If there's someone on your gift list who loves Hawaiʻi — or you just want to understand the Islands beyond the resort brochure — a book by a local author beats a novelty mug every time. Hawaii Magazine has rounded up eight titles worth giving this holiday season, spanning cookbooks, memoir, fiction and a 19th-century classic, most of them available through Native Books in Honolulu.
The cookbooks are the crowd-pleasers. Alana Kysar's "Aloha Veggies," out since April 2026, packs more than 100 plant-based recipes rooted in local tradition — think roasted miso sweet potato, kimchi carrot fried rice and haupia brownies — all shot with photography good enough to leave on the coffee table. Hilo's Sheldon Simeon, a "Top Chef" favourite, follows up with "ʻOhana Style," another 100-plus recipes built around the idea that ʻohana extends past family to neighbours and community, from pastele stew to furikake animal crackers.
For the surfer in the family, five-time world champion and Tokyo 2020 Olympic gold medallist Carissa Moore published "Hawaiʻi Gold," part coffee-table book, part love letter to the Islands. Lei maker Meleana Estes' "Lei Aloha" (2023) pairs gorgeous flower photography with family memories of making lei alongside her grandmother, plus the deeper cultural traditions behind them.
Fiction and history round out the list. Megan Kamalei Kakimoto's short story collection "Every Drop Is a Man's Nightmare" blends Native Hawaiian identity and mythology into something genuinely surprising, while Alicia Upano's "Everything to the Sea" follows two young lovers across Hilo, Honolulu and San Francisco through grief and resilience. "The Three-Year Swim Club" by Julie Checkoway tells the true story of a Maui schoolteacher who trained sugar plantation kids — who learned to swim in irrigation ditches — toward Olympic glory, just as World War II arrived. And for a piece of history itself, King David Kalākaua's "The Legends and Myths of Hawaiʻi," first published in 1888, remains one of the foundational collections of Hawaiian storytelling, written by the Islands' last reigning king.
Why does this matter to travellers? Because reading local voices before a trip changes how you see a place — the food you order, the lei you're given, the history behind the beach town you're staying in. Any of these would make a genuinely thoughtful gift, or decent pre-trip homework for your next flight to Honolulu. Several titles are stocked by Native Books and Da Shop Books + Curiosities, so buying from them supports local booksellers too.
