Australia Books

A 132-year dominance in anything isn't likely to go quietly and the 1982 America's cup was no different. The American tradition of cut-throat-competitive yacht racing regularly produced America's cup defenders of the highest caliber and it was a major step to even grasp the magnitude of what really needed to be done in order to have a fighting chance at winning the race, let alone to actually carry it out. However, one man accomplished exactly that, he did it in style, and we are most fortunate to have this tome "printed in lightning bolts" as the foreword author, Richard Bach, puts it.

At the heart of it, the book is about much more than winning a boat race (although, to be fair, a very large portion of the book covers exactly that). It is the story of a man and his single-minded pursuit of his dream. The story grips the reader and draws you into the life of Bertrand. It puts you right there, standing right beside him at the helm through every mishap and expertly executed maneuver. It also takes tells the story away from the water, the stories of the exceptional men with whom he sailed, as well as his family. You will discover, along with Bertrand, what it takes to do what nobody has ever done before and, when all is said and done, you will feel privileged to have sailed with him.

I also wish to correct a gross injustice in the review written by Art Tirrel. It is clear that, at the time that he wrote his review, he had not read the book in its entirety. Had he done so, he would have known that Bertrand's boat, Australia II, was not in fact faster than Liberty, Dennis Conner's. He would have also noticed that the "charismatic Aussies" were not poorly organized and had to deliver the performance of their lives in order to win. To have suggested facts "from the reading" which are clearly contrary to what is written is bordering on insulting, and I can only guess at his motives for writing an inaccurate review.

A true underdog story, a magnificent recollection of one of the great sporting achievements of the 20th century, an endearing personal account of a man's journey - however you want to look at it, a riveting read. One of those rare books which will both entertain and educate the reader.

There's a saying in sailboat racing: nothing makes you look smarter than a fast boat. Yet John Bertrand and the crew of Australia II, despite having the demonstrably superior yacht, nearly failed to win the 1983 regatta that ended the longest winning streak in the history of sport.
Bertrand begins at the low point. Down three races to one in the best of seven series, Australia II is on her way out for the fifth race. One more loss and it's over.
What follows makes blow by blow, hold-your-breath reading. Bertrand opens with a major blunder. Australia II is over early - on the course before the starting signal - and has to go back and start correctly, thus handing the Americans and Dennis Conner a one minute advantage.
In match racing, such an error is almost always fatal. Once again, however, when you have the fast boat, mistakes tend not to be as costly. Eventually, Australia II makes up the lost time and sails to a wide margin of victory to remain alive in the series.
So, if they had the faster boat, how did Bertrand and crew manage to lose those three races? From the reading, I see two answers; in the "slow" boat, the American team sailed a series of unsurpassed magnificence, and the Australian team committed mistake after mistake. Race one - steering failure; race two - mainsail headboard broke; race five the major blunder described above. Fact is, from Bertrand's telling the charismatic Aussies were poorly organized in general. To complicate matters, syndicate owner Alan Bond's hatchet man Warren Jones seemed to enjoy putting the screws to Bertrand at every opportunity. Given these pressures, it's a miracle Bertrand could function on the water at all.
Born to Win stands out for its wonderful race descriptions and inside knowledge but sags when the author delves into the underlying personal issues - where maybe he sounds a little too self-serving. But what would you expect, it is his side of things he's telling.
Art Tirrell - author of The Secret Ever Keeps, Spring 2007 ISBN 978-1-60164-004-8.

Fantastic book. It is an instructive lesson in how to prepare for what you overwhelmingly want to achieve. Being set in the context of one of the most famous sporting events in history, the attempt to wrest the America's Cup from the US after 132 years, makes it that much more exciting. Sailors will love it, but anyone interested in the psychology of winning will gain from this book.

This book is fabulous! For sailors, the story alone is worth the read, but it is much more than just a story about sailing. Bertrand's description of the final race against "the red boat" (Dennis Connor) is so powerful that I felt what he and his crew felt, even before I had read what they felt! Any reader interested in the nature of sport and competition will find this book valuable.

To Mr Karl Berger, reviewer below.
I found it very interesting that you have written another book on Clipperton. Can you provide me with any more details of your book eg is it non-fiction, will it cover similar ground to this book or does it have a different slant?

Thank you,

When I saw the book Clipperton in the display window of a New York book store I had already been planning to write a novel about this strange island. With the additional information the book provided my plans became more concrete then. After a decade and many many rejection letters I finally found a publisher in Harbor House, Augusta, Georgia. The novel will be published in the fall of 2006. Thanks to Jimmy Skaggs; his book is interesting and well documented. A find for island lovers.

Karl Berger M. D.

When I first saw Clipperton on a map of the world and I googled it for more information, I was floored to find snippets of abandonment, starvation, rape and murder, and FDR's personal interest in this tiny atoll in the eastern Pacific, and eventually led to me reading this exhaustively researched book.

From many obscure sources, the author did a great job tracking the chronology of discovery, early encounters, attempted development, military history and FDR's interest in the island, and overview of fauna and flora. To me, the most striking chapter was when a group of Mexicans were abandoned on the island; the men perished trying to row for help, and the women remaining on the island were left to starve and deal with the one remaining man on the island who proclaimed himself "king" and raped several of the women.

Unbelievable history for such a small, isolated rock in the middle of nowhere.

Clipperton Island is little more than one big rock, some hundreds of miles west of the Pacific coast of Mexico. During the early twentieth century there was a delightfully obscure arbitration by the King of Italy over who owned the rock: France or Mexico. France won, but not before the King had procrastinated for over twenty years. The island is named for a pirate; it has long been a stopping point for British and American interests, and various attempts have been made to extract value from it, either as a naval base or a mining stop. Jimmy Skaggs brings Clipperton's eccentric history to life - and also persuasively argues that Clipperton had been visited during Magellan's circumnavigation. What an interesting story about an obscure Pacific rock.

This book introduces the new-ish discipline of Ontological Coaching, which might be described as the fascinating and grey area where Coaching begins to interact with Therapy. In other words, it is about coaching the 'Way of Being' as a route to the traditional coaching goals of improved performance and behaviour.

Sieler characterises the Way of Being as the interaction between Language, Emotions and Body, with the 'Soul' residing at the deep interface where all three meet together.

This book is the first of a trilogy (others yet to be published?), and it focuses in particular on Language. The importance of language to our way of being, the basic linguistic tools, and the hidden power of conversations are covered in some depth.

Clearly written, with much use of 'ontological coaching in action' narrative examples/case studies, the book is easy to read even if the concepts are harder to grasp! I would recommend it to anyone who is involved in coaching at any level and who wants to think about 'going deeper' in order to affect meaningful change.

As I reflect on my life (I am 50), I see that I have been blessed with some of the most talented teachers of the century. Almost every day I find myself thinking about what I learned twenty years ago from Dr. Fernando Flores. This book is based on the thinking that was introduced by Dr. Flores and is a new way of understanding the nature of being human. This learning has helped me to more effectively communicate, generate action in others, suffer less and open new possibilities. I never had an interest in philosophy and had no idea what ontology meant when I took my first course. I certainly did not have a clue as to the extent it would help me in my life. Alan's book is an excellent introduction and explanation of what we learned from Dr. Flores. While I am not a professional coach, I use what I have learned in my conversations with employees, co-workers, friends, and family on a daily basis.

To give you an idea of what the book and ontology is about, I quote Alan:

"As a discipline it is rigorously grounded in recent developments in existential philosophy, the philosophy of language, and biology of cognition.

While in Chile, Flores had many conversations with the biologist Humberto Maturana, whose novel, yet biologically grounded ideas on perception, cognition, language and communication greatly influenced him. These conversations were a key inspiration for his research, in which he particularly focused on the existential philosophy of Martin Heidegger and John Searle's Theory of Speech Acts. Flores was able to integrate the ideas of language and communication, and the formation of a new discipline.

It was Flores who invented the term Ontological Coaching. He wanted to produce more than a theoretical discipline. He was keen to ensure that the knowledge of a new discipline would be relevant and applicable to everyday living. In short, Flores developed a powerful and practical new approach to living, learning and working.

Creating his own company, Flores pursued the commercial applications of this new understanding of language and communication in organizational settings. As his company expanded he took on course developers, writers and facilitators, including two other Chileans, Julio Olalla and Rafael Echeverrria. While Flores' ideas were central to their program, they also added their own interpretations and extended the discipline, predominantly in the ontological domains of emotions and body."

Over the years, I have found many other excellent teachers that have used and benefited from the work of Dr. Flores. In addition to Julio, some of those teachers include Werner Erhard, Dr. Fred Kofman, James Flagherty, Dr. Matthew Budd, Tom Hanson & Birgit Zacher Hanson, Chalmers Brothers, and more. If you have read any of their books or taken one of their courses, you can see the imprint that Dr. Flores has had on their work.

Alan Seiler introduces us to this work in an easy to understand way that provides a foundation for learning from this master teacher. I applaud Alan on his outstanding job of putting into words these great teachings.

This book is my coaching bible. It is by far the best coaching book I've ever read. Interesting enough, it is about `being' not about `doing'. So many coaches these days believe coaching is about doing something to their clients; getting them to be more productive, motivated, etc. The focus on behavior or `first order change' as Seiler calls it, is the temporary fix of continuous process improvement. This approach to coaching is from an old paradigm, alive and well in many companies today. What often happens is that organizations and/or clients revert back to old familiar ways of being once the newness has worn off. Laying the groundwork for lasting change has to go deeper than behavior and into the way of being. A shift in the way of being creates a new foundation; there is no going back, except by conscious choice.

Coaching on way of being is not therapy. For those not skilled in psychology or therapy, it can appear that ontological coaching is therapy. Therapy however is focused on healing old wounds. Ontological coaching is focused in the present and how a shift in language (beliefs), emotions or somatic responses can create a new way of being and potentially a brighter and more fulfilling future.

This book is for coaches who want to be better coaches. It doesn't give you a fish, it teaches you how to fish. It is theoretical in its approach yet provides good practical examples.

This is an excellent book for learning how to take your listening and your coaching to deep and profound levels. I find that the insights I've gained through reading this book have greatly enhanced my own level of presence with clients, enabling me to assist clients to make lasting and transformational changes that I feel honored to witness.

This book shines with an exquisite simplicity and straightforwardness. The authors' knowledge in using colors will enhance and bring passion to any relationship. Gloria Van Dam, R.N., BSCN.

This book shines with an exquisite simplicity and straightforwardness. The authors' knowledge in using colors will enhance and bring passion to any relationship. Gloria Van Dam, R.N., BSCN.

This book made me take a critical look at my underwear! I became aware that the colour of your undies has an effect on the mood you exude! Gone were the white comfy cotton knickers and sensible sports bra if I wanted to send out a beckoning message to the opposite sex! Not only that, what you wear is what you feel. If you want to feel sexy, this book is a must read before you do anything else!

This book really opened my eyes and my awareness for betterromantic strategies. I loved the "MASTER STROKES" chapterwhich gives the reader great new ideas for color, sex and clothing toset the scene for a successful romance.

This edition of "Company K," by William March (a native of Mobile, graduate of The University of Alabama's law school, and WW I veteran), is one in a series called The Library of Alabama Classics, and it warrants its status as a classic. It's a beautiful little book, nicely typeset in a somewhat nostalgic manner, and deserves to be better known than it is--as does its author. Kudos to Alabama's UP for making this book available in paperback for a wide audience.

The book, first published in 1933, is a collection of short first-person narratives by the members of a company caught in the frontline in the first World War. Remarkable is March's ability to place himself (and the reader) in the positions of a great many very different characters--the company is a cross section of American society. This, his first novel, shows that March is an intelligent and sensitive storyteller.

More remarkable, perhaps, is how easily this book might be hypertexted--since all the narratives intersect, and various characters appear in various guises in other's narratives, it would lend itself easily to an HTML version in which a reader could click their way through the book without having to follow the book's order. Surely March must have seen this as a possible way of reading, since the chapter headings are the characters' names, allowing a reader of the book to easily flip from one character to another. The book, which seems to be suitable more for a spatial than a chronological way of reading, disrupts the boundaries of its printed format. I don't mean to call March a post-structuralist avant la lettre, but it is a feature that enhances, in my opinion, one of the themes of the book: the horror of war recognizes no hierarchy; war disrupts the human order.

As for horror, there is plenty of that. The point of view March has chosen is excellent in that it allows for multiple readings of the same event (for instance, the unnecessary and criminal shelling of a recon party); some of the voices come from beyond the grave and are particularly chilling.

One final note on the edition: it is introduced (not designed, as the Amazon heading states erroneously) by Phil Beidler, a professor of American lit at U of A. Beidler has shown a great interest in and loyalty to the literature of Alabama (see, for instance, his anthologies "The Art of Fiction in the Heart of Dixie" and "Many Voices, Many Rooms"), and his introduction to this book is insightful and touching. Beidler obviously knows his stuff; he knows both war and Alabama.

I believe that this book, as has been noted by others, is of the rank of Remarque's "All Quiet," and it is a wonderful and chilling read. Like most good war novels, it says "don't let this happen again," while realizing that it probably will, knowing human nature.

Slaughterhouse-five, and Catch-22 both borrowed from a powerful predecessor. Company-k is a simple read, short chapters each one a character of many narratives. Each one an insightful and heart-rending tale. It would be easy to ignore Company-K and most don't know it - except that it's written by a man who was there. Hemingway glorified war made it seem almost fun - March tells it as it was. Only Johnny Got His Gun, and All Quite On the Western Front come close to this passionate and shocking book.

Do not take it from me, Graham Greene, one of the most respected names in Twentieth Century Fiction hails March's "Company K" as the greatest of all anti-war novels, while Hemingway thought it superior to almost all other WWI novels. This novel is not an almost-classic, it is a classic, borrowing the format made popular by Edgar Lee Masters, March expounds on the concept of individual soldier stories encompassing the full breath of the war. This novel is as appropriate now as it ever was in the post-WWI era. This novel is a must read for anyone remotely concerned with WWI and the impact war has on the survivors.

March makes a compelling case in this text that he should be well entrenched in the second tier of American authors, if not the first. His WWI recollections do a fine job of bringing out the terrors and guilts of a war long forgotton and little remembered, except for the short period of the Twenties. If there is any shortcoming in this fine work, it is that it draws far too much from Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthologies. My guess is that March, who was trained as a lawyer like Masters (a former partner of the unethical (...) Clarence Darrow) grasped onto Masters' then-current work . It's not a heroic idea, but one that's occurred to me. In any event, Company K is a work that ought to be read far more than it is a century later. WWI [is] seldom remembered as the great trauma that it was in the US. Here's a book that tells how bad it was, and more importantly, why.

Had watched the couple of movies (made in Bangla) for Feluda's adventures, but reading the complete collection was like revisiting an old friend. The translation from Bangla to English has not lost any of the pace or effect. Overall a very good read.

It does not surprise me that Satyajit Ray has a double volume of detective mysteries, The Adventures of Feluda. One of the greatest filmmakers, Ray, a remarkable man, died in 1992 and within his many talents, he was a short story writer. These stories average 75 pages in length and were published from 65-95. Ray has said the stories were written with the young teen in mind, but parents enjoyed reading the stories too. Therefore, Satyajit Ray kept the stories clean, with minimal violence and no illicit love.

Feluda is a young, 30ish bright amateur detective, who travels and partners with his cousin Tapesh, a young teenage boy. Tapesh remains in the background and is in awe of detective Feluda. Tapesh usually knows what makes Feluda tick and he is well aware of his mentor's moods and motives.

Feluda is into yoga, jujitsu, karate and he reads photography, space travel, geometry, etc. He is an expert in aim with rifle shooting. He remains open to anything that can further his knowledge.

The stories involve mysteries in India, with titles as The Golden Fortress, Annubis Mystery, Curse of the Goddess, Emperor's Ring, Trouble in Gangtok, Locked Chest, etc. This is Volume I, with 16 stories. There is a Volume II. .....Rizzo

Satyajit Ray the famous Indian moviemaker was also a writer of great repute. The stories in this book introduce Feluda, the stylish detective who investigates problems all over India. The stories are part from the series published in a Children's Magazine founded many many years ago by Ray's father (maybe by his grandfather). Of course Satyajit Ray is known for his luminous films but that he was a man of numerous talents is amply proven by these racy stories - that remain very absorbing. The translation is ASTOUNDING! And Bengalis living abroad or in India must read this great classic by this multi talented master craftsman! Or anyone interested in Indian films! Excellent effort! Brilliant!

This is a tremendous book. The transalation is brilliant, no doubt, but the real credit undoubtedly has to go to the great Satyajit Ray for writing such brilliant stories.

The move in Feluda from an amateur detective in the first few stories to a serious, successful and reputed investigator can be seen as this book rolls along. Some of the stories like the Royal Bengal Tiger and Trouble in the Graveyard are just absolute classics. The style of writing, the suspense, and the depiction of Calcutta is just amazing.

This is a must-have book. If you're reading this, do yourself a favor and buy this book!

The Complete Guide to Food for Sports Performance is the best sports nutrition resource I have come across. It covers a great variety of sports and is suitable for the recreational sportsperson to the professional athlete. It covers eveything anyone would want to know about sports nutrition and is set out in an easy-to-read manner. Every sports person or sports professional should have a copy of this book

It is hard to keep reading about what "the athlete" should eat. The athlete doesn't exist. But gymnasts and runners and swimmers and basketball players do, and they all have really different needs and interests. This book begins with a section on the principles of sports nutrition - from the science to the general practice. This part is good, and provides an up-to-date view of the latest ideas in eating for peak performance. This shouldn't be too surprising since the author is the head of nutrition at the Australian Institute of Sport. The language is easy to read and makes scientific principles comprehensible.

But it is the second half of this book that is unique and special. It takes a focussed look at various sports, providing a personal glimpse of the nutritional needs and the real life eating practices of the athletes involved. Sports really differ in their lifestyle, their competition needs, their traditions and the ways in which their athletes/players eat to be at their best. These chapters discuss the key nutrition issues that arise in a sport, providing specialised strategies to deal with these issues. It reviews applied sports nutrition studies that can answer specific questions in a sport, and provides case histories to illustrate the special nutritional challenges and solutions. Find out how Tour de France riders refuel during their event. Read how gymnasts manage weight control issues, or whether weightlifters need to eat more protein. Read some of the letters written to body building magazines and compare the answers provided in the magazines with the advice of a real sports nutrition expert. Compare the strategies that football players or runners need to use to stay hydrated during their events. This is the first time that I have gained specific insights into the real life world of sports nutrition. I hope this book continues to be updated to provide a great blend of the science and practice of sports nutrition. I would recommend this book to athletes, coaches and parents. But I also think that many sports science and medicine professionals will benefit from the "birdseye" view of sports nutrition.

I regularly use the book as a quick reference when developing resources or planning a lecture. It is an easy read and provides nutrition tips and issues specific to individual sports. The way the book is set up, allows you to access the information quickly.

The complete guide to food for sports performance is an excellent resource for athletes of all levels. Not only does it provide detailed nutritional information during training it also provides very useful tips for competition (pre-, during and post). The second part of the book addresses a wide range of different sports from distance running and rowing to gymnastics and diving. This part is particularly useful as it highlights problems and nutritional deficiencies that are experienced by athletes in this sport, thus helping the reader to pinpoint (or watch out for) certain eating "mistakes" in their favourite sport. Case studies offer very useful examples on how even small changes in the diet can make a big difference. A brilliant book for anyone interested in sports nutrition.

A most wonderful adventure for all children and adults, especially of Australian heritage.

An Australian children's classic, written and illustrated in the 1930s by May Gibbs, this is the story of two "gumnut babies", tiny childlike people that live in the Australian bush. We follow their adventures meeting new friends and learning the ways of the bush and its animals, including a foray into the ocean and fish society and occasional encounters with the Bad Banksia Men!

This is a beautifully written story with gorgeous illustrations that also subtly teaches the importance of caring for animals and the environment. Bear in mind that being written in the 1930s, there may be occasional moments that could be at odds with modern sensibilities (I don't recall anything blatantly offensive, however), but I don't believe these should be reasons to not read the book, but rather they could be a learning point about how things have changed, etc. I remember being entranced by the adventures of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie as a child, and the book is most suitable for the 5-10 age group, probably with an adult helping the younger ones.

Snugglepot and Cuddlepie is honestly the best children's book i have ever read.

I first took it out at the library when i was about 9 years old, and immediately i fell in love with the little Gumnut babies, and little Obelia was my favourite. She, however, lived under the sea, which made her even more mysterious. The book has a few villains, like the Banksia men and Mr. Snake, but other than that, the Gumnuts always managed to outsmart them!

Set in Australia, this book holds a multitude of charms, laughs and fascination. My love for Snugglepot and Cuddlepie will never die, even though i enter my adult years. May Gibbs, the author, does a fantastic job of illustrating and writing this gorgeous book. I recommend it to children 9 - 11 years, or anyone with an interest in nature, and wildlife mixed with fantasy.

My mom was from Austraila, and I grew up in California. Grandma sent us this book from Austrailia when we were little, and I loved it so much. Snugglepot and Cuddlepie are two gum-nut brothers who go on a quest through the Austrailian bush to see "humans". Along the way, they have many adventures. All the gum-nut people look like naked pudgy little two-year olds. The boys are either naked, or they have a gum leaf (eucalyptus leaf) for clothes (which really doesn't cover anything). They also all have caps made out of the end of a gum blossom. The girls are naked, but they have a little flower ring around their tummy, which covers as much as a swim ring. (The girls' hats are a gum bloosom with the flower on it, so it looks like they all have fuzzy blond hair.) Don't worry, no one has any "private parts", no more than Winnie the Pooh, but there are lots of cute backsides. You just want to squeeze and hug all the little gum-nut people. Snugglepot and Cuddlepie meet lots of Austrailian animals like kookaburras, joeys, lizards, ants, and caterpillers, and the wicked Banksea men (which my mom told me were seed pods off of the banksea bush). I get the impression that the author/illustrator had a real love for the outback, because the pictures have the detail of a botinist. The pictures are beautiful ink drawings, with some watercolor color plates. The book not have easy words for a little child to read to itself, it is more for snuggling up with mom or dad to read to you. I am going to get some for my grandkids.

I have only had a chance to look through the book, but it looks like it has a lot of the newer tatting that I am looking for.
Barbara

What a great tatting book! The beginning has very good instructions for several techniques and then there are 15 lovely patterns demonstrating them. Lots of nice, large, color photos and diagrams with clear written and charted directions.

This is a wonderful book. It is very inspiring. You find it hard to decide what to tat first. This is one of the best tatting books I have seen in awhile. Well worth purchasing.

This book is a great one for a tatter in any level. What I like the most about the book is that you can find some techniques that are not very commonly use in Tatting and at least a pattern to practice that technique. Also some patterns "play" with beads, something that makes tatting more beautiful!

This is a tremendous book that will certainly dominate my coffee table for years to come. It might be useful when referring to various species (e.g. when buying mail-order) but it does not contain any aquarium care information- a task that is best left in another volume. If you are interested in the subject, however, I highly recommend this book.

This is the greatest coral book ever written! It is a masterpiece and includes some of the best underwater coral photography ever published. It is mostly a pretty version of Dr. Veron's 5 vol scientific journals, and is a little hard to see it's true use in the reef keeping hobby, because it talks about corals strictly out on the wild reef, but if you take the requirements of the animal in the wild and apply it to your home aquarium you can not fail. This book is also the best for identifing all of those mystery stony corals you have in your tank. There is not one stony coral on the reef that this book does not discuss. If you have stony corals or plan to have them in the future then this book is a must have on your list. The price tag is a little high I know, but worth every cent. The great pictures alone make it a great coffee table book and worth the price right there,if you love corals don't pass this book up!

Corals of Australia and Indo-Pacific is the ultimate resource for stony (SPS) Corals I have found to date. I am a reef aquarium hobbiest and I use Verons book almost exclusively to identify species of aquarium coral. The book is also extremely helpful in requard to the taxonomy of the SPS.

Corals of Australia and the Indo-Pacific is by far the best reference for coral reference on the market today. This book is for the serious Reef Aquarium Hobbiest or Marine Biologist. While this book does not give reference to aquarium conditions, it does provide the reader with a comprehensive review of the major SPS corals not given in any other puiblication that I have found. If you are are an SPS reef aquarium hobbiest. You need this book