Coconut Wireless, first published in 1948, is a World War II novel set in the Far East. The book follows an American, Graydon, in his counter-espionage efforts against the occupying Japanese forces. Featuring many authentic details of the region and exciting action scenes as the hero infiltrates enemy territory, completes his missions and eludes capture, the book is based, in part, on author Ray Kauffman’s own experiences with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) during the war. The book’s title refers to the quick movement of news and gossip in the tropics. Kauffman is also the author of Hurricane’s Wake, an account of a round-the-world voyage in a 45-foot sailboat.

"If you like the Miss Fortune series, you'll love Kat and her clue crew on Maui!" ~Reviewer The coconut wireless is humming in Ohia, Maui, and the latest topic of gossip is me, Kat Smith. I’m Secret Service, not Postal Service—but I feel like a criminal when I’m appointed postmaster to a cozy little village on Maui. Turns out I’ve stolen a well-earned promotion from beloved Auntie Pua Chang, who’s been there forever—but all I want to do is hide out in paradise until the witch hunt to kill my career is over. I haven’t been in Ohia a day when Tiki the post office cat brings a prize to my doorstep—a piece of the woman who had the job before me. I’m thrust into the middle of a murder mystery, and if I don’t help solve it, I might be next—but it’s hard to tell whom to trust. A fortune-telling general store owner, a hunky Hawaiian pilot, Tiki the cat, and a couple of well-meaning cops named Lei and Pono seem to want to help—but they're all Auntie Pua supporters, and she'd be happy to see the last of me. This Hawaii village has more factions than a Mafia convention in Vegas, and I’m on my own tracking a killer with only a grumpy cat for backup. “Can't stop reading and chuckling! Kat is my new favorite heroine!”~ Reviewer

Crossing disciplinary boundaries, At Home and in the Field is an anthology of twenty-first century ethnographic research and writing about the global worlds of home and disjuncture in Asia and the Pacific Islands. These stories reveal novel insights into the serendipitous nature of fieldwork. Unique in its inclusion of "homework"—ethnography that directly engages with issues and identities in which the ethnographer finds political solidarity and belonging in fields at home—the anthology contributes to growing trends that complicate the distinction between "insiders" and "outsiders." The obligations that fieldwork engenders among researchers and local communities are exemplified by contributors who are often socially engaged with the peoples and places they work. In its focus on Asia and the Pacific Islands, the collection offers ethnographic updates on topics that range from ritual money burning in China to the militarization of Hawai'i to the social role of text messages in identifying marriage partners in Vanuatu to the cultural power of robots in Japan. Thought provoking, sometimes humorous, these cultural encounters will resonate with readers and provide valuable talking points for exploring the human diversity that makes the study of ourselves and each other simultaneously rewarding and challenging.

It’s 1976, and Shelley Ilillouette, unemployed and without prospects, has never heard of the Kingdom of Tonga>—but when an artist offers her a job in this South Pacific kingdom, she takes it. She arrives in Tonga to discover that her employer has vanished. Alone in a bewildering world where ancient Polynesia mingles with missionaries, Peace Corps, and yacht dwellers, she is adopted by Foeata, a genial Tongan who decides that a mafu—a sweetheart—will solve Shelley’s problems. Foeata favors the Peace Corps doctor, Skip, but he is smitten with Lily, a mysterious half-Tongan actress. Then Shelley’s first and only lover, Jackson, follows her to the islands, and life only get more complicated. When Lily goes missing, too, and Jackson’s visit proves disastrous, Shelley has to admit that she has not escaped from anything; she has just brought all the confusion of life with her. Why, Foeata wonders, are Americans so bad at love? Amidst encounters with sharks and one octopus (meetings far less harrowing than those she has with missionaries and ex-lovers over the course of her adventure), Shelley untangles a web of stories reaching back decades, leading her to conclude that Tonga may indeed be what its king has proclaimed: the place where time begins.

There are several underlying factors that led to the attack on Pearl Harbor. After Japan invaded Manchuria (1931) the League of Nations (1933) condemned the Japanese for their aggressive action that prompted their delegation to walk out of the organization. Ignoring all previous agreements, the Japanese Government (1936) embarked on a massive expansion of their naval force. In December 1937, while escorting American oil tankers along the Yangtze River, Japanese aircraft sank the USS Panay. Although there was no retaliation the United States State Department made a strong protest. In 1938 Japan closed its “Open Door” policy prompting the United States to renounce its trade treaty with Japan and placed an embargo on metal exports to Japan. In May 1940, with tensions rising throughout the Pacific, Pearl Harbor became the main Pacific base for the United States fleet. In July 1941 the United States placed an embargo on all strategic exports to Japan and froze Japan’s assets in the United States. While WW2 stories are a big part of this book, there are many other events, places and people that are brought to life in this autobiography.

In the fall of 1931, Thalia Massie, the bored, aristocratic wife of a young naval officer stationed in Honolulu, accused six nonwhite islanders of gang rape. The ensuing trial let loose a storm of racial and sexual hysteria, but the case against the suspects was scant and the trial ended in a hung jury. Outraged, Thalia’s socialite mother arranged the kidnapping and murder of one of the suspects. In the spectacularly publicized trial that followed, Clarence Darrow came to Hawai’i to defend Thalia’s mother, a sorry epitaph to a noble career. It is one of the most sensational criminal cases in American history, Stannard has rendered more than a lurid tale. One hundred and fifty years of oppression came to a head in those sweltering courtrooms. In the face of overwhelming intimidation from a cabal of corrupt military leaders and businessmen, various people involved with the case—the judge, the defense team, the jurors, a newspaper editor, and the accused themselves—refused to be cowed. Their moral courage united the disparate elements of the non-white community and galvanized Hawai’i’s rapid transformation from an oppressive white-run oligarchy to the harmonic, multicultural American state it became. Honor Killing is a great true crime story worthy of Dominick Dunne—both a sensational read and an important work of social history

"Larry W. Jones has written over 3,500 song lyrics with island based themes. Most are in the sytle of the "hapa haole" return-to-paradise tradition of the golden years of Territorial Hawaii"--Volume 7, title page verso