Oceania Books

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.

I read this book before returning to Australia after forty years. I'd been there as an exchange student in 1967 and returned in 2008 with my grown son, for two weeks. I'd asked my son to read it to after I finished so that he'd have an idea what Australia was about. Bryson reports fairly and with humor. Even though it's been a while since it was written, what he wrote still holds true, although we found the music in public transportation in South Australia was all the way up to the 1980s, not the 1950s!

My only gripe with the book is his editorializing about how Australia has treated the Anangu (aboriginals). Americans have no moral high ground to stand on with respect to how we've treated native peoples. And while I do not pretend any expertise in the history or current affairs of Australia and aborigines, I believe Bryson's opinions in this area are inappropriate.

First off I'd like to say that Bill Bryson is a very humorous and talented writer. In a Sunburned Country is full of Bryson's humorous anectdotes and fluid --entertaining writing style. The book is certainly worth purchasing just for the laughs it provides and the opportunity to experience Australia thru the eyes of a real travel pro.

The only criticism I have of the book is that sometimes I feel that Bryson is making some of his unique encounters up--or embellishing his anecdotes and stories with a good dose of bullocks. But whatever his methods--I must admit that I loved the book and it has paved the way for me to make additional purchases of Bryson's travel books.

The book was sent promptly and was exactly as advertised.

Great service!

I read this book on the way to Sydney a couple of years ago at the beginning of a project assignment which called for me to spend about six weeks there. I enjoyed the author's writing style much more than a typical travel book. However, despite the light tone and the many humorous anecdotes, I found that Mr. Bryson really did effectively capture a "feel" for the culture. Time and again, as I interacted with the people while working with them, I was reminded of a passage in the book. I beleive that reading the book helped me relate to the people more easily. Highly recommended.

Reviewing a book that has been in print for eight or so years has an almost Rip Van Winkle feel to it. Like I just woke up and discovered I had missed something while asleep. However, I have to admit that picking up this Bryson "travel narrative" much later than the reviewers before me, and having read many of the positive reviews posted, I am sorry to say my tardy review won't be among them. This book just isn't in the same category as NEITHER HERE NOR THERE, NOTES FROM A SMALL ISLAND, or even his tale of a partial saunter along the Applachian Trail A WALK IN THE WOODS. The humor is just not there. It's as though Bryson was compelled to write 300 plus pages of something about Australia by his publisher and went to the library to find interesting bits and pieces among the stacks to pad it with. There is a lot of historical, geological, zoological, and botanical information contained within. In fact, the bibliography at the back of the book has three pages of very tiny print. While interesting and informative, especially to anyone who is going to Australia for the first time or has just returned from there and wants to relive the experience, there's little for the armchair traveler to really enjoy. The author doesn't interact with many locals, unlike his previous books, and goes off on a tangent about "the invisible people" (aka the Aborigines). It's a social commentary about the sad plight of these people when their culture clashes with white Australia. He interviews a few white people in the outback about their view of "Abos," (which is generally one of indifference) but doesn't talk to an Aborigine about his/her view of life alongside whatever whites he/she has had contact with. That aside, I have to say that I still like the way Bryson writes, when he's not lecturing me about flora and fauna or offering his liberal social opinions and sticks to well-written humorous slices of life. Sorry, Bill. I just can't recommend this book.

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.

Melina Marchetta is Australian. According to the backflap copy for this book, she lives in Sydney where she teaches English at an all-boys high school. After the 1992 debut of her first novel Marchetta found herself in an interesting position. Looking for Alibrandi won every major literary award for young adult literature in Australia so that Marchetta subsequently had to teach her own book to her students. All told, not a bad problem to have.

Ten years later Saving Francesca came out and also garnered a lot of praise and awards (as well as regularly being in my Top Five). In short, Melina Marchetta is a pretty big deal. I enjoy her books because they feel like her characters are living lives that I might have had were things different.

Apparently, and I'm embarassed to say I only found this out yesterday, Looking for Alibrandi was also adapted into a movie in Australia in 2000 with Marchetta writing the screenplay. I wish I could find the DVD.

Set in Australia, this novel deals with a sub-community that I didn't even know Australia had: Italians. Narrator, Josie, comes from an Italian family that immigrated to Australia. At a Catholic school she doesn't like, surrounded by people who don't understand the Italian part of her culture, seventeen-year-old Josie feels adrift.

Josie has a lot of women in her life. She lives with her mother and (much to her frustration) spends afternoons with her grandmother until her mom can pick her up. Josie's father isn't a part of the picture. He never has been. And what I like about this novel, is that it isn't a big deal-it's just life. No complex explanation, no pang of longing for the father she never met, he's just no around.

Or is he?

Things get more complicated for Josie and her mom when Josie's long-absent father suddenly reappears. After living without him for so long, Josie isn't sure he's worth her time now. In this thread of the novel, Marchetta does an excellent job exploring how Josie can acquaint herself with one of the people she should know better than anyone else.

Amidst this family confusion, Josie finds herself caught between two very different young men. Josie has always been attracted to John Barton, and with good reason. His life seems to have been handed to him on a silver platter. From a rich family, bound for law school, and good-looking, John seems to have everything going for him. Still, as John finally notices Josie and open up to her, Josie is shocked to find that John isn't nearly as content as she would have guessed.

Jacob Coote, on the other hand, is completely comfortable in his own skin. From a working class family, Jacob is confident about his own bright future (and his ability to get there by sheer force of will). Drawn to Jacob's radical ideas and striking personality, it's hard to tell if Josie and Jacob are perfect for each other or too similar to ever really last.

Looking for Alibrandi is a novel with many facets and many plots. All of the characters are dimensional, adding their own stories to the larger narrative of the novel. In addition to an excellent dissection of family relations, Looking for Alibrandi is one of the best novels about the immigrant experience I have ever read. Yes, Josie is probably third generation if not later, and true these characters are immigrants to Australia and not the USA. Still, the novel offers admirable commentary to anyone interested in immigration (and assimilation) in America and elsewhere.

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.

I'm not one for re-reading books, unless they are something really really special.
My sister got me to read this book 6 years ago, by thrusting it into my hand while sporting a football shirt with Alibrandi splashed across the back.
I loved it then and love it now.
I was pregnant with Josiah at the time, and we were deciding on names. Josephine's grandmother calling her Jozzie clinched it for me, and our son has been Jozzie ever since.
Recently I felt compelled to revisit this book, and was as touched as the first time.
Funny, hilarious, informative, heartwrenching, recognisable and compellingly written.
Now I must watch the film, it's on my shelf ready!

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.

I would not advise the reader to travel to Kiribati, but the book is a must read for those who've never really left their comfort zone in the U.S. The author paints a beautiful picture of the riveting blue ocean, the palm trees, the colors of the sunset. But he also paints a vivid portrait of a land that the world has forgotten; the terrible conditions that the natives endure daily, the lack of food and health system. I found myself cringing as I read of the reef-toilet, the soiled diapers floating in the water, and could picture it all.
Yet, Maarten pulls you into this story so well you find yourself admiring the daily trials he had to endure, and laughing at the self-deprecating way he tells the story. It was educational, hilarious and amazing. That his marriage lasted is the amazing part.
As an expat living in Iran in the 70s, I thought I had it rough. My idea of roughing was standing in the reservation line at the Ritz Carleton. But after reading this book, Iran was like living in Paris at the Ritz Hotel.
Dodie Cross, author of A Broad Abroad in Thailand: An Expat's Misadventures in the Land of Smiles.

This book was an amazing read. Pick up a next copy for your any trip it'll make even the rainiest days perfect.

I laughed out loud more than I am really willing to admit. This book is for anyone who has taken a trip to the third world or ever graduated from college with the dream of working for an NGO. His writing is easy to read and hard to put down. I loved it.

I really enjoyed this book. It was funny, informative, irreverant, and even a little sad, all at the same time. Being a person who has always wanted to travel to a distant tropical island, this book opened my eyes to some of the realities of living on a tiny island in the middle of nowhere. Overall, the book was well written and fun to read.

This is NOT a fluff book. This is not steamy women's romantic fiction. This book is a witty, hilarious travelogue and from the line "red-arsed Llamas" I found myself laughing aloud. From the author's various descriptions of the setting's waste management challenges to the constant agonizing playing of the song "Macarena," to a diet composed entirely of fish and expired canned goods from Australia, you'll appreciate all you have by the time you finish this entertaining read.

In my research for Wai-nani, High Chiefess of Hawaii, I read a dozen accounts of Captain James Cook's deadly encounter with the natives of Hawaii in 1779. This included not only the Captains' journal, but that of seaman, John Ledyard, and that of first mate, Lt. King. When Tony Horwitz declared that in Blue Latitudes he would take us boldly where Captain Cook had gone before, I didn't expect to learn anything new. What I found was the most informative, well-researched, fun account of the famous explorer to date. Horwitz likens Cook's three voyages of discovery throughout Polynesia and the Northwest to that of the Startrek's explorations into deep space. His journalistic style and breezy sense of humor keep historical events fresh. I stuck closely to Horwitz account of the events in Kealakekua Bay in the telling of Wai-nani's story. Her first person narrative allows the reader to know what was happening in the Hawaiian culture on the fateful day the navigator lost his life. Controversy over the actual events that took place that week and why rages on, but Horwitz provides an even-handed,thoughtful point of view.

LindaBallouAuthor.com
Wai-nani, High Chiefess of Hawai'i-Her Epic Journey

An author such as Tony Horwitz is a rare find.
After reading his latest release (as of this review), "A Voyage Long and Strange", I had to backtrack to "Blue Latitudes". Glad I did.

Horwitz' slant to history is savvy with modern day adventure, wit and insight.
Following in the wake of Captain James Cook's three world voyages of the eighteenth century, the author painstakingly confronts hundreds of present day individuals from several South Pacific Islands, New Zealand, Australia, Hawaii and the Aleutian Islands to better understand the gist and consequences of Cook's discoveries.
This angle of story-telling makes history entertaining. Not a dull moment.

A plucky, energetic and informative read.

Horwitz's gambit is to retrace Cook's voyages as he chronicles his life. It's a good idea, and it's interesting (if depressing) to learn what Cook's stops have turned into. (Tahiti, once a paradise, is now a shabby tourist trap.) Horwitz's own explorations are given equal time to Cook's, which means that the biography of Cook is somewhat less detailed than you might want it to be. But he's an engaging writer.

Check my list, "Books About Explorers," for more recommendations.

Well, consider paradise thoroughly debunked, between Horwitz's far-ranging journeys of disassembly here and J. Maartin Troost's more narrowly focused The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific about real life on a South Pacific speck.

Horwitz applies his witty and accessible style to a popular cultural, anthropological, historical, and gastronomical view of Cook's travel stops and his impact on them. He even finds parallels to his earlier "Confederates in the Attic" (see my review there) in the way that the distant descendants of both English and native island-dwellers see their shared and separate histories. On these journeys, covering a wider geographic and ethnic range, Horwitz finds more room to spread his reportorial wings, and the results can be hilarious.

He is also often joined by an often-drunk Australian friend (Horwitz is married to an Australian and lived there for a few years), and the interplay between the two and the sights and people they meet on the way adds to the insights and insanity that ensues. But throughout the book, Horwitz weaves the background of Cook and his ships, crews, and journeys so that we learn more than we realize.

If you are interested in a more narrowly focused biography of Cook, consider (in addition to the ones Horowitz lists in his biography) Cook : The Extraordinary Voyages of Captain James Cook by Nicholas Thomas, which I review there and which came out shortly after Blue Latitudes.

While this is one of his earlier books, i just discovered this author and love his interplay of current experience and history. As in his other works, a new level of understanding emerges about the earliest interplay of European contact with the native peoples and, unfortunately, the consequences that are with us today. Highly recommended.