-Paracas an ancient cultural tradition on the south coast Peru.
-Paracas: Discovery & Controversy
-A technical & Iconographic analysis of Carhua Painted textiles
-Stucture, Image & Abstraction: Paracas Necropolis headbands as system templates
-Paracas necropolis bundle 89: A description
-Physical & Chemical Analysis of Paracas Fibers
-Ecology & Society in embroidered images from the Paracas Necroplis

-Social & Political leadership in the Lower Ica Valley: Ocucaje Phases 8 & 9
-The Paracas problem: Archaelogical perspectives.

As you can see from the above contents list this book is aimed at specialists - and the language is dense in academic and thick with reference terms. The illustrations are meagre and all in Black and white.

While there is a lot of information in this book, as a person doing research in areas relating to some of these subjects I have found this book hard going. I'm sure to find some useful things but only after much digging and decoding of jargon.

So, if you are after a book with beautiful pictures of Paracas textiles - avoid this like the plague. If you are after archaeological research by people who have worked in the field and have finally been able to publish what they have found then this book is probably for you. I'd classify this as a reference work, not a general use book, especially for people new to the area this book would be difficult to use.

There may be merit to the premise, but it is not demonstrated in this book except by a single (remarkable) painting that shows the Virgin's features actually emerging from Cerro Potosi. But does this prove the author's premise, or is it a reference to the hill's proverbial status as a source of limitless riches? It would be useful to see more overt examples that support the author's point of view, but this one picture and an anecdote are all the proof that's given. Curiously, many of the full-page illustrations show pre-columbian pieces (especially featherwork) that could easily be referenced at thumbnail scale, leaving room for a broader assortment of examples of the main topic. This monograph could also profit from a deeper inquiry into the dressing of religious statues in the Catholic tradition. (Many of the Virgin paintings actually portray statues that were objects of devotion, rather than the person of the Virgin. The cult of the Infant of Prague is one of the few examples of dressed-up statues familiar, at least to Catholics, in the United States.)

I found the price rather high ..., since there is not much in the text to make it an object of study and reference; and the illustrations, while attractive, cannot be described as sumptuous.

In 1965 Peru, internationally acclaimed mountain climber Jim Bridgman knows that his major climbing days are almost over now that he is forty. He leads a party trying to scale the impenetrable Nevada Viracocha, the highest point in the Andes. However, their attempt fails, leaving three men dead. A grieving Jim struggles with guilt, wondering if it might be time to go his Colorado home.

Before Jim can decide what to do next, Father Bartolome d'Annunzio hires him to escort the priest to an obscure legendary mountain village in the middle of the Indigene's sacred grounds. On his way back, Jim rescues an Indigene clan under vicious attack by the military. Though captured, Jim now knows his last climb is to aid the natives, who are being brutally destroyed.

THE LAST CLIMB is an individual's parabola that brings to life the peasant unrest in 1960's Peru. The story line is extremely colorful as the Peruvian geography, people, and cultures are vividly described within an exciting adventure. Jim is a wonderful character whose struggle for being brings humanity to the plot. The support cast from the different sides of the conflict (including the Norteamericanios) add depth as they propel the fast-paced story line forward. Thomas H. Cosgrove reaches the highest peaks with his debut blending of a South American political thriller wrapped inside a non-stop action novel.

Harriet Klausner

The Book is a series of three letters Fermor wrote to his wife during his adventures.

It provides a rgeat insight into the mountains, people and culture of the Andes - from descriptions of mountaineering adventures to colourful local markets.

Sadly lacking in any real purpose (it's more a decsription of events rather than an adventure in itself) the book is nonetheless an interesting read.

Peasant land invasions in the sierra began in 1952; the first peasant union (sindicato) was formed in 1957. The formation of sindicatos, peasant strikes, and land invasions in the sierra continued through the 1960's and marginally improved the peasant condition. (Ibid.)

In 1958, the charismatic Hugo Blanco, a Quechua Trotskyite educated in Argentina, began organizing peasant strikes in Cuzco. About four years later Blanco and a small band of Indians formed a militia and engaged in guerrilla warfare in La Convención and Lares provinces near Cuzco. On Christmas day 1962, thirty peasants and five policemen died in a clash. The government formally charged Hugo Blanco for the deaths. In May 1963 troops consisting of Guardia Civil and Peruvian Investigative Police (PIP) encountered Hugo Blanco and his militia group. Fortunately for Blanco, a PIP officer discovered him first as the Guardia Civil officer had orders to assassinate him. The government held Blanco for three years before judging and sentencing him to twenty-years in prison. The Velasco government exiled Blanco in 1971. He published Land or Death the following year. In late 1992, Hugo Blanco was in Mexico recovering from a brain hematoma. (Hugo Blanco, Land or Death and various other sources.)

I read this book while researching the politics of Peru in the 1960's for a novel I am writing. Unless you have a similar interest in these peasant uprisings from the point of view of a Trotskyite fomenting revolution, or Blanco's candid appraisal as to why revolution failed, or insight into the mind of a Communist revolutionary, do not waste your time with this book. It is poorly written, or badly translated, or both, and the Communist rhetoric is tedious.

A devotional Spanish Catholicism was introduce 450 years ago to the Peruvian Indian a religious system blended "a rich diversity of pagan, early Christian and medieval traits." From this cult blend of Catholicism, animism and Inca religion a flourish cult, not a stagnant creed would spring. The color processional feasts and pilgrimages to the shrines of such events are the heart of the cult followings.

This academic dissertation, though full of valuable insight into the Catholic and Andean embrace that created will fail to engage and hold the attention of all but the avid student of ethology, anthropology and/or religion. Michael Sallnow fails to build a foundation of knowledge that the casual reader would need to comprehend the religious theology by which Incas initially lived. Also, Sallnow fails to explain how the Inca Indian, who was steeped in mysticism, was so easily absorbed in to Catholicism's rich imagery. Conditionally recommended