Words and Wine is Tuesday

Natalie Fisher Guerin, Jada Tan Rufo and Dr. John M. Hollandwill be featured during Kona Stories Book Shop’s Words and Wine event at 6 p.m. Tuesday in Keauhou Shopping Center.

Fisher Guerin, is the author of “Always” and “One Way Ticket to Kona.” The latter is a multi-generational love story between parent and child, featuring Dingledorf, a child of the universe. In this story, the reader watches him encounter different situations while growing up, from the playground bully to having to clean his room, taking piano lessons and even the death of his Nana and how he learns that family love can bring him through it all.

From New England, Fisher Guerin moved to Hawaii Island in December 2014 with the hope to never move again. She has a degree in business and worked as a business manager for a school district, a university bookkeeper and has won awards for her newspaper stories. She has two adult sons and two grandsons. She enjoys leaning hula, making lauhala bracelets, line dancing coordinating the Community Seed Library at the Kailua-Kona Public Library.

Rufo is the author of “Banana Girl: An Asian American Woman’s Life in China.” It’s not easy being an Asian American in China, where residents of big cities believe that Asians, including those born and raised in English-speaking countries, are not qualified to teach English. In a country of 1.3 billion people where studying English is as popular as having the latest electronic gadget, this can be a huge problem. Rufo, descended from a Chinese immigrant who took a Filipino name when she came to the United States, takes up the challenge to teach in the country of her ancestors.

The detailed memoir takes readers on a journey throughout China, describing the lows — such as working for a corrupt and inept boss to the highs, the time she spends with her eager young students and the chance to travel inside the beautiful country. The vast nation incorporates 55 recognized minorities in addition to the Han majority, each with its own language and identity. During her free time, Jada explores China’s wonders, walking along the Great Wall, visiting the Olympic stadium in Beijing and riding camels in Inner Mongolia.

In Holland’s “Yellow Bird, Walking Between Worlds” the reader meets a 14-year-old ranch hand who is forced to move from her beloved ranch to an urban area where she deals with discrimination, changes of drug possession, boyfriends, the pleasures of sex and the rigors of qualifying for college.Artistic exploration, close friends, sexual awakening and working with horses all sustain her as she navigates her turbulent high school years. Yellow Bird is encouraged by the voice of her deceased Shoshone grandfather who mentored her on the ranch. Visions of her grandfather show Yellow Bird that her Indian values can work in harmony with her new culture.

Holland, who has a master’s degree in religion and public health and a Ph.D. in sexology, has ministered to church youth for two decades; directed a drug crisis center; directed the Sexuality Education Program at University of California, San Francisco, taught sexuality courses to more than 5,000 physicians and therapists and taught HIV prevention, sexuality and health education in rural counties to people in jails, schools and community agencies. He also worked as a hospice chaplain.

Following a more formal book presentation from each author there will be a Q&A session. The event concludes at 8 p.m.

Info: Brenda or Joy, 324-0350.