Hawaii Books

It only took one day to digest this slice of gourmet goodness, concocted with writerly mastery, fun plotting and interesting characters--and some laugh-out-loud moments. I hate to make comparisons, but it reminded me a bit of Carl Hiaasen (with Hawaii substituting for Florida, of course). The madcap characters, crazy plot-twists, matter-of-fact debauchery and jaw-dropping madness equals FUN. Also, without pedantics, the writer manages to sneak in a bit of info about how the tourist trade has affected authentic Hawaiian culture.

I first heard Mark Haskell Smith mentioned on NPR's book recommendations segment. His other books (Moist and Salty) are definitely going on my "to-read" list.

Mark Haskell Smith is like Elmore Leonard on speed, only funnier. Both "Moist" and "Delicious" are immensively creative, hysterical (in the comic sense) romps. I can't wait for his next one.

My husband and I both loved this book. Couldn't put it down. His other book, Moist is a good read too. Mark Haskell Smith is an excellent story teller with quite a wild imagination. Fun stuff!

This book was really fine. Which real person was the inspiration for the character Joseph? I want to eat at the restaurant where he is now working. I couldn't put this book down.

This odd exhilarating book is as well-paced and plotted as a P.G. Wodehouse novel but it is studded with incidents and bizarre moments that are as disgusting as a book by William Burroughs.

And it's all set in Hawaii of all places so you get bizarre insights into that culture. If you liked Moist, you will like Delicious. The author is a screenwriter who was hired to make a postmodernist version of Hawaii 5-0 but although that season was cancelled this book gives an indication of the author's viewpoint and why such a bizarre series could never have made it to television except on the furthest out cable channel.

Hit men, prostitutes, sleazebags, opportunistic Hawaiians, Spam, sushi, cooking. I read it in one sitting and felt like I had taken two hits of Ecstacy. Wonderful, dangerous book.

A loverly book; however, the indication that it is a pre-teen book is off the mark. While children between 9-12 could indeed enjoy this book, it would be more correct to label it for ages 9-adult.

Sue Cowing's anthology offers gorgeous affiliations. Each double-page spread pairs remarkable poems with stunning visual works. So marvelously diverse are the images that it is hard to keep in mind that they are all drawn from the works of only one museum, The Honolulu Academy of Arts. The editor's deft choices give this lovely book its distinctive excellence. The volume in its entirety is a wonderfully composed and elegantly orchestrated picture poem. It is a collection to savor and to return to often for refreshment.

A buffet of poetry--not the tired old poetry we've munched again and again, but fresh ideas from fresh poets, mainly from the Pacific area. A meaty soup of eclectic art, as diverse as a Grecian urn and an Eskimo seal sculpture. A book to relish from time to time, too rich to be eaten at one sitting. A book to ponder, to chuckle over, to dream... I especially enjoyed the wise folk sayings such as, "Water..needs no feet..heals itself," from the Philippines and "One dog barks at nothing, ten thousand others pass it on." from Japan. The Chinese, speaking of butterflies, say, "Lives one day..what does it know of the seasons." Ancient wisdom, modern applications. This is a book for all ages--of people and of times. In Hawaii, it won the coveted Po'okela award.

Good parties should introduce us to someone new and worth meeting. This lovingly put-together anthology of poems and visual art is The Party for the End of the Millenium: John Keats and Kobayashi Issa talk fire and water with an Australian aboriginal bark painter and an Inuit sculptor. Sue Cowing, an award-winning author herself, hosts an exhilarating party, having invited poets and artists from New Guinea, Fiji, Samoa, Hawai'i and other Pacific lands to join more well-known guests like Marc Chagall and Elizabeth Bishop. It's a pleasure to see what connections are made, but the true rewards come when you begin entering into conversation with these dazzling sensibilities yourself. And though there's no "children's poetry" here in the conventional (condescending) sense, the poems have been selected so that the lucky child who stays up late and wanders down into this celebration will feel included and full of wonder. Highly recommended

Get this book--you won't be sorry. This is a "creme de la creme" anthology. It's poetry and art chosen with an (educated) eye toward appealing to children, but it's NOT "children's poetry," and doesn't have the treacly quality that category implies. Instead, it's like a gorgeous bouquet of various blossoms; both kids and adults can get sustenance from each bloom. The work is grouped imaginatively by themes, such as: "i couldn't think straight so i thought crooked," a chapter of poems and art on creative imagination; "the minute i heard my first love story," about friendship and romantic love; and "the afternoon swam by," about trying to capture valuable moments in the fleeting rush of time. The editor's broad knowledge of--and love for--poetry is manifested in the care with which the work is presented. The relation between the poems and art is fruitful and interesting. Both art and poetry have been hand-picked from a wide variety of cultures and centuries, but all of it is accessible, and thought- and feeling-provoking. I will use this book in my teaching, and also refer to it with pleasure, regularly, in my alternate vocation, as a lover of art and verse. Bravo

This book presents an illuminating look at the nuclear testing and it's aftermath. The cavalier attitude towards radiation is pretty amazing. There are also many fine pictures of the wrecks underwater, including some shots of the world's only exisiting diveable aircraft carrier.

My Dad was there (USS Reclaimer) - swimming in the atoll the day after the blasts, cleaning refuged ships, etc. It's amazing he's still alive.

Nice photos; good summaries. This isn't a full-blown account of Operation CrossRoads but a nice summary of the ships. If you are interested in OC, this is a good book to have on your shelf.

I found this book to be most interesting, with a very accessible writing style.

This is a great mini-coffee table book (get the hardcover if you REALLY dig this stuff!) offering hours of information and photos of the famous atomic bomb tests on naval ships at Bikini Atoll. The 190 page book is broken into nine chapters and has excellent notes on sources. Background information covers the first half of the book while the second is focused on recent dives to many of the famous and lesser known ships that were sunk here. The writing is very informative and the photographs are absolutely haunting, particularly the ones of the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga! Several color photos are included in the center. The author pushes no agenda in this book. He merely reports the facts available both "good and bad".

James Delgado does a very good job of reviewing the sunken ships of Bikini Atoll and telling the story of the 1946 atomic bomb tests. I read this book after diving at Bikini Atoll and found it to be a good treatment of a topic that has received too little attention. As far as wreck diving goes, Bikini Atoll is the best in the world, and my only disappointment with this book is that it does not fill the need for a coffee-table-style photographic survey of the incredible shipwrecks at Bikini. That being said, Delgado's book is a nice compromise between such a coffee table book and the more comprehensive historical treatment in Jonathan Weisgall's superb book on Bikini Atoll.

This beautiful cloth covered book brings Ryokan to life. An extensive biography helps place him firmly in the lineage of zen fools. His poetry is well rendered, cutting to the heart of his enlightenment, his lonely village. Some of the preface seems a bit misplaced and foolish, attempting to address the question of whether he was 'enlightened,' with deep and silly consideration of his views relative the deconstructionist movement. But his skill as calligrapher and poet are well treated: the beauty of his poetry is not random! If you can afford it, the hardcover's worth the extra bucks because of the sweet binding, really a nice book to hold in your hands.

I discovered Ryokan around 20 years ago when I took out "One robe, one bowl" from the library. Since then I've bought that and most of the other English translations that have appeared. I finally gave in and spent the extra bucks to buy this one and have been thoroughly impressed and glad with my purchase. Not only does it contain more of his poetry than the other collections, but it also contains some superb biographical and critical essays. If you want to know more about this wonderful poet and person, this is THE book to get. I would hope every library in America would purchase it as well. Although I'm sure Ryokan would find this rather amusing, I can't help but call this the "Cadillac of Ryokan anthologies." A fantastic book!!

Something about Ryokan just captures the imagination. An eccentric Zen monk living in a hut in the mountains, dashing off fine poetry and refined calligraphy after making the rounds in the towns below with his begging bowl, playing ball with the kids and sipping sake with the farmers along the way. Living a life free of the many conventions and responsibilities that hem us in, Ryokan seems to speak directly to us with a straightforward, friendly, unpretentious eloquence. Apparently this is a voice we find greatly appealing, and there are a great number of fine books about him and his poetry in English.

Still, of these, "Great Fool: Zen Master Ryokan" really stands out as an excellent scholarly treatment of Ryokan and his art. Special attention is given to the nature of his religious orientation and his place in late Tokugawa literary society. His relationships with sponsors and fellow literati (of both Confucian, Kokugaku, and Buddhist persuasions) are fleshed out through translations of his letters, his role and image in local society exemplified by Kera Yoshishige's firsthand biography (one of the earliest), and his strict Soto Zen religiosity are revealed in several sermonistic essays on Buddhism--these latter especially reveal a very different Ryokan, strident and very critical of the state of institutional Buddhism in his day, erudite in the difficult writings of Dogen and the canonical Mahayana sutras, whose practice of seclusion and begging turn out to be highly unusual in his own context and thus a very intentional manifesto of his firmly-held religious principles. And of course there are the poems, lots and lots of them, both kanshi and waka, all of which have been specially selected with a view to shedding light on many of these same questions--for what they tell us about Ryokan the literatus, Ryokan the local weirdo, Ryokan the Soto Zen monk, and hence Ryokan the man living during late Tokugawa Japan.

The three scholarly essays at the beginning of the book by Haskel and Abe outline these same themes as well as discussing perceptions of Ryokan in modern and contemporary Japan, his role as a kind of household name and folkloric culture hero and the very divergent academic takes on him by his different Japanese interpreters. Much consideration is given too to the evolution of Ryokan studies over time and of the nature and reliability of the sources we use to understand him. All of this makes this book extremely useful, almost indispensable really, for anyone who wants to study Ryokan in-depth, and this more than makes up for the fact that the translations of the poems themselves seem just a tad prosaic sometimes. Highly recommended to anyone interested in late Tokugawa Buddhism and its relation to literature as well as to all diehard Ryokan fans, of course.

Ryokan,a great zen monk who dubbed himself"the great fool" is one of the most revered figures in all Japan. As a wandering begging monk{one robe, a bowl and walking stick} Ryokan celebrates the quotidian,whether a stong pot of tea, sake,playing ball with village children,or the warming embers of a dying fire in the midst of Winter,he makes these images come alive,with vibrancy and suppleness. This volume conatins remembrances of Ryokan from contemporaries,disciples,students and those he met along the way. Along with his Reflections on Buddhism,this volume also contains a very helpfulessay, a poetics of mendicancy by ryuichi abe`,and another essay by ab`,commemorating ryokan. the introductory essay by peter haskel, ryokan of mount kugami puts ryokan in his historical perpective. However, above all, it is the pure airy poetry of the master himself.Cleansing and wonderful...

"Great Fool" is the best English source I've found for Ryokan's poems and life history. When I feel a bit overwhelmed, I always turn to Ryokan and his simple and direct approaches to life.

"Great Fool" starts off with three essays that deal with (among other things) Ryokan's modern popularity and the debate whether Ryokan was an enlightened Zen man. This last topic I found greatly interesting, especially his being coopted by Marxist thinkers who saw in him a failed zennist and bitter poet.

Next is a collection of stories of Ryokan's life and the poems, Kanshi poems written in Chinese and shorter Waka poems written in Japanese. Ryokan shares alot of spirit with Han-shan, or Cold Mountain, except that Ryokan's poetry seems livelier and more personable than Cold Mountain's, though this could be a result of the translations. It also could be the result of Ryokan's constant association with people - indeed, like a Bodhisattva, Ryokan never really left the world. Instead of running from inquirers with shreiks and giggles, Ryokan delightfully pulls a rubber playing ball from his sleeve.

The book ends with a collection of letters and essays written by Ryokan, which give a great insight into his daily life. I especially like how he ends some of his letters:

That's all.
Ryokan

Enjoy! That's all.

Causey is what anthropologists should be. His book is grounded, full of humanity, insightful, surprising, poetic, compassionate and a lovely read. He beautifully describes and explains something profound of a people through times of tremendous social and economic change. An extremely informative and humanistic look at a Sumatran cultural group in the midst of global pressures.

A first rate work and a wonderful read. This book was delightful to read. Right from the beginning of the book, I was drawn in. It's clear this is a scholarly work, well researched and carefully detailed. As a reader of more casual literature, I was agreeably surprised at the superior writing style of the author. I thoroughly enjoyed the experiences and anecdotes throughout the whole book. Anyone who enjoys reading about other cultures and other places would definitely enjoy reading this book. I stayed up to 1:00 am one night reading it. I look forward with real anticipation to future works from this author.

Like most working stiffs, I save up for a big vacation to some far away land and when it finally happens I get shuffled around from one tourist spot to the next. The culture presents itself for purchase and I buy.

"Hard Bargaining in Sumatra" isn't just a book by an affable scholar. It immediately took me into the home of a very different family, sat me on a 'fancy mat' and amused me with a narrative by the author to his Toba Batak friends. He told a story for their entertainment that might easily have described my own hapless first experience in an exotic culture. The family's reaction and the unfolding details of their work in the woodcarving-for-tourists trade was a pleasure to read.

I was continuously surprised at how clearly Causey expressed complicated, seldom-analyzed notions of place and identity. The relationship between tourist and vacation spot is alive and dynamic in a way I'd never imagined. The author's struggle to learn the skills of the woodcarver gave extra dimension to my understanding of this traditional craft. The friendship between the student/researcher and the teacher/subject made the dynamics of the familial roles and societal obligations disarmingly vivid and personal. The book enriched my understanding of a distant culture to a degree I could never have achieved by hopping a plane and wandering their marketplaces. When I saw a Toba Batak carving at an art museum a few weeks later, I had a wealth of feelings and observations that would never have occurred to me before. For me, reading this book was like the best kind of vacation. I learned a lot, felt a connection to the people and culture, and enjoyed the process.

"What happens when the homeland of one group is also claimed as the vacationland of another group?"

This question put by the author rather succinctly sums up a major theme of the book, and perhaps should be a guiding thought for all of us who ever take a vacation...anywhere.
Whether we are taking a "package" vacation or just winging it in a new location, we have an impact not only on the place we visit, the feeling of the place, the services it provides, and perhaps most importantly, the ART of the place. Souvenirs...mementos...folk art...all these tokens and totems that come from our vacation spot are evolving to meet our desires.

The author handles this idea and others in a very human and sensitive way, inviting us into his experience in Sumatra, Indonesia and filling our minds with the sense of the place: its smells, visuals, sounds, landscape and its people. It is easy to lose oneself in this book as if it were a novel or the travelogue, yet it tackles some very difficult issues without sounding preachy or judgmental. I have always been interested in, and sensitive to the general "sense" of a place. I can be easily spooked by the quality of light or the sight of long shadows in the afternoon. I found Dr. Causey to be a kindred spirit, as he has addressed this feeling (because it is at heart a "feeling") very poetically in his writing about Lake Toba.

There are many humourous vignettes within the book, as well as many parables and lessons.
It in indeed educational, and educational on a new level-it reaches right into the spaces between ideas and brings into being a hybrid way of looking. It is accessible, informative and heartfelt.
I would recommend this book to anyone - it can be read for sheer pleasure. But if you are planning to travel, and would like to get some ideas on developing a very diplomatic and culturally sensitive approach to your new destination, this is most certainly the book for you.
I nominate Dr. Causey for Goodwill Ambassador!

This book is a true rarity--a work of serious scholarship, written in a user-friendly, personal, poetic, eminently-readable style. You'd almost be fooled into thinking you were reading a romantic travel narrative, one of those popular memoirs à la "Under the Tuscan Sun" where a naive American goes off and has a life-transforming experience while in a foreign land. But as Dr. Causey relates his tales of the months spent with the Toba Batak in their remote, beautiful homeland in northern Sumatra, learning something about their culture, something about woodcarving, and a LOT about shopping, he also unfolds a series of subtle, complex observations about aesthetics, about colonialism and acquisition, and about the role of tourists / collectors in a market economy and their effect as both destroyers and saviors of traditional culture. Absolutely fascinating stuff, and certainly not just for students of anthropology--this is a book that should be read by art historians as well as by economists, as well as by anyone who simply enjoys a well-written tale of a beautiful place that they've never been...

I particularly admire "Hard Bargaining" for the lack of any tang of cultural superiority on Dr. Causey's part--he never assumes that he knows more than the people he's observing, or that since he has a Ph.D., his observations must be considered correct. He went there; he lived, he learned, he shopped; and he thought about it, hard, and critically, comparing the Toba Batak culture to our own, and letting the reader make the judgement calls, not the anthropologist. Very well done!

The author paints a unique portrait of Taiwan's spiritual underworld; thus, it is a wonderful resource for foreigners who wish to understand Chinese, specifically Taiwanese, culture. I just reread the book, and it was more "haunting" the second time.

this book really opened my eyes to the strange beliefs of some Taiwanese women. This book was a fun read and I recommend it to anybody who wants to learn more about Taiwan and the people there.

Moscowitz has done an excellent job of taking an incredibly complicated subject and made it accessible to a wide range of audiences without sacrificing any of the content. The topic itself is fascinating and will most likely prove to be a seminal work in understanding how ancient cultures adapt to modern life. I can think of no topic better suited than abortion and the haunting fetus to highlight the conflicts and contradictions inherent in this process. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in understanding the metamorphosis of traditional Chinese culture as it moves into the new millenium.

In this highly readable yet intellectually engaging
work, Moskowitz delivers a remarkable account of the
practice of fetus worship in contemporary Taiwan.
Integral to this account is a compelling discussion
of the cultural and emotional struggles Taiwanese women
experience in their decision to undergo an abortion,
and in their consequent attempts at finding psychological
and spiritual resolution.

Moskowitz's analysis is also noteworthy in its ability
to situate the psychological implications of these practices
in a complex religious and historical context. The result is
a truly fascinating work and an important contribution toward the
understanding of sexuality and spirtual life in Taiwan.

I read this book in its unedited form, so it may have changed a bit since then, but I loved it. The picture it paints of life in Taiwan is moving and explicit, and the language and situations range from compassionate to humorous. The topic is academic but the langauge isn't, so it's appropriate for the general public as well as academians. I especially loved the section on the noodle vendor who ran an appeasement sideline. I recommend this book to anyone who has an interest, however passing, in Asian culture.

This is a truly remarkable book and a delight to read. You feel as though you are right there as Terence Knapp reminisces about his life. In conversational detail Knapp tells of his intimate relationships with Britain's theater geniuses--Sirs Laurence Olivier, Derek Jacobi, Michael Redgrave, the irrepressible Judi Dench, and Lynn Redgrave and so many others.

But it is more than a book about stars. It is about a man's odyssey. He takes the reader from the hard times and poverty of wartime London, through the trials and triumphs of becoming an Actor; he shifts to the exotic orient in a quest to broaden his knowledge by learning about and contributing to theater in Japan. Finally, he realizes his second calling--teaching aspiring actors and bringing his love of Shakespeare and the theater to Hawaii.

In the Hawaiian Islands he has become a beloved and revered figure not only for his stunning Peabody award-winning portrayal of the leper priest, Father Damien, but for the countless other performances he has given for more than 30 years.

Knapp candidly reveals that although the dream of great stardom and great financial reward may have eluded him, he has found peace and satisfaction in touching the lives of so many in his beloved three islands--Britain, Japan and Hawaii. It is a story that helps us all in understanding and appreciating our own personal quest of peace and achievement.

This is a great tale of a life in the British Theatre during its mid-20th century Golden Era. Terry Knapp starts his story with his audition for the legendary actor-director,Sir Laurence Oliver when he created the inaugural company of the Chichester Festival Theatre and continues with a rare insider's view of the founding of the Royal National Theatre when its home was the historic Old Vic Theatre in London's Waterloo Road. Like a born story-teller Terry tells, in a well paced and charmingly informal way, the saga of the birth of what is now the theatrical pride of Great Britain. Terry traces its development during the first three years of artistic feuds and back-stage infighting and its Everestian peak of Olivier's magnificent OTHELLO in Moscow in the very heart of the Kremlin. Terry goes on to tell of being on tour in South East Asia, and his remarkable first visit to Japan which coincided with the visit of the Beatles to Tokyo. Awarded the first ever Churchill Fellowship to an actor Terry later returned to Japan to study its tradional performance arts encountering some remarkable theatre artists.His account makes informative reading about some of the world's most exotic Acting traditions which date back several centuries. He shares his experiences of working with Sir Yehudi Menuhin in Mozart's THE IMPRESSARIO and Dame Cleo Laine in a musical about the amours of George Bernard Shaw. These memoires have been praised for their style and content by the distinguished theatre biographer and critic, Sheridan Morley and by Gavan Daws, author oF HOLY MAN, the outstanding biography of Father Damien of Molokai. Terry was acclaimed internationally for his TV portrait of DAMIEN in a one man play by Aldyth Morris, (the title bestowed on him by the Hawaii State Legislature also being the title of his book.) This is first class, highly informative and very entertaining reading.

This is a truly remarkable book and a delight to read. You feel as though you are right there as Terence Knapp reminisces about his life. In conversational detail Knapp tells of his intimate relationships with Britain's theater geniuses--from Sirs Laurence Olivier, Derek Jacobi, Michael Redgrave, the irrepressible Judi Dench, and Lynn Redgrave and so many others.

But it is more than a book about stars. It is about a man's odyssey. He takes the reader from the hard times and poverty of wartime London, through the trials and triumphs of becoming an Actor; he shifts to the exotic orient in a quest to broaden his knowledge by learning about and contributing to theater in Japan. Finally, he realizes his second calling--teaching aspiring actors and bringing his love of Shakespeare and the theater to Hawaii.

In the Hawaiian Islands he has become a beloved and revered figure not only for his stunning Peabody award-winning portrayal of the leper priest, Father Damien, but for the countless other performances he has given for more than 30 years.

Knapp candidly reveals that although the dream of great stardom and great financial reward may have eluded him, he has found peace and satisfaction in touching the lives of so many in his beloved three islands--Britain, Japan and Hawaii. It is a story that helps us all in understanding and appreciating our own personal quest for peace and achievement.

Terence Knapp has lead a fascinating and truly inspiring life...and writes all about it with panache and style. The Farmer review gives you the details on the books contents, so just let me add that this breezy, lively read is a must for any theatre-lover, aspiring actor, Anglophile, or anyone who just wants to sit down and read something entertaining.

This is a jewel, an insider's view of the golden era of British theatre following World War II and the still-emerging synthesis of East and West aesthetic traditions. Terence Knapp has worked as an actor, director and sensei (master teacher) in Britain (as an inaugural player with Sir Laurence Olivier's fabled National Theatre), West Africa (on tour with Dame Judi Dench and others), the United States (especially Hawaii) and Japan. He has won accolades for his many memorable roles on stage and public television, most notably for his incarnation of Father Damien, the leper priest of Molokai.

Knapp tells of his day-to-day intimacy and friendships with some of the most celebrated productions and stellar performances of the 20th century: Olivier, Dench, Sir Michael Redgrave, Lynn Redgrave, Dame Maggie Smith, Peter O'Toole and Sir Derek Jacobi, among many others.

Knapp's great love of theatre, of the art of acting, and of the joy of mentoring illuminates this book with delicious candor and honesty. A must for any serious student of not only theatre, but also the arts and the spiritual life of the 20th Century.

This book has everything you need to know to make your first Hawaiian quilt - history, Hawaiian terminology, techniques from start to finish, and gorgeous patterns to choose from. Hawaiian quilts are a unique quilting tradition; appliques based on island nature, cut using a snowflake folding method and generally quilted with radiating "echo" lines. Books on this technique are few and far between, and this one is excellent. Aloha and happy quilting!

Havent done anything yet from this book but I will use it, either for the designs or just add information. This is quit a technique.

This book has very clear and easy directions and patterns for making Hawaiian or appliqued quilts. Well written and lots of ideas for projects large and small.

Looking for a quick reference on Hawaiian applique and quilting? This book is perfect, as well as providing background history of Hawaiian quilting and the traditions connected with Hawaii. Beautiful illustrations enliven this valuable resource.

This book is well written. Vicky Fleming tells us about the history of Hawaiian quilting. The rules, Hawaiian words and phrases, colors and symbols of Hawaiian quilting. She tells us how to plan a quilt and how to applique and how to quilt it. There are many patterns to choose from. I'd like to make them all. I highly recommend this book.

Alan C. Ziegler's Hawaiian Natural History, Ecology, and Evolution book is a rich source of detailed information on the physical, biological, and cultural evolution of the Hawaiian Islands. It begins, as expected, with chapters on the physical processes involving the formation of the islands. This is followed by a review of ocean-land interactions, and a discussion of the various ecosystems occurring on the islands and in the nearshore environments. Ziegler then discusses various taxa, from snails to birds to plants to flies. There is a discussion of how people arrived in Hawaii, and how they affected change in the islands. Finally, he has a chapter on the early naturalists in Hawaii, and notes on their contributions.

This book can serve as both a reference for anyone interested in Hawaiian natural history, or, I am certain, as a textbook in a course on this topic. It really is a book on ecology, using the Hawaiian Islands as the organizing theme.

I try to keep on top of natural history issues, and I was pleasantly surprised at the continual discovery of new information as I read the book. Ziegler writes well, and the illustrations, maps, and diagrams are used liberally and appropriately throughout.

Recommended for all with an interest in the Hawaiian Islands.

I hold this book to a somewhat higher level, being published by a University Press. It is quite good, but tends to be somewhat wordy in some parts of the text. I also note episodes of over-simplification in some areas (e.g. use of 'Basalt'). I would rather the author use Basalt where it is intended and Basalt-like or some similar term to distinguish the difference between the two in a text-like book. Some benefit could also be made of some larger degree of color plates.
All this aside, the text is quite balanced and has a variety of authorized illustrations that are pertinent, even when not of a higher quality. Some elements of less particular relevance to Hawai'i in particular might have been dispensed with. An example would be the chapter explaining Ecology concepts. A perfunctory paragraph or two might do with reference to standard texts or even an expanded discussion of the concepts, but using Hawai'in examples rather than more generic ones. Much of this is a criticism, and not overwhelming on the whole, inasmuch as no similar work of such broad breadth is known to me. A book trying to do this much has a tendency to turn 'off the path' at times.
In summation, this is a worthy book that might benefit from mild textual revisions and improved illustrations, but is a bargain anyway. I would clearly recommend it as an option to 6 or 7 books in the subspecialties it replaces: Geology, Ecology, Meteorology, Evolution, Botany, Marine Biology and Terestrial Vertebrate Biology.

It's been three decades since anyone has published a general survey of Hawaii's natural history.
A lot has happened since. Just on Maui, researchers have discovered po`ouli birds, happyface spiders and the fossils of extinct, flightless giant "geese."
And we now know more about what was already known here 30 years ago, like the fibropapilloma tumor disease of green sea turtles, which was present at least by the mid-'50s, though unrecognized. Today it is epidemic.
These islands are unique and so strange, biologically and geologically, that even a survey requires a thick book. Alan Ziegler says his "Hawaiian Natural History, Ecology, and Evolution" is "relatively condensed" and intended for the general reader or possibly as a college textbook.
For a condensed product, "Hawaiian Natural History" is pretty chewy. The book is filled with tables and charts. So if you want to know how many species of geckos live in Hawaii and when each was introduced, the answer is on page 238 -- seven species, four brought by ancient Polynesians and the most recent migrant, the orange-spotted day gecko, sometime in the 1980s.
Anyone in Hawaii with an interest in environmental issues needs to be familiar with what's in this book, which covers even more subjects than Sherwin Carlquist's standard text "Hawaii: A Natural History," which hasn't been updated since 1980.
For one thing, there are four myths about Hawaii that are found in almost every popular book and article, and even in some professional papers, and Ziegler explodes three of them.
It is not true that Hawaii enjoys "rich volcanic soil." That's Sicily. Hawaii's volcanos are different, and Ziegler explains why.
It is not true that Hawaii harbors an incredibly diverse biota. Like other isolated archipelagoes, it is missing a lot -- reptiles, amphibians, pines, oaks etc. Ziegler dislikes such terms as "depauperate," "impoverished" or "truncated," settling somewhat reluctantly for "disharmonic." Anyhow, Hawaii's flora and fauna demonstrate very high endemism but very low diversity.
It is not true that the ancient Hawaiians had some sort of mystical understanding that allowed (or required) them to live in harmony with nature in a way Westerners cannot.
It takes some courage for Ziegler to say it, but we know now that every human society -- Polynesians no less than any other -- altered its territory to suit its desires, to the limit of its technology.
Batting .750 is pretty good, but unfortunately Ziegler whiffs the fourth myth. It is not true that after Contact the Hawaiian population succumbed to exotic diseases for which they "had no natural immunity."
Neither did anybody else. Diseases such as smallpox were as deadly to Europeans as to Hawaiians.
The etiology of the disease played out differently, and more disastrously both individually and socially, for the Hawaiians. But it should have been clear from news reports current at the time this book was published (concerning the possibility that terrorists had somehow gotten hold of live smallpx virus) that Europeans and European Americans do not believe they enjoy natural immunity from smallpox.
That episode ought to have been enough to demolish the fantasy of haole (white) immunity, but the notion is so entrenched, it probably won't.
"Hawaiian Natural History" is not as graceful reading as some flossy "environmental" books about Hawaii, but it is much more reliable than most, and it lopes across more territory than any other.
Should a reader want to explore more deeply, Ziegler provides an extensive annotated bibliography.
"Hawaiian Natural History" will be indispensable.

Ziegler covers every topic in Hawaiian Natural History: Invertebrates, vertebrates and plants. Also there are interesting chapters on Geology as well. If you are wondering where the evolution is in the book, there is a nice chapter on evolution's history and concepts. It has been mentioned that Ziegler devotes particular care to the traditional Hawaiian names of animals and plants and that is the case. There is also a chapter on the history of the Polynesians and another on their ecology. There are separate chapters for birds, mammals and even snails. Nice tables list endemic species as well as indigenous and alien. I found the book rather boring to read cover to cover but that is my particular taste. I am a biology student but not working in the field. Perhaps this book would serve as a reference.

Many visitors arrive in Honolulu from Japan on planes decorated with one of the most exotic of Hawaiian birds, the scarlet i'iwi. But they will not see an i'iwi on Oahu. To see one they will have to treck to a remote tract of forest on one of the outer islands. Why are there almost no native Hawaiian birds left outside mountain forests? How did the i'iwi develop its spectacular shape? And what happened to the flightless birds whose remains have accumulated in lava tubes? To understand such things requires some understanding of the the geology, climate, and flora as well as the history of the islands. Ziegler's book makes all of these things accessible, especially to readers with some prior knowledge of one or more of these fields. It covers everything from the volcanic origins of the islands to the agricultural practices of the Polynesian settlers and the impact of alien species. It gains greatly from being written by a single author with a consistent, learned but readable style and format. As a linguist I was impressed by the care taken with the Hawaiian language: Hawaiian terms and names for species are provided and explained wherever possible. The book thus makes an unexpected but welcome contribution to the ongoing revival of the Hawaiian language, as well as to ecology and island biogeography. A paperback edition would help greatly to promote wider appreciation of the fragile natural world of the Hawaiian islands.

An exciting saga of the fear, thrills, and adventure of sailing the Hawaiian Islands. A delightful and fun read sweetened with delicious bits of local lore and history. The perfect read for ages 10-110 who love the ocean or who have a tropical island fantasy. It is an especially warm and wonderful treat for active sailors and those who dream of sailing the Hawaiian Islands. The Hawaiian Voyages of The Ono Jimmy has 16 true sea adventure stories and 32 wonderful color pictures of sailing Hawaii.

1993-4 was a horrible year for Steve Dixon until a 1973 Morgan 27 sloop hove into view & enticed him into the clear & shining waters around the Hawaiian Islands. In this lively & eminently readable first effort, Steve Dixon skippers us on some of the grandest, wettest & funniest voyages around paradise.

With bright energetic writing, an addendum of navigation charts & a slew of vivid snapshots, this latter-day salty dog gives us a winter's worth of sailing yarns, geological & historical sightseeing tips & an invitation to come play around his necklace of tropical islands cast upon a fabulous sea.

This is a warm & personal account of the thrills, history & romance of sailing the Hawaiian passages with his spunky Commodorable Lila & about the lessons he learnt during his passage from despairing novice to joyous seasoned cruiser. Do check out my exhilarating eInterview Skipper Steve Dixon!

This book has it all adventure, romance, history and of course it is very informative for any one wanting to sail the Hawaiian Islands. The book includes many trial and error stories of sailing the Hawaiian Islands. This experienced sailor writes about many do and don't of the Islands. He also writes of some very exciting places to visit and tells of his stories there. I highly recommend this book for anyone wanting to sail the Hawaiian Islands. It is also very enjoyable to read as entertainment whether you are a sailor or not.

What a wonderful book for anyone interested in the islands of Hawaii. This is not just a book for the avid sailor. I have never been on a sailboat or even had the vaguest desire to do so, but I enjoyed this book because of its descriptions of Hawaii and I am still pondering the fact that geologists claim that the entire Sierra Nevada range could fit in the crater of the volcano Mauna Loa. Steve Dixon incorporates his sailing experiences with his own life experiences and also the history and culture of the islands. I read this book straight through at one sitting and then began to reread several passages that had intrigued me. I can't even imagine what a thrill it must be for someone who understands the intricacies of sailing to read a book like this one.

Don't be put off by the heavy self-promotion (you do what you got to do to survive both at sea and in the realm of publishing...) If you plan on cruising the Hawaiian islands there is much to learn from this book; in fact I would urge the first-time Hawaiian sailor to read this book as you go or before you leave. (We keep a copy on our Hawaii-based sailboat.) If you like a little human interest with your facts and helpful hints, this book has plenty of it. Dixon tells tales on himself and humbly admits when he screws up, which makes the book not only valuable but endearing. There is a little soul-searching done too, but that is one reason we go to sea, is it not? To discover who we are (and why the hell we are doing this!) Without a little humanity, self-effacing humour, and cockpit philosophy, one sea story is much like the next. If you don't like reading a little autobiography with your sailing books, skip this and get a how-to book. But if you want a sampling of one man's invaluable experiences and a taste of real life sailing -- philosophy and all -- by all means get this book.