The following books paint a good portrait of Nicaragua, and we encourage you to pick one or more up. Several are available through Global Exchange; many more will be available at your local library. Think of these titles as a guideline. The more you read about Nicaragua before you go, the better prepared you will be for your trip!

General History

Nicaragua Handbook
Baker, Christopher P. (California: Moon Travel Handbooks, 1997)

Nicaragua Without Illusions: Regime Transition and Structural Adjustment in the 1990's
Walker, Thomas W. (Wilmington, Delaware: Scholarly Resources. Inc., 1997.)

Harvesting change: labor and agrarian reform in Nicaragua, 1979-1990.
Enriquez, Laura J. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991.)

The Jaguar Smiles: A Nicaraguan Journey.
Rushdie, Salman (New York: Viking, 1987.)

Canary for the World: A Nicaraguan Environmental Primer.
Mueller, Jerry

Rascally signs in sacred places: the politics of culture in Nicaragua.
Whisnant, David E. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, c1995.)

Coffee Industry

Coffee, Society, and Power in Latin America.
Edited by William Roseberry, Lowell Gudmundson, Mario Samper Kutschbach. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995.)

The Coffee Book: Anatomy of an Industry from Crop to the Last Drop.
Dicum, Gregory and Nina Luttinger (New York: New Press, 1999.)

States and Social Evolution: Coffee and the Rise of National Governments in Central America.
Williams, Robert G. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1994.)

Nicaraguan Authors

Poets of Nicaragua: a Bilingual Anthology 1918-1979.
White, Steven F. (Greensboro: Unicorn Press, 1982.)

Abide in Love
Cardenal, Ernesto. Foreword By Thomas Merton; Photographs By Mev Puleo. (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1995)

Apocalypse and Other Poems.
Cardenal, Ernesto. (New York: New Directions, 1977)