Oceania Books

This is the first comprehensive whale watching guidebook to come out of Australia (other than the earlier work by Ross Isacc). There is an introduction to whale and dolphin biology, evolution, etc. plus some historical whaling facts and also a chapter on whale and dolphin watching both from land and from cruises. The best part of the book would be its excellent coverage of whale watching spots in and around Australia and New Zealand and the fantastics pics. The thing I did not like about this book was its actual style of writing. I rather read something that was written in the style used in Discovery Travels series where they write in the way that allows you to really picture the place in your head. Overall, still the best whale watching guidebook for Oceania.

University of Houston professor Gerald Horne sets forth an intriguing study into the slave trade in the Pacific during the second half of the 19th Century.
While setting down a well-documented history of Pacific "blackbirding," a euphemism for slave trading, Horne also develops an argument that the shortage of cotton and sugar created by the Civil War set into motion a series of events that gives rise to U.S. Imperialism, which eventually extinguishes Hawaii's sovereignty, fosters the White Australia policy and gives rise to Imperial Japan and ultimately, World War II in the Pacific.
Almost as intriguing is Hawaii's role in the White Pacific. Horne develops the early ambitions of Kamehameha the Great to become the Napoleon of the Pacific, using the fleet assembled for an assault on Kauai to subjugate Tahiti. These ambitions live all the way through Kalakaua, who successfully argued before the legislature for $30,000 to form a Polynesian confederation.
The King sent representatives to Samoa, where the Malietoa, or alii nui, agreed to a confederation between the two kingdoms. However, the arrangement was short-lived as Kalakaua was stripped of his power the following year when he signed the Bayonet Constitution, and a reform party ended the alliance.
Hawaii's distaste for slavery was written into the Constitution of 1852, partially on the advice of Alexander Liholiho, nephew of Kamehameha III. During a visit to the United States in 1849, Alexander Liholiho experienced slavery and racism first hand and vowed that it would never take place in the Hawaiian Kingdom.

The exploration of the Pacific was, in its day, something closely akin to modern space travel - huge risks, huge rewards, vast spaces. This useful guide takes us through encyclopaedia-length entries on both the luminaries (Cook, La Perouse) and the lesser-known Pacific explorers. Dunmore is a leading authority in this field.

I have purchased a one-way ticket to Sydney, Australia with plans to attend graduate school and possibly get a job in the country. This book, while extremely helpful, can be dry at times and is written primarily from the British perspective. However, when dealing with such exciting topics and taxation, bureaucracy and housing, one cannot expect the most spectacular prose and the British viewpoint can be easily circumvented with some careful reading.

The book is visually stunning: some readers may be disappointed, depending on what they are seeking. The book consists of superb shots of pieces from Asia, Africa, Oceana, and (South)America. The pieces consist of a variety of head ornaments: combs, bands, nose ornaments, etc., but do not include earrings (which are covered in A World of Earrings) or hats. The representation is uneven, with the collections for Asia and Africa being much stronger than for Oceana (perhaps 24 pieces) or South America (perhaps a dozen pieces). Since this is a catalog of a personal collection, one obviously cannot have pictures of what is not there, and this is not a criticism. However, the person researching international jewelry should recognize the limitation.

The pictures themselves are stupendous: large with extremely clear detail. Depending on the item, there may be several on a pages (as with small hairpins) or one piece may have a double spread. The pictures are solely of the pieces; there is no attempt to display them as they would be used. They are arranged in geographical sections, with a brief introduction to the jewelry of that area. All of the caption information is collected at the end of the book, which I suppose avoids detracting from the pictures, but which some may find annoying. At least every page seems to have a discreet page number, so it is easy to match them to the captions. Anyone with a scholarly interest may find this disappointing: there is minimal information about the size of the pieces, generally the largest dimension only, and only one, even if multiple pieces are shown in the same picture. Only a very broad provenance is given, and little about the age. One comb for example, notes that this style was derived from the Spanish mantilla beginning in the 17th century, but it does not indicate if it is also contemporary. I a a little confused by the notation in the caption about a piece from Nigeria referring to Pharaonic Egypt. Does this reflect cultural sharing? Does this mean that the piece is from the time in history? The precise comment is that the ancient Egyptians often copied natural forms, but looking through the pictures, isn't that true of most cultures?

The index is very detailed in that one may, for example, look up pieces from Ming Dynasty China under either Ming or China. It would be helpful if a time period was specified for the dynasties. Also, the page numbers refer only to text, either in the section introductions or the captions. Thus, one is directed to the captions for the jewelry, and goes from there to the pictures. There are also maps and an extensive bibliography.

Well worth oohing and ahhing over, but will be only a supplement for a person with scholarly interests.

Before starting to read PT's travel books, I had to search for a book to read and I started many which I ended up throwing away after reading a hundred or so pages and I decided to give up on writing negative reviews as a result. Then I read Dark Star Safari and now I want to read all of PT's books.

Theroux mentions so many different things during his travels that it is difficult to tell you just what the books are like, except to say that while reading, it feels like you are there witnessing these people and places with him. I will give just one example from Oceania which I found great fun to read, namely his description of Dame Cath Tizard's way of eating. He wrote, "She scraped food onto her fork, but before she heaved it she nudged more onto the fork with her thumb. And after she ate the forkful she licked her thumb. Once I caught her grinning at me, but she was not grinning. She was trying to dislodge a bit of food that had found its way between her teeth, and still talking and grinning, she began picking her teeth. Having freed the food from her teeth, she glanced at it and pushed it into her mouth. (while talking of her being chosen governor-general)...Her finger was in her mouth, fishing for bits of trapped lamb sinews... And she slurped the food off her finger, and then began scraping the plate...." I'm not saying I have the greatest table manners myself, but I simply revelled in reading this description.

I can understand that there are many people who wouldn't like reading him and who would disagree with Paul Theroux's views. I am saying I find his writing thoroughly entertaining and relaxing because I like to see the world the way it really is, the beautiful as well as the ugly, and this book satisfies my curiosity about much of the South Pacific.

This is a good read. Theroux gives it to us straight. I found it refreshing to read the good and the bad of all the islands and I strongly disagree with two of the previous reviews. This is not about Theroux's children and wife and if he does whine his melancholy only enriches his experience.

I did not have high expectations for this book as I picked it up at a library sale for a quarter and a friend of mine that had lived in Tonga said he disagreed with Theroux's perception of that Island. After reading the section on Tonga I felt it interesting, humorous and I felt as if I had been there myself and would have experienced it as Theroux did, the outsider "Palangi", not as my friend did with a two year Peace Corps stint.

Theroux likes some places he visits and dislikes others. I would not have believed anything else and would not have wanted to read a superficial treatment of the area. Not every island is a paradise, certainly not American Somoa but he does reveal the paradise of the Cook Islands, The Marquesas, and the fascination of Easter Island.

Theroux may not be the perfect person but he is very nearly the perfect travel writer and I very much enjoyed seeing Oceana through his eyes.

To be honest, it took me a while to get into this one. I found the sections on Australia and New Zealand uninteresting and somewhat disorderly, and not any way as compelling as what was to come. The book took off as soon as he hit the north-eastern coast of Australia, camping on the beaches around Cookstown etc., and his subsequent journey to the Trobriands, and on across the pacific. The portrayal of the characters was really excellent, and I found myself sharing in Theroux's humiliation at the hands of the islanders, escpecially the teasing he endured from the children in the Trobriands, frightening really.
Like my title suggests, this was a pleasant enjoyable read.

I find Paul Theroux's travel books to be a delight to read, and Happy Isles of Oceania is one of my favorites. Reeling from a split with his wife, PT begins his journey on a book tour in NZ and Australia, and then travels around much of Oceania. He kayaks and camps on most of the islands, and makes many discoveries about the various people and cultures. Most notable is the natives' consistent use of the ocean as a toilet and a garbage dump. He hikes in NZ's southern alps; explores the Aussie bush; attends the unusual Yam-festival in the Trobriands; meets the King of Tonga; insults a politician from NZ; plays Robinson Crusoe for a week; contracts a disease; gets stung by jellyfish; makes friends; drinks kava; wonders what drew Robert Louis Stevenson to Samoa and Paul Gaugain to Tahiti; and visits a Hawaiian island that few are allowed on. If you like PT's other travel books, you'll love this one. If you haven't read any, this is a great one to start with.

This book is a prolonged snivel about the pain of voluntarily going to places the author then found tacky, hostile or boring. By his own account he had not a moment's pleasure from his travels until he reached Hawaii, where it was all American and OK and Not Foreign. The only puzzle is why he did not at a much earlier stage of the trip get on a plane and go there direct; presumably he'd taken an advance from his publisher and had to deliver a book of some sort. The whole thing carries a moral for modern travellers: if you can't engage constructively with the places you go to, then please, please, stay at home - that way you'll be happier, the foreign people will be happier, and you won't needlessly contribute to airline CO2 emissions.

Mary and Peter are two U.S. school children on their way to visit their uncle in Adelaide, Australia. Mary is fourteen and Peter is nine. While flying over Central Australia their plane crashes and the children are the only survivors. How are two modern children to survive in the Sturt Desert? Soon Mary and Peter meet a thirteen year old, native, Aboriginal boy. He seems to be their savior but Mary cannot bring herself to trust him and modern civilization is a very long way off.

This book raises important questions about the supposed superiority of Western civilization over 'native' cultures, and the supposed inferiority of 'colored' people. It also illustrates the terrible misunderstandings that can result when people of different cultures meet.

This book was published in 1959 and it is important to realize that Australia has changed a great deal since then. Non-English speaking Aboriginals who have never had contact with white people are definitely a thing of the past, and were very rare even in 1959. Beyond the fact of a plane crash the author has not given any indication of the time in which the story is set.

Mary and Peter are two U.S. school children on their way to visit their uncle in Adelaide, Australia. Mary is fourteen and Peter is nine. While flying over Central Australia their plane crashes and the children are the only survivors. How are two modern children to survive in the Sturt Desert? Soon Mary and Peter meet a thirteen year old, native, Aboriginal boy. He seems to be their savior but Mary cannot bring herself to trust him and modern civilization is a very long way off.

This book raises important questions about the supposed superiority of Western civilization over 'native' cultures, and the supposed inferiority of 'colored' people. It also illustrates the terrible misunderstandings that can result when people of different cultures meet.

This book was published in 1959 and it is important to realize that Australia has changed a great deal since then. Non-English speaking Aboriginals who have never had contact with white people are definitely a thing of the past, and were very rare even in 1959. Beyond the fact of a plane crash the author has not given any indication of the time in which the story is set.

"Walkabout" is the novel that inspired the Nicolas Roeg-directed 1971 film that is considered a masterpiece. And the film is a masterpiece, so original and so beautiful to look at that it has a hypnotic quality to it. Then there's the book, which has the same plot outline but bares few similarities to the film. In the novel, we meet two American siblings. Fourteen year old Mary and six-year-old Peter, who are the sole survivors of a plane crash and are now forced to wander the Australian desert. During their walk, wondering how they're going to get food and water, they meet a young naked Aborigine boy doing his walkabout. The walkabout is a six month period of time in which a young Aborigine man-child must wander the outback of Australia using his survival skills and knowledge of hunting to stay alive (or not). Sensing that they're weak, the Aborigine begins leading the children through the desert. Since they don't speak the same language, Peter begins to try and communicate with the boy. Mary, who is a typical 14-year-old girl, doesn't try and communicate with the boy. The theme of the novel and the film is "miscommunication" and it ruins the lives of both Mary and the Aborigine, although a little more so in the movie. The book doesn't pack a real dramatic punch. It's a brisk 158 page read that is entertaining, but it amazed me while reading it that it managed to inspire such an incredible film. First off, the way the children are stranded in the desert is much more haunting in the film. The fate of the Aborigine is much more poignant in the movie. The film has a magical and hypnotic quality that the book simply does not possess. If the movie didn't exist, I'd recommend you read the book. The movie does exist though and so I must say that the only reason you should read the book is if you've already seen the movie and you're curious. I think there's a real danger that reading the book and then seeing the movie will ruin that magic of it. The movie is a masterpiece, the book is entertaining and provides a small history lesson. The book is also much more character driven then the film, obviously, because you hear what the characters think and say. The film doesn't even bless the characters with names and it gives them sparse dialogue. If you want to read the book, go ahead but I suggest you see the film first.

GRADE: B-

If you like the survival books (Hachet, the Cay) you'll probally like this book. But unlike the other survival stories it occurs right in the middle of the Austrailan Outback. An American boy and girl meet up with an Aborigine boy and face the rough desert together. The author of the story tells of the flora and fauna that normally coudn't survive in that habitat, but is still facinating to learn about. They have to get used to each other's culture of life, which gets the bushboy killed. It is a great book about culture and life and I think you would like it to.

As dated as this book is and remember it was first published in the 1950s, there is something compelling about it that makes you want to read it from cover to cover.

The plot in itself is quite simple, two white children, a boy and a girl are lost in the Australian outback after a plane crash which kills the crew; neither child has any experience in the art of surviving in a hostile environment and it is only by luck they are found by a young Aborigine boy who is on Walkabout, a trek he must make alone before he can be called a man.

The story follows the children and their saviour through the outback until the death of the Aborigine caused either by the racial prejudice of the white girl who fears the Aborigine along possibly with her own blossoming sexuality (however I am not so sure about this because of the era the book was written in) or the fact he (the Aborigine) did not have any immunity against the diseases that while people carried such as the common cold.

Either way the children are on their own again but they now have the survival skills they need to make their way back to their own world which is filled all the trappings of supposed civilisation, such as technology and racism.

A surprisingly haunting read even now in the 21st century and it was made into a film some years ago with Jenny Agutter in the leading role.

Not as good as the first, even though more timely. As I read about the coup in Fiji four years ago in Troost's book, the day's headlines on Yahoo.com included a story describing the continuing infighting!

Troost's strengths are not as a journalist, but as an observer of the cultural and social divides and denominators that bring us together and tear us apart. His first book, perhaps with the fresh eyes of innocence, was better.

Following The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific with Getting Stoned, I can't wait for the third installment on rock and roll.

This was my first Troost book, and I found it laugh out loud funny, witty, and a light, fun, fast read. It was well worth the day it took to read it. I'm not going to suggest it was profound, thought provoking, or a must read from a literary sense, but it's one of those books that you read when you want something funny and light. It sounds like the people who first read "Sex Lives of Cannibals" were somewhat disappointed in this book. (Which just tells me that "Sex Lives of Cannibals" must be hilarious! Maybe everyone should read this one first.) Without having read that to compare to (therefore rating purely on a stand-alone basis), I found this book really enjoyable. Troost's witty humor, sarcasm, and ability to poke fun at himself make for an enjoyable read (especially between books tackling heavier subject matters). It's like taking your own mini vacation.

excellent book. funny and unpredictable. makes you believe you can invision his trips. highly recommended

We spent almost three months Cruising in Vanuatu in 2007. This book gave us some great insight complementing our first hand experiences about how this fascinating country operates and where a big percentage of the locals live a true subsistence life without the hassles of western civilization. Plus the book is a very fun read!

Since I'm really busy I admit to being picky about what I read. This book didn't do it for me: after 2 weeks I'm only on page 45. The concept of a middle class man in his early 30's going to discover himself in a 3rd world country might be cool, but it's not different or new anymore. Nowadays there are many people who do what the author did, or something similar it. I would feel bad giving this book such a bad review except that the author seemed a little arrogant and I'm sure he's made a lot of money off his "sex lives" "getting stoned" books. I will not finish this book. I'm glad that I didn't actually spend money on it but rather found it left behind in an airplane.

I struggled through 106 pages before I gave up on it altogether. The book held every potential of a great adventure but sorely lacked in its characters - the whining and vain Stiller coupled with a boorish Tony made for a literary flop. Their trip was doomed from the beginning, the two seemed to be in a state of constant bickering - where was the camaderie? The whole thing begged for credibility and substance. Sorry - just couldn't take it. Save your money and buy Chris Duff's 'Southern Exposure'.

I picked up this book as my husband is Australian and we both kayak. I can't imagine trying to accomplish this feat, and I found the tale pretty accurate of a long kayaking trip.

I wished they could have finished the trip, but it kind of seemed like they wanted it for the wrong reasons. Don't get me wrong they accomplished quite a feat and I"m not trying to take away from that. It's just that Eric and Tony seemed to grow up rich and be given all the oppurtunites in life, so when presented with severe obstacles they had a hard time dealing with them. It seemed more like an extended vacation rather then an expedition. Maybe, I"m just a little biased after reading Paddle to the Amazon and discovering all they went through. Still, this book isn't as bad as some say, it's good read, and you get a good sense of thier journey, it just could have been better.

Caffyn's "Dreamtime Voyage" is the best on kayaking around Australia. It is more of a 5 star book. And his NZ book "Obscured by Waves" is back in print!

I got this one for my birthday and started reading it with great enthusiasm. Few people have attempted to circumnavigate Australia in a kayak and except of Paul Caffyn no one succeeded so far. Therefore, Eric Stiller (the author) and Tony Brown (his paddle partner) are in good company with their failed attempt to complete the circumnavigation. This book is Eric's account of five months of paddling over 3500 miles from Sydney along Oz's east and north coasts to Darwin.

Paddling almost half the way around Australia in a Klepper foldable boat in five months is a great adventure. It must have been quite an amazing journey along one of the worlds most beatiful shorelines. However, there is hardly any of this aspect in the book. Instead you'll get bored of Eric's dwelling in endless complaints about his sore butt, the always higher-than-expected swell, and his ever ongoing struggles with Tony. The only thing more disappointing than Eric's whining about all the evil surrounding him is the stretch of lousy b/w pictures (on all of which the water is as flat as a mirror, so there must have been a couple of good days at least).

The title refers to Tony's rejection of Eric's request to buy charts for the trip. Instead, he recommends, to simply "keep Oz on the left". I would not want to go on a week-long trip with a guy as naive as that. Tony's naive attitude and Erics subordination to Tony's moods borders on stupidity more often than not. Day after day the two get up too late to make their distance in daylight, they have to make a dangerous landing at some beach they can hardly see in the dark, they find some food and exhaustedly fall asleep, which makes them get up too late the next morning and so on. They once take off in a storm out of a "cabin-fever" mood and almost die that day, triggering a coast guard search. A long list of misjudgements and rants of self-pity later, the duo almost get themselves killed in the gulf of carpentaria and, to the big relief of the reader, give up their journey shortly thereafter.

Eric does not seem to really enjoy any of this whole trip - everything always seems to be worse than expected. He doesn't seem to live the journey, he seems to long for it to end before it even started. The book reads as if all this was pushed onto him, and this way it ends up to be a depressing account of quite a tremendous achievement. Unfortunately, Eric does not seem to understand anything of what has happened. Instead of writing a pity-party of a book like this, he should fall down on his knees and thank his god for the fact, that he pulled his sorry butt out of this alive.

I am a BIG fan of Lori Wick. I have read most of her books. I found this book hard to read. It took me a long time to get through it. I usually eat up her stuff. The book was just a bummer in my opinion. I usually save the books and reread them but this one I didn't bother, I donated it to the library.

This was the first Lori Wick book I ever read and I LOVED it. I immediately went to the library and read through every book of hers that they had. "Sophie's Heart" and "The Princess" along with this book are probably my favorites, but picking a favorite is like trying to pick a favorite child. Lori does such a good job telling a story and getting you involved in what happens to the character. If I had to say something bad about her books it is that it is always makes me a little sad when I am done with the book, I would love to go on reading forever!

I picked up this book recently when we were traveling and read it on the road. I have not read Lori Wick before so didn't have preconceived ideas of her writing. I enjoyed the book immensely. When I finished I went back and re-read parts of it as I tend to miss things the first time around. I thought the part where the book skips to Riggs finding Lorri on the Island was actually an interesting style of writing. Little by little it comes out what happened after the plane crash. Reading the other reviews I noticed no one mentions the grandfather and the impact he has on Lorri's life and helping her to recover such a trauma. From the beginning I was sure Riggs and Lorri would find romance but was curious how the author was going to get them together. I thought his character took such special care of Lorri and was going to make a special person in her life. Even though some of the reviews were pretty critical, I enjoyed the book. Since reading this one, I have read a few more Lori Wick books (The Princess, Who Brings Forth the Wind, To Know Her By Name) and have enjoyed those also. Sometimes I think I want the story to go a little differently but yet understand what the author is trying to accomplish. I enjoy the historical times even if they aren't completely accurate. Anyone enjoying historical Christian romance, another excellent author is Gilbert Morris. I really enjoy his books and as a rule the history in them are right on.

Having been a fan of Lori Wick's series, I sometimes have a hard time getting into her stand alone books. For instance, "The Princess" was not one of my favorites. However, "Every Storm" is one of my favorites. Some of the other reviews were critical of the book, but the story line is good, and although some were disappointed by the gap between the sisters boarding the plane and servicemen finding Lorri on the island, I felt it added to the book. Instead of getting all the info. in a neat little package, you get little hints on what happened.

It's a good read. If you really get into the characters when you read keep kleenex handy.

Usually I love Wick's books and have sincerly enjoyed her tuckermills books and have read all of her other novels, enjoying Pretence and others the most, but this book was terribly hard to get into. I actually couldn't finish it and gave it to my husband to trade for commentaries (He's a seminary student). I was really disappointed, because when I learned Wick had written a WWII novel I was excited, but my excitement was misplaced.