Australia Books

In a world where people indefinitely hesitate to take that first huge leap from the world of corporate B.S. to 'really live life to it's fullest', I applaud Burke in taking that step and sharing his amazing experience. The author invites you into his vivid world and shares his fears, joys, new found friends and the simple pleasures in doing what he loves, "Surfing."

What a great read to help encourage one to take the first leap!

Awesome read! I loved the way Anderson makes you feel like you're right there with him with vivid descriptions and colorful wording. Enough levity to make you laugh out loud, enough somberness to make you think about where your own life is going and realize that the rat race is not the way to happiness, and enough adventure to make you want to experience his travels for yourself! I hope there's another book from him in the not-too-distant future!

Anderson Burke delivers an adventure most of us only fantasize about - leaving an unsatisfying corporate job to fulfill a wanderlust desire.
From Fiji to Austraila to Vietnam to Africa, West of Indigo Blues takes
you on a wild ride through fascinating countries and cultures. This book
will have you packing your bags for Mr.Burke's next adventure.

If you have a) any appreciation for travel (e.g., desire to experience new people, cultures, foods, etc.), OR b) been squelched by working for 'the man', GET THIS BOOK. This book is filled with unique characters, lessons in history & geography, appropriate & intermittent social commentary and a WHOLE LOT OF LAUGHS.

His journey from Corporate Boardroom to Fiji surf breaks to Mumbai's "untouchables" should be required reading. Bring on some more Mr. Burke.

I truly enjoyed this book. Its immense readability allows you to follow the author effortlessly through many countries. There are many interesting characters in this book, some of which seem as restless as the author. Through his travels, Burke shows you a world in flux. The constant movement is a plus for the reader. The book never stagnates as he moves from country to country. This book may serve the reader as a basis for the reader's own search for a more meaningful existence.

Another great novel that explores the Chinese American (well in this case North American) culture as well as growing up during the great depression in an industrialized town. I was disappointed in the ending, feeling like it just drifted off. It was a little confusing. But the rest of the book I found pleasant& intriguing. "In all the ways they lived their lives, survivors like Poh-Poh and Stepmother, Third Uncle and Father, and those elders who hacked their breath away, they were all saying 'Sail, paddle, swim, but push forward to shore. Do not drown in the past.'"

This book tells a story. There's romance, mystery and some funny parts. The writer takes the time to divulge every minute detail, so you can relate to what's going on. That can make it tedious at times and even kind of slow, but it's part of the journey that this book relates. So if you're looking for a fast read, that you don't have to focus much on, this isn't that kind of book.

This was the first book I've read by the author and I plan to read others by him. It was just a pleasure to read this!

I've just re-read this book after having read it last year, and it retained it's touching and poignant story. Having grown up Chinese in Canada, albeit in the 1970's, I related to a lot of Mr Choy's characters.

A beautiful story.

btw: to the first reviewer... the story is of a Chinese-"Canadian", not chinese-american. the story takes place in Canada, and all of the characters pronounce to be Canadian. i just needed to clarify for my sake.

I finished All That Matters by Wayson Choy in the wee hours of the early morning. It was so beautiful and compelling that I could hardly bear to put it down to finish the next day.

All That Matters is the long and eagerly awaited sequel to Choy's first book, the award-winning and national best-selling The Jade Peony. Expectedly, it is a continuation of Jade Peony, this time written in First Son Kiam Kim's eyes, instead of the rotating narrators (which included all of the siblings of the Chen family) found in The Jade Peony.

All That Matters is very reminiscent of The Jade Peony - it is almost like an echo of Choy's first book. The book focuses centrally on Kiam Kim, from when he first boards the Hong Kong ship to Gold Mountain (Vancouver, B.C.) to his adulthood in Vancouver's Chinatown. Kiam Kim's Poh Poh is another important part of the story, with her Old China and superstitious ways. She tells stories about ancient myths and ghosts, of which make Kiam Kim feel torn - in some instances, he believes in the things Poh Poh tells him, but his father is constantly reminding him that they are in Gold Mountain, not Old China, and to adapt essentially to "modern, scientific, Canadian ways."

Kiam Kim's responsibility as "First Son" and "Dai-Goh (Oldest Brother)" sometimes burdens him, but he soon learns that this is the Chinese way - as the First Son and the oldest sibling, he needs to be a good role-model for the rest of the family and, ultimately, refrain from "shaming" the family in any way. He is best friends with Jack O'Connor, an Irish white boy who is his next-door neighbour. A somewhat clandestine but intimate relationship between Kiam Kim and Jenny Chong (the daughter of one of Poh Poh's mah-jong mates) forms. All That Matters also deals with the second World War, of which readers will see makes a significant impact on Kiam Kim and the rest of the characters in the book.

All in all, All That Matters is a satisfying, triumphant sequel to The Jade Peony - and rightfully so that it was long and eagerly awaited. Choy does not disappoint in this sequel to his first book. In fact, he writes hauntingly and seductively, often incorporating Chinese phrases uttered by Poh Poh and other members of his family to make things more homely and authentic. Readers will be compelled by this wonderful book, entering the world of Kiam Kim - his trials and tribulations, his responsibilities and burdens, his relationships and family, and, ultimately, what matters.

For fans of The Jade Peony, I highly urge you to pick up All That Matters and to read it. I guarantee you will like it as much, if not more, than The Jade Peony. It is no surprise why All That Matters won the Trillium Award again, not to mention was also a finalist for the Giller Prize.

Having met Wayson Choy at an author reading in December made reading All That Matters for me that much more exciting and thrilling. I felt like I shared an affinity with various characters in the book and, at times, with Wayson Choy. I am certainly looking forward to reading more work by Wayson Choy.

I highly recommend All That Matters.

I picked this book on a whim at the airport, and had no idea what to expect from the author. By the end of the book I was mesmerized by the heartbreaking story about a young Chinese American growing up in Vancouver's Chinatown during the 1930's. Choy weaves real American history with a lovely touching tale of life for Chinese immigrants, cultural interactions, family traditions, and new friendships. The prose is hauntingly beautiful, catching the reader by his words and tugging at the heart.

`Ambush' is a loaded word. Defuse some of the emotion associated with it by replacing the term `ambush marketing' with another (say `connected marketing'). That simple step will allow you to park any prejudice and gain some valuable insights by reading this book.

It explains that ambush marketing can occur in two ways:
* First, when a company (that has not sponsored an event) implies that it is associated with that event.

* Second, when a company does not hold out that it is a sponsor of an event. Instead, the company invests in building its relationship with the target audience in a way that helps people to make the most of that event in their lives.

In `The Ambush Marketing Toolkit', Skildum-Reid explains that when managed at the strategic level, sponsorship strategies can block any opportunity that competitors might have to ambush a sponsorship.

The book also explains that there is a big difference between tactical and strategic approaches to both sponsorship and ambush marketing. (That's where the toolkit part comes in, providing a set of practical resources as well as advice.)

This book is more than a toolkit, however. It promotes a philosophy about building the brand by engaging with the customer in a way that solves their problems - either through sponsorship or non-sponsorship strategies. As a result, the focus is truly on marketing strategies covering the full marketing mix and not limited to the promotional-marketing aspects of sponsorship.

Provided they are relevant and properly leveraged, the exclusive nature of `sponsor-only benefits' means that a well-managed sponsorship strategy can deliver greater benefits to a company than it can ever hope to achieve using an ambush strategy.

When organisations conceptualise and manage their sponsorships on a superficial level, however, competitors can easily ambush official sponsors; especially when those competitors are able to build stronger and more meaningful relationships with the target audience, despite their non-sponsor status.

Which is why most marketers will be itching to get hold of `The Ambush Marketing Toolkit'. Let's face it; no one likes to be ambushed, especially when it equates to shooting yourself in the foot.

This book was packed with valuable information. Even if you never intend to launch an ambush marketing campaign, the practical skills offered will help sew up a tight sponsorship. The basic skills fill in any gaps in your sponsorship, not to mention helping you scare off any potential ambushers. Until laws are passed that protect sponsors from ambushing, this book is vital.
The author was very straight-forward, nonjudgmental and open. She didn't root for the bad guys, nor did she condemn them. Her approach was logical - ambush happens. It is a must-read, especially for those who are naïve enough to believe that an ambush will never happen to them.

I bought this book out of sheer curiosity and I'm glad I did. While my personal business ethics prevent me from launching an ambush marketing campaign, it was great to get an inside peek at the secret workings of putting an ambush into action - like a real-life plot unfolding before your eyes!

I believe that knowing how to pull off an ambush marketing strike makes my business stronger. Getting the word out about ambush marketing also helps raise the bar for many mediocre sponsors, forcing them to clean up their acts or get ambushed.

I'm glad that someone finally had the guts to talk. I would highly recommend this book to anyone involved in corporate sponsorship. In fact, I may order a case and hand them out to new hires as walk in the door from now on.

I learned a great deal from reading The Ambush Marketing Toolkit by Kim Skildum-Reid. No one wants to talk about ambush marketing because it breaks those basic rules of playing nice. We all learned that in grade school, but the simple fact is that ambush marketing happens. We just hope it doesn't happen to us.

Well, hoping against the odds won't protect your company from ambush marketing, but this book can help increase your chances of fending off an attack. It certainly helped our company. Protection is a lot like fortifying your home so a burglar chooses an easier target. The step-by-step approach and insider tips are easy to follow. I appreciated the fact the author didn't resort to ethical tirades.

I think ambushers use devious and self-serving marketing tactics. It's survival of the fittest in the business world. This book is boot camp 101 for your marketing department. It should be required reading for every person that deals with corporate sponsorship.

I was pleasantly surprised not to find a victim of ambush marketing crying from her soapbox when I read this book. In fact, the middle-of-the-road approach made the text usable by either a hopeful ambusher or a sponsor defending against an ambush. It was an entertaining read and was easy to follow.

This book didn't sensationalize ambush marketing. It laid out the bare bones of how it's done properly. It contains invaluable information for anyone looking to launch a successful ambush and is invaluable for any corporate sponsor who feels vulnerable to an ambush.

I just hope my competition doesn't get their hands on this book as well!

This is an excellent guide to the wildlife in Antarctica. Great drawings of the animals and descriptions. It only deals with wildlife south of the Antarctic convergence, so if you are looking for a book which covers all species of penguin, this isn't it. It has a map on the inside cover and maps for each species and where it can be found. It also has a brief history of the wildlife after discovery and the hunting which took place. My only gripe is that I would have liked the maps for each species to be more specific.
The book is small and not very thick, so very easy to carry around on the boat or in your backpack.
This book made me even more excited about going to Antarctica, if that's at all possible!!

This has got to be the single best guide to Antarctica's unusual wildlife. Everything is covered here, from Gentoo Penguins to Crab-Eater Seals (which don't actually eat crabs). Beautiful illustrations make it easy to identify birds & other animals while your out on the ice. If you're going to the White Continent, you'll want to stash this little book in your daypack. This book was useful when my husband & I visited the Antarctic peninsula, which we chronicle in our DVD "T&T's Real Travels in Antarctica" (also available on amazon.com).

If you are visiting the Antarctic Peninsula and nearby islands, this guide is a good field guide to identifying, and learning about, the most common Antarctic fauna you will experience, including birds, mammals and cetaceans. (It is not a comprehensive guide for htose desiring in depth information and identification of every species.) José Kirchner

I bought this book in preparation for a trip 'South' in December 1999/January 2000 and it was an extremely useful guide to wildlife in general but especially good for penguin information. The drawings by an ancestor of Robert F. Scott's are lifelike, and engaging art as well. The brief summaries of natural and exploration history are accessible and informative. If you are looking for a portable guide to peninsular wildlife get the book--you won't regret it.

The price tag may seem steep for the fourth edition of this 144-page paperback - but where else are you going to find details on the wildlife of Antarctica, tailored as a take-along tote for the Antarctica-bound traveler? Color drawings by Dafila Scott accompany nature history descriptions of each creature and discussions of identification specific to Antarctica, from contending with visibility factors to seasonal identification features. Antarctica: A Guide To The Wildlife is a unique and strongly recommended "take-along" handbook essential for any Antarctica-bound traveler.

I've read this book many times to my son. He loves the family and their adventures driving around Australia. I highly recommend this book to expat Aussies to read to their young ones.

If you and your children are thinking of moving/holidaying in Australia this is the best book to buy. My nephew in the US absolutely loves it, and cant wait for his next trip. Buy it, you cant make a mistake with this one!!!

This book is a wonderful way for kids and adults alike to share a journey around Australia. The descriptions and illustrations are wonderful and typical of Alison Lesters style. Anyone planning a long car ride with kids should read this book together.

This is a fantastic book for fostering a child's interest in the world outside their own community. It doesn't matter that the topic is a trip around Australia - it could just as easily be any part of the world. The point is that this is a family of five that goes out and has an adventure together. In doing this, they are spending time together and discovering more about the country they live in.

There is a lot of information about Australia in the story, taken from a kids-eye-level which engages preschoolers to primary age children.

Young Billy's chant 'Are we there yet' is not a yearning for home, rather it's every child's boredom with the seemingly endless driving on a 10,000km+ road trip around a continent. All children can identify with this!

This book is definitely a favourite in our house!

A trip by a family with three children around Australia takes in wildlife, seacoasts, natural formations, and deserts, different inhabitants, tourist spots, and other points of interest. Most of these are pictured three or four per page. The youngest child, Billy, misses the family pets, and keeps asking when they are going to get home. The family is glad to be eventually home after the lengthy trip; but everyone appreciates what they have seen and learned about the large, diverse continent of Australia. For ages 4-8.

I have been sifting through the reams of information books available on this amazing subject and have found many books leave points hazy or just untouched. Paul Fenton-Smith has done in a succinct and yet extremely informative book what many others have failed to do miserably. I can now step forward along my path of astrology apprenticeship with so much information and clarity, it has scared even me. WHether you are a newcomer or experienced interpreter, this book will have a profound effect on your current knowledge and your practice methods. A must read for anyone interested in this complex subject. Absolutely Fantastic!

I recommend this Astrology book wholeheartedly as it gives clear and easily understandable information and good examples that demystify this often misunderstood subject. I love his writing style and I use all of his instructional books, including this one, Astrology Revealed, and especially Tarot Revealed and Palmistry Revealed, as references whenever I am doing readings. Highly recommend all of his work...

I read Astrology Revealed in a weekend and loved it. It is filled with funny stories which helped me to remember all the information, some of which I'd forgotten even after being an astrologer for five years.

The part about finding your spiritual purpose through your moons node was particularly interesting, and the moons node chart for the 20th century helped me to examine my friends easily. My copy is starting to look forlorn as it goes everywhere with me these days. If you want a simple intro to astrology then this is the book.

This would have to be the best all-round introduction to astrology I have read! I wish I had access to it when I was studying - it is concise, relatively inexpensive and covers a lot more than I thought it would when I read the title.

The author, Paul Fenton-Smith founded the Academy of Psychic Sciences in 1985, and has studied and practiced around Australia, in Europe and the USA since 1978. He is also a regular guest on radio and television.

Paul also teaches palmistry and tarot reading and has a private practice as a clairvoyant and counsellor. A best-selling author of books on palmistry, tarot and astrology, Paul's aim in teaching and writing is to demystify the psychic sciences.

Astrology Revealed is not a large book, but as I mentioned previously, it is concise and practical. As well as covering the usual topics found in introductions to astrology - history, signs, houses and planets; it also goes into explaining many other important aspects of astrology.

The book is divided into four parts. Part One (Introduction) explains what astrology is and also goes into the history and purpose of astrology.

Part Two (The Basics) looks at the signs of the zodiac, the houses, the solar chart, plus the Moon and its phases. I particularly liked the way the signs of the zodiac were explained. Each sign was given its planetary symbol, glyph, element, type and ruler. The author then goes on to describe the themes associated with each sign and then under separate headings looks at relationships, health, negative traits, and 'lessons' for the relevant sign.

In Part Three (The Planets), Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are explained in terms of their symbolism and interpretation in each of the twelve zodiac signs.

The final section, Part Four (A Deeper Awareness), return charts, the Moon's Nodes, Ascendant, progressions, planetary aspects, chart reading procedure, relationships and astrology, health and sun signs, practice charts and advice on gaining practical experience are all explained.

Astrology Revealed has over 200 illustrations plus many real-life examples that are used to help you understand and apply the concepts presented.

Anybody who has looked into this complex subject will appreciate the amount of effort that would have gone into producing such an excellent book. I believe Astrology Revealed is an important addition to the student's library of reference books.

Astrology Revealed is a good starting place for astrological beginners, and I found the chapter on the Moon's Nodes relating to life's purpose very valuable. It helped me to see the life lessons of my friends and family and I began to understand them better.

All the basics are covered in this book, including sun signs, planetary meanings, aspects and a step by step guide to reading a chart.

Each sun sign is broken down into sections on relationships, health, the negative type and the spiritual lesson for each sign. This makes it easier to remember, especially when reading actual charts. Although I have about ten other astrology books, I constantly refer back to Astrology Revealed as it is packed with valuable information.

Buy this book. You will enter this story and truly be absorbed. Patricia Grace is one of the most important writers in contemporary literature and this novel is one of the most necessary texts that I've come across in a long time.

I was travelling overseas when a friend gave this to me to read on trains and downtime - I couldnt put it down and read and re-read it continuously. Im a HUGE fan of Patricia Grace and find myself wanting to crawl inside her books and become a part of the characters world. What away she has with worlds - thank you Patricia!

Baby No-Eyes is a novel beautiful in both language and content. Patricia Grace weaves this complex yet very comprehensible novel through the use of four narrators, each of whom serves as a different lens for understanding the events which take place. Although I do not wish to over-simplify the book by saying it is a story of the Maori struggle in a Pakeha-run environment, this is certainly one of the most important themes.

The main piece of plot, as far as action goes, involves the legal battle over an area of sacred land between a group of Maoris and the Council--a government group attempting to uphold and profit from outdated land "negotiations" between the Maori people and the British. Grace deals with this topic firmly, yet does so in a manner which does her surname justice. She manages to point out the absolute absurdity and unfairness within the bureaucracy without falling into large-scale hatred of all things Pakeha.

Aside from the David verse Goliath type theme, the idea of family is an incredibly important issue in the novel. Grace challenges some normal conventions of the immediate family, and opens up new avenues of thought for understanding what family can mean.

In Baby No-Eyes Grace has created an intricately woven, powerful piece. It offers an insightful and informative viewing point into certain aspects of Maori culture, and is also simply a well-crafted and engaging piece of fiction.

This is one of those books that you want to re-read after finishing it. I love it.

This novel is a very enjoyable read but as an added bonus it also enables your eyes to be opened more about the maori culture through the lovable characters. It takes you into what they as a people hold dear and why, and as a sub-plot there is an attempt to get a piece of swampland returned to a particular tribe and this involves an occupation of a park not too dissimilar to the Wanganui occupation of recent New Zealand history. Especially if you are a New Zealander of european descent this book is valuable because it makes you see the issues from a different perspective then your own and I found that aspect nearly as interesting as the actual story. Overall I found the charm of this story is the ability to take a horrible act of insensitivity and turn it into one of the most original characters ever told.

She was a mystery dame if ever there was one. Julie Butler was what she called herself, or sometimes Josephine Bailey, or Mrs. Baker. But to the men she met her real name spelt D-e-a-t-h. The author introduces the heroine of this quintessential noir novel, looking out of her hotel window one night: "She seemed to lean toward the city visible outside, like something imminent, about to happen to it." Although Woolrich was one of the founders of the noir genre, his name is not so famous as that of Chandler or Hammett. This is to be the first reprint in a laudable series, repositioning Woolrich as "America's Master of Suspense", with "Phantom Lady" coming out in august. The cover is magnificent, even better than it looks on this page. The only thing the editors have forgotten is to put in the original year of publication, but then again, this femme fatale in black ("Where have I seen her before", one of the characters wonders, "those ice-cold eyes, that kissable mouth?") is of course timeless.

Raymond Chandler (The Big Sleep), James M. Cain (The Postman Always Rings Twice), and Cornell Woolrich were among the creators of the noir genre of crime fiction in the 1930s and 1940s. This uniquely American literary genre had its roots in the terse, violent, and often poorly written pulp fiction. More talented, innovative writers evolved a dark, modern mythology that exploited themes of crime, guilt, deception, obsession, and murder.

I am familiar with other classics of noir genre, but The Bride Wore Black was my first introduction to Woolrich. The innocuous beginning, a young woman leaving home with no particular destination in mind, transitioned rapidly into an audacious, calculated, carefully planned murder without any apparent motive. Woolrich shifts the perspective back and forth from character to character, adeptly disguising the inner thoughts of the killer. Unlike the police who are uncertain whether the deaths are accidental or deliberate, we readers know it is murder, but not how the victims are chosen. I was unprepared for the ending.

The Bride Wore Black has been often republished and you should not have difficulty finding a copy.

Many novels and short stories by Cornell Woolrich have been adapted to the screen (the most notable was Rear Window), radio, and TV. I Married a Dead Man, Phantom Lady, and his `Black' series of suspense novels were among his best works.

If anyone ever wanted to cite a story that would best illustrate the observation that revenge is a dish best served cold, then I think this one would fill the bill. As a story of revenge, it's a classic with the big mystery being, what on earth could have happened to prompt such violence.

The person who is seeking revenge is Julie Killeen. She is a beautiful woman, but she's also a careful, cold-blooded killer. She is on an unstoppable mission of painstakingly tracking down, stalking and then murdering men before casually walking away, unconcerned about whether or not she leaves any witnesses. She gives little away as she carries out the murders, although she does feed us with snippets of information which merely serves to add to the mystery surrounding her actions and drives us on to find out more. None of her victims seem to recognise her, nor do they seem to have anything in common with one another, which also adds greater interest to the event that started her off.

Attempting to track Julie down is Lew Wanger, the detective who, while not exactly hot on her trail, is the only one who believes the murders are related. It's through him that the pieces are put together forming a coherent chain of events helping us understand what went on in the past to cause the events of the present.

This is a captivating story told in the typically brutal fashion of the hardboiled genre. The unexpected ending caps off this highly entertaining book very nicely indeed and I found myself well and truly put in my place, just as I was congratulating myself for having figured everything out.

you may not have heard of woolrich, but he travelled the same dark streets as noir's best.

Cornell Woolrich is one of those 1940s writers who pumped out loads of pulp fiction that have by now largely gone out of print. He was a very good storyteller but only an average writer - that is, his prose and characterizations are not particularly good. 'The Bride Wore Black' fits this rule completely.

In 'The Bride Wore Black' we have essentially five different murder stories with one seemingly common element: the same murderess. In the end we understand a bit more about her motive and why these victims were chosen. Woolrich also delivers a delicious surprise ending. Don't expect any subplots or side romances. This is pure, simple reading enjoyment that doesn't tax the brain but keeps your eyes glued to the pages.

Bottom line: certainly among Woolrich's better books. Highly recommended.

It's amazing that these poems,written well over half a century ago,still retain their bite,impact and immediacy. And it's rather inspiring that Ms. Parker,in spite of her personal demons, still managed to produce such an impressive body of work. A very good introduction to her writing,especially if you only know her from the movie made about her,or just as one of several people who hung around a certain hotel in NY,trading quips with other writers. Check this one out,you're in for a treat..!

Excellent - a must have volume of Dorothy Parker's work (as well as her "Complete Stories") - she was truly years ahead of her time. As was prevously stated, her style of writing poetry seems more an attack on the type of poetry that had come to be accepted in her day as "artistic" (for example, Dickinson - seeing life as beautiful, beauty in the everyday, etc.). I identify immediately with her pessimism (and since I'm a male, that ought to tell you something about her ability to communicate) and applaud her for having had the courage to express honest disgust with the habits of men and women instead of trying to always find the silver lining (this volume will definitely tell you why she was one of the Algonquin wits). My favorite poems of hers are too numerous to be listed here, but among them are "Frustration" (this is one you should keep with you at work), "The Red Dress", "Inventory", "Resume", "Indian Summer", "Ode to a Certain Dog", "General Review of the Sex Situation", "Little Words" and "News Item". If you're a fan of dry humor and can appreciate those who excel at criticism, this is a great collection of poetry. If you're not, we don't need you - go buy some Dickinson or Rossetti.

dorothy parker was one of the sharpest wits we've ever seen, and this collection of poems shows her talents at their best. you do get a little tired of her cynicism after a while, but her first two classics, Enough Rope & Sunset Gun both make it worthwhile to read. she is one of the best poets we've had.

This is a wonderful collection of poems from the "wittiest woman in America". She clearly earns that title here, with her hilarious attacks on anything and everything deserving of ridicule, of which her "Hymns of Hate" are a delightful example. Parker's prose also has a darkly introspective side; one often finds allusions to her painful romantic life and her four suicide attempts (such as perhaps her most famous poem, "Resume"). As her serious poems and her cynically comical ones start off in the same tone, one never knows quite what one is getting into.

Parker's poems are as much for the hater of poetry as the aficionado- they are in a sense a direct attack on the affected melodrama that pervades and stereotypes poetry. And if one doesn't find them, like some reviewers, "dark", "beautiful" and "moving", at least one will get a laugh.

If Margaret Cho could really, really write, and was a young white socialite in the 1920-30s, she'd have been Dorothy Parker. Dorothy is sharp, and she cuts people to the quick, and in no better light than in this Penguin collection. She hates husbands, wives, smart-asses (though she is the preeminent smart-ass woman of her time), summer resorts...you name it, Parker trashes it.

The cool thing about her is that she does this with such cosmopolitan flair (small surprise since she wrote for Vogue and Vanity Fair for years) and obvious care (her poems almost always rhyme and subscribe to some traditional structure) that she makes herself almost untouchable to critic. She's good, she knows she's good, and watch out world, here she comes.

Not just another pretty muse for a Prince song, and great for classes.

This book is an expose' into the Nugan Hand international bank and it's connections to the CIA.
Jonathan Kwitny is a top-notch investigative journalist and he doesn't disappoint with "The Crimes of Patriots".

Among the topics in the book:
The origin of the "French Connection".

Fraudulent enterprises such as Ocean Shores.

The CIA's involvement in the overthrow of Australian Prime Minister Whitlam.

A shared office building and secretary used by both Nugan Hand and the D.E.A.

The work C.I.A. agents did for Muammar Qaddafi.

Mr. Kwitny cites the work of Alfred McCoy on the "the Golden Triangle" and international heroin trade.
He also covers money laundering operations, particularly for drug traffickers. Nugan Hand had to ba a C.I.A. asset!
The author has frequent footnotes documenting the sources for specific information.

The cast of characters includes some famous intelligence operatives, high ranking military officers, con artists, Air America pilots, and just about any other type of people you would expect in a best seller spy novel. But "The Crimes of Patriots" is nonfiction and very well done at that!

This book ties in nicely with Bo Gritz,
Stan Montieth, Rodney Stich, Fletch
Prouty and Tom Valentine works on the
same type subject matter. Also check
out Terry Redd's Compromised which
gores both Clinton and the Bush, the
Presidencila Elder. Highly recommended.

As an Australian I was both surprised and gratified that an American journalist should want to trace the extraordinary history of the Nugan Hand Bank's Australian operations. This great document decribes the most cut-throat, heroin dealing, crime syndicate ever to have sullied our shores, and all under the covert auspices of the C.I.A. Kwitny's research is exhaustive and his even handed way of presenting his findings is exemplary of fine journalism. The implications hatched in this veritable can of worms will have net-sleuths busy for years tracing the myriad references to the numerous associates of Nugan Hand who vanished into the night only to surface again in the Irangate scandal. Essential reading for anyone trying to come to terms with the scourge of heroin, the world arms trade and those members of the U.S.'s covert agencies that spread misery in their own and other countries...Read it if you dare!

If the press was doing ots jobs, then Ronald Reagan would not have been able to appear in public during his Iran-Contra period without also being bombarded with cries of "What about Nugan Hand!"
The Nugan Hand scandal appears to be the biggest, dirtiest scandal to reach the upper levels of American government since Watergate. The suicide of Nugan and the flight of Hand occurred in Australia, but the scandal had all-American origins. If Australian authorities and reporter Jonathan Kwitny are right, then the coverup, which continues, involves at least the Defense and State departments, the CIA, the FBI, the Commerce Department and the National Security Council.
Such a coverup must reach at least into the president's Cabinet.
First a word about Kwitny, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal. No investigative reporter in America is more highly regarded by other reporters, dating back to his exposes of the corrupt Teamsters Union Central States pension fund in the early '70s.
Frank Nugan was an Australian shyster. Mike Hand is an American, an ex-Green Beret decorated for heroism in Vietnam, later a CIA spook. Starting in 1973, the men set up a bank and a number of other financial companies, eventually opening offices around the world, though East Asia was their happy hunting ground.
Nugan Hand Bank may have been set up to launder and over up CIA money transfers; the Caribbean banks that performed that service folded about the time Nugan Hand Bank was set up.
It is not proper to be too definite about Nugan Hand. Because of incompetence by Australian investigators, many of its records were spirited away after Frank Nugan's death in 1980. (Kwitny says, "For an American, used to FBI efficiency, it is hard to imagine cops so spineless that they let criminal suspects carry evidence away right under their noses, while waiting for permission to examine it." That was written before Oliver North's testimony in the Iran-Contra scandal. Americans would have less trouble imagining such a thing now. 2007 update: This review was published in 1988. Kwitny's naivety seems quaint in the 21st century.)
"This isn't a book for people who must have their mysteries solved," Kwitny warns. No, it is only a book for those who need to have their eyes opened.
It is possible to say definitely that Nugan Hand laundered money and moved cash between countries where it is illegal to export cash. Many of their clients were trying to hide money from tax collectors -- for Australians, Nugan Hand usually charged 22 percent for this service.
Nugan Hand also was definitely, though ineffectually, trying to work illegal arms deals, and it probably was involved in a large-scale opium/heroin scheme in Burma.
Certainly, most of its prominent employees were con men, brothel keepers, dope and money smugglers, disbarred lawyers and other sleazy types. Its other top employees and consultants were retired generals of the U.S. Army and admirals of the U.S. Navy and former officials of the CIA, including former director William Colby. What, Kwitny asks, were men like that doing in association with the most notorious whoremasters and heroin pushers in Sydney, Australia?
For one thing, they were encouraging Americans who had served under them in the armed forces to place all their cash with Nugan Hand. Some of these men worked in places like Saudi Arabia, where there are no banks.
The generals and admirals later claimed that they, too, were victims of Nugan and Hand, but documents prove that these high officers were still taking in cash after Nugan Hand was in bankruptcy. Where the cash went is a mystery. The depositors didn't get it back.
Working with fragmentary records, receivers guessed that Nugan Hand owed more than $50 million when it crashed in 1980. It was probably much more -- many of the people who placed their money with Nugan and Hand were in no position to make claims against the estate in bankruptcy.
Nugan and Hand and their employees lived high, but they couldn't have spent $50 million on themselves in four years (though they started in 1973, the cash didn't start to flow in torrents until 1977.) the receivers found assets of only about $2 million.
Someone looted Nugan Hand after Nugan's death. Who?
There is a Hawaii connection to all this. There was a Nugan Hand Hawaii Inc. At the very least, Nugan Hand illegally engaged in banking in the USA without being regulated as a bank. When pushed by Kwitny, various agents of the American government have said that Nugan Hand's crimes, if any, occurred on foreign soil. But this explanation will not explain why Nugan Hand has escaped inquiry for its banking irregularities here.
It gets worse, right up to cold-blooded murder.
But the greatest value of "The Crimes of Patriots" is not just its partial exposure of a nest of very nasty crooks. Kwitny links it to a continuing pattern of lawlessness in the name of American national security that centers in the CIA -- and taints Congress and the highest levels of the executive branch. "As the theory of perpetual covert action is exercised, our national security is perpetually in the hands of criminals," he writes.
This is not news to anyone who has studied the activities of America's spymasters. But that is a tiny fraction of the voters. (See also my review of George Crile's "Charlie Wilson's War.") The torpor of most citizens in the face of repeated revelations suggests that they think that eggs have to be broken to make a spy's omelets. It is the virtue of "The Crimes of Patriots" to demonstrate that this is not so. Others have said as much, but seldom has the message come from anyone with credentials as respectable as Kwitny's.

On the advice of a friend who knows one of the "Cast Of Characters" (a "Yank In The Bank"), I ordered a used copy of this long out of print book. What an eye opener. It's amazing what a group of "former" senior military officers and spooks can get up to when allowed to run amok overseas. You name it and they got away with it. Even though some of the principals are dead, nobody has been held accountable for the myriad of crimes that have occurred abroad. With the lack of support rendered by the U.S. government (especially the F.B.I.), it makes one wonder how "former" some of these players really were. It's also amazing how many of these same people reared their ugly heads years later during "Iran-Contra". Read the book and then decide for yourself.