With Rio de Janeiro being such a complex and exciting city, we have offered here a selection of books that specialize in various areas of Rio's life: our recommendation is to mix and match a couple, in order to have a multifaceted guide.

This book packs a lot of great pictures and photographs, and is an excellent option if you want to understand Rio and the Carioca people. It includes a great history of Brazil that starts from its' very beginnings through the colonial era to modern-day Brazil. In doing so, it gives great historical background to the many monuments and historic areas within the city. Not the best book for practical travel needs, such as lodging options and places to dine, but great for you to understand the inside of Rio before you get there.

This book is a really great guide to the beautiful music that penetrates Brazilian culture: information on the Samba schools, the origins of the various music styles, who influenced who, updated information including Brazilian music in the 90's, and colorful and vivid descriptions that bring the music to life. All this information is written in an easily accessible language filled with anecdotes and stories of the musicians, rehearsals, and performances. This book is strongly recommended for the serious music lover, or one who wants to learn about Brazilian music past the classics.

This guidebook is a good source for hotel and restaurant reviews. This might be a good choice to go along with The Insight Guide, as the two combined will give you a good cohesive insight into Rio: one for the tourist side, and the other for the local one.

This is an inexpensive travel guide, and offers the practical sides of Rio de Janeiro: reviews of hotels, restaurants, and shopping. It does not offer a lot of pictures, but the information is up-to-date and accurate. A good affordable guide to have when planning your trip.

With this book you feel as if you are on an intimate tour as you are being taken through Rio's streets and being told tales of buildings, parks, the attempts of moving Carnaval to a cooler season, and many more stories that can come only from a Carioca, or Rio native. A great social history of Rio is presented here, showing the complexities, contradictions, humor and beauty of Rio de Janeiro. This book will satiate the need for a great guidebook, and will satisfy the reader who is looking to study Rio de Janeiro in much greater detail.

This guidebook won the Grand Prize award from North American Travel Journalist Association. Full of beautiful pictures and photos, this guide book is for the under 40 crowd, with the top night life spots, detailing the top clubs, top parties, top bars to hang out in, and more! It even includes ideas on what to do if it's raining in Rio, along with great money saving options. A definite recommendation for student travelers, the young, and those who are young at heart! This is the best book for the current nightlife scene.

This is a great slim guide that is easy to take with you and surprisingly comprehensive: it is divided into 9 sections that include explanations on local transportation, top sights, 80 different boutiques, 80 hotels, Rio after dark, and includes 10 double-page colorful maps. A great overview of the riches that Rio has to offer.

With the territorial monumentality of the Amazon being so impressive, we have included here several guidebooks that would cover the geography of the region, your orientation within it, the flora and fauna, the wildlife, and the different surrounding cities that include reviews of different lodging options.

This is a superb atlas, includes 150 full-color maps and 289 color photographs which depict the sub-regions of this great river clearly, along with interesting information on the source of the waters that account for the difference in water color, the importance of maintaining the forest and the dangers of deforestation, along with flora and fauna descriptions and the geology and ecology of the river.

A great eco-tourist guide to the common birds, reptiles, fish, mammals and insects of Brazil's two greatest natural attractions: the Pantanal and the Amazon. Its' particular strength is its comprehensive listing of birds, and over 100 color plates for identification. It also has sections on ecotourism, environmental threats, parks and reserves. It does not include flora and fauna, but does a great job of covering a big chunk of the wide range of species found in these two areas.

What marks this book is not only do you get a load of ecological information, about the plants and animals of the region, even about the people and cultures that reside within the jungle, you also get great practical information on how to get where you want to be, including the near-by touch-off cities (such as Manaus) and their hotels, restaurants, and attractions. This guide includes all countries of the Amazon Basin and Orinoco regions, along with detailed information on the history of the many parks. This information is followed by options for the how, what, when, where questions and the answers range from luxurious cruises to hiking adventures.

Included here is the entire Amazon, and a lot of the options that are available to you within this massive and mystical land. This book does not recommend areas and activities, but rather lays open to you what is possible, and from there you can narrow down your choices. It has a great fauna section, and a large number of reviews of the various tours and jungle lodges. A great addition in this book is its' inclusion of a section titled "Music and the Amazon" for even in the heart of the jungle, the importance of music in Brazil cannot be underestimated.

Guidebooks to:
   Rio de Janeiro
   The Amazon

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