"Images of America: Honolulu Town," by Laura Ruby and Ross W. Stephenson (Arcadia, $21.99)
This is another of Arcadia’s generic picture books, and they range from terrible to terrific. This one is at the high end of the scale, thanks largely to the image choice and excellent captioning by Ruby and Stephenson. Largely devoted to architecture, "Honolulu Town" checks out old Honolulu in the prewar days. The format of the book, however, makes the images rather small.
"A Biography of Theodore A. Vierra, AIA, His Life and Architectural Career: 1902-1987," by Fran Dieudonne (Neptune House, $15.95)
This may not have started out as a school research paper, but it sure feels like one, mostly because of the obscure subject matter and rather dull approach. Vierra was an important and prolific architect, and a rather unusual one — he designed the airport gardens, for example — and it’s good to have what is essentially a catalog of his works. The author says that Vierra’s architectural contributions aren’t nearly complete here, and that’s too bad. As the book cover features the quote, "Always remember — You are Hawaiian," I wish there had been a bit more analysis about how his cultural and ethnic upbringing colored his works.
"Kapoho: Memoir of a Modern Pompeii," by Francis H. Kakugawa (Watermark, $16.95)
Like the ancient Roman city, Kapoho no longer exists, done in by volcanic mischief. Unlike Pompeii, the Hawaii island town still lives in memory. Kakugawa’s slim book of stories is not a recounting of Kapoho’s demise; it uses the event as a jumping-off point that colors her fiction. The stories are pleasant and rather precious. I do wish the book had properly credited the photographer who took the cover image; it looks very much like pictures taken by the late Star-Bulletin photographer Jack Titchen. The typeface chosen is also far too small for a book of fiction.
"Back to the Future in the Caves of Kaua‘i: A Scientist’s Adventures in the Dark," by David A. Burney (Yale University Press, $28)
Paleoecology is the study of long-ago environments, and Kauai, as the oldest of the major Hawaiian Islands, is the closest we have to truly prehistoric sites. Makauwahi Cave on Kauai not only goes deep underground, it also features a spectacular sinkhole microclimate where part of the cave collapsed thousands of years ago. By careful scientific study of the cave’s layerings of packed soil debris, Burney and his family have discovered fossil birds and animals on Kauai, enough to paint a picture of the island prior to the arrival of humans. Makauwahi Cave is considered one of the world’s richest fossil sites, and the Burneys have been studying it for more than two decades.
This book is a highly entertaining record of what they found, written for laymen and containing startling projections of what human habitation has done to forever alter the island environment.
