My recent month-plus tour of wineries in Australia and New Zealand was greatly based upon the excellent research,reviews and contacts using this fine reference.As a budding wine writer, collector, and head of a local Enological Society in the Pacific Northwest,Halliday's Atlas has been the virtual bible enabling the design of both the tour and subsequent writing.As my primary interest was a focus upon pinot noirs, my tour began in Australia where I visited Halliday's own Coldstream Hills Vineyard.His work provide a roadmap enabling me to contact other prominent pinot noir producers in the Yarra Valley and Mornington Peninsula-Main ridge, Stonier, Yering Station, Paringa Estates and others.While there, I also made contacts and was invited to a new release winetasting of New Zealand wines held in Melbourne. Quite amazingly, the first person I met was the great James, himself. It was fun and a privilege to share wine tasting experience and comments.
From there, the tour extended to the whole of New Zealand. Again the Atlas laid the groundwork for my visits, enabling me to meet most of New Zealand's greatest owners and winemakers, including John Buck at Te Mata,Kevin Judd at the famous Cloudy Bay,Neil McClallum at Dry River, Grant Taylor at Gibbston Valley and many others.Naturally, covering nine separate wine regions entailed tasting many other prime quality varietals in such warmer climes as Waiheke Island and Hawkes Bay with their magnificent cabernets and Bordeaux blends,plus gorgeous chardonneys,etc. In all cases, the Atlas gave regional and subregional data and exacting descriptions of "terrior" necessary to a serious study.Halliday is, in my book, a more comprehensive writer and reviewer of "new world" wines than even Jancis Robinson or Robert Parker. He also adds the direct insights of his winemaking in Australia and his pioneering of pinot noir developments "down under". His reputation as a critic is simply impeccable and his easily read writing style, while detailed, is at once comprehensive and comprehensible.It is a must read and essential reference for serious oenophiles and fellow wine tourists.

If you read this book you get a very good vieuw of the Australian wines and winery's mr.Halliday did,as in his other books,an amazing job. for all the wine lovers out there a must buy

This collection constitutes another solid, suggestive and significant contribution to what is now one of the most dynamic arenas in the humanities and outside: Culture. The essays speak to all manner of representational practices and explore vital questions that no scholar interested in social dynamics of any kind can afford to ignore.

As the title says, not only do ethnographers objectively research and write "about" cultures, in the process, they are also "writing Culture": that is, we constitute the cultural realities even as we attempt to describe them. Language is not a transparent window through which we describe an already existing reality. language "is the maker of this world" says Fisher. Understanding this, the ethnographer is confronted with writing and its importance in the ethnographic description and analysis of cultural worlds. Self-reflexivity in writing ethnography is central to the text. Who has the authority to write Others into being? How does my position as a gendered, racial, and class subject affect my "writing-up" of culture? These are just some of the questions posed by this text, with the added bonus of some possible answers as well. A must read for anyone on the verge of conducting ethnographic research. Also a great text for qualitative research courses concerned with issues of postmodernity and postcolonialism.

I love this book. It gives you a very good insight to muslim architecture and is at the same time easy to read and entertaining. As an orientalist in a postgrad study program I got to read books on the subject that are much more confusing or that are written in a slightly boring style. This book is a thorough introduction that never just stays on the surface of the matter. It does not give you a chronological account of architecture history, but answers a lot of questions like "Why it was built like it was built?" In the back part of the book you find plans and short descriptions of the most important buildings, in the first part you find a lot of good photographs and even better articles on single subjects like materials or building techniques. But the most important thing: It's NEVER boring.

I think That this book has some great illusions and is a veryusefull book for just about anyone

A predecessor to 1984 (the most awesome book in existence), it also deals with a vision of a dystopia far in the future. Zamyatin depicts a controllist state governed by something as impermeable as mathematics. No emotion is involved and the soul is seen as a disease. Although the situation is much more dispairing than the one shown in 1984, it also offers some hope as one still gets the impression of a resistance outside the green wall. Despite the "numbers" being completely brainwashed, the One State is a society on the brink of collapse. The Guardians are ultra paranoid of any abnormal activity, spying on the citizens more than normal. The book is written in the form of a journal addressed to the people of another planet. It justifies the One State and is an attempt to socialize the other planet's people before a possible invasion by men.

Being of Irish descent, I am very particular about hearing Irish stories in recorded form. There are some really good editions out nowadays. But this one is the best. I knew I was in the presence of greatness when I beheld the wonderful packaging, and it just got better the longer I listened to these truly wonderful stories. My favorite is one I've read many times, by Joyce, entitlled "The Boarding House." Here it is transformed into something that is difficult to describe and thrilling to experience. The narrator, who must be Irish, has perfectly deciphered Joyce's intent. He has also given us some of the very finest renditions of Irish stories I have ever encountered. "The Weaver's Grave" comes to life as if by magic. There is wonderful music here and very lifelike sound effects that are very skillfully and gently woven into the fabric of these great works. It is such a pleasure to listen to these recordings, you will be listening over and over again, as I have.

An essential book for every American both young or old, male or female, Democrat or Republican. A delightful discovery on the need of God and guns (or perhaps swords) in the United States and the intolerance of a government in charge of all but answerable to noone. An undeniably perfect fit for todays culture.

Discover your roots from the men that gave their lives for the signing of the Constitution; true heroes. Their resolve was unquestionable and the love for country without reproach.

They brought us so far. We've walked away. Read it and weep. BK

This book is a great book for anyone who enjoys a good, humourus, story. The first narrator, Geroge Gillet, is the Florida equivlent to Mark Twain. His humor and writing styles are remnants of a time long ago. The second narrator, Sarah Pamela, is a southern daughter caught in problems not of her time. It is her diary and her story of live in historic Florida. This book illustrates Florida as it has long been forgotten as the expanse of condos on the beach has given it a new face. This is a story of old Florida as it will never be totally forgotten.

The Devilfish story describes the scenic beauty of the primeval forest and complex culture of the Tlingit Nations of Southeastern Alaska. The story combines romance, intrigue, adventure, pathos and tragedy into a concise narrative about what it means to be Native-American. It also describes the dangers that lurked in the mountains and in the waters of the Alaskan islands as Tlingit hunters and fishermen struggled against the natural forces to harvest the prodigious food resources of this region. The Tlingit people placed a high priority upon value of respect: respect for the Creator, respect for all creatures, respect for other persons, and respect for oneself. When any one of these four kinds of respect was missing, an individual's life was considered to be out of balance. Thus, dire consequences were believed to result in sorrow and turmoil. In order to restore order to the life of an individual or community, the offender must provide restitution equal to the severity of the offense at a future gathering known as a "potlatch." Devilfish Bay describes the consequences that transpire when the rule of respect is broken. Aspirations are dashed, lives are lost, heroic efforts are required to bring order out of this imminent chaos. Strong emotions, that tug at the heart of the brave and test the courage of the intrepid, reveal both the best and the worst of motivations that lurk in the hearts of man and beast. This is the stuff out of which classics are created and cowards forged. Thus, the reader is drawn into the vortex of the ensuing conflict and struggles with the problems of revenge and justice. Historically, the Tlingit nation numbered in the multiple thousands and they subsisted from hunting, gathering and fishing. They continue to be divided into two ceremonial groups -- Raven and Eagle. Every Tlingit belongs to a community longhouse, a clan, and a moiety which is either Raven or Eagle. In some communitites the symbol of the Wolf was used interchangeably with the Eagle. Each clan had its own traditions and stories. Devilfish Bay is a gripping saga of human love and loyalty, danger and disaster and turmoil and triumph. The narrative depicts those values and valor that make life worth living and forces the reader to reflect upon one's own culture to decipher what is meaningful and sacred. It demonstrates that critical times provide the arena for true gallantry. The Devilfish story is an unforgettable saga about a family that put their honor above their very lives. It suggests why the Tlingit people still cling so tenaciously to their land and culture in an era of forced assimiliation. This story seems destined to become a classic in the literature on the Indigenous Nations of North America. --Kenneth D. Tollefson, Ph.D Emeritus Professor of Anthropology Seattle Pacific University

In The Eclectic Odyssey Of Atlee B. Ayres, Architect, Robert Coote (professor emeritus of architecture at the University of Texas, Austin) informatively surveys thirty years of the architectural career of Atlee Ayres, focusing on Ayres' residential architecture in the San Antonio suburbs of Monte Vista, Olmos Park, and Terrell-Hills. It is in these architectural designs that Ayres' eclecticism is most apparent. Coote studies twenty-five of Ayres' houses in detail including their plans, spaces, exteriors, materials, and structure. Additionally, Coote describes Ayres' architectural education, travels, and career highlights. Highly recommended for professional and academic architectural reference collections, The Eclectic Odyssey Of Atlee B. Ayres, Architect is a superbly presented treatise on the work and career of a most remarkable American architect.