Book Review: This Is Paradise by Kristiana Kahakauwila

Title: This Is Paradise by Kristiana Kahakauwila
Published July 9, 2013; Hogarth
Genre: literary fiction

"Tourists," he said. They remind me of crabs. The color of their skin." Cameron nodded in agreement, then realized he didn't feel the same. He knew tourists by their choice of car, not their skin color. Locals didn't drive convertibles; they drove trucks. With air-conditioning.(p. 94)

My comments: I was interested in Kristiana's stories of Hawaii as I had visited Oahu once some years back, though I never had a chance to talk much with the locals or the expatriates who lived permanently on the islands. I thought it was Paradise, of course, the lovely beaches and scenery, the green of the hills. But in Paradise, as Kristiana shows us, there might be more going on underneath.

I was reminded of this when I recall my trip to Oahu, running onto a deserted beach near the North Shore, eager to plunge up to my knees in the waves. Luckily for me, a Japanese Hawaiian in diving gear came out of the water at that moment and warned me to stay out of the water because of dangerous undertow that could pull me in and under.

Paradise can be deceptive, as Kristiana's stories tell us. There is danger for a young American tourist though she is told that the personable tourist she befriends in the bar is an ex-convict whose prison tattoos are obvious. People on the island themselves don't always have lives of luxury and comfort as a paradise could suggest. There are cock fighters and breeders and the dangers of rivalry and competition among these groups. There are hotel housekeepers who see what's going with tourists. as well as local career girls who have been educated on the U.S. mainland and have returned to the island; and a mixture and assortment of residents who make the Hawaiian islands no longer purely Hawaiian.

An enlightening collection of stories of Hawaii today. And also of the local Hawaiians whose lives and problems are similar to those of anyone anywhere in the world.

Objective rating: 4/5/5

Publisher's description:
Intimately tied to the Hawaiian Islands, This Is Paradise explores the relationships among native Hawaiians, local citizens, and emigrants from (and to) the contiguous forty-eight states. There is tension between locals and tourists, between locals and the military men that populate their communities, between local Hawaiian girls who never leave and those who do for higher education and then return.

The author Kahakauwila is a careful observer of her protagonists’ actions–and, sometimes, their inaction. Her portrayal of people whose lives have lost their center of gravity is acute, often heartbreaking, and suffused with a deeply felt empathy.

For more reviews of This Is Paradise, visit the tour schedule. 

KRISTIANA KAHAKAUWILA, a native Hawaiian, was raised in Southern California. She earned a master’s in fine arts from the University of Michigan and a bachelor’s degree in comparative literature from Princeton University. She has worked as a writer and editor for Wine Spectator, Cigar Aficionado, and Highlights for Children magazines and taught English at Chaminade University in Honolulu.
She is an assistant professor of creative writing at Western Washington University.

Thanks to TLC Book Tours and the author for a review copy of this book. 

Mailbox Monday/It's Monday: What's New?

This post lists new books and links up to It's Monday; What Are You Reading? at Book Journey; to Mailbox Monday hosted by Book Obsessed; and to Stacking the Shelves by Tynga's Reviews.

I won this mystery novel which has the most colorful cover I've seen in a while - A Tine to Live, A Tine to Die, won from Escape With Dollycas. Thanks, Dollycas, and the author Edith Maxwell!
Book description: "It’s harvest time in Westbury, Massachusetts, and novice farmer Cameron Flaherty hopes to make a killing selling organic produce. But when a killer strikes on her property, her first foray into the world of organic farming yields a bumper crop of locally sourced murder…"

Also arrived, for review:
Carniepunk by Rachel Caine and others (Gallery Books galley)
Necessary Lies by Diane Chamberlain (St. Martin's Press galley)
Seed No Evil: A Flower Shop Mystery by Kate Collins (Signet paperback)
A Brew to a Kill: A Coffeehouse Mystery by Cleo Coyle (Berkley paperback)

These books I borrowed from the library though I wish they had arrived in the mailbox!
Enigma of China: An Inspector Chen Novel by Qiu Xiaolong (can't pass up an international mystery)
Bend, Not Break: A Life in Two Worlds by Ping Fu (a memoir of emigration and immigration)

Book Review: Candy and the Cankersaur by Jason Sandberg

"This is a Cankersaurus Rex," her father said. My golfing buddy is a Paleontologist. I had it shipped to America from the Island that Time Forgot." (page 9)

 I love that quote about the dinosaur from the Island that Time Forgot.  I don't normally review children's books, but the author made a gentle suggestion about variety on my blog, and now I think I have been missing out by not including children's books before.

This is a story of a young girl named Candy who gets an unusual gift from her busy dad - a dinosaur or a Cankersaurus Rex. She trains her dinosaur to be a good pet while her next door neighbor, a young boy, tries to get a dinosaur of his own to rival hers.

The illustrations: Lively and cheerful colors in shades of yellow, green, red, and pink make this an eye catching picture book. I imagine children ages three or older would have loved hearing this imaginative story and looking at the lively illustrations. The book is not scary as Cankersaurus Rex is not at all frightening. For adults, the name Cankersaurus might be a strange pun, but young children would probably be delighted with the sounds of the word.

Title: Candy and the Cankersaur, written and illustrated by Jason Sandberg
Published June 18, 2012
Genre: children's picture ebook, ages 3-9

The author-illustrator, Jason Sandberg:

"I'm a Fine Artist who also wants to produce the "missing books" from my childhood, the books I wished I'd had."

Find out more about Jason's published and exhibited art and his children's books at www.jasonsandberg.com/

Thanks to the author for a review copy of this e-book.

Guest Review: A Good Home, a Memoir by Cynthia Reyes

Title: A Good Home: A Memoir by Cynthia Reyes

Publisher: BPS Books (May 6, 2013)

A Good Home describes the author’s early life in rural Jamaica, her move to urban North America, and her trips back home.

I, a non-bookworm, read Cynthia Reyes' just-released book,

“A Good Home” and found it so riveting and so totally interesting,

it was difficult to put down once I turned a chapter.

Her down-to-earth style of writing is a boon to people who are

not avid book readers but are selective in their choice of books,

fiction or otherwise. I highly recommend “A Good Home” for

entertainment and for feeling good.

It is all about family, struggles, life-changes and determination.

Many readers can relate to the author’s experiences.

Philip Young
Guest reviewer

Philip Young is a writer in Toronto. 

A Woman of Angkor by John Burgess

Teaser Tuesdays  is hosted by MizB; choose sentences from your current read and identify author and title for readers.  First Chapter, First Paragraph is hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea.

I: The Brahmin

Brahmin priests chart the turnings of the cosmic engine. They counsel princes and craft judgments of holy law. But concerning simpler things, such as getting where they want to go? They often need some help.

Perhaps that is why I felt no apprehension when I first caught sight of the priest that rainy season afternoon. All I saw was a man who looked to be lost, and my sympathy went to him. With two soldier-guards, he had arrived on foot at the tiny settlement in the Capital's eastern reaches that was home to my family at the time. Then he began a search for someone or something that wasn't being found.

A Woman of Angkor by John Burgess
Published 2013  by River Books Press
Genre: historical fiction

Goodreads description:
"12th Century Cambodia, birthplace of the lost Angkor civilisation.
In a village behind a towering stone temple lives a young woman named Sray, whom neighbors liken to the heroine of a Hindu epic. Hiding a dangerous secret, she is content with quiet obscurity, but one rainy afternoon is called to a life in the royal court. Her faith and loyalties are tested by attentions from the great king Suryavarman II. She struggles to keep her devotion to her husband Nol, s palace confidante and master of the silk parasols, symbols of the monarch's rank.

This novel revives the rites and rhythms of the culture that built the temples of Angkor, then abandoned them to the jungle. Sray witnesses the construction of the largest temple, Angkor Wat, and offers an explanation for its greatest mystery - why it broke with centuries of tradition to face west instead of east."

Based on the opening chapter, would you keep reading?

It's Monday/Mailbox Monday/July 8

This post lists new books and links up to It's Monday; What Are You Reading? at Book Journey; to Mailbox Monday hosted by Book Obsessed; and to Stacking the Shelves by Tynga's Reviews.

Books for review:

A Once Crowded Sky by Tom King, fantasy (Touchstone)
The Other Room by Kim Triedman, fiction (Owl Canyon Press)
Mystery Girl by David Gordon, thriller (New Harvest)
Hour of the Rat by Lisa Brackmann, thriller (Soho Crime)
TheTilted World by Tom Franklin and Beth Ann Fennelly,  historical fiction ARC (William Morrow)

Uncorrected proofs for review:

Here Comes Mrs. Kugelman by Minka Pradelski, fiction (Macmillan)
Goat Mountain by David Vann, fiction (Harper)
Slow Getting Up: A Story of NFL Survival by Nate Jackson, memoir (Harper)
Lineup by Liad Shohan, Israeli crime fiction (Harper)

I borrowed these from the library:

Snapper by Brian Kimberling, fiction (Pantheon). Enjoying the bird watching aspects of this novel set in rural Indiana
The Third Son by Julie Wu, historical fiction (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill). The history Taiwan is something I'd like to know more about.

What are you reading this week?

FINDING COLIN FIRTH by Mia March

 Welcome to the Sunday Salon.

I am so excited to announce that Gallery Books is offering two copies of the novel, Finding Colin Firth by Mia March, to readers of this blog. The great news is that the giveaway contest is open to both U.S. and Canadian residents. Yaah! and thank you, Dominique at Gallery Books!

Please scroll down to enter.

Title: Finding Colin Firth: A Novel by Mia March
Publication date: July 6, 2013; Gallery Books
Genre: fiction, women's fiction

Publisher's description:
"From the author of The Meryl Streep Movie Club, comes a new novel about three women, connected in secret and surprising ways, who are in for a life-changing summer when rumor has it that actor Colin Firth is coming to their Maine town to film a movie.

After losing her job and leaving her beloved husband, journalist Gemma Hendricks is sure that scoring an interview with Colin Firth will save her career. Yet a local story about women, family ties, love, and loss captures her heart--and changes everything. The story concerns Bea Crane, a twenty-two-year old who learns in a deathbed confession letter that she was adopted at birth. Bea is in Boothbay Harbor to surreptitiously observe her biological mother, Veronica Russo, a thirty-eight-year-old diner waitress famous for her "healing" pies. But when Veronica is hired as an Extra on the bustling movie set, she wonders if she's hiding from the truth . . . and perhaps the opportunity of a real life Mr. Darcy.

These three women will discover more than they ever imagined in this coastal Maine town, buzzing with hopes of Colin Firth."

GIVEAWAY CONTEST:  U.S. and Canadian residents, please leave a comment for a chance to win one of two books. No P.O. addresses, please. Contest is open through July 12, 2013; winners will be chosen at random and notified on July 13, with a response due by July 15.  The publisher will mail out the books to the winners. Good luck and thanks for entering!

UPDATE: Congrats to the winners: Creations by Laurel Rain-Snow and Julie@ Knitting and Sundries. Thanks everyone for entering the contest!