A new book from Assouline, Brazilian Style, explores contemporary Brazil through photography of everything from tiny bikinis to musician Seu Jorge to the monumental architecture of the capital, Brasilia.

With an introduction and captions by Brazil aficionado Armand Limnander, the book is organized like an informal encyclopedia, which makes it easy to dip in and out of pages, whether they’re about the country’s most famous movies – see ‘City of God’ – or most famous aesthetic procedures – see ‘Brazilian Wax.’ With regards to the latter, the amount of skin in the book is well-suited to the often sexy subject matter – see ‘Dental Floss,’ an entry that’s not about oral hygiene products.

Brazilian Style is available for purchase at Assouline Boutiques worldwide and through www.assouline.com.

From the acclaimed journalist and best-selling author of God Is Not Great, a provocative and entertaining guided tour of atheist and agnostic thought through the ages – with never-before-published pieces by Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Christopher Hitchens continues to make the case for a splendidly godless universe in this first-ever gathering of the influential voices – past and present – that have shaped his side of the current (and raging) god/no-god debate. With Hitchens as your erudite and witty guide, youll be led through a wealth of philosophy, literature, and scientific inquiry, including generous portions of the words of Lucretius, Benedict de Spinoza, Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Mark Twain, George Eliot, Bertrand Russell, Emma Goldman, H. L. Mencken, Albert Einstein, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and many others. And they’re all set in context and commented upon as only Christopher Hitchens – political and literary journalist extraordinaire – can. Atheist? Believer? Uncertain? No matter: The Portable Atheist will speak to you and engage you every step of the way.

In this new and expanded edition of Michel Chossudovsky’s 2002 best seller, the author blows away the smokescreen put up by the mainstream media, that 9/11 was an attack on America by “Islamic terrorists.” Through meticulous research, the author uncovers a military-intelligence ploy behind the September 11 attacks, and the cover-up and complicity of key members of the Bush Administration.

The expanded edition, which includes twelve new chapters focuses on the use of 9/11 as a pretext for the invasion and illegal occupation of Iraq, the militarisation of justice and law enforcement and the repeal of democracy.

According to Chossudovsky, the “war on terrorism” is a complete fabrication based on the illusion that one man, Osama bin Laden, outwitted the US$40 billion-a-year American intelligence apparatus. The “war on terrorism” is a war of conquest. Globalisation is the final march to the “New World Order,” dominated by Wall Street and the U.S. military-industrial complex.

September 11, 2001 provides a justification for waging a war without borders. Washington’s agenda consists in extending the frontiers of the American Empire to facilitate complete U.S. corporate control, while installing within America the institutions of the Homeland Security State.

Chossudovsky peels back layers of rhetoric to reveal a complex web of deceit aimed at luring the American people and the rest of the world into accepting a military solution which threatens the future of humanity.

The last chapter includes an analysis of the London 7/7 Bomb Attacks.

Noam Chomsky is one of the most hysterically abused figures in the world today. Even his critics have to concede that his work in the field of linguistics – beginning to decode the structure of how language is formed in the human brain – makes him one of the most important intellectuals alive. But when he applies the same rigorous method to figuring out how power – especially the American government’s – works, he is pepper-sprayed with smears. He is a self-hating Holocaust denier, a jihad-loving traitor, a Pol Pot-licking communist, and on and on.

If all you know of his work is the smears, then Hopes and Prospects will be a revelation. In his dry, understated way, he excavates the reality behind the Babel of 24/7 corporate news, and places long-buried truths on the table to examine. Everyone is sourced to the leading academic journals, the best experts, the sharpest medical advice – yet each one is a shock if you rely on news brought to you by corporations and corrupt right-wing billionaires.

For example, he uncovers the story of why Haiti is so poor, and could be shaken to pieces by an earthquake that would have killed only a handful in California. It’s a story of man-made earthquakes, one after another. The country was the first to rebel against slavery and to cast off the whip-hand – and was brutally punished by the French Empire. Every time it has begun to rise to its feet, it has been kicked back down, with the American Empire taking over to topple its elected leaders (the last was put on a plane at gunpoint in 2008) and stifle any moves towards development.

But who has heard about it? Who tries to hold our leaders accountable for it? Chomsky is trying to rescue crimes from the memory-hole. He explains that Ronald Reagan – the great hero of the U.S. right – was a great champion of jihadism. It was Reagan who encouraged Pakistan simultaneously to become fundamentalist, and acquire nuclear weapons. Chomsky coolly condemns “the global jihad launched by Zia and Reagan,” for geopolitical reasons, with no concern for the after-effects.

But Reagan remains unstained. Chomsky quotes the great American historian Francis Jennings, who noted that “In history, the man in the ruffled shirt and gold-coated waistcoat levitates above the blood he has ordered to be spilled by dirty-handed underlings.” Instead, Chomsky says, history is too often ruled by Thucydides maxim: “The strong do as they wish, while the poor suffer as they must.”

It doesn’t have to be this way. This is a book woven through with hope and awe at all the people who slip beyond imperial control and establish real democracy. Chomsky’s strongest model – and the world’s – is Bolivia’s experiment with radical democracy. After 30 years of having neoliberalism forced on them by the West, including the cost of water pushed beyond their grasp, the Bolivian people elected the first indigenous leader since the European conquests. Since then, it has had the fastest fall in poverty and the most rapid growth in Latin America.

In his cool blizzard of facts and sources, the hot air of his critics seems to melt away. To pluck one example, the leftist-turned-neocon supporter Nick Cohen has accused Chomsky of being soft on jihadism (as well as of “not being bothered” by “the crimes of Adolf Hitler”). Yet Chomsky points out that an analysis of official data for the government-supported RAND corporation found that the invasion of Iraq caused a “seven-fold increase in jihadism.” If you really hate jihadism, you have to figure out what reduces it, rather than engage in bluster. Chomsky supported the path that produces fewer jihadis, while Cohen supports the path that produces more.

Chomsky presents all this plainly, and a sly sense of humour. Describing the growing rebellions in Afghanistan, he notes: “People have the odd characteristic of objecting to the slaughter of family members and friends.”

Hopes and Prospects is a book that can do the same for many more people – a treasure-trove of truths that shouldn’t be left buried in our sandpit of propaganda and lies.

A previously unpublished diary by the Argentine-born revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara has been unveiled in Cuba.

His widow, Aleida March, said she had decided to publish the writings unedited.

She said she wanted readers to get to know Che Guevara just as he was.

Diary of a Combatant covers his three-year guerrilla campaign which resulted in the overthrow of then-president Gen Fulgencio Batista and brought Fidel Castro to power.

The publishers said Che Guevara, a doctor by training, had terrible handwriting and it had taken them unusually long to decipher it.

The diary covers the period from the landing on Cuban shores of the revolutionaries on board the yacht Granma on 2 December 1956 to 1 January 1959, when they ousted Gen Batista.

The diary shed light on “Che Guevara’s impressions of Cuba, its culture, identity and political context,” according to the publishers.

Che Guevara’s other writings have done well in the past.

The diary of his guerrilla campaign in Bolivia, where he was captured and executed in 1967, sold extremely well when it was released in 1968. It has been re-printed many times.

The Motorcycle Diaries, his memoir of a road trip through Latin America when he was 23 years old, also did well commercially and was turned into a successful film.

The Savage Detectives, written by the Chilean writer Roberto Bolaño, traces the story of a Mexican avant-garde literary movement in the 1920’s – visceral realism. The book begins and ends with a diary-style narrative from the perspective of García Madero, a seventeen-year-old aspiring Mexican poet. The portion between these bookends is filled with short, detailed narratives from the perspective of dozens of different characters, each with their own unique voice, experience, and relation to any of the three main characters – Arturo Belano, Ulises Lima, and Cesárea Tinajero. These individuals (as well as the countless other whose paths cross theirs) live, travel, and experience the ups and down of life all across the globe between the years 1976 and 1996.

In his narrative, García Madero portrays himself as an intelligent, passionate, and inexperienced young man who desperately wants to have his poetry published. He recounts, via diary entries, dropping out of the university to write poetry, his first sexual encounters, and making new friends, including the visceral realists Arturo Belano and Ulises Lima. The three share a passion for the movement and, in the final section of the book they venture throughout Mexico in search of the founder of visceral realism, Cesárea Tinajero.

The 52 characters that narrate the central portion of the novel form an intricate network of interaction. The convoluted intermingling of well-developed characters, complex plot lines, and international geography is initially baffling; however the disorientation gradually transitions into a strong intrigue and fascination, although it never culminates in a full understanding of the story. Bolaño is able to entwine several themes and elements into his story, often simultaneously; these range from dark and thrilling, to tender and erotic, and even humorous. The author knows how to prescribe each element in its prefect dosage, aptly balancing drama, tragedy, passion, sadness, hope, happiness, uncertainty, and longing.

Bolaño is a literary genius: he is able to take on several personas and narrative perspectives on a seemingly narrow topic, he regularly resorts to an elevated and eloquent writing style and choice of diction, and he contrives brilliant metaphors and myths which branch out from the linear plot line.

Neither this book, nor this author is for everyone. Both The Savage Detectives and 2666 are excessively dense, complicated, and overwhelming reads; yet both are highly engaging and exceedingly well-written pieces. Some literary experts believe Roberto Bolaño is one of the greatest writers of our time.

In a remote Andean village, three men have disappeared. Peruvian Army corporal Lituma and his deputy Tomás have been dispatched to investigate, and to guard the town from the Shining Path guerrillas they assume are responsible. But the townspeople do not trust the officers, and they have their own ideas about what forces claimed the bodies of the missing men. To pass the time, and to cope with their homesickness, Tomás entertains Lituma nightly with the sensuous, surreal tale of his precarious love affair with a wayward prostitute. His stories are intermingled with the ongoing mystery of the missing men.

Death in the Andes is an atmospheric suspense story and a political allegory, a panoramic view of contemporary Peru from one of the world’s great novelists.

According to Time magazine, Che Guevara was one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century. Che’s legend has continued to grow since his death in 1967, and the revolutionary, anti-imperialist ideals he lived and died for now appeal to a new generation of 21st-century men and women.

Che Guevara is one of the most controversial and iconic figures in recent memory and is still a hero to many. Che Guevara: A Biography (by Richard L. Harris) provides a balanced and engaging introduction to the famous revolutionary leader. Based on original research, the biography reveals how Che’s early life prepared him for leadership in the Cuban Revolution. It also explores his revolutionary activities in Africa and Bolivia, as well as the circumstances surrounding his tragic death on October 9, 1967.

More than just a record of events, the book cogently examines Che’s contributions to the theory and tactics of guerrilla warfare, his ideas about imperialism and socialism, and his enduring political legacy. It includes original information on the 1997 discovery of the hidden remains of his body and on the celebration of his life and ideals by the socialist regime in Cuba. And it looks at the reasons why contemporary leftist political leaders, movements, and governments in Latin America and the Caribbean still pay homage to this charismatic man.

Some books are dangerous; reading them opens your eyes and makes you see the world around you in a different way. After reading them this new understanding of reality lingers and is not easily dismissed. Stories like these drive you to action, serving as a call to take up arms. Somaly Mam’s memoir, The Road of Lost Innocence, is one such book.

Born in Cambodia during years of political turmoil, Somaly never knew her parents – she still doesn’t know what became of them. Left by her grandmother in a tribal village, her early years were spent outdoors, roaming amongst the huts looking for food. These years were happy compared to those that would follow after leaving northern Cambodia with a man who claimed to know of her parents at the age of six.

This man, her “grandfather” would proceed to beat and molest her, sell her virginity to pay his debts at the age of 11, marry her to an abusive husband at the age of fourteen and finally sell her to a brothel at 16. As you can imagine Somaly’s story is not an easy, feel good read. The list of travesties, betrayals and corruption she has known is far too lengthy to detail here.

Catching glimpses of a better life, Somaly is eventually able to escape from the bondage of sexual slavery. Using the only currency at her disposal she begins to make alliances with foreign men – those with wealth and power – and uses them to begin her slow ascent out of prostitution. After achieving her freedom the girls she left behind haunt her. Knowing the devastation trafficking in girl-flesh wreaks she cannot stand motionless while atrocities are committed; hopefully you won’t be able to either when this story comes to a close.

Presented in spare, matter of fact prose the writing itself mimics the Cambodian attitude towards life; silent, understated. Coming from a people who disguise their emotions to the utmost – simply writing this memoir is a break with traditional Cambodian culture. Somaly however, has long since ceased to be a traditional Cambodian.

The words seek to describe without betraying the depths of emotional pain behind them, but it still seeps through. Between each and every line, in the silences and pauses the pain is there alongside the fear and anger. The Road of Lost Innocence is the anguished soul cry of a woman who has never truly been loved, the heart breaking sobs of a shattered little girl.

Somaly brutally exposes the truth of modern sexual trafficking in south-east Asia through her own story and that of those she has rescued from slavery. She outlines the beginnings of her non-profit organizations that rescue girls and women from brothels, sketching out plans for their reintegration into society. Free of her physical bonds and able to offer hope to those in chains, she remains a broken woman. The aching sadness created throughout her life’s circumstances is still present; only slightly mitigated by her relentless drive to rescue the weak and defend the defenseless.

She tells her story not to evoke sympathy for herself, though her pain is apparent. She writes, offering herself up to the public eye to draw attention to the plight of the girls and women who are still captive; taken against their will and viciously used. Somaly truly wants nothing for herself other than the opportunity to continue working with the victims of sexual trafficking and to draw awareness to their plight.

Truly, every responsible citizen of the world should engage Somaly’s work. The difficult stories need to be told, more than that – they must be acted upon. Only with eyes opened to the atrocities surrounding us can we step out in faith, reaching into the darkness to rescue those bound there.

Some of you are probably thinking what does this have to do with Latin America? Simply put, it was the inspiration for our forthcoming post about sex trafficking in Latin America.

A poor oyster-diving fisherman. His loyal and humble (but not unknowingly submissive) wife. Their sparse existence on the shores of Mexico.

Life is hard yet familiar, with the strengthening song of family allowing them some contentment with their infant son. And then, diving one day, he finds it. The Pearl of the World. Huge and beautiful, sure to provide for the life of comfort they’ve never even had the courage to imagine. Something that is so big and beautiful has to bring you joy, right?

This hauntingly simple and short story is pretty transparent – the thing you dream of bringing you grief. And yet, there is a depth to the changes in husband and wife, how riches in the hand suddenly change your view of what’s always made you happy before. There are lessons to be learned in these pages. As always, John Steinbeck is a genius with words, it reads so smoothly and heartfelt. His Mexico feels so real: the boats and the heat, the brush houses and the almost too closely knit community. This was a fast and interesting read.