Hawaii Literature

The island support an astonishingly diverse regional publishing industry. Here are some of our favorite reads on Hawaii history, culture, food, sports and other key topics for those who want to immerse themselves.

• Bamboo Ridge—a small, Hawaii-based publishign house that puts out some of the more interesting local book-length fiction and short stories.
• Shoals of Time — a concise, well-researched and extremely readable history of Hawaii
• Food Lover’s Guide to Honolulu — a solid foodie primer on where to eat, where to shop, and what to buy in Hawaii’s largest city.
• Fishes of Hawaii Pocket Guide — the perfect pocket guide for snorkelers and fish lovers.
• Surfer’s Guide to Hawaii — longtime Hawaii surfer Greg Ambrose tells you where to drop in and what to expect there.
• Hawaii — by James Michener. Windy but worthy.
• Mark Twain’s Letters from Hawaii — written over 100 years ago but still an excellent, supremely witty read on the vagaries of island life and the beautiful backdrop of the islands
• Hawaii: A Sense of Place — an engrossing interior design book by Hawaii icon Mary Philpotts
• Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers — A bittersweet and often brutally honest look at Hawaii from the perspective of a Japanese-American family living in Hawaii. Lois Ann Yamanaka is one of Hawaii’s foremost contemporary writers. Not for the faint of heart.