Read any good books lately?

[brujo]

Hey all, I need to kill some time in the subway commute to work. Do you have any recommendations on books in salsa history, band biography, etc, etc, etc?

thanks...

[salsachinita]

Yes, Brujo. I've got two.

"Salsa - musiccal heartbeat of Latin America" by Sue Steward (Thames & Hudson) I have my copy signed by Oscar D'Leon :D

"Latin Jazz - The Perfect combination" by Raul Fernandez (Cronical Books) This one is bilingual.

Happy reading!

[SDsalsaguy]

Here's a fairly interesting one for you Brujo...

Ospina, Hernando Calvo
1995 ¡Salsa! Havana Heat: Bronx Beat, trans. Nick Caistor. London: Latin America Bureau.

[HothouseSalsero]

I'm reading two right now, both very good, both books that I've already learned quite a bit from.

One is a collection of interviews by Leonardo Padura Fuentes, called Faces of Salsa (originally in Spanish).

The other is an academic work in ethnomusicology, but pretty readable: Lisa Waxer's City of Musical Memory: Salsa, Record Grooves, and Popular Culture in Cali, Colombia.

I'm not really a Latin jazz fan, but Cubano Be Cubano Bop looks like something I might want to read anyway.

[HothouseSalsero]

A little off-topic, but I'm hearing good things about the book Stomp and Swerve, a history of American (in the sense of U.S.) music from--well, here this is simpler: Stomp and Swerve

[looyenyeo]

For a salsa history, I can recommend:
Cuban Fire by Isabelle Leymarie. Extremely well researched and structured. It does read a little bit like the Iliad i.e. it goes into a lot of detail about who played with whom and when.

For merengue, it has to be the one by Paul Austerlitz: Merengue - Domincan Music and Dominican Identity.

For an all-round overview on the functions of dance, I thought that Gerald Jonas wrote well, though the book I'm referring to is no longer in print (BBC press strikes again). I always find general reading of this sort helpful in situating my activites in context. Sometimes it's easy to see the tree and not the forest.

Regards,
Loo

[pygmalion]

Where can you find these books? Barnes and Noble? Probably not. Are there websites or retailers out there that specialize in these types of books? Please PM me. I have some reading to do. :lol: 8)

[HothouseSalsero]

Jenn, the chains bookstores (as well as the independents) near me will do special orders. Can't you do it that way? Otherwise, there are online distributors.

[pygmalion]

Thanks. I'll try googling, and B&N, to see if they can get a couple titles for me. 8)

[salsamale]

Anyone have any recommendations for novels (fiction) related to salsa or latin dance?

[nycsalsero]

There was a lady selling a hardcover fiction book about life in the salsa scene in nyc at lincoln center this past summer. I wish I could remember the name of the book...

[salsamale]

nycsalsero, a search on Amazon turned up:
"Mambo Peligroso: A Novel", by Patricia Chao
which is based in NYC, and available at my local library, so thanks :)

Some others:
"Faith in Carlos Gomez: A Memoir of Salsa, Sex, and Salvation", by Samantha Dunn
"Adventures of a Salsa Goddess", by JoAnn Hornak
but these aren't based in NYC.

any others?

[salsera_alemana]

Oscar Hijuelos: The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, which I read a long time ago. You can read a summary and some reader reviews on amazon.

The story is set around many famous musicians and clubs of the time, that is the part that I liked. For my personal taste the book had too many sex scenes.

[salsamale]

salsera_alemana, "The Mambo Kings", the movie, was good, so I'm sure the book will be good. Also available at my local library, so thanks :)

[salsera_alemana]

Another book for those of you who read German:
Arne Birkenstock & Eduardo Blumenstock: Salsa, Samba, Santería (comes with a music CD with 19 songs).
This book gives an overview of many types of Latin American music, their history and their countries of origin.
There are chapters about music in Mexico and Central America, in the Andes, in the southern countries of South America, protest and revolutionary songs (Mercedes Sosa, Violeta Parra), Santería, Brasil, Cuba, Salsa, Bolero, Tango and a final chapter with an overview of instruments and rhythm patterns. Very nice book!
You can find it at amazon dot de.

[just-a-salsera]

"Looking for La Bomba: The Cuban Adventures of a Musical Oaf" by Richard Neill. It's about a British guy, who is so dissatisfied with his comfortable but uninspiring life in London, that he decides to leave it all and go to Cuba to learn to play double bass and perform on stage with a Cuban Son Band.

I loved this book: funny and very well written!

[mamboqueen]

Oscar Hijuelos: The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, which I read a long time ago. You can read a summary and some reader reviews on amazon.

The story is set around many famous musicians and clubs of the time, that is the part that I liked. For my personal taste the book had too many sex scenes.

Holy stromboli! I completely agree - the book is FAR more explicit than the movie, and it was rather gratuitous if you ask me. Having said that, the book was much better than the movie....

[alemana]

"MAMBO PELIGROSO" is prolly what you saw, NYCSALSERO, as some others have said. the cover photo, of a couple in a dip, is of actual new york salseros (not models) Tony Luna and Sandra Berganza.

[OneCentSalsero]

damn ima have to get it and have Tony autograph it for me lol

[salsamarty]

Try "Cuba and It's Music" by Ned Sublette (2004). Available from Amazon.com

It is extremely well written. 600 pages and I breezed right through it. It covers salsa from the stone age to about 1960.

[Conclave]

A great book on the developement of Cuban mambo in the 1940's, 50's and 60's is the biography of Arsenio Rodriguez " Arsenio Rodriguez" by David Garcia (Temple University Press, 2006) Covers time in Cuba, New York City and Los Angeles, and deals with his influence on the music, and on musicians that built on the foundations he laid.

[SurfSalsa]

"Salsa - musiccal heartbeat of Latin America" by Sue Steward (Thames & Hudson)

Do you know where you can order this on-line?
Or read a review...
I don't find it listed on Amazon...

[SurfSalsa]

Try "Cuba and It's Music" by Ned Sublette (2004). Available from Amazon.com

It is extremely well written. 600 pages and I breezed right through it. It covers salsa from the stone age to about 1960.

One of the best books on Cuban music I've ever read.
Highly recommended!!

[SurfSalsa]

"Looking for La Bomba: The Cuban Adventures of a Musical Oaf" by Richard Neill.

Again, anywhere one can order it on-line?
Couldn't find it on Amazon...

[just-a-salsera]

Again, anywhere one can order it on-line?
Couldn't find it on Amazon...

w.w.w.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?&isbn=0141009209&nsa=1

w.w.w.amazon.com/Looking-Bomba-Richard-Neill/dp/0141009209/sr=1-3/qid=1168891164/ref=sr_1_3/002-0304533-2995219?ie=UTF8&s=books

(sorry, i am not allowed to post links yet)

[SurfSalsa]

w.w.w.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?&isbn=0141009209&nsa=1

w.w.w.amazon.com/Looking-Bomba-Richard-Neill/dp/0141009209/sr=1-3/qid=1168891164/ref=sr_1_3/002-0304533-2995219?ie=UTF8&s=books

(sorry, i am not allowed to post links yet)

No problem - thanks a lot!

[quixotedlm]

Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler.

I got the book months ago, and just didn't like it then. I re-read it a few weeks ago and really liked it. I think the difference between then and now is that I had forgotten the 'hype' about the book and simply read it because I wanted to read something slow and relaxed (and earlier, I was really in a mood for something fast paced, and discovered Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp series) :)

[Blaxican]

Mexifornia by Victor Hanson Davis

[alemana]

i just finished the memoir "julie and julia," about a new york woman who cooks her way through MASTERING THE ART OF FRENCH COOKING (500+ recipes) in one calendar year.

[yippee1999]

oh my lord.... so that's about 1.5 per day! insane.

i just finished The Miracle of Mindfulness by Thich Nhat Hanh. Very nice, zen sorta book about living in the moment, not judging others, going with the flow, etc.

[Spitfire]

Here's something from Borders/Amazon.com.

Books on Salsa (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_bgi/105-0007598-6098837?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=salsa+dancing&Go.x=0&Go.y=0&Go=Go)

[salsamale]

"MAMBO PELIGROSO" is prolly what you saw, NYCSALSERO, as some others have said. the cover photo, of a couple in a dip, is of actual new york salseros (not models) Tony Luna and Sandra Berganza.
I got a hold of this book, and it was an enjoyable read. The salsa scenes were luxurious in detail, as were the sex scenes. Exactly what I was looking for :). Thanks again for the rec nycsalsero, alemana.

[salsachinita]

Hmmmmm, sounds like I gotta try & get a copy. Not sure how to do that though........especially from all the way down here :roll: .........

Anyone got a link?

[salsamale]

http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=mambo+peligroso&hl=en&lr=&safe=active&rls=com.microsoft:en-US&sa=X&oi=froogle&ct=title

http://www.amazon.com/Mambo-Peligroso-Novel-Patricia-Chao/dp/0060734175

Be sure to check your local public library, first :).

[delamusica]

Just finished The Know-it-all: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Man in the Universe by A.J. Jacobs.

It's about his project of reading the encyclopedia - hillariously written, a great read.

Currently working on Allen Cadwaller's Analysis of Tonal Music: A Schenkerian Approach. Not nearly as hillarious.

[Catarina]

Just finished Atonement by Ian McEwan---phenomenal.

[HothouseSalsero]

Try "Cuba and It's Music" by Ned Sublette (2004). Available from Amazon.com

It is extremely well written. 600 pages and I breezed right through it. It covers salsa from the stone age to about 1960.

I have to second (or third--since it's already been seconded) that one. This book, especially the first 2/3 from what I remember, has an impressive historical sweep, and I ended up learning things about the history of slavery, African religions, and the political and economic history of Cuba, and so forth, along the way.

[salsamale]

Oscar Hijuelos: The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, which I read a long time ago. You can read a summary and some reader reviews on amazon.

The story is set around many famous musicians and clubs of the time, that is the part that I liked. For my personal taste the book had too many sex scenes.
Just finished reading this novel, what a good read. The prose was musical, the sex scenes were hot. Who needs Henry Miller? I was pleased to find that half the content of the novel was left out of the movie, so there was a lot of "new" material there for me to discover and enjoy. Thanks again for the recommendation :).

[samina]

just finished the 5th harry potter book, order of the phoenix. was a re-read... going directly into the half-blood prince... reviewing the storyline so it's fresh in my mind for when the last book comes out...

[tj]

Lol, did the same thing over Christmas.

When's the next book due out? June/July?

[samina]

unofficially, july 7 of this year.

[bordertangoman]

Just finished reading The Year of the Hare
by Arto Paasilinna and enjoyed it thouroughlly

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Year-Hare-Arto-Paasilinna/dp/0720612772/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1299756905&sr=1-6

[DJ Yuca]

Richard Price - Freedomland: an outstanding novel, I recommend it thoroughly.

[bordertangoman]

I am reading this, but I am getting bored.....

its just weak and dull after a fairly good start...

has anyonel else read it?

here's an amaz review which sums it up for me

Wicked is too long by at least a hundred pages - though the story could easily have been told and done, and the reader is feeling done with it, we're still left slogging along.

Just as the story is building to what turns out to be the (aborted) climax, halfway through, the author suddenly, jarringly, shoves the protagonist into a convent (though she's a complete non-believer), and then has her do absolutely nothing for the next several years (well, she cleans some floors or something).

Though we're still left a couple hundred more pages to wade through, the book is over right there. You keep hoping, expecting, it to somehow start up again, but neither the book nor the characters will every have any interest in anything again. It's over.

The story has, at that point, somehow become a political thriller (Wicked zigzags all about without ever finding an identity). Perhaps the deadness of spirit in a once-impassioned radical, after she's lost faith and/or hope, would have been a worthwhile exploration.

Instead, the story just ends. For some reason, the author keeps writing more pages. For no reason, really.

(The Nature of Evil theme is so incredibly weak and puerile in its rendering as to be nothing more than a tedious distraction from the plot. The characters basically step outside the story for a bit, discuss it, and then go back to whatever they were doing.)

If this were a book of paintings, it would go from lush oil at the beginning to somewhat interesting (dark) watercolors in the middle. After that, there'd be a few nicely shaded drawings, some sketches and finally just stick figures. And that's what you're left with.

It never answers its own questions, never bothers to resolve all the threads that just trail off (and much of what keeps you reading, long after the book has clearly died, is some hope of seeing those resolved - they won't be).

Cruciallly, Elphaba never becomes the Wicked Witch of the West. The author just crams her into that role as abruptly and jarringly as he crammed her into the convent, and suddenly has her say words that have nothing to do with the character we've seen for the past zillion pages.

It's like she was suddenly turned into a puppet, just so Dorothy can accidentally kill her, as if the author forgot she was supposed to be the Wicked Witch of the West and suddenly cut-and-pasted in a brief bit about that so he could have this gimmick to sell it. (That's the climactic confrontation we've been anticipating for 400 pages?)

It's your standard workshop-fiction type of book - lots of attention the phrasing, self-important symbolism, Meaningful (capital M) conflicts, one or two words that might send you to the dictionary - but there's no real fire here, and the author not only doesn't have much of a story to tell, but fails to explore his characters and theme.

If this weren't an alternative view of a familiar character, nobody would read it. There'd be no point. And though that marketing hook will pull many a reader in (as it did me), ultimately there isn't any.

a good idea poorly executed...

[ktia85]

I have just finished with the In the Death series by JD Robb. This is a 42 book series. Very good for anyone who like homicide mysteries/romance.

[Purr]

I read The Serpent’s Shadow over my vacation, which is the conclusion of The Kane Chronicles trilogy. In the book, author Rick Riordan sticks to the winning formula of the teenage magicians teaming with Egyptian gods to save the world. Carter and Sadie Kane, along with their friends, must complete a quest to stop Apophis and the forces of evil before they destroy civilization. Along the way, there are a few plot twists, some laughs, a little romance, and return of an old friend. The end of the book promised sequels, with the escape of the evil ghost magician Setne and Ruby Kane prophesying of challenges from magicians from elsewhere and rival magic.

[Larinda McRaven]

Clean: The Revolutionary Program to Restore the Body's Natural Ability to Heal Itself by Alejandro Junger

fascinating

[nucat78]

Started reading "Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy" after watching the movie remake. Riveting - read for 30 minutes on the train this AM and didn't even realize it until we were pulling into the station.

Now I'll have to rent the original movie with Alec Guiness in it to compare.