...Hawaii?

Hi all:

I'm new to this group, and an avid traveler, mostly throughout Europe to this point, and hopefully a first trip to Asia before too long! My current plan, however: Hawaii. I don't know the first thing about it (never really been interested), but I'm headed there with friends for three weeks this winter (Kauai and Oahu), and now I'm intrigued: does anyone have any recommendations for a) essays about Hawaiian history, life and culture, b) travel guides, in particular for Kauai? What do people read in order to get a classic and fairly in-depth overview of Hawaiian cultural history? Thanks so much!

Anyone interested in Germany (esp. Berlin), or Iceland, please let me know! I might be able to help.
Thanks! Sklees

Many do not care for Michenor, but I really enjoyed his Hawaii which is a long novel tracing the history of the islands from pre-history up to the 50s. I particularly remember the parts on the leper colony and the arrival of the Polynesians. I also think there was a movie, but do not remember seeing it.
Anyway, it gives a good historical overview mixed in a bit of a soap opera.

I've been 3 times. Stevenson wrote some pieces. His friend, King David did a book on the myths:

http://books.google.com/books?id=cAIuAAAAYAAJ&ots=XwloDhOlXr&dq=hawaiian...

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18450

http://travel.nytimes.com/2006/05/14/travel/14twain.html?_r=0

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2416

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6750 (the Sandwich Islands!)

http://books.google.com/books?id=GfWj0Pt3cwoC&lpg=PP1&ots=XfmZA4bGPE&amp...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Robert_Louis_Stevenson_and_Ki...

http://www.vagobond.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/RLSandKalakaua.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T59qVSCy02A

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/Pali_Gap_view.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nu%E2%80%98uanu_Pali

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUv2kTx-IAk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lck-7Vcz7sE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyVUyewykcA&feature=related

For me, I can't manage to get my rump off Oahu...

If your a fan of Historical fiction, You'll enjoy Shark Dialogues by Kiana Davenport.
I bought the book about 5 or 6 years ago and it's still not too hard to find. It begins about 1770 with an Yankee Ship Captain and the daughter of a Tahitian Chief.
The author does fine work, sweeping through about 150 years of turbulent Hawaiian history. Shark Dialogues is the first novel to tackle so much Hawaiian History.
Davenport does an excellent job with the island's rich heritage and of the cruel conflicts that shaped the Island chain.
The book includes a view through the eyes of a strong Matriarch and her four daughters seeking to find their place somewhere between the modern world and their strong Island Ancestors.
This is book to pick up for your collection. Davenport has written a fine contribution to the literature of the Pacific rim islands.

I learned more than I expected from Sarah Vowell's Unfamiliar Fishes, an idiosyncratic blend of travelogue and history. If you are interested in gardens and native Hawaiian plants, you might also enjoy Waking Up in Eden: In Pursuit of an Impassioned Life on an Imperiled Island, a personal narrative of relocating to Hawaii and fundraising for a lush tropical estate garden on Kauai. Craig Childs visits the Mauna Kea volcano fields of the big island in one chapter of his Apocalyptic Planet and vividly captures the sensations of traveling across the molten lava.

On the fiction side, I found Moloka'i interesting for its historical portrait of the former leprosy colony on the island of the same name.

Read Mark Twain in Hawaii. He visited in the 1860's An interesting take although not always politically correct. The Hawaii chapters of his book Roughing It were republished. It is quite short