"Kaka‘ako as We Knew It," by Marsha Gibson (Mutual, $23.95)

The downtown tract loosely defined as Kakaako is, to most of us, an area of small shops, easily flooded streets and painfully gentrified condo projects rising above an architectural hodgepodge of service structures. But it was also a family neighborhood once upon a time, and warmly remembered by many who grew up there.

Gibson has assembled a charming reminiscence of her ‘hood, primarily during the middle years of the 20th century, using memories, tales and photos gathered from others, including Brickwood Galuteria, Fudge Matsuda, Glenn Muranaka and Emme Tomimbang.

The organization is rather loose and rambling, even though these memories are divided into strict categories such as food, church, school and so on. World War II gets its own chapter, as does Yono Kitagawa’s hard-hitting boxing club. Their memories are invariably golden, particularly when it comes to food. (Places like Tsukenjo’s Lunch Room have been in business longer than you can imagine.)

This assemblage is so casual that it’s almost a transcribed oral-history document. Even so, it’s handsomely packaged by Mutual. Those who grew up in Kakaako will likely be fascinated, and those who didn’t, less so. "Kaka‘ako as We Knew It" is mostly useful as a meandering wander down the memory lanes of a little-understood and often-overlooked Honolulu neighborhood.

"The Beautiful Lady Was a Palace Eunuch," by Beverley Jackson (CreateSpace, $12.99)

This is such an odd little novelette. It’s the tale of a Qing Dynasty palace eunuch named Li, who survives into the warlord period and into the opening rounds of the Pacific War. Jackson is a noted Chinese historian and documentarian, and she clearly knows her stuff — the book is jammed full of fascinating detail.

And yet it’s not really a novel at all. It’s more like an outline of something far more interesting. The "characters" have no discernable personalities, there is no arc to the "story," there is no plot conflict, no passable dialogue, nor any clue whatsoever that the author really has a tale to tell. It’s an interesting and frustrating read, and it’s also mercifully brief. Perhaps she needs to team up with someone to flesh this out. And brainstorm on a better title.