EXPLORING LOST HAWAI'I: PLACES OF POWER, HISTORY, MYSTERY & MAGIC, Ellie and William Crowe (Island Heritage, $15.99) Isle Pages
New relases from Hawaii authors,Reviewed by Burl Burlingame
The Crowes are veteran travelers and writers who specialize in the spooky. This guidebook lists 60 places around the islands where spiritual power resides, either natural or man-made. The typeface is large and the text contains directions, so the book seems designed for use within a rental car. The pages are well illustrated with color photographs and anecdotes, plus appropriate Hawaiian chants, but the simplistic maps are a disappointment.
ONE HAND IS NO APPLAUDER: ESSAYS ON THE STRUCTURE OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS, Paul Heinberg and Terry Welden (Vantage Press, $14.95)
This independently published textbooklike volume is the result of several years of intensive skull-work by University of Hawaii professors Heinberg and Welden, and revolves around their theory that there is no such creature as the "individual" -- we're actually defined by our interaction with others, and so the smallest human unit is the "dyad," or relationship. Trippy! The book is chockablock with formulas and examples, just the sort of brain-juice that is squeezed out only in ivory towers.
FOR THE GOOD OF MANKIND: A HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF BIKINI AND THEIR ISLANDS, Jack Niedenthal (Micronitor Publishing, $10)
This modestly printed paperback functions as a general guide to the atomic bomb site and the remote island, which is beginning to bounce back. The author is the trust liaison for the atoll. Details include the history of the people and their islands, interviews with Bikinians about their struggles and personal stories about the author's relationships there, plus details about the Bikinians' local government and trust funds, and other useful, general-interest data. The book is available only through the territory's official Web site, www.bikiniatoll.com, and the $10 price includes priority mail shipping in the United States.
ALOHA BEAR'S A-B-C WIPE-CLEAN WORKBOOK, Yuko Green (Island Heritage, $6.99)Marshmallowlike Aloha Bear, a character closely identified with Honolulu Advertiser cartoonist Dick Adair, returns in this slim but thick-paged volume designed to be drawn on with crayons and then cleaned up and used again. There is an English or Hawaiian word for each letter of the alphabet, and the pages are pre-ruled for neatness.
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