Roaming and Reading: Finally seeing Cuba

We're headed to Havana for this week's Roaming and Reading segment. Why? Because it seems like everyone else is, too — including President Obama, who will be the first U.S. president to visit the island in 88 years.

Obama arrives March 21. He probably won't have much time for sightseeing, but if he wanted to understand the culture and history of Cuba, where would he go?

That's the question MPR News host Kerri Miller put to journalist, author and frequent traveler to Cuba Tom Miller. His latest book is titled "Trading with the Enemy: A Yankee Travels Through Castro's Cuba."

Kerri's reading recommendation for those curious about the island is Paul Hendrickson's "Hemingway's Boat: Everything He Loved in Life and Lost." It's a biography of both Hemingway and the boat he owned and cherished for 27 years, Pilar.

Hendrickson's writing is sweeping and graceful, and it has an expansiveness that reminds Kerri of water and horizons. It also reveals a writer whose imagination was lifted by his experience aboard his beloved boat.

For the full interview with Tom Miller about what to see in Cuba, use the audio player above. Kerri will interview Paul Hendrickson about his book at 10 a.m. on March 8.