Hawaii Books

Escape To The Hawaiian Islands is a breathtaking compendium of Bob Holmes outstanding photography, enhanced with Paul Wood's informative text and the combination makes for an ideal guide for what to do and see when visiting the Hawaiian Islands on pleasure or business. From hiking through a bamboo forest to stargazing on a mountain top to the excitement of a hula festival, Escape To The Hawaiian Islands is as entertaining as it is informative. If you are planning a trip to the islands of Hawaii, begin with browsing the pages of Wood and Holmes' Escape To The Hawaiian Islands!

As a Westerner who has done a lot of meditation in Thailand over the last 18 years, I've been curious to know the history of meditation in Thailand. I've also wondered about the Tudong or wondering monks whom I've occasionally seen here. This book explains it all. It is also very inspirational for serious meditators and might even inspire people who are curious about meditation.

As far as I can tell (having spent about a year in Thai monasteries), Kamala is right on the button in everything she writes. My only complaint about the book is that the footnotes are in the back instead of at the bottom of the page.

This book should deserves a wide audience.

Louis Baldovi has crafted a masterful work of wartime storytelling from first person experiences of Hawaii's Korean War veterans. Their individual stories are masterfully woven thrugh the sequence of events that defines the Korean War from beginning to end. It's more than just a collection of personal oral histories, it's an integrated account of a Forgotten War than cannot be left forgotten.

You've got to be in the midst of it to know what it's like. and after you've gone through it in the pitch darkness of night, on the battlefields, behind enemy lines, in POW camps - it's not something easy to reminisce about. In fact, for some of the vets, it was better to "forget and erase' in order to go on. For those veterans who did, this was time of their lives that cannot be forgotten. The feelings reach deep and cannot be erased. They told it like it was for only somebody like Louis to relate to us. He was there too.

To me, it's simple but profound. We've heard it many times, "war must be the closet thing to hell." I've never been there, to war or to hell, so I can't be sure. But, if you have a hankering to know for sure, this book will take you close , and perhaps, make you appreciate why they say "War Is Hell." It is not a good place to go, under any circumstance. But, you got read the book. Somehow, I found it strangely touching the soul.

As an Anthropology student at the Australian National University, Taylor spent two years in South Vietnam (92-94), then returned to this country in 95, 98, and 99. Faced with a unique southern identity, he decided to define the "idea of the South".

North and South Vietnam despite decades of postwar communist control are two completely different countries from the political, social, economical, and even musical aspects. In the first decade after the 1975 fall of Saigon, the communists controlled everything down to the toothpaste the Vietnamese used. Faced with poverty and income loss, southerners began to peddle their cherished belongings to the black market in order to survive. While goods in state stores were scarce, everything was available on the black market. Goods and money sent home from overseas Vietnamese swelled this illicit economy. As a result, the southern economy rebounded. A southern reformist, Nguyen Van Linh spearheaded the doi moi (renovation) policy officially moving the country to free market economy. The "modern" South thus replaced the "backward" North.

This unique southern free enterprise spirit did not sit well with Hanoi, which did everything to undermine it and ironically to profit from it at the same time. "Corruption, abuses of power, and administrative incompetence" became the hallmarks of communist Vietnam. However, the free southern spirit traced back to the pionering spirit of the South Vietnamese who settled in the Mekong delta some four centuries ago, lives on. If Saigon lost the war in 1975, it won the peace a decade later. Despite acknowledging past "errors", the communists still refused to release their grip on power.

The author is to be congratulated for his most interesting study and his keen observations of the South Vietnamese mind.

I've been waiting for AGES in anxious anticipation of this book being released, and all that waiting was worth it! French Kitty's second novel is even better than the first one. In this story, French Kitty jets off to Hawaii for the wedding of one of her good friends. She scurries all over the island in search of the perfect wedding present, and finds adventure and romance along the way! I give this book five stars, and I can't WAIT for the next installment!!!

I loved this book, its was the only book i read in the series, but i didnt have to read the books before this one because it was easy to follow!

Koji Ariyoshi was an extraordinary person--a true American hero. He studied journalism at the University of Georgia, staying with the family of novelist Erskine Caldwell. Years later, after successfully defeating his prosecution by the government, he went back to speak at the University. When the story was told of how they tried to send him to prison in the McCarthy Era, the audience was so overwhelmed by his courage that they spontaneously burst out in applause. This was no man born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but someone who had to work his way through many difficulties in life. As he was dying of cancer in 1976, the Hawaii legislature passed a resolution in his honor. "We shall overcome" could be the motto of Ariyoshi's life. This is a book that will carry his extraordinary story on to future generations.

Required reading for anyone who has visited Hawaii and fell in love with the island and it's people. These short stories eloquently tell the tales as woven from a Japanese American young woman's perspective. Readers will enjoy the snippets which are rich in cultural history and tradition.

Great ariel photography book, part of a series on each of the main islands. I can't get enough Hawaii photos, so this book and the others are all part of my collection.

I found this book to be a valuable resource as I prepare for my first cruise. I'm sure I will refer to it again & again for any future cruises (which I hope are many!).