Break out of the package-tour bind with this important guide for independent travelers to Cuba. Lonely Planet includes in-depth coverage of Havana (from fortresses to nightlife); extensive background on history, politics and music; plus advice on finding the ocean adventure that's right for you.
 

Moon Handbooks: Cuba provides everything you need for your trip to Cuba, including unparalleled coverage of how Americans can work around the flight ban. With in-depth essays that paint a vivid portrait of life and travel in one of the hottest spots in the Caribbean, this guide provides readers with a compelling and thorough understanding of this much-misrepresented Marxist country. Author Christopher P. Baker traveled over 7,000 miles across the island by motorcycle to conduct his research; the result is lively, accurate, up-to-date coverage of Cuba, from the decaying facades of old Havana to Guantanamo. "Full of history and practical detail about everything from officialdom to sexual mores to the apparent complexities of the transportation system, this is a book to read thoroughly before you go. Warns and educates readers in great detail - but doesn't lose sight of the basics, like where to get lobster with all the trimmings and beer for $10."
 

David Alan Harvey's superb, richly evocative photographs celebrate the place itself and its extraordinary inhabitants: their vitality and humor, their ingenuity and courage, and above all their indefatigable spirit. Complementing Harvey's compelling images, Elizabeth Newhouse's insightful text presents an overview of Cuban history and, drawing on conversations with men and women from many walks of life, describes what it is like to live in Cuba now and looks at what might be expected for the future.
 

Never before has any biographer had such close access to Fidel Castro as did Tad Szule. The outcome of a long, direct relationship, this riveting portrait reveals astonishing and exclusive information about Cuba, the revolution, and the notorious, larger-than-life leader who has ruled his country with an iron fist for more than forty years.

Only Tad Szule could bring Fidel to such vivid life--the loves and losses of the man, the devious tactics of the conspirator, the triumphs and defeats of the revolutionary leader who challenged an American president and brought the world to the brink of nuclear disaster.

From Jesuit schools to jungle hideouts and the Palace of the Revolution, here is Fidel...The Untold Story.Never before has any biographer had such close access to Fidel Castro as did Tad Szulc. The outcome of a long, direct relationship, this riveting portrait reveals astonishing and exclusive information about Cuba, the revolution, and the notorious, larger-than-life leader who has ruled his country with an iron fist for more than forty years.

Only Tad Szulc could bring Fidel to such vivid life--the loves and losses of the man, the devious tactics of the conspirator, the triumphs and defeats of the revolutionary leader who challenged an American president and brought the world to the brink of nuclear disaster.

From Jesuit schools to jungle hideouts and the Palace of the Revolution, here is FIDEL...THE UNTOLD STORY.
 

In the second Guevara biography this year (after John Lee Anderson's Che Guevara, p. 343), chronicler of the Latin American left Casta¤eda (Political Science/New York Univ.) distinguishes himself from other biographers by stripping Guevara of myths while bowing to his role as the principal icon of the '60s. Despite the left leanings of his grandmother and mother, Guevara developed his political views slowly as an outgrowth of his sense of outrage at the conditions and treatment of the poor he witnessed throughout the region. Although disgusted with the US- backed ouster of Guatemalan reformist Arbenz, it was only after Guevara met Fidel Castro in Mexico in 1955 that his bookish attraction to Marxist-Leninism (and his preference for the Soviet Union over the US as a model of political development) gave way to a revolutionary commitment. Once he was entrenched in Castro's inner circle, Guevara's sympathies with the USSR rose and fell with exactly the opposite timing of Castro's. Casta¤eda notes that in battle, Guevara's impulsive strategic decisions required the collaboration of a highly organized commander such as Castro. Without him, Guevara's extreme egalitarianism, revolutionary zeal, and strong will proved insufficient for repeated victory. As this became clear, Casta¤eda suggests, Castro opted against a rescue mission for the ailing revolutionary in Bolivia, as Guevara had become more useful as a martyr than as a fighter. Finally, the author dismisses the popular myth that Guevara went down with his guns blazing--he was executed by Bolivian authorities. Along the way, Casta¤eda presents some interesting, if quirky, theories on Guevara's psychological development. For example, he postulates that asthma played a key role in the revolutionary's predilection for armed struggle: Combat produces adrenaline, providing natural relief from asthma, while the deliberation of ambiguities brought on attacks. A solid yet easy to read account, with ample footnotes to satisfy serious readers. (16 pages photos, not seen)
 

The Old Man and the Sea is one of Hemingway's most enduring works. Told in language of great simplicity and power, it is the story of an old Cuban fisherman, down on his luck, and his supreme ordeal -- a relentless, agonizing battle with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream. Here Hemingway recasts, in strikingly contemporary style, the classic theme of courage in the face of defeat, of personal triumph won from loss. Written in 1952, this hugely successful novella confirmed his power and presence in the literary world and played a large part in his winning the 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature.