Mookini Library

The READ Collection: Fiction (L-Z)

In the second Fiction section (titles beginning with letters L through Z), 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 THE WATER OF KANE, by O.A. Bushnell (Friends of the Library of Hawaii, and the University of Hawaii Press, 1980) 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.

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 (last updated, 2-17-12)

Books about Hawai'i are marked with a palm tree

• The Last Aloha, by Gaellen Quinn. 2009.
  A woman moves to Hawaii to live with her missionary relatives and becomes involved in events leading to the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom.
• The Last Child, by John Hart. 2009.
  A 13-year old boy sets out to find his twin sister, who has been missing for a year and is presumed dead.

• The Last Song, by Nicholas Sparks. 2010.

  A seventeen-year-old girl and her brother are sent to spend the summer with their father.

• The Last Summer of You and Me, by Ann Brasheares. 2008.

  Two twenty-something sisters return for the summer on Fire Island and face changes in their lives and friendships.

• The Last Village in Kona, by Mason Altiery. 1986.
  Kawika Kanahele, his grandfather and a friend try to reclaim an era and culture that are fast disappearing

• The Legend of Fire Horse Woman, by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston. 2003.

  Three generations of Japanese women struggle with life in America and cope with living in an internment camp
• Legends of the Fall, by Jim Harrison. c1978, 1994.
  an epic story of Montana brothers who are ranchers
• Light in the Forest, by Conrad Richter. 1953.
  a young white boy adopted by Indians must return to his original family
• Like Water for Chocolate, by Laura Esquivel. translation, 1992.
  "a tall-tale, fairy-tale, soap-opera romance, Mexican cookbook and home-remedy handbook all rolled into one"

• Links, by Nuruddin Farah. 2004.

  A man returns to Somalia after 20 years and helps his friend find a kidnapped girl taken by a rival warlord.

• Listening Woman, by Tony Hillerman. 1978.
  two Navajo tribal policemen work together to solve the mystery of two murders of a young girl and an old man. Another mystery by the author is Coyote Waits
• Live and Let Die, by Ian Fleming, 1954, 1982
  007 agent James Bond is undercover on a case that leads him to Jamaica and Florida where he searches for the KGB's illegal use of pirate's treasures; 007 is same character in Goldfinger
• Lord of the Deep, by Graham Salisbury. 2001.
  a 13 year old boy spends time on his stepfather's fishing boat in Hawai`i, and learns some valuable lessons about life
• Lord of the Flies, by William Golding. 1954, 1975.
  "a group of English schoolboys marooned on an uninhabited island test the values of civilization"
• Lori, by John Wilson. 1989.
  a young girl struggles to grow up during the 1960's while living in the cane fields of North Queensland, Australia

• The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold. 2002.

  Through the voice of a precocious teenage girl, Susie relates the awful events of her death and builds out of her family's grief a hopeful and joyful story

• Love Story, by Erich Segal. 1970.
  a college girl falls in love with a preppie football jock from Harvard University
• Lucky Come Hawaii, by Jon Shirota. 1965.
  the story of an Okinawan family living on Maui during the attack on Pearl Harbor
• The Magician's Nephew, by C.S. Lewis. 1955.
  the 1st of seven books in The Chronicles of Narnia series; "the secret passage to the house next door leads to a fascination adventure"
• Makoa and the Place of Refuge, by Jerry Cunnyngham. 1997.
  Makoa's only chance to save his life, after breaking a kapu, is to run to Pu'uhonua o Honaunau (Place of Refuge) before he is caught
• The Man from the Other Side, by Uri Orlev. 1991.
  the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II is the setting for several young boys who blackmail a Jew whom they caught escaping from the Ghetto
• La Maravilla, by Alfredo Vea, Jr. 1993.
  in 1958, "three thousand years of history and the myths of many cultures, as well as the fates of a dozen unforgettable characters, will all collide" in the hot, Phoenix-area desert

• The Marriage Bureau for Rich People, by Parahad Lama. 2009.

  A bored retired man starts a matchmaking business to pass the time in Vizag, a city on India’s eastern coast.

• Memory, by Margaret Mahy. 1987.
  an elderly, impoverished woman who has Alzheimer's disease is befriended by a 19 year old boy
• The Milagro Beanfield War, by John Nichols. 1974.
  a story of conflicts surrounding the preservation of a way of life; includes encounters with a family ghost

• Mililani Mauka, by Chris McKinney. 2009.

  The fate of two families in Honolulu.

• Molokai, by Alan Brennert. 2003.

  A girl is sent to Kalaupapa after being diagnosed with leprosy.

• Molokai Nui Ahina: Summers on the Lonely Isle, by Kirby Wright. 2007.

  Two brothers spend summers on Molokai with their grandmother and encounter the other island residents
• Monkey Wrench Gang, by Edward Abbey. 1975.
  environmentalists battle developers in sometimes funny but tragic ways

• Mosquito, by Roma Tearne. 2008.

  A novelist returns to Sri Lanka after the death of his wife and encounters a place on the verge of civil war.

• The Moved-Outers, by Florence Crannell Means. 1945.
  a Japanese American teenager and her family are forced into an internment camp during WW II
• Mrs. Mike, by Benedict & Nancy Freedman. 1976.
  maturing effect of marriage on a 16-year old girl
• Mutant Message Down Under, by Marlo Morgan. c1994.
  an American woman travels to Australia and goes on a journey to find out more about herself
• My Antonia, by Willa Cather. 1993.
  "a New York lawyer recalls his boyhood days in Nebraska and his friendship with a young Bohemian immigrant girl"
• My Darling, My Hamburger, by Paul Zindel. 1969.
  four high school seniors learn tough lessons about their relationships
• My Name Is Loa: A Story of Exile, Adventure, and Romance on the Island of Molokai, by Dorothea Buckingham. 1999.
  in 1898, the life of 15 year-old Loa, who wants to be a doctor, takes an abrupt turn when he's diagnosed with leprosy and banished to Moloka`i

• My Sister's Keeper, by Jodi Picoult. 2004.

  Conceived to provide a bone marrow match for her leukemia-stricken sister, teenage Kate begins to question her moral obligations in light of countless medical procedures and decides to fight for the right to make decisions about her own body

• The Mystery of the Anasazi at Frijoles Canyon, by Suzanne Kita. 2002.
  the disappearance of the Ancient Ones (aka Anasazi), ancestors of the Pueblo's, is the highlight of a family's visit to Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico

• My Year of Meats, by Ruth L. Ozeki. 1999.

  A Japanese-American documentary filmmaker is hired to produce a television show that encourages the consumption of beef.

• Native Speaker, by Chang-rae Lee. 1995.
  a Korean immigrant settles in New York and becomes a spy; his culture and traditional beliefs are challenged by his duties
• Nectar in a Sieve, by Kamala Markandaya. 1955.
  young, married East Indian peasant couple struggle to keep their family together

• The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, by Alexander McCall Smith. 2002.

  The first novel of a popular series of a detective in Africa.

• No-No Boy, by John Okada. 1976.
  a novel of Issei and Nisei

• The Notebook, by Nicholas Sparks. 1996.

  An 80-year-old man reads from his diary to his wife, suffering from Alzheimer's, the story of their teenage romance, followed by years of separation because he was from the wrong class, followed by her decision, on his return from World War II, to be her own woman and marry him

• Obasan, by Joy Kogawa. 1994.
  Japanese Canadians suffer persecution and relocation during World War II
• Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck. 1937, 1993.
  two farm workers form an unlikely friendship
• Of Such Small Differences, by Joanne Greenberg. 1988.
  a deaf-blind man makes the transition "into the sighted/hearing world" through love
• The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway. 1985.
  fishing tale about the biggest marlin Cuban villagers have ever seen
• On the Road, by Jack Kerouac. 1955.
  a novel of the 1950's that became the Bible for the Beat Generation
• The Once & Future King, by T.H. White. 1958.
  the epic of King Arthur
• Once Were Warriors, by Alan Duff. 1990.
  frustrations of a contemporary Maori woman living in an urban ghetto amidst drug abuse, gangs, and domestic violence
• One Bird, by Kyoko Mori. 1996.
  a teenager, affected by the divorce of her parents, finds inspiration working with sick and injured animals
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey. 1976.
  about abused patients in a mental institution
• The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton. 1967.
  gang warfare between rich and poor kids
• Ox-bow Incident, by Walter Van Tilburg Clark. 1940.
  a lynching and mob justice are the themes of this Western
• The Pearl, John Steinbeck. 1945, 1992.
  a young, poor couple finds a rare treasure that changes their life

• A Person of Interest, by Susan Choi. 2009.

  Wrongfully implicated when a mail bomb claims the life of a beloved computer scientist, math professor Lee receives a threatening letter that compels him to confront key events in his life, an exercise that inadvertently renders him all the more suspicious.

• The Piano Teacher, by Janice Y.K. Lee. 2009.

  In1952 Hong Kong a woman newly married to a bland postwar British government official, lucks into a job as piano teacher to the untalented young daughter of the powerful and wealthy couple
• Picture Bride, by Yoshiko Uchida. 1997.
  with only a photograph of the man she will wed, a young Japanese woman arrives in San Francisco in 1917 to start a new life but endears many hardships, including World War II
• The Pigman, by Paul Zindel. 1968.
  three unlikely friends--two sophmore girls and an old man-- find their relationship torn apart by a secret
• Pigs in Heaven, by Barbara Kingsolver. 1993.
  a young girl witnesses a freak, near tragic accident and because of her insistence, the victim is rescued. The accident causes the girl and her mother to be involved in a bizarre twist of events that lead them to the Cherokee Nation and that test their family bond. Sequel to The Bean Trees
• The Plum Plum Pickers, by Ramond Barrio. 1969.
  Chicago migrant workers
• Postcards From the Edge, by Carrie Fisher. 1987.
  the ups and downs in the life of an actress
• Pouliuli, by Albert Wendt. 1977, 1985.
  a Samoan alii's family life in a village
• The Power of the Stone: A Hawaiian Ghost Story, by Shiho S. Nunes and paintings by Herb Kawainui Kane. 2001.
  twin brothers on Oahu discover a mysterious stone shaped like a human face that has links to ancient Hawaiian relics and that belongs in a natural resting place, not a museum
• The Prince and the Pauper, by Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain). 1984.
  a prince and a poor boy trade places during 16th century England
• The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure, by William Goldman. 1998.
  "what happens when the most beautiful girl in the world marries the handsomest prince in the world and he turns out to be an SOB"?

• Primitive Secrets, by Deborah Turrell Atkinson. 2005.

  Storm Kayama, a Honolulu Attorney, investigates the murder of her uncle, and defends herself from those accusing her of committing the crime.

• The Pugets, by Gordon Morse. 1995.
  four children and an elder Native American discover 12,000 years of history about the mythical creature, the Puget, who lived in the inland, coastal waters of Washington State

• Punahou Blues, by Kirby Wright. 2005.

  A boy grows up in 1970s Honolulu.

• Puna Kahuna: A Ben McMillen Hawaiian Mystery, by Mark Brown.
  Kona detective investigates murders related to a geothermal company's destruction of the rainforest, Wao Kele O Puna
• Ragtime, by E. L. Doctorow. 1974.
  novel about an American family during the first decade of the 1900's

• Reads Like Murder in Honolulu, by Georgina M. Donovan. 2009.

  A bookstore owner becomes entangled in disappearances and murder during a trip to Hawaii.

• The Red Badge of Courage, by Stephen Crane. 1895.
  a young soldier faces his own mortality and cowardice during the Civil War
• The Red Pony, by John Steinbeck. 1945, 1986.
  Jody's attachment to his young, fiery colt contributes to his maturation
• The Red Shark, by Ruth Tabrah. 1991.
  an ancient shark stone is discovered on a remote, Big Island beach that is threatened to be developed as a resort
• The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen, by Lloyd Alexander. 1991.
  a Chinese prince searching for the legendary court of T'ienkuo is given 6 gifts to take but must show courage to learn about the meaning of the gifts
• Riders of the Purple Sage, by Zane Grey. 1912, 1992.
  in the 1870's, a beautiful Utah ranch owner fights cattle rustlers and betrayal of her ranch hands until a sharpshooting cowboy who wants revenge comes to her rescue
• The River, by Gary Paulsen. 1991.
  in this sequel to Hatchet, a 15 year old boy who survived a plane crash and lived in the wilderness, helps scientists study the psychology of survival
• A river runs through it, and other stories, by Norman Maclean. 1976.
  a father and son learn about each other by fishing and camping together in Montana
• Rumble Fish, by S.E. Hinton. 1975.
  high school students and their need to belong to a group
• Sacred Clowns, by Tony Hillerman. 1993.
  Navajo tribal policemen try to piece together a motive for two seemingly unrelated murders. Other mysteries by same author, Listening Woman and Coyote Waits

• Say You’re One of Them, by Uwem Akpan. 2009.

  A group of stories about the resilience of children in different African countries.

• Scar Tissue, by Michael Igantieff. 1994.
  a family is changed by the mother's "descent into neurological illness"

• The Seven Orchids, by Ian MacMillan. 2005.

  A young woman escapes a self-destructive life in Waikiki by moving to Molokai, where she uncovers an ancient koa canoe which helps her to rebuild her life

• Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind, by Suzanne Fisher Staples. 1989.
  a young Pakistani girl's nomadic life in the Cholistan Desert
• Shane, by Jack Schaefer. 1949.
  in 1889, a Wyoming gunfighter who is worshipped by a young boy, sides with homesteaders in their dispute with a cattle rancher
• Shark Bait, by Graham Salisbury. 1997.
  Booley plots revenge on a sailor and Mokes must go along with his hero's plan, but should he?
• Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse. 1951.
  a spiritual meeting of the West and the East is depicted in this story when a young man in ancient India meets Buddha
• The Silence of the Lambs, by Thomas Harris. 1988.
  a young FBI trainee meets Hannibal the Cannibal
• Sing Down the Moon, by Scott O'Dell. 1974.
  a young Navaho woman's life is torn apart in the mid-1800's
• Snow Country, by Yasunari Kawabato. 1957.
  the story of a geisha's only true but unattainable love

• So Brave, Young and Handsome, by Leif Enger. 2008.

  The story of an aging train robber on a quest to reconcile the claims of love and judgment on his life, and the failed writer who goes with him

• Song Yet Sung, by James McBride. 2009.

  A runaway slave can see the future after suffering a head injury and uses her gift to lead her fellow slaves to freedom in pre-Civil War Maryland.

• Sounder, by William Armstrong. 1969.
  a family's fate cannot be changed by their faithful hunting dog
• The Spy Who Came In From the Cold, by John LeCarre. 1963, 1992.
  a classic spy thriller which takes place in East Germany
• Stay Away, Joe, by Dan Cushman. 1953, 1981.
  a novel depicting humorous clashes between Native American and White cultures
• The Stone Raft, by Jose Saramago ; translated from the Portuguese by Giovanni Pontiero. 1996, c1995.
  "when the Iberian Peninsula breaks free of Europe and begins to drift across the North Atlantic, five people are drawn together on the newly formed island-first by surreal events and then by love."

• Stowaway, by Karen Hesse. 2000.

  A fictionalized journal relates the experiences of a young stowaway from 1768 to 1771 aboard the Endeavor which sailed around the world under Captain James Cook.

• Stranger in a Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein. 1961.
  a quasi-science fiction view of human values
• Surfing the Himalayas: A Spiritual Adventure, by Frederick Lenz. 1997.
  a young American snowboarder seeks enlightenment in the Himalayas and becomes an apprentice to a Buddhist monk. This is his fictionalized version of his adventure
• The Swan Thieves, by Elizabeth Costova. 2010.
  When renowned painter Robert Oliver attacks a canvas in the National Gallery of Art and becomes a patient of psychiatrist Andrew Marlowe, Marlowe embarks on a journey that leads him into the lives of the women closest to Oliver and a tragedy at the heart of French Impressionism
• Swimmer in the Secret Sea, by William Kotzwinkle. 1994.
  a couple tries to cope with the death of their newborn child
• The Swiss Family Robinson, by Johann Wyss. 1991.
  a shipwrecked family's adventures on a deserted island
• Tales of the Tikongs, by Epeli Hau'ofa. 1983.
  Tiko, a tiny make-believe island in the Pacific, is the setting for a culture that is threatened with extinction by development. Humor and seriousness are balanced as the local people respond
• Talking to the Dead, by Sylvia Watanabe.
  about families and their secrets in a plantation camp on Maui

• Tattoo, by Chris McKinney. 2006.

  A tattoo artist listens to a fellow prisoner’s life story while the Halawa Correctional facility.

• The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge, by Carlos Casteneda. 1968.
  a supposed research study done by an anthropology student is really a tale of a spiritual journey
• Tex, by S. E. Hinton. 1979.
  another book by the author of Rumble Fish and The Outsiders
• To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. 1960, 1992.
  a town becomes divided over an attorney's defense of a Black man accused of raping a White woman

• The Tortilla Curtain, by T.C. Boyle. 1996.

  The story of illegal aliens in California, told through the eyes of two very different couples, one well-off Anglos, the other illegal Mexicans living in a canyon.

• Tortilla Flat, by John Steinbeck. 1935.
  Monterey, California is the setting for a group of characters who are impoverished, loyal, but out of the mainstream
• Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson. 1989.
  a young boy's adventures at sea with mutinous villains
• True Grit, by Charles Portis. 1969.
  a fourteen year old girl avenges her ranching father's death

• Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer. 2005.

  When seventeen-year-old Bella leaves Phoenix to live with her father in Forks, Washington, she meets an exquisitely handsome boy at school for whom she feels an overwhelming attraction and who she comes to realize is not wholly human

• Under the Blood Red Sun, by Graham Salisbury. 1994.
  what it was like, from a young boy's perspective, to be living in Honolulu during the attack on Pearl Harbor
• Village of the Vampire Cat, by Lensey Namioka. 1995.
  2 ronin (unemployed samurai) visit a master warrior and find his village terrorized by a gang of bandits

• Vixen, by Jillian Larkin. 2010.

  In 1923 Chicago, seventeen-year-old Gloria Carmody rebels against her upcoming society wedding by visiting a speakeasy, while her Pennsylvania cousin, Clara, hides similar tastes and her best friend, Lorraine, makes plans of her own.

• Waimea Summer, by John Dominis Holt. 1976.
  a young man discovers his ethnic heritage at the same time he has spiritual and ghostly encounters during a summer spent on the Big Island
• A Walk to Remember, by Nicholas Sparks. 1999.
  a trouble-making high school senior falls in love with a minister's daughter
• War of the Worlds, by H.G. Wells. 1895.
  classic science fiction tale about a Martian invasion; radio listeners believed the story as it was told over the air
• The Water of Kane, by Oswald A. Bushnell, 1980
  the sequel to The Stone of Kannon tells the story of Ishi, a young Japanese immigrant during the first wave of plantation workers arriving on Maui in the mid-1800s
• Way Out Here! Hawaii's Own Love Story, by Jean MacKellar. 1988.
  the poignant romance of Parker Kealii, a Hawaiian man of the sea, and a pretty mainland wahine, set in Waikiki in 1949
• We Have Always Lived in the Castle, by Shirley Jackson. 1962.
  a Gothic thriller about a family which lives in an isolated, remote area and tries to keep its secrets
• The Whale Rider, by Witi Ihimaera. 2003.
  Kahu, an 8 year old girl, tries to be everything her great grandfather wants but what he wants is a boy to become chief to carry on the tribal duties of the Maori who live in Whangara, New Zealand
• Whalesong, by Robert Siegel. 1991.
  Hruna, a humpback whale, looks for love and spirituality and finds adventure during his search
• What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day, by Pearl Cleage. 1998, c1997.
  about Afro-American women with AIDS living in Michigan
• When I Was Five I Killed Myself, by Howard Buten. 2000.
  a English translation of the popular French novel about an autistic young boy
• When She Hollers, by Cynthia Voigt. 1994.
  a young woman . . . makes a most difficult decision: to fight back against her adoptive father's abuse
• When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard. 1994.
  the Japanese invasion of the Philippines in 1941 is the setting for a family that joins the resistance movement. Forced into hiding in the jungle, they encounter much tragedy but also see hope for the future

• When You Reach Me, by Rebecca Stead. 2009.

  As her mother prepares to be a contestant on the 1970s television game show, "The $20,000 Pyramid," a twelve-year-old New York City girl tries to make sense of a series of mysterious notes received from an anonymous source that seems to defy the laws of time and space

• Where the Red Fern Grows: A Story of Two Dogs and a Boy, by Wilson Rawls. 1974.
  the three are a great hunting team and encounter joy and sadness in their adventures
• Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers: A Novel, by Lois-Ann Yamanaka. 1996.
  comic but bittersweet story about love
• The Wild Wind: A Love Story of Maui, by Marjorie Sinclair. 1991.
  a missionary's descendant marries a paniolo; their marriage is tested by their cultures and supernatural events

• The Wish Maker, by Ali Sethi. 2010.

  A coming-of-age story of two Pakistanis and the world they live in.

• The Witch of Blackbird Pond, by Elizabeth George Spear. 1958.
  during the French and Indian War, a witch hunt and trial take place
• With His Pistol in His Hand, by Americo Paredes. 1958.
  a legendary Mexican American ranchhand kills Texas sheriff in 1901
• A Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula LeGuin. 1968.
  a young boy is an apprentice to a Master Wizard and learns powerful magic. He does not learn to control the power of his knowledge until too late when he unleashes an evilness that haunts him
• Woman in the Dunes, by Kobo Abe. 1964, 1991.
  contemporary Japanese literature
• Wouldn't Take Nothing For My Journey Now, by Maya Angelou. 1993.
  observations on life, death, being a woman, jealousy, etc. Author of I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings and All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes
• A Wrinkle In Time, by Madeline L'Engle. 1962.
  the story of the adventures in space and time of three high school students

• The Writing Class, by Jincy Willett. 2009

  An instructor of a writing workshop tries to solve the murder of one of her students.

• The Yearling, by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings.
  a boy's attachment to his pet deer has consequences contributing to his growing up
• A Yellow Raft in Blue Water, by Michael Dorris. 1987.
  "at times separated by hardships and angry secrets but always bonded by kinship, three generations of Native American women recount their lives in their search for self-identity"

This ends the second Fiction (L-Z) 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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Fiction  (A-K)
Mythology/Legends/Folktales/Ghost Stories
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The READ Collection web site is 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.