Geography Books

I read a lot of cruising narratives, many of which I plan to review here in time. I find many of these books both entertaining and informative, even if the writer has a different style of travel than I'm interested in or sails a type of vessel I'll probably never own. Most of the books of this type that I read were written in recent years, as cruising has become much more popular due to the availability of fiberglass boats, both new and used, and new equipment such as GPS receivers to take the hard work out of navigation.

Before this new wave of modern cruisers appeared, the pioneers of modern singlehanded or family-style voyaging under sail had to either build their boats themselves or convert existing vessels, mostly built of wood, to their needs. Most sailors these days would stay ashore if this was still the case, but thanks to those who did it the hard way and wrote about it, the way has been made much easier for those of us with an abundance of boat choices at our disposal. Their successes and failures, described in the great books many of them wrote, have saved many of us from coming to grief through lack of knowledge. Most people who sail today and even think just a little about long-distance voyaging and cruising are familiar with the works of at least some of these writers like: Joshua Slocum, Hal Roth, Bernard Moitessier, the Smeetens, and John Guzzwell. But there are other, lesser known sailors from this era as well, and some of the best writings are easy to overlook.

The Saga of Cimba: A Journey from Nova Scotia to the South Seas
by Richard Maury is one such sailing classic that I myself passed up for years, even though I had noticed it from time to time among the more contempary narratives in the sailing section of various bookstores. It was only a few months ago, when I was lacking something inspiring to read, that I decided to pick up this book that was first published in 1939 and remains in print. Upon reading the first chapter, I found myself immediately hooked. This is one of those rare narratives that not only recounts a fascinating adventure, but does so with a captivating writing style that takes you right along and makes you want to find an old fishing schooner and follow in the author's footsteps.


Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the voyage recounted in this book is the time period in which it took place - in the 1930s - before World War II brought the remote South Pacific islands into mainstream consciousness and when practically no one set out to voyage half way around the world for pleasure on a small, short-handed sailing vessel. This was a time of almost limitless freedom for those few who could pull off such a voyage. The world was wide open to them and the rules and regulations and fees that we have to pay for docking and even anchoring in many places were unheard of then.

One of the most difficult hurdles in the 1930s was simply finding an affordable vessel of suitable size and adequate seaworthieness for such a voyage. Maury and his partner in the adventure at last found their ship among a fishing fleet on the Nova Scotia coast. "We first saw her from the top of the cliff. She turned at her chains to every attack of wind, swaying, airy, buoyant, as though cut of fragile porcelain on the sea below. She was a two-masted schooner, almost as small as they go, almost as stalwart...."


The schooner, which they subsequently purchased and christened Cimba, was 35-feet overall with a 26-foot waterline and 9 1/2-foot beam. She carried a fisherman's working rig - gaff mainsail and foresail, and one jib. Maury and Carrol Huddleston sailed her down the coast to Stamford Harbor where they planned to fit out and equip the vessel for the voyage ahead.

From this point on, two ocean passages lay ahead: New York to Bermuda, and Bermuda to the Caribbean Islands. To prepare they made some modifications to the schooner, such as adding a deck hatch to ventilate the cabin, painting the hull and cabin and rebuilding the engine. The also took on the necessary stores and supplies, including everything needed to maintain the hull, rigging and sails. In light of the time period and the remoteness of their ultimate destination, it's not surprising that ship's equipment included a 30.30 Winchester rifle with 1,000 rounds of ammunition, and a .38 revolver and 12-gauge shotgun. Despite the preparations and large equipment list, the schooner "retained an air of almost puritanical simplicity on deck and down below" according to Maury.

Maury's first setback occured when his friend Carrol was swept overboard and lost his life in the harbor while tending the schooner in a storm. This event is mentioned only in a short paragraph. Maury sailed for Bermuda shortly after with a new crew - "Dombey" Dickinson. The schooner proved her seaworthieness in a winter storm enroute that caused a rollover and set fire to the cabin with coals scattered throughout the interior. From Bermuda, the pair sailed Cimba on to Grand Turk and then through the Windward Passage past Haiti to Kingston, Jamaica. From Jamaica they ran down to Panama's San Blas Archipelago and explored some of the jungle rivers of the coast. On the Pacific side of the Canal, they explored the Perlas Islands and then set sail for the Galapagos.

Among the remote Galapagos, so little visited at the time, they came upon a wrecked boat on a deserted beach, with two skeletonsin the sand nearby. They also found fresh footprints and heard a rifle shot from somewhere in the interior. Maury's account of the unraveling of these mysteries again illustrates how different the world was back in 1935 for a couple of adventurers willing to sail to such far-flung islands.

Onward into the Pacific, on the 3,000-mile downhill run to the South Seas, Cimba, working west and south averaged 6.4 knots or 150 miles per day. Maury writes: "The testing of a craft goes on forever - but a point is reached where finally the spirits of ship and men to some degree reflect each other, where often the weakness of one becomes the weakness of the other, the strength of one the other's strength."

Cimba made landfall off Ua Hiva in the Marquesas 19 days out from the Galapagos. Beginning in the Marquesas, Maury and his partner found the South Pacific they were looking for, and their adventures continued through the French territories and then westward to Fiji, where the voyage sadly ended on a reef. Although the schooner was with great difficulty salvaged and rebuilt on the beach, Maury never managed to sail on to New Guinea as planned due to various complications, and ended up leaving her in Fiji.

If you've every dreamed of sailing to the South Seas, or if you simply like good adventure narratives, you will love The Saga of Cimba. If you have an ounce of interest in boats or sailing this book will make you long for a sturdy old fishing schooner that you can fix up and point south. Richard Maury may have written only one book, but the The Saga of Simba deserves to be an enduring classic in the literature of the sea. It's definately worth checking out, but watch out, or you may find it inflicts a bad case of sea fever.

I suspect this is THE book that inspired otherwise sane and sensible people to abandon their career, family and fortune in order to sail off to the South Pacific.

The Saga of Cimba is a masterwork. I find this book as compelling, captivating, and yes even mesmerizing, now as when I first read it many years ago. It is one of very, very few which I can always re-read with unwavering pleasure and delight. Richard Maury has crafted a volume as close to perfect in terms of making the essential -nesses of cruising in small sail boats clear to the reader as any I have ever found. It's facinating to me that right through to the last page he never tells of himself, and only word sketches his alternating sailing companions very briefly. Cimba herself is the main character and Maury never loses sight of that fact. The Saga of Cimba is a book filled with the unpretentious magic of greatness.

This is a book for sailors who love words, and readers who sail. Not an instructor, Maury spends his tale with the spareness of bare poles. Seamen will love the action - and the calms, mostly for the lovely lyric writing and the gift Maury has with print. Kin to the Maury who invented organized navagation charts for seaways, tides, winds, currents; this tale of the smallest fishing schooner to make 1937 ocean history reflects talent aboard and with the pen for Richard Maury. Best book I've read, sadly I couldn't enjoy it from land.

Having sailed for 40 years, I came across an old edition of this gem written in the 30's and was astounded by the economy of prose, yet the depth of feeling created by its author.

It is a deceptively simple story, but packed with thoughts and observations which are thoroughly relevant today. And it is written in a style which came BEFORE the present supermediatic hyperbolic overstatement that characterizes most of what we read and hear today.

It is an excellent gift, and an inspirational work, even if you are never planning to cross an ocean. It is in a word, a classic. (And it is wonderful to think about how these places actually were in the thirties, and to listen to proper nautical language and vocabulary which has been washed away by the advent of the jet plane and skidoo.. Bon voyage!

Sailing and Joshua Slocum seem to go hand-in-hand. In fact, I don't think I have ever met a sailor who has not read "Sailing Alone Around the World" at least once. With that said, I am writing this review to encourage teens, adults, and any person who is considering taking as stab at being an armchair sailor to pick up this book. Joshua Slocum's narrative is strong and his tale is fascinating. He does not treat the reader as a conditioned sailor nor does he treat him/her as simpleton with no notion of boats. Nautical terms are explained but not exhaustingly and the focus is more on the ordeal of the voyage and love the ocean. Slocum's writing is clear and articulate. He does not over simplify his dialogue, nor does he crowd it. It is truly beautifully written and perfect in its effortlessness.

I was in a bookstore recently and a boy about fourteen years old asked the man behind the counter for an interesting non-fiction sea story book. To my horror, the man recommended what was perhaps the most daunting and dull piece on the shelf. If the boy had not left so suddenly, I would have immediately directed him to "Sailing Alone Around the World" because it is a piece that makes a voyage an adventure. I recommend this book to any person who is looking for the definitive sea story, whether they have spent their lives on the water or a million miles from it.

In today's era of stainless steel, Dacron and electronics, we can lose sight of what real sailing is. This is a readable story of the first person to sail alone around the world. Using a one dollar wind-up clock and a ton of skill, this old sailor circumnavigates the globe and spins some yarns that take us away from the world of new technology to a simpler time. A great read.

This is a high quality, well constructed book. Your getting much more than you pay for.

A must read for everyone. Truly one of the great classics on sailing single handed around the world. And this was during the turn of the last century. Hearing about the ports and native people over 100 years ago, is living history. A must for every sailors library. One of the all time bests. If you pick one book to read about sailing, start here. People will be reading this for a thousand years. Our American Ulyses.

It is awesome to read what Joshua Slocum did. His achievement should be celebrated forever. His writing style is not particularly good but the content of the story is unique. All crusing sailors should read this book. Slocum clearly was an outstanding navigator and all around sailor. The section of the book on his adventures going around Cape Horn dealing with the weather, currents, and natives is particularly exciting. This is a story waiting for a Hollywood movie or, even better, a long running TV series.

A beautiful, informative and spectacular oversized book on the Salton Sea. A place that needs to be saved and understood. This book will start your journey.

I think it is remarkable that a rather small part of California could produce such a fascinating (and visually stunning) book but the Salton Sea is a quite remarkable place, especially considering it's only a few decades old. One bit of information that grabbed me is on page forty where a graphic profile of the Sea reveals that it is, on average, only fifty-one feet deep compared with Lake Tahoe which is 1645 feet at its deepest.

The Atlas is sectioned into five chapters: Physical geography, Cultural history, Limnology, Ecology, and Maps. The first four take up about half the pages and assorted maps, index and bibliography the rest. The main strength of the book, I think, are the non-map pages because they present a lot of complex information in a beautifully designed graphic format. Old maps and photographs, charts, illustrations of marine and bird life, cut-away graphics of land and more are all laid out with very clean typography on the large page size. Add quality paper and printing (with a 175 screen) and anyone looking through these pages will be easily drawn into this on-going story of the Salton.

The map pages are equally interesting and there really is a lot of technical data here but still presented in an accessible format. The range of information is quite comprehensive, for example: public land ownership, recreation areas, commercial facilities, energy usage, property values and median incomes, early exploration, earthquakes, soil types, surface hydrology right down to four maps showing the Sea's sediment grain size distribution. The nice thing about the maps is that they not only detail the Sea area also large parts of southern California.

This Atlas is a credit to all those who worked on it (and should really be template for any similar publications) for making the Salton come alive in such a stimulating way.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

This book is wonderful! I highly recommend it.

The Salton Sea Atlas covers the complex issues facing this very special body of water in a clear, yet comprehensive, fashion (use of graphics and illustrations over exhaustive use of text). It's a beautiful book, and the most wide-ranging piece about the Salton Sea that I've been able to find. You will not be disappointed with it.

Buy this book

--Just wanted to second the comments of the other reviewers regarding the quality and presentation of this book. It's a scientific work undertaken by the Salton Sea Database Program of the Redlands Institute of the University of Redlands, but it's enclosed within a lovely and large glossy coffee table book. It also includes much information about the cultural history of the Salton Sea and its region in a remote part of the southern California desert. I especially enjoyed the beautiful wildlife illustrations and biological information, though most of the book covers the physical science of the Salton Sea. I gave a copy to someone at a Christmas party held many miles away at the Orange County coast, and people literally were waiting and nagging for their turn to look through this beautiful book about this mysterious and controversial inland subtropical sea.

The Salton Sea Atlas explores issues and information regarding California's largest lake and most valuable environmental resource -- the Salton Sea.

This book is a must for those interested in the Salton Sea, environmental change, water issues in the American Southwest, history, or geography. Its graphical synthesis of complex social, scientific, and geographic information is superb and can be appreciated by all audiences. This is a wonderful publication.

I recommend it wholeheartedly

My son enjoyed this book a great deal when he was in Kindergarden and First Grade. It managed to teach and link at least three distinct subject areas; science, geography and culture.

There are definately more female than male children presented in the narative and drawings, but my very pragmatic little boy told me "that is just a phase our civilization is going through and not to worry about it."

This book also has a practical benefit that makes it good evening reading; both your blood pressure and your child's blood pressure will likely return to normal levels because of the way the book is structured to end with the child going to sleep. I think this is one of the best bedtime "reads" out there for young children.

I knew this book was about time zones from reading the reviews. But I wasn't prepared for how rich and well-thought out the text was. Schuett is a long time illustrator writing her first book and she has done a really remarkable job. I feel as if she composed the text and pictures simultaneously (which, no doubt, she did). They blend perfectly. The book contains a map of the world with its timezones, as well as some background for parents briefly describing the history of time. But the most incredible thing about this book is the maps. Each illustration, which shows people in the world moving about their day, is painted on top of a background which is an actual map of where they are. Including names of countries, cities, rivers, and so on. This special touch takes this book to a whole new level. For one thing, how many children look at a globe, with its colors and grid, and strange markings and really realize what it means? That the map represents another town, like your own in some ways, with people who do what you do (read bedtime stories, head out for a day of work, write a note for a friend and hide it in a secret spot).

Use this book to introduce time zones, move on to a discussion of maps and globes, and finish with linear measurement. Use the city names on each page to locate exactly where these map exerpts were taken from and pin a piece of string onto your globe from your house to that spot. See how far away these families are from your house. And if they're on the other side of the globe -- literally -- that will make it all the easier to understand how, when the sun is shining here, it must be dark there! This is a MUST OWN for homeschooling or any family who has elementary school children.

Schuett is able to gently explain the concept of time zones using beautiful, soft language and lovely illustrations that mix paintings with maps of the world. Her reader's note is for a more advanced reader, but the book itself reads like a lullaby. A perfect bedtime read that will, no doubt, provoke a multitude of questions about our world and other cultures. Highly recommended.

Have you ever wondered what it is like, right now, on the other side of the World? What people in different countries are doing, right now? With this book you can get a glimps of Kenya in velvety darkness, day break in India, Australia in late afternoon shade........and on around the globe. Also learn about how and why daylight savings time came about, and the reason for the Internation Date line........and why it's crooked!

This book is a wonderful, colorful book that is very well written and is a great plot line. It follows the activities of various people around the world at the same moment in time - explaining about time zones. It starts with a baker in London and ends with a child going to sleep in Boston. Each page/location has lovely illustrations, including an overlay of a map of that city. It makes a lovely gift, especially for children who have contact with other countries (or parents who want to expose their kids to other cultures and countries). I've bought several copies for friends and family!

One of the newest additions to the outstanding Cardogan travel guide series, Southwest Ireland: Cork, Kerry, Limerick & Clare by Catharina Day is now in a fully revised edition. Covering 170 places to stay, 190 top bars and restaurants, legends, stone circles, history, the nuances of its title counties, and much more, Southwest Ireland is as valuable for its in-depth tour of local lore as it is for its 16 detailed and highly accessible maps. Black-and-white and a handful of color photographs illustrate this easy-to-follow reference handbook, as useful for locating markets, activities, and tourist attractions as it is for simple reading pleasure about the wonders of Southwest Ireland. Highly recommended for business travelers and vacationers alike.

One of the newest additions to the outstanding Cardogan travel guide series, Southwest Ireland: Cork, Kerry, Limerick & Clare by Catharina Day is now in a fully revised edition. Covering 170 places to stay, 190 top bars and restaurants, legends, stone circles, history, the nuances of its title counties, and much more, Southwest Ireland is as valuable for its in-depth tour of local lore as it is for its 16 detailed and highly accessible maps. Black-and-white and a handful of color photographs illustrate this easy-to-follow reference handbook, as useful for locating markets, activities, and tourist attractions as it is for simple reading pleasure about the wonders of Southwest Ireland. Highly recommended for business travelers and vacationers alike.

One of the newest additions to the outstanding Cardogan travel guide series, Southwest Ireland: Cork, Kerry, Limerick & Clare by Catharina Day is now in a fully revised edition. Covering 170 places to stay, 190 top bars and restaurants, legends, stone circles, history, the nuances of its title counties, and much more, Southwest Ireland is as valuable for its in-depth tour of local lore as it is for its 16 detailed and highly accessible maps. Black-and-white and a handful of color photographs illustrate this easy-to-follow reference handbook, as useful for locating markets, activities, and tourist attractions as it is for simple reading pleasure about the wonders of Southwest Ireland. Highly recommended for business travelers and vacationers alike.

One of the newest additions to the outstanding Cardogan travel guide series, Southwest Ireland: Cork, Kerry, Limerick & Clare by Catharina Day is now in a fully revised edition. Covering 170 places to stay, 190 top bars and restaurants, legends, stone circles, history, the nuances of its title counties, and much more, Southwest Ireland is as valuable for its in-depth tour of local lore as it is for its 16 detailed and highly accessible maps. Black-and-white and a handful of color photographs illustrate this easy-to-follow reference handbook, as useful for locating markets, activities, and tourist attractions as it is for simple reading pleasure about the wonders of Southwest Ireland. Highly recommended for business travelers and vacationers alike.

"Southwest Ireland" by Catharina Day is a valuable book for anyone going to this beautiful part of Ireland. I travel frequently to this region (mostly to Limerick), and find this guide very informative for not only typical guidebook material (places to stay, eat, etc.) but also for more uncommon information on sights of interest. The single strongest feature of this book is in the historical background it provides. This book is far and away the best of commonly available guides to the region from a practical history point of view. It includes an interesting introduction explaining a history of Ireland, the status of the Irish Republic today, and a very helpful glossary of political parties and terms. Religious and political issues (obviously including Northern Ireland) are explained, and all this background helps a traveler appreciate the people and places in this wonderful country.

I obviously can't comment on the accuracy of the entire book, but the entries here align very well with the places I have been (King John's Castle, St. Mary's Cathedral, etc.) so as long as the book is uniform, it is very useful and accurate. The book is not without detractions, however. Except for the first few pages which contain color photographs taken from the area, there are no illustrations of the places featured. The maps are not especially helpful or detailed, either. For these reasons I gave the book four stars, whereas the text would easily garner five.

Travelers may wish to pick up another guide with more user friendly maps and better illustrations to compliment this guide. All told though, this is a great guide to Southwest Ireland, and I recommend it, especially for the history.

I loved browsing through the book and finding little gems and tidbits about Great Neck in the past that I didn't know about. The greatest fun is in the details, from Ann Hutchinson to Chrysler, to Eddie Cantor, we are presented with a panoply of actors and scenes that all add up to a fascinating history. The development of the various churches and synagogues, as different groups moved into the area, was especially interesting to me. And the photos are wonderful. As a long time resident, I have often flinched at the image many people have of my town as a place that represents the quintessential material culture at its worst. It is such a pleasure to have a book that shows how wrong those assumptions are, and that lays out the real diversity and excitement of this multi-cultural and multi-dimensional place. I wish everyone who ever made nasty comments about Great Neck would have a copy sent to him/her. The author and editor did a great job.

The Ultimate Book of Great Neck is a beautifully designed and exceptionally well-written guide book to this most interesting town on the Gold Coast of Long Island.
As this book points out, Great Neck has always been home to many stars and celebrities, movers and shakers. Among them were entertainers like W.C. Fields and Groucho Marx, the silent screen star Thomas Meighan and his neighbor, the automotive tycoon Walter Chrysler. Not only do we learn their stories, the book also includes photographs of their magnicifent homes, including that of F. Scott Fitzgerald, who used Great Neck as the setting for "The Great Gatsby," and the composer of the beloved song, "Yankee Doodle Dandy," George M. Cohan.
Not all suburbs are equal. Great Neck is an exceptional one. This book is a must read and a good read. And a quite compelling reason for Great Neck to be a must see for any visitor to the New York metropolitan area.

Most books of this nature have a temporary, touristy feel to them. TM Design's Great Neck book, however, is a well-crafted, gorgeously laid out piece, with fantastic attention to detail. Whether you've lived in Great Neck, visited there, or are simply curious about some fascinating Long Island history, you'll find this book truly interesting. Exhaustively researched, this treasure trove of information and stories feels like a walk through time, complete with beautiful photographs.

Amazing historic details written in a most readable style,makes exploring the past intriguing. The development of this community and the great variety of housing, parks, schools and cultural opportunities makes this suburban yet urban center very inviting. No wonder so many talented and creative people have sought to live there. In addition to the text, the collection of photographs is superb. A beautifully written and designed book. Great Neck should be very proud to blow its own horn!

This book of Great Neck is a photographic and literary keepsake for any Long-Islander, Great Neck-ophile or Nostalgic/Modern day traveler.Chock-full of well researched historical information,fascinating anecdotal trivia and the absolute cutting edge in commercial photgraphy.This high-tech photography should become prototypes for this field.But not only is it a commercial success but a darn-good read.It is a literary and visual trip back to that romantic world of the Fitzgeralds and the Hollywood Legendaries and to primative times in this modern near-utopian community.Buy this book for your coffee table and take it with you for a visit to Great Neck-you will love both.

Like other books in the Travelers Tales series - this book gives excellent insight into the Irish way of life and provides excellent reading (I am slightly biased, having written one of the short pieces that is included - titled Cycling to Dun Aengus). The overall quality of the book is excellent and the descriptions pull you right into the landscape and geography of Ireland - from sitting in smoky pubs to driving past weather beaten coasts. Some of these pieces are also hilarious. Highly recommended not only as a prerequisite to a visit - but for a great read. TJLMullen@cs.com

This book consists of a wide variety of stories from the humourous to the profound to the historical. There are stories that you want to sit down with a friend and read it to them: specically, "A Pub Fairy Tale" by Pamela Ramsey tells of a visit to an Irish pub by the author who wanted to take in the "ambiance" of the music and dancing. She hoped that she would be asked to dance, but as closing time drew near, her hopes seemed slim. Then an energetic old gentleman finally asked her, and she describes it this way: "I could feel the other dancers watching us, nodding, laughing, giving us encouragement, but the old man and I had eyes only for each other. We were two odd strangers caught in a moment of tenderness. A moment of magic. I was Cinderella, the belle of the ball, dancing with my Prince - an old, almost-blind man, wearing a black beret." Beautiful. Another story tells of the estrangement of a son and his father when he married outside the faith, and how, when the father died, a reconciliation of sorts was established with his brother with they go hiking on the hills where there father had hiked with them, and how he came to understand his father's secret strength and connection with the isle: "Walking the Kerry Way", by Tim O'Reilly. This brief description of Mr. O'Reilly's story does it a gross injustice, because there is a depth of feeling that only the author can convey. The brief biographical descriptions at the end of each story are informative and to the point. At the end of the book, there is an extensive, "The Next Step" which includes a number of websites, and a good bibliography. The book is well put together, and succeeds very well in conveying "true stories of life on the emerald isle."

I'm on my way to Ireland in a few days. This is just a note to say that I found this book on Ireland, to my surprise as so many nice things can be, enormously sensitive and moving and classy. Classy because the type style, the paper stock, and the interior arrangement of the stories and back-of-the-book tips and advice show a lot of editorial thought, being so well done. I was deeply moved by the selection of the tales, each its own chapter, and I definitely felt a sense of coming to know Ireland in a way no other book I could buy would bring me. Lots of laughter and tears and thoughts arriving as I stared out a window, enveloping the mood of a story I'd just finished. They were wonderfully written for me, to my standards, which are impossibly high -- I admire the best, even if I can't write at that level -- and overall I sensed that the editing was careful, thoughtful. There'd been plenty of work put into this volume. The end of the book with all the tips was very enjoyable, and I've read it through twice so far as I sense it will all come true for me, all prove to be good advice, on this, my first trip to Ireland.

I am giving one less star than the other commentators here not out of contrariness but simply to let readers know of the very uneven quality of the 44 entries, most of which are excerpts from longer works by established writers, although a minority appear to be written for this anthology. Not to say that the latter suffer necessarily; the best essay in here, and the only one that examines the other side of the tourist's encounter, is Janine Jones' "Tea With Mr. Curtain." Jones ponders what to do when the more unsavory side of a revered local man is revealed to apparently only her "privileged" view as a visitor. She opts for reticence rather than revealing his secret side to the rest of the village that she will soon leave but he never will.

The familiar authors mingle with the unknown, and to the editors' credit, they offset their knowingly but fulsomely lavish encomium of the oul' sod's charm prefacing this collection with a final section highlighting the shadowy scandals of an Ireland beyond the postcard views too often limiting many of the writers here included. The best sections are this last portion, for its frankness, and the beginning that in its "Essence of Ireland" does set out neatly such observant scenes as that of a kayaker, Brian Wilson, who finds his moored craft suddenly whisked away under the local Conamara customs of flotsam and jetsam belonging to those who live by the sea's bounty; Rosemary Mahoney's look (from her excellent "Whoredom in Kimmage: Irish Women Coming of Age") at how the Legion of Mary's volunteers work in inner-city Dublin; David Blaker's decision to call himself a Jew when hitching rides in the North to avoid uneasy conversations; and David W. McFadden's meeting with an amateur archeologist in the Tipperary town of Cahir. The second section is most disappointing: the contributors are either too blase or mundane about their activities, or what they report matters little to engage the imagination of the reader.

Valuable essays in part three about destinations are those of Katharine Scherman on Skellig Micheal; poitin-making by John McLaughlin; Thomas Flanagan on the real Mayo that inspired his "Year of the French" novel; and Jonathan Harrington's brief but moving tale of finding and meeting distant relatives one uncomfortable night. In the last section, Scott Anderson exposes the racketeering and an even more dangerous climate of intimidation that because of its underground impact on both sides of the sectarian divide has followed the decline in paramilitary violence; Martin Dillon gives a literally awful anecdote from his "God and the Gun" about a priest forced to hear the confession of a man the IRA is about to execute; Fintan O'Toole offers a typically nuanced examination of the Bishop Casey-Annie Murphy scandal.

The listings at the back, with succinct advice for tourists, are helpful and cogent, if by now of course dated a bit. The bibliography is well-chosen. Finally, sidebars in the text give additional observations from other texts, and these snippets are placed often to play off the longer essays in nimble fashion.

I really enjoyed this book on Travler's tales from Ireland. It had some great stories. You really got to know about the country, and it's people from reading this. I highly recommend it.

Unknown Seas: How Vasco Da Gama Opened The East

By Ronald J.Watkins





In order to grasp the situation involving the century-old Portuguese story, one must note the historical implications, especially the economic as well as the self-interest of the nation, its political agendas, and the individual drives of the major players found in any monograph written about Vasco da Gama. In Watkin's version, the author's ability to tell the story from many viewpoints is useful in a comprehensive understanding of the events surrounding Vasco da Gama's life and times.

Given that any story written about Gama can never be fully presented, since what actually happened as well as what others said actually happened, remains the fodder of constant flux and debate since few documents survive to date, Watkins surely paints an intriguing portrait of the man. Vasco da Gama is known by the historicity of a dozen or so primary documents, those with historical authenticity that describe his story and the legendary status surrounding his lifetime achievements, and those written after his death. A good historian combines crafted methodologies related to primary and secondary sources that surely offer accurate timelines and descriptions noted as presentations of the events described. In Watkin's tale, we see elements of both historical accuracy and the solid skills of a good storyteller.

Thus, what can we learn from Ronald J. Watkin's version of events? This remains the ultimate question since one can sense that after reading the entire corpus, it appears to be a very interesting, if not, "a more than introductory account" of Gama's story, albeit, seen through prism the eyes of a 21st century writer.

Watkin's sources include: Rotiero of Gama's first voyage to India; Gasper Correia, The Three Voyages of Vasco da Gama, and His Viceroyalty, from the Lendas da India, (London,1869); Bailey Diffie and George D. Winnius, Foundations of the Portuguese Empire 1415-1580 (Minneapolis 1977), and S.E. Morison's Sailing Instructions of Vasco da Gama to Pedro Álvares Cabral. Other additional standard sources used by Watson includes H.V. Livermore's A New History of Portugal, Cambridge 1969); Edgar Prestage's, The Portuguese Voyages of Prestage's The Chronicle of Discovery and Conquest of Guinea and The Portuguese Pioneers ).

From the introduction to the conclusion, one finds Watkin's version of the account and his writing style at times excellent and poignant. Starting with a tale about Columbus and his historic meeting with John II of Portugal, until Gama's discovery, which led to "the blueprint of future Portuguese dominance of spice trade with all that that meant for the tiny, impoverished nation," one finds this tale compelling and though provoking. I highly recommend this excellent book.





Greg Robinson

I thought I've read everything about Vasco da Gama until I discovered this concise and interesting book. Very readable, it tells one of the most dangerous and adventurous sea voyages into a mythical and unknown region.

Every once and awhile someone will come along and write a book about a subject that has been researched, debated and otherwise covered so often before that it lacks appeal to the average reader. Under those circumstances, there is the temptation to pass by yet another telling of the same story. It is rare to find a fresh treatment of an historical event that was introduced to most Americans by a fifth grade textbook.

I don't know much about the author of "Unknown Seas" but I know a great deal about the tale he tells, having studied Portuguese history for years. That said, I would enthusiastically recommend his book because it is that rare combination of accurate reporting within a broad historical context, together with a fascination for detail that makes it an unexpected pleasure. I found no errors in the description of what actually happened and great fun in how the story was told.

Vacso da Gama's voyage to India was arguably one of the most significant sea journeys in recorded history. At the time it occurred it had a far greater impact upon European culture, politics and its economy than all of Columbus' multiple trips to "the new world" combined. Ronald Watkins takes the reader on this remarkable adventure but he also supplies the necessary historical background, as well as the motivations and personalities of the principal characters involved to give the story a deeper meaning. If you want an academic treatment of da Gama's extraordinary achievement, read C.R. Boxer. But if what you are looking for is a detailed accounting of how a skilled leader and often ruthless adventurer from a small nation, with limited human resources but brilliant leadership, literally changed first medieval Europe, and ultimately the world, get this book. It won't disappoint.

The history of Portuguese exploration and discovery in Africa and Asia is fertile ground for a dramatic tale, and the author does a good job of conveying a sense of excitement and wonder, placing the reader in the shoes of someone witnessing the events for the first time.

While I found the general lack of citations disappointing, the book is easy to read while still providing detailed history of events. This book would make a great introduction for anyone with even a slight curiousity about this period in history.

Further reading of more scholarly books will provide the nitty-gritty details of the various source materials (as well as the disputes by historians about various aspects) but this book avoids scholarly debate and the modern tendency to attempt to knock every historic figure off his pedestal. Overall a pleasure to read.

I would just note that, unlike the some of the other reviewers, I found no trace of the author making excuses for the slave trade or any other such events. What the author has done is put the actions of the Portuguese in their proper historical context as opposed to viewing them through the lens of modern values.

This is a fascinating and well-researched account of how the Portugese opened up the route to India. The author creates an atmosphere that drags the reader in totally and leaves him thirsting for more than the vicarious participation in the events of those times that it offers. The only irritant in this otherwise excellent book is the author's repeated lame "defence" of the slave trade, religious intolerance, and imperialist violence.

This book was interesting twofold since my father was on the Memphis when it was wrecked. A good book for anyone

My father was A Warrent Machinist in charge of the engine room. He is mentioned in th book. He had his lungs cooked and spent a year growing new lineing on them. Died 1928 from pneumonia,and was told if he ever got it , he would.He was removed from the Memphis by breaches bouy. The ship is still visable in Santo Domingo harbor.

I have been a long time reader of naval and maritime history and only heard of this incident last year (2000). It covers a period in naval history that doesn't get much notice from the general public (1916 when the US Marines landed in the Dominican Republic to restore order). The author is a well known and respected chronicler of naval history, deservedly so. The incident is a about a tidal wave, a phenomenon not yet understood by science (or the Navy), that besets an armored cruiser (captained by the author's father) while it was anchored in Santo Domingo. The main problem was how to get up to full steam so they would be able to head out to sea and safety in time. The story gets very exciting when it talks about the problems in the coal fired boiler rooms as the waves washed water down the stacks.

This would make a great episode for the TV show JAG because a captain is ultimately resposible for damage to his ship and this one had to face a court martial to establish what happened. I won't reveal the fate of the ship, the crew, or Capt. Beach because that's a big part of the story, but it's a very exciting tale that needs to be remembered.

It reads like an adventure novel where it takes a chapter or two to set the stage and then the excitement builds to fever pitch as the situation unexpectedly deteriorates. I only gave it 4 stars instead of a 5 because the author had to repeat sections of the incident from the perspective of different locations and people. But it was so exciting at that point that the repetition was OK because you didn't want to put the book down. The heroism of the crew fighting an uncontrollable force of nature earned them 3 Medals of Honor.

A great read.

Wreck of the Memphis is the story of a Navy cruiser, Memphis, formerly named Tennessee. It is the story of an afternoon in the Dominican Republic, where in less than an hour, the ship went from being fully prepared for war, to a beach wreck at the base of a cliff. It is the story of a ship and it's captain who happens to have been the author's father.

The event which lead to the loss of the Memphis was US intervention in the Dominican Republic. It is period in US Naval history that is little known and less written about. Captain Beach's book fills in some of the details of this time.

The aftermath of the loss of the Memphis is as equally interesting as the events leading up to the loss of the ship. Now comes the question 'Why did it happen' to be answered. The man held responsible is the captain of the ship and in this case the author's father is the man being asked the question. The verdict and future career of senior Captain Beach make for interesting reading.

This is a fine book and an excellent read. I first read this book when it was first published and I have read it periodically ever since. It is a great addition to any nautical library.

Edward L. Beach, renown American submariner, and author of "Run Silent, Run Deep," brings his considerable talents to bear on the story of the USS Memphis, (commanded, not coincidentally, by his father), which was wrecked by a sudden tidal wave while at anchor in a tropical Caribbean port. The tension builds to a climax as the wave approaches and the crew tries desperately to get up steam to leave harbor. The Memphis' near-escape is chronicled minute-by-minute, taking the reader onboard the doomed ship until nature's fury is unleashed against man's inadequate technology. The tragedy, the heroism, the aftermath, and Beach's efforts to clear his father's name, all make for an episode in history that reads like the best page-turning fiction. A must-read for true naval yarn aficionados!

I read this book for a medical anthropology class and found it incredibly interesting in its discussion of the politics and racism involved in the US treatment of AIDS in Haiti. It delves into how the American presence and influences lead to and exasperated the widespread AIDS and poverty problems in Haiti.

Farmer's excellent historical ethnography of Haitian illness (as seen through the contemporary context of the world AIDS epidemic), proves the necessity of developing anthropological approaches to understanding health systems and implementing medical care. The diagnosis and analysis of sickness, disease, illness, and treatment should go hand-in-hand with the cultural understanding of local systems of blame, accusation, causation, and cure. Where most approaches to medicine are based on the "Westernized" first-world nations' understanding of the causes of illness (tainted as well, as Farmer shows, by systematic "blame the victim" and shame techniques), the adoption of these approaches in treating the illnesses of other peoples can be catastrophic. Three ethnographies make up the structure of a detailed historical inquiry )

The longstanding tradition of conceiving of illness through the lens of powerlessness shapes the contemporary lives of the people in Haiti with whom Farmer worked. Although they could see the effects of the illness, people in this region were obsessed with the cause of the illness, and felt the need to understand AIDS through a constructed narrative of blame. A deep belief in their religion led villagers to look for the source of witchcraft that could possibly be harming them, and elaborate stories about neighbors, jealousies, and rivalries flourished as a result. Any improvement in the standing of one member of the society (through wealth, status, relationships, acquisition of property or food, or political power through employment or marriage) adds to the structure of distrust and blame.

Farmer's book shows how disturbingly complex and deep the layers of mistrust, misinformation, and the effects of racism, are. Among the medical hypotheses for the probable exposure is the theory of Haitian sex-workers' contacts through gay tourists to the early strains of HIV. Farmer outlines the long history of Haiti as a gay tourist attraction, and Duvalier's encouragement of tourism as a boost to the domestic economy. Although the possible cause of the gay sex trade for HIV exposure has not been confirmed, medical establishments in the U.S. based their theories of causation on other factors, such as Haitian religious practices. These theories were, in truth, reinforcing longstanding ignorance and racist misunderstandings about Haitian vodou. Stereotypes and racial profiling of Haitian citizenship as a "risk factor" (one of the "Four H's" along with hemophiliac, homosexual, and heroin user), contributed to public policies against Haitian immigrants. Haitians' belief that they are being attacked by some evil sorcery in the guise of a fatal illness called sida falls into place amidst the context of extreme antagonism and injustice.

While reading this book, I was compelled to ask myself if there isn't some truth in Haitians' understanding of AIDS as the result of malicious sorcery. Haiti was the only American society to successfully result from the direct action of a revolution against slavery and colonialism. As such, the small nation governed by creoles and black ex-slaves presented a threat to North and South American colonial societies, which were firmly entrenched in slave labor economic systems. Historically, the threat of a repeat of the Haitian revolution must have terrified white European landowners. This terror of African power and strength has been passed on in a racist legacy, adapted to political policies and nationalist agendas, and still exists in ignorant beliefs about AIDS and its causes. Haitians believe that they are victims of a longstanding racist agenda, and they may in fact be right. Farmer's book begins to illuminate some of the complicated historical and ethnographic realities of the overlapping connections between illness and racism, and between causes and effects.

This book dispels the common myths of Haitians and AIDS. It also shows very clearly the heavy involvement of the United States in creating the poverty Haiti has faced. This book makes use of statistics well, but unfortunately, at this point those stats are many years old. When Farmer wrote this book, only three people in the village of Do Kay had died of AIDS. Now, with huge percentages of Haitians exposed to HIV, the picture must certainly look different. This book is a geat candidate for a revised edition some time in the future.

I read this book for a medical anthropology class and found it incredibly interesting in its discussion of the politics and racism involved in the US treatment of AIDS in Haiti. It delves into how the American presence and influences lead to and exasperated the widespread AIDS and poverty problems in Haiti.