Australia Books

This is a wonderful book to help children learn about Australia. It's beautifully illustrated too!

Want a good, fast easy read to learn about the top wineries and wines from each region in Australia and New Zealand in 140 pages or so? This is the book for you.

Vincent Gasnier is a talented sommelier with a knack for writing about wines in a very interesting and compelling manner, making for great reading. He's written a series of 4 brief, but informative overview books, covering the top wines from France, Italy, Australia and New Zealand, and the United States. All are easy reading, ideal for reading in short bursts of time as well as informative and enjoyable.

This book on Australian and Kiwi wines offers a brief historical overview of wines in both countries. Then, it presents a brief section on each region, including a general description of the region, the winemakers, wineries and top wines.

The top 10 for a region can take the form of multiple top 10 lists such as Top Blockbuster Australian Reds, Top 10 Fruity Australian Wines, Top 10 Fabulous Desert Wines, Top 10 Great Shiraz Producers, Top 10 Magnificent Celebration Wines, Top 10 Australian Wines for Everyday Drinking, Top 10 Outstanding Small Producers, Top 10 Best Kept Secrets in Australian Wines, Top 10 New Zealand Wines for Everyday Drinking, Top 10 Great New Zealand Pinot Noirs, and many others in addition to the Top 10 wines in each region.

It also features brief (2 to 4 page) sections on Wine and Food Matching, Buying and Storing Wine, Wine Tasting, and one on Wines Styles, a popular approach gaining in usage that breaks wines into category profiles. For example, white wines are classified into the following categories: 1). Crisp dry light bodied; aromatic to flowery, dry to medium-sweet; tangy or steely medium bodied; and full-bodied, rich flavored. Grapes typically make wines in one of these categories (although chardonnay grapes, for example, may overlap two categories depending on the winemaking style employed). Generally someone who likes a certain style of wine might appreciate the appeal of other grapes making wines in this same style or category. This section also lists the Australia and New Zealand wines that would apply to each of these categories.

The majority of the book focuses on Australia wines before taking on the topic of New Zealand wines in 27 pages. While Australia produces a vastly greater quantity of wine than New Zealand, the emergence of New Zealand wines could merit a bit more coverage than the author provides. Still, the New Zealand overview is reasonably adequate.

I highly recommend this book for anyone seeking a basic overview of Australian and New Zealand wines. The author has a nice ability to explore a topic briefly, yet still provide valuable information. Gasnier is one of my favorite wine authors. If there were an award for adequately conveying a useful overview of Aussie and Kiwi Wines - along with wine information in general - in the least number of pages, Gasnier would surely win it. I am pretty knowledgeable about wine and still found this book very well done and interesting. Highly recommended, as is the entire 4 book series.

Mark Vincent

I highly recommend this book for teaching children about Australia and New Zealand. It is just right, provides good information and isn't long winded. It's actually fun to read. Remember those deadly dull country books we had to read or browse in when we were kids? Hopefully those books are passe!

Leadbeater continues to astonish as he speaks on theosophic issues to the lands down under. A true collector's item!

If you are looking for key documents in Australian foreign affairs history, here is the book you need. Meticulously compiled by one of the greatest historians of Australia's foreign relations, this massive tome houses a wealth of material for scholars. The layout is basically chronological, with introductory notes on each document by Meaney, which help to set the document in its historical context. This book is expensive - but it is certainly worth the money.

An excellent companion to travels in Australia, either in life or from the armchair. Section 1 is entitled Politics and Daily Life. It includes pieces by women of a variety of ethnic backgrounds, ranging over an extremely eclectic range of topics, from women convicts to racism and politics from koori women's point of view. A reasonable representation of Aboriginal women is present - more than in most collections. Part Two looks at particular places , It is called Cities - Country - Rivers. Some of the pieces are about places well away from the regular tourist path, for example Flinders Island. This is a feminist volume, and includes chapters from lesbian women. Staying and working on organic farms is popular these days. Kaye Johnston's chapter "The revolutionary nature of Lesbian Organic Gardening" tells about her and her partner's project - Moonraker farm in the NSW Southern Highlands. At the end are several listings, some of which may be out of date. More useful is a Recommended Reading section which includes literature, anthologies, poetry and plays, fiction, autobiography, history, - mainly, but not exclusively by women. There is biographical information on each of the contributors. This is a really interesting volume to dip in to, and it is a very valuable companion to Australian cultural life, breaking out of the Crocodile Dundee, sunbronzed Aussie type of stereotype. And, I think, despite the title, there is much for men in here too!

I have read several of Mr. Johnson's books and find them all very informative. Being an Australian, was particularly interested in "Australia from the back of a Camel". This book gives a very accurate description of the vast expanse of inland Oz, and one can almost smell the dust. For anyone contemplating a trip to Central Australia, this book is a must.

Lauren Bernofsky is an award-winning modern composer who writes in an accessible style. Each of the seven movements in this delightful suite is named for an animal or feature of Australia: "The Great Barrier Reef," "The Paltypus," "Rainbow Lorikeets," etc. The music is evocative, witty, and sometimes impressionistic. Students will love to practice and perform this piece, which is an excellent introduction to contemporary music. Samples of Ms. Bernofksy's music can be heard on www.laurenbernofsky.com

Not just a book about kangeroo steaks and gator burgers like I thought. All the imigrants have added to the Australian cuisine, so you get Thai, Italian, Vietnamese and lots more! Gorgeous pictures as most "Beautiful cookbook" collectors like me :-) will know. You get lots of fish, lots of low fat lots of spice.

A "must have" for your kitchen, you get about ten cuisines in one.

"Australia's Age of Iron" is unique in drawing together the historical and archaeological information on the early development of iron smelting in Australia. Due to Australia's comparatively recent European settlement (since 1788) industrial archaeology has a short perspective and has been largely neglected until recently. This book provides the basic information on the earlist attempts at establishing an iron industry and a review of the archaeological investigations. Jack and Cremin give a short introduction to the iron extraction traditions which contributed to the Australian scene, and then trace the history of the history of the various 19th century attempts to establish iron smelting and manufacturing operations. They also provide accounts of the archaeological situation of each of the sites. They document how the the economic survival of the local iron operations, particularly smelting, was dependent upon government support due to the difficulty of the 'infant ' industry becoming competitive with the cheap imports from long established European and North American manufacturers. The book is well illustrated with maps, period photographs of the pioneer iron works and modern black & white photographs of the sites. While the it is comparatively short at xiv + 175 pages it is comprehensively referenced and indexed. It covers a great deal of material and fills a major gap in Australian industrial archaeology. It is expensive, but worth the money, as there is nothing else available in this area.