The Naked Island

The autobiography of a young australian soldier who spent long years in captivity as prisoner of war of the Japanese.
The first part is the description of the military life in Malaya before the attack of the Japanese with many ironical notes on that tedious life from the point of view of a soldier.
The second part is the description of the useless fight of the Australian and British troops against the overwhelming enemy and then the attempt to escape the capture.
Then the third, and most interesting part, is the description of the life during three long years of captivity in the different prisons where the writer was imprisoned and in the jungle camps where all prisoners were forced to work without food, facing malaria, beri beri and death for starvation.
A book I would really recommend.
Are you looking for another absolutely interesting book about a similar experience?
Read the famous "Behind bamboo" by Rohan Rivett

One of my first introductions to Australian and Far East reading of WW11, thoroughly enjoyable, could not put it down until it was finished. Would recommend this book to all generations. Has given me the taste to find out more about the Far East and familiarise myself with further Australian literature. Thought only John Pilger could write riveting literature, I was wrong!

This is an unforgettable book: informative, educational, poignant and often delightfully humorous. It is a tribute to the British and Australian Forces used as slave labour in the construction of the Burma/Siamese Railway and their ability to live with dignity, compassion and decency under the most deplorable conditions imaginable. This book leaves an indelible impression on the reader and should be required reading for each successive generation.

So much of what happened during the political development of Micronesia now come to light as a result of this well researched book. Until now, much of what transpired during the political status negotiations required tedious search in US government archives and the Library of Congress. That is if the documents were declassified. This book is insightful.

So mucy of what happened during the political development of Micronesia now come to light as a result of this well researched book. Until now, much of what transpired during the political status negotiations required tedious search in US government archives or the Library of Congress (if unclassified). Insightful!

I speak as one who has lived in the Northern Mariana Islands for more than thirty years, and who had a role in the events (I was one of those who were interviewed) and who knew and worked with many of the central figures involved in them. Willens and Siemer have written a thoroughly researched and historically accurate work, and one which I enjoyed reading immensely -- as will anyone interested in this corner of the Pacific.

Once On This Island is a fabulous show! It may seem different in the beginning, but if you really read into the story and hear the music it'll send chills up your spine! This music has so much spirit and warmth behind it! I played "Asaka, Mother of the Earth" last summer, and I looved it! BUY THIS BOOK!

I havent actually read this book, but our school put it on (well we will in a week or two), and I just wanted to say how AMAZING the music is!!!

Though I don't actually have the book, i have seen it. It is amazing!... This is my favorite musical. My highschool did it two years ago and everyone absolutely loved it. It's awesome, and it comes away from comformaty. BUY IT!... it is SO awesome.

Jimmy Dolan was thirty years old when he returned to his Connecticut hometown in search of the driver who killed his father in a hit-and-run accident. There he also finds himself confronted with dark secrets from his own past and is caught up in a web of guilt, betrayal and revenge. The Road To The Island is a complex and enthusiastically recommended novel showcasing a human drama that is superbly crafted and absolutely riveting. Author Tom Hazuka demonstrates a genuine talent capable of evoking strong emotional responses in the mind of his reader. Also highly recommended is Tom Hazuka's novel, In The City Of The Disappeared (1882593316, ...).

Tom Hazuka shows his readers that contemporary writing hasn't become a wasteland for words and self-absorbed babbling. As far as unreliable narrators go, Jimmy Dolan is the best. One of my favorite things about the book is that it has a John Irving-esque way of connecting seemingly unrelated events. Dr. Tom Hazuka is an excellent writer. If you don't purchase this book, you are making a terrible mistake. Read review of this book in the Chestnut Hill Local newspaper, November 26, 1998.

This novel was excellent reading. It captivated me as a female reader. To see that a man can be so sensitive and is able to view family dynamics in such a sensitive manner is commendable. The author's work is as well imaginative. The fictional characters' personalities have great depth. The author's introspection into all of the personalities is powerful. It is a must-read novel.

A selection of recommended inns, delightful restaurants, resorts, festivals, the best places to stroll together under the stars or have a secluded champagne picnic - the most romantic places. This book visits special spots in in Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Vermont. Each place has been carefully selected, making sure that it offers something special - in-room fireplaces, four-poster beds, Jacuzzis, enchanting gardens, five-star cuisine.

"... a great pleasure to read, even if you're not looking for a place to stay. You can feel the authors were bent on romance... not just filling up the book. Accommodations are described in charming detail, also meals, with the occasional recipe. If you contemplate a getaway in new England, this is the book to take along." Travel Writer Marketletter

"[The] captivating prose invokes the spirit and visual appeal of the places described. [The book] provides perfect fodder for couples [and is] an indispensable planning assistant." About.com

Herb Moore left the "Island" the day I arrived from the balmy Bronx. The nexy day Sgt. Egge picked up Platoon 375. We outposted on 5 December 63. There are some dates you will never forget!! Moore captures Sgt. Egge magnificently. He is a man who is burnt not in my mind but in my soul. Fear and pain must be over come. I did not grasp this until two + years later when I went to Viet Nam, Republic of. Never saw Egge again. Strange, it is close to 40 years and I still hear the cadence call.

Herb you done good and got it like none before you.

Herb L. Moore, an enlisted Marine from South Carolina who served during the Vietnam era, gives an excellent account of his own USMC boot camp experiences at Parris Island.

While this book does not have quite the commercial "spit shine" of other books that address boot camp, I actually appreciated it more than other related books due to the fact that the author recounts recruit training experiences with a bit more honest "true grit" than other accounts. His description is offered as seen through the eyes of a recruit versus the eyes of a detached author as with so many other military books written today.

In addition to a very good account of daily boot camp life, Herb Moore also provides near the conclusion of his book a provoking discussion on why tough training is needed in order to have Marine's ready to handle combat experience. His words ring with an air of wisdom and truth that, again, you won't find as frankly discussed in many other books.

Herb Moore is to be highly commended for authoring this book. If you are looking for a philosophical and detailed explanation of the Corps place in society, I would recommend Thomas Rick's "Making the Corps", and if you are looking for a book that chronicles the training regimen of USMC boot camp then I would recommend Daniel Da Cruz's "Boot", but if you are looking for an engaging and honest account of what boot camp life is like when viewed through the eyes of a recruit than I would strongly recommend grabbing "Rows of Corn" first!

Semper Fi, John G. Kennedy (USMC 1996 - 1999)

I went through basic training at Parris Island the same year as the author. I found this book to be the only accurate description of what happened in Marine Corps boot camp. The descriptions of the DI's were right on target. The relentless stress is written between the words so accurately I felt like I was back in 1963. I wonder why no one has made a movie on this book. A great read of a real life experience!!

This book is a classic from my high school years. I read Sunset Kiss first and I was sucked in from the start. This book is the one that started it all, and I high recommmend it if you like the sweet romance sort of book. The writing is superb, and Cherie Bennett has a been a great inspiration for my own writing.

Along with two of her new friends (Samantha "Sam" Bridges and Carolyn "Carrie" Alden), eighteen-year-old Emma Cresswell has been hired as an au pair on Sunset Island, a tiny island off the coast of Maine where the rich and famous like to vacation. Emma is excited about her new job, and not just because it's her first one. This her big chance to create a "normal" life for herself. Having been born into wealth, Emma would never have to work a day in her life, but she doesn't feel comfortable with that kind of lifestyle anymore. By coming to Sunset Island, she hopes she can shed her ice princess image and become a typical middle-class girl. Yet that's easier said than done. Her secret barely survives a week when one event after another threatens to expose her--a girl on the island (Lorell Courtland) recognizes Emma as part of the "in" crowd, and then, her mother's promiscuous artist boyfriend (Austin Payne) shows up at the island unannounced. How long before Emma's big secret is exposed? And if her friends and boyfriend (Kurt Ackerman) find out, will they still be supportive--or will they turn their backs on her?

"Sunset Island" is the first book in this series, followed by a couple dozen other Sunset... books, including a spin-off series called Club Sunset Island. If you're a fan of Francine Pascal's Sweet Valley High series, then you'll probably enjoy this series. In my opinion, they're a little better than SVH. Recommended for 12+ year-old girls.

I really enjoyed this book, I wasn't sure at first if I wouldlike it but it was really good. I like the fact that it deals witholder teenage girls, because it is hard to find books for olderteenagers. I enjoyed the book so much that I read the whole series and I enjoyed each and everyone one of them.

This is the story...of a lovely lady! This book was the bane of every school child in Ireland for decades. It used to be on the curriculum so that, despite the fact that you would have to grit your teeth to read it, it was a bestseller in Ireland. It tells the story of Peig Sayers, a woman who lived in the poor and rural south-west of Ireland in the early 20th century. In this book, everyone was poor, no-one had anything, people were evicted from their hovels, life was hard, people died young, children were barefoot, the livestock slept in the house, it was always raining....well, you get the idea.

Peig was born on the mainland of Ireland, but married a fisherman who lived on the Blasket islands, a small collection of islands a few miles off the coast of Kerry. Tough as things were on the mainland, things were tougher still here! You were lashed by the Atlantic, the wind could blow you off the cliffs, and you could be drowned while you were fishing, and that was on a good day! The book tells of her struggle to be accepted by the islanders, how she brought up her large family, how she coped with the death of some of her sons fishing, and the folklore, stories, and culture all around her.

This book, and others like it from other authors on other islands ("The Islander" being another good example) formed a literary style which became known as "the poor mouth". They all share similar characteristics as they described the oppresive hardships suffered stoically by the people. Even now in Ireland, anyone whinging about their bad situation would be dismissed as "putting on the poor mouth" and everyone would know what was meant. There is even a spoof "poor mouth" book by Flann O'Brien, which is well worth reading as an antidote to all the hardship and depression!

Now that Peig is no longer force fed down poor school children's throats, it has been re-appraised as a valuable historical record of western Irish culture, and no longer as an instrument of torture. Now that you don't HAVE to read it, more people now seem to WANT to read it! The book was originally written in the Irish language since that was the only language Peig spoke, but a translation in English is available.

If you want a glimpse of an Ireland now long gone (and it really is long gone, despite what anyone might tell you), you can't go wrong with Peig. Just make sure you have a good supply of prozac close to hand.

In 45 years, I'd never seen this book in my dad's library, but on the night my mother died - I went in there and pulled it from the shelf and started to read through the tears.
I've not too long myself on this bench - figuratively speaking, of course, I hope.

I did this book at school in Irish, being really square I liked it.Peig told her story of hardship and poverty with humour,and dignity. It gave real insight into the life of the Irish tennant farmer in the early 19th century, I even used it for my thesis at uni. Good book

A friend bawt it as a goin away gift - Notfawnuttin but its been wicked awesome fa helpin these Midwestern people undastand wat I'm sayin. You guys got a bubbla around here or wat?

I had this book sent from home when my new friends in ohio said I had a accent, I never thought I did. I showed them the book that I never thought was comleptly true, they laughed and relized it wasn't just my speaking funny or making up stuff. I can't help it if they don't know what qauhogs, cherrystones, or steamers are. This book is fun to read as a rhode island resident but even better when you move out of state.

My family and I have recently moved to western PA. What a culture shock to learn that I have an ACCENT! Your book tells the story of that accent better than I can explain it, so we are buying it by the gross and handing it out as a translation tool to all our new neighbors. It has gone over really well. It turns even the most "slow" PA parties into a laughing riot. Thanks so much for putting the humor in our "RI vernacular"

When Rose and Lila's parents go to Africa for a year, for their work as doctors, Rose(age 10) and Lila(age 8) must stay with their maternal grandmother, whom they hardly know. As they snoop through her house (Book 1), they soon discover that "Far Nana" has a few secrets worth knowing. "Far Nana" runs a doll hospital from her home and has the intuitive skill of listening to the stories of the dolls she repairs. She tells these stories to the girls in the first person, from the point of view of the doll. In these books, the reader is reading the ongoing story of Rose and Lila adjustments to living with their grandmother and the historical story of a doll, in a story-within-a-story format.

In "Tatiana Comes to America" the girls listen to a story about a doll who escaped Russia in 1907 during a time of violence against the Jewish people. Her family came to America to escape the persecution. Tatiana boards a ship for America with her girl, Anya. I enjoyed Tatiana's story because it was lively and and had some unexpected surprises by the end.

Overall, this book is an excellent introduction to the series and I would recommend reading it first if you are interested in this series. We see Rose and Lila say good-bye to their parents and watch them discover their grandmother's secret. The girls begin to find that there will be some good things about staying with "Far Nana", including the wonderful stories of the dolls!

The reading level on this book is for grade 3. I would not recommend it for readers under 6 years of age because the intertwining stories may be confusing. A paper doll is included with each book, which may be of interest to some readers.

My daughter and I loved these books. I thought it was right up there with American Doll books. Great story and great historical/educational infomation.

I liked this book very very much . I didn't even know what a doll hospital is. Now I know that you can fix dolls there. I wish I could have all the stuff in the doll hospital like wigs eyeballs and hats and shoes for dolls and cats .