by Alexei Melnick Join Alexei as he signs his critically-acclaimed debut novel, Tweakerville. Saturday, November 20 7 pm: Barnes & Noble Ala Moana Launch party! Alexei will speak about his book and the process. Refres [...]
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A Novel Set in Hawai‘i’s Crystal Meth World by Alexei Melnick Jesse is 17, eighty-sixed from his honest working-class Hawai’i family home, living with the dealer and his crew, running drugs on his moped, useful beca [...]
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by Sandra Park It’s the early 1950s in Hawai‘i. A multi-generation Korean-American family crams into a house in the Coconut Grove suburb of windward O‘ahu, across the mountains from Honolulu. With to [...]
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This week and next, Bamboo Ridge will be launching Juliet Kono's novel Anshū: Wednesday, September 22, at Manoa Valley Theatre: 7:00 p.m. Reception, 7:30 p.m. Reading by Juliet S. Kono of An [...]
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Pua Polu, The Pretty Blue Hawaiian Flower is the tale of a curious little koali, a morning glory, who is determined to see everything going on around her. Against her mother's advice, Pua Polu stays awake long after the sun has set and the rest of her family has gone to sleep. She discovers that the [...]
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I consider myself extremely lucky to be one of those with an early look at Juliet S. Kono's new novel, Anshū, from Bamboo Ridge Press. The book will be out [...]
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It’s back! The 5th  annual Hawaii Book & Music Festival invades the civic grounds at Honolulu Hale this weekend (Saturday and Sunday, May 15-16) like a family-friendly Godzilla (not the less-than-friendly Godzilla, the destructive version of the giant radioactive mutant Japanese monster with the dangerous tail who likes to smash Tokyo and anything else in his way).

All the festival details and schedule are online.  Take a look and then come back.

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Under Maui Skies, a book of short stories by Wayne Moniz, won the hearts, minds and votes of more than 1500 HawaiiReaders.com readers as the readers' choice book of 2009. The award was given as part of the Ka Palapala Po'okela awards at a gala event on April 30. Ben: A Memoir, from Street Kid to Go [...]
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A diligent researcher has recently unearthed some original working titles for books that were later published under more familiar titles.  This person, who has chosen to remain anonymous, revealed only that he or she was inspired by an episode of Seinfeld. Here is the exact passage quoted in the introduction to the list of titles:

Jerry: Hey, you know what? I read the most unbelievable thing about Tolstoy the other day. Did you know the original title for War and Peace was War—What Is It Good For?

Elaine: Ha ha.

Jerry: No, no.. I’m not kidding, Elaine, it’s true. His mistress didn’t like the title and insisted he change it to War and Peace.

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Our guest blogger today is mystery/crime fiction writer and Oahu resident Deborah Atkinson.

A recipient of the University of Hawaii’s Meryl Clark Award for Fiction, she is a graduate of the University of Michigan and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and the author of Primitive Secrets (2002), The Green Room (2005), and Fire Prayer (2007).

Debby’s latest novel is Pleasing the Dead. I asked her to share her thoughts about romance and mystery. Welcome, Debby!

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