Florida Books

An extremely well written book with lots of pictures and charts. I used it to sail my 28' boat from Coconut Grove to Key West with my wife and 9 month old son. It's great for gunkholing and points out many of the unknown facts about the local area. And besides, Frank's a nice man...I can say that on authority as I have an autographed copy.

We have a 30 ft sailboat and we have been using Capt Papy's book for about 5 years. It's spiral bound, in 4 color, with great aerial shots. The hand drawn sketch charts show how to get in and out of the best anchorages in the Keys. Plus, there is a lot of added information on diving and getting fish, lobster, and crabs. It's well worth the money, compared to all the other more expensive guides.

It was a joy to read, Much detailed and easy to understand. Learned a lot from it

Me interese mucho en este libro despues de una entrevista de MAC
en un programa de televison, lo compre por que tengo una hija de 11 que al igual que la hija de ella es una super hija pero los padres tenemos que estar preparados para luchar contra este mounstro que es la adolescencia mas en este pais, que muchos de los valores familiares se pierden.felicito a MAC por la fuerza que tuvo y por dar a conocer su experiencia para ayudar a otros padres a guiarnos.

I purchased the book as a gift to my boys' grandparents who moved to Florida last year. They have had a grand time investigating some of the day trips.

If you don't fall in love with the cute and charming little girl in the photo on the cover you will enjoy what's inside, a guide to great places to visit and fun things to do that are beyond the expected theme park experience in Orlando.

Taking the points of the compass this book offers ten day trips that will take you as far as St. Augustine to see what else the center of Florida has to offer the visitor or resident with an itch to wander. Janet and Gordon Groene have traveled these roads before you and will take you there with just enough commentary to make the journey interesting. There is a good introductory chapter on travel tips--things that you should have thought about but haven't but no matter the authors have done that for you. From there, the day trips await. And truly there is more than one day's worth of things to do in each of them, so you can pick and choose based on what sounds appealing to you and your fellow travelers.

Each trip also gives some hints about where to stay and where to eat along the way.

Some people are under the impression that there is not much "there there" beyond the theme parks. But the reality of Central Florida is there is way more to do than time to do it in. You could spend an entire year in the Orlando area eating in a different restaurant each night and you would have only begun to scratch the surface. And some of those "hidden" eateries are included in this guidebook. The maps are clear and easy to read as is the typeface.

Happy wandering!

This book was very exciting and hard to put down once you began reading. It had me starving of curiosity from the mystery and events that took place throughout each chapter. The book includes details describing the scenes and emotions of the characters which made me feel like I was part of the events that were taking place. This book is full of excitement, mystery and laughter. Good job Stu!!!!!!!!!!!

Daytona Dirt is a refreshing edge-of-the-seat murder mystery set in a world not very well known to most readers--the off-track dirt bike Enduro racing scene. This novel has a unique Florida setting. Every time I thought I had the mystery figured out there would be a new twist in the plot. It has engaging characters, romance, and action adventure. I simply could not put it down until I finished it.

This is a wonderful look behind the scenes at a truly magical park. I had the priviledge of working for Walt Disney Imagineering from 1996 through 2000. My main assignment was supporting the engineers' computers during the construction of Animal Kingdom. As I recall Melody was all over the place and now I know why. She has done a spectacular job of documenting how the park was put together. From the drawings and sketches to the actual construction photos, this book gives names to the many talents that were brought together to create this masterpiece.

This is the first book that takes a look at *how* Disney designs and builds its theme parks. This information was once only available to those who work for Walt Disney Imagineering and others in the Walt Disney Company. Now, we all get to go behind the scenes to learn how it's done--from the experts themselves. This book is a must-have for any fans of Walt Disney Imagineering

This is a super book by Jeff Klinkenberg. Any Floridian or anyone who loves Florida should read this book....as well as the others he has written.

Visitors to Florida will find some little-known hidey holes to explore in this book. Suburban Floridians can dream of the state's hidden wonders that Klinkenberg writes about -- and maybe be inspired to see them. Subtly hidden among the pages of stories, readers will learn the language of authentic Florida -- a "mess" of anything is just the right amount. Some of the people and places in the stories are lumpy, bumpy, and flawed. But they're all real.

I'm a big Jon land fan and have read all of his work, including last year's holiday novel HOPE MOUNTAIN. In the same tradition of HOPE MOUNTAIN, this novel is a great story and an excellent gift to give for anyone.

After a stint in Viet Nam, Mike Fontana returned home a changed person. He became an alcoholic, a spouse abuser, and ultimately a family deserter. He remarried, but that failed too as finally his wife left him and their son Joe. Mike straightened himself out to raise an ailing Joe, who recovered. Mike's mission in life is to open the Hope Key Dolphin Assisted Therapy Center in Florida because he believes that dolphins have a special knack to connect with special children that seem unreachable.

Katy Grant has lived a difficult life. When she issues bad checks, the court sentences her to two years in the county jail. Mike offers her an opportunity to perform six months community service at his facility in lieu of prison time. Katy accepts, planning to do nothing. However, Mike shocks her by admitting he is her father and wants to make amends. She reacts by deciding to turn his life into hell. She refuses to acknowledge the healing power of dolphins or that she likes her stepbrother. Only time will tell whether Katy is affected like so many before her.

Jon Land is a great storyteller because of his ability to escort his audience into the inner heart and soul of his characters and leave everyone with a message of hope. DOLPHIN KEY shows how successful dolphins are working with physically and mentally impaired children. However, the tale also focuses on second, third, and nth chances and how one must never give up no matter how hopeless it may seem. Fans desiring a life should read this story of renewal.

Harriet Klausner

For your grandkids or children or your classroom this book is terrific. And you will enjoy it as well. Best buy at Amazon for family reading.

I thought this book was terrific. I am a 7th - 12th grade school librarian and have had many students who enjoyed this book. I was surprised by the low age level (9-12) on...info about the book. Although good readers of those ages will enjoy the book, there are many themes that are only going to be grasped by people with a little more life experience. We are using the book in a high school psych class as an example of a "case study" of a dyslexic child. I was very moved by the relationship between Buddy and her grandfather. The relationship between Buddy and her father, fraught with difficulties rang true and allowed for some real character development as they both had to "grow up."

The struggle by blacks to obtain their civil rights in Florida is not well-known. In fact, many have seen blacks' efforts to obtain their civil rights there as weak and ineffectual after the Civil War only becoming powerful after World War I. Paul Ortiz supports his theme that blacks, in fact, engaged in generations-long efforts to force whites to recognize their basic civil rights by showing all of the methods they used to combat white racism and violence. He shows that blacks used organized groups as their most effective tool, including secret societies, lodges, churches, labor unions, black veterans' posts and women's groups to battle white racism and violence. Too, black women took a key role not only within most of these groups but also by individual efforts. By his employment of personal accounts including oral histories and personal interviews, as well as many other primary and secondary sources, he gives an in-depth account of the history of the continuous struggle by African-Americans for civil rights in Florida from antebellum times to the election of 1920.

Ortiz begins by showing that many blacks fled to the Spanish-owned colony of Florida prior to 1763 when it came under British rule. Escaped slaves, many from the British Carolinas, helped the Spanish fight against British forces then joined with Seminole Indians to battle United States militia or federal troops seeking to recapture escaped slaves and displace the Indians. Many escaped slaves settled in Gracie Real de Santa Teresa de Mose (Fort Mose), the first all black settlement in the future United States. This organized settlement showed that blacks must form groups for effective self protection and for mutual aid.

After regaining Florida from Britain following Britain's defeat in the American Revolution, Spain ceded it to the United States in 1819; it became a state in 1845. Before becoming a state, U.S. armed forces engaged in three wars resulting in the removal of most Seminole Indians and decreasing Florida's attraction as a haven for runaway slaves. Violence against blacks in Florida had its beginnings in these and earlier vicious battles. However, escaped slaves early use of Florida a destination was a precursor of later black attempts for freedom.

During the early Civil War, escaped slaves made desperate efforts to escape to Union ships and to Union lines and later many slaves joined the Union military to fight their former owners. After the largest battle in Florida at Olustee, some Confederate soldiers killed black Union prisoners continuing the legacy of violence against blacks and presaging the violence found during the generations following the war. But experience as soldiers fighting for their freedom helped many blacks after the war as they were forced to take up arms to defend themselves and fellow blacks.

After the war, blacks hoped that in addition to emancipation, they would find unfettered access to farmland, jobs, public schools and the right to vote. However, Reconstruction gave only limited success obtaining these goals but one of the most important was the formation of religious and other mutual aid groups for support. These early efforts at organizing were begun to counter the violence and terror whites employed to resubjugate the newly freed blacks.

Some of the early post Civil War groups promoted solidarity among blacks by celebrating Emancipation Day each January 1, and by having organized ceremonies honoring veterans. Other activities maintained and promoted black history of contributions blacks made to the U.S. including those made in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. In addition, efforts were made to ensure that memories of the horrors of slavery were not forgotten during these ceremonies. Black groups pursued every avenue in their quest to fight white domination and terrorism. Unions organized strikes and other actions to try to get better wages and working conditions as well as respect on the job. Churches and women's groups organized successful boycotts such as against segregated public transit during the streetcar boycotts in several Florida cities. Secret societies not only fostered mutual aid and respect but like many of the other groups provided for decent burials for their members and support for those who were ill.

Many blacks were often members of more than one group, e.g., one could be a member of a church, a union and a secret organization simultaneously. Ad hoc committees and groups were sometimes formed in response to volatile situations as in armed black responses to white vigilantes. As blacks made concerted efforts to enforce their suffrage rights under the 15th (and later the 19th) amendment, these already organized groups were immediately available as organizing centers and made them the logical places to which blacks could turn. They served as bases for political action groups since only through politics could blacks fight local, state and federal white racism as the established groups created spaces within which these new efforts could form and grow.

These groups were the fundamental bodies which formed black culture and society in Florida and when combined with the extraordinary efforts of black women, they were in the forefront of black resistance to white tyranny. Ortiz successfully shows that these groups were engaged for generations fighting against white racism and terror with more or less effect. The culmination of the various groups' efforts was the remarkable efforts made in the 1920 elections. Blacks were recruited, registered, and then escorted to polling locations but due to the pervasive efforts of whites including pervasive use of violence and intimidation through the KKK and local law enforcement authorities, opening of mail to detect black plans, unfair enforcement of election laws, poll taxes, and black vigilante actions, their efforts failed. Despite this failure the progress made by these groups and women in general was remarkable.

There are so many stereotypes perpetrated by mainstream history, especially when it comes to the facts surrounding the road to black freedom in Jim Crow America.

Paul Ortiz uses oral history, reseach of documents and investigative skills to write an outstanding book on the heroic work of blacks in challenging the white power structure in Florida from reconstruction to the bloody violence surrounding the 1920 election.

The white politicians in Florida used a variety of tools in attempting keep the black population in a subserviant position. These included terror and lynching, working with northern businesses and unions to cap the number of blacks leaving the state for better job opportunities and using the judicial system to have a pool of cheap labor sitting in jails.

Through it all, leaders from all walks of life emerged in the black community. Ortiz explains the various aspects surrounding the birth of black organizing and the small victories from boycotts, self-defense groups and other means to achieve the goal of having full rights under the law.

It ultimately centers on the right to vote and how the white power structure used every tool in its Jim Crow arsenal in 1920 to try and break the will of blacks and destoy the ever-expanding civil rights movement.

A time in U.S. History avoided in most books covering this time period, Ortiz again demonstrates that those who forget the past can never set a true course in the future. Emancipation Betrayed is an important book for those seeking the truth surrounding this nation in a proper historical context.

I've read several dozen books about Wittgenstein's views, and although each has something useful or incisive to say, only Edwards' book hits the nail on the head. Finally, someone gets Wittgenstein right. I would recomend A.C. Grayling's book as an introduction, then Edward's book, and Genova's "Ways of Seeing" and then maybe books on Zen Buddhism and Native American/pre-agricultural beliefs to fill out variations on Wittgensteinian themes.

Edwards does a magnificient job in taking one from Wittgenstein's early work in the Tractatus through his later work in the Philosophical Investigations and On Certainty. It is the clearest and most accesible book to those who want to understand Wittgenstein. The book, while accessible to all, would probably be difficult for someone who has had no exposure to his writings. I recommend it as a must read to truly grasp his philosophy and to understand other philosophers as well, i.e., Derrida, Heidegger, et. al.