Australia & Oceania Books - Page 3

The Songlines

Bruce Chatwin

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 54 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

The Songlines 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 15 people found this review helpful.

As i never wanted to go to Australia, i have to say that after reading this book i have not changed my mind, but it is not a point. It is not a book about traveling in Australia. It is more a book about walking, for example. As i like walking, i have found in this book so many great examples of what the walking is about, it is not just moving from one point on the Earth to another, it is also philosophy. And so on...this book is highly recommended for those who knows what the word "travel" means. In present time many people travel, but just a few ones deserve to be called "traveller". Bruce Chatwin is among them.

Bruce Chatwin wrote half a book... 3 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

The Songlines really captured my attention. Human ecology, cultural anthropology, human evolution, cultural imperialism, Songlines, Native Australians ("aborigines"), travels... this is a book with information about a people and a place. I enjoyed the flow and pace of the story, and I hope I learned the reality of Native Australian culture.

However, Bruce Chatwin chose to use this book to publish assorted observations, quotes, and reflections from other travels. For me (me), they affected the flow of his storytelling, my ability to focus on the theme - Australia, not nomads - and the ending. Perhaps this is a style thing, and I don't know if Chatwin applies this style in his other books.

Didn't work for me. I wanted a conclusion to his original story.

Editorial Review:

Part adventure story, part philosophical essay, this extraordinary book takes Bruce Chatwin into the heart of Australia on a search for the source and meaning of man's restless nature.

Lonely Planet Hawaii (Lonely Planet Travel Survival Kit)

Glenda Bendure, Ned Friary

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 20 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Taking this back to the library 2 out of 5 stars.
14 of 26 people found this review helpful.

I could barely read any of this book. The type is so tiny and hard to read, and the maps are all grey and difficult to read as well. Everything is just scrunched in there and you have to pore over that map to figure out what the heck you're looking at. They're way too busy. They cram too much detail into one map.

Its information is segmented well, and it's good that they list operating hours and prices where they can, but I just can't squint at that little type. The lettering on some of these maps is literally as small as the head of a pin. I'm supposed to be able to whip this out of my backpack on the island and use it as a quick reference tool? This book is going back to the library; I'll just have to find another book to use.

Editorial Review:

This book unravels the secrets of all the islands of Hawaii and provides an insider's view on what's best to see and do and how to get around. Details on ocean sports and beach life are revealed, but this guide goes beyond to private hidaways, lush rainforests and plenty of opportunities for camping and hiking among the islands' unique landscapes.

The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty

Caroline Alexander

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 88 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Bligh's Temper 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 6 people found this review helpful.

Ms. Alexander's work is carefully researched and beautifully written. She also has clear biases on events and people but I'd prefer to have had her own opinions more boldly written. Nevertheless, this is a "must" history for Bounty fans.

Bligh--a man of tremendous strengths--had at least one glaring weakness. He was a man with a red hot temper. Granted--like many people given to "blowing their tops"--he got over it quickly but, unfortunately for him, some people targeted by his flare-ups had difficulty forgetting his insults. Perhaps amazingly, his crew--largely composed of very young, no doubt immature men--went through great trials before they finally broke. Even then, the majority of men remained faithful to their fallen leader, to the point of sailing with him into almost certain death.

Somewhere here we are missing some of the most important psychological aspects of the story. I try to place myself in the role of "loyal" crewman and wonder what I would have chosen on the day of the mutiny. Would I have elected almost certain death in a leaky skiff over probable survival in the Bounty? I don't really know but it would have been one Hell of a decision. Still, the majority of crewmen remained loyal and tried to pile into a rowboat with 7 inches of freeboard!

At the same time, despite Bligh's navigational skills and despite his courage, his must be regarded as a failure in leadership. I'm not sure where this failure occurred but it probably happened on Otaheite. He should have--in retrospect--been less lenient with his "men". Most of these were very young people, many only teenagers, some of whom were permitted to live amongst the Polynesians. It must have been a heady brew. They received respect that they'd never experienced in England. They obtained women, even wives, and were tatooed in displays of tribal honor. It was simply too attractive to many of these boys. Twenty-three year old Fletcher Christian should have known better but--suffering from alcohol and the pressure of obligations he no doubt felt to his Polynesian brethren--he cracked like a spoiled egg. Nowadays, psychologists would probably diagnose clinical depression and I have little doubt that Christian had "been in Hell for weeks", just as he described.

I'm not sympathetic with the mutineers. Captains--men of flesh and blood--weren't perfect and the Admiralty recognized this fact. The crew were supposed to be loyal and beyond provocation. Period. The mutinous members of the crew paid for the sins one way or another--just as they deserved. It is unfortunate that some loyal crewmen paid their price, too.

Ron Braithwaite, author of novels--"Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God"--on the Spanish Conquest of Mexico

Editorial Review:

More than two centuries after Master’s Mate Fletcher Christian led a mutiny against Lieutenant William Bligh on a small, armed transport vessel called Bounty, the true story of this enthralling adventure has become obscured by the legend. Combining vivid characterization and deft storytelling, Caroline Alexander shatters the centuries-old myths surrounding this story. She brilliantly shows how, in a desperate attempt to save one man from the gallows and another from ignominy, two powerful families came together and began to create the version of history we know today. The true story of the mutiny on the Bounty is an epic of duty and heroism, pride and power, and the assassination of a brave man’s honor at the dawn of the Romantic age.

Island of the Lost: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World

Joan Druett

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 20 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Auckland Island is a godforsaken place in the middle of the Southern Ocean, 285 miles south of New Zealand. With year-round freezing rain and howling winds, it is one of the most forbidding places in the world. To be shipwrecked there means almost certain death.

In 1864 Captain Thomas Musgrave and his crew of four aboard the schooner Grafton wreck on the southern end of the island. Utterly alone in a dense coastal forest, plagued by stinging blowflies and relentless rain, Captain Musgrave—rather than succumb to this dismal fate—inspires his men to take action. With barely more than their bare hands, they build a cabin and, remarkably, a forge, where they manufacture their tools. Under Musgrave's leadership, they band together and remain civilized through even the darkest and most terrifying days.

Incredibly, at the same time on the opposite end of the island—twenty miles of impassable cliffs and chasms away—the Invercauld wrecks during a horrible storm. Nineteen men stagger ashore. Unlike Captain Musgrave, the captain of the Invercauld falls apart given the same dismal circumstances. His men fight and split up; some die of starvation, others turn to cannibalism. Only three survive. Musgrave and all of his men not only endure for nearly two years, they also plan their own astonishing escape, setting off on one of the most courageous sea voyages in history.

Using the survivors' journals and historical records, award-winning maritime historian Joan Druett brings this extraordinary untold story to life, a story about leadership and the fine line between order and chaos.

A Night to Remember

Walter Lord

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 152 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The classic minute-by-minute account of the sinking of the Titanic, in a 50th anniversary edition with a new introduction by Nathaniel Philbrick

First published in 1955, A Night to Remember remains a completely riveting account of the Titanic's fatal collision and the behavior of the passengers and crew, both noble and ignominious. Some sacrificed their lives, while others fought like animals for their own survival. Wives beseeched husbands to join them in lifeboats; gentlemen went taut-lipped to their deaths in full evening dress; and hundreds of steerage passengers, trapped below decks, sought help in vain.

Available for the first time in trade paperback and with a new introduction for the 50th anniversary edition by Nathaniel Phil-brick, author of In the Heart of the Sea and Sea of Glory, Walter Lord's classic minute-by-minute re-creation is as vivid now as it was upon first publication fifty years ago. From the initial distress flares to the struggles of those left adrift for hours in freezing waters, this semicentennial edition brings that moonlit night in 1912 to life for a new generation of readers.

An Island to Oneself

Tom Neale

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 32 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

An amazing story of a real "Survivor" 5 out of 5 stars.
25 of 26 people found this review helpful.

No video cameras and immunity for Tom Neale, he did the real deal all by himself for years on a deserted atoll.

A fascinating story of what it takes to survive and a great character study of the type of person who can/would do it.

Tom lived the lazy island life but wasn't satisfied and finally went out to pull a Robinson Crusoe (at the age of 50!). And this was in the 50s. He had no satellite phone to get him out in an emergency, no doppler weather reports, no Honda(tm) generator.

On top of that, he had no safety net. Off the regular shipping channels, he had no scheduled visits, just some random people who happened to pass by and say hi. It was just his skill, determination and a great knowledge of island living that allowed him to survive and thrive.

His daily struggles (from pesky hermit crabs up to life threatening injuries) are a fascinating peek into a life most people will never experience.

After you finish it, be sure check out Wikipedia and the web for more information (and pics) on his life after this book.

An amazing read that ends much too quickly.

A Commonwealth of Thieves: The Improbable Birth of Australia

Thomas Keneally

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Most interesting "history lesson" 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

The author of Schindler's List brings us his 37th book, a history of the four years during which white Australia was born. Thomas Keneally competes with Robert Hughes' epic history of Australia's origin that covers a span of 80 years, chronicling the white settlers as oppressive. But Keneally's fresh, novelistic history has found its own place in Australian historiography; it scrutinizes a short time period, providing a multifaceted and profound study of the historical characters that birthed Australia.

Midwife to this birth was Great Britain, who sent a captain of her royal navy, Arthur Phillip, to oversee as governor a penal-colony experiment with 759 thieves, prostitutes, and criminal children. The poorly planned experiment could have easily become a disaster, had Phillip not been both authoritative and compassionate. Ultimately, Keneally admits bewilderment as to the true nature of Phillip, the narrative's potential hero, given his "nature so complex and hidden behind official formality."

Keneally illuminates the white settlement against the backdrop of the then virtually unknown Aborigines, whose contact with the criminal settlers kept tension high. The useful historiographical theme of dichotomy between two cultures takes shape here, with Keneally's description of the Aboriginal worldview, and his admission of its impossible incongruence with the intent of the Empire to colonize and cultivate.

Keneally tactfully narrates the clashes between the two discordant populations without romanticizing either, portraying with equal emphasis the contrasting barbarity and decency both groups exhibited. For example, Phillip's would-be-hero counterpart, Woolaware Bennelong, captured as an Aboriginal translator, assisted the white settlers after his escape, to the point that he was finally disowned by his own people.

Keneally's tactful tone has its own purpose. Where Hughes' history did not hesitate to weigh in against the colonial invaders, Keneally sustains his narrative along the middle ground, allowing Australians to realize their heritage as less melodramatic, and oppressive.

With Phillip's return to England after his term, Australians were left without a founding father-figure. Keneally's history fills in that gap, with assurances from Keneally that he can make out a positive resemblance between the first governor's pragmatism and thoroughness, and that of the country today.

Armchair Interviews says: Very well-done history.

Editorial Review:

In this spirited history of the remarkable first four years of the convict settlement of Australia, Thomas Keneally offers us a human view of a fascinating piece of history.

Combining the authority of a renowned historian with a brilliant narrative flair, Keneally gives us an inside view of this unprecedented experiment from the perspective of the new colony’s governor, Arthur Phillips. Using personal journals and documents, Keneally re-creates the hellish overseas voyage and the challenges Phillips faced upon arrival: unruly convicts, disgruntled officers, bewildered and hostile natives, food shortages, and disease. He also offers captivating portrayals of Aborigines and of convict settlers who were determined to begin their lives anew. A Commonwealth of Thieves immerses us in the fledgling penal colony and conjures up the thrills and hardships of those first four improbable years.

At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor

Gordon W. Prange

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 43 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Slightly outdated ,requires revision 3 out of 5 stars.
10 of 15 people found this review helpful.

Gordon W. Prange studied Pearl Harbor raid ,events surrounding it, for 32 yrs.The outcome is this tome.

Author is vehemently critical on Adm Husban E. Kimmel (c-in-c Pacific Fleet) and Gen Walter C. Short( commander US Land Forces
,Hawaii). Both,according to him ,lacked qualities to command forces. They failed to show imagination,foresight at a time when things were becoming explosive in the Pacific.

This is untrue.Evidence shows upon the receipt of war warning message of Nov27,1941,Adm Kimmel mounted long range reconnaissance missions north of Hawaii to detect the presence of hostile ships within the strike radius of Pearl Harbor.Unfortunately Pacific Command never had sufficent planes at its disposal to maintain an all out vigil.This never would have happened if Washington officials not denuded Pacific fleet of its strength to fight an undeclared war against German U boats in the Atlantic. As a result critical gaps in the aircover remained which Japanese exploited.

Now we know two weeks prior to attack based on intelligence furnished Cdr Joseph J. Rochefort of Hypo(combat intelligence centre of US Navy located in Pearl Harbor naval yard)Kimmel instituted a search for Japanese carrier force operating north of Hawaii.He vectored the Pacific Fleet to an area from where Japanese planned to launch their surprise assault. But his efforts were frustrated. Once White House came to know about Kimmel's manoeuvre he was told to withdraw.This was in line with official order of turning north Pacific into a 'vacant sea'.Strangely this reversal of direction has been ignored by every Pearl Harbor enquiry held from 1941-46.Regretably,neither Kimmel nor his family could recall this sortie and its unfortunate reversal.Yet it provides exculpatory evidence because after the war Kimmel was accused of not conducting precisely this type of search.

Author says Japan's expansionist designs on east Asia made Pacific war inevitable.But it should be admitted ,as latest reaearch shows , regardless of Tokyo's ambitions US hatched a plan to push that nation on the road to war.As war raged in Europe and Africa ,threatning to engulf the world,a memorandum started circulating in the corridors of power in Washington.Written by Arthur H. McCollum (dated Oct7,1940 later called 8-ction memo)head of the Far Eastern Branch of ONI,it advocated a series of measures aimed at engineering a situation wherby Japan is force to attack American ground,naval,air,forces in Hawaaii as well as British and Dutch colonial outposts in the Pacific.With FDR's connivance the plan was put into effect.

Of particular importance to the defence of Hawaii were the crucial bomb plot messages . Its timely dispatch to Short,Kimmel would have stopped the Japanese attack on its tracks.Army radio intercept station MS 5 at Fort Shafter in Oaahu was regularly intercepting messages sent to Tokyo by Japanese spy ring which contained information on the where abouts of Pacific Fleet.Information sent on lowgrade ciphers was broken read by senior officers of US Army ,Naval intelligence.This clearly pointed to a Japanese intent to attack Pearl Harbor. Instead of promptly alerting the C in C PAC Washington officials sat on it.

It is military topbrass esconced in Washington who were unfit to exercise command.Are these men so obtuse,doltish that they failed to perceive the significance of these intercepts?Such an incredulous attitude stands to reason only if they had a hidden agenda.Unfortunately,author does not hold them fully accountable for Pearl Harbor defeat. We find this disturbing pattern emerging regarding other significant Japanese intercepts.Tokyo"s reply to American ultimatum of Nov 26,1941 which came in 14 parts
,decision to present Washington an ultimatum at 1pm EST all of which portended war.

I feel Prange's book , loaded with interesting facts and information, requires revision.History of Pearl harbor raid requires fresh interpretation ;facts which have emerged based on latest research have made this indispensible.Because if we are to believe authors like Stinnet,Toland Washington officials knew the attack was coming and they were awake.

More than 60 years have passed .Pearl Harbor raid and events surrouding it have continued to intrigue and fascinate me.I read Prange's book because I wanted to get different perspective on the subject.

Editorial Review:

At 7:53 a.m., December 7, 1941, America's national consciousness and confidence were rocked as the first wave of Japanese warplanes took aim at the U.S. Naval fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor. As intense and absorbing as a suspense novel, At Dawn We Slept is the unparalleled and exhaustive account of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. It is widely regarded as the definitive assessment of the events surrounding one of the most daring and brilliant naval operations of all time. Through extensive research and interviews with American and Japanese leaders, Gordon W. Prange has written a remarkable historical account of the assault that-sixty years later-America cannot forget.

The Ice Diaries: The True Story of One of Mankind's Greatest Adventures

Captain William R. Anderson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Gripping account of a real and daring adventure. 5 out of 5 stars.
16 of 16 people found this review helpful.

You might not think that an account of a real world event such as the first visit to the North Pole (and transit of the Arctic Ocean) with its outcome well known could be suspenseful and gripping. If so, you have not read "The Ice Diaries: The Untold Story of the USS Nautilus and the Cold War's Most Daring Mission" by William R. Anderson (the commander of Nautilus during that historic voyage) and Don Keith. Although the story has been told before, this time many previously classified aspects are explored in detail and perhaps for the first time the real nature of risks and daring are evident. Anderson and Keith describe the first two attempts to reach the Pole, both defeated by inexperience, faulty equipment, and sheer lack of knowledge of underwater Arctic conditions. But Anderson and the crew of Nautilus persevered and performed brilliantly to achieve not only reaching the Pole, but to cross all the way from the Pacific to the Atlantic in doing so. "The Ice Diaries" is a page-turner of the best sort. And it is pleasing to report that Anderson took great pains to make clear the contributions of everyone involved, although he remained modest about his own role. Fifty years afterwards, it may be difficult to realize what an extraordinary achievement it was, and the impact it had, both upon public opinion and on Cold War strategic thinking. The voyage of Nautilus from the Pacific to the Atlantic via the North Pole can justly stand alongside the Apollo moon missions as one of the greatest adventures of the Twentieth century made possible by evolving technology.

Editorial Review:

Now, for the first time, the captain of the submarine USS Nautilus tells the newly declassified story of his ship's desperate Cold War race beneath the polar ice pack.

The Cold War was in full swing. The Soviet Union had just successfully launched Sputnik, and President Eisenhower badly wanted to redeem the reputation of the US as technologically superior. "Operation Sunshine" was the answer: under top-secret orders, the Captain and crew of one of the first nuclear submarines, the USS Nautilus, crossed under the North Pole and became the first naval vessel to forge all the way under the polar ice pack to emerge near the former Soviet Union. Readers will voyage along with Captain Anderson as he shares newly declassified stories of his sub's encounters with terrible storms, fire in the hold, collisions with ice, broken compasses, and more.

Utmost Savagery: The Three Days of Tarawa

Joseph H. Alexander

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 31 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

"The first complete and definitive account of the Battle of Tarawa."

--Maj. Gen. Mike Ryan, USMC (Ret.)

Navy Cross recipient

Green Beach, Tarawa



On November 20, l943, in the first trial by fire of America's fledgling amphibious assault doctrine, five thousand men stormed the beaches of Tarawa, a seemingly invincible Japanese island fortress barely the size of the Pentagon parking lots (three-hundred acres!). Before the first day ended, one third of the Marines who had crossed Tarawa's deadly reef under murderous fire were killed, wounded, or missing. In three days of fighting, four Americans would win the Medal of Honor. And six-thousand combatants would die.



Now, Col. Joseph Alexander, a combat Marine himself, presents the full story of Tarawa in all its horror and glory: the extreme risks, the horrific combat, and the heroic breakthroughs. Based on exhaustive research, never-before-published accounts from Marine survivors, and new evidence from Japanese sources, Colonel Alexander captures the grit, guts, and relentless courage of United States Marines overcoming outrageous odds to deliver victory for their country.



"Without a doubt the best narrative of the struggle ever produced."

--Richard B. Frank, Author of Guadalcanal



A MAIN SELECTION OF THE MILITARY BOOK CLUB



Winner of the 1995 General Wallace M. Greene, Jr., Award, awarded to the year's best nonfiction book pertinent to Marine Corps History



Winner of the Alfred Thayer Mahan Award for Outstanding Writer of the Year, presented by the Navy League of the United States



Winner of the Roosevelt Naval History Prize, awarded by the Naval War College