Australia Books

This series is a great help to students learning to read and learning to read English. I recommend them highly.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mark Vincent

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

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

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

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

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

Book Review: Australia Illustrated: The Eastern States, By Thomas Palfy
Posted on October 7th, 2008
by Sebastian Albu in All News, Book Reviews, Reviews
Read 245 times.

Australia Illustrated Thomas Palfy lives an enviable life. The Hungarian born photographer, now living in Australia, constantly travels the fifth continent in search of new material for his series of photo journals. In his latest book, Australia Illustrated: The Eastern States, Palfy sets out from his home in Melbourne on a tour of myriad cities, architectural monuments and National Parks of the eastern side of the continent. The Eastern States is a slight departure from one of Palfy's previous efforts, The West of the West. While West reads like a series of illustrated journal entries, The Eastern States feels more like flipping through a photo album with captions. This latest book functions much like Palfy's own travel guide. As he moves in and out of the kaleidoscopic Australian landscape, Palfy is able to capture much of the country's spectacular scenery with his lens. At Aireys Inlet, he produces a breathtaking vista of an isolated lighthouse near the Great Ocean Road. The white beacon stands tall on a scraggy outcropping above a lonely beach as it overlooks a sapphire sea. Later in the book, as Palfy travels north along the eastern seaboard, he stops over in Lord Howe Island. Here, he snaps a shot of the ocean bathed in an entirely new light. Its corrugated surface, stained purple and pink, seems to absorb a sloping black tooth of land as the scintillating auroral sky above glows yellow. On the beach, a solitary silhouette sits alone, barely visible behind the tall grass, watching the bright blue waves come crashing onto the sand. South of Brisbane, The Gold Coast is famous for surfing. Palfy looks down from the 77th floor of the QDeck Building upon a panorama of massive buildings flanked on both sides by a meandering sea that seems to slither through the city, leaving thin rivulets and reflective pools that absorb the sunset. Between the water's borders, the city bustles with neon nightlife and the tail lights of commuters, like tiny rubious eyes blinking upon the highway. The scene extends far along the coastline until it tapers off into the fuzzy orange sunset. There are many other photographs within this book that illustrate the rugged and unspoiled beauty of Australia, as well as Thomas Palfy's talent in capturing ephemeral moments with his camera. Among the final images included in the book is a picture of Old Hobart Town, a model replica of the hamlet just north of Richmond. Palfy, larger than some of the buildings, stands in the background observing two miniature skiffs floating in a small pond. Two gently sloping hills rise up behind him as he seems to ponder his reflection rippling before him. Perhaps he is thinking that the little Hobart replica is just as big as any of the other cities he has visited on his journey. Maybe he is thinking that each place he visits exists only for a short moment before it must become just another memory. It could be that this drives Palfy to travel around the Australian countryside, perpetually searching for another perfect moment to capture on film. [...]

Steve Parish is Australia's best pr. His books provide some of the best photos and help you feel what it is like to be there and see everything. I wanted to bring back souvenirs for everyone on my last trip and I bought the few copies of this that I could find anywhere. I bought several other of his books, but this one is the best in my opinion, though all are good. Do yourself a favor and go visit for yourself. Don't just go to Sydney, Tasmania is my favorite, but it is best to see as many different regions as time allows. If you can't make it there at this point in your life buy one of Steve Parish's books and enjoy.