Brazil

Reading List

FIELD GUIDES

Birds of Northern South America, Vol. 2: Field Guide

Robin Restall, Clemencia Rodner, & Roger Williams

This comprehensive field guide, featuring an astounding 6400 paintings and 2308 maps, covers all the birds from Ecuador to Guiana.

 

Brazil: Amazon & Pantanal, Travellers' Wildlife Guides

Les Beletsky & David Pearson

A comprehensive handbook to the flora, fauna and habitats of Brazil. The 100 color plates feature 90 species of amphibians and reptiles, 310 birds, 70 mammals, 30 insects and 50 common trees and plants.

 

Field Guide Birds of Brazil

Ber Van Perlo

This comprehensive field guide features 187 beautifully drawn full-color plates with over 1,800 species accounts, including a distribution map for each species.

 

Neotropical Rainforest Mammals, A Field Guide

L.H. Emmons

Compact enough to slip into your daypack, this field guide to the mammals of Central and South American features 29 color plates of more than 200 species.

 

MAPS

Brazil Map

Borch Maps

A handy folded, laminated map of Brazil at a scale of 1:4,000,000. Includes Buenos Aires and Montevideo.

 

GUIDEBOOKS

Eyewitness Guide Brazil

DK Publishing

A beautifully illustrated guide covering Brazil's history, culture, music and diverse natural attractions.

 

Brazil

Michael Palin

Produced in tandem with a BBC series, this collection of 74 off-the-beaten-path escapes is a potent mix of information and humor. Written by Michael Palin, the well-traveled comedy star of Monty Python fame.

 

Culture Smart! Brazil

Sandra Branco

A concise, well-illustrated and practical guide to local customs, etiquette and culture.

 

How to be A Carioca

Priscilla Goslin

An entertaining and useful guide to surviving and thriving in Rio de Janeiro.

 

Lonely Planet Rio de Janeiro

Regis St. Louis

A practical guide filled with maps, a good overview of culture, history and nature and much nuts-and-bolts information.

 

Moon Brazil

Michael Sommers

A practical guide in the Moon series, packed not only with travel necessities (hotels, restaurants, sights), but also with a good overview of history and destinations throughout Brazil.

 

Say It in Portuguese, Brazilian Usage

Alexander Prista & Francisco Da Costa

A handy, palm-size phrasebook for travelers with 1,100 useful words and expressions. It provides the English phrase, Portuguese equivalent and transliteration.

 

NATURAL HISTORY

Tropical Nature

Adrian Forsyth & Ken Miyata

Two uncommonly observant and thoughtful field biologists offer a lucid portrait of the tropics through 17 marvelous essays that introduce the habitats, ecology, plants and animals of the Central and South American rainforests.

 

A Neotropical Companion

John Kricher & Mark Plotkin

From plants and animals to birds and bugs, it's all here in this wonderfully written overview of the ecology, habitats, plants and animals of Central and South America.

 

The Smithsonian Atlas of the Amazon

Michael Goulding, Ronaldo Barthem, & Efrem Ferreira

This beautiful, profusely illustrated atlas of the river includes its major tributaries and 150 full-color maps. Goulding (Floods of Fortune) and Brazilian biologists Barthem and Ferreira provide the accompanying text. 

 

HISTORY & CULTURE

The Brazilians

Joseph Page

A clear, comprehensive and compelling introduction to Brazil, covering politics, history, economics, ecology, conservation and culture.

 

Brazil, A Traveler's Literary Companion

Alexis Levitin

The latest in the excellent series. The diverse stories in this enticing anthology edited by Levitin introduce Brazil and a host of contemporary writers, including greats like Jorge Amado and Machado de Assis, as well as newcomers.

 

A Short History of Brazil, From Pre-colonial Peoples to Modern Economic Miracle

Gordon Kerr

A wonderfully succinct history of Brazil which sprints from its indigenous peoples, discovery in 1500 and days as an independent monarchy to the present day. Kerr finishes with the difficulties Brazil faces in the 21st century: economic inequality, ruthless exploitation of the country's natural resources and political corruption.

 

Bossa Nova, The Story of the Brazilian Music That Seduced the World

Ruy Castro

Journalist Ruy Castro interviewed everyone who had anything to do with Bossa Nova for this animated history, capturing not only the personalities of pioneers like Antonio Carlos Jobim and Joao Gilberto but also the spirit of Rio de Janeiro in the 1960s.

 

Brazil

Simona Stoppa

This gorgeous collection of colorful photographs and accompanying text captures the spirit of modern Brazil, from the immense Amazon rainforest to the spectacular beaches of the Atlantic Coast to the colonial architecture of its sophisticated cities.

 

Brazil

Regis St. Louis

This well-designed coffee table book serves as an excellent, colorful primer to the country and its history, covering the varied landscapes, diverse cultures and regional customs, including Carnival and soccer.

 

Brazil on the Rise, The Story of a Country Transformed

Larry Rohter

Former New York Times bureau chief in Rio de Janeiro, Rohter explores the history, economy, culture and contradictions of Brazil, delivering an insightful portrait of this increasingly powerful -- and endlessly fascinating -- country.

 

Brazil, A Celebration of Contemporary Brazilian Culture

Rodrigo Fernandes Da Fonseca

An extensive overview of Brazil's contemporary arts and culture in a beautiful coffee-table book. Fully illustrated with 600 color photos.

 

Brazil, Five Centuries of Change

Thomas E. Skidmore

A brief history of Brazil over the past 500 years.

 

Brazil: The Fortunes of War 

Neill Lochery

This groundbreaking account shows how Brazil flourished into a modern nation under politically shrewd authoritarian leader Getulio Vargas, who used a pro-Nazi stance to exploit the U.S. and bolster his country's economy during WWII.

 

Concise History of Brazil

Boris Fausto & Arthur Brakel

A well-paced and readable narrative history of Brazil, from Portugese colonization in 1500 to centuries of slave economy to 20th century dictatorship.

 

Dancing With the Devil in the City of God, Rio De Janeiro on the Brink

Juliana Barbassa

This kaleidoscopic portrait of Rio brings key players into focus, revealing a fast-moving city on the rise, struggling to become a true global city and transcend its history of wild inflation, drug wars, corrupt leaders and dying neighborhoods.

 

Futebol Nation, The Story of Brazil Through Soccer

David Goldblatt

A brilliant portrait of Brazil through its national obsession: soccer, futebol, "O Jogo Bonito" (The Beautiful Game).

 

Tree of Rivers, The Story of the Amazon

 John Hemming

Hemming captures the ambition, greed and awe of naturalists, explorers and missionaries -- and their devastating impact on native peoples -- in this absorbing human history.

 

Brazilian Adventure

Peter Fleming

A classic and very entertaining account of a 3,000-mile quest through the Amazon in search of a missing English colonel. First published in 1933.

 

Running the Amazon

Joe Kane

A best-selling account of a 4,000-mile expedition from the high Andes to the Atlantic by foot, raft and kayak -- an expedition only four of the ten participants finished.

 

The Accidental President of Brazil, A Memoir

Bill Clinton & Fernando Henrique Cardoso

A vibrant memoir by Brazil's former president, in office from 1995 to 2002, who offers a candid, wry, illuminating view of the irrepressibly attractive country.