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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As promised, here is more advance praise for Juliet Kono’s novel Anshū, which Bamboo Ridge Press will publish in September.

For more about Anshū, see “Anshū: powerful novel coming in September.” I am moved by the strong personal impact of the book on these early readers.

Juliet S. Kono has crafted a remarkable novel, weaving together experiences of darkness and flames and turning it into a story of luminous strength and determination. Himiko is a very young child who is consumed with fire—burns them everywhere even at the risk of turning her own body into fuel for the flames. Pregnant in pre-World War II Hilo, Hawai‘i, she is sent to Japan where she encounters harsh treatment from relatives who have little to spare.

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In the Company of Strangers, Michelle Cruz Skinner’s new collection of short stories from Bamboo Ridge Press, is set to launch on Tuesday, November 17 (6:30 p.m. reception and book signing; 7:00 p.m. book launch and reading by Michelle; Luke Lecture Hall, Wo International Center, Punahou School; free and open to the public).

R. Zamora Linmark, author of Prime Time Apparitions and The Evolution of a Sigh, describes the book this way:

“Sixteen deceptively simple stories comprise Michelle Cruz Skinner’s much-anticipated follow-up to Balikbayan and Mango Seasons, many of them about Filipinos tongue-tied and alienated in the motherland, or scattered across the map of heartaches and homesickness in the company of strangers called countrymen, family, lovers. A book of quiet gems definitely worth the wait.”

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We’ve all been there. The other night it was my turn, again. Waiting in one of the giant Kapahulu Safeway’s hundred checkout lines. It’s an interesting place to read. You learn a lot about other people’s lives, and how life is not so wonderful after all for celebs, what with romance going bad, and Brad having to sleep on the couch and all.

So there I am in line. The shopper ahead of me is having a problem with a debit card, so I have time to listen to the tabloids screaming at me from their racks. I only read two headlines, however, because those two are just about perfect.

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