Here are some books that I've found to be useful or interesting, with brief comments.

Languages

Travel Guides and Reference

Where, according to Conde Nast Traveler magazine, is the best beach in the Caribbean? In which country can you find one of the oldest and best-preserved French forts in the New World? Where were Fugees rap stars, Wyclef Jean and Praz Michel, born? Which was the first Caribbean national team to ever qualify for soccer's World Cup finals? Artisans from which country produce nearly all the crafts sold to tourists in the Caribbean region? Where can you find the world's smallest bird? In which country did factory workers once produce all the baseballs for the US leagues? Which country is currently the second largest exporter of mangoes in the Americas?

The answer to these questions is one surely that few people would guess: the Republic of Haiti. Most everyone has some idea of Haiti - it's the poverty-stricken country where "Voodoo" is practiced, and from where the "boat people" fled to escape the terror of Duvalier's Tontons Macoutes. While mention of other Caribbean nations summons up images of holidays on sun-kissed beaches, of rum and rhythms under the palm trees, Haiti almost always evokes negative associations. The genesis of this bad press can be traced back to the slave uprising and revolution 200 years ago. Then, the world's first black republic was made an international pariah by the great powers who feared the Haitian example would threaten their slave-based empires. Racist stereotyping of Haiti and its people deepened during the nineteen years of US occupation in the early twentieth century. In more recent times, novels such as Graham Greene's The Comedians, and films like the James Bond caper, Live and Let Die, and Wes Craven's horror flick, The Serpent and the Rainbow, have made the "nightmare republic" a part of popular consciousness in North America and Europe.

Haiti is indeed a society quite distinct from those found in the rest of the region, but the cliches of black magic and thugs in sunglasses barely touch on the reality of life for those who make up the third largest population in the Caribbean. Despite the United Nations military intervention in 1994, which briefly made Haiti front-page news, the country remains little known or understood. Haiti's relative inscrutability and obscurity means that in a world of increasing uniformity, it is one of the most authentic countries the intrepid traveler can visit in the western hemisphere. At the same time, the many misconceptions that shroud the country in mystery work against social development and integration into a larger global economy.

Memoirs and Biographies

Fiction