Australia Books

Steve Kilbey is the talented vocalist, lyricist and bass player for the Church, an overlooked supergroup from Australia who are a hybrid of vintage Pink Floyd, U2, Radiohead and the Byrds. Priest-Aura, Sometime Anywhere and Uninvited Like The Clouds are their masterpieces. As an enlightened author, Kilbey specializes in esoteric, existential, spiritual and surreal prose and poetry that mixes fiction and nonfiction. He is a very evocative and talented author that expands the minds of his readers. KIlbey's a sage and his "Time Being Blog" is another gem to read. In addition to being a music star and author, Steve Kilbey is a very talented painter/artist and a diehard vegetarian who awed the crowd at the Australian 2006 Vegan Festival with a stunningly sublime acoustic performance.

Thomas Gladwin introduces the society of the islanders of the Caroline atolls with an indepth look at their society and how it is centered on their sea-faring tradition. These fascinating people roll with the punches as new western ideas and influences confront them, but the tenuously hang on to their traditions and, especially in the case of Puluwat, make some of the finest sialing canoes in the islands.
For a book this size Gladwin thoroughly introduces the sailing tradition of these islanders and enables European minded folks to understand the intricasies of their complex sailing tradition. Even with a limited background in sailing you learn how people can navigate small craft over long distances successfully without using any more modern technology than the compass,and even that being a recent addition.
Using star courses passed down through the generations navigators are able to travel to all the neighboring islands and even some quite far away. In this day of reliance on ever more complex technology much can be learned from these people who can travel long distances entirely without electronic instruments.
This book is pleasant to read and surprisingly free of technical jargon. It is particularly remarkable for its frank portrayal of a culture so different from most people's experience, but in a way that you feel you know them as friends anbd neighbors by the end of the book. Quite fascinating.

I am a THM major, and this is a required coure that I am taking this semester. This book makes the topics very clear, easy, and simple to understand. I would recommend this book to anyone that takes a Ecotoruism class.

Edge Of The Diaspora: Two Centuries Of Jewish Settlement In Australia by Suzanne D. Rutland (Senior Lecturer in Jewish Civilization, Department of Semitic Studies, University of Sydney, Australia) is a comprehensive and informative historical survey of Australia's Jewish community, beginning from when Australia was first used as a prison for convicts; through the Holocaust era; and down the modern day -- which has seen an increase in immigration by Jews from the former Soviet Union and South Africa. An extensively researched and thoughtfully detailed examination of a vivacious Jewish community and their enduring legacy in Australia, Suzanne Rutland's Edge Of The Diaspora is a seminal and welcome contribution to Judaic Studies reference collections and history reading lists.

Tacey's book "Edge of the Sacred" is a brilliant assesment of Australia's spiritual future and the future of reconciliation with Australia's indigenous peoples. He recounts his experiences of living in Central Australia as especially "heavy", a spirituality unknown to many Australians who perch on the edge of the huge continent in an attempt to avoid the spiritual potency of the Australian landscape. Tacey uses his background in Jungian psychology to identify with both the Aboriginal religious tradition, and the difficulty with which non-indigenous Australians identify to country. He does this with insight and clarity, and is not afraid of speculation or going 'too deep' in his analysis. His treatment of Aboriginal conerns is sensitive and well-considered. Unlike other writings of this genre, Tacey does not encourage direct appropriation of the Aboriginal world-view (realising this would be both impossible and a sort of neo-colonial theft), but rather that Australians allow themselves to be inspired by the Dreamtime to forge a relationship with the Australian land. It is on this spiritual, land-based level that non-indigenous Australians will be able to reconcile completely with its original inhabitants. Tacey's book is a tight, compelling read. It is both realistic and hopeful, and cannot fail to set the reader thinking more deeply about soul, spirit, and the planet. A highly recommended read.

Simon Marginson, a well known Australian Professor specialising in Higher Education, has written an excellent history of Australian education since 1960. Among the many virtues of the book are its rich statistical and historical detail and the theoretical approach which Marginson takes - concentrating on the shift from education as building social citizenship to the present obsession with markets plaguing Australian education at all levels. This is a politically engaged and highly readable academic history and should be compulsory reading for anyone concerned with Australia's future.

Articulate and well structured, this book provides a critical appraisal of key policy areas.

Marginson, who is highly respected for his perceptive comment on Australian education, does not disappoint. The themes of:

resources and outcomes,

productivity and efficiency,

economic policies,

preparation for work,

markets in education and

private and public education, while examined within the Australian context, are of international interest

good space to study and good concept in any work

Gives a wonderful colorful representation of Melbourne at the turn of the century.

I wish every city was documented in this way.

If you are interested in the effects of climate change, and can afford the not insignificant entry cost, you should buy this book. It is particularly recommended for all American scientists who continue to deny that climate change exists. I found the book so gripping that I read it from cover to cover in one evening. However, you should petition the publishers to put a marginally less obscene pricetag on the book.