A recent release, Buffa’s newest book is more than topical, it is inspired and hopeful. Two fictional senators, a wise and well read Republican and a young and equally wise Democrat — clearly fictional in this era of unwise and unprincipled politicos — work together to confront a vain, arrogant, and unprincipled president who governs within the shield of immunity.
This president is quite familiar, and while he has been granted immunity by the Supreme Court, his greatest vulnerability lies within unmistakable decisions of our founding fathers over 250 years ago. Author Buffa is a former practicing attorney, political aide, college professor, and expert in classics and philosophy, so the his story presents more than an exciting legal thriller. It provides an outline that could well contribute to the preservation of our democracy.
The President of the United States has ordered the murder of his political opponents—and the Constitution seems powerless to stop him.Federal investigators hesitate. Prosecutors are paralyzed by unanswered questions about presidential immunity. Congress is deadlocked, and impeachment would require weeks of investigation, a House vote, and a Senate trial while the nation teeters on the edge of a constitutional crisis.Then a United States senator helps uncover a nearly forgotten constitutional debate that points to an extraordinary—and entirely lawful—means of ending a presidency without waiting for impeachment to run its course.As political allies mobilize, extremists prepare to descend on Washington, and…
When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, nearly 40% of the Hawaii population was Japanese, triggering hasty assumptions by America’s political leaders: collaboration with Japan, possible spies. Federal politicians wanted to incarcerate all Japanese in the islands, and those living on America’s vital west coast. There were rumors of dormant cells coming awake to overcome the Hawaiian islands.
Of more than 150,000 Japanese in Hawaii, only 1,200 were ultimately imprisoned, reflecting powerful community support, and earning empathy from federal decisonmakers. The small number of imprisoned Japanese-Americans in Hawaii was very different from along the west coast, where some 120,000 Japanese-Americans were forcibly removed to internment centers, mostly located in desolate parts of the US.
But not in Hawaii. How did this happen?
Author Tom Coffman, a longtime journalist in the islands, presents fascinating stories about how and why officials chose to respect these longtime productive citizens, and not arrest them simply because of their Japanese origins. Local neighborhoods and institutions like schools, churches, YMCAs and YWCAs were places where generations of residents got to know each other, face to face and on a personal level. These multicultural relationships were experienced by community leaders and communicated to federal administrators. Amazingly, officials listened, learned, and responded to the pleas for logic, compassion, and justice. At this time of racial, religious, and political divide, “How Hawaii Changed America” should be read and appreciated by thoughtful people everywhere.
The story begins in Honolulu in late 1939 inside the meetings of a self-styled Council for Interracial Unity. The primary figures are Charles Hemenway, "father" of the University of Hawaii, and his prize adherents from the interwar period, YMCA youth worker Hung Wai Ching and a brilliant young teacher, Shigeo Yoshida. Together they are the heart of a group who believe that war will come soon, and that people in Hawaii can organize to guide the community through it. Their goals are to prevent a mass incarceration of the Japanese community and, in its stead, mobilize participation in the American…
All of Donna Leon's books are rich with colors and textures of contemporary Venice, including the amazing aromas of elegant sauces and tangy citrus. Death at La Fenice was her very first, with an introduction to Guido Brunetti, a deep and compassionate police detective.
Cerebral detectives with an undercurrent of emotion can be fascinating, and Leon’s Guido Brunetti is one of the best. Like Le Carre’s George Smiley, Brunetti is likable, thoughtful, introspective, and slightly lethargic. While Smiley is distant, Brunetti’s emotions are often on display, in a good way. Add the rich and complex history of Venice, and a startling performance at Teatro La Fenice, and Leon’s first novel, published in 1992, is a wonderful debut.
'A splendid series . . . with a backdrop of the city so vivid you can almost smell it.' The Sunday Telegraph
Winner of the Suntory Mystery Fiction Grand Prize __________________________________
The twisted maze of Venice's canals has always been shrouded in mystery. Even the celebrated opera house, La Fenice, has seen its share of death ... but none so horrific and violent as that of world-famous conductor, Maestro Helmut Wellauer, who was poisoned during a performance of La Traviata. Even Commissario of Police, Guido Brunetti, used to the labyrinthine corruptions of the city, is shocked at the number of…
This is a morality tale in the trappings of a travel adventure that has been interrupted by wars. Pan American Airways is launching commercial air travel in the Pacific, and their man in Hawaii is my main character, Duff Malone. We travel with him as the intricate pattern of refueling stations is created, first at Midway, then on Wake Island, for the Flying Clippers soon to launch from Alameda to Canton.
But Pan Am’s important venture is confronted by Japan, with its military control of Manchuria and brutal attack on Shanghai; and then the notorious sneak-attack on Pearl Harbor. Malone and his wife Christy are there in Shanghai, and Christy narrowly escapes the air attacks in Hawaii. These stories are but two of the threads that come to form a classic and poignant story of friendships, struggle, personal loss, and eventual rebirth.
My novel was triggered by president Trump’s first-term anti-Muslim border ban, that blatantly and unforgivably used race, religion and fear-of-the unknown to create public animosity toward nonwhite people. His unforgivable tribalism is not unique, as its roots are sown throughout history and across the world. My small protest is this book about cruelty and oppression, resilience and faith, war and peace: the human condition, gentleness overcoming violence.
