Deb­bie Ja­cob

?There are so many great Caribbean books to buy for Christ­mas gifts. When you buy Caribbean books you keep West In­di­an lit­er­a­ture in print. Ask any lead­ing book­store for its West In­di­an col­lec­tion. You'll be sur­prised how many great books you can find. Here are some of my favourite Caribbean books that I hope will make your Christ­mas list.

1. Gol­con­da–This new­ly re­leased cof­fee ta­ble book, edit­ed by Lawrence Scott, is the first pub­li­ca­tion by the Uni­ver­si­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go. This is a great gift for his­to­ry buffs. Gol­con­da cap­tures the his­to­ry of a sug­ar cane vil­lage in south­ern Trinidad in a way that you can see, feel and touch.

2. On Be­com­ing First by Kathy Ann Wa­ter­man–For­mer jour­nal­ist Kathy Ann Wa­ter­man tells the sto­ry of T&T from the point of view of First Cit­i­zens Bank. Any­one who fol­lowed Wa­ter­man's ca­reer as a jour­nal­ist knows the colour and life she can put in­to a sto­ry. This is a great gift for those on your list in­ter­est­ed in his­to­ry, eco­nom­ics or just great writ­ing in gen­er­al.

3. Book of Brats: Bring­ing Up Chil­dren in the Caribbean by Dr David E Bratt–One of the Caribbean's lead­ing pae­di­a­tri­cians writes about every­thing a par­ent should know about bring­ing up chil­dren. How re­fresh­ing to have all those ques­tions about rais­ing chil­dren an­swered from a Caribbean point of view.

4. Alon­so and the Drug Baron by Evan Jones–This hi­lar­i­ous Ja­maican nov­el about a clue­less, idle char­ac­ter–in the true West In­di­an sense of the word–will make you laugh out loud. Alon­so gets blamed for a mur­der he doesn't com­mit. He has to ex­tract him­self from trou­ble and that is bac­cha­nal. This is one of my favourite West In­di­an nov­els.

5. Halfway Down the Hill: The Fate of a Lost Soul by Raul An­toni–This is the sto­ry of Fer­nan­do who goes miss­ing from his own par­ty and ends up dead halfway down the hill from his house. The ques­tion is what re­al­ly hap­pened to Fer­nan­do? Was it mur­der or an ac­ci­dent that claimed Fer­nan­do's life? Var­i­ous friends give their take on Fer­nan­do. This is a fas­ci­nat­ing de­pic­tion of char­ac­ter. Halfway Down the Hill has just be­come avail­able in RIK.

6. Brown Sug­ar and Spice by Bet­ty Pe­ter–I had the priv­i­lege to read this book be­fore it was pub­lished and I was pleas­ant­ly sur­prised. Brown Sug­ar and Spice is a book for eight to 12-year-old read­ers. This is the sto­ry of a British girl liv­ing in the West In­dies when World War II breaks out. Her ad­ven­tures in the West In­dies evoke a strong sense of place. Brown Sug­ar shows that home is where the heart is–even for chil­dren.

7. Bold­ly the Trips by Roy Galt–This plot-dri­ven, rip-roar­ing ad­ven­ture has many great lessons about friend­ship and tol­er­ance. I found this nov­el for eight to 12-year-olds to be a riv­et­ing read. The Trips are typ­i­cal, row­dy young boys from Mar­aval, who pass judg­ment on a one-legged man af­ter they wit­ness a trans­ac­tion that sends their imag­i­na­tion in­to work­ing over­time. The Trips end up en­twined in their own ad­ven­tures that car­ry them to To­ba­go for events that spin out of con­trol. Bold­ly the Trips is now avail­able at Pop­pin's in Eller­slie Plaza and Read­er's Book Shop. A se­quel is in the works.

8. Broth­er Man by Roger Mais–Don't for­get the great Caribbean clas­sics when you're do­ing your Christ­mas shop­ping. One of my favourite West In­di­an writ­ers is Roger Mais. His nov­el Broth­er Man, the first se­ri­ous nov­el writ­ten by a Rasta­far­i­an, is be­ing taught at CAPE.

9. Pi­rate Lat­i­tudes by Michael Crich­ton–The late, mas­ter of ad­ven­ture wrote a pi­rate nov­el set in Ja­maica. The com­plet­ed nov­el was found in man­u­script form soon af­ter Crich­ton died. If you have a read­er in mind who is look­ing for ac­tion and great de­scrip­tion, this is a great choice.

10. Macmil­lan Study Com­pan­ions–Read­ing gifts can be prac­ti­cal and ex­cit­ing, so you might want to check out the col­lec­tion of Macmil­lan study com­pan­ions avail­able for stu­dents study­ing for im­por­tant CXC and CAPE lit­er­a­ture ex­ams. There are study com­pan­ions for the po­et­ry of Derek Wal­cott, the play Moon on a Rain­bow Shawl by Er­rol John and the fol­low­ing nov­els: Wide Sar­gas­so Sea by Jean Rhys, Be­ka Lamb by Zee Edgell, The Hum­ming-Bird Tree by Ian Mc­Don­ald, and Broth­er Man by Roger Mais.

11. Let­ters to Ailan by Wendy Fitzwilliam–There's some­thing very tit­il­lat­ing about read­ing some­one's let­ter or di­aries. It ap­peals to the voyeur in all of us. The for­mer Miss Uni­verse de­liv­ers a soul-wrench­ing, soul-search­ing sto­ry that com­bines en­ter­tain­ment with very poignant points about par­ent­ing.

12. Hors­es in Her Hair by Rachel Man­ley–Any­one who has read Drum­blair or Slip­stream will ap­pre­ci­ate this lat­est in­stal­ment in the Man­ley bi­og­ra­phy saga by Rachel Man­ley. This is the bi­og­ra­phy of Rachel's grand­moth­er, the very colour­ful and tal­ent­ed artist, Ed­na Man­ley.

13. The Old House and the Dream–the sto­ry of the Asa Wright Na­ture Cen­tre by Joy Rud­der–is now avail­able in lead­ing book­stores. It's on my read­ing list!