Brazil: The Fortunes of War: World War II and the Making of Modern Brazil

Neill Lochery (Get this book)
Well-focused look at the authoritarian rule of charismatic Brazilian president Getulio Vargas (1882-1954). Unlike fellow British scholar Michael Reid in his recent broad overview, Lochery keeps the spotlight on the buildup to World War II, when Brazil, then a resources-rich provincial backwater, was eyed as a valuable asset by both the Axis and the Allies. Assuming power in 1930 and then ruling as a dictator from 1937 to 1945, Vargas was determined to make Brazil a stronger, more modern power politically, economically and militarily. "Brazil may still have been waiting for its future to arrive," writes the author, "but by the time Vargas was entombed, his capital was at least living in the present."Colorful personalities and tricky maneuvers make for a lively drama.--Kirkus

Bringing Down Gaddafi: On the Ground with the Libyan Rebels

Andrei Netto, Marsden, Michael (Get this book)
The Paris correspondent for a leading Brazilian newspaper recounts his experience covering the Libyan revolution. During the eight-month conflict that deposed Muammar Gaddafi, 32 journalists were imprisoned, 15 kidnapped, 30 expelled and 11 killed. Measured against these sobering statistics, Netto counts his own eight-day imprisonment as trifling. Notwithstanding the current political chaos in Libya, Netto concludes with some hopeful words about the country's future.A courageous and well-informed piece of journalism.--Kirkus

Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China

Evan Osnos (Get this book)
New Yorker staff writer and former China correspondent Osnos offers nimble, clever observations of a country squeezed between aspiration and authoritarianism. From 2005 to 2013, the author lived with his wife in China. In his debut book, he meanders among stories he pursued concerning Chinese of all strata striving to make a living in, and make sense of, a country in the throes of staggering transformation. Osnos groups his human-interest profiles under the themes of fortune, truth and faith, and he explores how new economic opportunities have challenged traditional ways and opened up Chinese society to unheard-of liberties and "pathways to self-creation"--emotionally, intellectually and otherwise. Pleasant, peripatetic musings revealing a great deal about the Chinese character. --Kirkus