61 books like Hula

In 1931, Thalia Massie, the bored wife of a naval officer stationed in Honolulu, accused six nonwhite islanders of gang rape.

The trial loosed a storm of racist hatred and sexual hysteria nationwide (Hearst papers, I’m looking at you). But the evidence was scant – for one thing, she almost certainly had not been raped – and the trial ended in a hung jury.

Outraged that she hadn’t been believed, Thalia’s husband, mother, and friends then kidnapped and murdered one of the Native Hawaiian defendants as an “honor killing.” Caught in the act, the Massies got Clarence Darrow to defend them. 

He lost at trial but, scandalously, the all-white killers were released within hours. During the two years these events played out, racial divisions in Hawaiʻi became re-aligned – the concept of “locals” was born, embracing all nonwhite ethnic groups for the first time, and all in opposition to haoles… show more.

In Hawaiʻi as elsewhere, bodies can end up in shallow graves – or so Hawaiʻi detective fiction would have it. 

When skeletal remains turn up, Mimi Charles, forensic anthropologist, sets out to recover them and unlock their secrets for the (naturally) less-expert Big Island police. The author is a forensic anthropologist herself, with plenty of real-world cases in Hawaiʻi and on the mainland to her credit, and she knows that in post mortem-focused mysteries, every forensic detail counts. 

She constructs an ingenious plot, in which a rare and boisterous dog plays a key part. Unlike more cautious authors who won’t dare to let their characters speak Hawaiian pidgin, Lasswell Hoff confidently sprinkles in just the right (and intelligible) amount. 

There’s a final and unique plot twist that makes the reader stop and marvel: How did the author manage to bring us here?  

Princess Victoria Kaʻiulani is among those brave real-life heroines who remain inspiring despite terrible tragedies, in Kaʻiulani’s case the theft of the Hawaiian kingdom in a coup by white planters in 1893 when she was only seventeen, and her shockingly premature death only six years later, at twenty-three, after being caught far from shelter in a chilling Hawaiʻi rain storm. 

In those six years, she became a figure on the world stage, welcomed by the royal houses of Europe as the forceful, articulate, and beautiful advocate (educated in England) pleading for the Hawaiian Kingdom’s formal diplomatic recognition and its return by the United States. 

U.S. annexation, an admitted wrong, might have been righted by her efforts had not Alfred Thayer Mahan’s relentless crusade persuaded Congress and the President that the U.S. needed Pearl Harbor to project U.S. naval power across the Pacific. 

Ironically, Kaʻiulani’s planned marriage to a Japanese prince,… show more.

Murders in academia are a special genre within the universe of detective fiction, but Frankie Bow – the pen name of a highly amused and amusing university professor – has created her own delightful franchise, extended into a series of eleven short, light-hearted, and gently satirical volumes featuring Professor Molly Barda as a sardonic sleuth, one who voices her observations almost as aphorisms. 

Although The Musubi Murder is number two in the series, set at the faintly ludicrous Mahina State University ("Where Your Future Begins Tomorrow"), it’s a good place for the reader to start following Professor Molly. Musubi itself may not be addictive for everyone (it’s cooked Spam secured to sushi rice by a strip of seaweed), but Frankie Bow’s mystery series surely is.

Hawaiian Fishing Traditions celebrates famous Hawaiian fishermen. Fish was the main source of protein. The first story, by Moke Manu, tells of Kū‘ula-kai, who became deified as a god of fishermen because of his power to control fish. He built the first fishpond, in Hāna, Maui, to supply the chief and people with food. His son ‘Ai‘ai, featured in the second story, continued his father’s good work by locating offshore fishing grounds and teaching the people how to catch fish, practice conservation, and distribute the catch with generosity. Also included are the stories of other legendary fishermen and of battles with man-eating sharks. Two articles in the appendix describe the vast array of traditional fishing methods; a third article gives an anthropological account of the worship of shark gods.

This collection of short stories offers a contemporary Hawaiʻi full of flawed characters who face challenges both unique to the islands and universal in motivation.

Kahakauwila explores the concept of paradise and the price paid for it. They are stories that capture the spirit and tenacity of Hawaiʻi, the nuanced layers of its social fabric, and brings me home every time I read them. 

The first time I read it, I was alone in a cabin in the woods in the middle of my first writing residency. Suddenly I was no longer pressed up against a wood stove trying to stay warm. Through her gifted storytelling, all the sights and sounds and smells of home came rushing in, both comforting and familiar.

You don’t need to know Hawaiʻi to enjoy this book, but by the end of reading it, you will feel like you do.

I loved following the exploits of Sophie, described as a “brilliant hacker, MMA fighter, domestic abuse survivor, and chronic depressive” who likes kids and animals better than adults.

She’s the strong woman protagonist who’s also socially awkward and vulnerable. Add in the well-rendered descriptions of Maui—the lush and beautiful, the dark and dirty—and the high-stakes intrigue, and, well, it’s all here. And I’ll follow any writer who accurately captures the complex nuances of Hawaiian culture and societal issues.

We have focused our recommendations on Melville’s (and other people’s) takes on Polynesian islands, but Melville also wrote about another crucial Pacific archipelago, the Galápagos Islands. His collection of sketches, “The Encantadas,” explores a very different world from Nukuhiva, Maui, or Tahiti, one nearly empty of human inhabitants, given over to birds, tortoises, iguanas, and insects. Yet here as elsewhere, Melville finds plenty to satisfy his “itch for things remote.” And here as elsewhere he meditates on human nature: the misfits, petty tyrants, and exiles who might find a home in such a forbidding place. If you think of Melville as an entertaining chronicler of the Pacific world, you will find much in that vein here—but also philosophy, history, and a sort of melancholy romance.

When I think of the perfect, fun, poolside read, this book is the first to pop into my head.

The Unhoneymooners follows Olive, who ends up having to fake date a man she hates while on their fake honeymoon in Hawaii. I love those tropes (fake relationships, enemies to lovers, forced proximity) but on top of that, this book is laugh-out-loud hilarious.

I was giggling in the pool the entire time I read this, and the light, fast-paced, engaging vibe makes this book the perfect poolside read.

Simmer Down is my favorite novel by my friend and co-author/podcaster, Sarah Smith. Smith is a master of the hate-to-love beach read. Her books are spicy, sizzling, and fun. 

Simmer Down is my favorite because of English hottie Callum, the love interest. Nikki, the main character, starts off detesting this grumpy Brit when he becomes competition for her food truck business in Maui. But through a series of laugh-out-loud and ooo-did-she-really-say-that encounters, these two spicy characters realize they’re even better together than they are apart. 

I love this story, and I love how Smith weaves small elements of her life into her novels. Nikki is Filipino-American and grieving the loss of a parent; the food she makes with her mother are traditional Filipino dishes that Smith is an absolute wizard at. The character dynamics make this fun romance an even richer read.