Desperate Voyage takes the reader on a wonderful journey of discovery. This true life adventure takes place at the close of World War II and details the trials and tribulations of the author in his attempt to return to his wife in Austrailia. When he finds there is no transportation available, John decides to sail a small yacht the 8000 miles to Austrailia from Panama. Never mind that he has never sailed a boat before! His challenges are many and John learns many things the hard way. This book, which is hilarious at times and sad at times, keeps the reader always longing to turn the page and see what happens next.

This is makes for good browsing OR handy reference. You can discover the meaning of an unfamiliar word or the origin of a word you know. For that matter, you can find new terms with which to jazz up your own sentences.

It's particularly interesting for us Americans to learn about British slang along with our own. Did you know a "bath-dodger" is, in British-speak, "an unwashed or habitually dirty individual"? Some of these are worth adopting!

It's easy on the eyes and easy to find what you want (plenty of white space, and main entries in bold type).

Definitions are written in clear ordinary language, and examples are given where useful.

There's everything from the graphically sexual to the criminal to the eminently printable like "mugwump" and "penguin suit". There are ones you never heard of and there are vocabulary staples ("cool", "OK"). This was published in 1990, so anything newer won't be here, but that's not saying much.

I bought a copy of this book after seeing reviews just after it came out. My mother visiting from USA fell in love with it, couldn't find it in bookstores, so I gave it to her to take back. Now it's a rare book! It is the kind of book that can change lives as it provides great insight into the experiences Sally has gone through in her transition from WASPish TV person (excuse my lack of ability to come up with a better description) to person who is fully integrated with the aborigial community in Australia. No wonder it's become a rare book so quickly!

DINOSAURS OF AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZELAND (ISBN 0-674-20767-X) by John A. Long, Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Western Australian Museum, Perth, may at first glance seem primarily a beautiful picture book, because of the many fine photos and illustrations. BUT EXAMINE THE TEXT! The book is imbued with reader-friendly scientific insight and description. Not just dinophiles, but all lovers of ancient vertebrates will find a book to celebrate, one beautifully filling a hitherto serious void. Here is an admirable synthesis of quality information, technical data, and easily comprehended explanations that will prove a joy to both amateur and professional paleontologists. Furthermore, magnificent color photos of Australian dinosaur tracks, along with detailed descriptions, and photos of opalized dinosaur bones add a welcome dimension to this exciting 'journey' around the Land of Oz (as Australia is often called)during Mesozoic times. John A. Long, the well-known author of The Rise of Fishes: 500 Million Years of Evolution, can add one more feather to his hat. Meanwhile, we dinophiles should tip ours to him!

"Directions in Physics" constist of edited transcripts of 5 lectures given by Professor Dirac when he was visiting Australia and New Zealand in 1975.

The five lectures are about:

1. The development of quantum mechanics.

2. Quantum electrodynamics.

3. Magnetic monopoles.

4. A positive energy, relativistic wave equation.

5. Cosmology and the gravitational constant.

In my opinion, Dirac is one of the greatest physicist ever. This book gives a unique insight his way of doing science, in which mathematical beauty plays an important role.

Lecture #1 is also very nice because Dirac has experienced much of the development of quantum mechanics himself, making him an authority on the area.

Wonderful book with much information for both professional miner and layperson. Highly recommended if you have a interest in opals, geology or mining

This book is for anyone wanting to research the origins of Western musical culture in the Antipodes, with a close look at "the grandfather of Australian music" the composer and teacher Alfred Hill. Almost forgotten by his countrymen today, author John Mansfield Thompson acknowledges for the first time in this authoratitive book the importance of a fascinating life in music lived "down under" far from the more universally known and appreciated cultural mainstreams of Europe and America at the turn of the twentieth century. Hill used enormous personal influence and creative resource to initially help found the early orchestras and choral societies in Australia and New Zealand and was a revered teacher and conductor in his own time. Receiving his musical training in Europe at a time when names like Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Grieg were around, he is in some ways the creative figure who brought the flavour of all this music and the culture surrounding it to his antipodean home. An important chapter in the musical history of "down under" for anybody interested in knowing what was going on there musically in the early part of last century.

I purchased this book as part of my preparation for a diving trip to Chuuk Lagoon. It contains many excellent colour photographs of wrecks, coral, artifacts and local inhabitants. I found the brief history that accompanies each of the wrecks featured especially interesting. Likewise the diagrams of some of the wrecks, along with their various inclinations on the lagoon floor is fascinating.

Invaluable for such a trip are the scale maps of the lagoon and islands which pinpoint the location of the wrecks and other major features/landmarks. Further, the book grades each of the featured sites using the Pisces Rating System for Dives & Divers and the Dive Site Icons, both of which I found gave an excellent feel for the dive.

Finally, the overview of the area given in the first few chapters is a nice touch. It contains a brief history of the area, information for travelling to Chuuk, items to bring, weather, food, shopping etc.

In this book, author Tim Rock, has improved greatly his previous work on Truk Lagoon in 1994. I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone planning a trip to Chuuk, or, who simply wants to read about The Most Spectacular Wreck Diving in the World (In my opinion).

We took Tim's advice to heart, and spent a great month in Bali. We toured the island anti-clockwise and dove and photographed all the sites Tim highlighted. We dove with the operators he suggested, as well as some others, and found that his suggestions were always always best.

Truk offers about the best u/w photography in the world, and this book gave me an idea of what to expect, and how to get ready. And was a great help in identifying some of my shots when i got back. Can't wait to go back. More wrecks are discovered every day there i hear, so i hope the author writes an updated version soon.