Australia Books

I had the priviledge of reading this book while being taught by the author. Prof. Terrill was my Australian Society and Politics Professor in 2003 at the University of Texas @ Austin. He was a very dry lecturer yet I could never turn away. The depth of his knowledge was never-ending. The subject was made great by him. The book is even more exciting than the stories and events he told in class. I hope to see and hear more from him in the future. Now I'm planning to go to Autralia in the future. All I can say after reading this book and taking Terrill's class is Australia Rocks!

Had not Master James Joyce sought "silence, cunning and exile" abroad as an escape from paralysis, but had stayed home to do full battle for his own family's full well-being, had small James Joyce never suffered the profound intellectual, psychological and spiritual trauma of a good Jesuit education from a very tender, impressionable and an early age, he might one day have aspired to write an autobiography as well as this. He might one day have achieved the skill of this record of Dublin life.

When you pick up this book you will not swiftly set it back down. Too hastily it records, quick as the rushing River Liffey, the most brilliant observations, leaving you breathless for more precise information, yet grateful for the wonderful song, as does this writing sing gloriously, sorrowfully, gaily, deeply, full throated, a lusty and a keening song.

This book reads like the RIver Liffey washing its way through dear, dirty Dublin city, flashing brilliant, reflecting all without scorn, carrying her commerce, her sewage, her refuse and the occasional dead body, ever fascinating to regard from over the bridge.

Had Stephan Dedalus himself not sought his lonesome refuge in silence and exile and quiet cunning and inscrutable humor, but thrown himself whole heartedly with all of his might and mind and body and soul into Dublin's life, without paralysis but throbbing with life, he might have hoped to have recorded this present work. Had Dedalus loved, he might have written this book.

Allow this work wash over you like the shining, singing black waters of the River Liffey. Let these waters pass impenetrably, hypnotically, beneath the bridge as you toss bread to the calling gulls below. Watch fascinated these laughing, sobbing, roaring waters pass beneath your bridge as you learn and meditate and reflect, unmoving and still in their wonderful grasp.

You will not quickly let down this book.

Certainly we now require dangling commentary for this song of Dublin. We now need historical texts to supplement our reading of allusions to a history that has been censored, erased, never written, ever oral, but whose speakers now have gone on. Much of this history died under the ice blue cruel pencil of the office of the British Censor at that dark enslaved time, a pencil which so callously and calmly vivisected our living history, and cut out its beating heart alive. Bless for ever the dear and learned and wise and courageous scribe, Sean O'Casey, for what magnanimously little of it he has preserved so well for our benefit herein. No, you will not soon set down this historical, this lyrical text.

Let us rather pursue his clues and singing slight indicationsand recapture our own mighty history, erased by the British opppressor. Let us hold our own history to our greiving, consoled heart like a hero fallen in war, as a babe that is born too soon and is gone, a holding as vain as stopping for our careful examination roaring waters of our mighty mother the River Liffey passing on to the father the sea beneath our dear Dublin bridge.

Take and read, for this is our body. Lift then this book, and laugh, and weep, without full knowledge yet fully illuminated and comforted and consoled and befriended and accompanied by all those who have gone before us.

For, you will not soon set her down again.

Aviculture in Australia. The title says it all. This is a fantastic book for both the beginner and the experienced enthusiast. I heartily recommend a read. It covers housing, feeding, pest and desease as well as individual bird descriptions. Plus much much more. I guarentee that if you pick it up, it will be a while til you put it down again!

Wilkie's book is a stunning read. He explains clearly why he felt it was necessary to resign from his post at ONA and speak out about the misleading information being spread by the Australian, US and UK governments prior to the March 2003 invasion of Iraq. If you want to educate yourself about what is leading to the Islamic terrorism the West is currently experience, read this book.

This book is not only visually stunning but is great for those who are looking for, among other things, the top hotels, restuarants, and spas in Bali. Unlike other guide books, this one presents only the most important aspects of the island and its amenities so that you can decide whether to go, when to go, and where to go. If you are looking for a guide to the most luxurious Bali experience, this book seems to be the best!

There is a shelf-load of books extant about the exploits of the coastwatchers, the Allied (mostly Australian) men who, along with their Melanesian allies, hid out in the jungles of the Solomon Islands and reported on Japanese convoy and aircraft movements during World War II. But this book is one of the most important of them -- not only because, first published in 1946, it was pretty much the first -- but because its author, Commander Eric A. Felt, R.A.N., was the man in overall charge of the coastwatcher operation. So while this title may lack some of the first-person narrative power, the coastwatchers' stories in their own words, of books like Walter Lord's "Lonely Vigil," it's still hard to beat for its strategic insights and true measure of the coastwatchers' operations and importance.

A man who from civilian life was familiar with the Solomons and their residents, Feldt is generous with praise for the civilians and natives involved with the coastwatcher operation. He is also a skilled writer and storyteller. The coastwatchers played a critical, if now largely forgotten (if it was ever really even known) role in the fight for control of the South Pacific. Nearly 60 years after it was first published, Cdr. Feldt's book is still an exciting and revealing contribution to their memory.

Margot Grant's Bamboo and Barbed Wire: Eight Years as a Volunteer in a Refugee Camp recounts the author's experiences on the Thai-Cambodian border between 1985 and 1993. Ms. Grant (mother of photojournalist Tim Grant) was a 56 year-old Australian swimming instructor who had recently completed a degree in health education and wanted to do something interesting. In 1985 she volunteered to go to Thailand with the Thai NGO Catholic Office for Emergency Relief and Refugees (COERR). What started out as a short-term volunteer assignment turned into a second career as she braved the dangers of an active war zone to help Khmer and Vietnamese refugees. Ms. Grant went far beyond the normal parameters of refugee camp work, helping reunite separated families, smuggling goods and people into and out of the camps, and making several illegal visits into Cambodia itself before the Vietnamese finally pulled out and she was able to enter legally. During her years on the border she worked with orphans, street children, convicts in prison, widows, lepers, the handicapped, and even set up a school for lifeguards, saving the lives of many children who swam in reservoirs surrounding the camp. Her story culminates with her involvement in the 1993 Dhammayietra Walk for Peace and Reconciliation, during which she and her son walked into a full-scale battle and were taken hostage by Khmer Rouge soldiers.

Margot Grant tells her story with humor and an acute appreciation of the tragic dilemma that the refugees faced as they languished in the border camps for years: many were rejected arbitrarily for resettlement and had to subsist on handouts under extremely dangerous and uncomfortable conditions, knowing that returning to Cambodia was likely to be just as arduous. Her profound compassion for the Khmer people and her constant search for ways that she could improve their lives make this story much more than a relief worker's memoir, but a lesson on how to make the world a better place using whatever resources are at hand.

Those who are interested in this time and place in history will also enjoy We Shared The Peeled Orange: The Letters of "Papa Louis" from the Thai-Cambodian Border Refugee Camps 1981-1993.

This was the first book I had read that really opened my eyes to the public manipulation a government was capable of. Cawthorne pulls facts together from very credible sources and uses them to weave cohesive arguments that are difficult to refute. This book should be more widely read, and portions of it should be used in Civics classes across the United States to teach our youth to be more objective about political motivations.
If any fault can be found with the book, it's the amount of detail it provides. Though, given the prevailing public "knowledge" of American POW's, it serves the author well to support his statements from many angles.

The Bamboo Flute was a very interesting book about a boy called Paul, who's family was poor. He meets a man called Eric the Red who tells and shows him how to make a flute out of bamboo.

I was looking for information on tracing one of my Irish ancestors and found this book most helpful.Not only did I find who I was looking for it also put our family in touch with other descendants.A great book for genealogy research.Can't wait for the updated version.