Adult Summer Reading 2011 – South America

Let’s tango into South America for our next continental visit. But of course, before we get too involved in our Latin dance, let me remind you how you can win a great prize this summer – read a book and fill out a review (by hand, on our Summer Reading page, or on our Goodreads Group page).

See, wasn’t that easy! Okay, on to the books:

1. Look through our Armchair Travel booklist for some fascinating looks at the people and places of South America.

2. A few personal recommendations set in South America:

• The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende – The saga of the Trueba family during the tumultuous years of Pinochet’s regime in Chile.
• The Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander – A look at the Jews of Argentina during the Dirty War, a time in which dissidents and others were punished for their views.
• Green Mansions by W. H. Hudson – Abel, a young European, falls in love with Rima, a girl from the rainforest, who leads him into the wilds of Venezuela.
• Bel Canto by Ann Patchett – An international group of guests is held hostage at a luxury hotel, and through their shared experiences, they develop lasting relationships.
• The Invisible Mountain by Carolina de Robertis – Three generations of women find, and lose,  love in the midst of political and social upheaval.
• The Dancer and the Thief by Antonio Skarmeta –  A newly-freed criminal, a love-lorn ex-robber, and a ballet dancer hatch a plan to get money for their various schemes.
• The Secret History of Costaguana by Juan Gabriel Vasquez (haven’t read it yet, but it’s on my list!) – The narrator of Joseph Conrad’s Nostromo decides to set the record straight about his homeland of Colombia after Conrad dies.

3. Want a classic? Try one of these:

• 2666 by Roberto Bolaño
• The War of the End of the World by Mario Vargas Llosa
• One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• The Poetry of Pablo Neruda by Pablo Neruda
• The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder

4. Check out one of these books for a view of the history of the continent:

• A Brief History of Argentina by Jonathan C. Brown
• A Land of Ghosts: The Braided Lives of People and the Forest in Far Western Amazonia by David G. Campbell
• The Last Days of the Incas by Kim MacQuarrie
• A Brief History of Bolivia by Waltraud Q. Morales
• The Dictator’s Shadow: Life Under Augusto Pinochet by Heraldo Muñoz
• Brazil on the Rise: The Story of a Country Transformed by Larry Rohter
• Modern Latin America by Thomas E. Skidmore and Peter H. Smith
• The History of Venezuela by H. Michael Tarver and Julia C. Frederick