New Books in the Library 2018: Week of April 23

The bones of Hawaii's King Kamehameha the Great were buried in a secret location. His successor Kamehameha III had a half-mile funeral procession. Drawing on missionary journals, government publications and Hawaiian and English language newspapers, this book describes changes in funerary practices for Hawaiian royalty following continuous contact with the West beginning in the 19th century.

They call themselves "sparrows"--the little people who labor behind the scenes in Hawaiʻi's rough-and-tumble political arena, the campaign workers and volunteers who canvass neighborhoods and stuff envelopes and hold signs at the side of the road, tirelessly supporting their candidates during election season. For more than a half-century, Rick Tsujimura has been such a sparrow, toiling in the trenches for Jack Burns, George Ariyoshi, John Craven and Ben Cayetano and running campaigns for Eileen Anderson, Arnold Morgado, Jeremy Harris, Randy Iwase, Neil Abercrombie and Kirk Caldwell. Here are Tsujimura's stories of life on the campaign trail--the backroom strategizing, ethnic voting and mud-slinging, the exhilaration of victory and the disappointment of defeat on election night.

In this first extensive study of contemporary Hawaiian literature, Brandy Nalani McDougall examines a vibrant selection of fiction, poetry, and drama by emerging and established Hawaiian authors, including Haunani-Kay Trask, John Dominis Holt, Imaikalani Kalahele, and Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl. At the center of the analysis is a hallmark of Hawaiian aesthetics—kaona, the intellectual practice of hiding and finding meaning that encompasses the allegorical, the symbolic, the allusive, and the figurative. With a poet’s attention to detail, McDougall interprets examples of kaona, guiding readers through olelo no'eau (proverbs), mo‘olelo (literature and histories), and mooku'auhau (genealogies) alongside their contemporary literary descendants, unveiling complex layers of Hawaiian identity, culture, history, politics, and ecology.

In this fast-paced, exhilarating sequel to the acclaimed The Islands at the End of the World, Leilani and her family on the Big Island of Hawai'i face the challenge of survival in the world of the Emerald Orchid, a green presence that appeared in the sky after a global blackout. As the Hawaiian Islands go back to traditional ways of living, people must grow their own food and ration everything from gas to bullets. Medicine is scarce; a simple infection can mean death. Old tensions and new enemies emerge. And one girl, Leilani, is poised to save her world.

The first installment, The Islands at the End of the World, is also available in the library: PZ7.A83744 Isl 2015