Oceania Books

This book is so funny I've really embarassed myself on public transport laughing aloud. Forget all other books about Australia, this tells you what it is really like in sharp, witty style. Buy it before you go there. definitely

For those interested in one of the earliest successful movements for women's suffrage, this book is a must. It is the best of the books on the Australian movement for its thoroughness. While there are more "fun" versions of the movements with oral history excerpts, etc., this is the book to turn to as the authoritative work on the subject.

The book is an outstanding analysis of the history of Australian Literature.According to the author, in 19 century travel guides and writings,women figures scarcely appeared in male-writings.Many writings portrayed men as 'Australian legend', 'a bush man' or a 'rough and tough man'. Australian character has taken various forms and varieties through the national history but women have been kept aloof or have been absent somewhere in the bush. The bush has been typically imagined as a feminine landscape and `Woman', most of the time is seen carrying the burden of this metaphor. Australian figures of woman do not appear in the discourse of national identity. Kay Schaffer has delved deep into the fiasco of 'identity' on personal,social and national level and have brilliantly exposed the metaphoric reality of identities with help of Lacan's theory. The book is a must read in order to understand how identities are created within the culture and language and reflected in literature!

This book was a tour de force of finding the "lost" voices of women when it came out twenty years ago. Oxford keeps it in print, and it remains as important as when it was first published -- showing how women stayed in the workforce despite raising families, how they were major, not seldom primary, actors in socialist politics despite endless claims to the contrary, and how political self-interest and historiographical laziness have worked to silence their economic, political and historical roles. Based on in-depth archival research, this book remains THE corrective to so much rehashed second-hand argument.

This detailed, well-organized reference provides a guide to all the countries of the world from the perspective of the South. Most of the contributors are from the developing world, and the work is coordinated by the Instituto del Tercer Mundo in Uruguay. Don't be fooled by your gut reaction that a book can't be readable and rigorous unless it's published in New York, however. This is one of the better geopolitical reference sources in print by any standard. The country profiles provide unparalleled historical summaries of developing nations, along with truly relevant statistics. It also provides analyses of current global issues, such as food, health, education, poverty, habitat and human welfare.

A beautiful book, showing superb examples of belts from all over the world. This book is one, of a series of six, detailing ethnic jewelry from around the world. All of the pieces shown come from the collection of a Belgian couple, who have been collecting since the 1950s. The book contains magnificent, color photos, which show items at actual size, in many cases. My only criticism of the book, concerns the examples of Native American jewelry from the Southwestern United States. None of the Southwestern items were made by known artists, nor are the items of outstanding quality or design. The other books in the series share this same shortcoming.

Author Clinton Frederick writes about his father who was killed in WWII just four months after his own birth. In this sentimental and emotionally touching book "World War II: A Legacy of Letters - One Soldier's Journey" he takes readers on a journey of discovery about not only his father but about the war, the era and the attitudes of that time and place in our history. He not only shares long lost letters that his father wrote, but he adds information that he researched about his dad's unit and what was going on in the war around the time of those letters home.

The author remembered that his father had old war souvenirs in the attic at his childhood home and in his adult years he comes back to rediscover them. He also finds a truck load of old letters that his father wrote home. He took this treasure trove of information and makes this one very endearing voyage of emotions. He finally gets a good look at understanding his dad and learns more about him then he ever knew. In the process of putting the book together he finds members of his dad's old unit and even finds out about his parent's best man at their wedding. He uses the letters, lots of conversations along with hours of researched data from government files, lots of help from strangers and family to compile lots of information about what his dad did in the war. It is a moving reading experience and one that will explore many parts of your own heart and soul.

Frederick does a masterful and skillful job of placing the letters into the flow of the book along with recaps of events and comments. The end deals with the death notices and the funeral of his father. It all works to paint this portrait of the real man his father was. This son truly honors his father's history and delivers a fine tribute to him. I believe that the author finally make all those personal emotional connections between himself and his father as well. I think there was healing taking place just through the writing of the book.

The book has lots of facts, old photos, and information related to his father's war experiences; a great personal look at World War II. The author does a professional job of the writing and putting this book all together. It is well worth buying and reading it. Readers will find it fascinating and emotionally riveting at times. I enjoyed it very much.

Everything you never knew about Australia, presented in entertaining prose. I'm reading this book for the 2nd time and enjoying it quite as much as the first. My only complaint with this book is the map provided in the front - hand drawn and almost completely useless, it shows maybe half of the places mentioned in the book.

I initially bought the CD version of Sunburned Country thinking it would keep me from driving off I-5 into a feedlot while traversing San Francisco to LA and back. As it turned out - Mr. Bryson's account is so much more than caffeine or background entertainment that I must revisit this book (without the roar of Big Rigs or BMW's) to experience the details, wonderful insight, amazing adventures and most of all - hilarious perspective that he brings to Australia. Hearing it read by the author adds the perfect pitch to this journey, which has made this "book" a treasure!!

Bill Bryson's take on Australia is hilarious. I'm going there in a few weeks and can't wait to compare my experiences with him. This is a book that will have you chuckling, laughing out loud and then marveling at his insight and sense of humor. A must read for anyone interested in Australia and that part of the world.

source: http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/b/bryson-sunburned.html
excerpt: (C) 2000 Bill Bryson All rights reserved. ISBN: 0-7679-0385-4
It is the home of the largest living thing on earth, the Great Barrier Reef, and of the largest monolith, Ayers Rock (or Uluru to use its now-official, more respectful Aboriginal name). It has more things that will kill you than anywhere else. Of the world's ten most poisonous snakes, all are Australian. Five of its creatures--the funnel web spider, box jellyfish, blue-ringed octopus, paralysis tick, and stonefish--are the most lethal of their type in the world. This is a country where even the fluffiest of caterpillars can lay you out with a toxic nip, where seashells will not just sting you but actually sometimes go for you. Pick up an innocuous cone shell from a Queensland beach, as innocent tourists are all too wont to do, and you will discover that the little fellow inside is not just astoundingly swift and testy but exceedingly venomous. If you are not stung or pronged to death in some unexpected manner, you may be fatally chomped by sharks or crocodiles, or carried helplessly out to sea by irresistible currents, or left to stagger to an unhappy death in the baking outback. It's a tough place.

Oh yes, I read it, also the German version Frühstück mit Kängurus, both several times. And I will have to warn you: First you will read a lot about a lot of things, events and facts you never never knew before, and secondly: You schouln'd read this book in public places (like buses, trolly, metro, libraries etc). You outbursting laughter will make people worried about your well being.
You will not be able to narrate from this book to your family or as a teacher to your students. At least not continuously for more than 3 minutes. Bill Bryson is not a clown, he is very serious ..... me too.

Bryson really captures the essence of Australia by detailing his experiences and interactions in different places throughout the country. Using humor or strange conversations, he conveys the attitude and friendly personalities of the the Aussies. While spending long passages describing too many historical details that he might only find interesting, he dives deep into the culture and history of a country most people know nothing about. Seeing as I just moved here, this introduction was perfect to welcoming me here. :)

I just re-read Night to Remember for the first time in many years, and was reminded why it got me hooked on Titanic lore. It is truly the definitive book on Titanic and one of the best works of narrative history ever written. Its pacing, style, and most importantly its factual underpinning make it a timeless classic,

I enjoyed the book. Now it's obvious where lots of information came from that appears in later Titanic books.

Walter Lord did his homework on the Titanic's fateful night in this unforgettable and memorable book. He did not need to create fiction or suggest anything to the contrary. In fact, he writes about it from the survivor's perspectives. Despite the horrors, what shocked me was the situation in the lifeboats in the aftermath of shell-shocked people who have watched their loved ones, mostly their husbands, go down with the ship. I don't know why California didn't seek to assist them or inquire about the distress signals. We'll never know what makes people ignore others in time of great distress. When the Carpathia arrived to pick up the survivors, they are shocked by the news that Titanic is gone and they are the only ones to tell a shocking story of so many people's last moments on earth. Forget James Cameron's movie, this book is real and faithful to those fifteen hundred men, women, and children who perished as it is to the survivors who never recovered fully. Because of the Titanic disaster, every ship since was required by international shipping law to have enough lifeboats for everybody on ship and supplies during the worst of disasters. The last pages of the book are the names of those who died and survived. Where they embarked for their final destination to New York City but most of them would never make it there. I remember survivor Eva Hart who lost her father in the disaster that it was all about arrogance. The ship had to be fast, unsinkable, and yet the disaster was unthinkable. She said her mother, Miriam Hart, lashed back with a comment that has stuck with me for years that when saying the ship is unsinkable is like tempting fate to occur. Mrs. Hart, Eva's Mother, spent her nights awak and days asleep as if a premonition of this ship never making New York City. This story was not included in this book but Walter Lord does his best and it's remarkable that he prefers facts to rumors or gossip. It has taken me years to read this book maybe because of all those who perished still resonate with the Titanic's ultimate fate. The Titanic was the ultimate ship and none has ever come close in the ship's genius, magnificience, style, and sophistication. The third class passengers never enjoyed it. The second and first class passengers must have felt like they were in heaven with first class service catered to their needs and fancies. Rest in Peace, Titanic, and all those who have sailed with you on that fateful trip. You will always be in my heart as the ship of dreams and destiny.

At 11:40 p.m. on the night of April 14, 1912, the White Star liner Titanic, on its maiden voyage to New York, struck an iceberg in the north Atlantic. Less than three hours later, the ship known to the world as "unsinkable" was on her way to the bottom of the sea.

The unexpectedness of the event, along with the shocking number of lives lost (more than 1500 by most estimates) and the many stories of carelessness and incompetence contributing to the disaster, cemented the Titanic into the collective consciousness of Western culture. Countless articles, exhibits, books, and movies (the most famous, released in 1997, grossed over $1.8 billion in worldwide revenue) have documented and fictionalized various aspects of the tragedy. Even nearly a hundred years later, it would be difficult to find someone who had never heard of the Titanic.

In 1955, while many of the survivors of the Titanic's first and only voyage were still alive--and before the journalistic novel became fashionable as a genre--Walter Lord researched and wrote a minute-by-minute account of what happened during the ship's final night. Called A Night to Remember, Lord's account provides an interesting blend of minute details and broad sweeping overviews in its description of what happened onboard the ship.

The book is easy to read and goes very quickly. Lord gives his prose a very journalistic feel, with short sentences and easy language. Entertaining is hardly the right word to use for a description of an event that claimed so many lives, but compelling describes the account pretty well. Lord puts readers right on the deck of the doomed ship, and then right into the lifeboats and, later, into the courtrooms and newspaper editors' offices during the aftermath of the sinking.

Chapters are entitled with snippets of the dialog that occurs within each. Examples include "There's Talk of an Iceberg, Ma'am," "God Himself Could Not Sink This Ship," "There Is Your Beautiful Nightdress Gone," and, perhaps most poignant, "Go Away--We Have Just Seen Our Husbands Drown."

The book's primary weakness is that in trying to include glimpses of so many people's experiences, Lord was mostly unable to go into much depth with any of the individual characters. Unlike later books in this genre--such as Blackhawk Down or The Perfect Storm, both of which describe in detail the experiences of a relatively small number of people during catastrophic events--A Night to Remember has to catalogue the experiences of over 2,000 individuals. Lord manages to include a lot of names, but without any background or detail, they quickly become meaningless.

Though the scope of the book (probably necessarily) minimizes the amount of emotion connected with the tragedy, there are a few emotive moments when the reader realizes along with a child or a wife that a beloved husband or father will not be coming on a lifeboat. Depictions of the wireless operator sleeping onboard the nearby Californian, panicky passengers in lifeboats violently refusing to assist drowning swimmers, and determined high-society men donning formal evening dress to "go down like gentlemen" evoke flashes of emotion as well.

Overall, the book is worth reading for its historically accurate picture of what actually happened on that cold April night. Though it's no literary masterpiece, it is informative and interesting, particularly for anyone who has seen James Cameron's movie or read Clive Cussler's book and would like to know the real story. The book contains nothing objectionable (except for the event itself), and is suitable for any reader. I recommend it without reservation.

Two things set A Night to Remember apart from every other book and film on the subject of the Titanic:

First, with the exception of the ship breaking up as it sank (and the official record, with its conflicting testimony, shows it could have been written either way in 1955) and the use of the first SOS (which Lord corrected in later editions), there is not a single fact in the book that has ever been proven wrong. And, oh, how supporters of Capt. Lord of the Californian have tried.

Second, this is not a book about the sinking of the Titanic so much as it is a book about the PEOPLE involved in the event of the sinking. Take just the first sentence of the first chapter: "High in the crow's-nest of the new White Star Liner Titanic, Lookout Frederick Fleet peered into the dazzling night." Remember back to your English grammar classes and you will note that the subject of this sentence is a person, not a ship. So it is throughout the rest of the book. As readers, are we not more compelled by people rather than objects? Of course we are.

And as Walter Lord reminds us from the first that this is a story about people, so does he employ the expertise of a reporter and the flair of a novelist. The reporter . . . Who? Frederick Fleet. What? He peered. When? Night. Where? The Titanic's crow's-nest. Why? He was a Lookout. But by dressing up these facts with a few choice words and phrases ("High up", "new", "dazzling"), Lord draws us in dramatically.

Over the years, science and technology have given us greater insight into the building, operation, and physical break-up of the Titanic. But no one has ever come close to Walter Lord in recreating and relating the events of the night of April 14 - 15, 1912.

Josephine has always felt like something of an outsider. She is a member of an Italian family but they are living in Australia, where many people give them a hard time. She also feels like she doesn't quite belong with the Italians, though. Her mother was an unmarried teenager when she had Josephine, and that made both of their lives difficult. Her mother never told who the father of her baby was and she was therefore disowned by her parents. Only after the death of Josephine's grandfather did they rejoin the family, and relations between Josephine's mother and grandmother are still strained.

Now Josephine is seventeen and in her last year of high school, and things are becoming even more confusing in her life. First of all, she is torn between two different guys she likes--one who seems perfect for her, cultured and suave and gentlemanly. The other is rough around the edges but she can't help being attracted to him anyway.

To make things even more complex, the father Josephine never knew is suddenly back in town and she can't seem to decide how she feels about him. She thought she'd never want to speak to him after what he did to her mother, but now that he is here she realizes she's missed having a father for all of these years.

I liked the love triangle Josephine found herself in. I also liked that this book gave me a look into what life would be like for a teenager living somewhere other than the United States. Some things were very similar, while others were surprisingly different.

I thought that Josephine's character was often over the top, especially when she was fighting with her mother or grandmother. She was more irrational than she should have been. I also thought that Josephine's relationship with her father was too smooth.

Josephine Alibrandi is smart and funny - and has no idea who her father is. It's always been her mother's side of the family in her life, but as she enters her last semester in a wealthy Catholic high school she faces strict nuns, the interest of two very different boys, and questions about the father she's never known - who has returned to her life. A fine story of a determined survivalist emerges.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Looking for Alibrandi is a wonderful novel and hard to find anything bad to say about. In fact, the only negative aspect was that the book began a little slow. While the book started slow in terms of plot action, it was still entertaining because of the characters.

Josephine is such a relatable, loveable character. Anyone who is a teenager, or remembers their teenage self, will get her. I cannot recall a better characterization of what it is like being a teenager and figuring out yourself and the world. The plot may be your regular run-of-the-mill coming-of-age novel, but Josephine makes it so much more because her character is strong and real.

After the initial slow start, the novel flies by. I was sad to see it end and would like to have read more. It is a bittersweet moment because there isn't any more book to read but I know it was a great novel when I am not satisfied that it has ended so soon.

My good mate John down at Matilda's book store in Mount Waverley is now my "Reading Consultant" and his choice of books for me never disappoint and this novel is no exception. This book is a realistic look at the life of 17 year old Josephine who just wants to complete her HSC and go to University and become a lawyer. Her life however is complicated by the fact that she is illegitimate and Italian/Australian so she is caught between two cultures and this is used as a weapon against her by some of her nasty classmates. Furthermore Josephine has to deal with the Emotional Drama that is inherant in most European families .Josie is smart, witty and her emotional resilience comes into play when her bioligical father enters her life. This book is warm, touching and funny and naturally I give it 5 stars. Thanks again John!

This book is a testament for those people who admit that there are no unique premises anymore, only unique ways of telling them. Coming-of-age stories are tough because they can be a rather indistinguishable group with only the author's voice as the discriminant. Thank God Melina Marchetta's got one hell of a voice in this novel.

I'll admit that when I started reading this story, I thought it would be one of those formulaic, nothing-special tales about an obnoxious girl who goes to school, is in the middle of a family feud with her foul-tempered relatives, and through a series of unlikely events, falls "in love" with some bland boy whose only attribute is his good-looks. The beginning chapter, where you get to see a firsthand example of Josephine's cheekiness, didn't help in deterring my theory. But then... well, as they say, then it's all history. I got engrossed in the story. Josephine Alibrandi is sassy and sometimes too spoiled for her own good, but she's a fun character to read about. You find yourself laughing at her thoughts (not because they are petty but because they are truly funny) and you find that you can relate to her. This is especially true in the parts where you see her friends and the two boys who're special to her.

The part I liked best of this story, though, was the family aspect of it. Josephine's family is from Sicily and their culture shines through in many ways. I was amazed by the "family secrets" subplot, which was very cleverly crafted and contributed to the depth of this book in many ways. The relationships in the family are tested and we get to see what lies underneath the surface, what makes the family members the way they are, and what put everyone in the less-than-perfect predicament they're in when the novel begins.

In short: Melina Marchetta has written an unforgettable story with touching characters, a tight plot, and great wit. This is an all-time must-read and if you haven't read it yet, you're missing out big time.