Anthony Cronin delivers straight-to-the-point honesty--no room for neutrality here! such a pleasure to read something so opinionated and SAUCY! It's sure to put a smile on anyone's face--even if you know nothing about the 'art world.' Thumbs up for a man with a voice and a few funny theories!

This is a sensational collection of breathtaking photographs of natural wonders and major cities of Australia. This is the best collection of photographs of Australia I've ever seen and I live here. There is a small amount of information on each place but not sufficient that you could plan your entire journey or use it as a travelling guide companion. Buy this for the photographs. This would make an excellent present for either Australians to give friends, host families, relatives and so on in other countries or for people outside of Australia to buy just to have sensational photographs to look at. All the major cities and natural wonders are in here. This would also make an excellent book to use for school projects and the like. If you are interested in Australia you have to own this book.

This is a wonderful book that details every aspect of daily life in Bali, from the morning offerings to mask making. Eiseman is a careful observer who clearly loves Bali, and it's a great guidebook for anyone who wants to get beyond the Lonely Planet descriptions of Balinese culture. This book is on every coffee table in Bali.

This book really grew on me. I bought it in its first publication by Hong Kong's 'The Guidebook Company' in 1990, along with the usual Lonely Planet and an updated version of Bill Dalton's extremely hefty Indonesia guide. (I first took his book to Indonesia in '79, and his guide continues to be invaluable to the drifting back packer and serious off-the-beaten-tracker, but that type of guide may be overkill for the package traveller to Bali).

I find I keep returning to Charlés book for cultural references. Whereas the Lonely Planet and Dalton are great for planning where to stay and how to get around, and they're chockablock with data, data, data, this little gem of a book is a great if simple tool for planning cultural events and jaunts. It's laid out in an attractive fashion, with all kinds of great photos. Very interesting sidebars highlight personalities, artists, or historical events. It's light enough to be the only guide book you might need, especially if you plan to stay in one place (as on a package deal) and confine your forays into different villages and beaches to day trips only.

So if you are limited in your time in Bali, and you have to plan your days with care, spend a week or two with this book before you go, and it will quickly guide you to the things that interest you most.

Dr. Tenzer is not only a well known scholar, but also an expert player and composer in the Balinese gamelan idiom, and a founding member of America's fine ensemble, Sekar Jaya. He brings his wealth of skill, knowledge and experience to this work, an essential and absolute must-have item for both enthusiast and player alike. Over the course of nine chapters he covers everything from construction and tuning; to history; to the music's place in Balinese society: today, in the modern era. This up-to-date aspect is what I found to be so invaluable about "Balinese Music". Outside of actually going to visit the island, reading this book has got to be the next best thing, giving you a very palpable sense of gamelan's power and meaning in its native cultural climate. In addition to the text, Tenzer adds a very helpful glossary of terms, as well as an index of recommended recordings, both of Balinese productions, and of those from the West. I can't find anything in this book that isn't right on the money. Colin McPhee's masterwork may be the Bible of gamelan theory, but for practice, nobody has yet outdone Tenzer's work, and I recommend it highly to everyone interested in this subject.

I love this book. I've heard this author speak. She published her first book "Eggs in the Coffee and Sheep in the Corn" in her early eighties. She won the Minnesota Book Award and received rave literay reviews for that book. This is her second book and it is as good as the first. She herself is filled with energy and joy - so are her writings. In her mid-eighties she is an inspiration on how life should be led - both intellectually and physically. I am in my early fifties and she is living proof that I have decades ahead to look forward to.

Winnipesaukee history made entertaining. Charming local folklore and local sights, as well as maps and drawings that contribute so much to the book. This book is great for leasure reading as well as a textbook for Island History.

"Bear Man of Admiralty Island" is an extremely interesting and detailed study of a true American character, Allen Hasselborg. The stark, simple life Hassleborg lived for many years, in a remote, beautiful, wild, and dangerous place, makes the likes of Thoreau, Burroughs, Dillard, and the many other part-time shack dwelling, nature praising authors seem like commonplace pretenders in comparison. Where they wrote about life in the woods, he really lived it, and the details are fascinating. Were it not for Howe's research, I'm sure we'd never know about Hasselborg's life, and were Hasselborg alive today, I'm sure he wouldn't give a gall-dang anyway!

Thank you, Helen Morton! This is an understandable description of the Tongan culture from pre-missionary times to the current trends! Helen Mortan is in a unique position to introduce the Tongan culture to the Western Mindset. She is Australian and was married to a Tongan Man, and has his child. She presents her facts in a scholarly manner. I found this book to be much more than an ethnography of Childhood. It made the very different "Tongan Way" completely comprehensible to me.

Beloved Island: Franklin & Eleanor And The Legacy Of Campobello by Jonas Klein is a touching, memorable, biographical portrayal of two genuinely great figures of 20th Century American history. Here presented are the daily lives of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, and how their summer home on Campobello Island influenced them, and rounds out an impressive and painstaking recreation of their personal experiences with anecdotes, personal letters, and the memories of aides, family, and friends. A welcome and much appreciated contribution to the growing library of literature dedicated to the life, thought, and achievements of this politically and socially influential (and often controversial) couple, Beloved Island is an informative and insightful study of the often-hidden inner side of these two remarkable American leaders.