The Devil's Own by Deborah Lisson is a well-written Australian story in which the main character Julie finds herself trapped in 17th century amongst moarooned sailors of the Dutch East India ship Batavia. Historical and geographical references with a love story at its core makes The Devil's Own a rich reading.

Julie Dykstra didn't want to go sailing in the Abrolhos Islands.She would have preferred to stay with her friend Lisa but since she was caught stealing that wasn't going to happen.She thought the trip was boring until she goes over to Long Island to investigate a face she saw there yesterday.Julie goes back in time to when the ship Batavia sunk.Back to when the skipper Jacobsz and the Commandeur Pelsaert sailed off in the ships boat and left the evil Jeronimus Cornelisz to become Captain General and inflict much pain and suffering on all who survived the shipwreck.Luckily for Julie not all of the crew are bad.Weibbe Hayes,a soldier,and Dirk help Julie to survive through this time of hatred.
I really love this book and I recommend it to all that love a good read on history that includes its own characters to make it more interesting.Other good books are the Royal Diaries series.
Hope this review was helpful!!:)

On June 23 1943 the author, Jack Champ, was marched into the German prisoner-of-war camp designated Oflag IVC, these days better known as Colditz Castle. Colditz was Germany's seemingly escape-proof castle prison where hundreds of the most determined and resourceful prisoners of World War II tirelessly carried out an unending campaign to achieve the seemingly impossible - freedom. By the end of the war twenty Australians had spent time in Colditz, and this book looks at life in the ancient castle specifically from their point of view. Colditz was a very special camp - the guards outnumbered the prisoners, and the castle was floodlit at night. Initially the Germans boasted that Colditz Castle was escape-proof, but they were wrong. By the end of the war there had been more escapes from Colditz than any prison of comparable size during both world wars. Jack Champ was a reluctant prisoner who took part in two of the most spectacular mass escapes of the war. This book describes in vivid detail how these indomitable and resourceful Australian servicemen tried, and at times succeeded, in turning dreams of escape into reality. Colin Burgess has interviewed many of the survivors and carried out extensive research to create this gripping account of the full story - from tense days in the care of the French Underground through to the only recently resolved fight for proper compensation.

Great story of what determined men can achieve with severely limited resources. Lots has been written on Colditz Castle and the men who were imprisoned there and the few who escaped.

I visited the castle in 1999, and what I saw confirms the stories in the book.

Great reading for those who prefer real adventures and exploints to fiction.

Elizabeth Honey is the author of Don't Pat the Wombat has a great idea for a book. She writes about a kid named Mark and his friends are going to camp with their teachers! One of their teachers nicknamed the Boom, because he hates all kids and tries to drown a kid named Journa! Mark and his friends have to save Jouna from the Boom. This book is funny and exciting. That's why you should read this book.

Remember summer camp in all it's wonderful, horrible glory? Elizabeth Honey does and she brings the memories back to life with this outrageous and funny tale about a group of Aussie sixth grade boys (known as the Coconuts and later, the Convicts) off to camp.

Narrated by Mark (or "Exclamation Mark"), he gives us the tell-all tales about his friends and their antics. They befriend newcomer Jonah, who takes on the Convict's ultimate nemesis, teacher Mr. Cromwell, a.k.a. the Bomb. ("Cromwell at camp is like Darth Vader at your birthday party.")

This a frenetic and fun book, documenting the misadventures of outback camplife (complete with mud fights, exploring, an end-of-camp pageant and of course, wombats!

Definately worth a read!

I read this book a couple of times long many moons ago but still must concur with those who say it's a great book. The author, John Greenway, enflamed the passions of students at his university and he claimed he was, by their lights, the campus reactionary. Alack! The students did not know that in a review of one of his early books, American Folksongs of Protest, he was described by the Soviet Appartchik reviewer as "America's most progressive folklorist." Gotta love the dichotomy! Greenway was also chummy with Woody Guthrie, Aunt Molly Jackson and a folksinger in his own right. In fine, Dylan himself even pilfered one of his songs.

The author, John Greenway, was my professor. This book is without doubt his masterpiece, his magnum opus. It takes the reader on a profound journey into the heart of Australia, explaining and teaching about Culture itself, the great driving engine of all human social organization. His chapter on religion is succinct and potent, and perceptive students will be indelibly changed by its insights. Dr. Greenway spent 15 years in the desert among the aborigines. His amusing tales of the characters he met and studied are almost mythic as described, a testimony to Greenway's powerful literary style (he was a student of Anglo-Saxon literature and folksongs, and studied under the great MacEdward Leach at the University of Pennsylvania). His storytelling ability is his strongest asset. But more important, the reader will be lifted above his own culture to see why people act as they do. I predict that this book will be republished some day and become a recognized text in cultural anthropology. Dr. Greeenway was a pioneer, and far ahead of his time.

Richard Woldendorf and Tim Winton collaborate to produce a breathtakingly handsome compendium of photography showcasing the beauty, grandeur, majesty, and scenic wonder of Australia in Down To Earth: Australian Landscapes. A remarkable body of work transforming a varied spectrum of landscape images into works of memorable and impressive photographic art recommended to students of photography, as well as the non-specialist general reader who appreciates images drawn from natural landscapes and elevated to the standards of fine art.

As an Australian who has lived for 28 years in the tropics of Australia, I can testify the this book is WYSIWYG. I have seen some of the places depicted, and can assure anyone that the photographs are genuine. I can only urge any person with an artistic frame of mind (or indeed anyone with an interest in Australia) to have a look at this book. They will find it rewarding.

Cheerio

Robbie White

This handsome coffee-table book, which covers roughly the sweep from Tahiti to Easter Island, is the work of the photographer son of the writer/painter Barnaby Conrad. The brief text skillfully introduces the islands, incorporating quotations from famous earlier visitors such as Melville, Gauguin, and Robert Louis Stevenson. The photographs are well chosen and provocatively juxtaposed with historical images, including old postcards, portions of maps, and even postage stamps. Unlike many books of this genre, there is an emphasis on portraying the local people in their everyday activities, as well as views of stunning sunsets. Primarily a gift book for those planning a tour and a souvenir to remember it by, this book may be priced beyond the budgets of many libraries.- Harold M. Otness

Bookbag...
A writer and photographer who splits his life between his native California and his adopted homeland of French Polynesia, Winston Conrad has put together a sampler of Pacific paradises. The title - Fabled Isles of the South Seas (dist. by ACCESS Publishers, $49.95) - says it all, or nearly, and Conrad's selection is hard to quarrel with, including as it does Tahiti and its Society Island neighbors, Pitcairn, the Cooks, the Tuamotus, the Marquesas, and Easter Island. Conrad clearly knows the territory, and each of his essays conveys a personal take amplified by extended quotes from eminent literary visitors (Jack London to James Michener). The illustrations include both Conrad's own color photographs and a nice melange of drawings, historical charts, and old prints. It's the grand Pacific tour with an informed guide.

Will Self, T.C. Boyle and Haruki Murakami wish they wrote stories as brilliant as ones written by Peter Carey. In fact, if you're in the UK, pick up Collected Stories for all-inclusive brilliance. Not as self-indulgent or inscrutable as Self, quieter than Boyle, more clever than Murakami (and I do like these guys), Carey shows his ability here in different ways than with his novels. He understands what short stories can and should be. Anyone who likes the form, or who often doesn't have time for a lot of fiction but wishes he/she did, might want to track this down.

The twelve stories in this collection were my first introduction to Peter Carey's fiction, and I was immediately dazzled by their imaginative verve. Surreal, allegorical, sometimes chilling, sometimes magical, and often enigmatic, these are powerful works in a medium which can often be too short to make an impact.

Many of the situations described in the stories are not of the concrete world we live in, but evolve with a nightmarish logic, invoking feelings that we all have experienced in dreams. Witness the "Report on the Shadow Industry" with its baffling but somehow deeply familiar description of a society buying boxes of "shadows" - are they consumable goods, or hopes, or dreams? Also fascinating is "Conversations with Unicorns", a strange fable of unicorns discovering truths about their own mortality. More disturbing still is "Life & Death in the South Side Pavilion", a surreal tale of a man minding horses, who finds that a horse dies every time he makes love, and is trapped in his situation by guilt and an unyielding authority figure. Allusions to intrusive and dominating political systems or other sorts of authority lend a sense of powerlessness and struggle to other stories including "The Fat Man in History".

Overall, these stories invoke a complex and elusive mixture of feelings of yearning and despair. A perfect, intense, short introduction to the work of this author.

They say that history is written by the victor. While this may have been the case years ago, before the advent of electronic and paper printing, it is interesting to note that often small jewels of history can still be found hidden in the sands of time. This is such a book. You may have read the bestseller, "The Fatal Shore" by Robert Hughes. While this book is dedicated to Alan Moorehead's "The Fatal Impact", it is a rather overblown attempt to take off from where Moorehead left off. Moorehead, unlike Hughes, is succinct and straight to the point, describing in a paragraph what might take Hughes pages to deploy. But Moorehead goes further by re-writing history with some of the most beautiful and descriptive language ever displayed in word, especially his lyrical but simple descriptions of the Australian 'bush' before the advent of the white man.Unlike many historical essays, Mooreheads style is to grab and swallow us; it takes and immerses us in our own past, and it is frightening. This book is a true account of the effect of the white invasion of the South pacific. Though often sad, it is devoid of token sentimentality. It is books such as these that keep our history grounded and firmly established in truth, and not the often repeated propoganda that is a common style for Western academia to employ and justfiy our own convoluted history...

A magnificent short book which places the reader on the deck of Endeavor and the Resolution during Cook's first two voyages of discovery in the Pacific. An easy read, yet a scholarly study of the consequences of Western contact in Tahiti, Australia and the Antarctic. One of Moorhead's central themes in the book is the Noble Savage, "happy, healthy, beautiful people whose every want was supplied by the tropical forest, and who, best of all, knew nothing of the cramping sophostries of civilization." Cook brought back evidence that the noble savage indeed existed, and writers such as Boswell, Diederot and Rousseau used it to argue that life in Europe during the late 18th century had evolved into something less than desirable. It is ironic that, despite the high purpose of Cook's voyages of discovery and the pleas of those who recognized the validity and desirability of life in Tahiti or on the barren lands of Australia, the voyages touched off a frenzy by religious zealots and profiteers. A half century after Cook had opened Tahiti to the rest of the world, Gaugin sees shadows of something so beautiful that it still moves him to create his paintings; "The overwhelming physical beauty of the woman remains, but she does not dance. Instead, she lies inert and naked on her bed ... waiting for nothing, hoping for nothing, the petals of the tiare Tahiti scattered about her, a dark, conspiratorial couple in the background and all around them the mystical shapes and symbols of the Tropics. On this one canvas the painter has written in English the one word, "Nevermore."

Prior to the publication of this book there were important gaps and inaccuracies in our understanding of the battles for the Falkland Islands. Did Argentinian troops intentionally fire upon a British officer attempting negotiation under a white flag at Goose Green? Were Royal Marines successful in their ambush of Argentinian armored vehicles during the initial invasion? Was the Argentinian Air Force commanded by a fanatical maniac out to establish his service as the dominant domestic political force? The surprising answer to all these question is No, and in a careful and touchingly human review of the activities and decisions of Argentinian forces Middlebrook reveals the tragic gap that developed between Argentinian political leaders and the troops and officers given the difficult task of defending the islands without adequate support as winter closed in. The junta's colossal mistake of assuming the UK would not fight for the Falklands led to the isolation, suffering, and defeat of the occupation forces and, while ultimately setting the stage for democracy in Argentina, seared a painful wound into the soul of a country already carrying conscious of past failures. Middlebrook's access to Argentinian commanders, troops, and families helps reveal the complex social and political landscape of a country which still sees the "Malvinas" in terms of classical European colonialism. It also reveals the operational planning and situational understanding of air and land commanders at critical points in the conflict. Students of this subject will recognize the author as a highly accomplished battle historian.

Martin Middlebrook has once again shown why he is one of the best British authors covering military history. His masterful account of the Falklands, 'Operation Corporate' now has a companion volume, this time covering the war from the Argentinian point of view. The book is well told and is a delight to read and only one of very few covering this war from the 'other side'. You really have to give it to the pilots flying their aircraft against the Britsh Fleet, they had guts, they knew what they were in for but continued with their mission. This is a great story, if you can get a copy do so, you wont be disappointed!

I bought this book when I was visiting New Zealand in 1988 where people kept recommending it, and I am just now rereading it for something like the fifth time--including one time with a discussion group. This time through I am finding new delights that I must have skimmed over before. Parts of the book are naively New-Agey, but even those parts are personal and honest and fun to read. It is the story of a woman whose job takes her into the middle of an enormous cultural shift, and she manages to stay in the middle--between the world views of American bureaucracy and a traditional people's values, and somehow to walk that precarious boundary and to be receptive to the ways it changes her. It's an amazing story.

One of the most unexpected, wonderful and funny true day to day experiences of a woman who worked for one of the most prestigious museums in the world. Her journey, both physically and spiritually in creating and formalizing a major exhibit of the Maori People of New Zealand on a world tour. Her writing style was easy to read and I am still searching for a copy of my own!