Rating: 
Summary: A Great Read
Review: Personally, I love Bill Bryson's books. I would read anything that he cared to write. So, naturally I pre-ordered this book and I wasn't disappointed. I learnt so much about Australia reading it. I thought that I had a pretty good idea about Australia and its history, but this book proved - that like most people- I knew only a fraction. Like always Bryson feeds you with tons of information, but makes it so interesting that it doesn't feel like learing! A great book, that had me laughing out loud and left me with a new understanding of Australia.
Rating:
Summary: Laugh-out-loud FUNNY!
Review: This book is hysterical! It's like spending an evening listening to your wittiest friend tell a story. Bryson is a wonderfully entertaining writer. I personally think this book was even better than "A Walk in the Woods." I've never been particularly fascinated with Australia, but after reading this book, I can't wait to go. I highly recommend this book - read it!
Rating:
Summary: Bryson never fails to come up with a winner!
Review: I have all of Bill Bryson's books, all a little different from each other, and all excellent. This most recent offering is no exception.I haven't yet finished "In a Sunburned Country" (only started it two days ago .....), but I would like to review the part that I've read to date. Australia has always fascinated me, and the kind of trip Bryson embarked upon is one which I would find very exciting. He describes everything and every person he encounters in wonderful detail and has the ability to make even mundane facts amusing and infinitely readable. His sense of humour is priceless, whether he's describing the cities and towns he explores, the numerous creepie-crawlies and fiercesome creatures, featureless roads, pals from the past, new acquaintances, strange placenames (yep, stranger still than from my native UK, which has a few corkers of its own!), and isn't afraid to aim his humour at his own misgivings either! Some may call him cynical, but it's all in very good spirit and no-one need think otherwise. I think he has a genuine affection for Australia and its people. Bryson has clearly done his homework and has the knack of giving us an interesting history lesson along the way. Of course, it's a Bryson history lesson, interspersed with that famous humour! Who's complaining! His style of writing is such that putting the book down is tough - I'm looking forward to getting my nose stuck back into it later on today - and I'm sure any seasoned Bryson fan (or anyone sampling his offerings for the first time) will find "In a Sunburned Country" a very enjoyable read. Just be prepared for a yearning to visit Australia if you haven't already done so, and expect a good few loud chuckles along the way! A wonderful book, and I'm already looking forward to news of another.
Rating:
Summary: Good on ya, mate!
Review: This book is great. That's all I'm saying.
Rating:
Summary: Giant Earthworms?
Review: Who better than Bill Bryson to introduce us to Megascolides australis, the giant 12 foot long Australian earthworms? He is, after all, the antithesis to the academic who, in broaching such a subject, would have you nodding off within five sentences. Bill is such an amiable entertainer that he can quickly get you enthused with his brief doses of Australian politics, history, culture and natural history. Some have thought this book to be shallow, but they are missing the point. We don't pick up a Bill Bryson book when we seek research material for our doctoral dissertations. Likewise we don't pore through a Dave Barry volume to learn the latest political theory, or a George Carlin tome to soak up modern religious philosophy. This very funny book provides the reader with an introduction to many aspects of Australia. He is fascinated with the countryside, and the amazing flora and fauna that call this intriguing continent home. He gives us easily digestible historical and cultural anecdotes, and we are as soon excited about the platypus as he is. No he doesn't spend a lot of time discussing night life in Sydney; he's much happier looking under a rock in the desert near Alice Springs or wandering through some secondhand bookshop, or dusty museum. Plus you thrill as he bravely fights two giant, poisonous spiders - well.. actually it's their webs that he fights; the spiders seemed to be away at the moment. Sit there amazed as he tells you tales of deadly crocodiles, and venomous snakes. Be bored silly each day when at 5PM he drags you to a lonely pub in order to quaff booze in quantities sufficient to render him comatose and to generate his next morning's hangover. The continual recounting of his daily imbibing is the one annoyance that seems to go through most of his books. That aside, this is one of his best efforts. Not as good as The Lost Continent (his funniest) or Notes from a Small Island, but much better than I'm a Stranger Here Myself.
Rating:
Summary: Pay Retail for This Book! Just Get It!
Review: If you have ever been to Australia, or if you have always wanted to go, this book is a must. With unfailing good nature, Bill Bryson captures the essential wonder, delight, tragedy and awe of the land Down Under. I finished this book with the same mixture of delight and regret that I felt as my Qantas 747 took off from Kingsford Smith airport to return me to the US. Bryson captures the paradox of Australia with wit and clarity and with a distinctive point of view. A delightful read, perfect for the summer and for anyone who has been captured by the allure of Oz.
Rating:
Summary: NOT A STEREOTYPE INSIGHT
Review: Being a proud Aussie myself, it was a welcome relief to read a fairly accurate account of a country and country people whom are so often misrepresented as blokey, occa, beer-swilling yobs (not that we dont have these!). My usual reaction to an American account of Australia/Australians is that terrible close your eyes and cover your ears cringe, due largely to patronising portrayals the likes seen in 'The Simpsons' and nearly every American movie that features an American playing an Aussie. Bryson's humorous book, however, was not the least bit embarrassing and as accurate an account of a country as any short stint around it could be. There were, of course, a few inaccuracies and more 'people stories' and less 'history/creepy crawlies stories' would have been much appreciated. My one, and probably only, major problem with the book was the exclusion of Tassie. Being a Melbournian I've grown up with the Tassie jokes (nearly all of which, like the stock kiwi jokes, have something to do with sheep or incest) and know all the stereotypes about Tassmania having shocking weather, having nothing to do, and being very backward (all of which are not at all true). For all those who aren't Aussies and read this book thinking 'I'd like to go there some day', make sure you don't forget, like Bryson unfortunately has, one of Australia's most beautiful places. Apart from this, I strongly recommend this book as both entertaining and informative. Unlike most of the reviewers, I haven't read any of Bryson's other books (though not for long!) so I can't comment on whether or not it is as good as his previous work. I can say, however, that it is a great read and really, what more could you want!
Rating:
Summary: Loved it, Just Loved It!
Review: I've listened to the audio tape twice...I have a long commute, and Bill Bryson takes me to Australia when ever I want. I reach my destination with a smile on my face! This is a great tape! I just keep it in the car so I can go to Australia whenever I want! ( I HAVE to go there! ) One note to Mr. Bryson and his editors -- A herbicide kills plants, not an insecticide -- reference the section on the horrible cactus problems. It's a wonderful book!
Rating:
Summary: A Bommie of a Book! (From a wanna be Australian)
Review: I only wished I had read this book prior to my month-long visit to Oz a few years ago. What a treat to finally read something from an American's point of view that is right on the money! I am in love with Australia, and how I long to go back to retrace some of the places mentioned in the book that reminded the author of his childhood in the 1950's. You will see and feel the real Australia after reading this book, and laugh out loud until your belly aches. (But, Bill, I saw tons of wild roo my third day in Australia in the Blue Mountains. Sort of like seeing your first elk in Yellowstone!)
Rating: 
Summary: I wanted to really like it....and almost did
Review: Having enjoyed some of Bryson's previous work immensely, I really looked forward to this book. And at first it seemed a winner; a couple in a restaurant came over to ask what I was reading that had me almost laughing out loud. It was only as I got further into the book that I began to wonder. If Bryson loves the place so, and he repeats that statement ad nauseum, why does he seem to feel the need to immediately tell some extremely unflattering story or incident thereafter? It's as if he feels the modern country with all its laudable features happened by luck or accident, certainly not through the efforts of the Australians themselves, rather in spite of their fumblings and mistakes. The section on the Aborigines was one of the best in the book, but before and after that, they seem to recede into the shadows of the story. And while sometimes almost hysterically funny(best line in the entire book actually comes from his friend Allan Sherwin, after a near-death experience with a passing car on the road to Alice Springs), he often seems like he is pushing just a bit too hard to sound clever. At more than one point he goes into natural history overload, and throughout seems inordinately preoccupied with the chances of being bitten,maimed or just generally hurt/killed by the flora/fauna/natura of the place, sort of an expectant hypochondriac-in-waiting. Still,you can't fault the obvious depth and breadth of his research, and some of the sections are totally absorbing, providing a compact education on a place few of us know well, though why we should have known more is beyond me. Most Americans know near-to-nothing about either of our own neighbors, Canada & Mexico; we should be exam-ready on Australia? I'm glad I read it, and I don't really regret buying it, but sort of wish I could have borrowed it instead. It was that good.
| 
