Customer Reviews

Travelers' Tales Brazil (Travelers' Tales Guides)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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 Amazon, 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.

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.

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.

This was the second book that I have read in The Travellers Tales series. I enjoyed the Mexican book, but the Brazilian book was unbelievable. I read the book over a summer and it was like being on a two month trip throughout the country. The nice feature about this series is the short stories each of which take you to a different place or situation. Then if you want to continue reading on that topic, you can use the bibliography, and get the book from where the story was excerpted. I can't say enough about how much I enjoyed reading the Brazilian book. The only problem with the book was having to finish reading it because I didn't want to put it down. Looking forward to travelling to the country for business or pleasure in the near future. Hot, hot, hot...

Having read rave reviews, I purchased Travelers' Tales Brazil. While some of the stories are interesting, the whole book smacks of dilettantism, that is, the stories are written by rich kids who got to spend some time there and want us to know about it. I don't think having lots of short stories by lots of different dilettantes, sort of a shotgun approach, adds anything. An in-depth book by an individual, sympathetic observer would be much better. Probably a good novel of Brazil would also be much better. Travelers' Tales didn't do much for me

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 Amazon 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 book is unique in its wide range of viewpoints and subject matter. Interesting to see Brazil covered this way. I found it very helpful when I went to Brazil, along with the books "Lonely Planet: Brazil" and "The Brazilian Sound" (Temple University Press).

Business travellers have the great privilege of travelling to many parts of the world, but the disadvantage that we rarely get to see very much of our destination other than the airport, taxi, hotel, meeting rooms and restaurants. Travellers' Tales Brazil is different from the typical travel guide, in that it provides many short portraits of many aspects of life in Brazil - making it eminently readable, the kind of book to dip into as time permits, adding that bit of local colour to my visit. Recommended!

I thought that the book was a balanced collection of wonderful and telling tales of life in Brazil; well rounded and very well put together. I strongly recommend it.

I thought that the book was a balanced collection of wonderful and telling tales of life in Brazil; well rounded and very well put together. I strongly recommend it.