Livia Kohn Leads Daoist Immersion Workshop

Livia Kohn, author of Chinese Healing Exercises: The Tradition of Daoyin, will lead “Daoist Immersion,” a week-long workshop that explores how living a Daoist life can make a difference in the world today. The workshop will be held in Bear Mountain Range, Cibola National Forest, near Albuquerque, New Mexico, September 11-18, 2010. For more information and to register email liviakohn@gmail.com or call 727-501-6915.

Professor Kohn is the author of many books on Taoism and Chinese religion and philosophy published by Three Pines Press, which is distributed by University of Hawai‘i Press.

In Memoriam – Bob Dye (1928–2010)

Author, historian, and journalist Bob Dye passed away on February 5, 2010.

UH Press Website Update

You may now log in to your UH Press web account.

UH Press Website Server Upgrade

Customers may experience problems logging in to their UH Press web accounts while we move to a new server. Our apologies for the inconvenience. Please check back periodically.

Mahalo for your patience!

Eleanor Nordyke in Hana Hou!

Eleanor Nordyke is featured in the January issue of Hana Hou!, the in-flight magazine of Hawaiian Airlines. Ms. Nordyke is the author of the recently published second edition of Pacific Images: Views from Captain Cook’s Third Voyage and the longtime bestseller The Peopling of Hawaii, both available from UH Press.

Photo: Charles E. Freeman/Hana Hou!

David Heenan to Sign Books in January

Bookstore appearances are scheduled in January 2010 for business executive David Heenan to sign his newest title, Bright Triumphs From Dark Hours: Turning Adversity into Success. The Campbell Estate trustee presents ten stories of individuals who applied winning strategies in their personal or professional lives and examines how they used them to overcome difficult life situations. Heenan spent the past four months teaching at Georgetown University and returned to Honolulu at the end of December. His three scheduled signings include:

Wednesday, January 20, 12 noon-1 p.m.: Bestsellers, 1003 Bishop Street, phone: 528-2378

Saturday, January 23, 2:00-3:00 p.m.: Borders-Ward Centre, phone: 591-8995

Saturday, January 30, 1:00-2:00 p.m.: Barnes & Noble, Kahala Mall, phone: 737-3323.

Catholicism and Women’s Work in a Micronesian Society

Catholicism, like most world religions, is patriarchal, and its official hierarchies and sacred works too often neglect the lived experiences of women. In Mary, the Devil, and Taro: Catholicism and Women’s Work in a Micronesian Society, Julianna Flinn looks beyond these texts and reveals how women practice, interpret, and shape their own Catholicism on Pollap Atoll, part of Chuuk State in the Federated States of Micronesia. She focuses in particular on how the Pollapese shaping of Mary places value on indigenous notions of mothering that connote strength, active participation in food production, and the ability to provide for one’s family.

January 2010 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3374-9 / $47.00 (CLOTH)

Jon Shirota Returns to Maui

Nationally acclaimed author Jon Shirota returns to Maui this month! Shirota’s 1965 classic Lucky Come Hawaii, the first novel by an Asian American writer in Hawai‘i to become a national bestseller, was recently issued in a newly revised edition by Manoa: A Pacific Journal of International Writing and University of Hawai‘i Press.

Thursday, January 14, 7 p.m., Maui Okinawa Cultural Center: Jon Shirota will give a free public talk hosted by the Maui Okinawa Kenjin Kai (MOKK). Please RSVP by calling MOKK at 808-242-1560.

Friday, January 15, and Saturday, January 16, 7:30 p.m., McCoy Studio Theater of the Maui Arts and Cultural Center: Kumu Kahua Theatre presents Shirota’s latest play, Voices from Okinawa. For more information, call the McCoy box office at 808-242-7469 or write boxoffice@mauiarts.org.

Saturday, January 16, 2-3:30 p.m., Borders-Kahului, Maui Marketplace: Shirota will be signing copies of his books. For more information, call Borders-Kahului at 808-877-6160.

Continuity and Change in North Vietnam

Tradition, Revolution, and Market Economy in a North Vietnamese Village, 1925-2006, by Hy V. Luong, examines both continuity and change over eight decades in a small rural village deep in the North Vietnamese countryside. Son-Duong, a community near the Red River, experienced firsthand the ravages of French colonialism and the American war, as well as the socialist revolution and Vietnam’s recent reintegration into the global market economy. In this revised and expanded edition of his 1992 book, Revolution in the Village, Hy V. Luong draws on newly available archival documents in Hanoi, narratives by villagers, and three field seasons from the late 1980s to 2006. He situates his finely drawn village portrait within the historical framework of the Vietnamese revolution and the recent reforms in Vietnam.

January 2010 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3423-4 / $28.00 (PAPER)

Choice Magazine’s Outstanding Academic Titles for 2009 Announced

Each year Choice Magazine, the official publication of the Association of College and Research Libraries, compiles a distinguished list of Outstanding Academic Titles. The following two UH Press books were recognized for 2009. A complete list of titles will be available in Choice’s January 2010 issue.

Tour of Duty: Samurai, Military Service in Edo, and the Culture of Early Modern Japan
by Constantine Nomikos Vaporis

“Vaporis has written a magnificent book on the sankin kotai, or alternate attendance system. . . . Long considered the central political control mechanism of the Tokugawa period, the system has received surprisingly little scholarly attention until now. Filling a major gap in the understanding of Japanese history, the author provides a detailed account of the mechanics of the system and demands placed on daimyo and retainers on tours of duty in Edo. Exploiting the latest archaeological and archival sources, Vaporis makes clear the economic burden of the system on the daimyo, as well as its role as an engine of cultural, intellectual, and material exchange, from the center in Edo and between regions. The author also provides intimate details of the lives of samurai, both on the road to and from Edo and while serving their time in Edo. For all interested in early modern history. . . . Highly recommended.” —Choice (July 2009)

Kabuki’s Forgotten War: 1931-1945 by James R. Brandon

“Brandon offers new and intriguing research on the development of Kabuki through the turbulent 1930s and into the 1940s. . . . A vital addition to existing literature on what one thinks of as ‘traditional’ Kabuki, this book will be fascinating reading for those interested in Japanese theater, history, or politics. . . . Essential.” —Choice (April 2009)