Foreign Policy story trashes Lonely Planet Cuba guidebook

In this month’s issue of Foreign Policy, journalist Michael Moynihan writes a scathing put-down of Lonely Planet and Rough Guides for “bending over backwards to excuse the world’s most thuggish regimes.”

Thankfully Moon wasn’t mentioned in Moynihan’s radioactive critique, called “Leftist Planet: Why do so many travel guides make excuses for dictators?”

Moynihan says: ”The problem with guidebooks to countries like Cuba… [is] that they consistently misinform tourists about the exact nature of these countries.”

Perhaps Mr. Moynihan should read more guidebooks before tarring us all with such a blanket remark. more >>

Five must-have coffee-table books about Cuba

Last week I received in the mail a review copy of a marvelous coffee-table book—Cuba—by Jack Kenny. Although the book was published in 2005, it remains as pertinent as ever, prompting me to write a review and turn you onto a fistful of other top-notch coffee-table books not to miss.

Michigan-based photographer Kenny has been photographing Cuba since 1996, when he came to befriend the illustrious Cuban photographers Alberto ‘Korda’ Díaz and father-and-son duo Osvaldo and Roberto Salas, whose work Kenny came to represent in the ‘States. Roberto Salas wrote the introduction to Kenny’s book. more >>