Hale 'aina

Welcome to the Hale Aina Women's Book Club, a space inspired by the Hawaiian tradition of gathering, storytelling, and sharing knowledge. In ancient Hawai'i, the Hale Aina was the women's eating house, a sacred place of nourishment, learning, and connection. Rooted in this legacy, our club celebrates books that explore identity, culture, and the joy of reading. Join us as we dive into thoughtful selections and share our favorite reads!

Currently reading

2025 Top Books

EQ Reads

Books that worked through grief, wonder, connection, and emotional truth.

Moon Water

Samantha Sotto Yambao
An epic fantasy that bends time and emotion. It felt like wandering through memory and myth at the same time. I loved getting lost in it. It carried adventure, longing, and transformation without rushing the reader.

Remarkably Bright Creatures

Shelby Van Pelt
A gentle story about connection between humans and the natural world, told partly through an octopus. It reminded me how little we know about other beings, and how much they might know about us. Warm, tender, and easy to love.

Both IQ and EQ

Mona’s Eyes

Thomas Schlesser

This was my top book of the year.

Written by an art historian, this book spoke to me as an artist and as someone who lives with low vision and the fear of losing sight.

Synopsis:
A young girl may lose her vision. Her grandfather steps in to help with her recovery and therapy. Instead of weekly psychiatrist visits, he takes her to look at one piece of art every week for a year. Fifty-two weeks. Fifty-two works of art.

Each chapter centers on a single artwork. In the hardcover edition, the cover unfolds so you can see the art they are talking about. That detail mattered to me.

This book is about:

Learning how to see, not what to see
Passing ʻike from kupuna to keiki
Art as medicine
Grief, patience, and attention
What it means to face the possibility of never seeing again

It shows how art can carry someone through fear. How art teaches us who we are. How looking is an act of love.

This book raised my mind and my heart at the same time.

IQ Reads

Books that built context, logic, history, and systems.

Project Hail Mary

Andy Weir
A science-heavy survival story told through memory and problem solving. A man wakes up alone in space with no idea who he is or why he’s there, and has to reason his way back to purpose. I listened to this on audiobook and it is hands down the best audiobook I’ve heard. Smart, tense, funny, and driven by curiosity instead of ego.

James

Percival Everett
A retelling of Huckleberry Finn from James’s point of view. This book forces the reader to confront how stories change when power changes. It exposes how language, education, and survival shape identity. Everyone should read this version. It corrects a silence.

Aloha Betrayed

Noenoe K. Silva
A deep dive into the political overthrow of Hawaiʻi through Hawaiian-language newspapers. This book shows how history gets buried when language is erased. It strengthened my understanding of how ʻike lives inside language, and how colonization depends on silencing it.

The Serviceberry

Robin Wall Kimmerer
A reflection on the gift economy and reciprocity. It explains how Indigenous systems of care work without hoarding or extraction. This book didn’t teach me something new, it confirmed what Indigenous knowledge has always known. It gave language to what many of us already live.