This book contains the history that is part of Hawaiʻi – Stolen Paradise: A Travelogue. This history was originally written as the prelude to a travelogue about a trip I took in October of 2012 to Oʻahu and the Big Island. It includes details about the Hawaiian language, culture, agriculture, aquaculture, music, dance, cuisine, and the Hawaiian people, with a bibliography of source material and a glossary at the end. For either people with a casual interest in Hawaiʻi or formal students of history and culture, and either armchair or serious travelers, this book can serve as a fun starting point for more in-depth study of this fascinating, beautiful paradise.
Would you like to learn the history of Hawaiʻi, and get to know its culture and traditions through the convenience of a book? This one has it all: photographs, stories, and history, all told by a traveler who wanted to study that firsthand. What she compiled is a fun way to learn about Hawaiʻi, the result of her own, self-taught course about the Islands. It includes a bibliography and a glossary of Hawaiian words and phrases at the end, complete with a pronunciation key. As a bonus, the names, addresses, phone numbers, and websites of the places she visited are listed in the bibliographies of both San Francisco - a stop along the way to Hawaiʻi - and for Hawaiʻi itself. Here is a brief summary of the fun described in this travelogue: In October of 2012, the author and her parents took a trip to Hawai‘i, visiting O‘ahu and the Big Island. They stayed at a beautiful resort on O‘ahu called Ko Olina, which means “to be filled with happiness” in the Hawaiian language. They toured historic sites - ‘Iolani Palace in Honolulu and Hulihe‘e Palace in Kailua-Kona. They visited the dead sailors aboard the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial. They took a ride in an electric submarine in the waters off Waikiki. They drove down Saddle Road between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa on the Big Island, and then down Chain of Craters Road to see where Kilauea had erupted over the pavement and into the Pacific Ocean. They tasted Kona coffee and saw how it was grown, harvested, dried, and roasted. They attended a hokey lu‘au on O‘ahu and a wonderfully educational one on the Big Island. They walked through a tropical garden on each of the Islands that they visited, looking at orchids, butterflies, palm trees, macadamia trees, and cannonball trees. In short, the author led her parents on a fascinating tour of Hawaiian history, language, music, cuisine, culture, botany, zoology, and volcanology. It was the trip of a lifetime. After all, one can never taste, smell, hear, see, or touch enough of the paradise that is Hawai‘i.
A Stolen Paradise is a controversial new book about the making of The Night of the Iguana. The non-fiction narrative follows the history of this modern classic from its creation as an acclaimed stage play by Tennessee Williams, regarded as the greatest playwright of the twentieth century, to its adaptation as an Oscar-winning movie directed by the legendary filmmaker John Huston. Sharing the spotlight in this riveting saga are two international megastars whose love affair dominated news coverage for much of that millennium: Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, together with the highly combustible superstar Ava Gardner, and a third equally impressive star, Deborah Kerr, who lived side-by-side for three months in the Mexican jungle during the film's production. Everyone involved hoped they would benefit from the movie's success. But what was the personal and professional cost to each of them? Through extensive archival research and firsthand interviews, which uncover many previously unknown facts, Howard Johns brings to life the people and events surrounding The Night of the Iguana and its transformative effect on Puerto Vallarta - once a small fishing village, now an international tourist destination. It was there, in the isolated jungles of Mismaloya, that the movie had its greatest impact, introducing the native inhabitants, who had no previous contact with the outside world, to a modern way of life, the effects of which are still being felt today. This richly detailed account of movie making is more than an exposé of Hollywood or a sentimental wallow in nostalgia; it is also a time capsule of world events. A Stolen Paradise combines elements of American pop culture, Mexican history and Aztec mythology to tell a prescient saga of human conquest and its surprising, often tragic, consequences.
One betta fish, two dead biologists, three trysts, four suspects and thirty-five pairs of shoes add up to complicated days in paradise for Special Agent Marcella Scott. Marcella gets into sand way over her Manolos investigating the death of a prominent scientist washed up on a Waikiki beach with a bullet hole between the eyes. BioGreen, a genetically-engineered algae that could solve the world fuel crisis, has been stolen from the development lab-a hotbed of intrigue where everyone on the project has something to hide. Marcella also has a secret vice, more dangerous than expensive shoes-and it leads her into arms that are too close for comfort.
Edgar Award–winner Steve Hamilton takes his acclaimed series to new heights in A Stolen Season. If you thought you knew Alex McKnight and how far he'll go for the people he cares about . . . think again. On a freezing night in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, a night that wouldn't feel so unusual if it weren't the Fourth of July, a boat plows full speed into a line of old railroad pilings in the shallow water of Waishkey Bay. After Alex helps rescue the passengers, he figures he'll never see them again. He couldn't be more wrong. The men he saved are connected to a deadly drug-smuggling syndicate and it's up to Alex to do damage control—and protect the woman he loves—before the cycle of violence comes around full circle.
As heard on NPR's This American Life “Absorbing . . . Though it's non-fiction, The Feather Thief contains many of the elements of a classic thriller.” —Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s Fresh Air “One of the most peculiar and memorable true-crime books ever.” —Christian Science Monitor A rollicking true-crime adventure and a captivating journey into an underground world of fanatical fly-tiers and plume peddlers, for readers of The Stranger in the Woods, The Lost City of Z, and The Orchid Thief. On a cool June evening in 2009, after performing a concert at London's Royal Academy of Music, twenty-year-old American flautist Edwin Rist boarded a train for a suburban outpost of the British Museum of Natural History. Home to one of the largest ornithological collections in the world, the Tring museum was full of rare bird specimens whose gorgeous feathers were worth staggering amounts of money to the men who shared Edwin's obsession: the Victorian art of salmon fly-tying. Once inside the museum, the champion fly-tier grabbed hundreds of bird skins—some collected 150 years earlier by a contemporary of Darwin's, Alfred Russel Wallace, who'd risked everything to gather them—and escaped into the darkness. Two years later, Kirk Wallace Johnson was waist high in a river in northern New Mexico when his fly-fishing guide told him about the heist. He was soon consumed by the strange case of the feather thief. What would possess a person to steal dead birds? Had Edwin paid the price for his crime? What became of the missing skins? In his search for answers, Johnson was catapulted into a years-long, worldwide investigation. The gripping story of a bizarre and shocking crime, and one man's relentless pursuit of justice, The Feather Thief is also a fascinating exploration of obsession, and man's destructive instinct to harvest the beauty of nature.
Firefly meets The Expanse in a future where humanity has destroyed the Earth through ecological disaster and warfare, and a totalitarian state prevents any access to their home... Environmental disasters and AI armies have caused the human population of Earth to flee. They lie scattered across space stations and colonies, overcrowded and suffering. The Earth is cut off by the Interdiction Zone: a network of satellites that prevents any escape from the planet. The incredible cost of maintaining it has crippled humanity, who struggle under the totalitarian yoke of the Sol Commonwealth government. Many have been driven to the edge of society, taking any work offered, criminal and otherwise, in order to survive. The crew of the Arcus are just such people. Through the Interdiction Zone, a world of priceless artifacts awaits, provided anyone is crazy enough to make the run. With fuel running low and cred accounts even lower, the Arcus’ survival might depend on taking the job. Yet on arrival on Earth, the crew discovers that what remains of their world is not as they have been told, and the truth may bring the entire Sol Commonwealth tumbling down…
At ten-thirty in the morning the skies over London were clear. Then an arrow formation of five bright points became visible. They appeared to be moving at an amazing speed in tight circles. They were spiralling down to about five thousand feet, and at that altitude their nature was easily discernable. They were the tings most of us had discussed and dismissed at one time o another. Flying Saucers. Giant saucers, smooth and lustrous and blinding, more than a hundred yards in diameter. They hung over the city in a neat formation.
Waterman is the first comprehensive biography of Duke Kahanamoku (1890–1968): swimmer, surfer, Olympic gold medalist, Hawaiian icon, waterman. Long before Michael Phelps and Mark Spitz made their splashes in the pool, Kahanamoku emerged from the backwaters of Waikiki to become America’s first superstar Olympic swimmer. The original “human fish” set dozens of world records and topped the world rankings for more than a decade; his rivalry with Johnny Weissmuller transformed competitive swimming from an insignificant sideshow into a headliner event. Kahanamoku used his Olympic renown to introduce the sport of “surf-riding,” an activity unknown beyond the Hawaiian Islands, to the world. Standing proudly on his traditional wooden longboard, he spread surfing from Australia to the Hollywood crowd in California to New Jersey. No American athlete has influenced two sports as profoundly as Kahanamoku did, and yet he remains an enigmatic and underappreciated figure: a dark-skinned Pacific Islander who encountered and overcame racism and ignorance long before the likes of Joe Louis, Jesse Owens, and Jackie Robinson. Kahanamoku’s connection to his homeland was equally important. He was born when Hawaii was an independent kingdom; he served as the sheriff of Honolulu during Pearl Harbor and World War II and as a globetrotting “Ambassador of Aloha” afterward; he died not long after Hawaii attained statehood. As one sportswriter put it, Duke was “Babe Ruth and Jack Dempsey combined down here.” In Waterman, award-winning journalist David Davis examines the remarkable life of Duke Kahanamoku, in and out of the water. Purchase the audio edition.
