Hawaii Books

This is more than a gorgeous over-sized coffee table book, and it depicts far more than the standard tourist-fare scenes and sound-bites. It is a very large book with hundreds of photos that depict a myriad of true Hawaiian scenes -- far more detailed and "real" than the usual calendar shots. In addition, it includes text that provides the opportunity to actually LEARN about the Islands -- which facilitates an even deeper appreciation -- in concise and very readable style. Excellent-quality paper with a few very large fold-out photos.

I bought this book from Amazon after seeing a beat-up copy at a local book chain store. I had been looking around for a coffee table picture book of HI for my wife's parents and comparatively this is the best around. It is newer than any others that I looked at and has better aerial views in my opinion, both in variety and quality. I am quite the critic since I am fortunate enough to live here, so take my advice if you are looking for a souvenir from your vacation buy this book. You won't be disappointed!

A scholarly study of this quality and from this perspective was long overdue. I was especially captivated by the first half of the book, which discusses the works of two contemporary Japanese women authors, Miura Ayako and Sono Ayako. As a passionate fan of Miura Ayako's writing, I was thrilled to see her works taken seriously by a western scholar, and I find it difficult to understand why it has taken so long for her to be noticed. Gabriel "gets the point" of the books he discusses, he grasps the nuances of the original Japanese, and his analysis is thoughtful, scholarly, and at the same time highly readable. I hope to see more studies of this nature in the near future.

This is by far the most important book on Japanese literature that I've read in a long while. It is one of the very few studies (that I know of, anyway) that directly address in a sustained and nuanced fashion the complex role of spirituality in modern Japanese literature, with a special eye to the productive tensions between faith and doubt (and between institutional religion and literature itself, for that matter). Philip Gabriel also has a real knack for getting the balance right between recapping the stories and analyzing them. I knew nothing of the first two authors he discusses, the Protestant Christian Miura Ayako and the Catholic Christian Sono Ayako, but I was able to follow his discussion with great interest; on the other hand, I'm pretty familiar with the contemporary authors Murakami Haruki and Oe Kenzaburo and have read the works by them that Gabriel treats, but his description of the stories really brings out what is significant about them in light of the issues under discussion. The book overall keeps up the pace and is consistently thought-provoking. This book matters!

In the introduction, Gabriel relates how he grew disenchanted with postmodern fiction and criticism and came to value an approach that takes on the major issues of life in a meaningful way. I think this is a huge step in the right direction. My sense is that generally speaking this is why most authors write and why most readers take the time and trouble to read what they've written, and I hope literary criticism will continue to follow Gabriel's lead here in taking that aspect of literature seriously.

Full disclosure: I have an MA in Linguistics from the Univ. of Hawaii. I did not learn Hawaiian from this book, but I have used it since to teach classes on the mainland. It is not the newest Hawaiian grammar, nor one of the ones the Hawaiian people are now using in immersion schools for their kids, but it is the best for mainlanders in my opinion because:

(1) It is laid out in an easy-to-use fashion;
(2) It doesn't start with "what is your name," telling time and the weather.

Honestly, do you go around talking about names, the time and the weather in English? You would sound like Forrest Gump. This is my biggest beef with language texts, and I have no clue how adults can be motivated to learn from such books.

Spoken Hawaiian starts out with a simple, unbelabored intro to pronunciation--which can be pretty scary for a mainland English-only speaker--and goes immediately to a short list of Hawaiian words used in English on the Islands. Even mainlanders may know some of these (like "aloha" and "kahuna") and be comforted.

Then the book gets right into simple sentences and dialogues that at least attempt to have a non-insulting, plausible context to them. (Life is not like a box of chocolates in this grammar book.)

Spoken Hawaiian was written by a pro linguist who also taught the language, and the benefit of this is that grammar is spoon-fed, little by little, in the guise of sentence "patterns" that are then practiced in exercises that expand knowledge gradually. Hawaiian grammar is really different from English, and for presenting it to learners, this is the least confusing book I've seen.

The drawback is that the book is old, from the time when only academics and other dilettantes, and maybe the occasional hula student, really wanted to know Hawaiian. The spelling of certain words is outdated, and the vocabulary is limited. Newer books, like Olelo Oiwi by Hokulani Cleeland, provide newer words and a ton more info on usage, social context, geographic dialect variations, etc.

Olelo Oiwi (which means 'native language') was put out by a group that is working to revive Hawaiian as a native language. Anyone who really wants to get with the program and has a political or social commitment to Hawaii will want to use it. But I find its layout wordy and confusing for newcomers on the mainland, who really want just to know the basics, or want to converse about non-Hawaiian topics. (I am teaching serious hula students/culture learners on the East Coast; both Hawaiian and haole.)

For mainlanders, including ethnic Hawaiians with little contact back home, I would suggest Spoken Hawaiian first, and using Olelo Oiwi as a follow-on and review book. If you're going to be living in Hawaii and/or travelling in Hawaiian cultural circles, though, you're going to want to get into Olelo Oiwi as soon as possible, even if it means learning to count, tell time, and talk about the weather first. The Hawaiian people are serious about getting their language back, and serious students need to follow the current cultural wave.

Pro linguists, too, will probably want to see what Hokulani Cleeland has to say, and it's a rich source of knowledge. But in my opinion, the graphical layout of Olelo Oiwi is heinous. Most of the (vast) info in it is probably better presented conversationally by a standup instructor; and for all I know, that's how it's used in classrooms in Hawaii. Trust me that you need to be devoted to the language, or languages in general, to plow through the notes, or to determine what you are supposed to be doing with the oddly formatted practices and drills in Olelo Oiwi.

Spoken Hawaiian, by contrast, is a breeze to use for high-school age and up. It builds grammar and vocabulary slowly, without troubling the learner's mind with too much detail and variation, and ends with several samples of "real" written Hawaiian, taken from documents from the 1800's. (This book was written before the current resurgence of native speakers.) If you study with Spoken Hawaiian and follow through with it to these documents, I think you'll feel very happy with what you've accomplished; and you'll be well prepared to partake of the more up-to-date sources.

Combining fascinating information on Hawai'ian culture together with comprehensive grammatical explanations, Spoken Hawaiian goes above and beyond most other foreign language texts, allowing the reader to slowly become fully immersed. For anyone learning Hawai'ian from the very start, or interested in Hawai'ian culture, this book is a must

I received the book the day before I needed it in class the next morning, perfect timing. I am very pleased with my order.
Thank you.

This book came in a very timely matter... even sooner then I was expecting it. The book was in great condition and packaged well so it did not get trashed during the shipping process. Was very happy with this purchase.

I loved this book. I've read quite a few Intrigues, and I don't say that every day. Here's the back cover of the book:

She was all caught up in his tangled lies...

The porcelain butterflies arrived like clockwork every year on her birthday. Rachel Chandler received gifts postmarked from exotic places all over the world from her brother Emmett, who had been living underground since his implication in a bombing in the later 1960's.

After fifteen years, Rachel was about to see Emmett again. He had surfaced in Hawaii, and nothing could keep her from going to him. But when they did meet, Rachel knew something was terribly wrong. She hadn't expected to recognize Emmett right away... but she hadn't expected to be attracted to him either!


Well, if you need more than that to get you to open the book... The story is set up very well, with excellent pacing, good characters, and good resolution. The romance part of the story is handled artfully, actually eliciting an emotional response on the part of the reader. Recommended reading.

Anne Stuart perversely loves to create a male who is far from a hero, and then provoke, tantalize and lure her readers into for falling him. She must set around and make lists of all the types of men in the world a woman would swear she would never fall for, then with a wry grin, she sets about to prove to us she can do just that very feat. She has given us a hitman, a thief, a court jester, a cult leader...well the list is endless. Just as I think she has hit the bottom of the list, I find yet another. This time she does her Stuart magic and casts the hero as the heroine's brother.

When Rachel Chandler was 12-years-old, her brother Emmett was involved with a radical group of protesters. A bomb accidentally blew up killing several people, along with Emmett's girl friend. Emmett alone survived, just the quirk of fate that he had been out getting pizzas at the time. Emmett vanished, last seen in Hawaii, but for fifteen years no one had heard from him. No one except Rachel Chandler. Every year on her birthday she receives a package, post marked from various places around the world. So, when word comes from her uncle that Emmett is back in Hawaii at the family home, even her fear of flying will not stop her from being reunited with the brother she hadn't seen for fifteen years.

Only Emmett is not quite how she remembers him. She feared Emmett might be given to gaining weight, but this man is hard, lean. He carries scars from varies fights, attesting to his being in foreign places where life is cheap. Emmett is not happy when Rachel shows up on his doorstep. Neither is her uncle. Rachel soon comes to fear Emmett is not Emmett and this impostor and her uncle are playing a charade in order to get at the vast fortune left in trust for the real Emmett.

Is a steamy sexy, shadowy novel that Stuart does so well, showing whether in full novels or series romance, no one can touch the resident genius of dark romantic tales. Another Stuart keeper - but then aren't they all?

I just returned from the Islands yesterday and couldn't wait to open my cookbook I purchased a few years ago.. I have made many many recipes from this book and I am always amazed at how great the recipes turn out. I would love to see another edition come with some recipes from some of the newer resturants.Aloha and Mahalo

Have used this from a friend. Am so sad that it is not available anymore. It should be republished so many more people can enjoy it!

I agree entirely with the excellent review written by R. Pelzer, I just want to add this this is a very dense scholarly book littered with footnotes. It is not a quick read and not stirring tales of action, it appears to be meticulously researched and very thorough. A reference book

This book presents an excellent and well-balanced presentation of Japanese monastic warriors based completely on primary and secondary sources. To my knowledge, it's the first work to present a trustworthy picture of who the monastic warriors of medieval Japan were, what the social context was in which they lived, the factors that played a role in establishing the currently held inaccurate image of them, how this image was able to survive in Japan and elsewhere until today and why it is still so powerful that until recently Japanese scholarship (despite the fact that according to the author the truth is there for everyone to see inside the primary documents) hasn't been able to dismantle it. Most interestingly, the author comes to his conclusions by systematically and thoroughly, although the author himself admits not comprehensively (which I believe, in this case, isn't adversely influencing the results of the research), analyzing the mistakes in the interpretation of primary sources by the Japanese academic world thusfar. A possible explanation for the fact that Japanese scholarship has sustained the inaccurate image of monastic warriors for so long is being given, and convincingly at that, as well as some recent attempts within Japanese academe at reconsideration of established views by a reinterpretation of primary sources. Besides all of this, the book contains a wonderful bibliography as well as excellent notes including Japanese characters that enable the interested reader to explore further. Well, to put it in a single frase, I strongly feel that this book is the product of excellent, first-rate scholarship and would therefore like to recommend it highly to anyone interested in the subject.

Isobel Field was the stepdaughter of Robert Louis Stevenson and published her autobiography in 1937, covering her life from birth until 1894, when she was just 35. Her colorful life and memoir tells of moves between mining camps in Texan and Nevada, months spent in the art worlds of Europe, and her father author Robert Louis Stevenson. A lively first-person observational style throughout keeps the stories alert and spicy.

As a resident of Maui, this book had special meaning to me for it provided a view of Hawaiian society interacting with different society elements from all over the world, at a time when it was still an independent kingdom. Also contains a lot of turn of the century northern California history where I was born and raised. I really love learning how people involved in the arts lived and functioned & the amazing courage it took to travel the world in those times. Very nicely written.

This is the preeminent guide for kids visiting, or even living, on Oahu. The excursions are fantastic, for Keikis and big keikis too. and Carrie is very funny..

This is a very interesting and useful book. It is thoroughly researched and organized. I highly recommend it to anyone traveling to Oahu with children. I got it to help entertain my grandchildren when they come and it turned out to have things in it that I will find interesting to do by myself, such as the walking tours of old Honolulu.

'Only by knowing the past can we track a meaningful future.'

Mick knows his material, perhaps better than most Westerners can. Both the photos and the text display compelling evidence of his understanding and compassion for the lives that most of us, even as tourists there, never see. The whole feeling of the book is of love and care for these peoples, their cultures and traditions.

Every photographed object is brilliantly contextualised. The ceramic pieces are not isolated for an arid aesthetic study, but are revealed as part of richly beautiful lives.

The writing style is delightful - easy, picturesque, evocative and quite devoid of dreary academic pretension. As a professional ceramicist himself, Mick describes the technical aspects with absolute authority.

Although the book is about the traditions of ceramics in South East Asia, it is equally a book that questions contemporary values, the impact of global economies and the ongoing destruction of ancient and beautiful cultures. This book cannot be read without some ethical misgivings about the careless path being trampled by Western societies.

Mick has added something truly important to human knowledge.

In this handsome, profusely illustrated volume Mick Shippen elevates the seductively simple village pottery of Southeast Asia from an appealing craft into a thoroughly fascinating window on ancient folkways.

Graceful jars, pots and stoves take on a life too seldom found in Asian art books as Shippen introduces us to the aging potters and the strands of tradition and myth that weave their work into a village way of life shaped before roads and money linked the farmers of Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam with a larger world.

Here you will meet the old potter who spits over her impromptu kiln of bamboo and straw to keep her wares from breaking when she fires them. You'll see how the clay is dug--and learn how hard it is to convince the modernizing cadres of the Lao Peoples' Democratic Republic that a good clay deposit deserves to be protected from 'development'. You will feel the claustrophobia of digging a tunnel kiln four meters below the village fields, and the searing heat that blasts the potter looking down to see if firing is complete. Again and again you will feel you have met these distant villagers, and known the drifting evening scent of woodsmoke and fragrant rice cooking in an earthen pot.

The extensive and richly detailed context Shippen provides does not lead him to underplay the pottery itself. He gives gratifying detail of process and product, and the differences between seemingly similar wares, all engagingly photographed. This superb book is capable of changing your travel plans and making you a collector. It is certain to give you a feeling of intimacy with Southeast Asia that most of the volumes on broader aspects of the region cannot approach.