“Wild Things”
Jaimee Wriston Colbert
BkMk Press, University of Missouri-Kansas City, $15.95
In “Wild Things,” her fine new collection of short stories, Jaimee Wriston Colbert, a Hawaii-raised prize-winning author, writes with the energy of a new, young voice. Her brisk pacing and descriptive skill, however, reveal a pro. Whether in a jobless, polluted Pennsylvania or a Hawaii where species are going extinct, her characters share a sardonic and desperate tone.
One remembers being groped at age 11 “in a crowded malasada line at the old Halawa Stadium.” Another is kissed by a lecherous old poet who then collapses on the sands of Kawela Bay. Loss and abandonment and consumer clutter, from PVC to GMOs, are balanced by a kind of wry justice in Wriston’s emotionally arresting tales.
“The Do Over: My Journey from the Depths of Addiction to World Champion Swimmer”
Karlyn Pipes with Tito Morales
Self-published, $17.99
A world champion masters swimmer and former “full-blown alcoholic,” the unsinkable Karlyn Pipes was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 2015. Her frank, uplifting memoir “The Do Over,” co-authored with sportswriter Tito Morales, covers her troubled childhood, a return to college swimming in her mid-30s, and a marriage stuck in the shallow end of the pool.
Alcoholics, she notes, are “masters at holding onto resentments and notorious for pointing the finger at everyone but themselves.”
Moving to Kona in 2004, the California native joined a youth swim team. “Since I did not have kids of my own, training with these speedsters helped to fill that void.” Now 54, she’s doing triathlons.
“The Hawaiian Quilt”
Wanda E. & Jean Brunstetter
Shiloh Run Press, $14.99
While visiting the islands, Wanda Brunstetter, an author of Christian romance novels, and her co-author and daughter-in-law, Jean Brunstetter, saw a similarity between Hawaiian and Amish quilts. The heroine of their new novel, “The Hawaiian Quilt,” is engaged to an Amish fellow, takes a cruise with girlfriends, gets stranded on Kauai, is sheltered by a kindly Christian couple and meets a young chicken farmer.
“Those monster waves don’t frighten me … might help release some of my tension,” he says as he paddles out after learning about the boyfriend back in Indiana.
A marriage quilt pieces together the plot of this sweet book. The authors will sign copies from noon to 2 p.m. Wednesday at Maui Quilt Shop and from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday at Barnes & Noble in Lahaina, and from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 11 at Talk Story Bookstore on Kauai. More details can be found at wandabrunstetter.com.
