Tahiti & French Polynesia   |   READING AND TRAVEL GUIDE

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Hidden Tahiti & French Polynesia  •  Robert F. Kay
GUIDEBOOK •  2009 •  PAPER  • 520 PAGES • COMING IN APRIL
An excellent, comprehensive guide to Tahiti and French Polynesia, geared for nature-oriented travelers. With chapters on Tahiti, Moorea, Bora Bora, Huahine, Raitea and Tahaa, Maupiti, the Tuomotos, Marquesas, Australs and Gambier Islands. It includes a survey of culture, history and activities, extensive travel information. Fifth Edition. (PAC22, $19.95)
  Hidden Tahiti & French Polynesia
Gauguin, The Quest for Paradise  •  Francoise Colchin
BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  1993 •  PAPER  • 195 PAGES
Concise and beautifully illustrated, this overview of the artist, his work and life features a significant section on his time in Tahiti. The book includes many paintings as well as excerpts from his journals and other writings. Part of the acclaimed "Discoveries" series. (PAC27, $12.95)
  Gauguin, The Quest for Paradise
The Happy Isles of Oceania, Paddling the Pacific  •  Paul Theroux
EXPLORATION •  2006 •  PAPER  • 480 PAGES • FAVORITE
Here's Theroux at his best: wickedly funny, open-minded and enormously well informed. In this best-selling book, he flies off to Australia with a kayak and ends up exploring much of Melanesia and Polynesia as well. This book is a terrific introduction to the region, combining history, anecdote and acutely observed detail on people and place. (PAC03, $15.95)
  The Happy Isles of Oceania, Paddling the Pacific
Tahiti and Society Islands Map  •   IGN
MAP
A handsome French-produced map of Tahiti and the Society Islands, at a scale of 1:100,000. The map shows the topography of the rugged islands in full-color shaded relief, surrounding coral reefs, roads, towns and points of interest. With an inset road map of Papeete. One Side. 35x48 inches. (PAC65, $16.95)
  Tahiti and Society Islands Map
 

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Reference Map of Oceania, The Pacific Islands of Micronesia, Polynesia, Melanesia  •  James A. Bier    •  This double-sided sheet shows the whole Pacific from Hawaii west to French Polynesia, Micronesia and Papua New Guinea (1:17,460,000) with detailed maps of 52 islands and island chains on the reverse. A perfectionist of the old school (he has created thousands of maps in beautiful hand-colored shaded relief), James Bier worked with a team at the University of Hawaii press to convert this map to digital. The next edition should be easier. (PAC07, $9.95)
 
 
Lonely Planet Tahiti and French Polynesia  •  Tony Wheeler  •  Jean-Bernard Carillet   • GUIDEBOOK  •  This practical guide to Tahiti and French Polynesia includes a good overview on history, culture and nature, and helpful travel details for your journey. (PAC86, $22.99)
 
 
Tahiti & French Polynesia Guide  •  Jan Prince   • GUIDEBOOK  •  This authoritative, in-depth guide explores all of French Polynesia, including the little-discovered Austral Islands and the alluring Marquesas. (PAC169, $22.95)
 
 
Aphrodite's Island, The European Discovery of Tahiti  •  Anne Salmond   • HISTORY  •  Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, James Cook, Samuel Wallis and many more early European voyagers join local heroes, Tahitian warriors and kings in this authoritative, richly detailed history of French Polynesia and its allure. Author and anthropologist Anne Salmond, (Two Worlds, The Trail of the Cannibal Dogs) is a professor at the University of Auckland. (PAC219, $29.95)
 
 
Beach Crossings, Voyaging Across Times, Cultures, And Self  •  Greg Dening   • HISTORY  •  Dening, an ethnographer of Polynesia, sums up a life's work in these autobiographical essays, covering the Marquesas and other island groups. (PAC157, $55.00)
 
 
Mr. Bligh's Bad Language: Passion, Power and Theatre on the "Bounty"  •  Greg Dening   • HISTORY  •  The story of Captain Bligh and his mutiny is still fertile ground. (PAC42, $47.00)
 
 
Noa Noa, The Tahiti Journal  •  Paul Gauguin  •  John Miller   • CULTURAL PORTRAIT  •  Gauguin's impressions of two years in French Polynesia, originally published in 1919. With 24 black-and-white illustrations. (PAC13, $5.95)
 
 
Oceanic Art  •  Nicholas Thomas   • ART & ARCHITECTURE  •  A concise, cogent and colorful overview of the gorgeous art of the Pacific Islands. Organized thematically with 182 illustrations, 26 in color. (PAC06, $18.95)
 
 
On the Road of the Winds  •  Patrick Vinton Kirch   • ARCHAEOLOGY  •  An excellent scholarly review of the prehistory and archaeology of Pacific civilizations before European contact. (PAC101, $39.95)
 
 
Captain James Cook  •  Richard Hough   • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR  •  This fine, vividly written narrative includes a gripping account of Captain Cook's discoveries throughout the Pacific. (PAC24, $18.95)
 
 
In the South Seas  •  Robert Louis Stevenson   • TRAVEL NARRATIVE  •  A set of Stevenson's personal sketches describing a year of travels in the Marquesas, Paumotus and the Gilberts, first written as magazine articles and then reworked to incorporate detail on local peoples and history, published posthumously. (PAC147, $15.00)
 
 
Kon-Tiki, Across the Pacific by Raft  •  Thor Heyerdahl  •  F. H. Lyon   • EXPLORATION  •  The hugely popular account of a daring 1947 voyage sailing along the Humboldt and Equatorial currents from Peru to Tahiti. Apart from the sheer adventure, Heyerdahl wanted to show the world that Polynesians could have settled the region. With photographs. (PAC10, $12.95)
 
 
Paradise  •  Larry McMurtry   • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR  •  McMurtry effortlessly weaves travel and biography in this absorbing account of his 1999 voyage aboard the Aranui from Tahiti to Fatu Hiva and the Marquesas. (PAC176, $13.00)
 
 
Sailing in the Wake of the Ancestors: Reviving Polynesian Voyaging  •  Ben R. Finney   • EXPLORATION  •  On its surface an account of a 1995 voyage from Hawaii to the Marquesas, this engaging book by a pioneer of experimental voyages, is also a wide-ranging history of Pacific traditions. (PAC178, $19.95)
 
 
Storms and Dreams, The Life of Louis de Bougainville  •  John Dunmore   • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR  •  The first biography in English of the great 18th-century explorer and personality, one of the first Europeans to visit Tahiti. (PAC212, $24.95)
 
 
The Cruise of the Snark  •  Jack London   • EXPLORATION  •  A facsimile edition of London's richly evocative account of his ambitious 1906-7 voyage aboard a 43-foot ketch from San Francisco to Hawaii, the Marquesas, Tuomotos, Fiji and the Solomon Islands with his wife and two crew. With 119 original photographs of places and people. (PAC17, $13.00)
 
 
Vaka Moana, Voyages of the Ancestors: The Discovery and Settlement of the Pacific  •  R. K. Howe   • EXPLORATION  •  This richly illustrated collection of scholarly articles on Pacific voyaging, past and present, features 400 color and black-and-white photographs, maps and diagrams, along with contributions by Ben Finney, Sam Low, Anne Salmond and other experts. (PAC177, $61.00)
 
 
We, the Navigators, The Ancient Art of Landfinding in the Pacific  •  David Lewis   • EXPLORATION  •  This engaging classic examines how Stone Age Polynesians may have navigated the Pacific. The scholarly volume will appeal to seafarers and modern Pacific travelers. (PAC35, $31.99)
 
 
Moon and Sixpence  •  Somerset Maugham   • LITERATURE  •  Maugham's well-regarded 1919 novel, inspired by the life of Gauguin; it's the powerful story of a man who relinquishes his family to pursue his dream of becoming a painter, eventually moving to the South Pacific. (PAC16, $13.00)
 
 
Mutiny on the Bounty  •  James Norman Hall  •  Charles Nordhoff   • LITERATURE  •  The well-known (and loved) fictional account of the voyage of the HMS Bounty, greatly enjoyable despite its probable lack of accuracy regarding Bligh's personality. (PAC11, $15.99)
 
 
Omoo  •  Herman Melville   • LITERATURE  •  The second entry in Melville's triology set in the Marquesas and South Pacific. (PAC93, $14.00)
 
 
South Sea Tales  •  Jack London   • LITERATURE  •  London draws on his voyages aboard the Snark in 1907-09 though Polynesia and the Solomons for these eight tales, vividly evoking the turn-of-the-century colonial Pacific. (PAC85, $13.00)
 
 
South Sea Tales  •  Robert Louis Stevenson   • LITERATURE  •  Towards the end of his life in the late 19th century, Robert Louis Stevenson lived in Samoa and traveled widely around the South Pacific. These entertaining tales, set among both real and mythical islands, show Stevenson's keen observations of island life. (PAC15, $17.05)
 
 
Tales of the South Pacific  •  James A. Michener   • LITERATURE  •  The first of the big Michener novels, set in World War II Polynesia. It's great fun, and the basis for the Rogers & Hammerstein musical "South Pacific." (PAC18, $7.99)
 
 
Typee, Omoo, Mardi  •  Herman Melville   • LITERATURE  •  Melville's South Pacific trilogy featuring a Yankee sailor who jumps ship and enters the flawed Pacific paradise of Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas. (PAC62, $45.00)
 
 
The Snorkeller's Guide to the Coral Reef, From the Red Sea to the Pacific Ocean  •  Paddy Ryan  •  Peter Atkinson   • NATURAL HISTORY  •  The best-selling, take-along guide to coral reefs, coral reef fishes, invertebrates and plants of the Indo-Pacific. With 200 color photographs. (DIV18, $21.99)
 
 
A Field Guide to the Birds of Hawaii and the Tropical Pacific  •  H. Douglas Pratt   • FIELD GUIDE  •  This landmark field guide with chapters on the islands and habitats features superb color plates by Pratt and a checklist of birds. (HWI32, $45.00)
 
 
Reef Fish Identification, Tropical Pacific  •  Paul Humann  •  Ned Deloach  •  Gerald Allen  •  Roger Steene   • FIELD GUIDE  •  This comprehensive guide to Indo-Pacific reef fishes features 2,500 color photographs. (DIV49, $45.00)
 
 


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