[ STUFFS ]
New releases on the bookshelf.
Ki'i and Li'i -- A Story From the Stones Isle Pages
New releases from Hawaii authors
Reviewed by Burl Burlingame
bburlingame@starbulletin.com
by Jeremiah Ho'oku'u Gruenberg (Goodale Publishing, $15.95)Gruenberg is a writer and artist whose thing is texture and color, and this combination of real Hawaiian petroglyphs and marvelously tactile backgrounds -- the book is so well printed, it seems to have texture -- drops readers into an ancient Hawaiian world unlike any you've ever seen before. I'm unsure how easy it would be for kids to read, but it would be marvelous read out loud in a classroom setting. Contains some scholarly appendices in the back.
Simple Thoughts That Can Change Your Life
by Gerald Jampolsky, M.D., and Diana Cirincione Ph.D. (Ten Speed Press, $9.95)Beware of skinny self-actualization volumes in which the authors have an alphabet soup of degrees following their names. This pair, who live part time in Hawaii, run a whole variety of organizations and institutes designed to make you feel good about yourself. The thoughts in this little book are not only simple -- "To be centered, focus on the inner rather than the outer" ... "Today I will accept responsibility for my own happiness" ... "Love is listening and listening is love" ... that sort of creamy marshmallow center -- they're printed in giant type in a wedding invitation typeface. Oh, please.
Feel the need to brush up on your knowledge of Islam? Don't bother visiting Amazon.com. The online bookseller is fresh out of the sturdy Penguin edition of the Koran and doesn't expect to ship any more for the next three to five weeks. Local bookstores are also experiencing a run on the title, and indeed other books on the subject. Koran, Mideast
books sell fastStar-Bulletin
"Basically our entire Middle Eastern history section has been popular," said Diane DeCorte, the general manager of Borders Books in Ward Centre, whose supplies have now been replenished after a post-attack surge by book buyers that left several shelves nearly empty. While declining to mention specific titles, Reggie Davis, a Barnes & Noble assistant manager, also confirmed a rise in interest in religion and spirituality books.
Perhaps hoping to deepen their knowledge of the present threat, consumers are also taking a second look at the science section, according to DeCorte. Books on deadly germs and their implications for bioterrorism are hot sellers, too. ("Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War," a bestseller on the subject, has itself become a piece of news. The book was co-authored by three reporters from the New York Times, Stephen Engelberg, William J. Broad and Judith Miller. At press time, the Associated Press was reporting that a suspicious envelope addressed to Miller, containing some kind of powder, resulted in the temporary evacuation of the Times newsroom on Friday.)
But never fear, Honolulu readers aren't going completely highbrow.
"There was a run on the Nostradamus books, too," said DeCorte.
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