Sharks and Rays Of Australia - A Review

So if you're anything like me and you love sharks, you always need a good reference book about them. It's easy to identify the big ones or the common ones or the ones that appear on TV, but what about that shark-like shape you caught out of the corner of your eye or that strange shark you saw at a new dive site?

Australia is home to the greatest diversity of sharks and rays on the planet. Stingarees, fiddler rays, numb rays, ghost sharks, carpet sharks and stingrays are just some of the weird and wonderful members of the cartiliginous fish family found here and they live in habitats ranging from remote estuaries all the way through to the deep ocean depths.

Sharks and Rays of Australia is one of those 'must have' books if you are a scuba diver, scientist, fisherman, marine conservationist or you have more than a passing interest in Chondrichthyes - sorry couldn't help throwing in the latin - sharks and rays.

The first edition of Sharks and Rays of Australia was published in 1994 and was so popular it sold out in a few years...not bad for a reference book I reckon. This edition was published in 2009 and it contains updates on more than 100 species and includes 26 that have been discovered since the first edition. The book now contains 322 species found in Australian waters but many of them have much wider distributions so is useful over a much wider area than just Australia.

One of my gripes about fish ID books is finding the fish you're after; if you don't know the name of the animal, you have to leaf through pages and pages of photographs in the hope of finding what you're looking for. While I can't really think of an alternative, this book at least gives you a few ways to help narrow down your options. There's an introduction and illustrated glossary which can help provide some context if you don't have detailed knowledge of sharks. There's a key to identifying families of sharks and rays so if you're looking for a particular fish, this section can help you find the right part to look in. There's also some incredibly detailed colour drawings of each species at the back and there's two indexes - one of common names and one of scientific names.

Each individual animal section outlines distinctive features, colour, size and distribution and a 'remark' heading under which you'll find behaviours, breeding habits and any conservation issues. There's no colour photographs only the coloured line drawings but I don't think you miss out on anything by not having them.

It's described as a field guide but at almost 650 pages its pretty big to be toting around. Plus it's one of those hardcover coffee table books and if you're anything like me you won't want to get it dirty or creased! Mine lives on my bookshelf but comes out after most dives and sometimes I'll just have a flick through to see what animal I want to go and dive with next.

Jane Mitchell is a scuba diving instructor who works at a public aquarium for her day job. She loves introducing people to the joys that can be found underwater and discovering everything she can about shipwrecks and sharks.

Her website is http://www.shipwrecksandsharks.com/

The Thinker's Thesaurus - Indeed!

The Thinker's Thesaurus: Sophisticated Synonyms for Basic Words, by Peter Meltzer, goes beyond the realm of what we think a "thesaurus" should be by providing us with a level of useful words that exceeds what we've become used to in a normal thesaurus. The thesaurus that most of us are accustomed to suggests words that can be boring and repetitive. Meltzer gives us words contained in recent media, books and hundreds of newspapers and magazines to whet our appetite for more useful and dynamic words.

This unique thesaurus is not only informative, but entertaining - especially to those of us who are died in the wool "word addicts" and love to look up words for the simple enjoyment of it. If you're a writer, you'll use The Thinker's Thesaurus to move to a new, higher level of writing by using these incredible words in your poetry or prose.

The Thinker's Thesaurus takes us into modern times - far from the day of Peter Mark Roget in 1852. Roget decided to write a thesaurus himself, since he couldn't find one already published. Roget grouped words by related ideas and as a result earned a place in history as a lexicographical expert.

Others have written their own versions of a thesaurus, but most of the words in them are as common and dated as the original words and so, when writers are stuck and needing help with that one word to complete a thought or sentence, they were out of luck. Now, with Meltzer's "thinker's thesaurus," writers or word addicts can find sparkling words that can make the others almost obsolete.

Peter Meltzer's book, The Thinker's Thesaurus, is unique in three interesting ways:

1. This thesaurus provides sophisticated synonyms for the sophisticated writer, word addict, or those who simply want to sprinkle some glitter into their writing.

2. The Thinker's Thesaurus contains examples (not made up, but actually part of current writing) of almost all of the synonyms presented in the book.

3. You'll find words that you're probably unfamiliar with, but that will intrigue you in an entertaining way. Meltzer thought to insert a "clarifier" feature into the words' explanations so that you'll also have the benefit of choosing the most "target-centered" word rather than using a word that's merely near what you want.

If you're a little skeptical that words can be sophisticated and entertaining, have a look at Peter Meltzer's new book, The Thinker's Thesaurus: Sophisticated Synonyms for Basic Words. Meltzer's thesaurus was the Book Sense Pick of the Month of the American Booksellers Association and earned the award tenfold.

Lauren Smith is editor for the Virtual Book Review Network - reviews books by well known bestselling authors and books by soon to be recognized names. For more information, visit: http://VirtualBookReviewNetwork.com. This book review covers The Thinker's Thesaurus by Peter E. Meltzer.