I bought this guide along with two others and this was a nice, complete guide covering all the islands. I used it in conjunction with the other guides, which targeted the specific islands I was visiting, for a big picture overview of Hawaii. Fodor's helped me decide which islands to visit (Maui and Kauai) with color photography and descriptions. I also enjoyed reading about the history of the islands. The list of website links in the back of the book were also very helpful. I don't think this one book is enough, overall, to pinpoint where to go once you're on the islands. I didn't like that it didn't give me complete descriptions of the beaches. Turns out my hotel was on a beach that wasn't suitable for swimming. But the book didn't tell me that. You'll definitely need this book plus another, it's not enough on its own.

In general, Fodor's guides are the best on the market because of their accuracy, authority and wit. Fodor's Hawaii is no different. It gives the skinny on all the must-see places on all the major Hawaiian islands -- Hawaii, Oahu, Maui, Lanai, Molokai and Kauai. What's more, Fodor's Hawaii, like all Fodor's guides, mention both places on and off the beaten path. The section on Maui is particularly good, right down to the description of rainbows "on the hood of your car."

The cheap eats section of the book was very useful, but the map was not useful at all. It was just a basic map. It had no streets on the map.

This book has some great finds such as places to eat (for reasonable amounts). It talks of one place on Maui that's a community college. The students create a four course meal for only $11! It also gave us some great suggestions for where we can spend our honeymoon. I would definitely try out the bed and breakfasts over the "canned" travel agent resorts. Excellent resource for prices on tours & activities. I reviewed at least 6 books on Hawaii and found this one to be the most resourceful. Definitely a keeper!

Sorry, but this book just didn't do it for me. I just got back from 3 weeks on Maui, staying with locals. Most of the available trails are indeed in the book, but the maps and descriptions are sometimes wrong or simply out of date. With today's technology, there's no excuse for hand-drawn "not to scale" maps. For the next revision, I'd suggest that the author go through the entire book, synchronize it with reality and bring it up to the same quality level as other guide books. If you're interested in some hikes that aren't in this book, see the hiking section of the excellent guidebook "Maui Revealed".

Hiking Maui is one of the best treasures that you can have if you enjoy hiking and the adventures that it has in store. My husband and I love this book. I am born and raised here and my husband has lived here for 4 years and we have found this book to be very resourceful. Many hikes take you to spectacular waterfalls and most of all, to breathtaking scenery. A suggestion: If you have the time stay in some of the cabins at the national parks!

THE BOOK IS BORING. IT IS VERY TEXTBOOK MATERIAL.IT DOES NOT GIVE A REAL INSIGHT INTO THE CULTURE. IT IS SOC. BORING. IT COULD BE INTERESTING FOR OTHER SOC., BUT NOT FOR THE AVERAGE READER, OR SOC. STUDENT FOR THAT MATTER.

This book gives a first person account of the people living in Hawaii. Dr. Wooden, the author has taught there and has seen the "common" Hawaiian in action. This is a great book to read and find out about some of Hawaii's people, practices, and history that many people are not aware of. This book also includes a social economic class (SEC) break down of the people who live there and just who fits where in the spectrum. A great book to read.

Great book if you are doing a reef study and need to identify the correct names for all the creaters. Great photo's and helpful hints on purchasing equipment, but for the average weekend or resort snorkeller it can get boring to read. However, the book is worth having.

Before my recent dive trip to Fiji I looked for a good fish ID book for the area (one with photos, not paintings) and came up short. It doesn't seem like anyone has done a comprehensive reference for this area comparable to Humann's works on the Caribbean.

However, I did find Paddy Ryan's fine volume in the lending library at the resort where I was staying. To my surprise, I find it to be much more than the typical, superficial "snorkeler's guide." It's a small but beautifully produced volume with excellent photography and a well-written text. It's a good balance of photos to help identify the most common South Pacific reef fish combined with informative text on the behavior and biology of reef fish, other vertebrates, and invertebrates.

I didn't buy a copy when I had a chance in a local shop, and I regretted it on the long flight home. I'm buying my personal copy as soon as I finish writing this. Take my word for it, for snorkelers, novice divers! , or serious divers, this is money well spent!

The Clueless books are only good because of the character Amber. She's a thousand times cooler than Cher or De. Both of them are stuck-up, conceited snobs. In this book, Amber's puppy is mentioned, which I found really cute, because in the book Chronically Crushed, they made it seem as though Amber didn't like animals. In the words of Cher, "AS IF!" Well, here, Cher seemed to disprove of Amber missing her pooch so much. Disgusting. Who's the animal lover now? Anyway, it's a pretty good story, if you can ignore the STUPID way Cher talks. Sorry I go on so much about how I hate that character, but I mean, just LOOK at the cover. Isn't Amber's outfit colorful, bold, vibrant, individual? Doesn't it make a statement without being really goofy looking? The hair flower, the bright yellow pants, the gorgeous necklace, the adorable fruit-print shirt? OK, nuff said. Now look at Cher. Plain. White. Boring. Ugh. She sacrifices individuality because she thinks she's "in style." She's pathetic. Not to mention it appears as though she and De are gossiping, talking about people behind their backs. And De too...her outfit looks a lot like Cher's, except a different color. Is Amber REALLY the only one with the courage to go against the overrated "Fashion Gods"?! Buy this book is you love Clueless, if you desperately need something to read, or if you want to look to Cher and De for a perfect example of what NOT to be like.

This book is great! I really liked it and I think anyone else would like it too! I reccomend this book to any girl, any age!

Perhaps I was expecting too much from the title of this book. There is nothing "unofficial" about the information it contains. The hotel descriptions are very standard guidebook material - lots of facts, but not enough of a description to give you a feel of the properties. I have stayed at several of the properties listed in this book and they could have easily included some information that IMHO would have been crucial to your enjoyment. Also, very little information is provided on things to do on each island outside of the usual tourist attractions. Maybe I am being too harsh. After all, Frommers and Fodors aren't any better, but since this book is touting itself as the "unofficial guide", I feel that it's a bit of false advertising.

Although the book touts itself as giving readers "the inside story" on Hawaii--everything from shopping to volcanoes, from our experience there's no truly remarkable reporting. The descriptions are fairly accurate, albeit not over-critical, but I have to agree completely with the reviewer from LA who states that this is very much standard fare. Okay, so "Dr. Beach" says that such-and-such is one of the best 10 beaches in America, how is that "unofficial", and how does that reflect what the author thinks? Tominaga relies far too much on the offical line--publicity available in every hotel lobby about the attractions--and not enough on his own experience. Perhaps his comments on islands other than Oahu are more meaningful, but if you can get to Hawaii, a good concierge will do as much or more for you. There is so much more that Hawaii has to offer that isn't included here--probably a book isn't the best way to get this information anyway. On the positive side, the "Unofficial Guide" formula for rating things according to age group is very helpful.

Great organization to a potentially complex topic. Most comprehensive evaluations of hotels, restaurants, nightlife, beaches, and attractions of any of the usual guidebooks. Attraction evaluations and descriptions provide accurate age appeal breakouts to aid in evaluating attraction's overall family appeal. I love this series and rely on its accuracy. It rightfully leaves the other general Hawaii guidebooks in the dust. If you are going to buy one guidebook make it this one!

I'll admit I'm new to this World War II stuff. And it wasn't until I saw the first preview for Pearl Harbor (the movie with Ben Affleck) that I started pursuing reading specific to this incident. But since then I've read A World At Arms, and more importantly, Prange's At Dawn We Slept, plus some lighter material on the Pearl Harbor attack. ...Toland is much more interested in making his case than presenting historical facts.

But man, this is a good read. I read it in about three days--on the train, on the bus, in bed, during dinner. Compared to the style of Prange, et. al., this does indeed read like a novel. And had I no prior knowledge of this whole time in history I would easily have given this book five stars and recommended it to everyone I know.

But I do have some knowledge, and when compared to the exhaustive objectivity of Prange, this book is flawed. I still don't know who's right, but Toland does a very poor job of making his case once you strip away the manipulative characterizations and language.

This was a very interesting book as to the real truth behind the attack of Pearl Harbor. History says it was a surprise attack however, Washington "knew" that something was going to happen and chose not to tell the commanding officers of the Navy & Army in the Pacific about it. It was a very interesting book however, with so many people named in the book, it at times was hard to remember "who was who". The book also covers the scapegoats and "their day in court" to let the truth out to the general public. I would by this book again.

When Mr. Toland's book Infamy was first published it caused a stir, and it still leaves a sting! Sometimes truth hurts. Mr. Toland's earlier book, The Rising Sun ( a Pulitzer prize winner ), presents a different picture from that in Infamy and perhaps more in line with textbook thinking. But deeper research into the subject forced him to the conclusions he drew in Infamy. If it is shocking that's good, because that is how one can learn from history.

Stinnett constructs a strong but circumstantial case that FDR knew in advance of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Copious footnotes refer back to the extensive research underlying his claims -- I don't know why another reviewer claimed the book is based on "discredited sources" when 90% of the footnotes are to declassified military documents obtained via FOIA.

The book does have a couple of weaknesses. First, the evidence as to FDR's knowledge is circumstantial. Clearly, Navy officers knew or had every reason to know that Pearl Harbor was to be attacked, and for whatever reason the Navy failed to warn Adm. Kimmel and in fact actively discouraged him from shoring up his defenses. Clearly, FDR's intention as of 1940 (at the latest) was to provoke Japan into attacking the US, giving him the excuse he needed to enter the war. What is not as clear is whether Roosevelt knew specifically of Pearl Harbor in advance. Stinnett builds a strong circumstantial case that FDR knew, but it's not a smoking gun.

Second, Stinnett lays out reams of documentary evidence, but he often fails to satisfactorily explain and interconnect the evidence to the reader. Compounding that problem is Stinnett's failure to tie all the evidence together in a closing chapter. Having read the book, I feel as if I were a juror who sat through 6 months of detailed testimony about a murder, but was denied hearing a closing argument from the prosecutor to "connect the dots". I know he's guilty, but I'm not exactly sure why.

Despite these weaknesses, Stinnett's work is a valuable contribution and gives enough evidence to justify the commonly-held belief that FDR, for better or worse, is responsible more than any other party for getting the US into WWII.

Mr. Stinnett's book contains valuable documentation showing that the U.S. had decrypted both diplomatic and military codes of Japan. As a result, Stinnett shows that FDR not only knew of the coming attack on Pearl, but he ensured its success by clearing the northern Pacific of U.S. Navy reconnaissance vessels. Further, he arranged communications so that Admiral Kimmel would not be informed of the approaching Japanese fleet -- thus setting him up to "take the fall" for the attack. That FDR would adopt such a course of action is not surprising when one considers his betrayal of his closest associates -- not least of whom was his own Vice President Wallace (in the 1944 election) in favor of Truman. Remember that he kept assuring Wallace even as he solicited Truman. Further, his attempts to ignore information about Stalin's actions in the Ukraine (starvation of 10 million) and to suppress information about the Katyn massacre of Polish soldiers by Stalin -- this time so that he would not alienate Polish-American voters -- bear further witness to his lack of character if a course of action would help him obtain a goal. Stinnett claims that FDR sought war against Germany and that he could do this by provoking war with Japan. This claim is supported in two ways: First, FDR was aware of an intercepted diplomatic message between the Japanese ambassador and Von Ribbentrop, the German foreign minister. In the message, Von Ribbentrop states that Germany would join Japan immediately if Japan went to war with the U.S. Furthermore, FDR's cabinet member, Harold Ickes has stated: "For a long time I've believed our best entrance into the war would be [via] Japan...which will inevitably lead to war against Germany." This clearly answers the objection of many -- and a correct one if one does not consider the agreement just described -- that Germany did not otherwise seek war with the U.S.
Furthermore and not surprisingly, many critics of this book who post at this site prefer to use illogical and emotional attacks instead of reason. For example, simply to call something a "conspiracy theory" is not enough to damn Mr. Stinnett's book. In children's circles, this is simply called "name-calling." In adult circles and in debate, this kind of thinking is usually dismissed for what it is -- as an example of either: (1) card stacking since it seeks to prevent consideration of "inconvenient" information or (2) an appeal to the gallery, which seeks to capitalize on the prejudices, ignorance, or preconceptions of the hearers without addressing Stinnett's content at all. This type of statement should immediately remove from serious consideration the opinion of those who offer it because a sneer is not an argument. It is the very same type of behavior used by the pope when he instructed Galileo Galilei to deny what he saw when he looked through his telescope and observed a number of celestial phenomena that did not correspond to the "approved" facts of the time. Critics of this book would -- at another time -- have insisted upon a flat earth.

Stinnett's "Day of Deceit" is, without a doubt, the most important book ever written about World War II. His spectacular research effort, in the now declassified intelligence files preceding Pearl Harbor, reveals an evil that corrupts Washington to this day. Every premise, every assumption, every statement by military and political leaders-nearly every "fact"- about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor are now proven to be lies. Stinnett proves that FDR and other leaders were actually tracking the Japanese fleet across the Pacific- right up to the moment of attack. They were fully aware the purpose of the fleet was to attack Pearl Harbor. It is a stunning tale of horror and betrayal that cost the lives of more than 2000 soldiers who perished on Hawaii. Worse yet, tens of thousands of American soldiers and sailors would perish as POWS under the Japanese. They died as a direct result of FDR's deliberate plan to place our military in harm's way- then deliberately hiding the Japanese plans to attack. Their lives were sacrificed for FDR's political agenda to force America into war on behalf of England.

Stinnett should be awarded every accolade for his yeoman work. He has cracked open the door for the truth to emerge.

I totally enjoyed Allegra Goodman's short stories, and thought that Kaaterskill Falls was an elegant, insightful work; therefore, I couldn't wait to buy her latest. What a complete disappointment! First, I just hated Sharon, the spiritual seeker in the novel. I realize that it isn't necessary to like the protagonist in order to get something out of a novel, but I had trouble getting beyond this character. Sharon embodies the worst of her generation (mine!). She is completely self centered and self serving, and all other characters exist simply to serve the narrator. This might be an interesting character study of a pathological egomaniac if Goodman had bothered to show how Sharon came to be the way she is, but all we get are hints of a lonely childhood. I hate to say this about a work by a gifted writer who features Jewish culture (my two stars are for this aspect--we need more writers like this) but I cannot recommend this book to anyone!

Paradise Park isn't nearly as acoomplished as Goodman's first novel, Kaaterskill Falls, but it's a fun failure. Kaaterskill Falls was a finely tuned debut with a carefully interwoven group of characters slowly coalescing into a crystaline picture of religious Judaism in the mid 1970s. It was a finely written book. Paradise Park is an all-over-the-place scattershot of a novel that seems forced and unfocused. The meandering plot is tough to put up with -- I had to keep setting the book down and getting back at it when I'd built up more patience. As Sharon, the novel's protagonist and narrator, wanders from one spiritual experience to the next without changing as a character (until the very end), I was left just frustrated.

That said, however, there's still a lot of fun to be had reading this book. So episodic it could almost be a progressive collection of short stories, there's great pleasure to be had in some of this novel's sections. Sharon's life on the periphery of the University of Hawaii and her entanglements with various members of that community are often hilarious and touching. It was interesting to get a taste of the native culture, and Goodman writes about the island's beauty and its native inhabitants with beauty and grace.

Goodman is never able to give Sharon a consistent voice. Eloquent one page and awkward the next, Goodman vacilates between dumbing her narrator down and using her as a conduit for her (Goodman's) own insights. As a result, Sharon is a character we can never get a solid fix on. She keeps coming in and out of focus -- just when we have a feel for her, Goodman lapses back into prose that feels totally alien to Sharon, and we lose track of her again.

So this novel definitely has its pleasures, but as a whole, it's less than satisfying.

This is the first book I've read by Goodman and I thought it was great. There are so few fiction books written about a young woman's spiritual quest. The main character is easy to understand and life like and appealing. I know people just like her and can relate to some of her experiences myself. Haven't you ever noticed how often people who have a troubled childhood take A LOT longer to grow-up? Sharon is like that,too.