Reviews (22)

THE IMMORTAL BON SCOTT
Mr Walker has done an EXCELLENT job with this book on Bon. He writes with beautiful sensitivity and empathy. He is a great narrator, making this book a compulsive read and impossible to put down. You really will not find a more complete and more accurate book on Bon Scott, than this one. Congratulations Clinton Walker, and may your brilliant book sell many more millions of copies !!

Bon Scott is etched into my heart & soul and will remain there FOREVER!
If you are going to read a biography about Bon Scott and/or AC/DC then THIS book is definately the one to read.
Rocker
Despite the playful title, Highway to Hell is quite an intelligent read about Bon's storied career.Ample attention is given to Bon's pre-AC/DC career, with a lot of detail and insight into the Australian pop music scene of the 70's.I did feel that the AC/DC years could have been more thorough, but considering no one in the band cooperated with the author, I guess that's to be expected.A good read. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. AC/DC (Musical group)    2. Australia    3. Biography    4. Biography & Autobiography    5. Biography / Autobiography    6. Biography/Autobiography    7. Composers & Musicians - Rock    8. Entertainment & Performing Arts - General    9. Genres & Styles - Rock    10. History & Criticism - General    11. Rock musicians    12. Scott, Bon    13. Biography: film, television & music    14. Music    15. Music / Rock    16. Rock & pop   

Reviews (14)

Let's not be hasty
In answer to "Mead's Samoa hoax has been exposed" (see below), which is based largely upon Derek Freeman's work.
Mead's Samoa hoax has been exposed

read it for yourself
Famous books in any academic discipline draw a lot of attention (thus making them famous). When negative, most such attention arises from personal jealously about the success of others, and given that Mead is a woman, she draws additional scorn from male academics (and their female supplicants). As a result, many myths develop and circulate around academic departments, and even worse, people rely on textbook (mis)representations in place of their own reading. I encourage anyone with serious interest in traditional Samoa and/or anthropology to read this book for themselves, consider Mead's evidence and analysis, and develop your own assessment. Clearly, most of the reviewers here have not read the book. By the way, I give the book four stars because it does have flaws, but read it and decide for yourself. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Anthropology - Cultural    2. Anthropology - General    3. Archaeology / Anthropology    4. Children    5. Girls    6. Life Stages - Adolescence    7. Psychology    8. Samoan Islands    9. Samoans    10. Social Science    11. Sociology    12. Women's Studies - General    13. Social Science / Anthropology / General   

Subjects:  1. Photo Techniques    2. Photography    3. Scenic Photo Collections    4. Subjects & Themes - Travel - General    5. Subjects & Themes - Travel - World/Australasia    6. Australasian & Pacific history: postwar, from c 1945 -    7. Australia    8. Photographs: collections    9. Photography / Travel   

Reviews (21)

A landmark (but dated) study on the ecological dimension of European expansion
Alfred Crosby is widely credited for popularising the ecological dimension of the history of imperial expansion. For this reason, and perhaps this reason alone, his book is worth a read.
Book Review:"Ecological Imperialism"

Triumph of the pig, the rat, the dandelion, the smallpox virus... and the European humans who gave them a ride across the ocean
The most impressive and pleasant aspect of this new approach to world history is the non-anthropocentric perspective Crosby adopts. He tells the story of the expansion of a tightly connected group of European organisms, which includes humans alongside with other domesticated animals, crops, weeds, viruses and bacteria.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Adaptation To Environment    2. Europe - General    3. Europeans    4. History - General History    5. Human Ecology    6. Human Geography    7. Life Sciences - Ecology    8. Migrations    9. Science    10. Science/Mathematics    11. World - General    12. Animal migration - Europe - History    13. Europe    14. European history (ie other than Britain & Ireland)    15. History / World    16. Modern period, c 1500 onwards    17. New Zealand    18. USA    19. World history    20. c 1000 CE to c 1500    21. c 500 CE to c 1000 CE   

Reviews (1)

SUPERB OVERVIEWOF OCEANIC ART
The book gives an excellent overview of the art in the Oceanicregion with special emphasis on New Guinea.Read more

Subjects:  1. Art    2. Art & Art Instruction    3. Australia & New Zealand - General    4. History - General    5. History Of Fine Arts    6. Oceania    7. ASIA    8. History Of Art / Art & Design Styles    9. Melanesia    10. Micronesia    11. Polynesia   

Reviews (1)

More than meets the eye
What is relegion?Why do we believe what we believe?These are important questions since all of us look for meaning within our existence.This book offers valuable insight into those issues. Not just a travel book.
Read more

Subjects:  1. 1968-    2. Adventurers & Explorers    3. Australia & Oceania - General    4. Description And Travel    5. Essays & Travelogues    6. Manners And Customs    7. Melanesia    8. Montgomery, Charles,    9. Oceania    10. Religious life and customs    11. Travel    12. Travel - Foreign    13. Biography & Autobiography / Adventurers & Explorers   

Editorial Review

As the name implies, the Eyewitness Travel Guides bring you the world in full living color. In the Read more

Reviews (17)

Not only covers the usual places to go and stay, but adds tips on local foods, cutaways and floor plans of all major sights
Two fine new travel guides use the popular 'Eyewitness' approach DK fostered in its children's books to provide adult travelers with clear, eye-catching and fun guides. AUSTRALIA packs in the color photos, maps and illustrations and not only covers the usual places to go and stay, but adds tips on local foods, cutaways and floor plans of all major sights, town listings of sights and beaches, timelines of festivals and special events, and more.
Discovering Australia
I really enjoy this series of travel books. Always guaranteed a clear concise and very illustrated description of the subject matter and this book is delightfully no different.
Australia by DK Publishing
The actual weight of this book is too much for lightweight travellers.Great photos and descriptions but will read, make notes and leave this book at home.Another book selection for actual travel will probably be Fodors. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Australia & Oceania - General    2. Australia/Oceania - Australia    3. Travel    4. Travel - Foreign    5. Travel / Australia & Oceania   

Editorial Review

Captain James Cook's three epic 18th-century explorations of the PacificOcean were the last of their kind, literally completing the map of the world.Yet despite his monumental discoveries, principally in the South Pacific, Cookthe man has remained an enigma. In retracing key legs of the circumnavigator'sjourney, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Tony Horwitz chronicles the culturaland environmental havoc wrought by the captain's opening of the unspoiledPacific to the West, as well as the alternately indifferent and passionatereactions Cook's name evokes during the writer's journeys through Polynesia,Australia, the Aleutians, and the explorer's native England. Horwitz skillfullyweaves a biography and travel narrative with warm humor that is natural and human-scale, and his restless inquisitiveness quickly infects the reader. Whilestriking dichotomies abound throughout that journey--Maori toughs who adopt Naziimagery to symbolize their own fight against white domination, millennia-oldPolynesian sexual mores that would shame the Reeperbahn, a sense thatChristianity decimated native cultures at least as effectively as Westernvenereal diseases did--few are more poignant than the ones that abound in Cook'sown life. This fine work is an adventurous reminder that answers to historicalriddles are elusive at best--and seldom as compelling as the myriad newquestions they pose. Read more

Reviews (79)

entertaining (3-1/2 stars)
This account of Captain James Cook's three voyages is juxtaposed with accounts of what the author encountered two and a half centuries later at venues on Cook's itinerary. The reader switches between Cook's history (upbringing, family, strengths, faults, patrons) and the author's humorous travel impressions.
Great laid back, meandering read
Though the prose wanders a bit in places, one of the most entertaining travelogues I have read.Best read on a beach somewhere in the Pacific.The style is easygoing, but the author gets his point across.Read it!

Looking for an easy-going but comprehensive chronicle of Cook's journeys?
During a round-the-world trip, I travelled to Australia, New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Tahiti, Bora Bora and Easter Island. I came across lots of places visited by Captain Cook or otherwise connected with him, as well as plenty of monuments with snippets of information about his journeys. I was interested to learn more, but at the same time wanted to avoid academic histories. This book was recommended by my guidebook, and it was perfect. Tony Horwitz combines a chronicle of Cook's journeys in the Pacific with his own experiences of modern-day travel in some of the same regions. It's light-hearted and entertaining, as well as being interesting and informative. It's travel literature, not a literary classic, but it's perfect if you're after an easy-going but comprehensive description of Cook's journeys. Definitely recommended.
Read more

Subjects:  1. 1728-1779    2. Cook, James,    3. Description And Travel    4. Discovery And Exploration (General)    5. Discovery and exploration    6. Expeditions & Discoveries    7. General    8. History    9. History - General History    10. History: World    11. Journeys    12. Modern - 17th Century    13. Modern - 18th Century    14. Oceania    15. Voyages around the world   

Subjects:  1. Ancient - General    2. Australia    3. Australia & New Zealand - Australia    4. Australia - History    5. History    6. History - General History    7. History: World    8. History / Australia & Oceania   

Reviews (6)

The Brotherhoods
Fair reading. Takes place in Australia, so things are a little different here in the USA. The author is pretty knowledgable and took a long time to research the material. The book is more like a text book than for entertainment.

Very informative book
This is a great book with loads of informationabout the motrocycle scene and the motorcycle clubs such as Bandidos,Hells Angels Gypsy Jokers and other australian motorcycle clubs.The author who is a psychologist dual citizenship and started life in U.S.A would make one wonder how someone who was not a patch wearer and did not have a motorcyclewould be the premier independent expert on these clubsand gangs.
An insight into Australian biker clubs
Arthur Veno is actually American born and was even at the infamous Hells Angels Monterey incident in 1969 as a teenager. Now Arthur lives in Australia, which he has called home for almost 30 years, and his curiosity in what could be best described as "patch clubs" has almost been a life long interest.Read more

Subjects:  1. Australia    2. Motorcycle clubs    3. Motorcycle gangs    4. Motorcycles    5. Motorcycles - General    6. Popular Culture - Counter Culture    7. Social Science    8. Sociology    9. Sociology - General    10. Sociology Of Organizations    11. Subculture    12. Association: clubs, societies    13. Cultural studies    14. Motorcycles: general interest    15. Social Science / General    16. Social history   

Reviews (1)

A classic of environmental history
This book, first published in 1921 in Britain and New Zealand, and now reissued in the United States with a generous and enthusiastic introduction by William Cronon, is certainly one of the strangest and at first sight most unpromising works of environmental history ever written. The book is basically an extraordinarily detailed account of the environmental history of a single sheep "station" (sheepfarm) on the East Coast of the North Island of New Zealand written by the lessee of the property, Herbert Guthrie-Smith. He describes in great detail the environmental transformations that he himself brought about as he cleared the forest cover from the steep hills, grassed the slopes and stocked the property with sheep. In many ways Guthrie-Smith regretted what he had to do in order to make a living.The book describes everything: clearing the land, changes in birdlife, the local geology and archaeology, the spread of noxious weeds, accelerated erosion, the complexities of exporting wool, etc etc. Guthrie-Smith was from Scotland and the book is written in an old-fashioned heavily literary style, but it is well worth persisting with. One of the most interesting aspects of the book is Guthrie-Smith's descriptions of his Maori landlords, from whom he leased his farm but who were a lot poorer than he was. One can see from his pages how the present day sheepfarming landscape of the North Island was created, and at what cost: a true classic, but for serious environmental historians only. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Ecology    2. Essays    3. General    4. Natural History    5. Nature    6. Nature/Ecology    7. New Zealand    8. Tutira    9. Tutira (N.Z.)    10. Animal husbandry   

Subjects:  1. Australia    2. Botany    3. History    4. Life Sciences - Botany    5. National Herbarium of New Sout    6. Plant collecting    7. Plant collectors    8. Science    9. Science/Mathematics    10. Botany & plant sciences    11. Photography / General   

Reviews (4)

concise history of australia
According to the author, Australian history is 200 years of racism, sexism, oppression, dominance, exploitation. The victims are aborginal people, women, the early convicts -- and the environment.The villains, of course, are white males. When the Australian economy dips, the fault lies with the U.S., world capitalism and neoliberalism. When the Australian economy thrives, it just means Aussies can waste more money on bourgeois geegaws. The tone is humorless, unrelenting, shrill, one-sided -- a prime example of what one Australian referred to as "black armband history".

How could concise seem so long?
The first thing that came to mind as I trudged through Macintyre's wordy book was how could something called "concise" seem so long? This book is informative but entirely humorless, like reading an ingredient list. Macintyre seems more concerned with showcasing his vocabularity then with enticing you with the facinating history of Australia's past. There is plenty of information in this book if you can make it through to the end while maintaining consciousness. If you are about to visit Australia and you are looking for an entertaining and informative book to stimulate your enthusiasm I strongly recommend Bill Bryson's In a Sunburned Country. If you are looking for a strong sedative then this is the book for you.

Informative and well-written
I have long wanted to read a general history of Austrailia, and when I read. on April 3, 1988, The Fatal Shore, by Robert Hughes, I said to myself, in my post-reading note:"I am glad I read this book, but maybe I'd've done better to read a plain history of Australia than this long account of this aspect of its beginning."I am shamed to say that it has taken over 12 years to do what I thought I should have done back then.This book goes up to 1999, and portrays very well the current dilemmas facing Australia.If you enjoy the articles in Current History, as I do, this book reminds me of those articles, except it is less bland and neutral.Ordinarily I avoid histories with designations such as "short" or "concise" figuring that I want a fuller treatment.But when one knows as little of a country as I do of Australia, I thought this a good introduction to its history. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Australia    2. Australia & New Zealand - Australia    3. Australia & New Zealand - General    4. History    5. History - General History    6. History: World    7. Australasian & Pacific history    8. Australia--History    9. History / Australia & Oceania   

Reviews (4)

Timeless Memoir Captures Youth Like No Other
I read this book for the first and second times last night. Timeless Memoir Captures Youth Like No Other
I read this book for the first and second times last night. A Classic of Island Literature
A great book that captures the feel of Hawaii.Victoria's Hawaii is gone but the 'feel' of the place is timeless.Her description of Hawaiian music,plate lunches and hundreds of other details of island life are righton target.If you've been captivated by the idea of islandlife...readthis book.You'll be on the beach,breathing in plumerias as long as youreyes cross the words. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1945-    2. 20th Century Description And Travel    3. Australia & Oceania - South Pacific    4. Description and travel    5. Handicapped    6. Hawaii    7. History - General History    8. Homes and haunts    9. Nelson, Victoria,    10. Oceania    11. Social life and customs    12. Travel    13. Nelson, Victoria   

Reviews (2)

Journey to Irian Jaya
This book is an ethnography of the Dani, a people living in the Grand Valley, a temperate plain along the Balim River in central Irian Jaya (New Guinea).Heider visited the region and got to know the Dani during four study visits over nine years, beginning in 1961.The book includes information on standard ethnographic topics, such as environment, population density, labor and its division, tools, arts and play, social relationships, kinship terms, leadership, religion and ritual, funerals, and feasts.
Updated Ethnography of the Dani
While it is a fascinating reading in itself, this book is best read after the more comprehensive classic "The Dugum Dani" by the same author, of which this work is something of an update.Read more

Subjects:  1. Anthropology - Cultural    2. Anthropology - General    3. Archaeology / Anthropology    4. Dani (New Guinea people)    5. Social Science    6. Sociology    7. Anthropology    8. Indigenous peoples    9. Papua New Guinea    10. Social Science / Anthropology / General   

Reviews (10)

Disappointing
I give this book 3 stars because the pictures are beautiful and they made me go and visit the places pictured in the book. But, as another reviewer wrote, you can't cover all the Hawaiian islands in 150-200 pages. Way to little info about the islands and the sights. Ok if you want a quick overview, but not ok if you want details. I usually like the DK guide books, but this one was disappointing. The Ultimate Guide and the Rough Guide are much better.

Love the photos at least
This book leaped out at me when I was in a bookstore the other day looking for books for our upcoming honeymoon to Hawaii. The pictures sold me. They're beautiful and most of the other Hawaii guides weren't so visually appealing. But the iinformation contained in the book was dissapointing. It was as skimpy as some of the bathing suits worn there! I'm going to buy or order another book or two to supplement this one. This will be the one I dream over, and the others will be for good solid practical info and advise.

Good Starter Travel Guide
I am a fan of the DK travel guides, and particularly like the color photography that allows readers to visualize the area more than most other travel guides. In reality I would like to give this guide 3.5 stars, but will have to settle for four. The photography is generally good, and the information is generally correct in my experience. This book features some excellent pointers that are especially good for those new to Hawaii. The book has a brief background section on the islands as a whole, and has decent island by island coverage of all the major Hawaiian Islands (certainly all the ones a tourist would visit.)
Read more

Subjects:  1. Travel    2. Travel - United States    3. United States - Pacific - Hawaii    4. United States - West - Pacific (General)    5. Travel / United States / West / Pacific (AK, CA, HI, NV, OR, WA)   

Subjects:  1. Alphabet    2. Australia    3. Children's Books/Ages 4-8 Nonfiction    4. Children: Grades 2-3    5. Concepts - Alphabet    6. Description and travel    7. Juvenile Nonfiction    8. Juvenile literature    9. People & Places - Australia & Oceania    10. Social life and customs   

Subjects:  1. Australia & New Zealand - General    2. Encyclopedias    3. General    4. History    5. History: World    6. Oceania    7. Oceania - History    8. Reference    9. Australasia, Oceania & Other Land Areas    10. History of other lands    11. Pacific Ocean    12. Pacific studies    13. Reference works   

Reviews (1)

The "Great Way" to the Marquesas
MANUIOTA'A is much more then a journal of a voyage to Paradise. Read more

Subjects:  1. Journeys    2. Lichtenstein, Burgl    3. Manuiota'a    4. Marquesas Islands    5. Suggs, Robert C   

Subjects:  1. Anthropology - Cultural    2. Anthropology - General    3. Archaeology / Anthropology    4. Chiefdoms    5. Government - Comparative    6. Oceania    7. Politics and government    8. Politics/International Relations    9. Social Science