Best bolivian history books according to redditors
We found 24 Reddit comments discussing the best bolivian history books. We ranked the 4 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We found 24 Reddit comments discussing the best bolivian history books. We ranked the 4 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
In a rather different vein from a lot of the suggestions I'm seeing here, I want to plug Michael Herr's Dispatches as an incredible piece of Vietnam literature. There's also If I Die in a Combat Zone by Tim O'Brien.
If you're willing to consider graphic novels, check out Maus, Persepolis, and Laika.
If you're interested at all in vampires and folklore, I recommend Food for the Dead. Really interesting read.
A history-teacher friend of mine recently gave me The Lost City of Z by David Grann. I haven't gotten around to reading it yet, but it came highly recommended.
By the by, last year I required my students (high school seniors) to select and read a non-fiction book and gave them the following list of suggestions. Columbine was one of the really popular ones, and I had a bunch of kids (and a few teachers) recommending it to me, but, again, I haven't gotten to it yet.
You can try sorting by "top" on this sub though I just did that and didn't exactly get a ton of longer ones.
Off the top of my head, I know there's also a long write-up on Casey Anthony on the sub.
Then I've found I've stumbled upon a few longer write-ups online that I have really been engaged in.
Sneha Philips
Maura Murray
The murders of Jo Rogers and her daughters Michelle and Christe
(this one has a resolution but I was drawn in by the writing)
Also try going to longreads.com and I think you can sort by "crime" there.
Then.. if you really get into it, a few book recommendations!
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
The Monster of Florence
People Who Eat Darkness
The Lost City of Z
Everyone should read the book about this when they can. It's an extremely enjoyable and sometimes gritty true account of a group of men who went into the jungle in search of a lost city and simply vanished from the face of the earth.
They based their hunt on a rare Portuguese document written by a friar in Brazil after one surviving man from an expedition emerged from the jungle in 1753 after 10 years and gave his account as to what they saw. It's a real document known as Manuscript 512 and it's in the Brazilian state archives.
Fantastic true story! At one point they were even planning a movie starring Brad Pitt about this as recently as 2010:
http://www.wordandfilm.com/2010/11/brad-pitt-leaves-the-lost-city-of-z-in-limbo/
Great book on Fawcett's story:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Lost-City-Deadly-Obsession/dp/1400078458/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1371843165&sr=8-1&keywords=lost+city+of+z
I enjoyed reading about this after hearing about the 'Lost Mines of Moribeca' from Graham Hancock's "Fingerprints of the Gods". Apparently, long story short, some Portuguese explorers back in the 1700's got lost in the Brazilian jungle and after 10 years only one guy made it out and told his story to a friar who wrote it down.
The story included them finding the ruins of a city with small pyramids and a grand avenue, temples and the whole bit complete with engravings that looked like ancient Greek.
Here's the original manuscript:
http://www.fawcettadventure.com/english_translation_manuscript_512.html
Wow. You have to read the The Lost City of Z. It's a true story about the search for El Dorado by legitimate explorers in the early 20th century. Good story telling, fascinating times, and, again, 100% true.
I have an English degree, but I didn't read nonfiction until I graduated a few years ago. Here are the best I've read: Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick, The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann, and Kon-Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl.
You might be interested in Percy Fawcett, the early 20th century explorer.
He was a very famous explorer, mostly for helping map parts of South America and the Amazon. I recently read the book The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon and it goes over a lot of the stories and details of his life.
Some of the stuff sounds like it is straight out of a movie or book. Cutting your way through one of the last unknown, uncharted areas of the world, making contact with local tribes (many who had never seen white people and could be very hostile), reports of never-before-seen animals/bugs. It's said that his Amazon explorations were even the inspiration for Authur Conan Doyle's The Lost World.
I doubt he ever found himself avoiding booby-traps in an ancient tomb but he is the closest to an Indiana Jones-type guy I've ever read about.
Although it's probably not quite what the original poster meant by "highly organized," there is a good example in Brazil. There were once legends of what explorer Percy Fawcett called the "Lost City of Z," an ancient city or civilization once referenced by early explorers of the region. Fawcett died searching for this ancient civilization, but died in his quest. However, recent work by archaeologist Michael Heckenberger suggests that there was, in fact, an ancient society that inhabited the area of Kuhikugu, which may be what inspired the myths of the Lost City.
Heckenberger used remote sensing to analyze the area, which allowed him to see areas where the land was inconsistent, or where settlements once were and how they once connected. He also analyzed the ways in which the land changed; wherever there were once moats or walls, a mark can be seen on the land in the form of mounds, holes, or ditches. Because the structures would have been made of wood, they would have deteriorated over time, unlike the stone ruins of Egypt, Greece, or Maya:
>“There isn’t a lot of stone in the jungle, and most of the settlement was built with organic materials—wood and palms and earth mounds—which decompose,” [Heckenberger] said. “But once you begin to map out the area and excavate it you are blown away by what you see.”
Sherds can also be found in these areas, further suggesting a previous organized society.
If you want to read up on it, there was a New Yorker article (where the above quote is taken from) which led to a fasinating book by the same author. Both discuss both Heckenberger's findings as well as the ill-fated expedition of Colonel Percy Fawcett. I believe a movie is in the works, as well.
Additionally, you can read some of Heckenberger's articles relating to his work in Brazil.
You and me both, mate. Even though mine is slightly cheaper by 84 dollars and 5 cents!
The Lost City of Z
http://www.amazon.com/The-Lost-City-Deadly-Obsession/dp/1400078458
Man goes hunting for a lost City in the Amazon lots of history and his
story in the current time.
I've heard good things about The Lost City of Z.
A couple of books that I enjoyed:
Felix Gilman - The Half-Made World
http://www.amazon.com/Half-Made-World-Felix-Gilman/dp/0765325535/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422115061&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Half-Made+World&pebp=1422115068901&peasin=765325535
The lost city of Z
http://www.amazon.com/Lost-City-Deadly-Obsession-Amazon/dp/1400078458/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1422115097&sr=1-1&keywords=lost+city+of+z
Jeff Long - The Descent
http://www.amazon.com/Descent-Jeff-Long/dp/051513175X/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1422115133&sr=1-3&keywords=the+decent
Edit: I would also check out Mark Hodder's Burton & Swinburne series. Book 3 Expedition to the Mountains of the Moon is what I was thinking of.
Yes, the book is called "The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon" by David Grann. Below is a link to it on Amazon. This is one of the best books I've ever read.
https://www.amazon.com/Lost-City-Deadly-Obsession-Amazon/dp/1400078458
Not fantasy or sci-fi, but great tale of exploration!
I originally encountered it in the book The City of Z, which is about a modern writer retracing the steps of the famed Fawcett and attempting resolve what exactly happened to him on his last expedition. In the end he starts discussing how Fawcett was doomed to never find the legendary city he searched for, because he was searching for the hallmarks of a European society. It's an interesting read, and well worth it if you like adventure style things(this writing literally retraveled Fawcett's expedition paths and attempted to discover from the natives what may have happened. One tribe even produced a body, but it was determined to just be a native's bones.). Many of the sites both Fawcett and the author visited are now thought to be places where major amazon cities once stood.
After that I started seeing it in a lot more places. I think I was blind to it before.
This wiki page is about terra preta; an artificial dirt created to farm in the amazon. It's not directly related to canals, but still interesting.
Agroforestry may have been used in conjunction with terra preta, and canal systems.
The City of Z(Legend not book)
Kuhikugu Archaeological site that suggests the natives had greater geoscaping capabilities then we initially assumed.
There are also dozens of news articles that comment on it, but the details tend to either fall behind a pay wall or EDU access.
Arts & Photography: https://www.amazon.com/Imaginary-Cities-Darran-Anderson/dp/0992765595/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1500713407&sr=1-2&keywords=imaginary+cities; https://www.amazon.com/Burglars-Guide-City-Geoff-Manaugh/dp/0374117268/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1500713469&sr=1-7&keywords=imaginary+cities (both from the subcategory Architecture)
History: https://www.amazon.com/Devil-White-City-Madness-Changed/dp/0375725601/ref=sr_1_17?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1500713574&sr=1-17; https://www.amazon.com/Lost-City-Deadly-Obsession-Amazon/dp/1400078458/ref=sr_1_69?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1500713679&sr=1-69
You find the Lost City of Z yet?
One River.
I'm a botany person with a lot of love for anthropology. If you're into Amazonia you should enjoy it. I think anyone would like this book. I liked it so much I bought 2 copies. Hell, it's safe to say it changed my life!
Lost City of Z might be more your thing. That is to say with your interest in (possible) ancient Amazonian civilizations. That's a pretty fun little book.
Non-fiction for sure. I do really like history but sometimes its just too dense. I like to switch it up with non-fiction (or some sci-fi) that are kinda self-contained and only relate tangentially to larger events or just a lighter biography. Thinking Shadow Divers, The lost city of Z, Lost in Shangri-La, At Ease - Eisenhower or An American Doctor's Odyssey
I have a couple of books about big game hunters on my list, but I have not read either of these yet:
As for explorers, the best non-fiction I've read about explorers are The Lost City of Z by David Grann, about Percy Fawcett's attempts to find Eldorado in the jungles of South America, and Endurance by Alfred Lansing, about Shackleton's survival after his doomed polar expedition.
It occurs to me that none of these are set in Africa. Hope that's not a deal-breaker.
I'll also recommend my favorite memoir of all time, Papa Hemingway by A.E. Hotchner. It's about his time spent traveling with Ernest Hemingway, who was something of a hunter and adventurer, and recounts a lot of very exciting trips to exotic locales in which manly deeds were done.
The Lost City of Z is an amazing book! One of my favourites.
http://www.amazon.ca/The-Lost-City-Deadly-Obsession/dp/1400078458
It's not quite an autobiography, but the travels of Percy Fawcett, based on his own letters and diaries, were compiled by his own son after he disappeared and published into a book called [Exploration Fawcett] (https://www.amazon.com/Exploration-Fawcett-Col-Percy/dp/1842124684) which chronicles his adventures and experiences throughout South America in the mid-1920s. From the mountains of Peru to the jungles of Mato Grosso, Brazil, he had quite a life! While some aspects might have been exaggerated by the man itself, it's still an incredibly gripping read, especially given what happened to him.
Hello and Welcome back. So sorry that you're going throw bad times. let me know if i can do anything.
I have this book for 7.25 - https://www.amazon.com/dp/1400078458/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=SOZXP7H39ER4&coliid=I1E2WKP7ZBEQ98