Oceania Books

This is a charming story of the true life experiences of a girl (now a Grandmother) growing up in the Philipines during World War 2.

I am sure that teen-agers would enjoy reading this book, as well as adults. It's a small book and can be read in a matter of hours. I found I could not "put this book down"!

Very appealing!

Written from a child's perspective with vivid detail that will also captivate adults, Barbara-Ann's stories of her childhood in the Phillipines during the WWII Japanese occupation is a fascinating read. Her stories are a personal glimpse into the struggles of a multiracial child growing up poor during wartime told with humor, emotion and acute observation. "Pooh" will steal your heart.

We found this book to be very helpful and especially appreciated the Conversation/ Essentials in the rear of the book.
We only visited 'Upolu, and the guide gave us important insights about the Samoan culture and etiquette which served us well.
We stayed at Sinalei Reef Resort which we would highly recommend if you are traveling without children, and the restaurant at Coconut's Beach Club was excellent.
This guide is a must if you're going to Samoa and really want to enjoy it to it's fullest.

I have never liked how LP guides are arranged but have found them to consistantly have the best information [not perfect but better than other guides.] I wish they had not included Tonga as I am not going there and always travel as light at possible. The binding is not condusive to removing unwanted pages but I will remove the Tonga section anyway. I say, 'buy it!' but don't get bent out of shape should some info not prove to be correct.

Michelle Matthews has unearthed a pot-pourri of alternative venues for the discerning consumer. Street smart and shopping savvy, this book oozes class and cuts a swathe through similar projects aimed at a peculiar niche. Its light, breezy treatment and contemporary pace only hastens the buyer's decision-making process. What a Mecca Melbourne is! Roll on San Francisco, London...Moscow!

This book breaks Melbourne into shopping districts that can be covered in an afternoon or a day. Brief descriptions are sufficient to get a feel for whether you would be interested in visiting certain stores, or even whole districts, so that you can more efficiently plan your trip. Hours of operation are included. Colorful pictures of the interior of stores and their merchandise are helpful, but a relative indicator of prices (like a 1 to 5 dollar sign system) would be extremely helpful. Also, mileage indicators on the maps would be a big plus.

I bought this book in Sydney and found it a wealth of information on Sydney's beginings. The first time I read it, I savored every page...I couldn't put it down. As I got to the end of the book I felt bad that it was over, so I re-read it every few years. Jan Morris's style of writing is so entertaining and makes for a easy read.

Jan Morris has been everywhere, seen everything, met everyone, and tries to see the good in all of it. She seems happiest, though, among the young. She is surprisingly forgiving toward some of the hollower booster-driven cities of North America, while often coming down hard on New World cities that seem too full of themselves. (She memorably describes Washington, DC as seeming designed for nuclear annihilation.)

Not surprisingly, then, Morris is generous toward Sydney, honoring its brief history but focusing on its childlike present. Since the book was completed, of course, the child has become an adolescent, frantically acquiring attractions that will make it seem more adult -- preening itself for its moment on the world stage in the 2000 Olympics. Like many books about childhood, this one should be read wistfully, with the knowledge that the city it describes is only a snapshot, circa 1990, of a place that seems to be disappearing under its own need for approval.

Of course, during the inevitable post-Olympics hangover, this book may be useful in another way. When we lose track of who we are, when the purpose that has obsessed us suddenly evaporates, it's sometimes helpful to recall what gave us pleasure when we were children. At such a moment, Morris's portrait of Sydney in its last moments of childhood may offer the city a route back to its core, and thus forward into a happier adulthood.

Nick Vaux's memoir of his experiences as a Commando (battalion level) commander during the Falklands Island War should be mandatory reading for anyone aspiring to tactical command. His book, well written and entertaining, provides valuable insight into the stresses and strains that affect the commander. Battle focused training, hasty planning, and the effects of the environment on combatants are also topics that he addresses.

Nick Vaux commanded the 42 Commando during the Falklands campaign and has written about it in this non-fiction work. This engaging, fast read follows his command from England to the Falkland Islands where the unit suffers appalling conditions and undergoes horrendous demands but has a spectacular fight in the final liberation of the island. This is highly recommended for members of the profession of arms and provides other readers a sense of the desperate conditions of modern war.

This is the first book I've bought in the Traveler's Companion series, and was a good find. I used it on a road trip along Australia's east coast, Sydney to Cairns, and the book convinced us to continue to Port Douglas and beyond - the highlight of the trip. It's particularly good on restaurant reviews, and includes a lot of smaller hotels that the other books we had ignored. A lot of great pix too, and good info on activiteis like diving and whitewater rafting. It was the most useful of the four guides we had by a long shot, but also the heaviest - could have been printed on lighter paper!

I was planning a month-long trip to Australia and I didn't want to go the strictly backpacker's route, but nor did I want to miss out entirely on the sense of adventure that comes from roughing it, at least somewhat. I wanted to experience both the comfort that comes with an organized well-planned holiday and the spontaneous adventure that comes from rushing headlong into things. This wonderful book provides all the information a visitor to Australia could possibly want in order to experience both comfort and adventure. Yes, when I'm in Sydney I want to know about the exciting nightlife and great restaurants available, but when I'm in the outback and I want to learn how to throw a boomerang (and catch it too!),or visit remote tribes in the Northern Territories, I want to be able to switch gears without having to refer to a different guidebook. But I found "Traveler's Australia Companion" useful even before I left the states. It has Web-related information covering everything from hotels to Aborigine guided bush-treks (a must-do), to both boat and car rentals. Once you are actually on the ground, its collection of maps of cities and states are big and detailed (vital in a sparsely populated country) and absolutely essential. Well-written pieces on Australian history, both Aborigine and European, combined with wonderful pictures, bring this fascinating country to life. If you're a first time visitor to Australia, or returning as I plan to, take this beautifully illustrated and practical book with you.

Finally, a book in a modern voice that takes you inside the Polynesian culture! I've read plenty of antiquities and stories gathered by missionaries, anthropologists, academics, travel writers and the like. Their work always seemed flat and dry, like examining flowers and insects behind glass cases. Then along came Tom Davis, former Prime Minister of the Cook Islands and a thoroughly modern Ariki. Suddenly I found myself immersed in the world of his ancestors. There was nothing understated or humble about this journey. The voyaging canoes themselves were immense (over 50 meters long), fast (routinely hitting 18 knots), and longer lived than any other vehicle I know of. Vaka, the canoe for which the book is named, links the ambitions, intrigues, violent passions and lusty romances of twelve generations of indelible characters over thousands of km of ocean and 300 years of history.

Ancient Polynesia was the world's most advanced maritime civilization for thousands of years, despite its lack of writing and metal. I've always wanted to understand it from the inside, and Vaka is the only book I've read that actually delivered.

A ripping read from beginning to end and I believe after contacting the author that the book is in the process of reprint.

This book is a good survey, but if you are going to want to find the birds and are serious about it you will need a better guide than this. This however is a good reference to get you started.

As usual with the series, this book does a very good job at introducing the "essential" birdwatching sites of a huge region.
Much of it is, for better or worse, devoted to describing the two biggest and most visited countries, Australia and New Zealand. Coverage of these is good, but since there are also single country guides to them you could also use those.
Where this book really becomes invaluable is its coverage of the often little-known archipelagos of Oceania: Melanesia, Polynesia and Micronesia. Few of these countries are often visited by birders, yet even the remotest ones, like Pitcairn, are described. Since other guides to nature reserves of these island nations are basically non-existant, descriptions and maps of remote islands and forested regions are of interest to anyone with an interest in the fauna of the Pacific.
But of course, twitchers are well served too - with lists of endemics, key sites to see each one, suggested itineraries and the like.
A worthy investment for your trip!

My father served in the Southwest Pacific also. He very rarely spoke about what he experienced there. All I knew was he was in New Guinea and the Philippines. After going through his separation papers and old photos after he died, I learned he was in the 41st Division in the same places and at the same time as the author of this book. It was well written and described what the men of my father's and the author's generation had to go through. A true soldier's story from the "Greatest Generation".

This book is a brief, but solid memoir of a soldier who fought in New Guinea and the Phillipines written nearly fifty years after the end of the war. The battle descriptions are first rate and his prose is very readable. The author is honest in admitting when his memory of events is imperfect but the years have not dimmed much. The author comes across as a likeable guy who is rightfully proud of his contribution to the "Good War".

one gem of a book. Compulsory reading for anyone interested in visiting Australia or living there! Don't look like a stunned mullet, read the Guide!

As an Aussie, I can vouch that this book is spot on. It is well written, a humerous but accurate description of Australians. You won't want to put it down. It is so good that it was used as a study text for immigrants learning English in Australia!
The only down side is that it isn't longer.