Florida Books

Chessie the Travelin' Man is a sensitive and wonderfully written book that details the amazing true story of a very special creature. My children love the illustrations in this book as well as the rhyming prose. This story is not only charming, it is filled with factual information about a rare and endangered species. I would reccommend it to any parent or educator!

Lovely book, all in rhymes which my 6 yr old son loved. Based on a true story about a manatee that somehow makes it up the northern atlantic coast two years in a row. He is tagged and followed. Includes gentle info about how manatees get hurt by boats, and how few there are left in the world. Beautifully illustrated, and received a Parent's Award. "Chessie" is for the Chesapeake Bay, which he entered on this first trip. Five stars because my son loved it so.

Lovely book, all in rhymes which my 6 yr old son loved. Based on a true story about a manatee that somehow makes it up the northern atlantic coast two years in a row. He is tagged and followed. Includes gentle info about how manatees get hurt by boats, and how few there are left in the world. Beautifully illustrated, and received a Parent's Award. "Chessie" is for the Chesapeake Bay, which he entered on this first trip. Five stars because my son loved it so.

An excellent collection of letters that provides a detailed account of the everyday life of an average Confederate soldier. If you or someone you know has any interest in the American Civil War, then this text is a must-have.

I enjoyed reading both Catton's and Foote's histories of this great and sad period of American History. I've also read more detailed histories of many of the great battles, but this is the first time I've read a personal account of one's direct experiences of this war.

Reading Washington Ives' journals and letters provides a more personal perspective on the war that can only briefly be glimpsed in the historical records, much of which were compiled from just such letters and journals.

A gem of a book...valuable historical perspective into
life on the frontlines during the civil war.

Very interesting and makes you wonder........

Loved it

If you are interested in enjoyable reading and learning about diverse cultures, Joseph Lerner's COAL FIRE is for you. Cultural diversity has blended so well into functioning communities, that, in order to see that diversity we must look at the community using the eyes from the other culture. COLD FIRE gives an entertaining and informative insight into the lives of a Jewish family living in the predominately Christian coal mining area of Pennsylvania in the 1950's.

It's a coming of age story seen from the eyes of Sidney Gerstein. The narrative is reminiscent of the psychological passage of Holden Caulfield from Catcher In The Rye. Outwardly Sidney is bright, inquisitive, and aims to please, but inwardly he questions the world around him and his place in that world, but in more socially acceptable manner than Holden. Sidney tries to understand the Jewish culture and religion from a matter-of-fact point of view. When he encounters anti-Semitism, he doesn't seethe with anger, but approaches his relatives and a Rabbi to understand the reasoning behind the bigotry. With his child-like questioning, Sidney explores the philosophical and theological basis of Judaism and incorporates them into an understanding of who he is.

Sidney's growth comes not from one major conflict in his life, but from a series of seemingly ordinary life experiences. Many of the incidents in the novel, could stand on their own as short stories. In addition to the philosophy, I enjoyed the detailed accounts of the day to day living in a mining community, seeing how the Christian and Jewish communities interacted and the interactions of the Jewish community within itself. The weaving of these stories gives a very rich picture of the mind and soul of Sidney Gerstein.

Besides being pleasurable reading, I believe COAL FIRE would make a good suggested reading for classes on Cultural Diversity.

Joseph Lerner's COAL FIRE is an endearing debut novel. Set in a town in the coal-mining region of Pennsylvania, it recalls episodes from the narrator's childhood during the 1950s. The story is framed by the life-threatening illness of the narrator, Sidney Gerstein, and the attendant anxiety and depression that impel him to write the story of his childhood as a means of recovery. For the most part Sidney's is a happy childhood, his close-knit family consisting of his parents, sister, and grandparents, all of them living together in the building that is also the grocery store that provides their livelihood. The Huck Finn-like freedom that Sidney enjoys in this more innocent time, nearly inconceivable for present-day children, allows his involvement in various ultimately harmless scrapes and adventures.
But the story is more than a childhood idyll, as Sidney confronts a number of crises. Some of these are typical adolescent crises associated with sex and finding one's place in the world. Other major issues relate to religious belief, ethnic identity, a family financial crisis, the serious illness of loved ones, and the deaths of friends and his grandfather. Sidney is characterized most of all by his curiosity: he wants to understand everything, from how coal mines work to how the universe works, from the economic and sociological implications of the coal industry's decline to the nature of God and the meaning of death.
The Gersteins are a Jewish family in a predominantly Christian world, and thereby hangs much of the story's interest. We follow the young Sidney's development as he negotiates the difficult business of maintaining his identity in the face of slights and taunts, while at the same time sustaining relationships outside his ethnic and religious tradition. His triumph is that he is able to do both without hypocrisy and without bitterness.
COAL FIRE is a good story, its time and place--and especially the coal industry in that time and place--carefully researched by the author. Sidney Gerstein, sensitive and precocious, is a character not easily forgotten. I recommend this novel heartily.

One of the attributes setting fine writing apart from mediocre hacking is the ability of the novel to create its own world, to take the reader away to a new, wholly unique, and unforgettable place. Joseph Lerner's Coal Fire does exactly that. I was able to see life and a slice of recent history (the mellow 50s in a small Pennsylvania mining town) through an entirely different perspective and believe my understanding of varying world views has been enriched by the experience. The work probes deeply into life's essential meanings; but it does so with a light touch, an often humorous tone, endearing and well-rounded characters, and a colorful, nostalgic setting that seems almost to breathe. I recommend this wonderful book with all my heart.

Dee's book is wonderfully written. It is hard to put it down. The book is filled with helpful instruction to new preachers. I use it almost every time I prepare a lesson. He gives basic outlines for different types of sermons. I have found these outlines very beneficial when observing my own outlines. It also gives young men, like my self, a little more confidence in our ability, since the book offers ways to find your own strengths and weaknesses, as well as how to continually improve both areas. Dee's book would benefit all readers, since in some aspect of our lives all christians need to be spreading the message of Christ.

Brother Bowman has an accurate understanding of what preaching is and offers a well-balanced, well-rounded approach. The guidelines he presents wisely avoid forcing all preachers into a single mold and instead will help any preacher--young or old, new or experienced--be the best preacher he can be. We have long needed a book like this.

Brother Bowman is uniquely qualified to write a book on the art of preaching. He has been for a number of yearas one of the most effective preachers among our brethren (churches of Christ), traveling throughout the U.S. and always in great demand for meetings and lectures. He has also, for the past 14 years, been conducting a special class on the art of preaching each spring at Florida College (Temple Terrace, Florida). This book is a compilation of the material he has used in that class, along with a special "preacher training program" that he has conducted for a number of years in Pasadena, Texas.

I just finished reading the book myself, and I highly recommend it to all preachers, young and old, who are interested in improving their sermon preperation and presentation skills. Chapter titles include:

1. In The Beginning 2. Who Is Qualified To Preach? 3. Types of Sermons 4. Preparing the Sermon 5. Style and Personality 6. The Preacher and His Audience 7. Rhetoric: The Power of Persuasive Speaking 8. Preaching In This Age

Here is a quotation from the "Foreward" written by another man I consider to be a great preacher, Melvin Curry:

"Now, thanks to Dee Bowman's book ... preachers young and old are blessed with a practical handbook that guides us through the thrilling process of sermon preparation and delivery. It is a book that teaches us how to balance form and substance."

I was getting so tired of stories on Miami. I had almost decided that Florida was now permanently off my personal "place to visit" list. That was before this delightful story, TRUE story, THE CONCH THAT ROARED arrived at my place. The well researched (and well illustrated) book took me on a magical if not bizarre journey to the end of Highway 1 in an explanation of how Key West became the Conch Republic and proceeded to seceed from the Union. Obviously author Gregory King is not only well verse with the place but also a most erudite interpretor of its story. He has made me want to drive (at least once) to Key West and experience what makes these folks so special. A word of warning though: you might have to use the recipe in the back of the book for Key Lime Pie to munch while reading this story. Or maybe drinking the Cuba Libre would be more appropriate?

The Conch That Roared is a must-read book if you're traveling to the Florida Keys or are just an armchair reader! Why? This is the only book available which gives the visitor/reader a taste of the real flavor of Key West...and I'm not talking just key lime pie and conch fritters (both recipes and more are included in the back of the book).

Author Gregory King must have visited every bar up and down the the scenic area... from Key West, past Key Largo and to the Last Chance Saloon as well as the politico's to write with such flair and flavor. He captured the essence...the soul and spirits of those citizens who declared war on the United States.

This is a great gift to give to someone visiting the Key West. Include a bottle of Cuban rum (which presently is illegal), two cheap glasses, and Coke, as well as Nellie & Joe's Famous Key West Lime Juice. 1/2 pund of minced conch, or an equal amount of clams. This will make a great going-away gift as well as provide ingredients for wonderful Key West entertaining when your friends return.

Put on your favorite Jimmy Buffett album and read the book.The characters in King's book are delightful and colorful enough to make a movie. King did a wonderful writing job of introducing them all to the rest of us! Thanks for taking a bit of history and bringing it to life for the rest of us conch-heads!

Key West secedes from the Union, declares its independence -- and it's not fiction, it's history. King captures the quirky heart and spirit of Key West and reports from the insider's view the events that led to revolution. I was in Key West to celebrate the secession anniversary a few years ago. This book brings the story to life with a lot grins along the way. It is fun to learn the strategic thinking and ingenuity that went into the battle with the US government -- a credit to Key West islanders and a tribute to the American way! Pick it up, put on Jimmy Buffet and enjoy the ride.

Several sketches of colorful, eccentric Floridians. Maid, prisoner, store clerk, Seminole Indian, schizophrenic, etc.

The writing is excellent, the vernacular dialect is authentic, the scenes are familiar from my childhood.

What's marvelous about this book is the subjects have lots of dignity. It's not a collection of carnival freaks with tattoos and addictions and senses of entitlement.

Ray Washington treats his subjects with care and love. His love for language, too, is evident.

Everyone has a story, it is said. Washington shows us the stories of his subjects in a way that makes us understand, sympathize, and even, perhaps, like a group of people as varied as ranchers and murderers, ecologists and battered wives.

Although these short (2-4 page) studies are wonderfully crafted, they might be a bit too rich for steady reading, like a dinner of chocolates. Better to keep this book by your bedside, or even in your glove compartment, for a little treat when you grow weary of this get-ahead-kindness-be-damned world with which it is all too easy to get entangled.

These stories are hysterical. This guy has quite a gift for boiling down the human essence of the south in a funny sweet and painfully honest way. great book.

I read this book to my children all under 12 and it was great. We enjoyed the insight to what vietnam was like after studing the vietnam war this past summer. We also loved the feeling of being on the hunt for the panther. For all outdoors men/women this is a must. It is also a must for anyone who really wants to know what living with vietnam is really like.

It is no wonder that "Cry of the Panther" by James P. McMullen has been issued in three separate printings since its debut, for it truly is a remarkable book. First pubished in 1984 as a hard cover version by Pineapple Press, it was picked up the next year by McGraw-Hill for the paperback edition, which became a New York Times best seller. Then, in 1996, Pineapple Press reissued "Cry" in soft cover, which developed a whole new following that continues to this day.

Perhaps it also no wonder, then, that this outstanding example of poetical true-story telling, which the late James Dickey called genius, would have its imitators; all great artists must suffer that indignity, it seems, if they live long enough. The incredible thing, though, is that a foreign author has curiously taken McMullen's title for a very different, fictional story that actually cries out for a more appropriate appellation. Indeed, the name "Cry of the Panther" seems to have been dragged in by the hind legs; surely, it's a long reach even for a metaphor here.

Now, while titles themselves cannot be copyrighted, what would motivate an author/publisher to choose an extant title and an ill-fitting one, at that--book sales by association? Just coincidence, some might allow. But is "Books in Print" unavailable in Scotland?

Undoubtedly, author McMullen will take no comfort in the oft-quoted words of Charles Caleb Colton, "Imitation is the sicerest of flattery." For mistaken identity among the book-buying public, especially on the internet, can be harmful to any author. And another hard fact in this computer age of easy access is that we see more and more irresponsible writers "borrowing" other authors' works with impunity, not to mention out-and-out plagiarism. Often, if they are challenged, they merely explain away their behavior with pathetic emanations, like the recent ones we've heard from big-name authors.

So just what is it about good books, then, that prompts some writers to appropriate them or their parts with such indifference? Why, it is the same as for any pirate--easy gold. Gold like the 14-karat threads that weave McMullen's odyssey into a most compelling narrataive of good vs. evil. Gold that shines like a beacon, revealing man's clumsy efforts to manage our planet's resources. Gold like the timeliness and timelessness that bind the pages of "Cry of the Panther" into our hearts and minds. Irresistible stuff, indeed--the kind of thing writers wish they'd said themselves, and which some would like to believe they have, if only by some feeble connection.

This time, fortunately, it's not that easy; McMullen's book is imcomparable. Set in the great but rapidly shrinking expanse of wilderness known as the Florida Everglades, the story unfolds in brillant depictions of the swamps blended with flashbacks from this Vietnam veteran's mind as he sets out, using his U.S. Marine training and experience, to track the disappearing Florida panther. How can this majestic animal not be surviving? he wonders. So begins this man's hopeful quest for traces of a species, the disappearance of which could be a prescient signal of our own demise. And the cry he hears in that wilderness is surely for all of us.

McMullen's book is also about the experience of self-discovery, not only for himself but the reader as well: he takes you with him through the labyrinth of jungle, natural and man-made, over barriers that can hide from us our real purpose for being. If you read James P. McMullen's "Cry of the Panther," you will certainly participate in his epiphany, albeit vicariously. But you can't take it away from him nor make it yours, for it is uniquely his alone. All of it.

--H. D. Rudenshiold

I found the story very haunting and important, important because it saved two lives, the cats and Jim Mcmullens. His is more important to me than the Florida cat. I'm sure he has more inside him than the story of the cat. He has family that had to put up with him on his trek into the wilderness and his life in Nam was the breaking point and starting point of the guy I once called "Muck". Really, a gentle person and someone I did not know well enough to call a true friend but well enough to say I knew him and trusted him. His story is real.

I keep picking up this book and findng different worlds and moods . . . some evoking realistic scenes, snippets of conversation, documentations of events. And then in the next poem the mood will shift. Although I know that the author is describing scenes from his life, the poems trigger memories of my own.
William Hollis seems to find inspiration everywhere, in mundane events, in nature, in momories from his past, in the news of the day.
The striking black and white photographs throughout the book add a mysterious and eeire dimension.

Where has this poet been? He gives words to feeling I've not been able to articulate. He makes me see people and things I've noticed, but not really seen. The poems are elegant and structured, but do not feel formal. They go to the deepest emotions and memories, but are not sentimental. The language is absolutely beautiful, but never pretentious. We have a great new poet on the scene.

Enhanced with the photography of Andrea Baldeck, Dark Encounters In Mid Air: New Poems by William Hollis is a marriage of free-verse original poetry and starkly gripping black-and-white images, that combine to bring a human insight into aspects of life, twists of memory, legends, ordinary comforts and the thrill of discovery through such activities as reading or sharing. Drawing upon common shared experience with a literary twist and a flare for insight, Dark Encounters In Mid Air is a soulful, reflective, and inspirational portrait of life itself. Pilgrimage: If I listen I can hear a voice from there, / a wind, a song that linger among dry walls, / that makes me wonder if it's broken breath / or just a wind through broken windows, / a panting from years it takes to climb / a trail where blood has stained the rocks...

This book truly has it all! I have lived in the U.S. all my life and learned more historical facts, about Cuba, from this book than any class I attended. This story is told by a young girl that is wise beyond her years and had to grow up entirely too fast. This family made hard decisions because their world truly changed before their eyes with the take-over of Cuba by Castro. You become a part of this family, their unity, their heartaches and their bravery. It caused me to stop and think about the things we take for granted as Americans. From Cuba to Mexico, and on to the U.S. you will find yourself crying - and in the end cheering for this little girl and her family!

This is a story of a young girls courage, facing the unknown, while the world around her is being systematically ruined. This story begins in Cuba, where this girl grows up in a loving family of means and shows how little by little their possessions are stripped away. It continues to show how an open community turns into one that does not know who to trust. Finally it shows the despiration of this family to send out their daughter alone to find their freedom. This story helps put into perspective what is happening in countries like Venezuela, where dictatorships are stripping the countries of basic human rights.

The minute we saw this book go on sale, we decided to acquire it. As Cuban Americans we want to support the effort of telling the world about the events that made so many Cubans leave the Island.

This book shares the perspective of a young woman who leaves alone, through Mexico, with a final destination of the United States of America, in search for freedom, opportunity, and in the pursuit of happiness.

The Cuban American struggle is now recorded with both the Library of Congress of the United States and Canada, in other words, our story is now immortalized.

We look forward to reading and becoming aware of the what, where, when, how, why, and whom of the history of the Rodriguez family.

Awareness and an education about how evil power takes over the destiny of a nation are important elements to have if we are to prevent history from repeating itself. For us Cuban Americans it is with great concern that we see Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, and many other nations within our region influenced by or enamored of the likes of Fidel Castro Ruz and Che Guevara, therefore, we run the risk of seeing Cuba repeating itself... over and over...

The author has a vision, a perspective to be shared. The pages of Destroyed Dreams promise a message that America needs to hear, for It seems that we can't see it happening beneath our very eyes.

Just reading her prologue tells us this is a book we don't want to miss. Our favorite part is where the author writes that: "Today, a Cuban living outside the Island is a pariah, willing to live anywhere and do anything, rather successfully, to recreate what once was, but realizing the great loss of what we gave up to live in peace. Some lost the rights to a legacy of dreams achieved through the hard work of our ancestors. We have not taken the time to record and disseminate the horrors we lived, to tell the story of destroyed dreams, some for lack of time, others to focus on work to recreate a good living, and many due to fear of reprisal against family members left behind in Cuba. But it is time to say, enough fear! Let the chips fall where they may! It is time to tell our truth!"

This is a marvellous compendium of useful facts about the world's largest theme park. I found it highly illuminating - it has profoundly altered the way I percieve Walt Disney World and its manifold attractions. Since I first tried it a few years ago, I've been using this book to guide my various trips to Disney World ever since.

I had a great vacation with this book

Since the choices in the field of Disney-related guides are vast, I was amazed that one should rise so far to the top of the class. The work is informative and wittily written. Fenster's humor will keep you rolling and his completeness smokes the competition. This ought to be the bible for any family or individual planning a Central Florida vacation. A really fabulous resource which directed my family's vacation and will do so again.