It’s been great to wander Hawaii again for a book tour that has hit every major island but 
Lanai (there is no bookstore there). However I will be visiting with Friends of Lanai later this spring and know the island well — it plays a major role in Saving Paradise.
It’s amazing how unique each island is, how TOTALLY DIFFERENT each is from the others. This is partially due to geology; the islands were created by a clash in the earth’s crust plates that rent them asunder and allowed hot magma to bubble up from below. But Kauai, the northwestern island, is 4-5 million years old, whereas at the far southeast end of the chain the Big Island is only 400,000 years old.
We had a wonderful time last Friday night, February 22, at Talk Story Bookstore in Hanapepe, Kauai. The “western-most bookstore in the US”. Talk Story has thousands of wonderful used books as well as new ones, all which can be ordered at Talk Story, The BookStore. Even better, visit Talk Story on Friday Art Night when Hanapepe is mobbed by people from around Kauai and around the world, all come to see the great art, buy the world’s best pies and smoothies, listen to fabulous live rock, and in general take joy in our fellow creatures and this paradise we live in.
Equally great fun was Kona Stories and Basically Books on the Big Island, Native Books on Oahu, Barnes & Noble on Maui, and our own wonderful Kalele Bookstore on Molokai. Saving Paradise is available in all stores including Costco and also online at Amazon.com, BN.com, and iTunes.
It’s impossible not to notice however how Hawaii keeps getting developed — more roads, condos, blockbuster hotels, and huge streams of traffic everywhere all day long. It’s time to save what’s left before it too looks like Waikiki.
That’s the message of Saving Paradise: Hawaii is a pearl we’re crushing into concrete. It’s time to stop.
