Related Vacation Book Subjects: argentina
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Books to read if you're planning a vacation in "Patagonia", sorted by average review score:

Patagonia
Published in Paperback by To Excel Inc (September, 1999)
Author: Mike Danford
Average review score:

Patagonia
Mike Danford, so far has proven to put you in the settings of his books...you feel like you were part of his writting world. "Manny" and Danford take you to a world that we wish we could all have experienced... This book is full of fun and excitement.A joy to read. Danford has two more books coming out, Im told,, look forward to his wit and cleaverness.

An excellent story with odd twists
A powerful but whimsical story, Patagonia taps into issues about a modern woman with a modern relationship. Mike Danford has an aptitude for expressing "real-life" relationship issues in a way that captures the reader's attention and empathy, yet there is always an unexpected twist to contend with. A very fun read.


Patagonia: Images of a Wild Land
Published in Hardcover by Snowgum Pr (February, 2003)
Author: David Neilson
Average review score:

Fantastic! Terrific photos of the edge of the world.
These are the best pictures I have seen of the subject, and I perused all the other books on the topic. The hardbound Mountaineering in Patagonia is the nicest GUIDEbook for climbers, but Neilon's pictures are timeless, artistic, and inspiring. His admixture of gritty black-and-white pieces with soaring, beautiful color plates (shot with a large-format camera in many cases, hence incredibly sharp and grainless reproductions) are enough to have me saving for a trip to Patagonia already.

Astonishing photographs
Patagonia is justifiably admirable for its vast beautiful emptinesses. These photographs capture the sense of wonderful wilderness that still pervades so much of this unique, spectacular part of the world. Not to be tamed or truly settled by humanity, Patagonia is awe-inspiring. Seeing it through the eyes of this book is the next best thing to being there. After the experience, a reader will want to be there. Being there is not just the stuff of romance and legend; it is the stuff of confrontation with onesself and one's place on this planet. In some ways it is like visiting a place somewhat like our own American West if it were mirrored on another, parallel, accessible planet. This might have been the American West if fate had taken a different course. The book suggests the intensity of seeing these possibilities first-hand. It's a trip.


Cape Horn and Other Stories from the End of the World (Discoveries)
Published in Paperback by Latin Amer Literary Review Pr (June, 1991)
Authors: Francisco Coloane and David A. Petreman
Average review score:

A collection of stories for a different hemisphere
Just before the funeral for Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda, Francisco Coloane walked up to the open coffin and buttoned his deceased compatriot's shirt. Such an attention to the details of human existence flow through Dave Petreman's translation of Coloane's short stories, "Cape Horn and Other Stories from the End of the World."

Coloane, a respected and award-winning writer in Chile whose works have been published around the world in Spanish and other languages, is introduced to a greater American readership in this collection of sixteen intense and thoughtful short stories. Petreman's translation pays homage to the language of the original stories and manages to cross the barriers that face any translator of prose and poetry.

Coloane's stories describe a world of the essentially human. He introduces us in "Cape Horn," for example, to people "whose hearts were nothing more than another clenched fist" and shows how the natural world inhabited by such people has its own way of imposing an unmerciful justice on them. The recurring theme in Latin American literature that poses commonality of civilization and barbarity forms the basis for "Gulf of Sorrows," where a small boat filled with struggling sailors prefers to head on against the storm rather than face being declared shipwrecked. In the story "Bottle of Caña" Coloane introduces the reader to the inner lives of two characters who meet and share for a while a path through the cold patagonian tundra. One of the characters is headed home to get married. The other remembers how, on the same trail a year earlier, he had killed another man just like this momentary companion. The innocent future of one man is juxtaposed with the violent past of the other, with the reader discovering in the story how closely each of us lives blissfully unaware of the violence hiding in the deepest recesses of the human heart.

It is just these collocations of opposites that make Coloane's stories so gripping and unstoppable. The fire of life and the iceberg cold of hidden death, control and violence, obstinacy and honor, plunder and compassion are part of every one of these stories. Coloane's perception of the essential relationship between the world of man and the world of nature makes each of these confrontations more than just one in another in a collection of stories. The stories present human nature as natural, the anima of compulsion and unexpected submission behind our sense of human importance.

David Petreman, associate professor of Spanish language & Latin American literature at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, translated these stories from other collections of Coloane's work previously published in Chile. Petreman, who specializes in Chilean literature, is a long-time friend of Coloane, a relationship that is evident in the careful rewriting of these stories for another hemisphere.

The stories in this book reveal a world seldom seen by English-speaking readers. This is a world of grand vistas, foot-worn trails and the encroachment of a so-called civilization. If you are searching for a world left unexplored by American literature or those who read and write it, "Cape Horn and Other Stories from the End of the World" is an excellent starting point.


El Jimmy, fugitivo de la Patagonia
Published in Paperback by Zagier & Urruty Pubns (10 August, 2000)
Authors: Herbert Childs and Arnoldo Canclini
Average review score:

Patagonian history recovers a lost book
Herbert Childs wrote this book in 1936 after having travelled to Estancia Nana, deep in the argentinean side of the Andes. He was invited by Mr. Radboone because he knew about another book written by Robert and Katharine Barret in 1931, "A yankee in Patagonia - Edward Chace" and we wanted to tell his own story. If we add to these two books those written by Mr. Andreas Madsen, a Dane who arrived in 1903 (Old Patagonia, Buenos Aires, 1952, and Hunting Pumas in Patagonia, Buenos Aires, 1956) we will be able to know which were the problems that simple people had to get rid of it they want to obtain a piece of land. We know something about land grants in Santa Cruz thanks to Elsa Barbería, but in Argentina there are few books telling us the life and problems that the first settlers had. Radboone told what really happened to him. I was able to check it working few years ago in some patagonian archives and the problems he told to the writer in his "fight for the camp" were those I read in the archives. As I wrote, it is a very important book for the history of the occupation of some places near the Cordillera between lakes San Martin and Viedma, which is not written yet. And books like this, are very useful for those who are trying to obtain information directly from the very few settlers that arrived at the very begining.


Fly Fishing Patagonia
Published in Hardcover by R y B Ediciones (December, 2002)
Authors: Francisco Bedeschi and Juan Pablo Reynal
Average review score:

Awesome!
I recently returned from Argentina where I purchased this book before it was available here in the US. I own dozens of fly fishing books but there is none that compares to the outstanding photography in this book. It is a book every fly fisherman should own, whether or not they have ever fished Argentina. The book covers every important river in the Lake District and the bilingual text makes for excellent reading. I am purchasing copies for friends.


La Patagonia vieja, relatos en el Fitz Roy (Spanish Edition)
Published in Paperback by Zagier & Urruty Pubns (01 March, 1999)
Author: Andreas Madsen
Average review score:

Crónica de un primer poblador
Andreas Madsen fue un danés que conoció la Patagonia en oportunidad de la demarcación del Laudo arbitral del rey Eduardo VII. Fue uno de los peones que participó en la erección del hito 62 en la costa sur del lago San Martin en el año 1903. Luego se instaló un poco más al sur, en su "estancia", a la que llamó Fitz Roy. Formó una familia y allí se encuentra todavía, enterrado al pie del monte Fitz Roy. Fue el cronista de la vida en esa zona y de sus primeros habitantes. Las historias y los personajes forman parte de una historia todavía no escrita de la provincia argentina de Santa Cruz. Localizarlos y seguir su historia y los misterios que las rodean es uno de los principales desafíos que presenta este libro. Vayan como ejemplos el caso de Fred Otten (¿taxidermista o heredero al trono del Imperio Austro-húngaro?) y el de Ascensio Brunel. Esta es una de las principales virtudes de este libro: contiene relatos que son el inicio de historias no contadas, que además se ven enriquecidos por los editados junto a Bertomeu bajo el título "Cazando Pumas en la Patagonia", en 1956.


Natural Patagonia / Patagonia natural: Argentina & Chile
Published in Hardcover by Pangaea Pub (June, 1998)
Authors: Marcelo D. Beccaceci and Victoria Lichtschein
Average review score:

Magnificent Pictures and good text about Natural Wonders
When I think of Patagonia, I think of the Natural Wonders of a place that has seen little human intervention. This book has magnificent pictures and in interesting text about the geography and wildlife of Patagonia.


A Guide to the Birds and Mammals of Coastal Patagonia
Published in Hardcover by Princeton Univ Pr (09 November, 1998)
Authors: Graham Harris and William Conway
Average review score:

A very well done guide.
Harris' knowledge and research, coupled with an excellent artistic hand made this book a critical element to my Patagonian journey. Most notably, his plates are exceptional, and although not nearly as extensive, they are in most cases far superior to the recently released Collins Illustrated Checklist covering birds in the same region. Harris also includes solid notes on each species, sometimes going into very good depth. One frustration was the limits of Harris' coverage: the book is very much "coastal" Patagonia, and omits several species such as Andean Condors, or the beavers and woodpeckers of the Nothofagus forests. Know that Harris specifically covers Argentine Patagonia from Peninsula Valdes to Tierra del Fuego. Despite this constraint, the book aided me in identifying many species throughout inland Chile and the Chilean seaboard. Overall the guide made for a phenomenal travel companion.

Highly recommended
Highly recommended for anyone traveling to Patagonia. The drawings are exemplary in comparison to any other available field guides to the region, particularly when used in combination with the de La Pena and Rumboll guide 'Birds of Southern South America and Antarctica'. I found Harris's illustrations and detailed descriptions to be much more extensive and truer to color and features than de La Pena. Particularly interesting was the inclusion of line drawings of mammal skeletons, which were much more common in the region than I ever imagined, and these drawings were extremely helpful in identification. However, a complementary bird guide is necessary when traveling south to the Beagle Channel, and toward the Andes, the route most vistors to Patagonia take. If you are limited to only one guide to the region, bring this one. If you have room for two, include de La Pena.

A Guide to the Birds and Mammals of Coastal Patagonia
This book has good quality pictures. Its strong point is the text for each bird and mammal. The real value of having this book on a recent trip to the Patagonia area was our ability to narrow down our choices of birds for identification making the process easier and speedier. I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to read about and identify wildlife in the Patagonia area.


The Wild Shores of Patagonia: The Valdes Peninsula & Punta Tombo
Published in Hardcover by Harry N Abrams (01 October, 2000)
Author: Jasmine Rossi

Attending Marvels
Published in Paperback by University of Chicago Press (Trd) (December, 1982)
Authors: George Gaylord Simpson and Larry G. Marshall

Related Vacation Book Subjects: argentina
More Pages: Patagonia Page 1 2 3 4


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