Oceania Books

Who has never fleetingly dreamed of just "chucking it all" and taking off on a nomadic trip around the world?
Richard Meredith, finding himself at a mid-life crossroads, did just that, and shares insightful, often humorous, vignettes of his yearlong adventure in "One Way or Another".
His book is a witty, entertaining hodgepodge of observations, personal anecdotes, historial background and information.
It will surely leave some readers, with their own wanderlust aroused, wondering: Could I? Should I? And if not now, when?
- Joan Riley, Absolute Write.com

This was quite enjoyable. Although of a somewhat academic bent, it avoids in most cases pure academic arch-formal scholarese meaningless sentences to produce a text that is much more interesting and readable than you might expect. So a very fine job from that point of view, if it is meant to be accessible to a more average sort of reader.

To a reader already interested in the culture of the Pacific, this is an instructive and enjoyable read. It shows the diversity of traditions, as expressed in the artworks, of a relatively small absolute number of people, scattered across a vast region.

The Polynesian influences may perhaps be familiar to an American reader. Especially if you are from Hawaii or California. You can see the origins of all those cheesy tiki memorabilia from the 50s and 60s. The photos of the carvings and fabrics are an integral part of the narrative. Giving an appreciation of the skills needed.

A subject to often ignored by every audience in the world is of the pacific islands. I suggest everyone read, if not this book, a book on the pacific islands because of their extermely unique situation in history, not to be found anywhere in the rest of the world. For this work, Dr Crocombe focuses on the relationship between the United States and the islands that stretch across the Pacific Ocean. One the great aspects of this work is its effort to encompass all fronts of this relationship. From the diaspora of islanders in the US to the unusual legalities of territoral claims by the USA. The one key problem, however, is not with the work itself. In the recent past, since the book was published in 1995, many aspects of this relationship have been altered, reevaluated, or redirected. For example, the momentum of the Hawaii sovereignty movement has quieted, territorial claims in Micronesia were forthcoming at the turn of the century, and Japanese economic strength and hegemony has continued to decline. Perhaps, Dr. Crocombe analysis might have become out of touch with the relationship as it stands today. This, however, should not underestimate this great comprehensive and concise work. It would be fabulous for use as an university text because of its clarity and its ability to encompass all audiences interests.

Having read rather extensively on the subject of the "discovery" of Hawai'i, but from the perspective of Americans from the United States, I found this British author's viewpoint somewhat different; he brings to light information about the post-contact years that is missing in the USA-centric histories. I now want to read more early contact years histories from other authors from other nations, feeling it will provide a broader appreciation of the history of that time. Lummis is a good storyteller, having translated historical documents into an easily readable format. Worth reading.

In general, Western Australia still seems to be off the usual tourist path for most outside visitors to Australia, so there wasn't much selection when it came to finding an appropriate guidebook. For the most part, guides seemed to be too broad (covering all of Australia), or too specific (focusing just on Perth). Despite being an absolutely enormous place on its own, few choices seemed to address the state of WA.

We picked this book up out of desperation, but for the most part, it did a decent enough job. In typical Lonely Planet style, there were lots of budget options for food/accommodation and plenty of details on tours and logistics. Most of the information appeared to be accurate, and a few tips proved quite helpful.

My biggest qualm with book is that its layout centers around towns, and in such vast and spread-out areas, a town-by-town approach isn't the most useful. Many of the smaller towns have few attractions or amenities, and nearly all of the must-see destinations (national parks, wineries, caves, capes, coasts, etc) lie in between these small towns.

Finally, despite the extensive use of flowery adjectives, the descriptions of individual sights often remain vague. For some of the national parks especially, the description seems to be just a list of key points copied from a park map or guide, sometimes with no description whatsoever.

In the end, it did prove to be a useful aid to our tour of the southwest and south coast of WA, but we definitely needed to augment it with some of the literature and information from the local tourism agencies. It was certainly better than nothing, but hopefully further research will lead to some improvements in later editions.

One possible alternative is West Coast Australia (Footprint West Coast Australia), which seems to have better descriptions of some of the southwest parks but covers only the western edge of the state.

Longtime denizens of Perth can appreciate how much the metropolitan area has grown in recent decades. This up to date map gives all the major suburbs and highways. Useful for outsiders.

Note the inexorable spread of the perimeter. Once, suburbs like Bateman were at the southern edge of town. Now they are squarely in the interior. In fact, going south you can see suburbia marching towards Mandurah and Bunbury. Also take a look at how Yanchep to the north is coming within focus. And whereas once, decades ago, Freo was its own self, now it's just another suburb. Greater Perth is not one filled urban clot, yet, mind you. But the trend is unmistakable.

If you love marsupials, check out this book! It's fairly comprehensive, with photographs for nearly every species.

The only thing I dislike somewhat about this book is it's small, narrow "field guide" format which means that it's a little awkward to actually sit down and study, and many of the photos are too small to be used as anything but a basic visual reference.

Nevertheless, anybody who collects photographic field guides, likes good pictures of animals, or wants to learn more about Australian wildlife should pick up a copy of this book.

Hardback, 11.75 x 9.25 " , 152 Pages, 110 Objects which were at one time in the collection of Pablo Picasso. Of great historical influence in modern art, these tribal art pieces are generally well illustrated in full-page color photographs. Well-researched and informative text, with every object individually descibed.

This book covers the three Pidgin languages of Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu - three of the most diverse, fascinating and unspoilt countries in the South Pacific. While English is spoken by many people in all the three, the Pidgins described here are the lingua franca in each, and I found that locals were very happy to hear me speak them. Each of the three languages is introduced by a good description of its grammar (don't worry, easy and similar in all three) and pronunciation, followed by useful phrases arranged thematically.

And here comes my only complaint - I would have preferred more phrases, and perhaps short dictionary listings for all the three languages. Space for that could have been found by omitting what seems a waste here to me - descriptions of two obscure pidgin languages of Australia, which are also included in LP's Australian Phrasebook (where they logicaly belong) anyway.

Still, within the confines of its limited space, this little book is excellent.
If you are lucky enough to travel to these charming archipelagos, don't leave home without it!