Customer Reviews

Hawaiiana: The Best of Hawaiian Design

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I came across this book in my hotel lounge on the North Shore of Kaui last week, and couldn't put it down. So I've come looking to buy it here. Although it's designed for collectors (which I am not), and places emphasis on the values of the artifacts pictured, it's also designed to chronicle the unique history of our exotic Hawaiian Islands. Beautifully laid out, it includes images of picture postcards, Hawaiin shirt designs, garment labels, wood carvings, and glorious Hawaiian quilts - all accompanied by just enough historical lore to make it a very smart picture book indeed!

Sixty dollars spent for a new cover, some corrections in the index and a general increase in values is about all that is new in this edition. If you have the older one, don't bother! I felt cheated.

This instant-expert in Hawaiiana is evidently one of those people who move to Hawaii and think "it's much too good for the Hawaiians so I'll sell as much of it as I can". The photography is good but so many of the descriptions are soooooo wrong that I looked through it in slack-jawed amazement. Don't fall for this phoney-baloney aloha - the real Hawaii is not for sale, no matter how many books you write badly about it.