It is in Gavan Daws’ definitive study of soon-to-be Saint Damien that one comes to know this complex man and his time at Kalaupapa.

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President Obama called his grandma Toots. A name taken from Tutu or Kuku, affectionately uttered by Hawaiians and other islanders – even today – to mean grandma, as Barry intended. Or, grandpa. It’s one of the clues that Barak, Jr. had become part of Hawai`i’s cultural ways from living in H [...]
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In 2006 and early 2007, legendary Hawaiian entertainer Don Ho shared a lifetime of memories with veteran music writer Jerry Hopkins and others, a project completed just two days before his death from heart failure in April 2007. The result of this timely collaboration is Don Ho: My Music, My Life, a unique mix of his own recollections and the stories of friends and family—what Don called “a modern Hawaiian quilt” of memories.

Born in a hardscrabble Honolulu neighborhood in 1930, Donald Tai Loy Ho combined his musical gift, beachboy demeanor and love of the Islands to become Hawai‘i’s most beloved entertainer—and one of the biggest draws in show business. For nearly half a century, Don Ho was synonymous with the Hawaiian Islands—from his “wild, unpredictable” early shows at Duke Kahanamoku’s to a tour and television career that carried the spirit of aloha to audiences around the world. His laid-back, hang-loose Island charm endeared him to millions. As television and radio personality Jim Lange observed, “A Don Ho fan is his friend. That’s the way Don works.” Sympathy wishes collected online overwhelmingly shared the same characteristic: his fans felt they had a personal relationship with Don, their own stories to tell about the legendary icon.

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Born and raised in the most multicultural state in the union, Barack Obama bears the indelible stamp of his native Hawai‘i. The Dream Begins: How Hawai‘i Shaped Barack Obama is a coming-of-age story set in Hawai‘i’s storied “melting pot”—a revealing look at what makes Obama tick.

Authored by veteran political writers Stu Glauberman and Jerry Burris, the 160-page book examines Obama’s early years in Hawai‘i. The self-described “skinny kid with the funny name” flourished in the Islands, where local values foster tolerance, compromise and mutual respect—and where diversity defines people rather than divides them. The social mores of the Aloha State and the experience of growing up in an island culture have had a deep and lasting influence on the candidate. Obama himself has noted, “What’s best in me, and what’s best in my message, is consistent with the tradition of Hawai‘i.”

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Born in Vienna, Austria in 1924, author Siegfried Ramler's remarkable story traces his life, career and world events spanning eight decades, on several continents. His account of his early childhood in Austria and his country's annexation by Nazi Germany, his escape to England via Kindertransport [...]
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