Like her characters, first-time novelist Cecily Wong is Chinese Hawaiian, born on Oahu where most of her family still resides. That cloyingly exoticized cover ( blossoms? perfect Gong Li partial? how-to-make-an-asian-book-cover-101?) might make you balk initially, but give the words a fighting chance. Hollywood aside, here’s a summer alternative on the page (or stuck in the ears – the mellifluous five-woman cast is a major bonus), which at least has the promise of authenticity. The film was probably a box-office dud (what else might that $37 million budget have accomplished?!) for reasons other than just casting, but Stone recently did come out publicly to admit that “Her ‘Eyes Have Been Opened’ by Aloha Controversy.”

Depicting Hawai’i as pretty much 99% white with the excuse that Hawaiian sovereignty activist Bumpy Kanahele got to play himself didn’t satisfy the naysayers much. If you’re tuned to celluloid pop culture, you probably heard about the Aloha casting controversy earlier this year, most specifically that casting Emma Stone as a hapa Chinese Hawaiian Swedish character named Allison Ng was probably not the smartest (accurate? effective? politically correct?) choice.

Diamond Head by Cecily Wong