Books - Playa Del Carmen

Mexico has attracted more than its fair share of famous foreign writers, and has inspired a vast literature and several classics. Until very recently, however, Mexican writers had received little attention: even now, when many new translations are being made available through small US presses, few are well known. Most big US bookshops will have an enormous array of books about, from, or set in Mexico, plus a few novels. In the rest of the English-speaking world there's far less choice, though the best known of the archeological and travel titles we've listed should be available almost anywhere. In the lists, the UK publisher is followed by the US one; where only one publisher is listed it's the same in both places, or we've specified; o/p means a book is out of print, but may still be found in libraries or secondhand bookshops.

For the less mainstream, and especially for contemporary Mexico, there are a few useful specialist sources . In the UK the Latin America Bureau (LAB), 1 Amwell St, London EC1R 1UL (tel 020/7278-2829, fax 7278-0165, on www.lab.org.uk ), publishes books covering all aspects of the region's society, current affairs and politics. Supporters receive a 25 percent discount off LAB books and a biannual copy of Lab News . In the US, the Resource Center, PO Box 2178, Silver City, NM 88062-2178 (tel 505/388-0208, fax 388-0619, www.irc-online.org ), produces a wide range of publications, including a monthly magazine, Borderlines , which examines issues around the Mexican-American border (annual subscription US$12 in the States or US$17 internationally). In London you can freely visit Canning House Library, 2 Belgrave Square, SW1X 8PJ (tel 020/7235-2303), which has the UK's largest publicly accessible collection of books and periodicals on Latin America, though you have to be a member to take books out and receive the twice-yearly Bulletin , a review of recently published books on Latin America.

If you're travelling to the Maya areas of Mexico or Guatemala, visit the library and resource centre at Maya - The Guatemalan Indian Centre, 94 Wandsworth Bridge Rd, London SW6 2TF (call 020/7371-5291 for opening times, www.maya.org.uk ; closed Jan, Easter & Aug). Members (£5 annually) have use of the library (reference only) and video collection, and can access information of the monthly events and film shows held at the Centre. There is also a particularly fine textile collection. The Centre's director, Krystyna Deuss, is the acknowledged English authority on Guatemalan life, dress and contemporary Maya rituals.

Travel
Sybille Bedford , A Visit to Don Otavio (Eland/Picador). An extremely enjoyable, often hilarious, occasionally lyrical and surprisingly relevant account of Ms Bedford's travels through Mexico in the early 1950s. Frances...
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Mexican fiction
Mariano Azuela , The Underdogs (University of Pittsburgh/Signet). The first novel of the Revolution (finished in 1915), The Underdogs is told through the eyes of a group of peasants who form a semi-regular revolutionary armed...
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Foreign fiction
There must be hundreds of novels by outsiders set in Mexico, all too many in the sex-and-shopping genre: apart from those below, others to look out for include a whole clutch of modern Americans, especially Jack Kerouac 's Desolation...
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History
The sources below are all entertaining and/or important references: more standard general histories include Henry Bamford Parkes' History of Mexico (Houghton Mifflin); Fire and Blood: A History of Mexico by T.R....
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Ancient Mexico
There are thousands of studies of ancient Mexico , many of them extremely academic and detailed, plus any number of big, highly illustrated coffee-table tomes on individual sites. Those below are of more general interest, and any of them will...
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Society, politics and culture
Tom Barry (ed), Mexico: A Country Guide (LAB/Resource Center). A comprehensive account of contemporary Mexico: Barry and ten other contributors impart their expertise to make this the best single-volume survey on the issues facing Mexico...
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Other guides
In Mexico itself, the best and most complete series of guides is that published by Guías Panorama - they have small books on all the main archeological sites, as well as more general titles ranging from Wild Flowers of Mexico to ...
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Wildlife
Steve Howell , Where to Watch Birds in Mexico (Christopher Helm). One for the enthusiast - over a hundred sites are listed, where more than 950 bird species can be seen. More general information on the recommended regions is also...
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