Author and educator Frances H. Kakugawa will hold book signings and presentations in Hilo, Lihue and Honolulu during the month of October. Kakugawa, who grew up in Kapoho on the Big Island of Hawai‘i, will be the keynote speaker at the Hawai‘i County Office of Aging Caregiver Conference, and will lead workshops for the Alzheimer Association Aloha Chapter’s Kaua‘i and Honolulu offices. All events are open to the public.

Kakugawa is an advocate of the power of writing to help families and caregivers cope with the burdens of long-term illness. She has been featured on KHON2 newscasts with Kirk Matthews and in The Honolulu Advertiser for her work with children and adults, using journaling and creative writing to come to a better understanding of Alzheimer’s patients and deal with the stresses of having a family member afflicted with the disease.

In 1985 the renowned muralist Martin Charlot was commissioned by the McDonald’s Corporation to paint a wall mural for the company’s restaurant in Kane‘ohe. The result was Hawaiian Folkways , a 5 x 24-foot work depicting a day in the life of Waiahole Valley, the lush rural community a few miles up the coast in the heart of windward O‘ahu.

Local Traffic Only: Proverbs Hawaiian-Style brings the reader up close and personal with this wonderful work of art.

Peopled with farmers and fisherman, keiki and kupuna, cops and robbers and many others, Charlot’s charming mural illustrates more than 100 proverbs—Hawaiian, biblical and others. All the people featured in the mural are real-life friends, family and acquaintances of the artist. From siblings and children to local firefighters and an unsuspecting deliveryman to McDonald’s Hawaii CEO Pat Kahler, to then-actor, now-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Charlot’s models acted out for him in person the proverbs depicting the good and bad sides of human nature.

A DASH of Aloha: Healthy Hawai‘i Cuisine and Lifestyle by Kapi‘olani Community College (KCC) is a book about eating, not dieting. This unique guide introduces the easy-to-use DASH (Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension) eating and activity plan, which teaches readers how to lead a healthy lifestyle combining good eating habits and regular physical activity.

Ron Takahashi, chairperson of the Culinary Arts Department at KCC, explains, “A DASH of Aloha is about taking the simplest steps to incorporate healthful rules of thumb into your daily routine, with the long-term goal of achieving a healthier lifestyle. The recipes are based on local tastes, and emphasize eating Island-grown, fresh ingredients, simply prepared to get the greatest benefits.”

Death on Diamond Head is a riveting murder mystery written by long-time Hawai‘i law enforcement officer John Madinger. The fast-paced novel introduces the character of Honolulu police detective Kimo Rigg, a veteran cop whose career has been sidetracked by a whistleblower lawsuit.

In Death on Diamond Head, Madinger’s first novel, Kimo Rigg has been relegated to the Unsolved Crimes department in the bowels of the precinct headquarters. He is trying to stay out of trouble when he finds himself in hot water once again: A murder victim’s body is dumped almost on the doorstep of his new house at Diamond Head.

The Hawaiian Islands are known worldwide for gourmet coffee from the Kona Coast, but real aficionados know that in Hawai‘i, Kona coffee is only the beginning. The only place in the United States growing coffee as a commercial crop, the Aloha State hosts a thriving industry encompassing 11 major regions on five islands—producing more than seven million pounds of coffee in 2007 valued at over $30 million. The Hawai‘i Coffee Book: A Gourmet’s Guide from Kona to Kaua‘i is the first-ever comprehensive overview of the Islands’ most recognizable and highly coveted product.

Coffee scientist Shawn Steiman’s revealing book is the definitive work on the subject, including a region-by-region guide and flavor profiles of the major varieties cultivated in the Islands. Hawai‘i is unique as a coffee-producing center: Whereas most coffee is consumed far from its origins, Hawaiian coffee is drunk and sold in local cafes and stores. It’s an environment that provides a unique vantage point for bean-and-brew guru Steiman’s overview of Island coffee history, from modest beginnings on O‘ahu—not Kona as many might assume—to current-day production systems, as it makes its way from bean to cup, farm to coffeehouse.

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.

In The Little Lima Bean, a little bean thinks big thoughts and tries with all his might, but he just stays small…until one day, with the help of the rain, he sprouts!

Teaching children that, although it may take some time, dreams can come true, this spiral-bound board book comes with a blister pack of lima bean seeds and directions for growing them at home.

Brent Ching, a Honolulu-based pediatric dentist with a private practice at Kapi‘olani Medical Center, originally wrote The Little Lima Bean as a poem to inspire his father, suffering from kidney disease, to persevere through tough times.

Over 150 voices—young students, venerable alumni, movers and shakers, average folk, novice and seasoned teachers, Native Hawaiians, kama‘aina and fresh faces from abroad—share their experiences of the 1990s Bishop Estate controversy in Wayfinding through the Storm.

This is the human story of a crisis that erupted at Kamehameha Schools in the 1990s and came close to destroying a historic educational community. Wayfinding through the Storm tells the story of ordinary decent people who looked deep inside themselves and found the moral courage to risk everything, to come together and stand up for what they believed in: to speak truth to power.

Author and feng shui expert Clear Englebert will offer a free seminar in the art of feng shui at the Pearlridge Uptown INspiration furniture store on Friday, September 25 at 6PM. The one-hour seminar will be a “walk & talk” format, with Englebert guiding attendees through the showroom to point out examples of good feng shui and how to remedy feng shui challenges that may be encountered in Island homes.

Register online at http://cupolahawaii.com/reservations.htm or call the store at (808) 237-5462.

Englebert's latest book is the bestseller Feng Shui for Hawai‘i from Watermark Publishing, which will be available for purchase at the seminar at the special price of $12.00 (regular retail price, $19.95).

BEN: A Memoir, From Street Kid to Governor is the long-awaited autobiography of Benjamin J. Cayetano—the nation’s first Filipino-American governor—whose political career spanned a seminal period in Hawai‘i’s history. Offered in softcover and limited-edition hardcover, this revealing, 560-page book provides a rare look at the inner workings of Island society and government—from ethnic voting to the Hawaiian sovereignty movement, from the Bishop Estate controversy to the backroom maneuvering of politicians and business leaders.

Released in February 2009, BEN: A Memoir has appeared on the Hawai‘i bestsellers list more than 20 times, charting at #1 more than 15 of those times.

David Shapiro, columnist for The Honolulu Advertiser, calls it “one of the most important books ever written on Hawai‘i politics .... It’ll still be in circulation 30 years from now.”

What really happened to Eddie Aikau? In her inspirational new children’s book, Eddie Wen’ Go: The Story of the Upside-Down Canoe, former Hōkūle‘a crewmember Marion Lyman-Mersereau imagines what Hawai‘i’s ocean creatures saw when the voyaging canoe capsized and the heroic Aikau went for help. Illustrated in lavish watercolor by Melissa DeSica, the 64-page hardcover book tells the story of Hōkūle‘a’s disastrous journey—30 years ago—from the canoe’s launch to the crewmembers’ rescue.

Hōkūle‘a had embarked on only its second open-ocean voyage, bound for Tahiti and relying on the skills of a trained Hawaiian navigator using ancient traditional methods of navigation. Just six hours into the voyage, high winds and rough ocean conditions capsized the canoe in the middle of the Kaiwi Channel between O‘ahu and Lāna‘i. Eddie Aikau, a famous big wave surfer and North Shore lifeguard, volunteered to paddle a large surfboard to the island of Lāna‘i, about ten miles away. The crew, including author Lyman-Mersereau, was sighted by an airline pilot and rescued approximately 22 hours after the canoe capsized. No sign of Eddie was ever found.

To paraphrase Richard Nixon: Let me make one thing perfectly clear — I am not a sports nerd. I’m not. I’m just a regular guy who happens to like sports. I have an actual life. Seriously. Don’t even try to stereotype me as one of those pathetic sports geeks who sleep with their sports almanacs. It’s just that questions like, What was the score of the very first Prep Bowl football game? Who was UH baseball’s first freshman all-American? When was the last time the UH football team shut out an opponent? How many times did “Bobo” Olson fight Sugar Ray Robinson...these things just come to me! Maybe it started when I was a 10-year-old watching UH basketball games on TV. I would list the entire UH roster in my notebook, and then jot down every field goal, free throw and personal foul. Or maybe it began in 1981 when I began tracking stats for every NBA first-round draft pick. This was before the Internet, mind you, so you can imagine how much time I put in to tabulate their points and figure out their scoring averages. So yes, I suppose I have to come clean: I’m a sports nerd. And you know what? There’s nothing wrong with that. ~ Lance Tominaga, author

The Hawaii Sports Trivia Challenge: 1,000 Questions to Test Your Sports IQ! presents 1,000 brain teasers in 100 quick quizzes on the games Islanders play: Rainbow Wahine Volleyball, the Prep Bowl, Little League champs, Hawaii’s Olympians and more. Just released by Watermark Publishing, the 200-page book provides a first-ever source for testing local sports knowledge or settling that friendly wager.

The mai tai — that most tropical of tropical drinks — has come a long way from the early days of Trader Vic and Don the Beachcomber. The New-Wave Mai Tai is a refreshing concoction of more than 50 cutting-edge mai tai recipes, along with dazzling photos, first-person encounters and fascinating historical tidbits.

In this colorful, 138-page book, author Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi traces the rich, swashbuckling story of rum —the mai tai’s principal ingredient — and explores the origins of the famed drink, including the eternal debate over whether Trader Vic or Don the Beachcomber actually created it. Most important, she shares more than 50 innovative and easy-to-follow recipes that tweak the old classic with eye-opening new ingredients from schnapps to sherbet: the Mai Tai-Jito, Sassy Wahine, Smooth Shredder and many others. These creative cocktails from bartenders and watering holes throughout Hawai‘i go far beyond what Don or Vic ever imagined.

Head trainer Melody Toth spent 30 years courtside—and behind the scenes—with the Rainbow Wahine, the basketball ’Bows and the other championship teams of University of Hawai‘i athletics. In Let’s Go ’Bows! Behind the Scenes with University of Hawai‘i Sports, she shares insights and inside stories of this remarkable legacy—the world-class athletes, the heartbreaking losses and the heady triumphs of victory on the national stage.

Toth speaks from a point of view that only a few have access to, having spent eight to 12 hours a day, often seven days a week, with the athletes. Her stories, adapted from her journals, reveal what sports writer Ann Miller of The Honolulu Advertiser calls “stolen moments you have never seen and rarely read.” In Let’s Go ’Bows! Toth shares funny and heartwarming stories fans never knew, and recaps some of Hawai‘i sports history’s most beloved and well-known names and games.