Florida Books

If you read Joy Dryfoos' book about Full Service Schools, you'll be excited about this "how-to" guide...it helps you turn dreams into reality for children and their families!

Ms Takeuchi has presented an excellent appraisal of the life and work of Taiga. After a detailed biographical section, the artist is considered in relation to his contemporaries and to developing theories about the relationship between landscape and pictorial representation. Particular attention is paid to the theories of Gyokushu, who assigned Taiga a central position in the new Nanga movement in Japanese art. Finally, the meanings of the concept "shinkeizu", or "true-view", as applied to Taiga's work, are helpfully clarified.

Taiga is shown to occupy a pivotal position, reinterpreting Chinese traditions of landscape painting to give new impetus to topographical art during the Tokugawa period. His genius is shown to reside in his simultaneous innovation, and respect for tradition.

This book is generously illustrated in colour and monochrome, and benefits from some very helpful appendices, including a section on the personal seals used by Taiga on his pictures.

Ziegler's book is a very readable, balanced overview of what most people see as the key question in national security -- how to prevent war. I have personally read 3 different editions of this book over the years, because I find it useful to think again about the issue. The primary approach of the book is two-fold. First there are some historical examples of times of crisis in war and peace. Then, using those examples (for which Ziegler can now have confidence in at least part of what the reader knows about them), a wide variety of appraoches to preventing war (military strength, arms control, diplomacy, world government, etc.) are considered in individual chapters. The conclusion I draw from reading this book is that there is no clear way to prevent war, but that there are lots of tools we can bring to bear in ensuring that, if war comes, it was not caused by regretable error (a la the Guns of August). As you can see, I recommend it as both a good read and a comprehensive (if introductory) discussion of the topic.

Having read the introduction, I understand (finally!) what happened in last years election.

The collection of key cases found here is superlative.

I highly reccomend this examination of election 2001 to any reader interested in an organized clarification of the events last fall.

As part of the Images of America series, this book brings readers some great Cape Canaveral photos. So much history has happened in Cape Canaveral, especially with our space program, that this book was long over due. Ray Osborne, a historian well known to the Cape area, does an excellent job presenting readers with images they will remember forever. If you love history and those little facts that make life interesting, then this is a must read. If you're going to visit or have visited the Cape Canaveral area, I would also recommend you get this. As a closet History Channel watcher myself, I really enjoyed this book and seeing how things were "way back when"!

If you have never read a Hiaasen, now is the perfect time to read one. With Bushes in the White House and in Tallahassee, Hiaasen is in high order. He takes on the tawdry, vulgar and barbarian of Florida, from Cuban intolerance to Orange Bowl stupidity to the destruction of the Everglades and the ever-increasing northern immigration into the state. While in his heart he may yearn for a Florida that will never again exist he has a ruthless cynicism that will have you howling and should have most Floridians saying "How true, how true." The pity is that any part of this country that has been sold down the river to developers, raped of it's natural beauty and sold to anyone with money to donate to some local scoundrel's campaign should have a Hiaasen. To say that these are three of his very very best is impossible because each one I finish becomes my favorite until the next one comes out (he produces a new novel about every two to three years and while you are waiting you can always go back to the beginning--Tourist Season--and start all over again.) Of these three, Stormy Weather is my favorite. It is his view of the second "hurricane" of charlatans, rednecks, insurance peddlers and assorted thieves and scoundrels that invaded southern Florida after the big hurricane--Andrew--leveled the territory in the 90's. Hiaasen's style is the modified murder(s) mystery--you know whodunit immediately but the fun comes in tracking down the bad guys and in the knife sharp jibes he takes at all things along the way. Hiassen is a columnist for the Miami Herald--one of the nation's great newspapers--and he goes after local politicians and blowhards with the same gusto that you will find in his books. Some refer to his writing as within the genre of Southern Florida writers--Buchanan, Macdonald are two other examples--but each is unique in his or her own style. Of the three, Hiassen is the sassiest, the boldest, the one who makes me laugh until tears cloud my reading over and over again. Skin Tight is about a portrait of the plastic surgery business in Florida and he approaches the subject with a very sharp scalpel; Sick Puppy is pure GOP at the current time, if you have read about the "game preserves" that are being stocked in Texas so weekend big game hunters can go out and shoot something wild--but in captivity. I do not mean to suggest that Hiaasen is Republican or Democrat necessarily--he finds plenty of rascals in both camps. Please, please, please read just one of his books--you won't be able to pass the next one by and if you have never read any of his books, I envy you--you have hours and hours of pure reading pleasure (as they say) to enjoy.

Mark Foster does a terrific job defining the character and accomplishments of Carl Graham Fisher. This incredible life story played a far larger role in shaping America in the 20th centuty than most people understand. Largely forgotten, Fisher set the tone for American leisure time, and gave his heart to everything he did. Foster's insights to Fisher's motives and values provide a fascinating portrait of a man whose legacy lives on in Miami and in every turn of the wheel in American auto racing. Great reading!

I work in a college career center in the Orlando Metro area and this book is one of the most valuable resources that is available for our students who want to find a job locally. My only wish is that a new edition, which would include all available websites, be published now.

This book is an explosion of adventure...
Here's a couple that took a chance and got paid big rewards for the inconvenience of living on a remote (in the 1930s) island. I loved it, my two teenage boys loved it, as did my wife, 2 brother-in-laws, cousin and best friend.
Don't miss out on a full lifetime lived in just a couple of years in the Florida keys, where wild is an understatement.

Sheila Delany provides an important insight into Chaucer's view of the world in her definition of his complex perception of religious reality . His ' skeptical fideism' his belief which incorporates doubt and question is a central sign of the sophistication of the Chaucerian world- view. Delany writes clearly and interestingly in a scholarly study which the general reader can also greatly enjoy.