Completely thorough ceramic analysis of the Haiti region, and the first time the term "mode" and "modal analysis" was introduced into the archaeological literature. He describes step by step, how he built and why, his ceramic typology. If only everybody wrote as he did. Excellent piece of work!

Ms. Guy can make you feel, hear, see, and taste the lush tropical setting in this book. It is easy to get caught up in her main character's tumultuous feelings. Her heroine battles her own demons and the negativity of others, but comes out the winner. I personally love triumph stories and it's even better when the character is strong, talented woman of color. Rosa Guy is a wonderful writer and her rich, descriptive, Caribbean settings are the best.

This is a sweet little book. The illustrations are beautiful watercolors with lots of detail that will appeal to young inquisitive eyes. (I know because I tested it on my favorite three year old.) The story is a simple one of a trip to market and a more interesting trip back to the village. A story of wanting, of responsibility, and of reward. I think books that share even a glimpse of another culture to our American children are very valuable. This book could raise many important questions in children who have no concept of being so poor you must walk everywhere you go. It offers that glimpse without being harsh in anyway. As I said, its sweet and yet one notices our main characters have no shoes for their feet. The writing is beautiful and reads well out loud. It is a simple enough story that most third graders can read it for themselves. Its also informative for adults. Now I know why the Haitian jitney is called a Tap-Tap. Tap-Tap gets a high recommendation.

While this is not by any means a complete overview of the artwork, it is a very good introduction and starting point, especially visually. However, the text itself, while well written, can be confusing especially for the reader not familiar with a number of the terms used in Voudun and the aspects of the loa. Still, this is a slim, hardback volume worth having for Barra and Cassaise are wonderful artists.

Harry S. Pariser's Dominican Republic guide is better and does not suffer from the inclusion of Haiti, a country of far fewer tourists and no appeal to most D. R. tourists. I found the North Coast (Puerta Plata) far superior to the East Coast (Punta Cana), one would not understand that from reading this book. No matter what guide you purchase pay close attention to the NEGATIVE reviews of resorts at the web site debbiesdominicantravel dot com. Unfortunately, many who post at this web site excuse substandard accomodations and poor treatment of tourists (like at the Punta Cana Beach Resort), so study the negative reviews of any resort you consider carefully. This is not a bad guide, just not the best guide. Always remember, the D. R. is a fabulous place to visit and perhaps to live.

I was very surprised to read the last two reviews and feel a need to express another opinion. My husband, David, and I just spent six and a half weeks in the Dominican Republic and we found the Lonely Planet guidebook to be very helpful (we did not travel at all in Haiti and, so, cannot comment on the book's coverage of Haiti). But we thought the section of the book that described the Dominican Republic was excellent. The prices were sometimes higher than the book said, due to inflation, but the descriptions were nearly always right on the mark. For example, we decided to climb Pico Duarte, the country's highest mountain, and we found the information provided about guides and lodges and climbing difficulty was very accurate. The author had clearly climbed the mountain and knew what he was talking about. The guidebook include maps of the various routes up the mountain and to nearby peaks and not one of the other guidebooks on the Dominican Republic that we looked at (about 10 in all) had such maps. Also, while we were in the area of Pico Duarte we went to a lovely waterfall few people go to that the author wrote about that wasn't mentioned in either of the other guidebooks we took with us (the Moon book was terrible, incidentally). I also really liked all of the history in the book. The island is rich with Indian history and colonial history and pirate history, and I thought the author did a super job presenting it.

A leader in travel guides, Lonely Plant once again proves it self as the leader in the industry with this excellent guide to traveling to/throughout the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Although Haiti's tourism industry is nearly nonexistent, the guide still provides the readers with information on attractions, accommodations, and safety issues.

In covering the neighboring Dominican Republic, the book provides much more information for this country which has seen a major boom in its' tourism industry since the late 1980s. Always informative with tidbits if information, history, maps, and information for singles and gay & lesbian travelers, the "Lonely Planet Dominican Republic and Haiti" is the best book for anyone planning a trip to the island of Hispaniola. Excellent guide for an excellent price.

This very good book describes the beginning phases of the great Haitian slave revolt. Bell is a talented writer with a real gift for descriptive prose. This long and dense book reads easily and is very informative. Bell depicts a society in which whites, blacks, and mulattoes are locked in a mutual embrace of hatred and exploitation, leading to the horrific events described graphically in this book. This book is not for the squemish, it contains many scenes of horrifying cruelty. This book is very ambitious in scope and has some deficiencies. I find Bell's efforts to emphasize the role of voudon, the syncretic Afro-Haitian religion, somewhat contrived. For a useful comparison, see the brief and evocative novel The Kingdom of this World by the great Cuban novelist Alejo Carpentier. Bell's characters are also somewhat flat. This may be deliberate choice on his part; part of an effort to show the consequences of a society where almost all human relationships are based on asymmetric and exploitative power relationships. Bell does not deal with the role of events in France or how these events shaped what happened in Haiti. This is an understandable but crucial omission. Consequently, we never get a sense of the collision of the ideals of the French Revolution with the reality of colonial exploitation.

If one wants a powerful and unsettling sense of how the roots of race were buried so deeply in the western hemisphere, and how they entangle so much of the reality of the 20th Centurye, there is no better guide than Madison Smartt Bell. His powerful, blood-seeped, historical novel "All Souls Rising," traces the vibrant African will to freedom as it collides with the arrogant and brutal Colonial settlers of France and the mixed-bloods and others who sought to ride the horse of horrors. Though the land of Bell's imagination is confined mostly to the isolated half of the island known to Columbus as Hispaniola, and to the modern world as Haiti, the reader's imagination will be carried to events as fresh in their humanity as tonight's news reports. Through Bell's brilliantly informed imagination, the souls he births ring all too true-to-life, shudderingly so. Bell's creations will resonate forever in the minds the readers and chillingly so for those who have ever visited Haiti. The awful reality of Bell's world tell us, yes, it must have been that way and it reminds us that there can no other explanation for the world of the races as we know it today

I found this an extremely difficult read: I was 16, knew nothing about Haiti's history, and spoke no French. I took nearly three months to finish reading the book, because every so often I had to take a break from the horrific violence Bell portrays. In the end, however, this novel remains one of the most impressive I have ever read, in terms of the way it really made me think. The depths of terror and violence to which Bell's characters resorted shocked me. But I did not lose sight of the novel's bigger picture. Ultimately, I have little sympathy for the book's reviewers who could not see past the novel's violence and complexity. Five tries to get through the book? Try a Dick and Jane reader, then, and come back in a few years.

I am married to a Jamaican wife, and read any article or book that mentions the country. I came across this book on the CNN Internet several months ago by looking up Jamaica.

My anticipation of this book far outreached the actual reading. The author spends the majority of his time describing the country he is in at the time, and they all seem the same. In detail he tells of the hotels he stays in, where and what he eats, whom he meets along the way, and something about the countless people he asks directions from even though he has a guide. He tells of how the white foreigners arrived in the country, very little of where they fit into the current society, and nothing in between. I realize that time has eroded any written or oral link between the past and now, but in my opinion, this is what was promised. One can read the same few documents that were reprinted in the book on the Internet and glean as much real information as portrayed in the book.

In all I was disappointed with the book.

This book sounded so fascinating that I made two shopping trips to find it in time for a long transatlantic flight. The premise--forgotten descendants of lost empires still clinging to shreds of their heritage in distant and remote lands--was enough to make any adventurous reader salivate. But the payoff was disappointing. Mr. Orizio's characters are two-dimensional and his style rambling. We learn very little about these real people; not enough to learn to care about them very much. This ought to be riveting stuff, but the literary equivalents of archeological relics glitter only rarely. Despite solid historical information, all of it news to me, I came away feeling I'd been on a tour bus that never stopped long enough to see much.

As a person who loves history and anthropology, the title of this book really got my attention and I eagerly anticipated the arrival of this book. I suppose anyone who wants to know more about the descendants of Europeans living in exotic and remote corners of the world would find this topic very interesting. The author tells of how (and under what circumstances) the ancestors of these peoples got there. He also decribes the lives of the members of these communities. These groups are quickly diminishing in numbers due to emigration, assimilation/intermarriage and inbreeding.

The title "Lost White Tribes" is rather misleading though, as only the Jamaican Germans, the Blanc Matignons and some of the Confederados are actually whites. The Dutch Burghers, the Rehoboth Basters, and many of the Confederados as well as the Haitian Poles are in fact mixed-race peoples (ie. Eurasians and Afro-European). From the author's decription, the Haitian Poles despite proudly claiming to be Polish are mainly of African descent with some white admixture.

Hence, I was quite suprised that notwithstanding the title and the fact that there are so many white groups and sub-groups in the New World, including some who live amongst a non-white majority, the author has chosen to include these communities. There are still French white creole communities in Mauritius and the Carribean islands, Mennonites in Belize as well as various distinct communities made up of descendants of Germans and other continental Europeans in Latin America. When I was in the Philippines, I found out that there were still many wealthy Spanish families descended from 16th century settlers.

I give this book 4 stars because the author wasted too much time describing in detail the place he stayed in, whom he met along the way to asks directions and what he and his companions did (eg. his encounter with a pimp in Sri Lanka, his misadventures with a Protestant minister in Haiti, the two kids he hung out with in Jamaica etc.) He should have used the space in the book to have included more communities.

This book is very deceptive. I wanted to get a book on creole
called "the basic oxford picture dictionary English/creole"
and I ended getting this one instead. the two book have the same cover but they are very diferent. one does not have anything to do with creole but the title start the same and the cover look the same. this can be confusing for first time buyer of such a language book. I know that there are a lot of people out there probably making the same mistake. this should be fixed so one does not blow there hard earn cash on mailing back and forth.

Although you could never tell it by reading the other reviews, this book has NOTHING to do with Creole. It is an English picture book - you see a picture of a ladder and it's referenced to the word "ladder". It's a lot of pictures and the English word for each item. Before you buy, look at the cover and excepts - I didn't.

Looking back, I think what I needed was "The Basic Oxford Picture Dictionary (English/Haitian Creole Edition). But the way you're pointed to this English version when you search on "Haiti" is misleading - no, make that incorrect.

Please don't make the same mistake I made and buy this book - that is unless you're trying to teach or learn basic English.

Attractive, detailed pictures and clear labeling make this a great- and cheap- adjunct to more comprehensive texts in learning very basic Creole. It is primarily useful in helping you to learn the names of common objects and simple actions. There is no instruction regarding grammar and usage. If you are in a situation in which you need a quick introduction for an upcoming trip to Haiti, I would pair this with the "Survival Haitian" booklet and cassette available from the Kansas University bookstore website. If you are in for the long haul and want comprehensive instruction, try the "Ann Pale Kreyol" text and tapes and the Haitian Creole Learners Dictionary put out by the Creole Institute at Indiana University.

Intriqued by the title, and interested in insights on Haiti, I mistakenly wasted my time reading this 'soap opera type' strings of incidences, that kept the reader in a state of indifference.
The first paragraph deceives the reader into thinking they are in for a treat... I was not. It is a mundane story of a boring American and his lifeless responses to a ficticious Haiti. Many one line descriptions of sex, murders and spirits overwhelm the story. No real depth. It is very obvious the author is an outsider, who neither knows or cares for the place or its people. Although the format was smart, the writing itself became very predictable and annoying.

A wonderful read - questions our view of the world , our priorities, our interpersonal relationships in a quiet way. This is a book wrapped in factuality re:the extinction of frogs and in mystery - the zombies, poisons and spirits of the Haitian world. This is tightly constructed story that is never a hard read.

I read this book as part of a local book club I belong to, and it was by far the most interesting, well-written (what I could tell from the translation) of the three we've read so far. I loved the juxtaposition of the Haitian guide's personal anecdotes with the main thrust of the story told by the narrator. There is even juxtaposition within each chapter, as Thierry recounts his mysterious stories about his life in Haiti (sometimes gruesome and always enthralling) the narrator is only half-listening, as he ponders his own less-than-fulfilling personal history. The writer never fully unravels the dark mysteries of Haiti, only hints at them. I am anxious to read other books by Ms. Montero.

The Immaculate Invasion does a good job of using the forgotten liberating invasion of Haiti in the 1990's to poke fun at the grand ole' U.S.A. and its absurd military and policy strategies concerning the Third World. It gains more relevance since it occurred right in our back yard, albeit in the highly impoverished and very black caribbean island of Haiti that reminds no one of their favorite tour destination. That's also what makes it an interesting read. How much does anybody really know about this tortured little slice of land that, if you live in the right area of the nation, is closer to your front door than New York or Oregon or numerous points in between? The author writes as a journalist, but injects enough humour here and there to liven up the work. The book is very well researched and full of fascinating historical and modern factoids. The culture of Haiti is both comic and fascinating and desperate at once, while the culture of the U.S. military is seen as it really is in these situations - ridiculous. The most powerful military in history intervening in places like Haiti and Somalia and Grenada, albeit in a "peacekeeping" role, really shows what a stupid bunch of apes we let people elect to rule us.

I highly recommend this book. Immaculate Invasion does an excellent job of portraying the events of Operation Restore Democracy. I should know, because I was a Special Forces soldier there on the ground. Although I disagree with a few of Shacochis'comments and characterizations, he is generally very accurate with his information. Shacochis tells it like it is (or was), from his point of reference. He pulls no punches. He relates the good,the bad, and the ugly regarding the US Military, the US Government, the Haitian people, and the Haitian Government. I find it laughable that several people who have neither been to Haiti nor been in the military would submit harsh reviews of this work. Take it from someone who has been there. This is an excellent book.

The Immaculate Invasion is a well written account of the US "intervention" in Haiti from the day the US Naval vessel, the Harlan County was unceremoniously blocked from docking in Haitian waters, to 1998, well after Jean-Bertrand Aristide had been reinstalled in the Haitian presidential palace. A short but effective smattering of Haitian history as well as graphic descriptions of the dark and tragic political and social environment makes it possible for the reader to draw quite a few unstated conclusions about how thinly the trappings of civilization can be veneered over a primitive culture.

It is written from the point of view of a journalist who seems to have an intimate understanding of the struggles of military men and their state of mind, as well as the overall strategic circumstances of their mission. The jargon he uses throughout the book is sometimes confusing due to the liberal use of military colloquialisms and acronyms as well as turns of phrase, which can at times make it difficult to understand his meaning. It is well that the book contains a glossary.

The "invasion" was immaculate in that it was really a "walk-in" with no overt hostility on either side. One major thrust of the book was the political ineptitude involved in the overall mission objectives which, in typical Clintonian 90's fashion not only muddied the waters between friend and enemy, but completely obliterated the differences between them. Without an enemy to fight, the military men were left with no clear objectives other than preventing violence, and were forced to view murderous terrorist organizations as nothing more than political parties. The author seems to believe (at least partly) that if the real bad guys were simply killed off by the US soldiers, the country would be able to rebuild itself into a nation. My own conclusion, drawn from reading between the lines was different. Primitive cultures lead to primitive governance. The elimination of every former attaché, FRAPH member, macoute and other assorted dirt bag, even if it were possible to do, would lead simply to a political vacuum which would end with the recreation of the same oppression that Aristide's revolution was meant to end.

It is clear, after reading this account that the violence and death, although lessened in intensity still continue in Haiti, and that if the foreign troops ever left, the country would revert back to it's original state of Hell. Although I don't know if the author intended to convey the message or not, it is apparent that the feel-good, New Age approach to "nation building" is simply a myth. Strobe Talbot take note!