Caviglia's book is a very useful tool on describing Social and Economic analyses on farming and environmental development. Since the beginning , its narrative are strongly connected with resource and the environmental question. The fact that the work deals with a certain region in Amazon region do not diminish the spectrum of questions and linkages with could be related to any other natural resource dependent development region in the world.

I found the work very useful, specially for its very clear development in terms of chapters and sequence of work. Also the book presents a nice descriptive and historical background analysis and survey description. Specially designed for researches and students on Economic and Social aspects related to the development in forest areas.

Throughout history, many languages have spread from their homeland to become the "native" language of areas far afield; the whole Romance family of languages shows how Latin became a native tongue far beyond Rome, and the spread of Arabic is similar.

Many European languages have been used as "colonial" languages in the past four hundred years, including such unlikely candidates as Flemish and Danish. But really only five European languages have flourished to become native tongues outside of their homelands: French, English, Spanish, Dutch and Portuguese.

The histories of these linguistic developments are varied; some acorns fell farther from the tree than others. Differences in vocabulary and pronunciation are true in every case, and this is to be expected, given that these vary considerably within the mother countries too. But some have also altered grammatically and syntactically. Despite how Parisians may sniff at Canadian French, it really doesn't vary very much syntactically from the standard European variety; where it does, ironically, it is usually the Canadian version that has kept the more antique form while European French has changed. There are, of course, the various French-inpired island creoles, but these are generally not spoken by French who settled overseas, and the dynamic under which they were created is different.

In the case of Spanish, with the exception of some small pockets (as in Aruba) it is amazing how little variation in educated usage there is throughout the world. Even English, despite the fun that Englishmen and Americans poke at each other, hasn't varied nearly as much as it could. It is true that you can discern noticeable differences in educated usage between London and New York, but leaving the USA aside, educated grammar and syntax are virtually identical for the rest of the English speaking world, whether you're in London, Capetown, Sydney, Auckland or (arguably) even Toronto.

Dutch is at the other end of the spectrum; its South African stepchild, Afrikaans, departs so much from European usage that it is recognized as a separate language. Portuguese is not too far behind. The differences in even educated usage between Portugal and Brazil are so extensive that it sometimes amazes me that people from the two countries can understand each other at all. It affects usage of pronouns, verb tenses (the future tense virtually doesn't exist in Brazilian Portuguese), word order and a host of other things, in addition to the usual departures in pronunciation and vocabulary. The departure from the original, in this case, anyway, seems to be on the colony's side; Brazilian Protuguese has changed so much in this past century that even writings by Brazilian writers from 100 years ago sound archaic to modern Brazilian ears.

This book is an attempt to tabulate those differences and present them to the student, and its content is extensive. However, the book is quite difficult to use in any way except as a bookshelf reference; unless you know exactly what you're looking for, you won't find it. The book is split into topics by different syntactical "phenomena", but the information you want could be anywhere.

In the balance, I'm glad I have the book, but you can't use it as a study aid as I wished to, unless you want to memorize large numbers of sentences as usage models. It's probably more useful to the teacher than the student.

Emilio Moran's book could reasonably be called the most recent definitive anthropological work on the Amazonian region. In addition to the ecological analysis, it encompasses a huge amount of secondary research. This book is meticulously detailed, and is also quite well written, but is not especially accessible to a general audience. Without a basic background in the Amazonian region or at least in ecology in general, the reader will have a hard time following Moran's arguments.

The Archdiocese of Sao Paulo was incredible courageous to put together this book during that period. I recognize that the book was a short report from more than 20 years of records, and more than 10,000 documents from the Brazilian military courts, but at least give us an idea of the horrors of the turture and the violations of human rigths that took place in Brazil during 1964 o 1979.

In "Village and Plantation Life in Northeastern Brazil" Harry W. Hutchinson presents a compilation of data assembled in 1950-1951 and 1955-1956 on the history and social patterns of the town of Vila Recôncavo and sugar plantations and sugar processing factories within the same county.

Discussion of the nature and societal role of plantation owning families is instructive but the comparison of the class structure of the rural sugar plantation versus the social/economic classes of Vila Recôncavo is confusing. The reader wonders why Hutchinson chose to make the rural/urban comparison at all since in 1951-52 contact between the rural plantation(s) and Vila Recôncavo was, per Hutchinson's own observations, tangential at best.

Hutchinson also brings an unfortunate bias to this ethnography. Former slave holding plantation owners, as well as those he interviewed in the early '50's, are excused by virtue of their 'humane paternalism'. Plantation field hands - the darkest, poorest, most illiterate, hardest working and belonging to the most populous class - received the least amount of copy.

Despite the author's bias, this ethnography is an important historical document which cannot be dismissed.

One day I have to figure out how to give a book no stars 'cause I feel horrible about giving "Cradle of Splendor" a star since it deserves none. This may be the worst book I have ever read (and I've read a lot of books). Let's just get it out in the open: this is a bad book. Bad writing, moronic storyline, and annoying characters. Bad enough I had to put up with cliched writing and a asinine plot but I couldn't understand half of it! I'm still not exactly sure of what happened. Some kind of alien/sex-thing..not that it matters. And let me just say that this book is very offensive to Brazilians. Throughout the book she describes Brazilians as lazy, dirty, incompetent, violent and stupid. She describes Brazilian society in the worst way possible and at the end thanks a Brazilian family for hosting her. I wonder what they would think of the beautiful way she depicted their country...don't buy this book. Please.

Brazil is attacked when spies discover that its government has acquired advanced technology.    There are many characters involved in subterfuge in independent plots.  Characterizations are good, though none of the characters are very likeable or easy to identify with.  The book reads like a Quentin Tarantino movie:  a rapid sequence of highly visual, often violent episodes.  I'm not motivated to read more of her books, though they have won awards.

Patricia Anthony has written this novel with obviously extensive understanding of politics, gender relations, the UFO subculture and the craft of writing. It is a tragic, sad tale, filled with absurd moments and startling beauty. Her characters are vivid and surprisingly believable in their eccentricities and obsessions. Her canvas is wide and it contains a full spectrum of people whose lives (and deaths) are woven into an intricate and subtle mosaic of mystery and tragedy.

The novel is provocative science fiction, compact and quite as readable as her previous books. It is a bit eccentric, as perhaps expected, and eminently comparable to a Phil Dick novel. But you wouldn't mistake hers for his. As he was, she is. An original.

I made the mistake of trying to travel in Brazil with this book. The new editions come out every couple of years or so, but really don't get updated much, which becomes obvious if you try to use the book extensively. Hotels are listed which closed years ago. Maps are next to impossible to use as they show only hotels and restuarants, not landmarks. Half a page will get devoted to the Carmen Miranda museum in Rio de Janeiro, which is freqented only by people who have read about it in LP, is next to impossible to find, and contains next to no history about her, and no artifacts apart from a couple of dresses. After a couple weeks of frustration (thankfully rescued with e-mail advice from Brasilian friends) trying to travel round Brasil with this book, a traveller I met gave me the Footprints guide, which is much more helpful.

The conventional wisdom is that you can't go wrong with Lonely Planet guide, but this Brazil guide proves otherwise. The new 5th edition is little changed from the 4th, except for 1) the new Natural Brazil section. Most travelers will find this section too dry and uninteresting, while those really interested in nature will find it too superficial 2) $5.00 higher price tag.
Useful things, such as info on hotels, restaurants, entertainment, and prices are too often inaccurate. The most annoying aspect of this guide is that all prices are out of whack. LP translated prices (some of which were probably 5 years old) into US dollars when the real was 2.2 per dollar. Now it is about 3.5.
All this raises doubts of whether or not the authors actually went to Brazil to update this edition and not just slapped on a new cover and threw in a new useless section. So, if you have the 4th edition, keep using it. If not, look into buying either the Footprints or the Rough guides. The high popularity of LP is another reason to go with something else. When you go to places recommended by LP, you are very likely to run into hordes of other backpackers clutching their LP guides like bibles and afraid to make a step on their own. On a positive note, the LP guide does have useful info about Brazil's history, economy, culture, society, film and literature.

I lost count of the number of errors in this book. They printed the wrong dates for Carnaval Samba Parades, the prices are in USD rather than in local currency - all wrong by an average 30%, as well. Hotels and restaurants are listed that closed long before the January 2002 publication date, and it's obvious that they haven't been to Brasilia in years - citing it as `treeless` - which I`m sure it was twenty years ago, but not today.

Unfortunately, I cannot recommend a better Brazil guide because I don't have any experience with any others, but I enjoyed ceremoniously burning this book when I left Brazil.

The most disappointing is that other Lonely Planet Guidebooks (I have used 5 other ones) far exceed the standards that this one set.

This is one of the worst books about Brazil I've ever seen! Prejudiced points of view, mistaken informations... The graphic quality is very low, the pictures are ugly and the design is terrible, confusing. A reader can have a wrong impression of our country. And besides, it's impossible to comprehend any city in the world spending such a little time.

This is a book for those who don't take life so seriously!!!With lots sense of humor, the authors try to explain the brazilian way of life. And the best definition is: don't try to understand us, enjoy life with us!!! I laughed with their points of view of Brazil. Enjoy you too!!!

The book, frankly speaking, stinks. All it does is it creates dead weight for you to be carrying. You'll definitely be better off using other travel guides (e.g., Lonely Planet) or even inquiring at your hotel desk. Only about 10% of the information in the book is actually somewhat useful. It is otherwise rather USELESS!

leave this badly written guide on the bookshelf and buy the lonely planet guide to brazil instead.

What a great guide to this wonderful country - not just a listing of tourist trappings, rather a substantial guide to the real Brazil. If you're interested in going beyond the tours and hotels, you should use this guide.

Jack Chalker's original Well of Souls series (Midnight, Echoes, Quest, Return, Twilight) are classics, possibly the finest science fiction series I have ever read. The three books in this series are horrid, and I don't just mean in relation to the originals. Like many other writers, his energy was spent after the first few series and books, and he has degenerated into rehashing formaulaic bad prose over and over. Where he used to "show" what was happening, he now spends endless pages "tell"ing in justification of the poor choices his characters make in far fetched plot. The outcome was thoroghly predictable. The plot was the most forced plot I can ever remember reading. The lectures at the end were insufferable. Please avoid. And please read the originals - not to be missed!

These three books are OK. The first sequence (midnight to twilight :) ) are the best and I'm not even going to bother with the other 'Well World' books after these.

My major problem with these is the author seems to have forgotten (or arbitrarily changed) things that happened in Echoes. In Echoes he has two of the entries (by inference Tony and the Colonel) going to specific hexes, but in the Shadow, suddenly Tony is a Dillian (when it was definitely stated only the girl went there in E) and the Colonel is a Leeming.

Also why have the inhabitants of Hakazit changed from the first series? They WERE giant armoured red-eyed lizards and now they are man sized mosquito's. Did Chalker re-read his old stuff?

That's the major problem. There's no consistency. And I've only pointed out a couple of the stuff up's.

This is a pretty good yarn, and Chalker's gift of invention is displayed very well here - unlike in the first book of this series, which took place on Earth for the most part. Here we are back on the beloved Well World, and as usual, much of the enjoyment lies in discovering new alien races. Chalker's plot is not nearly as intense as the original Well series, though - the whole race to the Well seems forced and lacks urgency. Altogether an enjoyable read, but hardly a classic. Not even a pulpy, guilty-pleasure classic like the original series, which I highly recommend.