Mookini Library

In the first half of the Fiction section (titles beginning with letters A through K), there are over 80 books listed in alphabetical order by title. Scroll down the page and find the title that interests you. Permission to scan the cover of ALL I ASKING FOR IS MY BODY, by Milton Murayama (University of Hawaii Press, 1988) was granted by the University of Hawaii Press. No other use of this image, including electronic transmission, is allowed without express permission from the publisher.

 
 (last updated, 2-17-12)
 

Books about Hawai'i are marked with a palm tree
 
• The Absolutely True Diary of Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie. 2007.
  A Native American teen struggles with life on the Rez and leaving to get a better education
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain). 1933.
  a boy and a runaway slave have some close calls with villains and the mighty Mississippi River
• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Arthur Conan Doyle. 1993.
  by the classic writer of British mysteries
• After the Rain, by Norma Fox Mazer. 1987.
  "an unforgettable portrait of two spirited human beings -- one grasping at his final days, the other embarking on young womanhood"
• All I Asking for is My Body, by Milton Murayama. 1959, 1988.
  generational differences in Japanese family during pre-WWII plantation life; Five Years on a Rock is the story of the Japanese mother's picture bride experience
• All-American, by John Tunis. 1942, 1989.
  a popular halfback at a private high school is involved in causing an accident in the "big game" with the rival high school; consequently he attended public school and proves his independance
• Aloha Where You Like Go?, by Coudia W. Charters. 2006.
  A young woman from the East Coast sees the other side of paradise as a taxi driver.
• Anshu: Dark Sorrow, by Juliet S. Kono. 2010.
  A pregnant and unmarried Hilo teenagerfinds her Hawaiʻi Japanese American identity clashing with Japan's cultural norms when she is sent to live with relatives in Tokyo in 1941 and becomes trapped there with the outbreak of war.
• The April of Her Age, by John Cummins Mebane. 1994.
  the friendship between Princess Victoria Kaiulani and the author Robert Louis Stevenson
• At First Sight, by Nicholas Spartks. 2007.
  Jeremy Marsh is is now living in Boone Creek, North Carolina, married to Lexie Darnell, and awaiting the birth of their daughter, but, just when things are looking good, an unsettling and mysterious message brings trouble from the past.  
• At Risk, by Patricia Cornwell, 2006.
  A Massachusetts district attorney running for governor wants to use some radical new DNA technology to solve a long-ago murder. The result? A new round of violence.
• The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, by Ernest J. Gaines. 1971.
  "the famous, inspiring story of one woman's courageous battle for freedom"
• The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver. 1988.
  a poor girl growing up in rural Kentucky decides to get away while she has a chance. Pigs In Heaven is the sequel
• The Beast in the Jungle and Other Stories, by Henry James. 1993.
  a sense of impending tragedy keeps the reader in suspense; the final realization of what it is, is completely unexpected
• The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears, by Dinaw Mengestu. 2008.
  Seventeen years after fleeing the Ethiopian revolution, Sepha Stephanos runs a grocery store in a poor African-American neighborhood in Washington, D.C., where he reflects on his past and the differences between his prospects and the life he imagined.
• Behold the Many, by Lois-Ann Yamanaka. 2006.
  3 sisters are sent to an orphanage in 1913 in Hawai`i and contract tuberculosis. Two of them die and come back as ghosts to torment the surviving sister
• The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath. 1971.
  an autobiographical novel of a young woman's struggle with a nervous breakdown
• A Better View of Paradise, by randy Sue Coburn. 2009.
  A woman escapes problems on the mainland by returning to Hawaii and discovering sides of her father she never knew.
• Beyond the Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier. 1985.
  the boycott of Trinity School's fundraising chocolate sale becomes the battleground between a group of student thugs and a lone rebel
• Bird of Another Heaven, by James D. Houston. 2007.
  A young man searches for his roots and learns about a family member who lived in the court of King Kalakaua
• Bless Me Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya. 1972.
  an herbal healer becomes the guardian of a young boy
• The Bloody Acorn: A Novel of Old Hawaii, by Jerry Okoleihao. 1990.
  "They murdered his brother and plundered his sugar plantation. Now a young sea captain returns to Kauai for revenge"
• Blue Skin of the Sea, by Graham Salisbury. 1992.
  the ocean has different effects on the lives of two male cousins growing up in the Kailua-Kona area during the 1960's and 1970's
• The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison. 1970.
  the author's first novel tells of a young black girl who dreams of having blue eyes like other American children
• The Bone Hook, by Ian MacMillan. 2009.
  People from different backgrounds race to find buried treasure on Oahu.
• Bourne Supremacy, by Robert Ludlum, 2004.
  Super-diplomat Raymond Havilland sets up the kidnapping of Jason Bourne's wife, in order to draw Bourne out of retirement and into a Taiwanese plot to seize Hong Kong and incite China against the West.
• The Brick People, by Alejandro Morales. 1992.
  California history from the nineteenth to the twentieth century is told through the eyes of Mexican laborers at a brick factory
• The Bridge of San Luis Rey: A Novel, by Thornton Wilder. 1927, 1986.
  a Peruvian monk ponders the tragedy of 5 people who are killed by a bridge that collapsed
• The Bridges of Madison County, by Robert James Waller. 1993. 
  a love story
• Bridget Jones's Diary, by Helen Fielding. 2010.
  A year in the life of a thirty-something British woman who makes resolutions and tries to meet them with hilarious results.
• The Brook, by Barbara Lyons. 1976.
  a woman remembers her school days in Honolulu
• Buried Onions, by Gary Soto. 1997.
  Eddie is a young Mexican American trying to himself a good life in Fresno but he is constantly reminded of the pressure to avenge his father's and cousins' gang-related deaths
• The Call of the Wild, by Jack London. 1990.
  the author writes of the Pacific Northwest. Also wrote short stories about Hawaii, Jack London's Tales of Hawaii
• The Calligrapher's Daugher, by Eugenia Kim. 2009.
  A girl and her family witness the brutal Japanese occupation of Korea in the early 1900s
• The Captive, by Scott O'Dell. 1979.
  a Jesuit priest fights the enslavement of Mayans during the Spanish occupation of the New World
• Caribou Island, by David Vann. 2011.
  When the construction of their dream cabin on an isolated Alaskan island is interrupted by an early Arctic winter, Gary and Irene find their marriage unraveling as they become stranded with their daughter, Rhoda, who watches helplessly as her parents drift further apart.
• Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger. 1951.
  Story of Holden Caufield,who knowing he is to be expelled from school, decides to leave early and spends three days in New York City.
• Catherine, Called Birdy, by Karen Cushman. 1994.  
  The observations of an English nobleman’s daughter of life in the year 1290.
• Caucasia, by Danzy Sena. 1999.
  A biracial girl struggles to find her place in the world while remaining true to her black and white heritage.
• The Cay, by Theodore Taylor. 1969.
  a young ship wreck survivor faces fear, blindness, and isolation with an old Black Caribbean man
• The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, by Thomas Keneally. 1972.
  "Mixed-race Australian Jimmie Blacksmith is brutally betrayed by white society and embarks on a murderous rampage"
• Charms for the Easy Life, a Novel, by Kaye Gibbons. 1993.
  3 generations of independent women overcome sexual discrimination in the 1800's in rural North Carolina
• Chinese Handcuffs, by Chris Crutcher. 1989.
  a young man witnesses his brother's suicide and has to come to terms with it
• The Chosen, by Chaim Potok, 1967.
  the relationship between a traditional Jewish father and his Americanized son
• Color of the Sea, by John Hamamura. 2006.
  A Hawaii-born Japanese teacher finds love and copes with changes leading up to and during World War II.
• The Confession, by John Grisham. 2010.
  When Travis Boyette is paroled because of inoperable brain tumor, for the first time in his life, he decides to do the right thing and tell police about a crime he committed and another man is about to be executed for.
  
• Confessions of a Shopaholic, by Sophie Kinsella. 2009.
  Becky has a fabulous flat in London's trendiest neighborhood, a troupe of glamorous socialite friends, and a closet brimming with the season's must-haves. The only trouble is that she can't actually afford it - not any of it.
  
• Coyote Waits, by Tony Hillerman. 1990.
  Navajo tribal policemen unravel the mystery of the murder of another tribal policeman with an old shaman as the prime suspect. For another mystery by the same author, see Listening Woman
• The Crazy Horse Electric Game, by Chris Crutcher. 1987.
  a young athlete survives a freak accident that causes him to run away and live on the streets
• The Crucible: A Play in Four Acts, by Arthur Miller. 1959.
  written during the 1950's when McCarthyism was used to identify suspected Communists with hysteria similar to that surrounding witch hunts conducted in the 1600's
• Cry of the Peacock, by Gina Barkhordar Nahai. 1991.
  a 116 year old woman tells the history of Jewish persecution in ancient Persia to modern-day Shiite Iran
• Cry the Beloved Country, by Alan Paton. 1948.
  a Zulu parson searches for his boy whom he finds imprisoned in South Africa for the murder of a white man who fought for the rights of blacks
• Dance for the `Aina, by Clemence McLaren. 2003.
  a hapa-haole girl finds it hard to adjust to her move with her father and brother from California to Hawai`i, until she learns hula
• Dandelion Wine, by Ray Bradbury. 1975, 1992.
  boy learns what it means to be alive
• A Day No Pigs Would Die, by Robert Newton Peck. 1972.
  a Shaker farm boy whose father slaughters pigs for a living, grows up quickly when making a decision about his pet pig that cannot produce a litter
• Death Comes For the Archbishop, by Willa Cather, 1927.
  a Catholic priest lives in the mid 1800's in a desolate part of New Mexico and uses his faith to contend with cultural and religious conflicts
• A Death in the Family, by James Agee. 1969.
  father's death shatters the family
• The Descendants, by Kaui Hart Hemmings. 2008.
  A man and his two daughters cope with the death of their wife and mother.
• A Discovery of Witches, by Deborah Harkness. 2011.
  The orphaned daughter of two powerful witches, Yale historian Diana Bishop discovers an enchanted manuscript which documents the origin of supernatural species, attracting the attention of 1,500-year-old vampire Matthew Clairmont.
• Dogeaters, by Jessica Hagedorn. 1990.
  Manila during the dictatorship of Ferninand Marcos is the setting for a young school girl's search for identity
• Dogsong, by Gary Paulsen. 1985.
  14 year old Eskimo boy journeys 1400 miles through the wilderness to escape the modern world amd search for his own "song". Other books by the author are: Hatchet and its sequel, The River
• Dracula: 1897, by Bram Stoker, 2010.
  After discovering the double identity of the wealthy Transylvanian nobleman Count Dracula, a small group of people vow to rid the world of the evil vampire.
  
• Dragon House, by John Shors, 2009.
  Set in modern-day Vietnam, tells the tale of Iris and Noah, two Americans, who, as a way of healing their own painful pasts, open a center to house and educate Vietnamese street children.
• Dragonwings, by Laurence Yep. 1975.
  in 1903, a young boy from China joins his father in San Francisco
• Easy in the Islands, by Bob Shacochis. 1986.
  the conflicts, sometimes humorous, between macho whites and Caribbean native residents
• Eat a Bowl of Tea, by Louis Chu. 2002.
  "a novel of New York's Chinatown"
• The Education of Little Tree, by Forrest Carter. 1976.
  biographically this is a hoax; nevertheless it is a touching story of a young part Cherokee boy raised by his grandparents who loved nature and their Cherokee traditions
• The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery. 2008.
  A tale told from the points of view of a concierge and a twelve-year-old girl whose views of life change after a Japanese businessman moves into their Parisian apartment building.
• Emily's Hawaii, by Ruth Tabrah. 1989.
  a mainland doctor and his family move to the Kohala region of the Big Island; the young daughter and son have many adventures and discover the spirit of aloha from new family friends
• Empire of the Sun, by J.G. Ballard. 1984.
  a boy in Shanghai, China is interned from 1942 to 1945 during the Japanese occupation
• Escape from Paradise, by Walter F. Wild. 2009.
  Two psychologists fight over values in Hawaii, leading to murder and terror.
• Everything Matters, by Ron Currie Jr. 2009.
  A mysterious voice tells Junior secrets throughout his life, including the date of the end of the world
• Eyes of the Emperor, by Graham Salisbury. 2005.
  a 16 year old Japanese American boy living in Honolulu, lies about his age and joins Company B of the 100th Infantry Battalion after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and finds that, although he is loyal to the United States, racism is pervasive. He ends up training dogs in the K9 unit to hunt for Asians.
• Fade, by Robert Cormier. 1988.
  a young man has the ability to disappear but this "gift" has a price
• Fahrenheit 451: The Temperature at Which Books Burn, by Ray Bradbury. 1991.
  a novel of firemen who are paid to set books ablaze
• Fallen Angels, by Walter Dean Myers. 1988.
  a 17 year old's options seem limited to doing a tour of duty in Viet Nam--a rude awakening for learning about life. . . and death
• Famous All Over Town, by Danny Santiago. 1984.
  the Los Angeles Chicano Barrio is home for a young man encountering gangs and the disintegration of his family
• Fantastic Voyage, by Isaac Asimov. 1966.
  an incredible journey through the human body
• Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway. 1929.
  "an English nurse and an American ambulance driver fall in love during World War I"
• The Fates Will Find Their Way, by Hannah Pittard. 2011.
  The aftermath of the disappearance of a 16-year-old girl told from the viewpoint of several of her classmates.
• The Fellowship of the Ring, Being the First Part of the Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tokien, 1954, 1992.
  "Sauron, the Dark Lord, has gathered to him all the Rings of Power but one -- the means by which he intends to rule Middle Earth"
• Fire on the Mountain, by Edward Abbey. 1962.
  the government tries to take over the land of an old, New Mexico rancher
• Firestarter, by Stephen King. 1980.
  a drug experiment on a child fails and causes her to have horrificly destructive powers
• Five Years on a Rock: A Novel, by Milton Murayama. 1994.
  the mother in All I Asking For Is My Body tells her poignant story of leaving Japan for Hawaii as a picture bride
• The Forest of Hands and Teeth, by Carrie Ryan. 2009.
  A girl and her friends search for answers and for safety from the Unconsecrated,  the undead who live outside her village.
• For Every Sin, by Aharon Appelfeld. 1989.
  "a young Holocaust survivor embarks on a walk across Europe in search of solitude and peace of mind"
• Forrest Gump, by Winston Groom. 1986.
  Forrest humbly shares his connections with history-making events like the hula hoop, the discovery of Elvis Presley, Watergate, etc.
• Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley. 1933.
  a man/monster made from dead body parts is brought to life by electricity
• The Frigate Bird, by Alistair Campbell. 1989.
  "set partly in the Cook Islands, partly in a New Zealand psychiatric hospital, and partly within the narrator's mind, it is about a search -- for love, sanity & the innocence of childhood". First in a series; look for other books on Hawai`i Voyager by the author's name
• Game, by Walter Dean Myers. 2008.
  A Harlem teen tries to keep his dreams of going to college and playing pro basketball alive when his coach favors a new player on the team.
• Gap Creek, by Robert Morgan, 2001.
  in spite of many hardships, a young woman keeps her family together
• A Girl Named Disaster, by Nancy Farmer. 1998.
  a young African girl escapes marrying a cruel man with 3 wives
• The Giver, by Lois Lowry. 1993.
  when he turns 12, Jonas receives the memory of pain and pleasure, previously unknown to him
• Go Tell It on the Mountain, by James Baldwin. 1952, 1980.
  two generations of a Black family move from poverty in the rural South to a northern ghetto
• Goldfinger, by Ian Fleming. 1964, 1992.
  Agent 007, James Bond, is on the trail of a ruthless villian who tries to steal the gold from Fort Knox. Another by the author is Live and Let Die
• The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck. 1931.
  struggles of a Chinese peasant and his wife to keep their land
• Good Girls Don't Wear Trousers, by Lara Cardella. 1994.
  the story of a young girl growing up in a Sicilian village; the author was kicked out of her village after writing this
• Goodbye Saigon: A Novel, by Nina Vida. 1994.
  two Vietnamese women face cultural and financial difficulties when they relocate to Southern California
• The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman. 2008.
  After the grisly murder of his entire family, a toddler wanders into a graveyard where the ghosts and other supernatural residents agree to raise him as one of their own
• Gulliver's Travels, by Jonathan Swift. 1991.
  the main character meets giants and dwarves in this classic adventure
• Halfback Tough, by Thomas Dygard. 1986.
  Joe has a hard time adjusting to a new high school until he starts playing football
• The Haole Substitute, by Walt Novak. c1994.
a young surfer graduates from college, and encounters the real world of cultural differences by becoming a substitute teacher
• Haole Teacher, by Margaret Drake. 2009.
  A woman finds solace teaching  on the Big Island during World War I.
• Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen. 1986.
  a 13 year old boy survives a plane crash and lives 54 days in the wilderness while coming to grips with his parent's divorce. The River is the sequel
• Heads by Harry, by Lois-Ann Yamanaka. 1999.
  A local Japanese American teenage girl's adventures include Hilo as the setting and a taxidermist as one of the characters
• The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, by Carson McCullers. 1993.
  compassionate deaf-mute and his interpersonal encounters
• Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad. 1990.
  story of the Congo River in Africa during British occupation
• The Help, by Kathryn Stockett. 2009.
  In Jackson, Mississippi, in 1962, there are lines that are not crossed. With the civil rights movement exploding all around them, three women start a movement of their own, forever changing a town and the way women--black and white, mothers and daughters--view one another.
• High Fidelity by Nick Hornby. 2005.
  The romantic trials of the owner of a London record shop, after his girlfriend leaves him for another man
• The Historian, by Elizabeth Costova. 2005.
  In 1972, a 16-year-old American girl living in Amsterdam follows her father’s footsteps in tracking down Dracula, who they believe is still alive
• The Hobbitt, by J.R.R. Tolkien. 1937, 1966.
  a fantasy of little people, goblins, and dragons
• Homesick: My Own Story, by Jean Fritz. 1982.
  "the author's fictionalized version, though all events are true, of her childhood in China in the 1920's"
• Honolulu, by Alan Brennert. 2009.
  A picture bride in the early 1900s struggles and prospers in Honolulu.
• Horseman, Pass By, by Larry McMurtry. 1979.
  "a tough nostalgic narrative of a young man growing up in Texas"
• The House of Bilqis, by Azhar Abidi. 2010.
  A Pakistani woman must deal with disappointment when her son marries an Australian and moves to Melbourne. She remains on the family estate as life in Pakistan becomes more dangerous.
• If Beale Street Could Talk, by James Baldwin. 1974, 1988.
  story about a pregnant girl and her jailed lover
• Impossible, by Nancy Werlin 2008.
  When seventeen-year-old Lucy discovers her family is under an ancient curse by an evil Elfin Knight, she realizes to break the curse she must perform three impossible tasks before her daughter is born in order to save them both
• In Country: A Novel, by Bobbie Ann Mason. 1985.
  a daughter seeks an understanding of her father who was killed in the Viet Nam War
• In Search of Bernabe, by Graciela Limon. 1994.
  an El Salvadoran refugee woman searches for her missing son who disappeared after one of the numerous death squad attacks
• Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison. 1952, 1992.
  "search for identity that takes a black youth from the South to Harlem during the Depression"
• Island at the end of the world, by Sam Taylor. 2009.
  A family that survived a civilization destroying flood are befriended by a young man who washed ashore on their island
• Island of the Blue Dolphins, by Scott O'dell. 1960.
  young Native American girl is abandoned on a remote island off the California coastline
• It All Began in Monte Carlo, by Elizabeth Adler. 2010.
  Experiencing relationship troubles with Mac during a visit to Monte Carlo, Sunny is enmeshed in a series of jewelry store robberies involving a sociopath acquaintance and a dowdy friend's makeover by movie star Allie Ray.
• Jasmine, by Bharati Mukherjee. 1989.
  a young Hindu girl from Punjab, India flees from terrorists and ends up in an Iowa farm community where her past still haunts her
• Jonathan Livingston Seagull: A Story, by Richard Bach. 1970.
  an outcast learns about freedom
• The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan. 1989.
  Chinese mothers reveal their hidden pasts that form the bonds with the lives of their Chinese American daughters
• Juanita Fights the School Board, by Gloria Belasquez. 1994.
  "What can a young person do to confront prejudice? An entertaining novel about discrimination and protests brings home the issues"
• Jungle Dogs, by Graham Salisbury. 1998.
  twelve year-old Boy is afraid of the feral dogs in his Hawaiian village. His older brother, a gang member, taunts him yet defends him in fights. Boy's teacher discovers his talent for writing which bolsters Boy's self-esteem as he confronts his fear of the dogs. Also by the author: Under the Blood-red Sun and Blue Skin of the Sea
• Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson. 1989.
  a sixteen year-old is kidnapped by his evil uncle but escapes, survives a shipwreck and becomes involved in a fight between the Scottish and the English
• Kira-Kira, by Cynthia Kadohata. c2004.
  two Japanese American sisters growing up in Georgia during the 1950's have their close relationship tested when one becomes terminally ill
• The Kitchen God's Wife, by Amy Tan. 1991.
  the tragedies suffered by a Chinese woman contribute to her Chinese American daughter's eventual understanding of their relationship
•  Kona, by Marjorie Sinclair. c1986.
  "a novel of two generations in Hawaii"

 

This ends the first half (A-K) of the Fiction section of the READ Collection. If you have found a book you like, check its status through Hawai`i Voyager. If not, continue your search in another section or return to the READ Collection home page.

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The READ Collection web site is being maintained by Lari-Anne Au, Public Services Librarian. Images were scanned by Justin Bissell and Arya Irani, UHH students. The content of the READ Collection is selected by Lari-Anne Au. You can contact her via e-mail at larianne@hawaii.edu