BOOKS OF THE DAY

New Zealand Herald, Volume 80, Issue 24537, 20 March 1943, Page 4

BOOKS OF THE DAY

RATIONED REVIEWS "Trans-Siberian/' by Mr. Noel Barber (Harrap), is a timely and valuable work which gives a jnos'b informative account of 14 days in a crowded through train from the MEmchurian border to Moscow in the spring of 1939. During the journey Mr. Barber learned much, either oil the train or during the long halts, of what the Soviet has made of northern Asia. The story of the change from a vast land of illiterate barbarism to one of largescale agriculture, great new industrial cities and universal education, is a remarkable job of "reportage," and presents a " telling picture of the reserves, moral as well as material, behind Russia's war effort. In this clear-headed and amusingly-written book one meets a number of types of the collection of races organised under the Hammer and Sickle, and it brings home to the reader the singleness of patriotic purpose that has broken the forces of aggression. Transport Problems

In "Transportation and Total War," Mr. P. C. Young outlines a plan for increasing the efficiency of inland transportation in the United Kingdom by co-ordinating more closely road and rail services, and by altering the principles upon which rail charges have for so long been based. This book,, by an author who has had wide experience of transport problems during the last war, and later in India, where he was jointsecretary of the India Railway Board, will be read with more than ordinary interest. It' is to be hoped that all transport authorities will give it earnest study. (Faber.) Good Writing , "A highbrow is a person 1:0 whom the past and the present are similarly significant and vivid," says Mr. Raymond Mortimer in the preface to "Channel Packet" (Hogarth Press), after proudly describing himself -is "not only a journalist, but a high" brow." Certainly his knowledge of things novel and those of the past is profound. All who seek good writing will find it here. Every subject he discusses—from Persia to suicide-—reveall the scholar, widely travelled and closely in touch with people and affairs. The Aborigines Paul Hasluck's "Black Australians," from the Melbourne University Press, is well The natives of the continent are, after all, Australians, and that thought dominates the more enlightened policy of to-day. This book is a first-rate contribution to history, sociology and anthropology, carefully written, well documented and constructive. Sanity on Sex Number 4 in the Christian Orcter pamphlets published last year deserves special comment. Mr. A. B. Cochran, lecturer in English at Victoria College, Wellington, and his wife in ]oin» authorship have dealt boldly and sanely with the sex question. Renders of this challenging little book who are shocked at its revelations should know that facts have been carefully verified. lh® conclusion is Christian and constructive. Hence the usefulness of the pu bl ?" cation. "Sex, Love and Marriage published by the Presbyterian Bookroom, Christchurch, jointly with A. eland A. W. Reed, of Wellington. Land Girl Heroine Dorothy Quentin has a land gir heroine in her novel "To-morrow Bread" (Ward, Lock), in which Grin* gives up a college career to help run the home farm. Later she makes another sacrifice, for a blind airman pro* poses to her, and although Ginaisjip in love with him she feels it is her duty to marry. Of course, she doe nothing of the kind, but orot .V Quentin works out her sequel «' IUI charm, distinction and conviction. There is a dual wedding at the c ose, and the other bride is nearly as ,r>e able as Gina.