Davianna Pomaika'i Mcgregor

If you are the type of person who likes reading 'concise history' type titles from cover to cover, than Na Kua'aina may be the book for you. I, however, am not one of those people, and I found it very difficult to finish. The writing is detached, and some of the most interesting passages come in the form of excerpts from previous surveys of areas being discussed. Na Kua'aina is not a just boring book, however. For those with an interest in Hawaiian history or traditional Hawaiian practices, this direct account of how the rural Hawaiian population lives is a very useful record of an endangered way of life. I just wish that the book was able to convey that lifestyle in prose slightly more thrilling than 'people fished here, planted such and such there, used this road, etc...'… (more)