The Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts - Brazil Theme Issue. Published in 1995 by The Wolfson Foundation of Decorative and Propaganda Arts in Miami. With fascinating articles written by the likes of José Mindlin (Illustrated Books and Periodicals in Brazil, 1875-1945) and Pedro Vasquez (Marc Ferrez: A Master of Brazilian Photography) and superb, I mean, superb illustrations! You can mail or fax your order to The Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts, 1001 Washington Ave, Miami Beach, FL 33139 USA. Fax 305-531-2133. It costs $25 plus US postage $5 or foreign postage and handling $10. Orders not charged to a credit card must be accompanied by a check or money order in US dollars drawn on a US bank and payable to The Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts. Now that we got all that out of the way, I can tell you I fell in love with it and it's worth the $$ for the pictures alone if you're too lazy to read.

Traveler's Tales Brazil. I love this book. It is a collection of stories written by many different people who either visited or lived in Brazil. I met one of them, a man who lives in Columbus, Ohio and used to be the private secretary of ex-president Juscelino, believe it or not. This guy wrote a lovely memoir of his days in Rio. You'll really enjoy reading this one, I promise!

Fazendas. The Great Houses and Plantations of Brazil. Fernando T. F. Pires, Nicolas Sapieha (photographer) and Gregor Rabassa. The history of Brazilian coffee and sugar cane plantations and cattle ranches of Rio, Minas, Rio Grande do Sul, Pernambuco, etc. Gorgeous photos, needless to say.

Capoeira: A Brazilian Art Form. History, Philosophy, and Practice. Bira Almeida - Mestre Acordeon. Berkeley, California: North Atlantic Books, 1986. It's not new, but goes to the top of the list because we got it from the author when we attended a capoeira meet in Boston. The cover picture features some instruments played for capoeira. The back cover has a very nice picture of the berimbau, so we are showing it here too. The author examines the history of capoeira, the instruments, songs and moves of the athletic game itself. A well-written, fun to read book with plenty of photographs and illustrations. I enjoyed it very much and highly recommend it to anyone interested in Afro-Brazilian culture and/or the martial arts.

SAMBA: Resistance in Motion. Barbara Browning. Bloomington and Indianopolis: Indiana University Press, 1995. Barbara is a dancer and teaches in the Department of Performance Studies at New York University.A social history of the development of samba, danced religion, capoeira and the popular dances of Bahian carnaval. This is how she describes the samba: "The feet keep up a rapid patter, while the hips beat out a heavy staccato and the shoulders roll a slow drawl." No wonder it's not easy to learn! I especially love the chapter on capoeira.

The Brazilians. Joseph A. Page. Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1995. Page, a professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center, has a lot to say about the history, people, and culture of Brazil as he examines politics, religion, soccer, carnaval, and the social and economic ills of the country. Just as with any other of the older books suggested here, there isn't a way that we can easily keep track if it's still in print, so you just have to research that.

Samba in the Night: Spiritism in Brazil. David J. Hess. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994. Hess is a professor of Anthropology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Don't let the title fool you, this is not a book about wild parties and summer nights. As Hess himself explains in the preface, a better word would have been "batuque" (drumming), as in Afro-Brazilian religions. This is a first-person narrative of the author's research into Spiritism and other popular religions in Brazil, and his encounters with mediums, healers and believers around the country. I enjoyed his comparison of the American and Brazilian Presbyterian churches and thought his comments about the "crentes" and the different "linhas de umbanda" were accurate.

A Floresta da Tijuca e a Cidade do Rio de Janeiro. Photos by Pedro Oswaldo Cruz and texts by Paulo Bastos Cezar and Rogério Ribeiro de Oliveira. Rio de Janeiro: Editora Nova Fronteira, 1992. Bilingual edition (Portuguese-English). With superb illustrations and magnificent photographs, this meticulously documented history of the massif and forest that surround the Brazilian megalopolis is a must-read for travelers, researchers, or anyone interested in finding out how nature and a modern city can coexist. This book gave me a better understanding of a place I've been deeply in love with for decades.

Bodies, Pleasures and Passions. Sexual Culture in Contemporary Brazil. Richard G. Parker. Boston, Beacon Press Books, 1991. Parker, a professor of anthropology in the Institute of Social Medicine at the State University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, examines the very complex world of Brazil's sexuality, looking behind the myth of the sensual land of samba and carnaval. I finally found the origin of the expression "não existe pecado do lado de baixo do Equador" (sin doesn't exist beneath the equator). You'll have to read the book...

Behaving Brazilian: A Comparison of Brazilian and North American Social Behavior. Phyllis A. Harrison. Rowley, Massachusetts: Newbury House Publishers, Inc., 1983. I think any American doing business in Brazil (or vice-versa) should read this book. More importantly, if you're a Brazilian-American family like we are, read it together. It might help smooth your path through life. It has certainly helped me understand that I'm not weird, I'm just not home! Because it was written so many years ago, it's a bit dated as far as Brazilian women go. Things have changed at an amazing pace in Brazil. In 1992, 39% of women worked outside the home and 57% had college degrees. In the universities, 62% of medical students and 19% of engineering students were women. Among my female friends and acquaintances, most have advanced degrees and very successful careers. And all their daughters - who are in medical, veterinary and law school now - cannot imagine life without a career.

Palavras Amigas-da-Onça: A Vocabulary of False Friends in English and Portuguese. Leonard S. Downes. Rio de Janeiro: Ao Livro Técnico S. A., 1980. Here is a VERY useful book. I bought it in Cambridge, MA, a few years ago, and found it a great help more than once. Great for translators, interpreters, and students of either or both languages.

Vassouras: A Brazilian Coffee County, 1850-1890. The Roles of Planter and Slave in a Changing Society. Stanley J. Stein. New York: Atheneum, 1976.

The Golden Age of Brazil: 1695-1750. Growing Pains of a Colonial Society. C. R. Boxer. Los Angeles: St.Martins Press, 1995.

My Airships. Alberto-Santos Dumont, with a new introduction by Sir Peter Wykeham, K.C.B. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1973. The autobiography of the great Brazilian aviator.

Alberto Santos-Dumont. Henrique Lins de Barros. Rio de Janeiro: Editora Index, 1986. Beautifully illustrated and lovingly researched biography of Santos-Dumont in a bilingual (Portuguese-English) edition.