Oceania Books

I recommend that you pass on this book. I purchased it based on an advertisement and the current Amazon recommendations, but I found the author to be myopic and condescending. In one chapter, he describes some short stature tourists as "munchkins." In another, he discusses his thought process on turning back to New Zealand during a gale, and decides against it because his crew might flee and he would have difficulty finding new crew. Obviously, the primary concern should be protection of crew and not the convenience of the captain. He seems obsessed with money and the cost of items to the point of being miserly. For example, when a crew member with whom he has been romantically involved takes her leave, he makes a point of explaining how he offered to buy from her a pair of swim fins to give her some road money. He continually discusses his purchase of food from street vendors and its low cost - while commenting on the unsanitary manner in which it is served. Most of the travel discussions are little more than tourist bus rides. Frankly, I found the author's egocentric point of view distracting to the point of being offensive. Pass.

Most sailing books are the I got here using this sail with the wind from the south, etc. variety. This is quite different. It is a single, male in self imposed exile on a sailboat. Interacting with the local cultures to some degree, but never a part of it, and thus an observer. A sharp, sometimes funny, sometimes poignant, sometimes sad observer. Most are stories and observations at his various longer stops along the way.

True to what any of us might experience going solo, with assorted crew, around the world. A couple would have had a different experience, and perhaps fit in better, but would not notice what he does.
Highly recommended.

Gregory Newell Smith's The Solitude of the Open Sea, a collection of narrative essays drawn from Smith's around-the- world sailing adventures, is much more than a sailing book: it is an insightful reflection on cross-cultural misunderstandings and the problems of cultural isolation; an album of portraits of fascinating people (his account of a young English woman, "Florence," was my favorite); and, most of all, the book is a philosophical examination of solitude and how being alone on his journey shaped his experiences.
The title essay, which tells of Smith's 53-day solo passage from Panama to Hawaii, explains how a full appreciation of solitude goes beyond merely being alone, away from other people. On the contrary, it is through solitude that Smith is able to experience communion with nature and all of its power, a sublimity that, for Smith, is inspired by the breadth and majesty of the open sea. The experience of the sublime is a distinctive aesthetic that overwhelms the observer in a way that ordinary perception cannot.
The sense of what Smith calls "wonder and awe" is difficult to apprehend outside of nature, though it is perhaps approached in some Chinese and Western landscape paintings. As Smith writes, "It took the sea's total freedom and the solitude I found there to finally achieve the communion I'd sought for so many years. When I found that communion, . . . it was a communion with Nature, with the universe beheld each day, with the wind, the waves, the sky, and the creatures of the sea. . . . For a brief time I was at peace. There was nothing I truly desired, no other person I needed to make me feel whole. My world was complete."
What Smith experienced on the open sea was nature mysticism, which differs from traditional mysticism in at least two ways. First, nature mystics are extroverted, by which I mean that all their senses, including the kinesthetic, are stimulated. By contrast, other mystics turn inward and deliberately shut down their senses. Second, traditional mystics, rather than merging with nature, experience a fusion with God or the universal soul (atman) of the Hindus.
Both types of mysticism, however, do draw a person into the Eternal Now. Smith writes, "I can think of no more immediate experience than sailing by oneself. . . . we feel bored or lonely when we are no longer living in the present moment. We want a change of circumstances, to be somewhere else or doing something else. We separate ourselves from our immediate reality by positing an alternate. We react rather than respond." The mystics and the sea teach us the same lesson: "The key is acceptance: eventually the sea will get you to admit that one of the few things you can change in life is your attitude. A successful ocean passage is therefore nothing short of the union of the boat and its crew with the natural environment, and exemplifies the difference between reacting and responding."
By the end of the book, however, Smith has learned that he really needs soul fusion and not just nature mysticism. "I know I should be savoring each and every moment of this wonderful sailing-around-the-world life, but my willingness to experience wonder and awe has been drained by the absence of a soul mate with whom to share it." This confession appears at odds with his claim that the open sea is a cure for loneliness and boredom, but now, although he has "increased [his] capacity for solitude," he admits that he is lonely.
Smith fears that his profound experiences of the sublime have made him less than fit for ordinary human fellowship. Nature accepts us unconditionally and she is fair and faithful, "treating us with he same care and respect she affords all." But most human beings want more than this-they are after all social animals-and each of us desires a special someone in a unique relationship of love and trust.
Smith is able to admit that his life is not complete, and that he really does need another person to make him whole. He acknowledges that he has been "nursing [a] resentment about having no partner, no soul mate, no special person with whom to share the journey." Furthermore, he has discovered that other lands, such as New Zealand, even though very much like his own Pacific Northwest, could not really be his home. "I'll leave those places to their own natives, to those people who, as Terry Tempest Williams writes, naturally comprehend their landscapes and hold them as sanctuary inside their unguarded hearts."
In addition to insightful ruminations on solitude, the author also reflects on the difficulties of cross-cultural understanding. The reader gets the impression that Smith initially assumed that Euro-American "cruisers"-those who sail leisurely from island to island, continent to continent-would be ideal emissaries for international understanding. The actual experience, however, was far from what he expected.
Though he is not as cynical as the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein ("One culture misunderstands another; and a petty culture misunderstands all the others in its own nasty way") he still comes to some rather negative conclusions: "There is little meaningful interaction between the cultures, as if both sides recognize the impossibility of either being able to fathom the other. Notions of universal brotherhood are pragmatically reduced to simple acceptance, without any real understanding of each other's lives."
He expresses his frustration at his failure to make further inroads into the native environment, but recognizes that his frustration is equally a measure of his own society's values and their hold on him. Nor does Smith believe that we westerners can hope to "go native;" no matter how much we may try, they will always remain at a distance from the culture we would embrace, forever identified by the locals as the outsider, the "Other."
The Solitude of the Open Sea is a marvelous book, both philosophically astute and a constant pleasure to read. Through a series of carefully chosen snapshots, Gregory Newell Smith has ably recreated the daily realities of extended travel and the insights it provides, ranging from the depths of despair, to the humdrum quotidian rituals, to the dizzying heights of rapture. The book is also a portrait of a caring, deeply introspective man-a nature mystic if you will-searching for peace with himself and with the world.

In the nineteen-nineties, approaching the age of forty, Gregory Newell Smith gave up his career as a Seattle corporate lawyer, sold most everything he owned, bought an ocean-going sailboat, and set out to see the world. After logging more than 45,000 blue water miles, and circling the globe aboard his Fast Passage 39, Atlantean, Smith returned to the Northwest to write a book about his travels. It's a dream many of us have had, and few have followed through on.

"I wanted to write about what it was really like to be out there," Smith said when I spoke to him recently about his newly published book The Solitude of the Open Sea. "Extended travel is a life changing event, but it didn't make sense to tell readers everything I did in the three and half years I was underway." Smith's solution was to craft a collection of seventeen stories from his journeys, each of them drawing upon a particular experience in order to address the themes of his book, which he describes as "broadening our horizons beyond the known and commonplace, freeing ourselves from cultural self-centeredness, and achieving self-discovery through perseverance, hardship, and solitude."

Smith begins with the title essay, an account of his fifty-three day solo passage from Panama to Hawaii. Though Smith rarely traveled alone-he used pick-up crew for nearly all of his ocean passages, and the Hawaii passage actually takes place near the end of his journey-it's a good place for the reader to start, because Smith's perspective throughout the book is very much that of the lone traveler confronting a "world of strange customs . . . and people who don't look like us or speak our language." Almost all of Smith's stories address his experiences ashore (only three of them are set exclusively at sea), and they do not appear in chronological order, which may frustrate those readers looking for the typical "went there and did this" account. For this reason, I would say The Solitude of the Open Sea is more a collection of travel narratives than sailing stories, though I imagine it will be the armchair sailors who will be initially drawn to the title.

Smith is a careful observer, and his descriptions of the traveling life ring true. There are highs and lows, ranging from the idyllic joys of exploring the "jeweled anchorages" of Tonga's Vava'u Group, to the depressing realities of Madagascar's descent into poverty and environmental devastation. But Smith rarely gives way to the easy cynicism of some travel writers who call our attention to the fact that the South Seas are hardly the paradise many of us would like to believe. He points out that exploring the world by sailboat gives the cruiser a unique advantage-the boat is home, a refuge for those times when life on foreign shores becomes too much to face on a daily basis.

It's Smith's voice that impressed me from the outset and kept me reading. I never forgot that the author was a real person, willing to admit when he was terrified (climbing the mast to replace a broken halyard in the midst of a five-day gale) or lonely (overcome by nostalgic memories during night watch on the Indian Ocean). I appreciate that kind of honesty in a writer, but I was most surprised by Smith's lyrical prose, such as when he refers to Joseph Campbell's "rapture of life" upon hearing a lone bagpiper's sunset skirl on New Zealand's Great Barrier Island. Clearly this man cares about what's happening around him, and is unafraid to listen to his soul.

One of the back cover reviews says, "This book will make the reader want to get out there and do it." I agree, but at age seventy, and with a "busted gut" (a hernia, in the parlance of the tars that inhabit the mess deck in Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander series), my most ambitious sailing days are probably behind me. At least with books like The Solitude of the Open Sea, readers like me can be there in our imaginations, as Smith puts it, "spending this precious gift we call life finding out how much the world has to offer, over the horizon and not so very far away."

Jack London is undoubtedly one of the greatest American writers. His skill is present even in his lesser known short stories. This text conveniently gathers this collection into one edition and provides the reader with marvelous introductions. These two scholars (Tietze and Riedl) provide the reader with awesome maps and diagrams along with well-written critiques. This book is a must have for any adventure story fan.

Jack London's short stories are well-written and adventurous. I enjoyed them thoroughly. However, the introductions to each section by Thomas Tietze were surely the greatest introductions I have ever read. His concise and insightful interpretations of the text should not be underappreciated. I bought the book because of Jack London, but read the stories with greater understanding because of Thomas Tietze. Kudos to this book.

Most of these stories were writen for the Saturday Evening Post and later compiled in book form (the copy I have is a [older]1950s paperback, not the current pricey literary collection). Captain David Grief, called the Son of the Sun for his body's ability to tan perfectly, is a trader, entrepreneur, and adventurere in the south seas. In each of the eight episodes which comprise the book, he has a less than spectacular adventure which he solves using the combination of brawn and brain. There's not enough excitement to be true pulp fiction, and the stories are too slow in developing to interest youthful readers, so it begs the question: who comprises the intended readership? I read them because they were writen by London, and as such are well crafted, even if boring. Unlike many of his other works, I won't be reading this one again.

In short, these editors have fulfilled a desire I have had for years. Some of these stories appear in Jack London collections, but until this well-researched edition came out there was nowhere to get them all in one book.
These David Grief stories are a pleasure to read: a truly heroic hero, exotic settings, well-crafted characters, language at once crisp and descriptive where every word defines a character, furthers the action, or draws the reader into the narrative.
The footnotes illuminate the historical and geographical references in the stories, but even on their own these stories encapsulate cultural views, historical settings, and philosophies with London's personal twist. Hardly anyone today would describe the original islanders in terms of monkeys; but as soon as you think London is racist for doing so, he takes island characters and portrays them heroically and sensitively - often in the same story. One should understand that London did not shy away from presenting the reader with a slice of reality. It is his hero who is the fantasy, but one gets the sense, and rightly so, that London's fantastical characters inhabit a very real world with which he was personally familiar.
The price tag on this edition will discourage those casually acquainted with London, but if you want the best of the best of London this is indispensable.
Consider this as a gift for the short-story lover in your life, whether writer or reader, who appreciates craft and literary substance in their action, romance, and adventure stories. A great collection in every way.

I'm read "Treasure Island" at my childhood, when I were eight years old.
As I'ma writing a book named "Real and imginaries islands", focusing 20 famous islands mentioned at the Universal literature, the island of Stevenson is the first commented in my book. A new reading gave me the chance to meet again Long John Silver with his parrot "Captain Flint" and Jim Hawkins. The mature man and the child were once more next, and I' had a great plesure to read again this novel. Sighting the cronology of Robert Louis Stevenson, I see that there is 120 years from his depart from San Francisco, California, aboard the "Casco", for the South Seas. And i can affirm that "In the South Seas" is a marvellous description of this part of the world. The "South Sea Tales", assembling "The Beach of Falesa", "Thee Bottle IMP", "The Isle of Voices" and "The Ebb-Tide" is a beautiful book and in it, the author has denoucen the action of europeans and north-americans at the South Seas as a disastrous interfering on the culture of the native peoples of the islands of Pacific Ocean, with the goal to domaine them and to take their lands. The courageous words of Robert Louis Stevenson denouncing the merchants and the missionaries as factors to serve the economic interests of Europa ean North America shows as R.L. Stevenson were capable to see the real motifs of their presence at that region. The reading of "South Sea Tales" give us the chance to underatand the right History of the Pacific. It's a pleasure to read "South Sea Tales".

I agree with Mr. Coppedge. RLS's "island literature" is uneven, as a read of this book will reveal. For a real treat, read his "In the South Seas". Now that is a treasure.

Towards the end of Robert Louis Stevenson's life in the late 1880's, he had to move to the Pacific islands for his health. He managed to visit many of the most famous locales while there, including Hawaii, Tahiti, Samoa, the Gilberts, the Marshalls, and many besides these. He listened to and recorded both native legends and sailors' stories, besides creating a few original stories of his own.



The book contains the following stories: The Beach of Falesa, The Bottle Imp, The Isle of Voices, The Ebb-Tide: A Trio and Quartette, and two very short stories. The book also contains a very lengthy literary overview and critique of Stevenson's work, which I would recommend skipping until after you've read the book. Thankfully, it also contains a map, which you will repeatedly refer to.



The Beach of Falesa is about a European trader (Wiltshire) who takes up residence in the fictitious island of Falesa, whereupon he is hoodwinked by a fellow European (Case) into buying a worthless business and marrying an untouchable girl. Wiltshire then determines to unseat Case from his position of dominance among the natives, so he (Wiltshire) can make good on his business and restore his wife Uma to respectibility. This story like the others that follow are true character studies of both human weakness and resolve.



The Bottle Imp is the story of a native Hawaiian who gets his genie in a bottle to grant him his wishes. But though his wishes are made true and he wins the heart of the girl of his dreams, he becomes both arrogant and cursed with leprosy. He is believed to be a devil by his neighbors. Forced into exile with a wife who believes that he doesn't love her, he desperately seeks out the genie once more to cure his illness. Then he can be with her again, but at the price of external damnation. Or is there still a way out?



The Isle of Voices is also a story about greed and lust. One young Hawaiian man (Keola) yearns for a native girl, but lacks the material wealth for a comfortable marriage. So his girlfriend's father magically takes him to the mysterious and frightful Isle of Voices where treasure lies at his feet simply waiting to be picked up. Not sated with slight and trivial wealth, Keola determines to treacherously seize a vast fortune despite being ominously forbidden by the father. However, Keola's plan is overturned, and he is doomed to learn the secret of the Isle of Voices.



The Ebb-Tide is about three washed up derelict sailors of varying criminal aptitudes who take up the job of delivering an abandoned cargo ship to Australia. However, the ship's European company have all died of smallpox, and everyone believes the ship to be cursed. So, Herrick, Davis, and Huish let sail - but to sell the cargo themselves and then take up as pirates. As the trio complete their dangerous moral and legal fall into piracy and murder, they come upon a queer island loaded with wealth. But will they survive what lies ahead?



Overall, I enjoyed the book, but I wasn't engrossed in it. Skip the introduction, or you won't continue reading the book. Go straight to the stories. All the stories are good, but the Ebb-Tide is probably the best.

I don't know why no one has reviewed this volume before. It is a good readable edition of several of Stevenson's South Sea stories, including the rarely encountered novel The Ebb Tide. The introduction is interesting enough, and the footnotes are very helpful for expressions in the Beach-la-Mar pidgin dialect and nautical terms. This is Stevenson's most mature fiction and is a far cry from Kidnapped and the Child's Garden of Verses.

I love these maps, they never disappoint. The Sydney one covers all the parts of the city that most tourists are likely to visit, with sufficient detail to keep you from getting lost, even on the smallest streets.

There is no better map on the market today.

prompt delivery by amazon. Product quality extremely dependable. Very clear and significant details well highlighted.

Streetwise Sydney is essential to experiencing a city rich in history. It is laminated, so it's easy to fold, and it fits almost anywhere - a breast pocket perhaps. The map color codes different points of interest and of necessity- i.e. the Royal Botanic Gardens, Restaurants and Hotels. This map made a trip to a foreign city not so intimidating, and I wouldn't want to use any other kind when I plan my next adventure.

Don't waste your money. This map shows such a small part of Sydney it is worthless. Using this map is like riding through one of the prettiest cities in the world while looking through a pipe. I threw it away the first day in Australia!

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Falklands War. I was a kid when this war broke out. It seemingly came out of nowhere, even though there was a long history associated with it. I first read this book not long after the conclusion of the war. Reading it again 25 years later it still comes across as a nice, concise history of the conflict. To most Americans the Falklands seemed an absurd confrontation. This book provides a pretty good background for events leading up to and including the war. The determined Argentine position is contrasted by the almost absent-minded policy of the British Foreign Office. Included are the bumbling US efforts by Reagan and Haig to try and halt the war at the last minute. The US finally had to throw its lot in with the UK after several embarrassing episodes involving Jean Kirkpatrict at the UN.

The war itself was a throwback to another time. Similarities to Queens Victorias Little Wars of the 19th Century were certainly there, but that is where it ended. This would be a late 20th century conflict with all the modern military technology in play. Both sides would have pros and cons. The more professional and stronger British military was balanced somewhat by logistics, and by the advanatges Argentina had with closer land-based aircraft. Both sides would make the most of their positions, and each played a strong game. The Argentine Air Force, considered the weaker player within the military Juanta at the time, actually put in the best performance.

The vulnerability of the Royal Navy at San Carlos, aptly called Bomb Ally, could have lost the conflict for the British. British resources, while superior, were not abundant, and the Task Force sent under Sandy Woodward was only just adequate for the job. In the end it was the vastly superior quality of the British infantry, Royal Marines, Paras, Guards and Gurkhas that decisively tipped the balance on land, despite heavy odds. One is struck by the relatively light casualties in the conflict, especially on land. Argentine losses were higher for sure, but it seems both sides could have lost a lot more men considering the open nature of the fighting on land. The single greatest loss of life was the sinking of the aging Belgrano Cruiser, itself a very controversial act.
The war provided a fascinating study for NATO weapons systems, with both sides using them to advantage.

This book, put together by the British Times News experts on scene provides a very readable, and for the most part balanced account of the war. The tone may be slightly pro-British at times, but not excessively so. Most of the eye-whitness descriptions are British, and if the book suffers at all it is from a lack of Argentine perspective. Still, as an introductory book on the war I found that it holds up well after 25 years!
What the fate of the Falkland Islands will be in the future only time will tell. Could we see a second Falkland's War on the Horizon?

As with any war, the military aspect of it is only part of the story, and that is where the book fails. The war in the Malvinas was not between Britain and Argentina, it was between the Military Government in Argentina and the Argentinean people. Britain was a bystander that necessarily had to be involved. The country was falling apart, and, as is correctly highlighted, the governmment hoped to stir a wave of patriotism somehow. The Malvinas were as good an excuse as any. But there is no way a bunch of untrained, hungry kids (yes, kids), wearing cloth tennis shoes and thinking of nothing else but going home were going to win a war against Britain, regardless how many miles the English had to travel. The Argentineans were already distrustful of the military dictatorship (with good reason). If the military dictatorship in Argentina was at all concerned about winning, they would have made sure that the clothes and food donations being made throughout the country to support the troops would have actually gotten there (necessary morale boost). But nothing happened. The British were more efficient than they had hoped for and the rest is history. The Malvinas were an example of a government deliberately murdering its own people in a last gasp effort to survive. Britain is the smallest element of this story, and a book that doesn't address this fact is incomplete.

The Falkland Islands, (Islas Malvinas), are a windswept, rainy archipelago in the South Atlantic, peopled by persons of British descent who are largely engaged in sheep raising. Not a place to fight a bloody war over, you say? Wrong, and the Sunday Times Insight team does a most excellent job of explaining how and why the war came about, how it was fought, and how the British prevailed.

My fellow reviewer has excellently reported the problems faced by the United States in this war, and I can add nothing. Instead, I would like to address the Insight team's analysis of the problems faced by the Argentines and the British, commencing with the latter.

The lack of British anticipation of the Argentine invasion is detailed, as are the reasons for it. The Argentine plan was to present a fait accompli to the world, but the British were not prepared to abandon the islands so easily, even though they were 8,000 miles away. Instead, a makeshift armada was jury-rigged, and plans were made as the ships proceeded south. Distance continued to plague the British in terms of air battles, as heavy bombing was almost impossible. The Argentine planes had superior speed, but the British carrier-based Harriers were more manuverable and carried the day. Heavy weather equally bothered both sides.

The Argentine Navy was no match for the British and immediately retired to port after a single cruiser was torpedoed and sunk. The Argentine Air Force had no real bombers and used Skyhawks and Mystere fighter jets as bombers. The Argentine Exocet missile raised hob with British ships and the war may have gone differently had a few more been available.

The key difference was in the armies. The Argentines occupied the Falklands with a great many more troops than were available to the British, yet the British easily routed the Argentines. I agree with the Insight teams's conclusion that the reason lies in the fact that British soldiers are trained for warfare, which includes such things as washing clothes and dishes, digging latrines, making tents, and like menial tasks, as well as fighting battles. Argentine troops came from an army trained to break up riots, keep civil order, and the like, and the referenced menial tasks were deemed beneath their dignity. In a cold, windy, rainy place like the Falklands, under battlefield conditions, the Argentine Army broke down, and although many of their troops fought bravely, their units were simply "outtrained" and outmatched.

We now know that the Falklands, and their surrounding continental shelf, show extremely promising oil formations, and that Argentina's action may have been a prelude to further sub-Antarctic and Antarctic territorial claims. This the British could not endure, and so they fought.

This war had larger implications than first seen. Certainly, the course of Argentine history was greatly affected, as the country's military government fell after the defeat, and was replaced by a civilian-led democracy. Naval strategy, worldwide, changed after it was seen how a few well-aimed missiles could nearly destroy a fleet, and how aluminum-built vessels easily caught fire.. The area remains a potential tinderbox, but is heavily garrisoned by British troops, who actually outnumber the local inhabitants.

This book is well written, well-supplied with photographs and maps, and is the best book on the topic, I believe. Very highly recommended to war buffs and students of history.

The war in the south Atlantic over the Falkland Islands (Isles Malvinas) between Britain and Argentina in 1982 was one that seemed inevitable, and yet at the same time pointless. The historical record of ownership, well explained in the book, is a murky one, with neither nation having a paramount one. At that time, the military junta ruling Argentina was in a desperate state. The Argentine economy was in trouble again, and there was a growing undercurrent of popular discontent. Therefore, the leadership decided to launch a foreign war of expansion, based on two assumptions, only one of which was true.
They correctly believed that a successful invasion of the Falklands would unleash a wave of patriotism throughout Argentina that would submerge all the other problems in their society. However, they underestimated the resolve of Britain to maintain their control of the islands, and completely misread the position of most of the other nations in the world, especially the United States. It should have been obvious to the Argentines that the United States could not allow their NATO ally to be defeated, and therefore the Reagan administration ultimately would come down on the side of Britain.
The series of negotiations that led to war, described so well in the book, was a situation where both sides felt that they could not budge from their rigid positions. In many ways, there was a sense of inevitable tragedy about the positions taken by both the Argentines and the British. In this atmosphere, not even personal intervention by President Reagan could avoid the conflict. Of course, there was posturing between the major figures handling foreign policy for the Reagan administration. Specifically, Secretary of State Alexander Haig and Ambassador to the United Nations Jeane Kirkpatrick had opposing views that were played out in the press and served to complicate the issue.
Two major points in the book made a significant impression on me. The first was how outnumbered the British really were. Some of their victories were successful assaults against an entrenched enemy where they were outnumbered three and four to one. This is not to say that the Argentine forces simply gave up. They fought very well, in many cases the fighting was vicious hand-to-hand that was to the death. It truly was a war that was won by the bravery and tenacity of the British troops, and not really due to the technical prowess of the weapons. The second was the fact that a few more Exocet missiles could have led to an Argentine victory. The ones they had were able to inflict great damage to the British ships, and had the Argentines been able to hit the British aircraft carriers, it is most unlikely that the British could have won. To sum it all up, the clear conclusion is that while the British victory was total, it could have easily gone the other way.
While it will go down in history as a minor war over a very minor set of islands, the Falklands war ushered in a new era in warfare, in that ships were now more vulnerable than ever to weapons launched from great distances. It also led to a dramatic change in the Argentine political climate, leading to an end to the military rule that had carried out an extensive and one-sided civil war. This book will place you in the center of the action, military, diplomatic and political, and explains a great deal about how it all came about.

The nat'l geo series is a fantastic trip preparation guide. The photos, stories, insights into culture - this helped us choose which regions of OZ that we wanted to visit. For this I give 4 out of 5. The last star I reserve because some of the smaller places are not listed that are real gems! It is understandable though that no guide will have every dot on the map, this is why you travel and explore!! Note: for this sort of preparation and planning activity we have found no better guidebook series!

However, what we've found is that these guides are not good for hotels, restaurants, etc - there are a few (expensive!!) listed. Nor are they good for navigating/driving (we drove Melbourne to Cairns). I recommend using this guide to prepare and a Lonely Planet to find places to stay/for for more budget conscious traveler needs. Get a good road map.

I have always been a big fan of the Eye Witness travel guides because of the abundance of pictures and the wealth of information they contain. After purchasing Australia: National Geographic Traveler, I may have found another favorite.

Not only does this travel guide contain beautiful, brilliantly colored photos of Australia's countryside, people and attractions on nearly every page, it is also filled with page after page of interesting and helpful information about each of the country's regions, and provides regional maps for each of the areas it describes, as well as walking and driving tour maps. Along with historical information, the book is brimming with practical advice for travelers; from such obvious warnings as wearing a high SPF sunblock due to the country's strong sunlight, to less obvious tidbits; for instance, that the monitor-type lizards that inhabit the area, when startled, will climb the tallest object around, which may happens to be you, so stay alert!

This guide offers insightful comments about, and a glimpse of, all the popular attractions, and includes contact information, etc., and the various means of transportation to get to those destinations. It also provides suggestions and information about interesting sights not on the beaten track. The only shortcoming of this guide is that it contains a limited listing of hotels and restaurants, and that list is located at the very back of the book. But because this is a travel guide for the entire country of Australia, I can forgive this shortcoming. However, it would be more convenient to place the hotel and restaurant information for specific cities in the section of the book that talks about the region to which that city belongs. I found this book entertaining, fun to look at, and easy to read (although the print is rather small). Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone wanting a complete guide to Australia.

The nat'l geo series is a fantastic trip preparation guide. The photos, stories, insights into culture - this helped us choose which regions of OZ that we wanted to visit. For this I give 4 out of 5. The last star I reserve because some of the smaller places are not listed that are real gems! It is understandable though that no guide will have every dot on the map, this is why you travel and explore!! Note: for this sort of preparation and planning activity we have found no better guidebook series!

However, what we've found is that these guides are not good for hotels, restaurants, etc - there are a few (expensive!!) listed. Nor are the driving (we drove Melbourne to Cairns) listed. I recommend using this guide to prepare and a Lonely Planet to find places to stay/for for more budget conscious traveler needs. Get a good road map.

I really loved this book because it prepared me for everything. The only thing that would have made it 5 stars is if it was a longer book. It hits every topic I could think of.

this book is maybe more indepth than most travelers will need for a brief stay like mine will be - 2 weeks- but for someone looking to stay longer or to move there this is a terrific resource. I'm hoping to get off of the beaten path in my time there so I am paying close attention to this book. Right now I can't wait to get there. I hope I can remember my manners!

We run an international recruitment company assisting migrants from the UK to settle in New Zealand and have been looking for suitable book(s) to give them as preparation for what to expect on arrival. We ourselves have lived in several different countries and my husband is a migrant to NZ so we knew what we were looking for in this regard. I was really disappointed to find that many books which were last 'updated' or 'revised' in 2003 or 2004 have actually only had minimal revisions and are quite out of date on most aspects including referring to legislation or government departments that changed in 2000-2001. Not so with this one - all information is up to date as at 2004, and I only noticed 3 minor factual errors or omissions in the whole book.

Peter has written a good general introduction to life in NZ and shares from his own experiences as a migrant. The book highlights aspects of NZ lifestyle that immigrants from a variety of backgrounds could find new or unusual and he provides a fairly good list of information websites at the back of the book for people who are willing to do their own legwork to find out more. I was pleased to find that Culture Shock has added a New Zealand title to their list as I have found their books useful for other countries, and as a New Zealander I would have to agree with the information that Peter is presenting. It will be interesting to see how our new migrants find it! The only wish I would have is that it could cover even more ground, but of course authors have to set limits somewhere, and there is that handy list of websites to refer to...

The book was a gift. The recipient was very happy with it. Well written book. Just enough information for the age of the person wanting it.

Easter Island is one of the most interesting places in the world, but you would never know it from this text that is so much like geography textbooks of old that you don't want to even turn the page. What does keep you turning the pages are the pictures which are quite beautiful and, in themselves, illuminating... A worthy effort, with solid information...

An excellent informational book about Easter Island and its mysterious past. Schort chapters break the book into easily managable sections. The vocabulary is appropriate for the intended age group. Factual information is clearly separated from theories. When applicable, multiple theories are presented. Crisp, clear photographs throughout the book serve to clarify the narration. A glossary, complete with pronounciation guide, is included along with an index.

There was a brief history of the French Polynesian Islands with slightly more detailed information on the individual islands. The best thing was the wonderful underwater dive site maps. I love it!

This book was useful when we visited the South Seas as to what was "under" the water. It is very well presented with drawings of fish in the area as well as routes to take when scuba diving. It is limited as to the islands it covers so one should check to see if the book covers where you will be.

It was an okay guide. I was looking more for fish species and other dive information.

Purchased this to replace the one we lost from the public library. Kids liked it and it helped them learn the reef life. Mom went a little crazy with all the repetition.

Not only does my niece love this book, I'm quite fond of the series, too! The illustrations are detailed and painstakingly accurate, but the real treasure is Dunphy's language. The motif may seem simple, but it actively tunes in a child's curiosity, making her or him eager to turn the page and see what's next.

I really enjoy Madeleine Dunphy's "Here is the Coral Reef," as I do all of her other "Here is..." books (rainforest, arctic winter, southwestern desert, and wetlands). "Here is the Coral Reef" provides parents a fun, colorful medium for teaching children about the coral reef ecosystem. The cumulative verse format is an elegant way to teach about the interconnections between all life. The illustrations are gloriously bright, with just enough action to keep the kids going, but nothing gory. The story grows incrementally with each page, tracing the unseen threads of biological systems, and culminating in a montage of its reef-dwelling characters. Kids seem to like the repetition...but any parent knows how much children enjoy repeating their favorite stories, songs or videos over and over and over! I would highly recommend this subtle yet effective book for parents and educators (*****).