I always loved hearing stories from my father about his youth, in particular before he met my mother and was just a young man with no set path in life. His stories have given me a better idea of how he became the man I know as dad. When Che Guevara left Cuba for the last time, he left behind a wife and several children never to see them again. His oldest surviving daughter, Aleida, provides a foreword to her father’s famous journal about his journey through Latin America with friend and fellow medical student Alberto Granado. Appropriately titled The Motorcycle Diaries, the book is the story of two young friends who discovery their home continent. Written during their time as medical students in Buenos Aires, Che’s journal provides us with an insight to the young man who would eventually become the icon for revolutions throughout the world.
Later in his life, Che revised the journal making edits and corrections but the overall passages remain the same and the diary is an interesting look into the early life of the Argentine revolutionary. The Latin American we know today is far different from the one that Che and Alberto journeyed through on their ill-fated motorcycle named La Ponderosa II. Their visits to the poor combined with famine and neglect from local governments, helped shaped the ideology and commitment to social reformation that would serve as the basis of his revolutionary beliefs. The trials and tribulations that occur in the book are also highly amusing revealing the naive behavior that often accompanies youth. And as he moves through South America with Alberto, the young Che finds himself questioning the meaning of life, love and the future of society. Upon his return to Buenos Aires, he obtained his medical degree becoming the doctor who would be sorely needed several years later when he became part of the 26th of July Movement under the direction of a young Cuban lawyer, Fidel Castro. But before the fame, speeches and armed revolution, he was simply Ernesto.
ISBN-10: 1859849717
ISBN-13: 978-1859849712
War is an experience that forever changes a person. I can’t think of any person that I know who returned from active combat without any long-lasting effects. My uncle, who served in Vietnam, is adverse to the loud explosions from the firecrackers on the 4th of July to this day. Many veterans have become outspoken critics of war and have written numerous books and given speeches, the famous of which that comes to mind is Ron Kovic, portrayed brilliantly by Tom Cruise in Oliver Stone’s ‘Born On The Fourth Of July’.
If you’ve ever visited Old San Juan, you’ll know why Puerto Rico is called the Island of Enchantment. The aura that permeates the old city fills the soul with a sense of warmth and nostalgia. I’ve visited the island twice spending time in various cities across the island and climbing the rocks at the El Yunque rain forest. The many friends that currently live there are some of the most hospitable people I’ve ever met and the cuisine is one of the best you’ll find in the western hemisphere. Founded in 1509, Old San Juan is a major tourist attraction for travelers from all parts of the world. United States citizens have a unique connection to the island in that no passport is needed and American currency is the standard. The relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States is perhaps the most complex and unique in all of the Caribbean. The island, ceded to the United States by Spain at the Treaty of Paris in 1898, has been in a state of steady economic decline resulting in a surge in crime rates and unemployment. The deteriorating conditions threaten to turn the island into a shell of its former self. The future of the island is a critical issue for Washington and as of today no clear-cut solution is in place.
Many years have passed since the U.S. invasion of Iraq but the effects continue to linger. The conflict continues to rear its ugly head and provokes fierce debate. When Saddam Hussein was finally captured and subsequently convicted, many Muslims in Iraq and other nations breathed a sigh of relief. The region continues to deal with social and political issues, but the days of Hussein and his power-hungry sons are long gone. Stories of their inhumane treatment and the barbaric conditions of the country’s prisons are never-ending. Exiles from the country have opened up and revealed what they remember from their time under the brutal Hussein regime. This is the story of Mayada Al-Askari, a divorced mother of two who ran a local printing shop and was wrongfully accused of spreading anti-government. She was arrested, incarcerated and tortured on a regular basis by prison officials determined to find the source of the anti-regime literature. She was eventually released when it was determined that a subordinate of hers was the real culprit behind the printings.
The announcement by former NBA star Magic Johnson that he was HIV+ shocked and devastated my friends and I. Although we knew much about the dreaded disease that had taken the lives of thousands of people, there was still much that did not know. Johnson would be considered one of the lucky few who survived an era in which we saw the deaths of tennis great Arthur Ashe and Real World star Pedro Zamora, among others including the author of this book, Randy Shilts. When he died, I was a freshman in high school still trying to understand how and why society was now faced with an incurable disease. Two years after his death, one of my uncles contracted the disease and died less than a year later.
FREETHINKING BIBLIOPHILE 
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