Best of
Brazil

2016

Brazillionaires: Chasing Dreams of Wealth in an American Country


Alex Cuadros - 2016
    The billionaires of Brazil and their massive fortunes resided at the very top of their country’s economic pyramid, and whether they quietly accumulated exceptional power or extravagantly displayed their decadence, they formed a potent microcosm of the world’s richest .001 percent. Eike Batista, a flamboyant and charismatic evangelist for the country’s new gospel of wealth, epitomized much of this rarefied sphere: In 2012, Batista ranked as the eighth-richest person in the world, was famous for his marriage to a beauty queen, and was a fixture in the Brazilian press. His constantly repeated ambition was to become the world’s richest man and to bring Brazil along with him to the top. But by 2015, Batista was bankrupt, his son Thor had been indicted for manslaughter, and Brazil—its president facing impeachment, its provinces combating an epidemic, and its business and political class torn apart by scandal—had become a cautionary tale of a country run aground by its elites. Over the four years Cuadros was on the billionaire beat, he reported on media moguls and televangelists, energy barons and shadowy figures from the years of military dictatorship, soy barons who lived on the outskirts of the Amazon, and new-economy billionaires spinning money from speculation. He learned just how deeply they all reached into Brazilian life. They held sway over the economy, government, media, and stewardship of the environment; they determined the spiritual fates and populated the imaginations of their countrymen. Cuadros’s zealous reporting takes us from penthouses to courtrooms, from favelas to extravagant art fairs, from scenes of unimaginable wealth to desperate, massive street protests. Within a business narrative that deftly explains and dramatizes the volatility of the global economy, Cuadros offers us literary journalism with a grand sweep. Praise for Brazillionaires“A wild, richly reported tale about Brazil’s recent economic rise and fall, and some of the biggest, most colorful characters in business in Brazil who now have a global reach. . . . Cuadros’s story really takes off when he focuses on Eike Batista, an over-the-top one-time billionaire who became the country’s corporate mascot, only to go bankrupt in a dramatic unraveling.”—Andrew Ross Sorkin, the New York Times   “In this excellent book [Cuadros] has managed to use billionaires to illuminate the lives of both rich and poor Brazilians, and all those in between.”—The Economist“Brazillionaires [is] journalist Alex Cuadros’s compelling tale of Brazil’s superrich, which deftly weaves lurid soap opera with high finance and outrageous political skullduggery. . . .

Afro-Paradise: Blackness, Violence, and Performance in Brazil


Christen A. Smith - 2016
    But the alluring images of smiling black faces and dancing black bodies masks an ugly reality of anti-black authoritarian violence. Christen A. Smith argues that the dialectic of glorified representations of black bodies and subsequent state repression reinforces Brazil's racially hierarchal society. Interpreting the violence as both institutional and performative, Smith follows a grassroots movement and social protest theater troupe in their campaigns against racial violence. As Smith reveals, economies of black pain and suffering form the backdrop for the staged, scripted, and choreographed afro-paradise that dazzles visitors. The work of grassroots organizers exposes this relationship, exploding illusions and asking unwelcome questions about the impact of state violence performed against the still-marginalized mass of Afro-Brazilians.Based on years of field work, Afro-Paradise is a passionate account of a long-overlooked struggle for life and dignity in contemporary Brazil.

Made in Macaíba


Miguel Nicolelis - 2016
    Ele é o relato da maturação e realização desse ambicioso projeto que mistura inovação científica e desenvolvimento social. The book chronicles the creation of the International Institute of Neuroscience of Natal, an ambitious initiative that brings together scientific research and social development in the northeast of Brazil. The book discusses the genesis and implementation of the project, brainchild of the author Miguel Nicolelis, and expresses the author's trajectory in establishing the IINN - ELS, as well as its first steps.

DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Brazil


D.K. Publishing - 2016
    Expert travel writers and researchers provide independent editorial advice, recommendations, and reviews. With guidebooks to hundreds of places around the globe available in print and digital formats, DK Eyewitness Travel Guides show travelers how they can discover more.DK Eyewitness Travel Guides: the most maps, photographs, and illustrations of any guide.Awards:Wanderlust Travel Awards 2009-2015Reviews:"Known... for its four-color maps, photos and illustrations, the [DK] Eyewitness Guides are extremely user-friendly for travelers who want their information delivered in a concise, visual way." - Chicago Tribune"The best option... Color photos, maps, and diagrams bring the place to life." - The Philadelphia Inquirer

Lonely Planet Rio de Janeiro (Travel Guide)


Lonely Planet - 2016
    Samba the night away in Lapa, people-watch and sip sunset cocktails on Ipanema Beach or get up close to Christ the Redeemer and marvel at the panoramic view of Rio; all with your trusted travel companion. Get to the heart of Rio de Janeiro and begin your journey now! Inside Lonely Planet Rio de Janeiro: Full-color maps and images throughout Highlights and itineraries help you tailor your trip to your personal needs and interests Insider tips to save time and money and get around like a local, avoiding crowds and trouble spots Essential info at your fingertips - hours of operation, phone numbers, websites, transit tips, prices Honest reviews for all budgets - eating, sleeping, sight-seeing, going out, shopping, hidden gems that most guidebooks miss Cultural insights give you a richer, more rewarding travel experience - history, music, football, architecture, outdoors, beaches, dance Free, convenient pull-out Rio de Janeiro map (included in print version), plus over 26 color maps Covers Ipanema, Leblon, Gavea, Jardim Botanico, Lagoa, Copacabana, Leme, Botafogo, Urca, Flamengo, Centro, Cinelandia, Santa Teresa, Lapa, Zona Norte, Barra da Tijuca, Western Rio and more eBook Features: (Best viewed on tablet devices and smartphones) Downloadable PDF and offline maps prevent roaming and data charges Effortlessly navigate and jump between maps and reviews Add notes to personalize your guidebook experience Seamlessly flip between pages Bookmarks and speedy search capabilities get you to key pages in a flash Embedded links to recommendations' websites Zoom-in maps and images Inbuilt dictionary for quick referencing The Perfect Choice: Lonely Planet Rio de Janeiro, our most comprehensive guide to Rio de Janeiro, is perfect for both exploring top sights and taking roads less traveled. Looking for just the highlights? Check out Make My Day Rio de Janeiro, a colorful and uniquely interactive guide that allows you to effortlessly plan your itinerary by flipping, mixing and matching top sights. Looking for more extensive coverage? Check out Lonely Planet Brazil for a comprehensive look at all the region has to offer. Authors: Written and researched by Lonely Planet. About Lonely Planet: Since 1973, Lonely Planet has become the world's leading travel media company with guidebooks to every destination, an award-winning website, mobile and digital travel products, and a dedicated traveler community. Lonely Planet covers must-see spots but also enables curious travelers to get off beaten paths to understand more of the culture of the places in which they find themselves.

Getting Respect: Responding to Stigma and Discrimination in the United States, Brazil, and Israel


Michèle Lamont - 2016
    Getting Respect illuminates their experiences by comparing three countries with enduring group boundaries: the United States, Brazil and Israel. The authors delve into what kinds of stigmatizing or discriminatory incidents individuals encounter in each country, how they respond to these occurrences, and what they view as the best strategy--whether individually, collectively, through confrontation, or through self-improvement--for dealing with such events.This deeply collaborative and integrated study draws on more than four hundred in-depth interviews with middle- and working-class men and women residing in and around multiethnic cities--New York City, Rio de Janeiro, and Tel Aviv--to compare the discriminatory experiences of African Americans, black Brazilians, and Arab Palestinian citizens of Israel, as well as Israeli Ethiopian Jews and Mizrahi (Sephardic) Jews. Detailed analysis reveals significant differences in group behavior: Arab Palestinians frequently remain silent due to resignation and cynicism while black Brazilians see more stigmatization by class than by race, and African Americans confront situations with less hesitation than do Ethiopian Jews and Mizrahim, who tend to downplay their exclusion. The authors account for these patterns by considering the extent to which each group is actually a group, the sociohistorical context of intergroup conflict, and the national ideologies and other cultural repertoires that group members rely on.Getting Respect is a rich and daring book that opens many new perspectives into, and sets a new global agenda for, the comparative analysis of race and ethnicity.

Hot Stuff: Surfing Love


Carla Caruso - 2016
    four top romance authors give you their take on summer. From Carla Caruso - A chance meeting with a pro-surfer on an island getaway ...From Maria Lewis - The world of women's surfing throws two recent bedmates together ... From Alli Sinclair - A world-famous performer finds her heart and a way to fight her demons in Rio de Janeiro ...From Tess Woods - A Cornish beach retreat proves a full reawakening ...

Brazil Lost and Found


Sherry Keith - 2016
    There his mother's journals, full of family secrets and her own travels, await him. He journeys to Rio de Janeiro where he meets Ana Claudia, a beautiful, feisty law student. She introduces him to life in Rio's chic Zona Sul and some of the troubling underside of this glittering metropolis. Seeking adventure, Xander travels northeast to Espiritu Santo where he visits Daniela, a young mother and activist with the Landless Workers' Movement. Through his mother's journals, he visits an encampment of families living in a tent city for two years. Their hope is to gain land for small farming. He continues on to the mystical Bahia, site of his childhood. Ana Claudia joins him here. But is this for romance or mere curiosity? Together, they explore intriguing aspects of Afro-Brazilian culture and argue about the city of Salvador's ignominious past. Meanwhile, troubling news arrives from London. Sarah, the girlfriend left behind has discovered that she is pregnant. Xander is thrown into emotional turmoil by this news along with the discoveries he is making while reading his mother's stories. Then a request from his London based boss arrives asking Xander to go to Brasilia where the company has a possible contract with the government. Here he learns about the cost of doing business in Brazil and ecological problems facing the Cerrado, the country's enormous savannah land. With Sarah pressuring him to return to London, Xander gives himself one more chance to better understand Brazil by traveling to an eco-lodge deep in the Amazon. Here more revelations than ever expected emerge both about himself and the country he hoped to find .

Securing Sex: Morality and Repression in the Making of Cold War Brazil


Benjamin A Cowan - 2016
    Drawing on little-tapped archival records, he shows that by midcentury, conservatives--individuals and organizations, civilian as well as military--were firmly situated in a transnational network of right-wing cultural activists. They subsequently joined the powerful hardline constituency supporting Brazil's brutal military dictatorship from 1964 to 1985. There, they lent their weight to a dictatorship that, Cowan argues, operationalized a moral panic that conflated communist subversion with manifestations of modernity, coalescing around the crucial nodes of gender and sexuality, particularly in relation to youth, women, and the mass media.The confluence of an empowered right and a security establishment suffused with rightist moralism created strongholds of anticommunism that spanned government agencies, spurred repression, and generated attempts to control and even change quotidian behavior. Tracking how limits to Cold War authoritarianism finally emerged, Cowan concludes that the record of autocracy and repression in Brazil is part of a larger story of reaction against perceived threats to traditional views of family, gender, moral standards, and sexuality--a story that continues in today's culture wars.

The Invention of the Beautiful Game: Football and the Making of Modern Brazil


Gregg Bocketti - 2016
    Instead, football can be understood as an invention of early twentieth century middle-class and wealthy Brazilians who called themselves “sportsmen” and nationalists, and used the sport as part of their larger campaigns to shape and reshape the nation.  In this cross-cutting cultural history, Gregg Bocketti traces the origins of football in Brazil from its elitist, Eurocentric identity as “foot-ball” at the end of the nineteenth century to its subsequent mythologization as the specifically Brazilian “futebol,” o jogo bonito (the beautiful game). Bocketti examines the popular depictions of the sport as having evolved from a white elite pastime to an integral part of Brazil’s national identity known for its passion and creativity, and concludes that these mythologized narratives have obscured many of the complexities and the continuities of the history of football and of Brazil. Mining a rich trove of sources, including contemporary sports journalism, archives of Brazilian soccer clubs, and British ministry records, and looking in detail at soccer’s effect on all parts of Brazilian society, Bocketti shows how important the sport is to an understanding of Brazilian nationalism and nation building in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.