Punta Mita, Mexico - Studying up on Mexico can be one of the most fun bits of “research” you’ll ever do - especially if you're reading on a Kindle or Ipad at the beach in Punta Mita. If you’d like to know a bit more about this fascinating country the following books are an enjoyable and interesting way for adults and kids alike to learn.

Manana Forever?: Mexico and the Mexicans
by Jorge Castañeda

In this shrewd and fascinating book, the renowned scholar and former Secretary of Foreign Affairs in Mexico Jorge Castañeda sheds light on the puzzling paradoxes of his native country with a compelling portrait of a nation at a crossroads. Castañeda wrote that Manana Forever is, “An attempt to explain Mexico to Mexicans and to Americans.”

One Hundred Years of Solitude
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

If it is possible for a novel to be highly comic and deeply tragic at the same time, then One Hundred Years of Solitude does the trick. Civil war rages throughout, hearts break, dreams shatter, and lives are lost, yet the effect is literary genius, with sorrow’s outlines bleeding through the vibrant colors of García Márquez’s magical realism. The story follows 100 years in the life of the village of Macondo and recounts such wonders as an entire town struck with insomnia, a woman who ascends to heaven while hanging laundry, and a suicide that defies the laws of physics.

”One Hundred Years of Solitude is the first piece of literature since the Book of Genesis that should be required reading for the entire human race. It takes up not long after Genesis left off and carries through to the air age, reporting on everything that happened in between with more lucidity, wit, wisdom, and poetry that is expected from 100 years of novelists, let alone one man... Mr. Garcia Marquez has done nothing less than to create in the reader a sense of all that is profound, meaningful, and meaningless in life.” - William Kennedy, New York Times Book Review.

Mornings in Mexico
by D.H. Lawrence

In the 1920s Lawrence travelled several times to Mexico, where he was fascinated by the clash of beauty and brutality, purity and darkness that he observed. The diverse and evocative essays that make up Mornings in Mexico wander from an admiring portrayal of the Indian way of life to a visit to the studio of Diego Rivera and are brightly adorned with simple and evocative details: piles of fruit in a village market, strolls in a courtyard filled with hibiscus and roses, the play of light on an adobe wall. To read Mornings in Mexico is to be immersed in a portrait of the country like no other.

Mexico’s Feasts of Life
by Patricia Quintana

This attractively designed, lusciously photographed culinary portrait of Mexico is aimed at the true gourmet and bears the stamp of authenticity for genuine Mexican cooking. Mexican author and participant in the 2011Gourmet & Golf Classic in Punta Mita, Patricia Quintana presents Mexican cuisine in the context of the celebrations and rituals that mark the passages of life, from the christening feast to the Day of the Dead. The recipes come from the women of four generations of Quintana’s family, all inspired and passionate cooks.

To Die in Mexico Dispatches from Inside the Drug War
by John Gibler

Combining on the ground reporting and in-depth discussions with people on the frontlines of Mexico’s drug war, To Die in Mexico tells behind the scenes stories that address the causes and consequences of Mexico’s multibillion-dollar drug-trafficking business. Gibler sees beyond the cops-and-robbers myths that pervade government and media portrayals of the unprecedented wave of violence and looks to the people of Mexico for solutions to the crisis now pushing Mexico to the breaking point. “An antidote to the sensationalism and mythologizing that dominate the discourse, To Die in Mexico is at once a gripping read and the smartest, sanest book yet written on the subject in English.” – Ben Ehrenreich.

Off We Go to Mexico
by Laurie Krebs with illustrations by Christopher Corr

For kids pre-school to grade three. In lively prose and bright illustrations, readers go on a whirlwind tour following a family as they swim in the ocean, traverse canyons, climb pyramids, and celebrate Mexican Independence Day. The rhyming text is coupled with Spanish vocabulary that complements the story line. Enchanting folk-art illustrations give a true taste of the beauty, color, and variety of Mexican culture. A map, fact sheet, time line, and list of translated Spanish phrases are included for kids and adults alike.

The Labyrinth of Solitude
by Octavio Paz

The Labyrinth of Solitude by Octavio Paz, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature, contains nine beautifully written, deeply felt essays predominantly concerned with the theme of Mexican identity and solitariness. Addressing issues that are both seemingly eternal and resoundingly contemporary: the nature of political power in post-conquest Mexico, the relation of Native Americans to Europeans, the ubiquity of official corruption it is one of Octavio Paz’s most famous works and he writes, “Solitude is the profoundest fact of the human condition. Man is the only being who knows he is alone, and the only one who seeks out another. His nature - if that word can be used in reference to man, who has ‘invented’ himself by saying ‘no’ to nature - consists in his longing to realize himself in another. Man is nostalgia and a search for communion. Therefore, when he is aware of himself he is aware of his lack of another, that is, of his solitude."

Twin Time Time: or, How Death Befell Me,
by Veronica Gonzalez

In Veronica Gonzalez’s lush and layered debut, Twin Time: or, How Death Befell Me, a beautiful Mexican teenager flees Mexico City with a baker she hardly knows because he can make tiny mice out of chocolate and marzipan, and molasses cookies in the shape of little licking cats.

Twenty-eight years later, upon the baker’s death, Mona loses herself in a forest of mind, memory, and imagination, a fabulist labyrinth populated by bands of marauding Nordic men who insist that she make them fajitas, a Chinese goddess who wears red shoes, a lascivious, truth-telling giant, and a tribe of the feral children her mother might have had.

“Maybe there are lots of different ways to know the world,” Mona realizes upon returning. “Maybe the stories and dreams and make-believe help us with our facts. Maybe we all move between these different ways of knowing every day, constantly, within the measure of an instant sometimes: from dream to metaphor to myth to story…all the other tools which we can muster together to help us stay alive.”

A Hiker’s Guide to Mexico’s Natural History
by Jim Conrad

A Hiker’s Guide to Mexico’s Natural History guides the adventurer through deserts, forests, mountains, grasslands and tropical coastlines that lead walkers intriguing destinations such as prime bird watching spots, ancient Indian ruins, deserts with giant cacti walkers and tropical coastlines. With over 100 color and black-and-white photos complementing the text Mexico’s fascinating landscape is displayed while illuminating its natural history with information on the flora, fauna, and peoples native to each trail. Extensive bibliographies of books in Spanish and English, as well as a list of Mexican plants and animals, including scientific names, accompany the text.

To read up on art and architecture of Mexico, start with Art and Time in Mexico: From the Conquest to the Revolution, by Elizabeth Wilder Weismann, which covers religious, public, and private architecture. A true gem!

Casa Mexicana, by Tim Street-Porter, takes readers through the interiors of some of Mexico’s finest homes-turned-museums, public buildings, and private residences with more than 250 full-color photographs.

Estrella’s Quinceañera, by Malin Alegria is perfect for a teenage girl! Malin Alegria writes about Mexican American culture, first love, family, and of moving between two worlds with poignant, sharp-sighted humor and authentic dialogue. Teens of all backgrounds will see themselves in Estrella’s struggle to discover herself and to stand firm against outside expectations while learning about the quinceañera fiesta, complete with a mariachi band and a puffy-sleeved orange dress.