Written with insight and humor, Audrey McCollum's thoughtful work reflects the struggle of a group of women of color to attain personal and economic power. It also chronicles the growth of an extraordinary friendship between McCollum, a white American psychotherapist, and Pirip Kuru, a remarkable Papuan woman whose persistance, despite limited education and virtually no resources, has changed the lives of many others in Papua New Guinea. Equally important is the author's personal story, intertwined with Pirip Kuru's, which reveals not only the deepening of McCollum's understanding of Pirip's life and circumstances, but of her own life as well. Brief but useful bibliography; glossary; index. A valuable resource for general readers and students of anthropology and women's studies.

Two Women Two Worlds by Audrey McCollum is a very enjoyable read. It made me smile, made me sad, it held my interest. The geographical descriptions along with wonderful photos let me see a part of the world I know I will never see in person.

One might expect "Two Women, Two Worlds" to be informative and enlightening, and it is. I was unprepared for it to be so thoroughly entertaining. The story, stitching through several visits by the author to Papua New Guinea over more than a decade, is a page- turner.

Life in the high country of Papua New Guinea is unimaginable to those of us who inhabit the Western World. Brilliantly described by Audrey McCollum, the people and their lifestyle become vivid and close. What a revelation to find that Pirip, a woman from a primitive culture half way around the world, has many of the same priorities that I do, both in terms of sense of self and quality of life.

The author, a highly educated and sophisticated woman, generously shares with Pirip, and with us, her readers, her own difficult human experiences. In fact, Audrey's challenges seem to help her relate to Pirip's uphill struggle, as she tries to effect change in her male dominated society.

Let me hasten to say, however, that this is not just a "women's book." My husband picked it up and couldn't put it down. "Two Women, Two Worlds" is well worth reading. There's enjoyment on every page, and a great deal to be learned along the way.

Having lived and loved and worked and traveled in Micronesia for nearly 10, unforgetable and unregretable years; having known people who knew P.F. Kluge during his Peace Corps journalism years and closely known some of the principal personalities in "Edge," I can vouch for the book's veracity. However, it reads more like enchanting fiction, without romanticizing, than merely an engaging factual account. I can recommend, without reservation, this delightful read to anyone contemplating visiting or relocating on an employment contract to these islands. It's much cheaper than a plane ticket and provides a preview of what to realistically expect, unlike travel or recruiting advertisements. For better or worse, it will assist in deciding if you are able to fit into small island life.

B.C. has got to be right as he's the only attorney in all of the world to have witnessed Northern Virginia, Vietnam with the USMC, Europe, GMUSL, and Saipan and lived to give such a review. Go Bill.

I've been living in Palau for over four years and finally got to reading this book. What a pleasure to sit on my balcony in the warm air reading this brilliant book. A really good laugh at times.

I have a nightmare that I will leave Palau and then not find my way back. This book is about someone who faces that nightmare.

Wonderful insights, of course things move along and Palau is not the Palau of old. I know the author recently re-visited Palau, I'd be interested to know if he found it as welcoming as always.

I know a budding author here who is keen to follow in his footsteps in terms of retelling Palau in a foreigners words. I only hope she uses the respect and humour this author chose to use.

Good book.

I actually picked this book up accidentally and started reading it due to pure boredom, but after the first few pages I was hooked! I've read it 3 times now and I find something new each time. Stansfield captures feelings and actions so vividly...I can't wait to read more about the Byrnehouse-Davies and Hamilton families!

This book is the sequel to The Gable Faces East. It focuses on Jess and Alexa's twins- Emma and Tyson. They each have their own trials to overcome to live happily ever after- just as we all do. That's why I loved this book and others by Anita. It shows that true, committed, and pure love can overcome anything if two people are working towards it with all they have. It also deals with forgiveness and redemption- which is also a very important value that we all need to apply a bit more often.
I love the Byrnehouse-Davies and Hamilton family and I look forward to Anita finishing the Gables of Legacy series!

I have read all of Anita Stansfield's books and this one is one of my favorites! The story is exciting and keeps you glued to each and every page. It is a wonderful book and I highly recommend it to any one who is a sucker for a good romance novel!!!

I went to Australia this summer (or their winter), and I took this book along with me. I read the book on the plane, and it seeemed helpful, but once I got there, I realized the book was lacking. First off - a lot of the places that were discussed in the book (specifically hotel rooms) were grossly misquoted on price. Secondly, the section on Melbourne (where I spent most of my time) I felt was inaccurate and the listing for hotels was extremely small. And the places listed were not very good places either in that they were either too small (and required MONTHS of advanced booking) or were too expensive for the average traveller. I found the Lonely Planet Guide to be much better and more helpful, giving the reader a more objective view of available hotels and eateries. I found a dozen or so inexpensive places to stay and eat that should have made the book. Even the Sydney section (where I also spent some time) was not very good, and the book was too Sydney-centric to be of much use to someone moving about the country. It's obvious that the writers of the book couldn't see beyond Sydney and New South Wales. Hopefully future additions will be more balanced.

I actually bought 4 different guide books to plan my trip Down Under. I ditched 3 of them almost immediately because Frommer's format was easier to read and locating appropriate information quicker. The advice on suggested tours was especially accurate; the boxed information warrants a second (or third) look - Frommer's never steered us in the wrong direction. Take the price information with a grain of salt as seasoned travelers know that pricing can and will fluctuate.

Don't buy any other guides - relax and enjoy your trip. Aussies are the most laid-back, patient crowd on the planet. It's an amazing country!

Our group of six friends just returned from a two week trip to Australia. We did much planning ahead of time using this guide. It was so helpful that even our travel agent was impressed with the information we could give her about our plans to travel by plane, car, and train. Information about each of the cities we visited was right on the money. We stayed in some of the hotels recommended and ate at some of the restaurants. With the information we had ahead of time, our trip went very smoothly. Practically everytime anyone had a question regarding just about anything in the area we were visiting, I just grabbed the book and had the answer.

This book is an excellent collection of essay by the leading producers of cool, far-out ideas alive today. Just reading it will expand your horizons and help you look at the final frontier in a new way.

Some of the essays, such as G. Harry Stine's on Single-Stage to Orbit spacecraft, are on near-term science and technology. Other essays, such as "Islands in the Sky," are longer-term and closer to science fiction. All are good.

My personal opinion is that the asteroids -- not the planets -- are the future of mankind, so the Mars-exploration essays by Zubrin et al. I found less enthralling. But you Mars fans out there NEED this book.

The essay, "The Economics of Interstellar Commerce" alone makes this book worth the cost.

Although I enjoyed John Lewis's _Mining the Sky_ more (simply because my bent is toward the asteroids), this book is better written and required reading. 4 stars.

I'm giving this five stars for the benefit of the chapters by Robert Zubrin and Martyn Fogg, which are ingenious and daringly original analyses of astronautic engineering and terraforming, respectively - each is the godfather of his field. The other material ranges from curiously quirky but not well-thought out (on terraforming Venus) to the kind of worthlessly unintelligent and uninteresting speculations you might expect to overhear from some goon at the bookstore but not to read in print (see the chapter on settling the Oort Cloud). This book was assembled as a "best of" selection from Analog; in a better world it would have been edited by the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, which would have known where to make the cutoff. Still, the good entries are fantastic enough to be well worth the purchase price.

The book deals with ideas about making space travel easy and colonizing space simple. The first few chapters deal with getting out of the gravity well we call Earth with known science and equipment. The next deal with using the resources that could be found on the Moon, Mars, Mercury and even the Oort Cloud (as well as planting a few colonies here and there)with the knowledge we have and the equipment we could have soon. After that is starts to get harder to picture doing all this projects with current technology. By chapter 8, for explain, we are dealing with terraforming and star engineering. Near the end of the book, starting with chapter 11 we are talking about interstellar space ships and the economices of interstellar commerce. But by than, you think all of it can be done! Each chapter helps to hold up the next one. For example, cheap, easy ways to get into space would cut the cost of space travel and allow for the next step which is exploring the planets and finding resources to help the next step.

Being an avid 'winey', and an Australian, I was excited to receive the bible on Antipodeon wines. Well I was a little disappointed; If you are thoroughly versed with the regions in Aus and NZ, then this is perfect for you; But being 8 years removed from my country, I discovered that the lack of info on specific regions was a negative for this publication. I find Hugh Johnson's guide a far more useful tool(although he does not reference the wineries as thoroughly).

This wine is a good guide for those interested in Australia & New Zealand wine. I do have two quibbles: Mr. Halliday does not seem to always specify when a particular wine is available in the US, and the index is a mess. All the wines are indexed according to the region they're from - so you can't just look up Hunter's, Allan Scott or Cloudy Bay in the index UNLESS you know what region they're from! I feel this second quibble is actually a somewhat serious problem that should be adjusted in future editions. Otherwise, a great sourcebook.

James Halliday has done it again. This is still THE bible of AU/NZ wineinformation. In this new 2001 edition, we finally (a long time wish) see a rating of the best AU & NZ producers of various grapes (eg CS, CS blends, Shiraz's, etc). Some vintage information is also included now. Again, even more producers are included (than the previous year) and the books seems to grow and grow.. I still would like some label-photos, although..

Verdict: a 'must buy' for anyone who wants a thorough overview of the best wines/producers/vintages/etc of Australia and New Zealand...

Ed Kanze's Kangaroo Dreaming should provide a healthy counterbalance to "Survivor II" with its kitschy evocation of aboriginal ceremony and the Australian landscape. In the popular show, the only genuine elements were the landscape of the outback itself and the glimpses of wildlife. In Kanze's clear-eyed view of the same landscape, the aborigines, like our Native Americans, displaying the "ugly and all-too-universal result of western mercantile culture mixing with a tribal society." The aborigines encountered near Alice Springs - unsmiling, clutching whiskey bottles - provide one of the human portraits that truly makes Kanze's book stand out among travelogues of natural history. But as always, Kanze's eye for flora and fauna predominates and his descriptive powers are masterful: "Suddenly, bubbles appeared in the water before me. I cocked my camera, switched on the flash, and held my breath. There - there -there - I was struck dumb by my good fortune. A black, rubbery bill wider than a duck's pushed through the surface immediately before me. It was followed by webbed feet, a hairy face with beady black eyes, and a furry brown body about the size of a muskrat's. I fiddled with the camera. The platypus was so close that my lens could not focus." The frame of Kanze's story is a nine-month, 25,000-mile odyssey he and his wife Debbie took around the rim of, and to the center of, Australia. (In fact, the author has used the sections of The Odyssey itself to parallel their journey.) Along the way they meet friendly and helpful nature enthusiasts - as well as characters they'd as soon never see again. For those of us who will visit "the America on the other side of the world" (Melville's phrase) only via the armchair, the Kanzes make irresistible, funny and erudite traveling companions.

For one who has not been to Australia yet, reading about this wildlife journey has been great fun. The author gives his readers a real sense of the joy of discovery and excitement of the search. Along the way, he imparts a great amount of fascinating information about the countryside and the people encountered during their travels.

I highly recommend Kanze's book for armchair travelers who have an interest in wildlife, or those who may be contemplating such an adventure for themselves. The view of Australia, its people, and its wildlife is extraordinary!

Great armchair rideabout through the land down under! Witty and intelligent, Kanze has a knack for making one feel as if he and his wife were sitting in rockers in your den telling these tales. He is able to balance intelligence and knowledge with humor and candor of his own foibles. I want to go to Australia!

Oviparous, viviparous, or ovoviviparous? That tongue-twisting question is at the center of this book, which relates science's attempt over the centuries to figure out where exactly to place the platypus, one of God's most wondrous (and confusing) creations, on the org chart of life. Central to the taxonomic mystery was the question of whether the platypus lays eggs (is 'oviparous,'), gives birth to live young ('vivi-'), or, like some lizards, hatches eggs within its own body ('ovovivi-').

High school biology is not an episode I'm anxious to relive, but Ann Moyal does a good job in this little book of keeping matters from getting too complex. What she wasn't able to do, unfortunately, was keep the middle of the book from dragging somewhat. After several chapters relating scientists' struggles and competing theories on the ovi/vivi question -- and related matters like nipples, sex organs, and the like -- I was more than ready to skip to the end in hopes Holmes or Poirot or someone would step forward and reveal the solution to the puzzle.

Things got really interesting again in the final three chapters, where Moyal introduces us to a self-taught biologist known as 'The Platypus Man' (not to be confused with Richard Jeni, who starred in a TV show by that name), to Winston, a platypus who traveled to England to help fight World War Two, and -- most importantly -- to the latest developments in platypus studies. I picked up this book in order to find out more about the platypus, not because taxonomy or the history of natural science are big interests of mine, and so I found these final chapters the most entertaining and rewarding in the book.

In 1839, the Tasmanian Society of Natural History adopted the platypus as its emblem, and added the motto 'Quocunque aspicias hic paradoxus erit' -- From wherever you look at it, this will be a paradox. Ann Moyal's book shows how men have sorted out the paradox, and lets us benefit from centuries of effort to know this reclusive, fascinating, and mysterious little creature a little better.

Ms. Moyal's book provides a good background into the paradox which the platypus has presented history and biology with.

She sets a wonderful stage for the drama of the platypus, and gives many examples to explain how national rivalry and individual competition both helped and hindered the search for the truth of this curious creature. As she presents well, the search for science in the 19th century was dominated by scientists of great egos, and by international conflict, including the napoleonic wars. Ms. Moyal examines many individuals in the search, showing some characters in great depth and others only briefly.

This is certainly a baffling creature, and an interesting book. However, though the subject and the mystery both provoke curiousity, one would most likely find the book boring if he or she did not have some special interest in the topic. It is, on the whole, a well written, informative read.

A superabundance of detail on the biology of the platypus, which made its debut European appearance as a hide preserved in a keg of spirits-and landed smack in the middle of the scientific debate over the classification of species, confounding naturalists throughout the 19th century. In the era that was "destined to become the great century of classification and the decoding of the complex, and diversifying, book of Nature," the platypus proved a tantalizing puzzle. Moyal, scientific historian and founder of the Independent Scholars' Association of Australia, has found an object worthy of obsession in the history of the "elusive duck-bill mole." With admirable focus, she has devoted herself to teasing out the theories and general bewilderment that the platypus engendered in the European and Australian naturalist communities, and through scientists' efforts and opinions, Moyal provides a fount of information about the habits and behavior of the shy creature. Although reported in detail that is at times bewildering for those not wholly captivated by the back and forth of the great platypus debates, it's nonetheless charming to witness the author's enchantment with all the minutiae of the battles, dead-end theories, and large personalities of the major players. The great, familiar names-Darwin, Linnaeus, Lamarck-appear, as do their lesser-known contemporaries: Buffon, "hyperactive" Frenchman and "that greatest enemy of arrangement"; St. Hilaire, who inquired, "If these are mammary glands, where is the butter?"; Richard Owen, who had "brains enough to fill two hats"; and Burrell, designer of the first "platypusary." Moyal brings the whole to vivid life, detailing the fruitless field expeditions and the under-appreciated contributions of the aborigines, and unearthing numerous bits of historic verse devoted to the platypus and its confounding structure: "O! Thou prehistoric link / kin to beaver, rooster, skink / Duck, mole, adder, monkey, fox / Paleozoic paradox!"

Ok, everyone knows that we did not step onto the moon in 1999 and say "We're here to stay." So, that makes this fiction, right? Not necessarily.

Ben Bova is the former president of the National Space Society. As such, he writes 'Welcome to Moonbase' with as much scientific accuracy as fantasy, and the combination is wonderful to behold. Who is to say that 100 years in the future someone might read this book and wonder why the names and dates were wrong, but so much more was accurate.

This book was one of my biggest motivations to get involved in the space exploration society, and I'm hoping that many other people find it in their library and get involved because they want to be the ones to say that their son or daughter just got a job with Moonbase Inc.

Make it so!!!

And do it well. His books, new and older ones like this set a stage for things that COULD happen in the lifetime of the youngest readers today. No warp drives, no magic hyperspace, though he has written that sort of thing in his empire books, it is just solid workday exploration of the Sol System.

Want capt janeway??? read fantasy, want solid straight on SCIENCE-Fiction? Read Bova, Benford, Bear [sometimes], and few others that know that ink on paper does not contravene the laws of physics.

As is usual with Ben Bova and his peers(Asimov, Heinlein, Card, Clarke, etc.), Ben Bova shows the best sign of a true SF author: He doesn't guess, he predicts. Everything he wrote can/could be described as possible from when he wrote Welcome To Moonbase to this current day.

The Sooterkin is a nice first novel, and it is interesting for most of its 200+ pages, but it is not a directly involving story. The conflict is spread out among its main characters, and it reads like a modern TV show with an ensemble cast. I liked the story, but if you are looking for a traditional novel with one main character, then this isn't for you.

The novel follows a minister on a cross country journey, a young boy looking for his "brother," a mother who may or may not have given birth to a seal, and assorted characters who come in and disappear quickly in this novel that takes place in 1800's Tasmania. Each of this vignette-style sections is interesting, but the whole comes up a bit shorter than the parts.

I look forward to Gilling's next effort as I think he'll develop into a fine novelist based on this, but for me, this was good but not brilliant. If you are interested in Austrailia and its environs, particularly in the area of historical fiction, try Matthew Kneale's English Passengers or Peter Carey's True History of the Kelly Gang (both are superior novels).

When I first picked up this book, I was expecting something along the lines of 'The Secret of Roan Innish'. It bears only the slightest resemblance to it, but is a worthwhile read in it's own right.

Gilling manages to evoke the atmosphere of colonial Van Diemen's Land very easily - virtually from the first sentence 'Pardon the stench.' His opening descriptions of the mud, the smells and the whaler's try-pots soon convince you that this is not a pleasant place to be.
His conversational tone when describing the Ship's Agent who can 'get you a berth out of here, if there are berths to be got' - is your first hint that there is real humour in this book.
The relationship between Ned and his 'brother' is touching and at times compelling. The mother and father are both realistic characters, as the incompetent and self-important Reverend, Mr Kidney. The relationship between Mr Kidney and his horse was one of the most amusing parts of the book!
Aside from the occassional use of colloquial language (which isn't strong) there is nothing in this book to prevent more mature children from enjoying it as well. It is certainly a wonderful first novel and I look forward to reading more from Mr Gilling.

Tom Gilling's novel THE SOOTERKIN is simply a wonderful book. Told in the form of a fable, the tale has much to teach us about love and kindness, greed and exploitation. Set in Australia in the early 19th century, Gilling's use of language is absolutely perfect in depicting his marvelous characters, making the era and location come alive, and generally setting the tone for this story. His characters are at the same time larger than life (in their sometimes absurd eccentricities) and wholly believable, given the amazing variations of the human animal. The book reads fairly quickly, but I would advise the reader to savor it and take it a little slower than temptation might dictate -- there's a lot here to enjoy.