Nonfiction book club gathers Tuesday
Kona Stories hosts a nonfiction book club discussing “Grunt – The Curious Science of Humans at War” by Mary Roach on Tuesday.
The group meets at 6 p.m. at the store. Book groups are free if books are purchased at Kona Stories, or a $5 donation is requested.
Grunt tackles the science behind some of a soldier’s most challenging adversaries: panic, exhaustion, heat, noise and introduces us to the scientists who seek to conquer them.
Roach dodges hostile fire with the U.S. Marine Corps Paintball Team as part of a study on hearing loss and survivability in combat. She visits the fashion design studio of U.S. Army Natick Labs and learns why a zipper is a problem for a sniper. Roach samples caffeinated meat, sniffs an archival sample of a World War II stink bomb, and stays up all night with the crew tending the missiles on the nuclear submarine USS Tennessee. She answers questions not found in any other book on the military: Why is DARPA interested in ducks? How is a wedding gown like a bomb suit? Why are shrimp more dangerous to sailors than sharks? Take a tour of duty with Roach, and you will never see our nation’s defenders in the same way again.
Info: Call 324-0350.
New picture book for kids out
A new picture book for kids, “Keala and the Hawaiian Bird,” was recently released by BeachHouse Publishing.
The book tells a charming, rhyming story about a little girl named Keala who wakes everyday to her neighborhood’s familiar call of birds — one chirps, one squawks, one crows. Until one day, she hears a screech. What kind of bird could that be? Keala decides to find out.
Local artist Holly Braffet captures the charm and beauty of being a kid growing up in Hawaii, and author Patricia McLean has written a read-aloud story that will have kids chiming in with Keala’s favorite birds.
McLean divides her time between rainy Vancouver and Maui. While in Hawaii she can often be found under the nearest palm tree with her laptop, snorkeling in Kapalua Bay, or baking coconut muffins in her kitchen. With a master’s degree in creative writing, she enjoys writing for both adults and tots, and spent many years creating poetry with her daughter, Erin. “Keala Up a Tree” was her first picture book.
Braffet, a graduate of Molokai High School, holds a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Ringling College of Art and Design, and a master’s degree in library science from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Her other BeachHouse books include “Kekoa and the Egg Mystery,” “If You Were a Dinosaur in Hawaii,” “Maka the Magic Music Maker,” and “All Pau with Diapers.” When she isn’t drawing, Braffet knits sweaters for her teapots and reads comic books.
Info: Visit www.beachhousepublishing.com.