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Heather

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Heather is Currently Reading

Heather is currently reading

Ghosts of Honolulu: A Japanese Spy, A Japanese American Spy Hunter, and the Untold Story of Pearl Harbor

by Mark Harmon

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Heather said: " I am currently struggling to read this book and considering just putting it behind me.

It's a topic I'm fascinated by and it's obvious they did a fair amount of research for the book, which is why I'm so frustrated that I just can't seem to get into i I am currently struggling to read this book and considering just putting it behind me.

It's a topic I'm fascinated by and it's obvious they did a fair amount of research for the book, which is why I'm so frustrated that I just can't seem to get into it.

It's written in kind of an odd style for a history book - at least in the beginning, everything is phrased in a way that is almost present tense. But not quite present tense. It's hard to nail down and describe, but an example is that I find that I'm struggling when the authors are describing an organization to know whether they are discussing it as pre-1941, it's activities during WWII or it's activities after 1945. That should not be difficult to determine, but it's tone often seems to be "this is now" in a way that is difficult to define.

There also seem to be a LOT of people in this book - each one is introduced as if they're a new "main" character. But I'm 90 pages into book that's about 200-250 pages and most of them are not reappearing thus far. So it's difficult to know how much focus to put on knowing a specific person did a specific thing and remembering it for the next time their name comes up.

As for the main "characters" I would expect the story to be focused on, it kind of is, but it kind of isn't. The Japanese American, Douglas Wada, there is a fair amount of his background included. But I'm about a third of the way through the book and so far, I know he works in naval intelligence, but all that has been mentioned so far is that he does translations and that there was a lot of suspicion about Japanese Americans being spies, so he kept an eye out in the community. There has been even less mention of the spy so far.

Other than the odd writing style, I think it just seems like too large of a topic for a book that is under 300 pages. In those first 90 pages, the authors have been addressing not only the spy and spy hunter, but also touching on concerns about Japanese American spies, Naval Intelligence, Army Intelligence, the FBI investigations, Japanese American civil groups, Japanese internment and more. It hasn't even reached the bombing of Pearl Harbor yet.

It also doesn't seem like a good sign that when I flipped ahead a bit, I see that the there is a large time gap. Every page break includes the date, so you always know when something occurs. But there is a 2-3 year gap in the middle of the war. Then events begin again, which I believe is the hunt for the spy after the war has ended.

I so hate to leave a book unfinished. I'll give it a little more time, I think, but I may be moving on from this one soon. Because honestly, it's so unfocused that I don't know that I'm learning much. ...more "

Aug 25, 2026 12:34AM · see review

Heather is currently reading

Pox: An American History

by Michael Willrich

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Jan 22, 2026 10:05PM

Heather’s Quotes

“And if my choice is to sit graciously in my best robes and accept the inevitable or to bail a sea with a bucket, give me the bucket.”
― Robin McKinley, Chalice

84 likes

“A weapon you held and didn't know how to use belonged to your enemy.”
― Terry Pratchett, Making Money

140 likes

“I'm not the world's greatest expert, but I would have thought that the wizards, witches, trolls, unicorns, ... broomsticks and spells would have given her a clue?' - when J.K. Rowling insisted she wasn't writing fantasy.”
― Terry Pratchett

275 likes

“Never assume. Never make plans. Keep doing the press-ups and deep knee bends: you'll need all your strength and flexibility when your life suddenly implodes. Maybe it won't — some people do lead enchanted lives — but odds are that it will. Some time.”
― Robin McKinley

35 likes

“So, what do you do when you know you have two days to live? Eat an entire Bitter Chocolate Death cake all by myself. Reread my favorite novel. Buy eight dozen roses from the best florist in town--the super expensive ones, the ones that smell like roses rather than merely looking like them--and put them all over my apartment. Take a good long look at everyone I love.”
― Robin McKinley, Sunshine

tags: death

60 likes

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