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Around the World in 2000 Books

(give or take a few)

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      • Tonga, Samoa, Tuvalu, and Niue
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Polynesian Literature

Lali: Looking Back

December 31, 2017 ~ Kelly Dunagan ~ 2 Comments

Lali: A Pacific Anthology, ed. Albert Wendt, 1980

  • Cook Islands, #5; Tonga, #2; Samoa, #2; Niue, #1; Fiji, #1; Vanuatu, #1; Solomon Islands, #1; Papua New Guinea, #7; Kiribati, #2
  • £13.84 from Amazon.co.uk
  • Read: September 2015-December 2016
  • Rating: 3/5
  • Recommended for: Moana groupies

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The Challenge: Not Accepted

January 5, 2017January 4, 2017 ~ Kelly Dunagan ~ 2 Comments

The Challenge, Ruperake Petaia, 2011

  • Samoa, #5
  • Kindle, (a waste of) $4.99 from amazon.com
  • Read January 2016
  • Rating: 1/5
  • Recommended for: Ruperake Petaia (because I can’t imagine anyone aside from the author enjoying this particular piece of literature)

Well, that’s half an hour of my life I’m never going to get back.

 

 

Telesa: The Covenant Keeper (Boy meets girl meets fa’afafine)

December 21, 2016January 4, 2017 ~ Kelly Dunagan ~ 1 Comment

Telesa: The Covenant Keeper, Lani Wendt Young, 2011

  • Samoa, #4
  • Kindle, $2.99
  • Read December 2015
  • Rating: 3/5
  • Recommended for: Harry Potter/Insurgent crossover fanfic authors

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Where We Once Belonged: Rejecting the Polynesian Paradise

November 7, 2016January 4, 2017 ~ Kelly Dunagan ~ 6 Comments

Where We Once Belonged, Sia Figiel, 1997

  • Samoa, #3
  • Borrowed from SF library
  • Read December 2015
  • Rating: 4/5
  • Recommended for: Women who have been groped by Donald Trump

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Leaves of the Banyan Tree

September 29, 2016January 4, 2017 ~ Kelly Dunagan ~ 2 Comments

Leaves of the Banyan Tree, Albert Wendt, 1979

  • Samoa, #1
  • £0.69 from alibris.co.uk
  • Read December 2015
  • Rating 3.5/5
  • Recommended for: 10th grade English classes

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Tales of the Tikongs: What’s the point of all this, anyway?

July 28, 2016December 31, 2017 ~ Kelly Dunagan ~ 3 Comments

Tales of the Tikongs, Epeli Hau’ofa, 1988

  • Tonga, #4
  • Borrowed from SF library
  • Read November 2015
  • Rating: 3/5
  • Recommended for: Mack and the boys

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An Account of the Natives of the Tonga Islands: Wikipedia FTW

July 13, 2016January 4, 2017 ~ Kelly Dunagan ~ 3 Comments

An Account of the Natives of the Tonga Islands, in the South Pacific Ocean, vol. 1, John Martin and William Mariner, 1827

  • Tonga, #1
  • Free from Google Books
  • Read November-December 2015
  • Rating: 2/5
  • Recommended for: sticklers for detail

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Monday Miscellany: Polynesian poetry

May 30, 2016December 31, 2017 ~ Kelly Dunagan ~ 1 Comment

While researching my post on Dreams of a Rainbow I read a fair amount of poetry from around Polynesia (both to try to situate Kauraka’s poetry more firmly in the Polynesian tradition and figure out whether it was objectively mediocre or whether I was just missing something). This is a bit of a long one, so links after the jump.

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The Frigate Bird: Fear and loathing on Penrhyn Island

May 27, 2016January 4, 2017 ~ Kelly Dunagan ~ 5 Comments

The Frigate Bird, Alistair Campbell, 1989

  • Cook Islands, #7
  • £0.01 from amazon.co.uk
  • Read: October 2015 (and again in May 2016)
  • Rating: 4/5
  • Recommended for: Ukulele players with dark pasts

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Dreams of a Rainbow: Maybe I’m missing something

May 21, 2016December 31, 2017 ~ Kelly Dunagan ~ 4 Comments

Dreams of a Rainbow, Kauraka Kauraka, 1987

  • Cook Islands, #6
  • £6.50 from amazon.co.uk
  • Read: September 2015
  • Rating: 3/5
  • Recommended for: Bear Vasquez

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A slightly belated #burmese #bookstack
I have been reading this book since November. It’s not terrible or anything; in fact it’s a pretty compelling story of a young woman who marries a man who doesn’t understand her and treats her like a doll, determining what she eats, what she wears, when she sleeps, and (most harrowingly) whether and how often she can see her family. The heroine’s passivity in the face of all these ever-tightening restrictions is a little frustrating to me, but it’s set in Burma in the 1930s, where women were pretty much expected to be passive and compliant all the time. It’s not exactly a page-turner, but I don’t think that’s why I’ve stalled out on this book. I don’t know whether to blame the pandemic or just life with two small children, but for perhaps the first time in my life I just haven’t felt like reading. Might as well say “I haven’t felt like breathing,” but there it is. But at last I’m nearly finished with “Not out of Hate,” and I decided to download the Kindle edition of “Letters from Burma” and the audiobook of “Burmese Days” so that hopefully I can get a little more reading done during the long long hours I spend nursing my toddler to sleep in a dark room. I would very much like to reach a stage where parenting and reading are not in conflict, but I’m afraid that day might never come.
It’s been a long time since I wrote a blog post. Frankly it’s been a while since I read anything that wasn’t by NK Jemisin or Stephen King. But I still have all these books from Southeast Asia that I’ve read and haven’t written about, so I jumped back in with quick takes on a whole bunch of books from the Philippines, including this fantastic buddy-cop serial killer mystery starring two Jesuit priests.
Folsom Street Fair, 2015
#tbt to my last blog post of 2019: America Is in the Heart, by Carlos Bulosan
Drawings from today’s blog post, Philippine Food and Life by Gilda Cordero-Fernando. Link in profile.

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