Charles Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle is a diary of the trip that led him to develop the theory of natural selection. There are good descriptions of 1830s Cape Verde.Jen Ludtke's Atlantic Peeks: An Ethnographic Guide to the Portuguese-Speaking Islands covers the ways and wiles of Cape Verdeans.Richard Lobban's Historical dictionary of the Republics of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde is a good reference for Cape Verde's pre-independence history.Follow the ups and downs of the archipelago's politics and social life since independence in Basil Davidson's The Fortunate Isles.Mark Langworthy and Timothy J Finan reveal the complex relationship between Cape Verde's ecology and agriculture in Waiting for Rain.A Birders Guide to the Cape Verde Islands, edited by Dave Sargeant, is a comprehensive guide to all creatures winged and wonderful in the archipelago. But if that's not enough for you, get Cornelis J Hazevoet's Birds of Cape Verde Islands.Know your enemy! Get Noxious Beetles of the Cape Verde Islands, by Michael Geisthardt and Antonius van Harten.