REMINDER: The next Book Club meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, December 7 at 6:30 pm in the Fiction/Hawaiiana section of the Library. Please be sure to RSVP if you plan to attend so that we know to expect you. Thanks to those who have already emailed me their intent to attend the discussion. We still have open seats at this time.

Seana will lead December’s discussion meeting. The title she selected is The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver.

She has sent along a summary and a bio about the author. The discussion questions follow after that.

Summary

Marietta Greer spent her childhood in rural Kentucky determined to do two things: avoid getting pregnant and escape rural Kentucky. At the start of the novel, she has headed west in a beat-up ’55 Volkswagon, changing her name to “Taylor” when her car runs out of gas in Taylorville, Illinois. By the time two tires give way in Tucson, she has with her a stunned, silent three-year-old Cherokee girl who was, literally, dropped into her arms one night. She has named the child Turtle, for her strong, snapping-turtle-like grip.

In Tucson, Taylor finds friendship and support in Lou Ann Ruiz, a fellow Kentuckian and single mother, with whom she and Turtle share a house. Her newfound community also includes Mattie, who runs a safe house for political refugees in the upstairs rooms above her auto repair shop.

The novel’s themes of fear, flight, homelessness, and finding sanctuary within a community are present in Taylor’s struggle to find a place where she belongs, and the more urgent plight of two Central American refugees, Estevan and Esperanza. These fellow travelers help one another create new lives and redefine the meanings of home and family. (From the publisher)

Author Bio

• Birth—April 8, 1955
• Where—Annapolis, Maryland, USA
• Education—B.A., DePauw University; M.S., University of Arizona
• Awards—Orange Prize
• Currently—lives on a farm in Virginia

Barbara Kingsolver was born on April 8, 1955. She grew up “in the middle of an alfalfa field,” in the part of eastern Kentucky that lies between the opulent horse farms and the impoverished coal fields. While her family has deep roots in the region, she never imagined staying there herself. “The options were limited–grow up to be a farmer or a farmer’s wife.”

Kingsolver has always been a storyteller: “I used to beg my mother to let me tell her a bedtime story.” As a child, she wrote stories and essays and, beginning at the age of eight, kept a journal religiously. Still, it never occurred to Kingsolver that she could become a professional writer. Growing up in a rural place, where work centered mainly on survival, writing didn’t seem to be a practical career choice. Besides, the writers she read, she once explained, “were mostly old, dead men. It was inconceivable that I might grow up to be one of those myself…”

Kingsolver left Kentucky to attend DePauw University in Indiana, where she majored in biology. She also took one creative writing course and became active in the last anti-Vietnam War protests. After graduating in 1977, Kingsolver lived and worked in widely scattered places. In the early eighties, she pursued graduate studies in biology and ecology at the University of Arizona in Tucson, where she received a Master of Science degree. She also enrolled in a writing class taught by author Francine Prose, whose work Kingsolver admires.

Kingsolver’s fiction is rich with the language and imagery of her native Kentucky. But when she first left home, she says, “I lost my accent… [P]eople made terrible fun of me for the way I used to talk, so I gave it up slowly and became something else.” During her years in school and two years spent living in Greece and France she supported herself in a variety of jobs: as an archaeologist, copy editor, X-ray technician, housecleaner, biological researcher, and translator of medical documents.

After graduate school, a position as a science writer for the University of Arizona soon led her into feature writing for journals and newspapers. Her numerous articles have appeared in a variety of publications, including The Nation, the New York Times, and Smithsonian, and many of them are included in the collection, High Tide in Tucson: Essays from Now or Never. In 1986 she won an Arizona Press Club award for outstanding feature writing, and in 1995, after the publication of High Tide in Tucson, Kingsolver was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from her alma mater, DePauw University.

Kingsolver credits her careers in scientific writing and journalism with instilling in her a writer’s discipline and broadening her “fictional possibilities.” Describing herself as a shy person who would generally prefer to stay at home with her computer, she explains that “journalism forces me to meet and talk with people I would never run across otherwise.”

From 1985 through 1987, Kingsolver was a freelance journalist by day, but she was writing fiction by night. Married to a chemist in 1985, she suffered from insomnia after becoming pregnant the following year. Instead of following her doctor’s recommendation to scrub the bathroom tiles with a toothbrush, Kingsolver sat in a closet and began to write The Bean Trees, a novel about a young woman who leaves rural Kentucky (accent intact) and finds herself living in urban Tucson.

The Bean Trees, originally published in 1988 and reissued in a special ten-year anniversary edition in 1998, was enthusiastically received by critics. But, perhaps more important to Kingsolver, the novel was read with delight and, even, passion by ordinary readers. “A novel can educate to some extent,” she told Publishers Weekly. “But first, a novel has to entertain—that’s the contract with the reader: you give me ten hours and I’ll give you a reason to turn every page. I have a commitment to accessibility. I believe in the plot. I want an English professor to understand the symbolism while at the same time I want the people I grew up with—who may not often read anything but the Sears catalog—to read my books.”

For Kingsolver, writing is a form of political activism. When she was in her twenties she discovered Doris Lessing. “I read the Children of Violence novels and began to understand how a person could write about the problems of the world in a compelling and beautiful way. And it seemed to me that was the most important thing I could ever do if I could ever do that.”

The Bean Trees was followed by the collection, Homeland and Other Stories (1989), the novels Animal Dreams (1990), and Pigs in Heaven (1993), and the bestselling High Tide in Tucson: Essays from Now and Never (1995). Kingsolver has also published a poetry collection, Another America: Otra America (Seal Press, 1992, 1998), and a nonfiction book, Holding the Line: Women in the Great Arizona Mine Strike of l983 (ILR Press/Cornell University Press, 1989, 1996). The Poisonwood Bible (1998) earned accolades at home and abroad, and was an Oprah’s Book Club selection.

Barbara’s Prodigal Summer (2000), is a novel set in a rural farming community in southern Appalachia. Small Wonder, April 2002, presents 23 wonderfully articulate essays. Here Barbara raises her voice in praise of nature, family, literature, and the joys of everyday life while examining the genesis of war, violence, and poverty in our world.

Two additional books became best sellers. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle came in 2007, again to great acclaim. Non-fiction, the book recounts a year in the life of Kingsolver’s family as they grew all their own food. The Lacuna, published two years later, is a fictional account of historical events in Mexico during the 1930s and moving into the U.S. during the McCarthy era of the 1950s.

Discussion Questions
Kingsolver on The Bean Trees

I always think of a first novel as something like this big old purse you’ve been carrying around your whole life, throwing in ideas, characters, and all the things that have ever struck you as terribly important. One day, for whatever reason, you just have to dump that big purse out, and there lies this pile of junk. You start picking through it and assembling it into what you hope will be a statement of your life’s great themes. That’s how it was for me. It probably wasn’t until midway through the writing that I had a grasp of the central question: What are the many ways, sometimes hidden and underground ways, that people help themselves and each other survive hard times?

1. The Bean Trees deals with the theme of being an outsider. In what ways are various characters outsiders? What does this suggest about what it takes to be an insider? How does feeling like an outsider affect one’s life?

2. How and why do the characters change, especially Lou Ann, Taylor, and Turtle?

3. In many ways, the novel is “the education of Taylor Greer.” What does she learn about human suffering? about love?
(Questions issued by publisher.)

Shannon Fukumoto
Librarian III| Kapolei Public Library
Hawaii State Public Library System
1020 Manawai St., Kapolei, HI 96707 | (808) 693-7050
Email: shannon.fukumoto@librarieshawaii.org | Web: librarieshawaii.org

I might as well laugh at these while I am still young enough to get the joke! Enjoy our Humor Corner and Happy December 2021!

I watch the orange sunset and soon depart for home.  From the track, I can see Daddy has brought home his friends who work with him at the Naval Ammunition Depot to celebrate the end of the week as they usually do every Friday.  What a treat it is to listen to them talk stories and sing their favorite Hawaiian songs and high school alma maters!  Dad, popularly known as Chuckaboo at McKinley High, graduated with an outstanding record as a star football quarterback. His friends come from Waipahu, Kamehameha, or Farmington High.  Ukuleles, guitar, and Primo beer are essential on Friday nights. They sit at a wooden picnic table under a huge kiawe tree that I view from my bedroom window.  Daddy has an awesome falsetto when he gets carried away singing a solo!  Whenever they run out of beer, someone will walk over to Yuen’s Store, our neighbor next door – so convenient!  Far into the night they sing, joke, laugh and brag about their fishing until my eyes close and I fall asleep.

A description of the book from the author’s website:

“As the heiress to a plantation fortune, Eliza Dawson occupies a privileged place in the opulent court of Hawaii’s King Kalakaua. But her secret plan to marry the son of an opium tycoon collapses when political crisis forces him to China. Pregnant and desperate to keep her child, Eliza must wed an opportunistic rancher on the remote island of Moloka’i.

After a devastating fire, Eliza makes a daring escape to Honolulu on the eve of the American overthrow and joins the clandestine fight to restore the Hawaiian monarchy.

When a mysterious figure from Moloka’i reveals powerful secrets, only one man can help Eliza find the truth-her first love. But soon, their search for answers threatens to unravel the life she’s rebuilt in a dramatically changed Hawai’i.

Dragonfruit is both a vivid portrait of Hawai’i in a time of historic upheaval and the story of a woman shaped by love, betrayal, and the intoxicating power of the past.”

New Meeting Format

The format for the meeting will be slightly altered for the Zoom platform. The host attendee, Sri, will guide the discussion of this month’s book selection. Instead of attendees adding their reactions to the conversation in a “round-robin” fashion, they will be relying on virtual hand raises being called upon by Shannon Fukumoto, the Book Club Coordinator. After the meeting, the host would then write a brief summary of the discussion and email it to the book club coordinator for inclusion in an email update to all on the Book Club e-mail list. If you wish to be added to the Kapolei Public Library’s Book Club list please contact Shannon Fukumoto by email, shannon.fukumoto@librarieshawaii.org, and let her know that you wish to be added to the list.

Zoom Info

Here is the Zoom Meeting Invitation for August 4, 2021. You may log on to the meeting about 5-10 minutes prior to the meeting start time.

Shannon Fukumoto is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Kapolei Library Book Club
Time: Aug 4, 2021, 06:30 PM Hawaii

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Came home one day, saw candy wrappers strewn around the floor beneath the tree and couldn’t find the red and white striped candy canes that hung on the lower branches.  My pet dog, Airplane, runs up to greet me with silver tinsel hanging from her ears and nose!

After I moved to the city and settled into a small apartment, I yearned for a tree, but it wouldn’t fit  in my crowded home, so I ended up with a potted pre-decorated pine tree about eight inches tall on my dining room table.  I was satisfied with this kind of tree for a couple years but found them quite cheerless and boring.  I then decided to look for a Douglas fir pine tree about two or three feet high, and went rummaging through the local market parking lot.  Disappointed that there were none to be seen, I begged the lot attendant for help.  After he also found none to my liking, I spotted a 12-footer with a gorgeous crowned top, and an idea flashed before my eyes – could he saw the top off  and sell it as a tiny tree?  He hesitated but not for long.  Yes, he would, and at no charge!  I smiled all the way home with a little tree tucked in the back seat of my car.

One year on the last day of school before Christmas vacation would start, each home room was asked to participate in a Christmas program assembly. My class decided to do a pantomime with the song “Grandma Got Run over by a Reindeer.”  Despite my reluctance about throwing an old lady under a reindeer, I agreed.  Grandma went onstage with a white mop head, glasses, and a long muumuu; the reindeer entered with koa branch antlers and four legs of two students under a brown cover.  The student body roared with laughter, and so did I.

]]> https://leewardreporter.com/christmas-smiles/feed/ 0 5783 https://leewardreporter.com/traffic-accidents-deaths-provoke-nanakuli-maile-neighborhood/ https://leewardreporter.com/traffic-accidents-deaths-provoke-nanakuli-maile-neighborhood/#respond Mon, 16 Oct 2017 04:14:24 +0000 http://leewardreporter.com/?p=4542 A well-attended meeting of the Nanakuli-Maile Neighborhood Board convened on Monday, September 11, 2017, to hear and discuss residents’ concerns related to the Department of Transportation improvement plans for Farrington Highway.  Farrington Highway has been the scene of numerous car accidents and pedestrian deaths in Nanakuli and Maile, and the community feels these occurrences could have been prevented.  An area study of the highway from Pohakunui (Black Rock) to Kili Drive (Makaha Surfing Beach) was done to determine the number of unsignalized crosswalks, bus stops, and pedestrian accidents involving crosswalks.  The study also covered bus ridership and accident data, and traffic and pedestrian volume.  A significant finding revealed the existence of twenty-six pedestrian walks that lacked signals.

The majority of residents attending the meeting expressed concern and opposition to the removal of the bus stop and shelter fronting the Sack n’ Save mall, a bus transfer center out of Nanakuli.  It was noted that this stop meets the needs of disabled people on wheelchairs because of its shelter.  Many felt that the kapuna who use this stop would be confused if it disappeared.  Another resident protested that a one-day survey of the location’s usage does not qualify to detemine the relocation of the bus stop.

The Neighborhood Board unanimously moved to oppose the proposal to remove or relocate sidewalks and bus stops with the exception of the removal of Bus Stop 629 (near Milikami Street).

Other complaints that were voiced:

• All sidewalks, an extension of the asphalt roadway, are uneven without curb markings.
• The intersection at Lualualei Homestead Road, a curvy stretch of road, is used by large trucks that travel at high speed heading toward Farrington Highway.
• Speeding monitors are needed.
• Blinking lights were allocated in a $500,00 funding, but none have been installed, leaving dangerous crosswalks.

The board also discussed the progress of the Waianae Emergency Access Road (WCEAR) which will use Helelua Street instead of Haleakala Avenue.  Permission is still needed for the use of several private properties while the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands still conducts technical studies of cultural sites, and environmental assessments (EA) are pending.  To date, the Helelua Community Association has not given permission to allow plans to enter through its private property; and the Door of Faith Church, which may be a part of the access road, pointed out that it was not included in the planning process and does  not support the plan.

The Nanakuli-Maile Neighborhood Board will meet again on October 17, 2017, at Ka Waihona O Ka Na’Auao PCS  Cafeteria,   89-195 Farrington Highway, Waianae, 7:00 P.M. – 9:30 P.M.  The agenda includes updates of the Nanakuli Public Library, the Nanakuli Village Center, and the U.S. Army Garrison unexploded ordinance cleanup of Makua Beach.  The public is invited to attend and participate in the meeting.

• ADULTS  Computers: Just the Basics – Fridays at noon, beginning Oct. 6, 2017, free one-hour classes for beginners focusing on basics, email, and creating a document.  Class size is limited so registration is required. Phone 697-7868.
• KIDS   Go! Read with Ohana 100 Volunteers – Oct. 28 at 10:30 A.M.  Volunteers read with keiki and engage in fun-reading activities to promote literacy.  Free books will be given while supplies last.
• FAMILIES  “Hooray for Wednesday” Glow in the Dark Party – Wednesday Oct. 4 at 3:30 P.M.  Stories, crafts and activities that glow in the dark for kids.  “Hooray for Wednesday” activities occur on the first Wednesday of every month with fun activities for children and teens.
• PRE-K & UP  Family Story times – Saturdays at 10:30 A.M., Oct. 7, 14, and 21.
• 0-3 YEARS  Toddler Times – Tuesdays at 9:30 A.M., Oct. 3, 10, 17, 24, and 31.  Storytime , early literacy research, includes stories, songs, and play time.
• BOOK CLUBS  Wednesday, Oct. 18 – Kids Gr. 4-6, Nene Award Book Club at 3:30 P.M., Upside Down Magic by Sarah Mylnowski; Adults at 6:00 P.M., Cutting for Stone by A. Verghese.

Click related links below:

2017 Halloween

2017-10.2 Monthly events

Computer Basics Classes flyer

HFW glow in the dark

ohana 100

All competitors who showed up were eligible for door prizes, some winning more than one prize.  One participant lost his fish and could not qualify, but he showed up to view the weigh-in and won a purple ulua pole as a raffle winner.  Another fisherman who had no fish at all scored two fishing poles as door prizes.  Prizes included baseball caps, funnels, and coffee mugs, donated by Car Quest.  Other items were 808 Uluaholics United T-shirts, fishing lures, ulua poles, and split ring pliers.  Refreshments of spam musubi, inarizushi (cone sushi), and water were provided by sponsor Gary Wong.  No one went home empty-handed.

Counseling, application, and testing services are available temporarily at Waianae High School, rooms P-17, P-18,  and B-104 until the opening of the new location.  Services are available Monday through Thursday, 9:00 A.M. – 4:00 P.M.  Phone 454-4702 for more information.

The next meeting for the Nanakuli-Maili Neighborhood Board will be on Tuesday, July 18, 2017, at the Ka Waihona O Ka Na’auao PCS Cafeteria, 89-195 Farrington Highway, Waianae, at 7:00 P.M. – 9:30 P.M.  The board’s agenda includes:

• Update on Hawaii Department of Transportation  projects along Farrington Highway, presented by Ed Sniffen, Deputy Director of  Highways Division.
• Homeless programs update by Scott Morishige, Governor Ige’s Coordinator on Homelessness.

The general public is invited to attend the meeting and participate in the discussion.

Dr. Benham described some ongoing programs to encourage greater student enrollment:

• College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources has been given an award from the Department of Land and Natural Resources to work on the mapping of the Pueo habitat in the area.
• The Bachelors of Applied Sciences (BAS) programs were recently approved by the Board of Regents; the BAS degree for Sustainable Communities and Food Systems is one of the fastest growing degrees at UH West; a request is being processed for 200 acres mauka of the freeway to be used for the Educational Agricultural Program.
• UH West has received Title 3 federal grants to increase campus services for Hawaiian students; three programs are currently designed to promote Hawaiian culture and ideals.
• UH West is committed to emphasize and incorporate the flora of the Leeward Coast into the campus landscape.

Board member Patty Teruya inquired about the on-going business of Holo Moana Tours that operates out of Kalanianaole Beach Park using a facility that is City-owned.  The DPR responded by stating the Holo Moana Tours does not operate on park property at Kalanianaole Beach Park.  They operate on the ocean which is under the jurisdiction of the State Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Concerned citizens who support the ban voiced various reasons for their stand.  Some of these concerns were:

• Tour companies would bring in large buses that will take up parking space which is presently insufficient for local residents.
• Because residents currently clean up beaches on their own, they fear tourists will not do the same.
• Residents believe tourists will ruin the land and reefs.  For example, when the illegal tour companies come to Mermaid Caves, they bring their own ladders, and tourists walk on the reefs.
• The community is largely a Hawaiian Homes community that feels tourists impinge on their lands.

• SENIOR LEGAL ISSUES AND PUBLIC BENEFITS, May 31, 6:30 P.M.  Russ Awakuni and Robert Topenio of the Legal Aid Society will  provide information regarding common legal matters for senior citizens.  Public benefits,  suitable for ages 18 and older, will also be discussed.
• DISCOVERING AND GROWING HEALTH-PROMOTING HAWAIIAN PLANTS, June 1 and June 8, 10:30 A.M.  Naturopathic physician Dr. Susanna Reid will present history of these plants in Hawaii and show plant samples.
• READING PROGRAM, TODDLER TIME (0-3 years), June 6, 13, 20, 27 and  July 11, 9:30 A.M.
• READING PROGRAM, FAMILY STORY TIME (Pre-K & up), June 3, 17, 24 and July 1, 8, 15, 10:30A.M.
• READING PROGRAM, Gr. K-5, Thursdays at 2:30 P.M.: June 8 – Moana Sing Along, June 15 –  Captain Underpants Party, June 22 – Lego Batman Movie, June 29 – Tails of Kindness (Hawaiian Humane Society), July 6 -Trash Tower Challenge, July 13 – DIY School Supplies.
• NENE AWARD BOOK CLUB, Gr. 4-6, June 21, 2:30 P.M.
• LA’AU LAPA’AU, June 17, 2:00 P.M. – Ku’u Samson, born and raised in Waianae, will introduce the Hawaiian practice of using plants and herbs to treat ailments.  She began her career at MA’O Organic Farms and now can be found at Ho ‘Aina o Makaha.  She is a Hawaiian Studies graduate student at UH Manoa.
• HAWAIIAN DIGITAL RESOURCES, a  3-part series: Ulukau – Hawaiian Electronic Library, June 14 @ 6:30 P.M.; Papakilo Database, July 8 @2:00 P.M.; and Hula Preservation Society, Huapala (Hawaiian Lyrics and Hula Archive), AVA Konohiki (Ancestral Visions of ‘Aina), August 14 @ 10:00 A.M.
• BE YOU. BE KU, June 24, 2:00 P.M.  Daniel Aipa, founder of the Ku Project, will explain the integration of physical fitness and health with the Hawaiian culture.

2017 SRP Events COLOR

be you be ku

Hawaiian Digital Resources

kids’ summer programs

Know Your Legal Rights – Senior Legal Issues Waianae 5 31 17

La au Lapa au flyer

Promoting Hawaiian Plants.pptx

Sheryl Lynch, Branch Manager

Waianae Public Library, 697-7868

Sheryl.lynch@librarieshawaii.org