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What is a Common Book?
The goal of the Common Book Program is
that everyone at the College - students, faculty and staff - and people
in the community will read and discuss the same book over an entire
semester. There will be events organized such as movies, lectures,
and discussions which will connect to themes in the book.
Previous Common Books
Fall 2004 Common
Book: Fast Food Nation
Other Common Book Programs
Otterbein
College - UC Davis
Chicago's One
City, One Book
The ALA's One
Conference, One Book (at the 2003 Toronto Conference)
A
list of other programs |
View of the Pali, from Thrum's Hawaiian
Folk Tales |
Ka‘a‘awa is
set on the island of O‘ahu
in 1853. Captain Cook had been dead for over seventy years.
Kamehameha the Great, who unified the islands, had been dead
for over thirty. King Kamehameha the third (Kauikeaouli) had
been on the throne for the last 28 years. Christian missionaries
arrived and were well established. Smallpox has just arrived
and was decimating the native Hawaiian population.
Into this history,
Bushnell weaves a story of two men who must engage with their
own situations as well as with the profound changes that are happening
to the Hawaiian Islands. Hiram Nihoa, a well off and wily native
Hawaiian who is sent on a spying mission by the king over to windward
O‘ahu, and Ka‘a‘awa in particular.
Saul Bristol, a haole originally from New England who is living
(or at last hiding) in windward O‘ahu. Through his travels,
Hiram meets an assortment of Hawaiians and haoles, including Princess
Ruth, a kahuna ‘ana‘ana,
Mr. Wyllie, Makia Weli, and an alii child who becomes Hiram’s
hope for the future of Hawai‘i. |
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