Rating: 
Summary: A Moving Warehouse
Review: The author of this book decided to ask a friend for a favor and hopped aboard a container ship from Hong Kong to New York in September of 2001. He was interested in what the experience would hold and this is the premise for the book. I picked the book up because I am one of those people that always wants to know how some process works so why not read about international shipping. The author provides the reader with an interesting review of his time on the ship, a brief history of container shipping, a run down of many of the issues facing shipping companies today, and a running commentary of how the September 11 attacks effected him on the ship. Of this group the issue of piracy has the most drama and the review of the shipping industry covered the how is it done section of the book.
I did enjoy the book but I do have a few criticisms. The first was that the author gave us a very small number of maps or diagrams to review. With all the authors talk about certain parts of the journey and how the geography made it dangerous, I would have expected more detail. Also I would have liked a bit more visual detail of the ship, I know the book was not one based on the specs of the ship, but I would have liked a little bit more then the very basic diagram that did make it in the book. Another pet peeve of mine is when an author of a non fiction book spends time describing situations and objects that a picture would have helped make more clear, but does not spend the extra money to include pictures. This author must have forgotten his camera, not even a few inside shots of the ship made it into the book.
Overall I felt the book did not live up to it's potential. The industry wide issues the author covered were not done with enough depth to really understand them and the September 11 comments did not add much to the story after about the third time. The fact that the author felt he needed to remind us in each chapter that he was from New York City and wanted to get back became a little tiresome. He also missed an opportunity to add in more and expand the times he does cover other recent shipping crashes or significant accidents. This is the excitement inducing stories that would have made the book a five star review in my opinion. The book did deliver what it said it would and he author did a good job at telling the story. Given the rather limited choices on this particular category, this book is probably one of the better ones given it is recent and a easy read.
Rating: 
Summary: Padded featured magazine piece
Review: The book is interesting in that is gives insight to an underreported world but it is padded out to book length. The material relevant to contemporary container ships and merchant shipping could have been a feature article in the golden days of magazines.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyed the shipping, could use less politics
Review: The portions of the book that are focused on the container ships and shipping are very good and interesting. Unfortunately the author decided to sprinkle political commentary that has little or nothing to do with commercial shipping throughout the book . Don't know if it is appropriate to blame the author or his editor for these shortcomings. It is still a worthwhile read, but with a tigher focus on the claimed subject it could have been a excellent book.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyed the shipping, could use less politics
Review: The portions of the book that are focused on the container ships and shipping are very good and interesting. Unfortunately the author decided to sprinkle political commentary that has little or nothing to do with commercial shipping throughout the book . Don't know if it is appropriate to blame the author or his editor for these shortcomings. It is still a worthwhile read, but with a tigher focus on the claimed subject it could have been a excellent book.
Rating:
Summary: A Very Interesting Read
Review: This is a good book for anyone who enjoys transportation, logistics, or geography. As the author travels around the world visiting exotic ports on a giant container ship, I could almost feel myself there with him. His writing style is descriptive and captivating, and he interlaces general information about ocean container shipping, stories about crew members, and references to historical shipping literature with narrative about the journey itself. The author does have a left-leaning political view but most of the prose is not political in nature, and the author generally provides both sides of political issues. The only reason I didn't give this book five stars is the author's constant digressions into seafaring literature by Conrad and Melville. They were a little too long and may not be relevant to modern readers who no longer remember their high school reading assignments!
Rating: 
Summary: Ever wonder where stuff comes from ?
Review: Well at least did you wonder where and how all those containers move around and who is APL/P&O/Maersk? I regularly did, traveling everyday to New York from New Jersey. I also saw them in the Bombay dockyards and in many many Bollywood films. It is the preferred place for all movie villains to bump off a person in Bollywood movies (with some hide and seek and jumping involved before the ultimate sacrifice).
As the other reviewers pointed out, has statistics, human aspect, politics, history and literature interwoven to make an interesting story.
| 
