23rd book - "The Last Days of the Incas" - Kim MacQuarrie - 10 points

The perfect book (460 pages!) in my preparation for my Peru vacation in 2 weeks. In a fascinating and interesting way I learned everything necessary about the history of the Incas and the Spanish conquistador. Even his epilogue describing the researches and discoveries from Bingham through the 21st century is written in an easy-to-understand language. It answered my question "why was Machu Picchu built?" and I understand that the "Inca's last and lost city" called Vilcabamba might be even more fascinating than Machu Picchu. Archeological researches still going on in Vilcabamba.
Kim MacQuarrie lived for 5 years in Peru. He is a documentary filmmaker and now lives in the US and Bali, Indonesia. He wrote 3 books about Peru.
First published in 2007. I read the first Simon & Schuster trade paperback edition June 2008. ISBN 978-0-7432-6049-7

22nd book - "Like Water for Chocolate" - Laura Esquivel - 10 points

The whole title is: "Like Water for Chocolate - A Novel in Monthly Installments with Recipes, Romances and Home Remedies".
What a great idea to integrate the recipes to the story of passionate romance, old traditions and sadness. It reminds me on old German tradition too in which women had no rights at all just work and obey forever. How sad when a young girl's future and hope is destroyed forever by her own parents (in this case by her mother).
Laura Esquivel (*1950) is Mexican.
I read the First Anchor Books English language Edition (a division of Random House), November 1995. First published in Spanish language "Como agua para chocolate" in 1989.