Hawaii Books

This book is a "wild ride" through the viscitudes of life by a gutsy,
brilliant, and fascinating woman who seemed to have an incredible amount
of "luck and pluck" at significant moments. Her claims of being on
a mission are well substantiated, and there are enough surprises to keep
you guessing.
I truly enjoyed it. Other than a few editing errors, the book is
terrific and original. It blends a fascinating autobiography with some
extremely pertinent metaphysical laws which are explained in just the
right way...not preachy or overbearing, or talking down to the reader.
I'd say its a "romp" of a book, and it seems to have a bit of
everything! She was nearly shot in the back in the middle east, lived
on an island in the Carribean, and spent time in a monstery housing
some of the worlds oldest religious icons and Bibles, to name a few
incredible stories included here. It has spice, romance, intrigue,
spies, and a whole lot more!
I've met the author and she is the real deal.

I ordered this book to learn more about Julene figurines. I am reading it from the beginning. It has beautiful color pictures of various Hawaiian art objects from paintings to whale teeth. A great way to learn about Hawaiian history.

Presented as Mark Twain's Legendary Lost Journal, the story reads as if actually told by Twain, but it's the authors artistry that makes it sound like Twain is speaking. This is the adventure Twain might have had in Hawaii if he could have entered a world of fantasy and met the mythological creatures there. Charming illustrations of Menehunes by MAD's Sergio Aragones, plus some special effects photos of Moho the god of steam and others. It's like Hawaii's "Wizard of Oz" starring Twain.

While I'm not sure how it will survive immersion while snorkeling (might want to over-laminate it), this guide provides a quick and simple illustrated quick-reference for anyone diving or snorkeling in Hawaii. Its not a book, but more of a foldout brochure with information on both sides.
When I bought this, I wasn't looking for the difinitive guide to fish but something my kids and I could use to familiarize us with the fish we would likely see. This product was perfect for that.

The book is an outstanding work and field guide for unusual species encountered while fishing in Pacific Central America. Text and Photographs are the best I've seen, and the information the most comprehensive to date. The book is a masterpiece for the genre.

This book is amazing. I purchased it a couple years ago along with Fishing Hawaii Style Vol.1 and Fishing Hawaii Style Vol.3. These books tell you everything you need to know about fishing in Hawaii.

This is an outstanding narrative for reading aloud to second graders studying Alaska, birds, or migration. It's inspiring, well-written, and full of powerful vocabulary. Lovely, realistic watercolor illustrations.

The last of the selections in the book, Militarized Streets, is about Japanese troops sent to China to advance the effort to enlarge the area under Japanese colonial control.

What is remarkable about the work is that it's written from the point of view of the rank and file soldiers, who find themselves lied to about their mission, and becoming ever more conscious of how they have been betrayed to advance Imperial foreign policy aims, and Japanese business interests.

As the Japaese soldiers grow closer to Chinese workers at a match factory they have been sent to guard, and begin to defend them against their employers, who treat them with great cruelty, their officers kill a group of the soldiers to stop the growing dissent in the ranks.

The writer was a soldier in the Japanese Army, and the authenticity of his own experiences informs the work.

It's a good window into unknown land: that many Japenese soldiers hated what they were ordered to do, and resisted.

It's a very timely book.

Thomas Barton

A "MUST HAVE" book for anyone planning to visit Hawaii who plans on flying/touring the Hawaiian Islands. It is the most thorough guide to flying in the Hawaiian Islands I have seen to date. Highly recommended for kamaainas (locals), as well ... they too will find much useful information in this handy, easy to take along book.

Full of information very useful in planning and preparing for your island flights, especially if you are not familiar with the various island airports/airfields or the local terrain & common conditions and the potential hazards to avoid.

This book is very thorough and contains many insightful tips including important safety considerations, best time of day for flights explained, typical and uncommon Hawaiian Island weather conditions and how they can affect your flight, as well as areas and conditions to avoid flying in and why, and much more.

The section highlighting sights to see is conveniently broken down by island. The most impressive sights are quite nicely summarized so you can quickly become knowledgeable as a tour guide for your passengers. The photos showing many of these impressive sights in the book are a nice touch.

Some other nice features in this book, besides the scenic photos, are the runway/airfield diagrams & photos for each of the airports/airfields, as well as some approach/departure routing diagrams. These are quickly found in Appendix A, along with all the important information you will want to know about each airport/airfield, such as elevation, runways & lengths, lighting, communications frequencies, services available, and more. Also a handy reference, is the listing of all Fixed Base Operations in Appendix B, with all the important information listed for each.

This book is full of lots of useful information, photos and diagrams summarized in a compact book that is easy to take along & refer to.

Highly recommend this book, without hesitation, to anyone flying in the Hawaiian islands or considering it! It is worth more than it's price in valuable tips, important considerations and as a handy reference.

Remember reading poetry in high school? (It doesn't matter if you liked it, just recall.) The teacher would ask questions like "What does line 17 mean?" You'd struggle to explain.

Well, it really DID mean what you said. But, it also meant something else, a connection with line 34, perhaps, making it richer. It was more complex than you'd realized, a bit of a process of discovery, correlation. It had connectivity. Oh yeah, line 34. Then, you learned that pesky line alluded to a phrase in Shakespeare, the Bible, something else. All of a sudden your brain was reeling in a really big fish. For all of that and perhaps yet more, "line 17" was the focus of a field of meanings. And then in later years some new connection was formed to "line 17." The meanings grew, the connectivity grew, the process continued.

Thus we find this new publication of the Zhongyong. It is a translation, certainly. It also is informed by recent archaeological discoveries. The earliest written version of many standard classical texts date from centuries later than the original. These new discoveries are of much earlier versions of standard texts, with less of the patina of age than subsequent versions.

Even more, though, it incorporates awareness of the philosophical filters for classical Chinese thought and modern Western thought. The overlay of one filter on another may create an interference pattern. Such a pattern is discrete. It may be attractive, but it does not convey the original. In honoring both philosophical filters, Chinese and Western, Professor Ames offers greater insight into complexities of meaning, nuances of context, a glimpse of the continuity and poetry distilled in this ancient text.

It grows on you.

The glossary of key terms is a treasure mine. Here, you can take a bath in the meaning of a term, really get wet, see it from the inside. As so often happens on emerging from a bath, insight and appreciation grow.

Consider the term "cheng." Ames adopts "creativity" as cheng's focal meaning within this work. At the same time he connects "cheng" with "integrity" and "sincerity." Here they are lesser-included concepts, supportive of the classical meaning and our modern, fresh understanding of "cheng." In context they sometimes are even the primary sense.

How many Westerners would connect sincerity with creativity? In a lesser translation we would never make the connection. But there it is, and we're enriched thereby.

Section 9 of the Zhongyong, as translated, reads: The Master said, "Even the world, its states, and its clans can be pacified, even ranks and emoluments can be declined, and even flashing blades can be trodden underfoot, but focusing the familiar affairs of the day (zhongyong)-this is no easy matter."

Two and a half millennia show little change in the ease of the affairs of the day. Our understanding of that classical thought, however, is newly focused.

The poetry is back.