Oceania Books

...Esta publicación es definitivamente la mejor opción para tener una visión general de la isla. Contiene hermosas fotos de la isla y sus habitantes, así como un excelente texto escrito por un arqueólogo, quien fue Director del Parque Nacional Rapa-Nui. En resumen un trabajo serio, completo y artísticamente hermoso

An excellent addition to the Rapa Nui library, with glorious color plates showing every aspect of the island. So many Easter Island books focus wholly on Easter Island's past, and the moai statues. This one includes excellent aerial views of the whole island and island life as well as its archeological splendors. A few too many of those pretty girls than can really be justified though, Carlos!

I agree with Gerardo... This book will give you unvarnished observations from new visitors to the south east Pacific immediately after WWI. The descrptions of Hall's visit to the Paumotus (Tuamotus) are really priceless today, as is his account of Hotel Tiare and Lavaina, before her death. If you enjoy this, then see if you can get a copy of My Island Home. The island parts are very good (especially Singh, A Song of Six Pence). Also read The Forgotten One, and Other Stories, a darker look at the affects and outcomes of caucasians in the islands.

In this book, the authors make what seems to be an autobiographical account of a year of traveling and adventure throughout the South Seas. They decide to travel in different directions and meet again after a few months. They write in turn about their own experiences and stories as narrated to them by other characters, covering a wide range of stories, from the mere description of island's habits, to beautiful native stories, to what must be the most thrilling and yet poetic treasure hunt I have read. Possibly a slightly minor work from this authors, better known for the Bounty books. Yet, if you like the mystery of the South Seas a little more than its adventure, add that fifth star to my rating. Please bear in mind my comments are based on a first edition of this book, dated 1921, which I own. I write the review in the hope that it will be useful since there is none to date, but I have not actually read this new edition.

I have been using Frommers for many years. So naturally I chose this book to prepare for our first trip to Australia. It is the only guide book that you will need, though you might want to pick up a free AAA guide after you arrive if you need hotel info as Frommers can't cover every property.

This book will provide basic info on all the major sites. In addition, you will find a great deal of info on smaller towns that you may visit if you decide to do any driving. It was invaluable for providing info on the fly.

If you buy one guidebook, this one should be it.

This well-organized book breaks down places to see in Australia by thier states. The sixteen Best of Australia lists; descriptive reviews of hotels and suggested itineraries; and 'Fun Facts' such as where to cuddle a koala are interesting to note. I am already planning to go back for a second visit because I cannot see it all in two weeks.

I am planning to be an exchange student at the University of Canberra and of all the travel books I read, this met my needs the best. The book was honest about student discounts and the quality of youth hostels. The features I liked best were the planned walking tours of cities and the special attention to "Fun and Free" attractions. The author writes in a clear, friendly, engaging manner, I feel I know what to expect from Australia after reading this book.

I just got back from a 3-week trip to Australia during which I used this book constantly, though my version is from 1999 and I don't know what version amazon.com is selling right now. I visited many of the places Frommer's recommended and stayed at a few of the lodgings listed as well (specifically, the Sydney Central Youth Hostel and Springfield Lodge, both good choices if you are on a budget and want a place that's clean and comfortable). Some people I travelled with part of the time preferred my guide over theirs (a Fodor, I think) so much that I let them borrow it after I flew home and they stayed behind. If I could change one thing, I would color-code the seperate chapters- it was difficult to locate things in my edition since everything was printed in black or red. Still, this book was extremely handy for me and I'm glad it was the one I chose to buy.

When we were considering what to do during our month in New Zealand, travel agents were pleading with us to have everything lined up before "the Y2k rush." So, being the literal engineering types, we bought a couple of books -- the Lonely Planet NZ and the Frommers for Under $50/day -- and started poring through them.

Our initial impression of the Lonely Planet book was too dense to be useful to us. The Frommer's guide, however, had suggested itineraries based on the time one could spend in New Zealand. Even better, the author, Elizabeth Hansen, was available to "consult" on the trip on an hourly basis. Because we'd be toting our 18-month old, we used her services and pre-booked the entire trip.

Once there, we found the Lonely Planet book much more useful. The Lonely Planet guide excels at providing abundant information about towns, including attractions, restaurants and maps giving a rough layout.

For example, one of the folks at a Visitor center clued us into Farewell Spit, an area we were going to forego because it was well off our chosen route. As it turned out, Tahuna Park, our campground in Nelson was pretty bad (right under an airport takeoff path; lots of people permanently living there; undermaintained kitchens), and we didn't relish the idea of spending three days there as originally planned.

The side trip to Farewell Spit was long and we'd have to find some place relatively nearby to the Spit to make it a reasonable trip. Unfortunately, this is where the Frommer's guide was very weak. It caters more to the B&B crowd, and there isn't that much north (or west) of Nelson. The Lonely Planet book, however, paid for itself by suggesting a lot of options, providing maps of the little towns, and listing restaurants where we might stop at for "snack time."

In summary: The Frommer's book is helpful for initially planning your trip.

The Frommer's book has more of a focus on higher-end accomodations, e.g., motels or beds and breakfasts, and covers a smaller area. This is not such a big deal unless you want to venture too far off the beaten path.

We felt the author's services were worthwhile.

Don't underestimate the value of the Visitor Centers scattered throughout New Zealand. They were generally very good at providing local information. Most will also book special activities for you.

I recently spent two weeks in New Zealand. This was the only book I took with me and it was the best choice. I had looked through others but, I would recommend this book to anyone who is planning a holiday there. The pricing was a bit outdated due to the exchange rate, but all the other information was dead on! I did the things recommended in Rotorua, Taupo and Napier and I was well prepared! The for free or nearly free things to do and see were the best. I cant wait to go back!

I was glad we were able to get it in one day so my son could read in 2 hours to do his project!!!

Brilliant layout , not only explains the sides at war but also the plans before and its effect aftermath .Superb finish connecting those days to the time being .

This book is an ethnography of the Dani, a people living in the Grand Valley, a temperate plain along the Balim River in central Irian Jaya (New Guinea). Heider visited the region and got to know the Dani during four study visits over nine years, beginning in 1961. The book includes information on standard ethnographic topics, such as environment, population density, labor and its division, tools, arts and play, social relationships, kinship terms, leadership, religion and ritual, funerals, and feasts.

One aspect that makes this book stand out from others of its type is that Heider is forthright in discussing the limitations of his research and conclusions. He notes that he was never able to develop enough fluency in the language to fully comprehend what was being discussed around him, or even what people tried to explain to him. He also describes how hard it was for him to collect information about the culture because the Dani either had no knowledge of or no interest in how their lives might be different from other people's lives. As a man, Heider had limited contact with women, so his descriptions of aspects of women's lives are very superficial. From Heider's descriptions, the Dani were extremely noncompetitive, to the point that they spontaneously eliminated scoring and team play from children's games introduced by government school teachers. To Heider, the Dani seemed to have a relatively easy-going life-style, made possible by a temperate environment with practically no seasonal variation. The diet was based on sweet potatoes and pork, and these could be grown year-round, so there was no need to grow and store surpluses for lean seasons. Heider was very apprehensive about what the future would bring for the Dani, as government officials and teachers introduced new housing materials, new foods, and most importantly new values to the people of the Valley.

While it is a fascinating reading in itself, this book is best read after the more comprehensive classic "The Dugum Dani" by the same author, of which this work is something of an update.
It is very interesting - though somewhat disturbing - to read how the Grand Valley Dani have coped with four decades of "civilization" under mostly Indonesian rule, during which the Baliem Valley has become a regional government, military and tourism centre all at once.

I have said in a few other reviews that I like the LoA very much. The 3 volume Melville edition is no exception. And yet!
The normal size of the volumes is around 800 to 1000 pages. This first volume of Melville with Typee, Omoo, and Mardi, gets to nearly 1400. That is more than can be conveniently handled, and the main problem is, that space has been saved in the bio and notes sections. The LoA volumes usually include a useful summary of the writer's biography and a section of notes on the texts. The notes ideally explain text variants but also obscure names and references in the text. There are plenty of such names and references here, particulary in Mardi. The notes section of this volume is however unsatisfactory; I am sure this is due to space considerations. Would it have made sense to stretch the edition to 4 or 5 volumes and keep them handier? That would have left volume 1 with a sub-par size of less than 700 pages. Including a later shorter text would have disturbed the sequence, which would have been bad due to the contents relation of the 3 texts included now. In other words: what to do? All considered, I would vote for the shorter and handier volume, i.e. here just Typee and Omoo, with Mardi plus Redburn in volume 2, plus a much expanded note and bio section.
(I am still in the middle of Mardi, which is a marvel and a mystery, and will review it separately.)

Among the early products of the wonderful Library of America Series were three volumes devoted to the novels of Herman Melville. This volume consists of Melville's first three novels, Typee(1846), Omoo(1847) and Mardi (1849)

Melville's novels are based, more or less loosely, on his life at sea. The first two novels describe voyages to the Marquesas and to Tahiti. They are filled with lush descriptions of scenery, and tales of adventure. Of the two, Typee is filled with encounters with cannibals and Polynesian maidens while Omoo presents a wider canvas of characters and scenes. Both books emphasize the sexual openness and relative simplicity of Polynesian life as compared to life in the United States and both books are critical as well of attempts to Christianize the islanders. These are not unusual themes today and probably were not as radical in the 1840s as one might suppose. The stories are well told and the descriptions alluring. These books made Mellville's reputation as a young writer.

Mardi, however, is the gem of this collection. Its relationship to the earlier novels can be analogized, say, to the relationship between the young Beethoven's first symphony on the one hand and the growth of language and thought in the second and third symphonies on the other hand. Melville prefaces the book with the note that his first two books were fact-based but were received with "incredulity" while Mardi was pure romance and "might be recieved for a verity." (Little likelihood of that)

The book as in a baroque, ornate, and bravado style that Melville would bring to completion in Moby Dick. It is an allegory involving the search for Yillah, a strange, mthical maiden, through the seas of Mardi -- Polynesian for "the world". The narrator is accompanied by King Media, by the philosopher Babbalanja, the singer Yoomi, and the historian Mohi. There are many wonderfully exasperating discussions. They wander far and wide in search of Yillah and in there wandering we here many religious allegories and many depictions of the Europe and United States of Melville's own time. There are shadowy maidens, villans, long scenes in the empty wide ocean, and pages of Melvillian thought and bluster.

The book is high American romanticism and presents a religious and personal quest by the narrator that resounds of similar quests by many in our own day. For example, there is a famous unfinished novel of the religious quest called Mount Analogue by a French writer, Duhamel, which fits quite compactly into just a few chapters of Mardi. Mardi is a long, maddenlingly difficult book but worth the effort.

Americans can learn about themselves by learning about their literature and this book is a fitting place to start (or continue). For those with the patience, it is worth reading these books in order (perhaps with other reading sandwiched in between) to discover the growth of a great and troubled American writer and chronicler of the inward life, as well as of sea journeys.

A word of warning: Samuel Finer died before he could finish this work. His history stops at the time of the Industrial Revolution, and he did not edit the final piece: there are typos galore in the books. In spite of it all, this is one of the finest works written about government since the Federalist Papers, and it is every bit its equal.

Finer starts with the earliest records of the Sumerian city-states and ends with the French Revolution to look for "inventions" -- something new that a particular government creates and it becomes used ever after. For instance, the Jewish kingdoms of the Old Testament invented the idea of limited government: these theocracies had to follow the rules of the Torah and even the king was subject to God's law. The Roman Republic invented checks and balances as a way of preventing accumulation of all political power into the hands of one man.

The American Revolution created no less than six inventions that have spread around the world:

1) the Constitutional Convention -- a body, outside of government, of citizens, who represent the people, formulate a constitution for them, hand their work to be ratified by the people, and dissolve the Convention once their work had been done;

2) the Written Constitution -- a standard by which citizens can judge their government and also the fundamental law which governs mere statutory laws;

3) the Bill of Rights -- a way of protecting the individual by denying government by power to interfere with certain activities like speech and religion;

4) Judicial Review -- a way of enforcing the Bill of Rights, it also serves to signal the community when government is about to intrude into the forbidden zone;

5) Separation of Powers -- while Britain's government has separate branches for the different sociological groups (e.g. aristocrats in the House of Lords, middle classes in the House of Commons, etc.), America's government was the first to separate the branches according to strict function (e.g. the legislature makes laws, the executive enforces laws, and the judiciary interprets laws) so that no one branch can swallow another and obviate the checks and balances;

6) Federalism -- the idea that different tiers of government have different spheres of activities and that one tier should not invade the other's turf (e.g. states can't sign treaties, and the feds can't issue parking tickets).

Finer also covers the governments of the Greek republics, the Italian republics, the various Chinese dynasties, the representative assemblies of Europe, the Egyptian pharaohs, the Spanish colonies, the shogunate of Japan, the absolutism of France, the despotism of Russia -- in short, just about everything under the sun. It is truly a remarkable work that is well worth its expense. I can recommend no other book more highly than this one.

Finer answers the question: compare and contrast all important, documented human governments. It is both well written and aproprately complex. A type of history written all too infrequently in any age.

Found what we were looking for in this detailed map

As the author of Tonga-Samoa Handbook, I've used James A. Bier's map of the Samoas many times to check dubious place name spellings or to verify geographical information. The detailed index makes finding places a breeze and the drawing is amazingly clear. I recommend this map highly.