New Zealand Books

This book is a good primer for anyone learning about urban life in Australia. The book is a quick read that uses considerable facts to back up fairly interesting comments on the urban condition. It offers a very broad and general look at the social, economic, cultural and environmental issues as well as the government policies that have affected cities. It is enjoyable to read when so many other text books on these issues can be very boring. The only draw back I had with the book is the that it often focuses on presenting facts without giving enough commentary as to why they might be important, especially in chapters 2 and 3. However the remaining chapters did provide me with what I think are some valuable starting points for further study and interest with further reading as well. I would also say that the book is not limited to the Australian experience (although it is strictly about Australia) and could provide others from other countries valuable insight into the urban condition due to similarities among the developed countries of the world.

Overall, a very intelligent book that is enjoyable to read, that introduces a vast topic to the inexperienced and with only a few minor flaws.

The third edition of this book offers an accurate, up-to-date and illustrated analysis of all major aspects of contemporary Australian cities (their evolution, their population, the changing patterns of segregation, etc.). Aimed firstly at students, it may be read by anyone interested in "Down under" cities.

This book has long been regarded as the ultimate on protocol and procedures in Australia. Sir Asher died some time ago but the book has been updated regularly. It is a pity that it is not so easily found in Australia. It is well written and clear. It also covers a myriad of areas that are so important. For me, particularly, it is important as I teach Meetings and Events. Protocal is one of the subjects in this discipline and therefore, particularly when managing a formal event, it is vital to understand all elements of the procedures involved as well as the general protocal. Our students handle events that could involve the Governor General of Australia (the Queen's representative) and the State governors, etc. It is very specific, especially with regard to flags that often cause major problems.

I like it!
Rgds
Gabrielle Cclara

This is the third edition of a book that is an invaluable source of information about Australian protocols and procedures, institutions and observances.

Much of the information contained here is available elsewhere. But in this handsome volume it is neatly presented in a form that invites browsing as much as it enables facts to be quickly ascertained.

Information about the Australian Parliament, and the parliaments of the states, the Constitution, flags and emblems is all included. As is information about life in Australia, the diplomatic service and a raft of other information which would be useful to those who need to work with (or to understand) Australia.

I'd recommend this book as useful addition to any library or organization that works with or has an interest in Australia. I'd also recommend it to those who like beautifully bound reference books.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

"Few Australians have heard of Gona, Buna and Sanananda - or for that matter Milne Bay. In commemorating the Papuan campaign we have, as a nation, got lost on the Kokoda trail" - Peter Brune.

I have never read a book that focuses completely on the Australian campaign in Papua (or part thereof) before, but only works that include the campaign as part of a more broad assessment of the whole South West Pacific Theatre of Operations. That said, I think it would be hard to find a better book on the Papuan campaign than Peter Brune's `A Bastard of a Place'.

The premise of Brune's book is that... "Kokoda's glory constitutes but one-fifth of the Australian legend of Papua during 1942. It is an integral part of that legend, but not its whole.

"...also, it is the sad saga of a nation still ignorant of this great Australian legend, still largely unaware of the feats of some of its most deserving military commanders and the soldiers they served. In some measure, regrettably, it is the story of others who have been accorded undue praise."

First and foremost in Brune's assessment of those who have received undue praise are Generals Douglas Macarthur and Thomas Blamey. Brune is scathing in his criticism of Macarthur's role as Supreme Allied commander in the South-West Pacific.

In Brune's assessment, Macarthur firstly was ignorant of the potential impact of a Japanese incursion into Papua and eventually was focused purely on achieving a quick land victory before his rival Admiral Nimitz could achieve a land victory on Guadalcanal in the neighbouring South Pacific Theatre of Operations, thus winning for himself the confidence of General George Marshall and the US Joint Chiefs and a greater share of US resources in the Pacific.

Macarthur's failure to understand the terrain and constraints in which the 2nd AIF's 7th Division and the AMF Militia Brigades in Papua faced, and the pressure he placed on Australian commanders in the field to achieve a quick victory, led to the unnecessary deaths of thousands of Australian soldiers in `Flanders-style' infantry assaults on heavily fortified and defended Japanese positions during the `Battle of the Beachhead' (Gona, Buna and Sanananda).

Blamey and a number of senior Australian commanders are willing accomplices in this process. While Brune acknowledges Blamey's successes as a leader and commander during World War One and in the Middle East in 1940-42, (as well as his many personal deficiencies), Papua is definitely the low point of Blamey's career and a period for which Brune finds little excuse - his notorious Koitaki address adding insult to the injury of the disloyalty he showed to senior Australian commanders in New Guinea including MAJ GEN Arthur `Tubby' Allen, MAJ GEN Cyril Clowes and BRIG Arnold Potts.

Potts is singled out as the unsung hero of the fighting withdrawal from Kokoda, beloved by the troops who served under him, `Pottsy' was sacrificed by Blamey on Macarthur's alter. MAG GEN Cyril Clowes, the victor of Milne Bay, is also singled out as a great unsung hero of the Papuan campaign, and yet another victim of Blamey's betrayal of his commanders.

But while the story of the commanders, both the heroes and the villains, is an important part of this book, it is by no means the focus.

Brune's work is meticulously researched - and much of the material he draws on is from the countless interviews and correspondence he has personally had with hundreds of veterans of the Papuan campaign over the last 15 years from Privates to senior officers. Along with the diaries and letters of the time, they paint a vivid and terrifying picture of what happened between July 1942 and January 1943.

It is these voices, of the men who fought the Japanese as well as the jungle, the swamps, the mountains, the disease and the climate who are the heart of this book and help to make it a definitive account, and Brune the definitive authority, on the Papuan Campaign.

The work, influence and legacy of wartime journalists and photographers like Chester Wilmot, Osmar White, Damien Parer and George Silk are also examined at some length in the book, (as well as the challenges they faced getting their work to the outside world), and some of the book's most interesting passages include the stories behind some Silk's incredible photos of the fighting at Buna, (unfortunately only a few of which are reproduced in the book).

One down side to the book are the maps. They aren't nearly detailed enough and given the detail which Brune goes into about the different phases of each battle, the maps are inadequate and horrendously over-simplified. As so much of the Papuan campaign hinged on the impact of the terrain contested, it seems a shame not to do that terrain more justice.

I also feel that while Brune justifiably seeks to address the glaring deficiencies in some of the official US accounts of the campaign, he goes a little too far with some of the swipes he makes at the Americans.

I would also have liked to see more about the Japanese side of the story. His excellent chapters on the Battle for Milne Bay included some diary extracts from some of the Japanese `marines' with the Naval Landing units which provide a fascinating insight into their perceptions of the Australians they were fighting. How we are viewed by an enemy will always shed some interesting light on how we view ourselves. It would also have been great to learn a little bit more about Major General Tomitaro Horii, who commanded the Japanese Forces during the Kokoda fighting and later died during the Japanese retreat - his background, personality, strategic grasp etc...

As far as I'm concerned, Brune has achieved his objective with `A Bastard of a Place'. Kokoda justifiably holds a high place in the Australian psyche, but it is not fully appreciated until it is understood within the broader Papuan campaign - and the battles at Gona, Buna, Sanananda, and particularly Milne Bay are just as much a part of the legend.

This book belongs in any library of books on World War II.

At the beginning of World War II the Australians sent the cream of their army to fight in North Africa. And they did a supurb job there. The stories of Montgomery's success over Rommel is filled with the Australians did this, and the Australians did that.

But then came Pearl Harbor and the Japanese expansion to the south and east. The Japanese expanded to the Solomons in the east. To the south the Japanese landed on and controlled the northern coast of the island of Papua New Guinea. Their intent was to have their army march southward to meet a naval force going around the island. From there was the possibility of invading Australia.

To the east the Americans drew the line by establishing a series of bases in the New Hebrides. First the American Navy fought a battle with this Japanese naval force, it is called the battle of the Coral Sea. Then the Americans invaded the Japanese conquered Solomon Islands to prevent the Japanese from building an air base at a place called Guadalcanal. The Japanese got no further east.

No less important, but almost unknown here in the United States was the fighting in The Australians held the southern. In between lay the Kododa trail. It was indeed a Bastard of a Place. It's still a bitch of a place just to walk it without being burdened with equipment and someone trying to kill you.

The Australians wanted their army back from North Africa, the British said "No." So the Australians had to fight the battle with militia and conscripts. They did, and they won. They pushed the Japanese back to the northern coast and with a series of other battles kicked them off of the island completely. From here the march northward began.

During this time Dougout Doug MacAuthor was in Australia issuing press releases about how great he was doing. There was almost nothing in the American press about the Kokoda trail.

This book, written in Australia, is very well researched and very well written. It deserves wide distribution in the US to bring an understanding that the entire Pacific was wasn't won entirely by the U.S. Marines.

When I was in high school I was shocked and inspired by "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee". It took another 20 years to find the Australian equivalent.

I bought this during a recent trip home. The presentation is sparse, and much of the evidence is anecdotal, but the mass of evidence is overwhelming. Australians slaughtered the Aboriginals in defiance of ill conceived laws. Although the current generation didn't perpetrate the crimes, race relations in Australia continue to be haunted by the shadows of these events. Elder's introduction rams home that time doesn't negate these events.

Please read this.

This book was a savage indictment of the white settlement of Australia. The details of the massacres are so unrelenting as to render the reader numb with disbelief that such behaviour could be perpetrated by so-callled civilised man.

My only criticism of this treatise is that Mr Elder fails to accept that the very same reasons that made the Aboriginal people innocent also applied to the perpetrators of the massacres. A white person taught that to steal a loaf of bread could lead to 7 years transportation was unlikely to react well to an aboriginal group taking and slaughtering cattle for food. It was often a case of the brutalised doing the brutalising.

Mr Elder also brushes off the (admittedly extremely rare) massacres of whites by aboriginals as being basically "brought upon themselves" even in cases where he has no particular evidence (ie when the settlers had just arrived and were building their camp). Horrible reprisals on the parts of other whites does not reduce the horror of the original act.

Don't get me wrong. These really are minor complaints. Overall, this is a well written book and the inclusion of previously unrecorded massacres from aboriginal oral histories is an important addition to what would otherwise be a list of the stories that white Australia recorded, which were of course written mostly by the people who perpetrated and therefore were apologists for the original acts.

The book really presents an australia not as we know it, but one off a great divide between a strong patriotic belief, and then one of digust and resentment for the war. Never the less in the early years of the war this patroitic fever griped the hearts of many australian men, and there was great exitment and need for one to stand up and defend his infant australia, hirtho not yet recongnised as a real or threatning force to the germans or her allies. Many of these young men felt that it was not off choice to enlist but of civil duty, and in alliance to the throne and empire of england. But as the casualities of Gallipoli reched the shores of Australia and dark and realistic shadow was cast over the hearts and minds off all australians. The fantasy of war being glorious and adventrous, came to a grinding hault, the harsh reality had struck. The divide in the country had become stronger and unenlisted eliglbles were outcast from soicety, every consievalble tactic was used to encourage these men to enlist. The country was closer than every to tryanny,and there were two referendims to allow consrcriptions to be allowed.

Bill resonstructs with great sensitivity the valour and the tragedy off war. through this he shows us why the Great War was th have profound effects of the attitudes and ideals of Australians as a nation.

Australia at the time was a young enthusiastic country just wanting to be accepted in the empire and a lot of young people (about 1/2 of all young males)went away to prove themselves and were butchered - literally. Wars like these were common in the 'old world' but australlia, the land of the great social experiment was in every sense just a young child - the photo on the cover demonstrates that perfectly - a fresh faced young boy so young and whos mother would have been so proud, but so many of these people are now rotting in a strange country, no gum trees no nothing. Read the part about battle at Nek to find out what I mean - blood on the wattle means something to a lot of Australians and this is why - innocence lost but they kept on going - The best army since Genghis Khan. The diaries are so sad lost love and lost life. Literally peoples last words on this earth are noted in some of those diary extracts. the human condition at its most extreme. These days a lot of young Australians looking for role models are looking at the ANZAC tradition. These people were in every sense of the word 'superhuman' they did twice the work with half of the manpower and that's why they are still regarded so highly in france 80 years later.

I know this isn't really a book review but when i read the broken years it made me that emotional that i just want to say how it affects Australians. Others should read it too it's historical and its personal some times really personal. Some of these old guys would never say what when on in the great war but this is an insight into the rare archives which do exist. How exciting it all seemed at first then at one instant at Gallipoli realisation came, the blood shed, people told to run at machine guns, horses wailing, mateship Always remember that Australia was just little child when it entered the most gross expression of the human condition that I know of

This is a good book covering the basics of Rational Emotive Behaviour Theory. Its a proven method of learning to behave and react in a more rational manner.

The ABC approach is very helpful.

This book doesn't talk about addiction but it does talk about many other common problems like Anxiety, depression and anger.

If you want to understand yourself and change destructive behaviour this is a clear systematic and practical way to do so.

Can help one gain self-help skills one can use for a lifetime, using that most efficient of personal change methods: Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy. It is amazing how the author covers so much ground in so little space and with such clarity.

I reccomend this book to both begginers and experienced potters. It has many step-by-step black and white photos with great instructions. The photos have helped me perform techniques better and properly. There is a section on every method of working with clay and gives you solutions to problems. This book also gives great guides on buying clay, making a work space and many other opinions on how to become a professional potter. I don't have a question about pottery that can't be answered in this book.

Comprehensive in scope, this book takes the reader through a complete ceramics course. Very well written, it includes concise but thorough background info, plus clear step-by-step instructions on specific techniques. It lacks some of the detail of specialty books, but if you need to start with one overall book, or if you want to make sure there are no huge gaps in your understanding, this book is a good choice.

This is a thoughtful, insightful look at the initial contacts between Australia's indigenous people and members of the First Fleet in 1788. There is an intense curiosity, both within this book and in the snippets of evidence from the primary documents Ms Clendinnen refers to, about the meanings of the human interactions observed. Reading through the snippets from Watkin Tench, David Collins, William Bradley and others offers insights into the impacts of foreign cultures on each other.

`Our first shared Australian story is a tragedy of animated imagination, determined friendship and painfully dying hopes.'

One of the tragedies is in the way we view history. Written records, with their framework of events and theories of causation speak for themselves in ways that oral traditions, especially by those dispossessed, often cannot.

At the end of her book, Ms Clendinnen writes: `Here in this place, I think, we are all Australians now.' I am not sure that we are there yet, but there is renewed hope that we can be.

This book is well worth reading for its insights into those initial contacts.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Inga Clendinnen, one of Australia's most influential historians has written a gripping account of the relationship between the members of the First Fleet and the local "Australians" (as Clendinnen calls the aborigines). She uses the old reports and journals of the crew as source material. The result is a surprising peek at what really went on in those first 5 years, how Governor Arthur Phillip worked to establish friendly contacts, the clash of cultures so different from each other, and what happened to his efforts. Clendinnon is not as academic as she has been with prior works, but neither is this a beach read. It's a serious history book of real merit which also happens to be very well written.

A meticulously researched tribute to a loved one lost. Alexander White undertakes to tell the story of his late uncle: Navy Cross winner, Joseph Sailer Jr. "Dauntless Marine" is the story of an American hero's life and death. The book takes the reader from a survey of Sailer's Philadelphia roots, through his academic and career accomplishments (including a top secret mission to the UK) before finally landing at the far flung shores of Guadalcanal. Anecdotal gems are liberally spread throughout the text. Dauntless Marine is an American story through and through and a testament of one man's courage and devotion to duty. Be sure to check out more World War II aviation reviews at "The WWII Aviation Booklist": http://www.ampsc.com/~prophet/booklist.htm

I purchased Dauntless Marine out of curiosity since my father was a member of VMSB 133 - another USMC scout bombing squadron in WWII. I really enjoyed the book. Dauntless Marine is an interesting account of U.S. Marine Corp. action in America's first major offensive against Japan in World War II. It also provides a fascinating look at the dangerous tactic of dive bombing - a lost "art" so to speak - and the nature of a dedicated and skillful pilot. It should appeal to those interested in military history, WWII, and aviation.

I just scored this book from a used book store and read it cover to cover in one day. I was visiting a copper mine in Kennicott, Alaska and took this book with me, forgetting that it is all about mines. Once I started reading it, it was more vivid for me being at an old mining settlement. The author really brings out the individual personalities of those at the Denniston Mine. Rose' personality and spirit is infectious and you keep hoping throughout the book that she comes out on top. The insert in the book says that there is a sequel in the works...I'm hoping to find this soon, if completed, if not, hopefully it will be out soon!

This is a fantastic book about life in New Zealand in the 19th century and the hardships that surrounded the community of Denison. This book is sharp witted and endearing. The character Rose gets under your skin.