WOWS on every page. I gave this book to my Mother and Aunt for X-Mass. I wanted one for myself but ran out of cash (dag nab it) This is one of the most AMAZING nature books ever. If you need some brownie points give this as a gift, it will keep you out of the Dog House for YEARS.

This book contains some of the most spectacular photographs you've seen. Close-ups even a pro would seldom come close to. It's unlikely you'll see many of these in your travels, but it feels like your walking through a Hawaiian tropical jungle as you page through the book. Many of the pages would look great framed for your walls. This is the perfect coffee table book, all of my friends have picked it up and marveled over the interesting plants and flowers, even the non-gardeners.

This may be the only opportunity for most of us to see most of these species, and what a way to see them! To say it's the most beautiful book I have ever seen would be the understatement of the year.

Sonny Mendoza is afraid of the sea, not such a great thing, since he lives on an island, completely surrounded by a vast expanse of blue, stretching off into the distance. Sonny is...sensitive, but not necessarily weak, afraid, but not afraid to admit it, and dispels all myths that teenagers are simple-minded creatures. Another great coming-of-age type story!

This book was required reading at my school, so I read it before the school year started. Graham Salisbury is a great author, and I really liked his books because he gives you a clear image of his thoughts while he was writing the novel. Some of my classmates don't enjoy reading, but I love to read, so this book was definitely a great choice. I liked the way he combined experiences that seemed real and ones that were astonishingly unreal.

I first read this book about a year ago and I've loved it since then.This book is a great summer read.I can't tell you how much I loved this book.It's not really a novel.It's really a group of short stories with the same main character. You can almost smell the salt in the sea air.Beautiful, not sad and and not empty.It may sound cliche but this is a warm family tale.

This book is an autobiographical story of her search for belief, faith and meaning.

First she was taught the traditional Hawaiian belief, then "christianity (Presbyterian if memory serves)", Science and Mind, Zen Buddhism, and various metaphysical traditions.

If you have a desire to learn about Hawaii, and various practises of Hawaii (working with nature, Ho'oponopono, etc) This is a good beginning, but incomplete.

In my opinion; the Hawaiians had effective prayer down to a science, and were far more spiritually grounded than the bible thumping "christians" that outlawed the spiritual practises of Hawaiians. Two Bears

Aloha nui loa (I love you very much)

When it comes down to the wire, managing change is really all about balance, something the Japanese treasure and express in the art of Zen, and passion. Passion without direction and focus is just a bunch of energy, like an Italian lover. Passion, with focus and balance, can be like a laser beam--very powerful and significant.

The first part of one's life is usually spent chasing success, and the second half chasing significance. Nana's Change We Must is working to see that we all get an early start on the second.

My name is Hina, and I am the great grand daughter of Hanah Very. Puna (as I call her) gave me my name, and through her book is giving me insight, strength, pride in Hawaiian culture, and a beautiful glimpse into a pure Hawaiians heart. For all of you who don't know, Hawaiians are a dying breed, and their culture is finally earning respect. This book will help you to understand Hawaiians, and understand yourself. Simply written, easy to comprehend, it deals with our relationship to nature, our powers of manifestation, and love as the supreme opener and healer. This book is delightful, insightful, and great for anyone seeking spiritual counsel. Nana will show you how to be quiet and listen to yourself, where all healing takes place.

Brocker's purpose in writing this book was to memorialize the people who "lived, died, and were for the most part forgotten on a little parcel of land in the middle of the Pacific Ocean." And such honor he bestows! The Hansen's disease (leprosy) which afflicted these people was a terrible, disfiguring, and ultimately fatal disease brought to Hawaii by immigrants, but the steps taken to eradicate its spread by isolating the victims must have been at least as devastating to the family-oriented Hawaiians as the disease itself.

It is difficult even to imagine a life and death worse than that which awaited the lepers in the Kalaupapa colony. Yet their lives surely would have been worse, had it not been for the efforts of Father Damien, the Belgian priest who himself fell victim to the disease sixteen years after he began his work in the colony. Historic photographs of Father Damien and his aides bring them to life and honor their efforts. Brocker's descriptions and photographs of the inhospitable, barren, and windswept peninsula of Kalaupapa itself (chosen because it was so isolated and so unsuited to any other kind of settlement), make real the magnitude of Father Damien's efforts. There were no trees, no grass, no fishing places--just wind, dampness, and pounding surf. Most haunting are his photographs and stories of the poor souls who were wrested from their families and sent to Kalaupapa to die apart from them.

Of these, the most affecting of all, of course, are the children's pictures. Photographs of very young girls, sitting primly in rows, as if they were posing for a 3rd grade school picture, little boys sitting on the ground, as if waiting for a picnic, and the one I can't forget, that of a group sitting on the porch outside the boys' home, with a "small boy, who is hardly taller than the benches on which the others sit." Perhaps he was tiny Beka, aged four, from Maui, who, according to records, was sent all alone to live the remaining three years of his life and to die in a harsh and foreign place without any of his loved ones around. With his photographs and text, Brocker does great honor to the lives of all these unfortunate souls. The rest of us can only be grateful that our own children, grandchildren, parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins do not have to suffer a similar fate to that of Beka, aged four.

In The Lands of Father Damien, Author Brocker follows the footsteps of this remarkable man as he answered the ultimate plea for help by volunteering in 1873 to go to Kalawao on the Kalaupapa Peninsula where, King Kamehameha V had banished those among his people who were infected with the dreaded disease of leprosy, later identified as Hansen's Disease. It is an exceptional book that is easy to read, and offers up-to-date information about Blessed Father Damien. The volume would grace any library shelf and is a book to be shared with family, students, educators and group leaders.

Hawaii Catholic Herald

James Brocker has published a loving tribute to Blessed Damien de Veuster, the people to whom he gave his life, and the special place in which they lived and he served. The book tells the story of the place first cursed as a dumping ground for a people with a hideous disease; a place then given deliverance through the life and sacrifice of a Catholic missionary priest.

Brocker's text includes a geological and pre-leprosy history of Kalaupapa before, a description of Hansen's disease, and a chronology of significant dates relating to the settlement.

But it is his photos, with their generously detailed captions, that distinguish this book. They successfully capture a place whose starkness and beauty is preserved in its isolation.

The respect and love the author has for this land and its people are clearly evident in this book.

The Lands of Father Damien is a worthy memorial to the living and dead of Kalawao and Kalaupapa.

I love sports but never thought I would enjoy reading a book on sports as much as I enjoyed Hawai'i Sports. I didn't realized there was so much to learn. It was a great book and I highly recommend it to anyone with even the slightest sports interest. Congratulations to the author for his fine research and extensive knowledge!

I am an avid sports fan. This book gives a great sports history and champion information. I was surprised an enlightened. It is also great for touring Hawaii and knowing the key spots for optimum sporting adventure. Good job!

This book has mor information on any sport than i have ever seen it really lets you know whats going on in hawaii, sportswise. it tells about over 59 different sports that ive never heard of before. I verymuch reccomend this book to anyone who likes sports!!!

by the circumstances of his birth.

This book isn't so much about how a family in Japan survived through WW2 as it is the story of a young man (Ken), half Japanese/half American during WW2. Ken fights battles throughout the novel--with himself, with fellow officers in the Japanese Army Air Corps, with ordinary citizens as a victim of mistaken identity. Ken, although he has been raised in Japan for the majority of his life has Caucasian facial features.

The book is extremely well written. I found the relationships within the family to be extremely diverse. There was a focus on the father and mother, but not so much on the children (except for Ken). The diferent personalities of Ken's friends were each part of a larger picture--there were the fanatics, the artists and the ones who just wanted to survive. It was a good presentation of what makes up a nation during war.

The first part of the book is about Saburo (the father) and his diplomatic efforts in the United States right before Pearl Harbor. I found this part to be particualary interesting, as it has been a matter of debate for the last several years. The issue of how much Roosevelt knew before December 7 rings especially true now.

I would recommend this book to anyone. It will hold your attention for days...

“Riding The East Wind”, is not only a great story, it is also great History. From the photographs of Mother and Son on the cover, to the notes at the book’s end recording what happened to the Family and their friends after the War, this work is excellent. The translator is the award winning Mr. Ian Hideo Levy, and he has created a wonderfully readable version of Mr. Otohiko Kaga’s first book presented in English. This is a fascinating story of the days leading to the bombing of Pearl Harbor through the end of World War II. The only aspect I found very puzzling was the total lack of comment on either Hiroshima or Nagasaki. The fire bombing of the B-29 Bombers was discussed at length, and perhaps the Author felt this was enough, for the firestorms these raids often brought about literally erased cities. ....

The book is a sweeping view of Japanese Culture, how they viewed themselves, their allies, and their enemies. While never mentioning the actions of the US, great irony is demonstrated as the woman on the cover was American, and while despised was not interred in a camp as Japanese were in this Country. The book speaks in depth of the actions of the Kamikaze Pilots and Submariners that many found impossible to understand. ....

The Author explores citizenship based on blood, birth, and personal beliefs, together with the complexities they give rise to. Relations between Family, and romance between others is never maudlin, rather they illustrate the ability of the individual to stand alone with his or her own morality, when humanity at large has forgotten what the word means.

This is a great reading experience, and I recommend it without qualification.

When I visited the Yasukuni Jinja, the shrine for Japan's fallen war heroes, in Tokyo, I was immediately drawn to the picture of the pilot with the Caucasian face among the hundreds of Japanese faces. I was saddened to read his story at the shrine of how he came to be in the Japanese army, despite his mixed blood, and how he died in service of one country that represented only half of himself while fighting against the country of his other half. I could not imagine how he must have been torn apart each day.

Then I saw the same haunting picture on the cover of Riding the East Wind by Otohiko Kaga and I immediately grabbed it up. I enjoyed this book thoroughly as I was transported into the world of the man in the picture. This is an excellent book that describes the desperate situation in Japan during the war that the Japanese military caused to be inflicted on the Japanese people and the individual story of the Japanese diplomat married to an American woman and the fate of their mixed-race children.

Even though I knew the eventual outcome of the war and the fate of the man in the picture, I was totally absorbed into this book.

Lee did it again! I rate this one my favorite of her works so far. She put a great deal of emphasis on historical detail while spinning a mysterious little tale of intrigue for her two main characters. The detective couple starts out to enjoy rounds of golf in the Hawaiian Islands and ends up solving a unique mystery. It made a great summer read in my backyard hammock.

D. Whitehead
MidlandTexas

Lee Tyler is a veteran travel writer and current member of the Golf Writers Association of America. Other books include The Case Of The Missing Links.

Hawaii is full of mystery and romance, and when Harry "Win" Winslow and June Jacobs (who are self-described top golfing sleuths) are talked into watching over the new Mauna Makai golf course for a week, they have no idea that they will be dealing with more than just political mischief. Mauna Makai has an ancient wall, known as "papohaku" running through it. The wall is both the draw and the originator of many of the problems Martha Masters and Doug Banner have been having in getting the golf course online in time for a big celebrity wedding and the launching of the golf course:

"As they lurched along toward the first hole, Ted said, 'I live up-country, up there, about ten miles away.' He pointed to a mountain in the distance. 'See that rainbow? That's Waimea, where I live. Sometimes in the middle of the night, I hear this golf course calling to me. Like it's crying for help. So I get up at like two in the morning and get dressed and drive down here to check on things. My wife thinks I'm crazy. Doug here thinks I'm superstitious. Me, I'm just doing my job. And you know what? Every time I've come down here, there's been something screwy. Like majorly wrong.' He turned to Doug and said, 'Explain that with your mainland logic.'"

Tyler has combined the game of golf, ancient Hawaiian mythology, and a couple of scatterbrained sleuths to produce a whimsical tale about love, ghosts, and the history and culture of Hawaii. The Teed-Off Ghost is an excellent book to pull out on a cold winter day, as Tyler's passages about luaus can't help but warm the spirit. Tyler pokes fun at the obsession of golfers, while treating us to a warm Hawaiian experience complete with lots of terminology for the uninitiated. She adds island mystery, an entertaining and irascible ghost, and handsome natives who play havoc with the ladies' hearts. The Teed-Off Ghost is more about getting into the native spirits than it is about murder and mayhem, but it is a fun read nevertheless.

Shelley Glodowski
Reviewer

I really enjoyed the book I liked the characters, I liked the plot, and I felt like catching the next plane to Hawaii, even as a non golfer. The book was consisently charming and fast pased.

Paul Stillwell's "Battleship Arizona" is a fine work devoted to the "life and death" of the ship which became the icon of Pearl Harbor.

The volume is particularly impressive and valuable for its extensive photo documentation and its stories of life and duty aboard the Arizona from keel-laying to partial scrapping and memorial construction. For those interested in the "human side" of the story, these tales are right up their alley. For those interested in the ship's configuration the photographs are remarkable. Some are also extraordinarily artistic, such as one showing a sortie under the incomplete Golden Gate Bridge.

The details provided regarding the ship's loss are also particularly good. Especially impressive are De Virgilio's elevation of the wreck immediately post attack and his overhead plot of the bomb hits and misses upon the Arizona and the Vestal.

The only real disappointment is the lack of a detailed "anatomy" of the ship in the form of deck plans, level by level within the ship, as completed and as modernized in the early 1930s. Provision of such drawings, and an accompanying discussion using them might have shed useful light on some of the theories regarding exactly how Arizona's magazines were detonated by the bomb hit forward.

The technical details offered in the text, and recorded in the appendices are superb, and I was particularly impressed by the references to and correction of minor errors in another respected publication recorded therein.

As a reader who could generally care less for the "human" side of the story with respect to warship histories, being far more concerned with design, construction and operation, I am nonetheless considering purchasing this volume for my own collection. It's that good.

To many of us, our knowledge of the Arizona begins and ends at Pearl Harbor. The book not only brings alive the rich history of the ship during her 25 years of service, but provides a wealth of information about Navy life between the world wars. The rare pictures of the ship and her crew also bring one closer to the Arizona experience as no other single source can.

Very good book, gives you insight as to life on the Arizona from the time of her beginning until its ultimate demise. A must for any Naval Historian

Jim Denny's excellent photographs complement his excellent text. The book is neither a field guide (for that, use Douglas Pratt's Field Guide to the Birds of Hawai'i and the Tropical Pacific) nor is it a site guide (use Pratt or Sohren for that), but something else: an accurate and fascinating review of the birds of the island and how they fit into the marvelous land. Bits of interesting history are interwoven with the descriptions, and Denny's relation of the tragedy of the lost birds of Kaua'i can make you weep. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has or will look for birds on this remarkable island. My one complaint is that the paintings Denny chose to illustrate those birds he could not photograph are not the most accurate depictions available, though they are of historical interest.

This book is essential for anyone planning to visit this beautiful island, and if you have no plans to go there... look through this wonderful guide, and you may change your mind! The glossy pages are filled with photos of the most illusive and rare birds of Kaua'I. These colorful creatures are found nowhere else on earth. They are photographed in their native surroundings, which are as unique and bold as the birds themselves. Jim Denny did a wonderful job describing each species in detail. Wonderful photos, great reading! I highly recommend this book for lovers of birds, and lovers of beauty. Thumbs up!

I have never seen a book this good about birds from the Islands

Anyone interested in the history of surfing will be thrilled to look at this assortment of great shots. All are sepia toned, and don't expect crisp, high resolution reproductions here. What counts is the subject matter, and that's all here in spades. We got the Duke, Tom Blake, interestng beach goings-on at San Onofre circa the '40's, Billy Hamilton, Greg Noll and others. The price is a little stiff, but all are suitable for framing and, looking at it that way, what you are really purchasing is art. If you like surfing, you'll get a kick out of these.

Although it was hard to part with [money] for a portfolio of pictures, this is really a bargain. Everyone of the pictures is breathtaking. Added to the fact that it's a limited edition...

If you like surfing, or even classic American photography, this is for you.

not much to add to the other review. this is the best photos pre Beach Boys. there is no better.