Average customer rating:
|
Bioacoustics: A Comparative Approach
Manufacturer: Academic Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Animals
| Biological Sciences
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Zoology
| Biological Sciences
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
Animal Behavior & Communication
| Zoology
| Biological Sciences
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
Physiology
| Basic Science
| Medicine
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Zoology
| Biological Sciences
| Professional Science
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0124465501 |
Book Description
Sniff out fungus worth its weight in gold with a truffle dog in Avignon's forests, p. 178. Learn how to choose the sweetest Cavaillon melon from the lively morning market, p. 223. Fill your lungs cycling through lavender fields from Buoux to Saignon, p. 226. Exfoliate like the stars with a diamond-dust massage in Monaco, p. 88.
--Two long-term, France-based authors, more than 1200 hours of on-the-road research, 63 detailed maps. --Get active with extensive outdoor coverage from bird-watching to donkey rambling. --Bursting with local interviews and brimming with insights on Provencal culture. --You asked for it, we researched it - more of the region's best painting, cooking and French-language courses.
Customer Reviews:
not so useful in traveling with children........2007-09-02
I had taken out the prior version of this book from the library and was pleased to see that there was a 2007 updated version to read. However, in the prior version there was much more specifically directed toward traveling with kids. In this version, most of that was eliminated, and I was bummed not to have that pointed out. While the color pictures are beautiful in the front of the book, more maps and more detail about traveling would have been more useful to me, rather than looking at fields of lavendar. I think a couple driving around for 3 weeks in Provence would have found it really useful. For our 1 week trip with three kids, I found I just didn't use the book very much.
The information on internet cafes was very useful as was the entrance fee and time information to exhibits, etc.
Useful and thorough review.......2007-06-09
contains very useful information. However, the authors only covers major cities and tourist attractions, and ignore many beautiful villages and towns in country side. For this reason, I recommend reading other guide books and travel essays.
A fairly good guide to Provence.......2006-08-12
LP contains so much information that it makes it difficult to plan your trip without any other guide. So, at your planning stage of the trip I suggest you resort to some other guide.
But, while travelling, I found the book to be very useful. It gives you a lot of vital information that every backpacker needs. However, some of the maps in this LP are slightly incorrect, so I suggest you do not rely soley on the LP maps, but use some more detailed ones. Also, for a traveller on tight budget, the book could contain some more info about camping places.
All in all, a good book that is definitely worth the buy.
Almost Great -- Worth The Buy.......2004-12-02
The Lonely Planet series of travel guides is one I have come to depend on, and this is one of the better ones. Good, concise, useable information. The thing that keeps it from being five stars is the hotel and restaurant listings, which are woefully insufficient. But when you're driving around Provence and stumble on a medieval town and want to know if there's a story there or not, this book will tell you.
Great........2003-09-02
I must say this is my first experience with Lonely Planet guides, though i already had high recommendations and positive feed-backs. I decided to give it a go with my 4-weeks in Sun. :-) I spent four weeks travelling around Cote D'Azur and Haute-Provence from Monaco to Marseille and into Alps e.g. Castellane, St. Andre, etc. The information contained is ver much accurate and helpful (i was travelling alone, not with a group!). There are sufficient maps of major regions and city but this guide should not be used for the sake of map. Always take a detailed map e.g. a driving one if you got wheels otherwise every tourist office got full detailed city maps.
Five stars stuff.
Customer Reviews:
Where does it say that this is supposed to be for younger readers?.......2007-04-11
I've scanned the entire page for this book here at Amazon.com and looked on the inside cover of the book itself when I borrowed it from the library to read. Nowhere can I find an indication that this book is directed at young readers. Therefore I must take issue with other user reviews for this book that criticize it for being inappropriate for teens. It wasn't INTENDED for teens; should it be so surprising that it contains material that some people would consider in appropriate for them?
Yes, the book contains references to the procreative activities of the mythological figure Rig. Yes, it discusses the sacrifice of a young slave girl during a chieftain's funeral (although, as the original account by Ibn Fadhlan states, the girl was not as "unwilling" as another review would indicate: she did, in fact, volunteer for the task and was treated with "great courtesy" before the ceremony).
It discusses these things because they were part of the culture of the so-called Vikings. It discusses them because they are what this book is ABOUT. Should we intentionally omit pertinent information regarding aspects of the culture of the Northmen just because it may offend our modern-day, Christianity-based sensibilities? That seems a narrow-minded, ethnocentric and thoroughly unscientific way of doing things to me.
I can also understand one being "disturbed" by (but not "with") the material in this book, especially if one is not familiar with Viking culture, but to then claim that the material is "opinionated" (or even "opionated") is quite silly. I don't know what basis one would have for making such a claim, since most if not all of the material I encountered in this book I've encountered in other, very well respected books on the subject, not to mention in the existing primary sources.
The book itself is just what it presents itself to be: a relatively short, fairly well written, straightforward overview of both Viking history and Viking society; not too stuffy, scholarly or long-winded; and engaging for the layperson with little knowledge of the subject. I would heartily recommend it to anyone--and that includes teens.
DEFINITELY NOT FOR THE KIDS!.......2002-11-25
I own ten WLWL books and most are entertaining, but I found this one to be somewhat bizarre. As with all books in this series you will enjoy beautiful color imagery. There are numerous examples of Viking artifacts - household objects, swords, clothing, longships, intricate wood carvings and the like. The text focuses on daily lives, settlements, and Viking ingenuity. Particular attention is paid to their vicious, warlike nature and the various mythological gods and pagan rituals surrounding them. Here I was struck by some overt and completely gratuitous sexual references. A few examples:"(The god) Rig was greeted by a man in his prime called Father, who was...beside an elegant woman called Mother, who sat admiring her...As was his custom, Rig stayed three nights and slept between the couple in their bed. Nine months later Mother gave birth to a boy..." This scenario is repeated several times; on page 28 Rig impregnates a great-grandmother! All of this comes from myth preserved in the Icelandic poem Rigsthula, but with the vast wealth of Viking lore to choose from, why would the author select this information? Pages 74-76 detail the cremation of a Rus chieftain and an unwilling slave girl. "The slave girl drank herself into a stupor...before being put to death she visited the tents of several men close to the chieftain and had intercourse with them...at the last moment the victim appeared to waver...Two men held her feet and two grasped her hands, while the Angel of Death looped a cord around her neck and gave the crossed ends to the other two men for them to pull. Then the old woman seized a broad-bladed dagger and plunged it repeatedly between the victim's ribs, and the men tightened the cord until she was dead..." Time-Life has long been a trusted source for young readers. Unfortunately, explicit references (without a hint on the dust jacket or table of contents) make this book a poor choice for them and a potential embarrassment as a gift. In addition, though the photos and drawings are great, the text sometimes gets a little boring even for adults. Recommended only for mature readers with a very strong interest in this subject.
Bad.......2002-03-18
Hello,
I am very disturbed with this book. I am a mother of two and have written three books. I am disgusted by the information. It is all opionated. I do not recommend that you read this book. Thank you
The best book in the series other than Egypt.......1999-11-11
When I read this book I became obsessed with vikings, everyone who likes mideaval history HAS to read this book.
Product Description
This accessible and reflective book will appeal to anyone with an interest in mythology and storytelling. It has two sections: a retelling of the myths, then an analysis of their sources, meaning, and application to modern people. We think Rossman is uniquely qualified both to tell these tales and to reflect upon their value for modern times, and that The Northern Path is far more than just another collection of Norse myths. Rossman is well acquainted with the work of Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell. For the past 25 years, he's not only studied Norse mythology but also told these tales to live audiences, as the Norse skalds told them centuries ago, and interacted with audiences about their meaning and relevance for today. He has worked with the myths both with adults and with Norwegian-American youngsters at the Sons of Norway's Camp Norway, and has made the myths, the runes, and their wisdom part of his own personal journey.
Customer Reviews:
Good.......2006-08-16
This is an excellement book that I would recommend to Odinists/Asatruar, simply because it is such an entertaining work, that uses a somewhat modern, often humorous perspective in the retelling of our ancient stories. Dag has been telling these tales to live audiences for years, and uses his experience in doing so to present them in this book. If you are looking for a book to help in relating our sacred stories to children or reciting them before the folk, this certainly has some great ideas and a wonderful format for doing so.
Of course, in my own research I am at odds with some of the stuff in here, such as Hel being Loki's daughter, the cosmology, etc. but this doesn't take away from the overall concept. I often find that most mythologists rely too heavily on the Prose Edda, and don't consider the other sources enough, but in most areas Dag does seem to do his homework. The latter half of the book is also valuable, in explaining and interpreting these stories while showing us how to apply them in our lives. This alone is worth purchasing the book for.
I would say that The Northern Path is worth checking out and would be an interesting and valuable addition to anyone's library. ~Mark Puryear
The best book of its kind I have ever read........2005-08-05
Having Swedish-American ancestry, I have long been interested in the mythology and lore of Scandinavia and Northern Europe and rightly treasure the old stories and poems of the Northern Gods, Goddesses, and Heroes. I remember first discovering the POETIC EDDA and PROSE EDDA and how, reading them, made me feel like I had "come home." Now, unexpectedly, I have re-experienced much of that original excitement. Through over-familiarity, I had forgotten how good these stories are as stories. And how did I recapture old feelings of once new discoveries? I read the new book by Douglas "Dag" Rossman. In this book Dag has preserved in writing his excellent storyteller versions of many of my favorite tales of the Northland, including an excerpt from BEOWULF! That alone would make the book worth reading.
As a writer who has written several novels of my own in a Scandinavian mythos setting, I admire the way in which Dag's clear prose breathes life into the characters who people Northern Lore. For example, In his retelling of how the Thunder God Thor got his Hammer back from the Giants who had stolen it, Thor's reluctance to trick his way into the giant's lair by disguising himself in the clothing of the beautiful Goddess Freya has the appropriate comic touch when the bold and brawny Defender of Asgard complains, "The guys will never let me live it down!" Others of the stories, however, are of course not funny at all. Dag retells the cosmic tragedy of Balder's death in a way that produced for me appropriately strong emotions. But wait, there's more!
The second part of the book is titled "The Northern Path to Wisdom and Balance." And the afterward, "Echoes of Odin--Mythic Survival and Revival," adds yet another reason why I greatly appreciated this book. So! I heartily recommend Dag's new book to anyone young or old who has an interest in the stories and lore of Scandinavia and Northern Europe. Whether discovering these stories and the Northern worldview for the first time or revisiting the tales and concepts of the Northern Path, in my opinion a better book than this one would be impossible to find. Read it yourself. Read it to your children. Give a copy to your local library. And have yourself some important, thoughtful fun!
Average customer rating:
- My four-year-old son loves history thanks to this book!
|
Eric The Red: The Viking Adventurer (What's Their Story)
Neil Grant
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Biographies
| People & Places
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
Historical
| Biographies
| People & Places
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
Exploration & Discovery
| History & Historical Fiction
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Ages 4-8
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Geography
| Earth Sciences
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
Arctic & Antarctica
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Eric the Red and Leif the Lucky (Adventures in the New World)
-
Columbus
ASIN: 0195214315 |
Book Description
Eric the Red was wild and hot-headed, even for a Viking. His quick temper was always getting him into trouble. But he learned quickly how to lead, and in time became a great warrior and a fearless adventurer. He discovered a new land--Greenland--and founded a new nation.
Customer Reviews:
My four-year-old son loves history thanks to this book!.......2003-02-01
We've read this book so many times! I'm purchasing more books from the "What's Their Story?" series. The colorful pictures and straight-forward text would appeal to any child, 4 and up. And I'm thrilled to see my son interested in maps, Vikings, and history thanks to this book!
Average customer rating:
|
What a Viking!
Mick Manning , and
Brita Granstrom
Manufacturer: R & S Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
History
| Subjects
| Books
| Africa
| Americas
| Ancient
| Arctic & Antarctica
| Asia
| Audiobooks
| Australia & Oceania
| Europe
| Gay & Lesbian
| Historical Study
| Large Print
| Middle East
| Military
| Military Science
| Russia
| United States
| World
General
| History & Historical Fiction
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
Europe & Russia
| Fiction
| Explore the World
| People & Places
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Social Science
| People & Places
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Ages 4-8
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 9129648831 |
Book Description
Bjrn, a red-blooded Viking from Sweden, tells the story of how he acquired his many fearsome-looking scars and had a fine time doing it. As a young boy in Birka, Bjrn grows tired of his staid life of pickling herring and chopping wood. He decides to leave in search of adventure on the high seas. His voyages span the world, from the coasts of Ireland to exotic Byzantium, and along the way Bjrn teaches young readers about Viking history, art, religion, and sport. He also confesses to the real story behind his scars, which aren't at all what they seem!
Customer Reviews:
Vikings rule!.......2000-09-19
Fascinating and -- for a picture book -- surprisingly detailed look at Viking life. Hand-lettered sidebars complement the typeset text. Realistic drawings of Viking artifacts are interspersed among whimsical cartoons of the narrator and his family. Includes some gross details that kids will love (such as the latrines) as well as history, art, religion, and sports.
Average customer rating:
|
Granta 56: What Happened to Us? (Granta (Viking))
Manufacturer: Penguin Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Classics
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Criticism & Theory
| History & Criticism
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Anthologies
| Short Stories
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 014014143X |
Average customer rating:
|
Viking Street (What Happened Here?)
Marilyn Tolhurst
Manufacturer: A & C Black (Childrens books)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Europe
| History & Historical Fiction
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Ages 4-8
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| England
| Europe
| History
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 071365368X |
Average customer rating:
|
The Vikings: What Life Was Like for the Ancient Seafarers of the North (Find Out About)
Philip Steele
Manufacturer: Southwater
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Europe
| History & Historical Fiction
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Explore the World
| People & Places
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Ages 9-12
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Europe
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Parenting & Families
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 1842152912 |
Book Description
Step back in time to the world of the legendary seafaring people who dominated western Europe for 300 years -- the Vikings. Discover fascinating facts about the Viking way of life -- the longships they sailed in, the distant lands they voyaged to, and the wars they waged. Marvel at their beautiful sculptures and jewelry, and learn about Norse gods such as Thor and Odin.
Book Description
IN THE AUTUMN of 2005 a group of high school sophomores set forth on a quest to explore the origins of a lake and state park that had been built half a century earlier. They found a compelling story of vision and hard work, of obstacles and setbacks, of ordinary people committed to a cause they refused to abandon. Their research acquainted them with those who left the lake as their lasting legacy. One was Oscar Hultman, who wrote a letter to the local newspaper in 1949 urging public support, saying of the cause he had advocated for years: "What could be grander?"
Average customer rating:
|
What They Don't Tell You About Vikings (What They Don't Tell You About)
Fawke
Manufacturer: Hodder & Stoughton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
History
| Subjects
| Books
| Africa
| Americas
| Ancient
| Arctic & Antarctica
| Asia
| Audiobooks
| Australia & Oceania
| Europe
| Gay & Lesbian
| Historical Study
| Large Print
| Middle East
| Military
| Military Science
| Russia
| United States
| World
General
| History & Historical Fiction
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
Ancient
| History & Historical Fiction
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Ages 9-12
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0340686111 |
Average customer rating:
|
From Ace to Zummo: A Dictionary of Numerologically Based Names for Your Pet
Ellin Dodge
Manufacturer: Fireside
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Cats
| Animal Care & Pets
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Dogs
| Animal Care & Pets
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Animal Care & Pets
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Genealogy
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Numerology
| Divination
| New Age
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
General
| New Age
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Veterinary Medicine
| Medicine
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0743215850
Release Date: 2002-11-26 |
Book Description
Your pet's name reflects to a great degree its personality. Renowned numerologist Ellin Dodge teaches you how to analyze the name of your cat or dog (or even yourself!) according to numerology rules, methods and techniques she has designed. From Ace to Zummo, includes hundreds of names listed alphabetically, plus specific and accurate personality portraits including a pet's challenges, best collar and accessory color, energy level, compatibility with children, and favorite toys. Whether you're looking for a name for a new pet or are curious about the meaning behind your current pet's name, From Ace to Zummo will help you: * match your personalilty to your pet's personality * find the best name to suit your pet's breed * understand your pet better Charming yet practical, From Ace to Zummo offers unique insight into your beloved pet, be it a Poodle, Persian, or even a person.
Book Description
A great new gardening book for Ohio! This handy omnibus guide by Ohio's Garden Sage Debra Knapke and veteran garden writer Alison Beck is packed with over 300 of the best plant varieties you'll want for your garden: annuals, perennials, trees, shrubs, vines, climbers, roses, bulbs and herbs. Small enough to take to the garden center or nursery yet filled with beautiful color photos, it contains all the gardening information you need in order to decide which varieties to select and how to care for them.
Average customer rating:
|
Asymptotics in Statistics and Probability: Papers in Honor of George Gregory Roussas
Manufacturer: Brill Academic Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Architecture
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Interior Design
| Architecture
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
Statistics
| Applied
| Mathematics
| Professional Science
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Interior Design
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
Probability & Statistics
| Applied
| Mathematics
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
jp-unknown3
| Specialty Stores
| Books
ASIN: 9067643335 |
Book Description
In the early twentieth century no American choreographer was more famous than Ned Wayburn. His chorus lines enlivened dozens of shows, as did his dance routines, which mined virtually every movement idiom of the day from tap, toe, ballet, and ballroom to acrobatic and musical comedy styles. He invented the "Ziegfeld Walk" (so his showgirls could navigate designer Joseph Urban's stairs) and found innumerable ways of incorporating stars and their acts into all kinds of musical shows. He launched numerous stars, including Marilyn Miller and Barbara Stanwyck, and was a major influence on Hollywood musicals of the 1930s.
Ned Wayburn and the Dance Routine is the first major study of Wayburn. It reveals the motley nineteenth-century sources of Wayburn's work-minstrel shows; military, fancy, and aesthetic drills; spectacle ballets; cotillions; rhythmic gymnastics á la Delsarte-and the dance idioms that became the foundation of his mature choreography. There are chapters on the feature acts that he created for the vaudeville stage, individual specialty acts, and chorus specialty numbers, with detailed accounts of how each of them worked.
The book ends with a sampling of Wayburn's "home-study" lessons and dance routines, including the foot and arm positions of his "modern Americanized ballet." Of special interest to scholars is the selected chronology of shows staged by Wayburn-the first such listing ever published-and an exceptionally full bibliography.
Average customer rating:
- Memoir with Murder Sprinkled In
- The Shark Net
- Sand, sharks and suburbs
- Laughter, pain , and a real life serial killer.
|
The Shark Net: Memories and Murder
Robert Drewe
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Criminals
| Specific Groups
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Murder & Mayhem
| True Accounts
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
True Crime
| True Accounts
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0141001968
Release Date: 2001-07-03 |
Book Description
Written with the same lyrical intensity and spellbinding prose that has won Robert Drewe's fiction international acclaim, The Shark Net is set in the 1950s in a city haunted by the menace of an elusive serial killer. Drewe's youth in the middle-class seaside suburb of Perth, Australia-often described as the most isolated city in the world-takes a sinister turn when a social outcast (who turns out to be an employee of Drewe's father) embarks on a five-year murder spree. This unusual memoir brilliantly evokes the confluence of adolescent innocence and sexual awakening while a hare-lipped killer who eventually murders eight people, including one of Drewe's friends, lurks in the shadows.
Customer Reviews:
Memoir with Murder Sprinkled In.......2005-01-19
I picked this up expecting an interesting true crime work, not realizing that the vast majority of the book is a pretty straightforward memoir of growing up in Australia in the '50s and '60s. The book starts very confusingly, with the author observing the court proceedings of a murder
trial, only to flash back to his early youth. Drewe was a young child when his father was assigned to the remote Western Australian city of Perth to be a branch manager for the Dunlop rubber company. The first half of the book is about his childhood, and as far as memoirs go, it's well done. I'm not a big fan of the genre, but Drewe is nicely selective in recounting his dysfunctional home life and is very adept at retelling the awkwardness of his first crush. his childhood is not that dissimilar from that of upper middle-class American kid of the same era. His father is more or less a company drone, and Dunlop business pervades every aspect of his personality and the family life. His mother is overprotective and retreats into religion with sometimes eerie intensity. Both parents were emotionally distant and unexpressive.
The raison d'etre for the book is that in the years Drewe moved from childhood to being an adult, a serial killer was stalking the suburbs near his home and Drewe's life intersected with the case in many ways. His father was friends with a policeman who would come over to their house and discussed the case behind closed doors. One of the murders is committed with a friend's garden axe. There's a peeping tom on the loose who may or may not be connected to the killings who late one night scares Drewe's mother by prowling out back. More ominously, one of the last victims is of one of Drewe's friends. But the coup de grace is that the killer turns out to be someone known to the family, someone Drewe even spoke to as a child. While the murders form a dark backdrop to his childhood, they are never dwelt on in any great depth, nor is Drewe particularly interested in recounting the case. That said, there are a few sections where he writes from within the killer, imagining his life. On the whole though, until the very end it's pretty thin about why someone would be killing random people on and off with knives, axes, guns, and even hit and run. It's a curious mix of a book, a very well-written memoir with slices of darkness sprinkled in.
The Shark Net.......2004-07-29
I really liked this book, it was incredibly easy to read, not to mention enjoyable. A great little lesson in a piece of Australian history that is seemingly unknown by Generation Y (I'm 17, and had no previous knowledge of this tale), Robert Drewe uses his writing talent to the nth degree in a book which covers the funny and the saddening. I can recommend this book to anyone, more so overseas readers who want to discover a bit of Australian 'culture', if that's the word to use (probably not, but you know what i mean!).
Sand, sharks and suburbs.......2001-05-20
The Shark Net is one of those rare memoirs that succeed in being almost as haunting to the reader as the events it describes are to the author himself. It is Robert Drewe's story of his childhood and early adulthood from the late `40s to the early `60s in the Western Australian city of Perth, then as now a city defined by a deep awareness of its geographic isolation.
The story that unfolds bears some similarity to John Berendt's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Both books elegantly weave a tale of real-life mayhem into descriptions of the social fabric of an isolated city. The difference is that Berendt's tale of the anachronistic charms of Savannah, Georgia is far more light-hearted than Drewe's grim account. The Shark Net is built around a series of random serial murders that erupt into the narrative to create an overpowering sense of menace. It is also a much more personal book, in which Drewe tries to confront his memories of these murders and other tragedies that intruded into his formative years in sunny Perth. The killer and his crimes directly touched on Drewe's life at several points, not least of which is that one of the random victims is a close boyhood friend, despite it being Drewe who had once unwittingly met the killer.
Drewe also re-creates his family life, but not wholly lovingly. He documents with painful understatement the emotional inhibitions of his parents, and the decline of their marriage. His father was an emotionally unexpressive man whose few passions include a near religious dedication to his employer, the Dunlop rubber company. His only expressed reaction to the news that his son is about to become a teenage father is concern about the company's reaction. The book ends with Drewe being surprised by his eagerness to leave provincial Perth to work on a big city newspaper in Melbourne.
This is riveting book, that will grip Australian readers and those overseas. Its tone is of a man who in middle age is now compelled to look back on events with a mixture of sadness and greater understanding. It is quite complex in structure, with several flashes forward in time and interludes into the mind of the killer, but uses a clear prose style that keeps the story moving along effortlessly. It is also beautifully evocative of a time and a place. This is the book that Robert Drewe had to write for himself, and we should all be grateful that he has done so.
Laughter, pain , and a real life serial killer........2000-07-17
There have been some great "teenager growing up" books - and I thought this funny/sometimes sad book is a stand out in a very strong genre.
I know Robert Drewe is one of Australia's best, and best liked writers. It turns out he lived what seems an ordinary childfhood, in quite extraordinary settings. His father was the bombastic company man for Dunlop in West Australia - a regional big cheese, odious but tasty. That brings young Drewe into contact with interesting people such as the tennis stars Dunlop sponsors, like Hoad and Rosewall.
And also with a serial killer who was knocking off Drewe's friends, while working for his dad. Hell of a back drop.
The young Drewe is hardly the sensitive youth.He has the balanced perspective of a 16year old male who understands there is no more exciting prospect in life than copping his first feel.Maybe that gets to what I like most about this book -- Drewe's memories and insights of the ordinary things most of us recognise.
Sort of thing where you laugh out loud, look down and realise, hey that's also a knife he stuck in your gut.
It's a very enjoyable, satisfying book.He uses the serial killer skilfully to give it a wonderful construction.
Books:
- Biochemical Adaptation to Environmental Change (Biochemical Society Symposia)
- Bioengineering Approaches To Pulmonary Physiology And Medicine
- Biological and chemical terrorism (AAFP home study self-assessment)
- Biosynthesis in Insects
- Bushbaby Night
- Castores: Animales Norteamericanos (Stone, Lynn M. North American Animal Discovery Library.)
- Chemical Senses: Genetics of Perception and Communication (Chemical senses)
- Clara's Grand Tour: Travels with a Rhinoceros in Eighteenth-Century Europe
- Clinical Trends & Behav Res Animal Reprod (International Congress)
- Collins Gem Animals of the World (Collins Nature Gem)
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Rogue Warrior
- Lucifer: Crux - Volume 9
- Mangaka America: Manga by America's Hottest Artists
- Metabolic and Endocrine Physiology
- Lewis and Clark Through Indian Eyes
- Monitoring the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty: Source Processes and Explosion Yield Estimatio
- Low Power CMOS VLSI: Circuit Design
- Cultures of Habitat: On Nature, Culture, and Story
- Kings of the Hellenes: The Greek Kings 1863-1974
- Holttum Memorial Volume