Reading List

As the holiday season is wrapping up and we enter into the new year, I've taken time to reflect on 2017 and set goals for 2018. I did a lot of required reading this past year, and in retrospect I have concluded that I enjoyed the reading part and can do without the required part. For that reason, combined with my desire to continue learning about Latin America, I have come up with the following reading list as part of my 2018 goals. This post is mostly for my own record keeping, but if you happen to be interested in Latin American literature, it might be useful for you as well. The books listed under bullet points are those which I have already read, and those listed after each country are the ones that I would like to read and consequently add to my bullet-pointed lists. I will be updating this list as I move each book from the "unread" to "read" categories. I have included non-Spanish-speaking countries in the case that I finish all of the books from Spanish-speaking countries (slash territory) and have time to delve into the non-Spanish-speaking world. There is at least one book from each country/territory in the "unread" category, and I will likely add more to the to that category as the year progresses. After all, the more you know, the more you don't know. Suggestions welcome! Happy New Year!

Argentina - Facundo, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento (1845); Rayuela, Julio Cortázar (1963); Historias de Diván, Gabriel Rolón (2007)

• Martín Fierro, José Hernández (1872)
• Ficciones, Jorge Luis Borges (1944)
• El Aleph, Jorge Luis Borges (1945)
• El beso de la mujer araña, Miguel Puig (1976) 
• Respiración artificial, Ricardo Piglia (1980)
• Cambio de armas, Luisa Valenzuela (1982) 
• El largo camino de Olga, Yolanda Scheuber (2008)

Bahamas - The Measure of a Man, Sidney Poitier (2000)

Belize - Beka Lamb, Zee Edgell (1982)

Bolivia - Raza de bronce, Alcides Arguedas (1905)

Brazil - Dom Casmurro, Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1899) 

Chile - Crepusculario, Pablo Neruda (1923); Residencia en la Tierra, Pablo Neruda (1933); Confieso que he vivido, Pablo Neruda (1974); La casa de los espíritus, Isabel Allende (1982)

• Estrella distante, Roberto Bolaño (1996)
• Inés del alma mía, Isabel Allende (2006)

Colombia  

• La vorágine, José Eustasio Rivera (1924)
• Cien años de soledad, Gabriel García Márquez (1967)
• El amor en los tiempos de cólera, Gabriel García Márquez (1985)

Costa Rica - La isla de los hombres solos, José León Sánchez (1968)

Cuba - El reino de este mundo, Alejo Carpentier (1949); Havana Bay, Martin Cruz Smith (1999)

• Nuestra América, José Martí (1891)
• Los pasos perdidos, Alejo Carpentier (1953)
• Calibán, Roberto Fernández Retamar (1971) 
• Antes que anochezca, Reinaldo Arenas (1992)

Dominican Republic

• La maravillosa vida breve de Oscar Wao, Junot Díaz (2006)

Ecuador

• Huasipungo, Jorge Icaza (1934)

El Salvador - Bitter Grounds, Sandra Benítez (1997)

• El asco, Horacio Castellanos Moya (1997)
• The Weight of All Things, Sandra Benítez (2000)

French Guyana - Papillon, Henri Charriere (1969)

Guatemala - El señor presidente, Miguel Ángel Asturias (1946); Hombres del maíz, Miguel Ángel Asturias (1949)

• El material humano, Rodrigo Rey Rosa (2009)

Guyana - El palacio del pavo real, Mateo Palmer (2007) 

Haiti - Breath, Eyes, Memory, Edwidge Danticat (1994)

Honduras - Prisión Verde, Ramón Amaya Amador (1950); Cipotes, Ramón Amaya Amador (1989)

Jamaica - A brief history of seven killings, Marlon James (2014) 

Mexico - El divino narciso, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1689)

• Los de abajo, Mariano Azuela (1915)
• El laberinto de la soledad, Octavio Paz (1950)
• Pedro Páramo, Juan Rulfo (1955) 
• Aura, Carlos Fuentes (1962)

Nicaragua - El Güegüense, author unknown (17th century/first printed in writing 1942); El evangelio en Solentiname, Ernesto Cardenal (1975)

• La sonrisa del jaguar, Salman Rushdie (1987)
• Blood of Brothers, Stephen Kinzer (1991)
• El país bajo mi piel, Gioconda Belli (2001) 

Panama - Plenilunio, Rogelio Sinán (2004)

Paraguay - Yo el supremo, Augusto Roa Bastos (1974)

Peru - Lituma en los Andes, Mario Vargas Llosa (1993), La llamada de la tribu, Mario Vargas Llosa (2018)

• El problema del indio - 7 ensayos de interpretación de la realidad peruana, José Carlos Mariátegui (1928)
• Los ríos profundos, José María Arguedas (1958)
• La ciudad de los perros, Mario Vargas Llosa (1962)

Puerto Rico - Cuando era puertorriqueña, Esmeralda Santiago (1994)

• La guagua aérea, Luis Rafael Sánchez (1994)

Suriname - The Cost of Sugar, Cynthia McLeod (2010)

Uruguay - La Tregua, Mario Benedetti (1960); Las venas abiertas de América Latina, Eduardo Galeano (1971); Fútbol a sol y sombra, Eduardo Galeano (1995)

• Ariel, José Enrique Rodó (1900)
• Cuentos de la selva, Horacio Quiroga (1918)

Venezuela - Doña Bárbara, Rómulo Gallegos (1929)