Rating: 
Summary: So-So Sociology and Terrible Musicology
Review: "Samba" is a pretty good read, but evidentally the author only spent a short time in Brazil doing her research. It's very superficial in terms of cultural and racial issues. And its musical analysis is WAY off the mark. She knows nothing about samba. There are much better books out there about samba and Brazilian music.
Rating: 
Summary: samba
Review: For an author whose first language is spanish, her skill in writing in english has to be commended -but she ain't Borges. Planning a research trip/adventure for a year in Rio, and then writting about her life there obviously demonstrates Guillermoprieto's ability to earn money by doing what she likes. Her style is journalistic and if you've never visited a third world country you can get a good idea from her observations of what living in one, as an average citizen, is like, eg. people accustomed to little prosperity evidently will go to great lengths for entertainment, and to achieve a feeling of importance. If you want to learn about samba, well- guillermoprieto is not omniscient. Conclusion: If you want to read something, you could do a lot worse than this book, but it's not a keeper. get it from the library.
Rating: 
Summary: A Social History of Black Brazil
Review: Guillermoprieto is both a skilled writer and a serious scholar. That combination makes this erudite, and exceedingly detailed study of the black underclass in Brazilian society both readable and engaging. She employs an inductive approach, using the culture surrounding the Samba and Carnival in Rio as a base for exploring the status of blacks in Brazilian society and the many contradictions and ironies in light of their prevailing influence in all levels of Brazilian culture.The story is fascinating and the author admirable, because in order to learn and effectively represent the culture of the Samba and black Brazilian society (which she pretty effectively demonstrates are in many ways largely synonymous) she not only joined a Samba club in order to participate in Carnival, but also moved into the favelas of Rio. Guillermoprieto depicts the injustice of the blacks' fate in Brazil in a dispassionate, yet also very poignant and sympathetic manner. She allows the compelling facts to represent themselves without embellishing them with personal assessments, which makes her writing that much more powerful. This is really a great book: a fascinating story about the complex organization and serious part of the Brazilian economy that the Samba and Carnival comprise, and a distinctive and holistic representation of black Brazilian society and the rest of that nation in its reflection.
Rating:
Summary: A Social History of Black Brazil
Review: Guillermoprieto is both a skilled writer and a serious scholar. That combination makes this erudite, and exceedingly detailed study of the black underclass in Brazilian society both readable and engaging. She employs an inductive approach, using the culture surrounding the Samba and Carnival in Rio as a base for exploring the status of blacks in Brazilian society and the many contradictions and ironies in light of their prevailing influence in all levels of Brazilian culture. The story is fascinating and the author admirable, because in order to learn and effectively represent the culture of the Samba and black Brazilian society (which she pretty effectively demonstrates are in many ways largely synonymous) she not only joined a Samba club in order to participate in Carnival, but also moved into the favelas of Rio. Guillermoprieto depicts the injustice of the blacks' fate in Brazil in a dispassionate, yet also very poignant and sympathetic manner. She allows the compelling facts to represent themselves without embellishing them with personal assessments, which makes her writing that much more powerful. This is really a great book: a fascinating story about the complex organization and serious part of the Brazilian economy that the Samba and Carnival comprise, and a distinctive and holistic representation of black Brazilian society and the rest of that nation in its reflection.
Rating:
Summary: Superficial But Well-Written
Review: I agree with the negative reviews below. The author, while skilled with the written word, is a cultural tourist who never quite grasps the essence of what is around her. And, yes, her ignorance of "samba" is annoying. For me, this book was a waste of money.
Rating: 
Summary: An excellent read and fairly good information.
Review: I'm not a musicologist and couldn't tell you if the music info here is 100% accurate. As someone who's lived in and studied Brazil for 11 years however, I found the author's descriptions of favela life to be very well done. There's information here I've never seen elsewhere. Her musicology may leave a lot to be desired, but to say her opinion on race and cultural issues in Brazil is flat-out wrong strikes me as the opinion of someone with a nativist axe to grind. Perhaps some readers originally thought this book's primary focus /was/ samba when they bought it. That is not the case: it's a well written amateur ethnology of favela life. Be forewarned. Read this book if you want a decent (if necessarily superficial) introduction to the life of the urban poor in modern Brazil. For samba, specifically, or a more advanced analysis, I suggest Hermano Vianna's Mystery of Samba or anyone of a number of academic works on Brazil, starting with Freyre's "Masters and Slaves" or Da Matta's "Carnivals, Rogues and Heroes."
Rating:
Summary: An Essential Background Into Samba
Review: If you are interested in learning the true roots of Samba and Brazilian Carnaval(and not just the obligatory blurbs that you see in guidebooks), then this book is an absolute must for you to read. Alma Guillermoprieto does a superb job describing the rich religious, historical, and socioeconomic roots of Brazilian Carnaval and Samba - both of which have become famous around the world, yet remain remarkably poorly understood. Guillermoprieto writes in a very engaging, enjoyable style, which occassionally seems more like an engrossing novel than a non-fiction work. If you have ever been curious to learn more about Brazilian culture, this is the book to start with!
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing for the Music Fan
Review: In my opinion, the author is an outsider who never really gets fully inside Mangueira and the cultural context of the samba school (escola de samba). She is definitely a "gringa" who has much to learn and misinterprets much of what she sees. But the worst part of the book I think is her horrible reporting on "samba" itself -- the music, the dance and the history of the genre. She doesn't know what she's talking about, and even at one point reports that all the Brazilian idioms with a 2/4 meter are variations of the same thing! Please....
Rating:
Summary: A fascinating account of Afro-Brazilian musical culture
Review: Samba is a highly personal account by a journalist who takes us into the center of the carnival experience in Rio, seen from the point of view of a very poor neighborhood with a rich carnival tradition. Through this we learn worlds about Afro-Brazilian culture, the notion of "exotic" as often applied to the tropics, and about Ms. Guillermoprieto's fascinating way of understanding and relating, as a Mexican, to a powerful Latin tradition quite other than hers. While there are some problems of organization, this is a very informative book, but mostly I found it fun, and it made me want to be in Rio and to dance.
Rating:
Summary: Not the Best Book on Brazilian Music
Review: There is some good first-person reportage at times but the author seems to have a superficial knowledge of Brazilian culture. If you want to know about samba, read "The Brazilian Sound" (Temple University Press), a much better book.
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