Book groups to meet
Kona Stories community bookstore offers many choices of book clubs. Groups meet monthly to discuss books of fiction, travel, memoir, classics or non-fiction. Book groups meet at 6 p.m. and are free if books are purchased from Kona Stories or a $5 donation is appreciated. Bring a pupu or beverage to share and come prepared to discuss the following books at the store in the Keauhou Shopping Center in the courtyard shops on the KTA side.
* Sept. 24: The Non-Fiction Book Club discusses Into the Raging Sea by Rachel Slade.
On Oct. 1, 2015, Hurricane Joaquin barreled into the Bermuda Triangle and swallowed the container ship El Faro whole, resulting in the worst American shipping disaster in 35 years. No one could fathom how a vessel equipped with satellite communications, a sophisticated navigation system, and cutting-edge weather forecasting could suddenly vanish — until now.
Relying on hundreds of exclusive interviews with family members and maritime experts, as well as the words of the crew members themselves — whose conversations were captured by the ship’s data recorder — journalist Rachel Slade unravels the mystery of the sinking of El Faro.
Info: Brenda or Joy at 324-0350 or check it out online at www.konastories.com.
Former Big Island resident pens ‘Fever’
Former Big Island resident and Parker School teacher Dan Churach has written another novel. “Fever” weaves a tale filled with tension and intrigue of a 2020s Australia confronted by a scourge of violent terrorist events.
Asha Sharma, according to a synopsis of the book promoting its release, is a Fremantle-born Global News Network journalist now based in America. She returns home to Western Australia on an assignment aimed at investigating a rash of mutated microorganisms appearing globally.
From Arctic zombie anthrax microbes arising in melting permafrost areas to ominous outbreaks of drug-resistant tuberculosis, Asha and her colleagues carry out a worldwide investigation into the growing menace. Her assignment is to explore new strains Ebola virus spreading through Thailand and Malaysia with the potential to advance into Australia. Was this Mother Earth attempting to resist the onslaught of humanity? Asha finds herself in the middle of the “news story of the century.”
The yarn spirals through a series of twists and turns, each promising to lead the reader along a page-turning trail to several possible conclusions, but each falling apart under closer scrutiny.
Fever is a thriller with global impact that interlaces journalists, scientists and law enforcement professionals together, each using their unique perspectives to seek the facts and bring the perpetrators to justice.
Info: at www.churach.com.
‘Laughter Therapy’columnist releases book
Soular Rainbows, a collection of poetry by retired Hawaii physician and West Hawaii Today humor columnist Shay Bintliff is a prismatic refraction of the author’s life — reflections and colorful bursts of light manifested in poetic expression, a news release about the book release issued last week states.
Doc Shay, as she is known to her patients and friends, grew up in a household crowded with dominant males, feeling that what she said was not heard. Inspired by a book of Elizabeth Barrett Browning poems given to her by a great-aunt, she taught herself to speak up using the power of her pen. Soular Rainbows is a follow-up to her first book of poetry, Soular Energy (Hoonanea Publishing, 2008).
While Bintliff is known for her sense of humor, her poetry explores not just the joyful aspects of life and love, but the sadness, pain and fear of missed opportunities, absent loved ones and aging, as well as introspective musings on questions without easy answers.
Soular Rainbows is $17.95 in softcover at www.bookshawaii.net. Legacy Isle Publishing is an imprint of Watermark Publishing of Honolulu.