This is an excellent insight into what traditional Hawaiian life was like, addressing the normal activities in day to day life. Oral history is used throughout the book to bring forth specific stories as instances and examples. If one is interested in Hawaiian history(this is not mythology) this is highly recommended.

There ~are~ reasons to commend this book, like the bountiful illustrations, the charts showing the evolution of Chinese characters, etc. What I fault is that at many points the author departs from accuracy and injects over-Europeanized interpretations of Chinese mythology and symbols (for instance, characterizing Tibetan Lamas as "devil-worshippers" and calling the Chinese place of the dead and its god, "Hades" - repeatedly). To be truthful, some of the illustrations are so poorly drawn that you cannot really make out what they are. The text is easy to read and the topics covered numerous. I would use this book with caution, however, checking Williams' interpretations against other, more recent sources. For the record, I am giving this book a two because the only other reviewer to write about it gave it a five and that is far too high for it. I think this should yield an average of three, which is about right for this book.

This book is an A-Z listing of hundreds of Chinese names and symbols, with a brief explanation of the items relevance and importance in Chinese culture and history. Want to know the symbolism behind a bat, or a peach, or a mandarin duck, or other more abstract concepts, this book is for you. A very valuable reference tool for those interested in things Chinese.