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A Visit to Don Otavio: A Traveller’s Tale from Mexico by Sybille Bedford

Cogan’s Reviews The first thing I should say about this book is that it was originally published more than half a century ago, in 1953. I mention that out front just so no reader assumes it is yet another recent travel book about Mexico. However, it’s a good one and it’s easy to see that […]

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Underdogs

The Underdogs (Los de Abajo): A Novel of the Mexican Revolution by Mariano Azuela

Cogan’s Reviews This novel is described in several places as a classic of modern Hispanic literature and it really is a powerful book. Since it’s appearance it has been published in more than 27 editions and in several languages. The edition I just read is a Signet Classic paperback. It comes with a very useful […]

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Speaking Spanish like a Native by Brad Kim and Erika Dominguez

Cogan’s Reviews Here’s a rather unusual approach to learning Spanish. It’s not intended for beginners but rather for people who have already spent some time studying the language and want to go further, especially in the direction of becoming more adept at conversation. It is specifically aimed at we people who have some ability to […]

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Introducing Rick Gage: Murder in La Paz and Death Mask of the Jaguar by Murdoch Hughes

Cogan’s Reviews With these two thrillers we find ourselves in the world of hard-boiled private eyes – a la Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler – but with a difference. Both stories are squarely set in Mexico. Murdoch Hughes has created a private eye, Rick Gage, who has given up his former career as a detective […]

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The Guaymas Chronicles: La Mandadera by David E. Stuart

Cogan’s Reviews Although it’s about Mexico, this one starts off in Ecuador in the 1960s where the author was doing doctoral fieldwork for a dissertation on haciendas in that country. His work took him to a remote research station on the side of a mountain seventy miles from electricity, running water, telephones, etc. One day […]

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The Devil’s Highway: A True Story by Luis Alberto Urrea

Cogan’s Reviews This is the story of a group of men who have become known as the Yuma 14. They are the fourteen illegal immigrants who died attempting to cross the Arizona border in May, 2001. And what a terrible and upsetting story it is. Unknown numbers of these illegal immigrants die every year making […]

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