Some of the books I’ve been reading (and will be reading) for your own reading pleasure:

And A Bottle Of Rum is one of the best – and most informative – books I’ve ever read. You don’t need to be a rum aficianado to enjoy or learn something from Wayne Curtis’s fine book. And it contains some pretty cool and classic rum drink recipes.

It’s right up there with Havana Nocturne, which was so enjoyable I’ve read it twice from cover to cover. Another of the best books I’ve ever read.

Books about Cuba before and the revolution continue to accumulate in my collection – who would have ever thought?! Bacardi and The Long Fight For Cuba, The Sugar King of Havana: The Rise and Fall of Julio Lobo, Cuba’s Last Tycoon, and Havana Before Castro: When Cuba Was A Tropical Playground are two really interesting books – the latter especially if you’re interested in history, culture, and mid-century modern architecture.

I’ve always suspected I was born a decade too late – these books (and Andy Garcia’s cinematic masterpiece The Lost City) just remind me of that.

One book I’m really looking forward to reading – perfect for my next trip back east (whenever that might be), is Thomas Mallon’s Watergate: A Novel. As a true Watergate scandal aficianado (how can I not be, when my all-time favorite film is All The President’s Men?), this promises to be a page-turner.

Another is Sven Kirsten’s Tiki Modern, which everyone says is the definitive book on tiki culture from start to present. He’s the authority on everything tiki, so his book is a must have: especially after I incorporated so many tracks of his The Sound Of Tiki for my (oops, Dante Navarro’s) Exotica collection.