People always ask me what good books I’ve read lately, since my work as a book critic lands a lot of titles on my desk. In this new column, I’ll be regularly sharing books by local authors or of local interest that got my attention and made it to my shelves — and might make it to yours.

"Coral Road Poems" by Garrett Hongo (Knopf, $26)

This is the third poetry collection by Volcano-born Hongo, author of the memoir "Volcano: A Memoir of Hawai‘i." These finely wrought narrative poems, arranged in five parts with one rendered in pidgin, pursue fragile yet potent threads of Hongo’s grandparents’ stories about plantation life on Oahu. Through verse, he inhabits both ancestral and literary heroes, particularly in a series of epistles, "The Wartime Letters of Hideo Kuboto," that links Hongo’s poetic family with his grandfather’s experience in a World War II Arizona detention camp. Lingering in every word is Hongo’s profound connection to and palpable homesickness for his family roots and childhood in Hawaii (he now lives in Oregon) — a "past that was, to me, / The real world and its genuine glory — not the strained exile I suffered."

"The Boy Who Defied His Karma" by Michael S. Koyama (Mutual, $14.95)

This expansive novel is based on the true story of Michael Koyama, the pseudonym of a U.S. economist and author of "The Kyoto List." More engaging than a memoir, the story begins in Bangkok and Japan in 1943 with an atmospheric and immediately captivating description of the central character Bunji’s life in a Japanese orphanage after his father’s execution. Organized chronologically and by location, the novel proceeds nimbly through accounts of his journey into adulthood, including college at the University of California-Berkeley, work in U.S. Army Intelligence on the mainland and in Europe, a visit to Hawaii in the late ’80s, and back to his beginnings in Japan. Equal parts triumph-over-adversity and political intrigue, the novel is a memorable and endearing recollection of an adventurous and incredible life.

"Murder Leaves Its Mark" by Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl (University of Hawai‘i Press, $16.99)

The imaginative lead characters from Kneubuhl’s 2008 debut, "Murder Casts a Shadow," return in this engrossing follow-up, in which clever journalist Mina Beckwith and British playwright Ned Manusia suss out a murder at the old Haleiwa Hotel. It’s almost a guilty pleasure to be transported to 1930s Hawaii, as sugar barons throw swanky parties and the tension between workers and the elite is smartly resurrected. Kneubuhl’s graceful and meticulous prose immerses readers in a time when Oahu’s Sierra Drive was bordered by farmed carnations and large lots still existed near Waikiki — and that’s just an entrancing window-dressing on a thoughtful and thoroughly entertaining story.

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Christine Thomas is a freelance writer focusing on arts and literature and culture. More reviews: www.literarylotus.com.