclo...

I had to use this book for a report in my geagrapy class on Uruguay, and it helped quite a bit!

The author has performed exhaustive archival research to show that the Bahian Reconcavo not only produced plantation crops for export but that small and medium-size producers became growers of manoic tubers--yucca--the basic staple, in the form of dried and roasted powder--of the region's population.

This book is primarily a guide to the distribution of Japanese birds, and the historical record of their locations. Brazil lists every species ever seen in Japan and tells where and when it is found (by prefecture, island, or even more specific location if the bird is rare). Then he describes its habitat, nesting habits and seasons, and usually its calls. Finally, he lists the authorities who have described it and summarizes the large regions in which it has been seen.

Nowhere does he discuss the birds' appearances at all. There are six nice color plates and some excellent line drawings, but in total these show only about 100 birds, and are not planned with identification in mind in any case.

Brazil includes an amazing bibliography, totaling over 1000 entries going back to the early 1800s. The bibliography alone is worth the price of the book. In his text, however, he does not limit his citations to the bibliography but also references a large number his own personal observations and communications from other observers.

Mark Brazil is a major authority on Japanese birds, and this book is valuable in many ways. But it is in no sense an identification guide.