Download PDF Travelers' Tales Brazil True Stories Travelers' Tales Guides Scott Doggett Annette Haddad 0692077361056 Books

Product details Series Travelers' Tales Guides Paperback 440 pages Publisher Travelers' Tales; Revised edition (June 4, 2004) Language English ISBN-10 1932361057

Travelers' Tales Brazil True Stories Travelers' Tales Guides Scott Doggett Annette Haddad 0692077361056 Books Reviews

• Travelers Tales Guide of Brazil should be required reading for anyone applying for a Brazilian visa. The 50 travel essays capture the essence of Brazil. They're brief, mostly well-written, sometimes entertaining, and always revealing the people and culture of this dynamic country. I expected to find mostly stories about the and Rio; they're there as are so many other diverse places from Curitiba to Belem.
  As an aficionado of Brazilian music, I particularly enjoyed the two articles by John Krich Simply Irrisistible and The Guy from Ipanema. Alma Guillermoprieto gives great samba instructions for both men and women. And I learned about cachaca and capoeira, though both are fluid, one a drink and the other a beautiful martial arts performance.
  It made my trip to Brazil more enjoyable.
• The Travelers' Tales are just that - fifty stories mostly written by occasional or short-term visitors to Brazil. While it's often fun to tune in to their wonder and amazement at the things they discover, there are occasional disappointments. The stories range in quality from the very strong (Alma Guillermoprieto discussing evangelism, Bill McKibben on the orderly city of Curitiba, Alexander Shankland on Canudos); to the so-so (Downs Matthews on the nineteenth century flight of American confederate sympathizers to Brazil - a good topic but written in a silly sappy prose); to the downright unreadable (Christopher Hall on Candomble, Rachel C. Derrick searching for Africa in Salvador, John Krich on Ipanema, and Gilbert Phelps' pointless and themeless final chapter).
  Predictably, most of the stories discuss Rio, the , and Salvador. Useful and colorful, no doubt, but the gems are those that get off these well-chronicled paths and surprise a reader with something really new. Like most travel-style writers, many here offer their own novice attempts at Portuguese words, often amusingly wrong, but earnest. Brazil is a vast, shocking, wonderful country. This book is fairly successful at presenting different facets and different perspectives. Perhaps it's not the only book you'd want to read if you were going to spend some time in Brazil, but it's among the handful that would help you understand the people and the place.
• As I wite this I am probably 30% thru the book. I like it. The best way to think of it is as a Readers Digest of short personal stories as regards Brasil. There are at least Fifty of them, if you do not count the mini-stories that often appear at the end of the longer ones. And the longer ones typically run only a few pages. Thus, my favorite part of the book besides the varied subjects, authors, and writing is the brevity of the stories themsleves. You get a feel for some trip or part of Brazil that is different each time, and you can get thru a story in no time and come back without losing your place -- as there is none.
  
  I might have given it five stars, but the writing varies from great to good, so it didn;t make top grade. But nonetheless, if you want to take a trip to Brasil as I do, this is worth a read to get a feel for the "culture" on the ground.
• After returning home from a 10 day missions trip to Brazil I found myself scouring the book shelves for books on Brazilian culture and history. The stories captured in Travelers' Tales Brazil, truly brought me right back to Brazil. Each tale awoke a memory, a scent, a feeling that could only be brought on by "saudade". I look forward to my next trip to this rich country armed with a book full of ideas for my next adventure.
• I so enjoyed reading about the people and places of Brazil in this book. I am hooked on "Travelers' Tales" books now. I am excited to have a deeper knowledge now of the heart of this place in preparation for my trip there. The short story format is ideal for me and the variety of entries paints a colorful picture. Anyone traveling to Brazil should pick this up for before and after the trip.