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Rating: 
Summary: Loved It--I want to go!
Review: Barbara Brewster's book "Down Under All Over" gets inside a vast country, and let's us see, hear, see and smell it with plenty of detail and first-person account. The book has made me want to see Oz. The author's relationship with the people there has touched me as well. After all, what travel is about, when all is said and done, is the folks you meet. I highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Loved It--I want to go!
Review: Barbara Brewster's book "Down Under All Over" gets inside a vast country, and let's us see, hear, see and smell it with plenty of detail and first-person account. The book has made me want to see Oz. The author's relationship with the people there has touched me as well. After all, what travel is about, when all is said and done, is the folks you meet. I highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Meet the people of Australia through this book
Review: Having lived in Australia three years, I recognized with nostalgia many of the scenes Brewster describes. She successfully captures some of the best Australian character traits while describing life on a sheep station and at a roadhouse where they made extended stays.
Her leisurely trek revisits places and people she knew 20 years before as a school teacher (in Australia under the Assisted Passage Scheme). This gives her the perspective to see changes to some areas (Coober Pedy) and lifestyles.
This is more in depth than just a travel journal. She comments on the struggles of the Austrailian agricultural family, racial issues and the generosity she encounters throughout the country. One chapter describes a wide range of Down Under musicians. A bibliography at the end gives more titles to lead you further in your reading on Australia.
If you are thinking about an Australian trip, this gives you much of the flavor that a guidebook just doesn't cover.
Rating: 
Summary: charming personal account
Review: The best travel books are first-person, and Ms. Brewster's book is charming and insightful. A first-hand look at one woman's attraction to an amazing country!
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable, quick read about a fascinating place
Review: This book made a perfect vacation read. On a domestic trip I read it a little each day for a week, and every moment it was like I was down under. Brewster takes us through quick stops throughout the continent, telling of her hitchhiking adventures, soulful solitary moments, profoundly happy and inviting stays with local friends and acquaintences, and unique cultural experiences, both during her more recent return trip to Australia and her original stay 20+ years ago. Interested in going, I checked the book out from the library along with some travel books on Australia, and it really brought some neat vicarious experiences into my life. I'm checking into getting some of the music she mentions, especially 'Gondwanaland'. Definitely a recommended read to those wanting an enjoyable look into some of Australia's life!
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable, quick read about a fascinating place
Review: This book made a perfect vacation read. On a domestic trip I read it a little each day for a week, and every moment it was like I was down under. Brewster takes us through quick stops throughout the continent, telling of her hitchhiking adventures, soulful solitary moments, profoundly happy and inviting stays with local friends and acquaintences, and unique cultural experiences, both during her more recent return trip to Australia and her original stay 20+ years ago. Interested in going, I checked the book out from the library along with some travel books on Australia, and it really brought some neat vicarious experiences into my life. I'm checking into getting some of the music she mentions, especially 'Gondwanaland'. Definitely a recommended read to those wanting an enjoyable look into some of Australia's life!
Rating:
Summary: Amazon Review Diddles Down Under
Review: Your Amazon review diddles (cheats, swindles) your customers out of wanting to read a great book. Your reviewer does a GREAT DISSERVICE to Down Under All Over. Out of 46 chapters oozing with fascinating descriptions and experiences of the great land down under, your reviewer chose to tell readers about Brewster's surfing experience--something that could have taken place anywhere in the world. Your reviewer completely disregards Brewster's masterful, enthusiastic depiction of an Australia that many non-Australian readers knew nothing about and have been fascinated to meet. People around the world have feasted on "Down Under" with vast enjoyment. Unfortunately, most Amazon browers will not have this pleasure because your reviewer so thoroughly fails to give them any reason to buy this book. Readers:Take a look at the forward by "Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport" Rolf Harris. He says he was moved to tears that someone from another country had so captured the gist of what Australia is all about, and that Brewster writes of Australia with the same love that he would. Readers: THIS BOOK IS NOT OUT OF PRINT. It is readily available to Amazon from Four Winds Publishing both in the US and in Australia. Just check Barbara Brewster's website if you don't believe me.
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