Let me start by saying this isn't your typical history book. Eduardo Galeano's 'Open Veins of Latin America' reads like a 500-year crime report where the victims never get justice. I found myself constantly putting it down just to process the staggering scale of exploitation.

The way Galeano connects colonial plunder to modern economic domination is masterful. Reading about how silver from Potosí built European cities while leaving indigenous workers buried in those same mines gave me literal chills. His description of how foreign powers treated Latin America like an open-pit mine still haunts me.

What shocked me most was learning how recent this history is. That time the U.S. invaded Panama twenty times? Or when Paraguay lost 80% of its population in a British-backed war? These aren't ancient events - my parents were alive for some of them!

The prose is devastatingly beautiful even when describing horrific events. Galeano writes with the precision of a journalist and the passion of someone who lived through dictatorships himself. Some passages made me so angry I had to walk away from the book for a day.

My only complaint? It desperately needs an update covering the last 50 years. When you finish reading, you'll look at your coffee, bananas, and smartphone minerals completely differently. This book will ruin your ignorance - in the best possible way.