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Alaska by Cruise Ship: The Complete Guide to Cruising Alaska with Map (Alaska by Cruise Ship: The Complete Guide to Cruising Alaska)
Ocean Cruise Guides (
July, 2002 )
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10.12 |
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£
11.25
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usually dispatched within 7 to 8 days. |
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Previously-undiscovered vintage Ransome - a real treat  |
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This book is an unexpected bonus for Ransome fans, who thought they’d already seen all he wrote, and I don’t expect they will be disappointed with it.
It is an account of a voyage up a river in Latvia in the 1920s, planned as a sequel to “Racundra’s First Cruise”, but never completed. Racundra was the boat Ransome had built for himself and his eventual wife in Riga, soon after the First World War. Thr first cruise was full of incident and excitement and made his name as a yachting writer, after he’d established a reputation as a political journalist covering the Russian Revolution, and before he went on to write the Swallows and Amazons books.
This voyage is an altogether more placid affair, with a focus on the minutiae of life afloat. Ransome, sometimes with his wife - “the cook” - fishes, shops, has trouble with the anchor and the engine (“the little donkey” with which his relationship gradually warms as the narrative progresses), meets and talks with the locals, and observes the war-ravaged scenery.
He observes and comments with a perceptive, journalist’s eye, and his literary style, fluent, elegantly-constructed and unfussy is as relaxed and easy on the ear as the river itself.
The presentation of the book draws on three sources: the finished draft, as far as it goes, the boat’s log, and Ransome’s own notebook, with all three entries presented for each day’s voyage, so that we can compare them. The photographs, which are plentiful, are Ransome’s own, discovered by the present volume’s editor Brian Hammett, in the Ransome archives at Leeds University.
It’s not a book to be hurried - I’ve been dipping into it for almost a month now, and making it last. Some of the incidents and images have an almost poetic intensity that causes them to linger in the mind. Even though Ransome never got round to publishing it, much of the writing in Racundra’s Third Cruise is equal to his best elsewhere.
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A good idea but......  |
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I bought this book as I have had a stone to loose for a year now. Jorge Cruise comes across as a genuine and positive guy who is sincere in his wish to help people loose weight. However.....this is fine if you are prepared to set your alarm clock 20 mins earlier and upon waking proceed to do the set exercises with weights stipulated for each day. I succeeded with this for a whole week(!) but unfortunately also succeeded in waking my toddler, upsetting the dog and making myself sweaty when there wasnt time for a shower, (early mornings being chaotic in a house with 5 children). So the failure was down to me as I lacked the commitment required to follow the regime properly. Probably ideal for the single person without many distractions first thing in the morning!
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A different approach to weight loss - worth a go! |
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This book is a different approach to weight loss, is simple to follow and seems to work. I would recommend it to anyone who seriously needs to lose weight. Unfortunately I do not fall into that category, and so that is why I only gave the book 4 out of 5.
I have been trying to lose a little bit of weight since the start of this year, in an attempt to tone up a little more. Using Matt Roberts Fat Loss Plan I lost best part of a stone, but during the summer began to see the pounds slowly creep back on. I refuse to even contemplate the Atkins regime because of the amount of exercise I do, so bought a copy of 8 minutes in the morning in order to try a simple regime that does not take up too much time or additional effort.
The basic theory of the book is that if you are able to speed up your metabolism you will lose weight with a lot less effort. The best way to speed up your metabolism is to do your exercise first thing in the morning, and do strength exercises not cardio-vascular exercise. I must admit I was a little bit sceptical at first, because I am absolutely terrible in the morning but I was determined to give it a go. I have to say the book worked.
The book is very motivational and well-structured. The author has clearly done his homework on motivational and goal-setting techniques, because I have not missed one session yet in 4 weeks.
Aside from the exercise routines, the dietary advice, although simple to follow and very practical, is well researched, and seems to be backed up by more weighty nutritional manuals such as The Optimum Nutrition Bible.
The only problem is that despite following the book fairly religiously, I have not lost any weight yet! I can see that I am a lot more toned, I have more energy and I am eating less, but I am exactly the same weight as I was when I started four weeks ago - I look better, but I weigh the same!
I think this book would be great for people who NEED to lose weight, and it is a fun and well-organised book for those people. This book almost feels like a companion in your attempt to lose weight, and is virtually a personal trainer.
For me it has helped me to tone up, feel healthier and be able to get up in the morning, so that is something at least! The book is set up to be a 28 day regime, which I am starting again tomorrow, so lets see if I cant lose some weight the second time around!
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