Travel and natural history
Brazil by Michael Palin — A readable and warmly observed travelogue by the former Monty Python member, covering the country's regions with curiosity and affection. Good for armchair preparation.
The Cloud Garden by Tom Hart Dyke and Paul Winder — Not strictly a Brazil book, but this account of being held hostage in the Darién Gap starts with a journey through South America and captures the spirit of overland travel in the region.
History and politics
Brazil: Five Centuries of Change by Thomas E. Skidmore — A rigorous and accessible political and social history from the Portuguese arrival to the modern republic. Essential background for understanding why Brazil is the way it is.
The Motorcycle Diaries by Ernesto "Che" Guevara — Guevara's journal of his early 1950s journey through South America includes time in Brazil and is vivid on the continent's poverty and inequality.
Fiction
Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon by Jorge Amado — Set in a small Bahian town in the 1920s, this novel by Brazil's most internationally celebrated writer captures the heat, colour, and sensuality of the northeast with affection rather than sentiment.
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho — Brazil's most widely read author globally. The novel is set mostly in Spain and North Africa, but Coelho is a Brazilian voice worth knowing; By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept is more directly rooted in Brazilian Catholic mysticism.
Music and culture
The Brazilian Sound: Samba, Bossa Nova, and the Popular Music of Brazil by Chris McGowan and Ricardo Pessanha — The best English-language survey of Brazilian popular music. Covers samba, bossa nova, MPB, tropicália, and beyond. Revised and updated editions remain in print.
Tropicália: A Brazilian Revolution in Sound by Carlos Calado — A deep dive into the short-lived but enormously influential late-1960s movement that fused rock, Brazilian folk, and avant-garde experimentation. Caetano Veloso's memoir Tropical Truth covers much of the same ground from the inside.