Florida Books

Originally published in 1959, Alligator Crossing by Marjory Stoneman Douglas (1890-1998) is an engaging novel about Henry Bunks, a thirteen-year-old boy who stows away in the boat of an outlaw alligator hunter in Florida. Henry's journey through the Everglades will take him into a world of beauty and danger, where he must rely on his own courage and resourcefulness to protect himself and the land alike. Also available in a paperback edition ... is highly recommended reading and a welcome addition to school and community library collections.

its a collectors book with really good Judo moves in it. and if you send the book to me I will sign it.
buddy clark

If you like St. Augustine's old houses and architecture, you will love this book. Karen Harvey takes you through the old neighborhoods one-by-one and gives you the history of each. You could spend an entire vacation with this book walking and enjoying St. Augustine.

Davidson's America's Palestine is an excellent documentation of Anglo-American perceptions of the still today disputed Middle Eastern territories. Various media citations are included, such as the New York Times, The Chicago Tribune and the LA Times. Discussion of the State Department's evolving position from neutrality to full fledged support of the Zionist agenda is included. The book is eye opening and gives a good history of how these early Anglo-American perceptions of the Arab-Israeli conflict distorted the realities of the Middle East.

I didn't purchase it here, but I own it. It is full of wonderful color pictures of his work. Also, it has a nice biography of Iver. The photos are good replicas of his originals. This one is worth hanging on to. There are others out there with more of his collection from different exhibitions as well. This is one of the best. AS for the binding/edition which states "unknown", every catalog that is available was printed in Naples, FL for that exhibition. Harmon-Meek (Foster Harmon and Bill Meek)Gallery along with his family had it made up.

The author was a convict work camp supervisor for 14 years. The book is a memoir of his work experiences related to Florida's convict labor lease system. From about 1877 to 1925 contractors paid the state a yearly fee to lease convicts to build railroads, mine phosphate, pick fruit & vegetables, and collect naval stores from the pine forests.

The system was ripe with abuse. Many people were simply kidnapped by the local sheriffs and sent to the work camps. Everyone from the sheriff to the governor got a piece of the fee. The sheriffs preyed on tourists, vagabonds, youths, and local nuisances. The contractors disciplined the convicts with whippings. Children as young as 4 years were sent to the camps.

The state finally abolished the system when a lumber company whipped a sick boy to death. The boy had pneumonia and his death outraged and embarrassed people.

The book is well written and very interesting.

We borrowed this book and only reluctantly returned it. I am now buying a copy to keep and a copy to circulate among my family members. We are Floridians of many generations. The places and names and histories in the book all ring true. As historical fiction, American Tropic is a credit to the genre. Although the stories are fiction, those stories are clearly tied to historical information and the author cites the connections at the end of each section. The stories are engaging, the characters memorable. A really good read.

This book, which represents over a decade of research effort, will transport you to late-Victorian London and introduce you to a group of clever, creative, and strong American women. All right, I am not objective as I wrote the book, but allow me to tell you a bit about it! Curious as to why so few women were mentioned in books about American expatriates in 19th-century England, I challenged myself to find them. After piecing together bits of correspondence, newspaper and magazine articles of the time, club records, and scores of out-of-print books, I assembled an array of fascinating characters. There are two women who were best-sellings authors of their time; the New York society woman who left her family for a career on the London stage; the suffragist playwright; the singer from upstate NY who was one of Queen Victoria's favorite artists; the expose-writing journalist; the portrait painter who set up a sanctuary in London for wounded soldiers, and many more. I hope you will enjoy reading about these women who deserve NOT to be forgotten!
Thank you --

The American Express Travel Guide of Amsterdam (1992), written by Derek Blythe, has been re-written by Carol Winkelman and re-published as Travel&Leisure: Amsterdam (1997). Travel&Leisure magazine, in conjunction with Macmillan Travel, designed this new version of the book for a larger audience that includes young travelers, budget travelers, babyboomer travelers, discriminating travelers, and business travelers. The new book is a combination of traditional and offbeat travel guide, helping the reader find his/her way to hotels, restaurants, museums, and historical sites while also taking him/her "inside" Amsterdam to experience its cafe culture, lively arts scene, and famous nightlife. The new book, like The American Express Guide, includes an excursion to Rotterdam that leads the reader from the historic to the ultramodern.

Jointly compiled and edited by Walter E. Meshaka Jr. (Zoology and Botany, State Museum of Pennsylvania) and Kimberly J. Babbit (Department of Natural Resources, University of New Hampshire), Amphibians And Reptiles: Status And Conservation In Florida is a compendium of articles of Floridian herpetofauna. From "The Florida Herpetofauna in a Changing Environment" by Walter Meshaka and Ray E. Ashton, to "The Value of Dead Tree Bases and Stumpholes as Habitat for Wildlife" by D. Bruce Means, to "The Conservation of Box Turtles on Public Lands in Florida" by C. Kenneth Dodd and Marian L. Griffey, Amphibians And Reptiles presents a wealth of information on specialized biological investigations in Florida's uplands, wetlands, rivers, and estuarine systems. Also included are three ground-breaking articles addressing issues in the commerical harvesting and Florida's herpetofauna, and two excellent pieces on exotic species and the Floridian herpetofauna. Concluding this outstanding collection is a "Synthesis" summary. Enhanced with a bibliography of cited literature and an appendices ("County Records of Native Amphibian and Reptile Species in Florida), Amphibians And Reptiles is a welcome and seminal contribution to herpetofauna in general, and Floridian amphibians and reptile wildlife in particular.