Florida Books

L. C. Evans has hit her stride in Talented Horsewoman. The storyline is richly textured, the language is fluid and the story flows smoothly. A really great read!

I loved this book! I loved the setting because I grew up in Florida so I could really relate to it. the story was fast-paced and kept me guessing. I wound up staying up until the middle of the night finishing it because I didn't want to put it down. Very fun book; I recommend it to anyone looking for a fresh new voice.

The story held together well, with believable characters, settings, and storyline.

The characters were well developed and you either love or hate certain characters very quickly.

The story of a single mom raising a teenage daughter and still at odds with her ex-husband. All of these things bring real life situations to the storyline.

The single mom finds the body of her friend at what looks like a terrible accident. She slowly determines that the supposed accident is really murder. It is apparent she is no super sleuth, but she certainly tries hard to unravel the mystery and find the culprit.

The perpetrator is well masked until the end of the book when all is revealed in an entertaining manner.

All in all a pleasent read with no vulgarity, gore, or extreme language. It contains very good and well-paced "PG" rated dialogue. This is a mystery novel acceptable for the entire family.

Benjamin Blue - author of Storm Killer

This book is a great read especially if you're a horse fan. Its fast paced and I didn't want to put it down. Read it in one night. The plot is filled with plenty of twists and will keep you guessing. The author has an easy to read writing style and it sucks you in from the first paragragh. LC Evans is a witty author, and I enjoyed Talented Horsewoman as much as I enjoyed her last book, Jobless Recovery.

Shomer proves that you don't have to tote a pistol or have supernatural powers to be a strong female protagonist.

These tourists take the reader, by plane, by boat, by grayhound bus and most of all by surprise to amazing unexplored territory. The women and men in the stories shaked, rattled and rolled me into their worlds: worlds which are ordinary and outside and beyond that too. Shomers words, her vibrant images, the emotional depth and sparkling jewel of humor,and pathos ah ha the reader with unexpected possibilities. The journeys of each tourist did come to an end, but fortunately, as a reader, I will be a frequent flyer back to their worlds, reading each story again.

I absolutely loved these stories. We read Tourist Season for our book club (all women), and it was the basis of one of the best conversations we've had in months! Shomer does an amazing job of capturing the women of these stories at unique moments in their lives -- moments that many of us could relate to in some way. These stories are quirky, sometimes funny, and always incredibly human. I can't recommend this collection enough.

In tight, concise prose with vivid imagery that almost reads like poetry, Shomer paints entrancing pictures of women at various stages of their lives. She takes situations that range from the mundane to the quirky to elucidate women we might know - our sisters, our daughters, our wives, our mothers. Stories even a guy can appreciate.

Our family is one of the original Tupperware pioneers mentioned in this book. I was very impressed with the author's ability to really capture an honest and accurate account of Brownie's spectacular rise to power in Tupperware as well as her eventual demise in the business world of the 50's. This book gives credit where it is due to all the early players that were responsible for creating this truely unique American Company. There has always been more to the Brownie Wise and earl Tupper relationship then people today understand and this book does tell the full story well.

I was amazed at the details Bob Kealing related in the book. He really brought Brownie Wise (as well as Tupper himself) to life. The story is not a "slam job" but an even-handed look at the rise and fall of a strong-willed single mother. Brownie Wise was an integral part of Tupperware's meteoric rise. Sadly, as a woman, she was all too easily cast aside. This book relates a sad chapter in the history of Tupperware that I had no idea of. The authors detailed accounts made it easy to connect with the main characters in a way some historical novels never do. I also loved the way he put you "at the scene" by relating details of significant events taking place at the same time as the story. I predict you will be pleasantly surprised at the level of details and straight-forward writing style of this book. Excellent story about one of America's first successful business women.

Bob Kealing transformed meticulous research about the "Queen of Tupperware" into a fascinating story. The interlinking saga of Tupperware and Brownie Wise moves from the early days of the little known plastic container company to the heights of 1950s corporate America. Kealing points to the important contributions Brownie Wise made in home party sales which ultimately made Earl Tupper a very rich man. The surprising downfall of Wise shocked her legions of fans and women who valued her as a role model. She was a promoter & mentor to all the women who for the first time were able to gain financial success. This book is also an important addition to Orlando area history. The small town of Kissimmee eventually grew because of its proximity to Walt Disney World. However, Kealing points out that there was a rich history before Disney World arrived. This is a must read for anyone who is interested in long buried histories.

Having been in the Tupperware Family all my life, i found this book to be fascinating, truthful, and completely up front and interesting - My parents were one of the original distributors so i know what is true and what is not - But the author did great research and wrote it in such a delightful way - I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the true story behind Earl Tupper and Brownie Wise and the early pioneers who worked themselves silly(sometimes literally!) to make Tupperware become a household name!

This is an amazing collection of Gator history. I highly recommend it as a gift to any Gator. We bought it for our son-in-law and are having a hard time giving it up! Enjoy!

This is a fabulous compilation of all things Gator. I bought copies for my parents and all my siblings for Christmas, and they have all raved about how awesome the book is. Packed full of history spanning the decades since the very beginning of UF and the Gators, this book will be a welcome addition to any faithful Gator fan's collection.

This is s must have for all Gator Fans. I bought this as a gift for a friend, and now I am going to get one for myself. I cannot even begin to tell you everything that is in this book. It is so well organized, displayed, and truly a treasured item. I read it from front to back and learned things that I have never heard before. It is truly remarkable!

The picture here does not even begin to do this volume justice. This is a beautiful book that comes in a sturdy and attractive box. It's as much scrapbook as it is history book. Inside the book, in addition to the wonderful photographs and narrative account of the history of Gator football, there are many, many artifacts that come in little pockets on almost every page. There is a replica of the ticket to the national championship game, a copy of Steve Spurrier's handwritten resignation announcement, a copy of the actual stats sheet from the 1966 Auburn game that secured the Heisman for Spurrier, a felt pennant from the 1950s, a copy of the card that Urban Meyer had each player carry with him during the days leading up to the 2006 championship game....the list goes on and on. Each page has a new surprise. Norm Carlson, longtime SID and Gator historian, has done every Gator fan a huge favor by putting together this remarkable "vault" of Gator memorabilia.

Vizcaya is one of the great Gilded Age estates, build by an heir to a huge fortune, who had no family or children, so he devoted all his time and wealth to this palace on Biscayne Bay..and if you've ever layed eyes on this pile you can appreciate it was money well spent. This book is the best resourse I've seen on Viscaya; the text is scholarly and extremely well researched. The images are very well realized, and frankly in a book like this, great images are a must, because you can't imagine a place like this, unless you can actually see it, no description, no matter how articulate can do this place justice. If you have any interest in great residental architecture, or the history of south Florida or just appreciate great books, then I can't imagine you not loving this book.

In my opinion, Witold Rybczynski is the best observer of architecture writing today. Laurie Olin is in the same class as an observer of landscape architecture. The chance to read the two of them writing about this estate is an unusual treat. This is the kind of book somebody might give you and although the cover is attractive, you give a small inward sigh, knowing you will never read it. Not with this book. The writing is simply vastly better than books like this usually are. If you are at all interested in the design process either in landscape or residential architecture you will not be disappointed in this book.

And if you like this book, check out the two books I have linked to which are classics.The Perfect House: A Journey with Renaissance Master Andrea Palladio Across the Open Field: Essays Drawn from English Landscapes (Penn Studies in Landscape Architecture)

This book by two architects that is the story of Vizcaya, the James Deering Estate built in the early twentieth century in Miami as the lavish and sumptuous expression of the great wealth of its tractor-manufacturer owner, is an exceptionally first-class literary production from every point of view that could have a bearing on its subject. Written in the technically precise phraseologies appropriate to architecture and interior decoration, its prose is free of and stands above the contamination that abounds in the otherwise usual debasement of modern literature, and it is illustrated with a landslide of stunningly magnificent photography in both color and black-and-white. But something else with which it is illustrated is what recommended this book to me. I am neither an architect nor an interior decorator, nor has the stuff of those callings ever engaged much of my attention, but as soon as my eye fell on the watercolors painted of Vizcaya by John Singer Sargent when he was a guest of Deering's there in 1917, while I turned the leaves of a friend's copy of the book, I knew immediately as one with a profound attachment to watercolor painting that I must own this book for myself. For although I have held perhaps a hundred Sargent watercolors in my hands in the Metropolitan, Brooklyn and Boston Museums, and seen many more besides in other books, I had never before seen these, as they have lain quietly in private collections without ever being published to my knowledge until now, and they are among the finest examples of Sargent's amazing wizardry in this medium, which defies belief that a human being could have painted them. And the rest of the book is a plus even for one not particularly attracted to matters of residential design or interior décor, for it is a record of an era of refinement, gentility and taste, a belle époque in American history that is gone.

An impressive architectural achievement of the Gilded Age when country manors and their gardens were a conspicuous documentation of personal wealth and power by their owners, the Miami estate of Vizcaya was the equal to such famous contemporary structures as the Bilmore and the San Simeon. The collaborative work of Witold Rybczynski (Martin and Margy Meyerson Professor of Urbanism, University of Pennsylvania) and Laurie Olin (Practice Professor of Landscape Architecture, University of Pennsylvania), Vizcaya: An American Villa And Its Makers" is the complete story of how this magnificent building came to be constructed, landscaped, and utilized as a 180-acre estate on Biscayne Bay complete with lagoons, canals, citrus groves, a farm village, a yacht harbor, and a 40-room Baroque mansion. Enhanced with a wealth of seventy color and 96 b/w illustrations, "Vizcaya" is an informed and informative body of impeccable scholarship presenting a seminal study that is very strongly recommended as an addition to professional, academic, and community library American Architectural History reference collections and supplemental reading lists.

I read this book and was very interested in the story. Unfortunatley I came away felling very sad and empty because the crime was commited in 82 and the book was written in 95 and one of the killers had been out for a few years already. BY 1995!!

This book is an excellent read for those interested in this subject and I looked for a site for Marvin to tell him how much I support him and what he does for others, and I am sorry the system failed him and Staci, and Hilari.

I have read this book 3 times trying to figure out why I am so confused. John Pierson had a background where he raped and licked and tried to suffocate his girlfriend right about the time he did those things to Staci Weinstein. His blood was found in her bed and on her under pants. He had a history, which several people atested too, that when he became excited or violent his nose bled. Eddie Wasko, on the other hand... was never accused of rape, being violent in any way...and not one bit of physical evidence of his was found at the Weinstein home. There was nothing to prove he was there with the exception of a statement that he gave after being interrogated for close to 30 hours without food or much sleep. And let's not forget the Eddie Wasko passed a polygraph test at the point he was questioned the first time. I am also confused at the fact that this Judge Snyder would not allow John Pierson's girlfriend, Janice Langhorn, to testify that John had raped her, licked her all over and tried to suffocate her while becoming extremely violent because she didn't want to have sex with him....That is just what happened to Staci....So why was she not allowed to testify to that to show that John Pierson is a maniac and HIM and only HIM killed poor little Staci Weinstein??? If I had some type of Law degree I would go through this case with a fine tooth comb because everything is showing the the guy who actually committed this murder...spent only 7 years in jail for it and no sooner he was out he was sent right back in for rape...AGAIN!!! COME ON...people...Are we trying to clean up violence in our communities because we didn't in this situation, did we??? The other guy...is still to this day in prison. It's unfortunate that these things happen in our judicial system...but they do and SOMEONE needs to take a look at it case by case and put a stop to it!!!! My sympathies to Marvin and his family..and also to Eddie Wasko for believing in and listening to the corrupt investagators who were trying to get professional gain out of a vulnerable, niave man. Thank you!

I was a teenager when my step brother killed Staci, My adopted Mother was married to his father and everyone knew that John had major problems. He shoved me in front of a bus in grade school which lead to my being hospitalized. He also tried to smother a girlfriend after she refused sex. He was paroled and soon was back in prison for attempted rape of a woman in central florida.
He is now out and working for his younger brother Gene Pierson doing home repair in Florida. Again the system has failed us. My sympathy to Marvin for his loss.

As someone who knows Marvin, this has been the hardest thing for him to go through. He is the sweetest and kindest man you will ever meet. This story just proves that bad things do happen to good people. Only a parent can truly understand what its like to lose your child. This book will help those who don't to understand what its like.

Thie stunning book shows the real splendour of orchids in their natural environment. It's an intelligent book, thoughful and caring in its obvious respect for the Florida wildlands and orchids of the world. The images are for conservation afficionados as well as the average person who cares for nature, as well, of course, for orchid lovers around the world. It's a great Christmas gift because it appeals to so many different audiences, and because it reflects on the serenity and spirit of the natural world. And, especially for those in Florida, a great gift for clients and customers

Wild Love Affair is a beautiful book to display. Connie Bransilver takes exotic exquisite photographs. The essay collection takes you to deep swamps and secret places with environmental heroes. Wild Love Affair would make a special gift for birthdays or holidays, especially Floridian flower lovers. Enjoy!

In Wild Love Affair, Connie Bransilver writes that "Orchids capture the imagination . . . evoke an insatiable passion, a sensual appeal . . . [and] cast a powerful spell." That is exactly what she has achieved in this beautiful book. It is a sensual delight of photography from a passionate orchid aficionado. Bransilver captures the imagination of orchid lovers and those who merely appreciate the beauty of nature in all its forms. Anyone on your gift list this holiday season would appreciate this wonderful book.

This book from Nature photographer/writer Connie Bransilver is a true celebration of Florida's native, mystical orchids. 'Wild Love Affair', which is more photo-poetry than field guide, gives colorful insight into the intoxicating world of 'Orchid Fever', an epidemic which regularly captures the minds and hearts of sunshine state naturalists. A combination of essays from leading orchid experts gives the book an authoratative feel, without lulling a reader to sleep with page after page of textbook style writing. The photographs, which are the highlight of this hard cover edition, get you intimately close to these elegant flowers without having to trudge through thick swamp land to enjoy them. Visitors to my home have a hard time putting it back down on the coffee table once they have picked it up! If you have even the slightest interest in Florida flora, scenery, or entrancing color photography...this book is a must!

Our grandchildern loved this story as they enjoy hearing about and
playing pirates.
The book is funny and realistic to children.
Also it is educational in the details without seeming like a history lesson.

Susan in Portland, Ore

What a fun read for elementary and middle school children! We are following the Johnson family as they continue to explore history and local color....this time on Amelia Island. The resources and activities Mrs. Wood offers are excellent for teachers. There are puzzles, word searches, and wonderful discussion questions guaranteed to promote classroom interaction and critical thinking skills. Children can identify with the sibling relationships and family dynamics in each story. The characterizations make one feel as though the children are someone we all know and love!

English teacher Jane R. Wood presents Adventures on Amelia Island: A Pirate, A Princess, and Buried Treasure, an adventure novel for middle school and junior high young adult readers that continues the saga of the Johnson family and their knack for personally experiencing connections with history. When the family spends a week on Amelia Island during the annual Isle of Eight Flags Shrimp Festival, five-year-old Katy learns about a real princess who once lived near there, and encounters a mysterious pirate - is he real, or just a product of her youthful fantasies? Nine-year-old Bobby hunts for the buried treasure of legend supposedly hidden on the island. Bobby and his older brother Joey visit a cemetery, a 19th century fort, and streets reputed to be haunted by ghosts. Black-and-white illustrations intersperse this engaging tale, which draws upon carefully researched history to mesh with the medley of adventure and legend. Also highly recommended is Wood's previous young adult novel, "Voices in St. Augustine".

Michel Delville argues that the twentieth-century American prose poem ought not to be regarded as merely a piece of ornamented, poeticized prose but rather as a negotiation of the boundaries of lyric, narrative, expository, and speculative genres. In recent years the prose poem has been informed and ruptured by both poststructuralism and Marxism. In the hands of "the Language poets," the New Prose Poem insists on its scriptural illegibility rather than a speech-based comprehensibility. It may oppose the social and economic status quo, not through direct reference--which would only mirror the language of the dominant ideology--but by subverting the linguistic assumptions that undergird the status quo. Delville's interpretations are especially powerful when they focus on Gertrude Stein, Russell Edson, Charles Simic, and such "Language Poets" as Lyn Hejinian, Madeline Gins, and Kit Robinson. Delville astutely questions how politically subversive such writers can be when they make little contact with the social and political world. He refrains from asking what seems to me an equally salient question: What if the language of hegemonic discourse (e.g. TV and the internet) is now not necessarily transparent and speech-based but often discontinuous and nonreferential--that is, not fundamentally different from the language of the New Prose Poem? Perhaps one of the strengths of contemporary prose poems, and of Delville's valuable analysis of them, is that they encourage us to rethink and to refeel our relationship to the postindustrial overflow of signs.

This book has been invaluable in terms of both my studies and work. So much of the prose poem has to do with with the ways in which it makes itself known, and Delville does an exquisite job explaining the means of making. As a history of the American Prose poem, as a text that explains possibilities of language use, applicable to all writing seeking to explore itself, I can't recommend it highly enough. If you're serious about writing, about critical reading, you need this book.

Where is the six-star option?

Deville's book is an excellent history of the prose poem from Baudelaire to Stein to as well as a close study of important figures in the prose poem such as Russel Edson, Robert Bly, and Charles Simic. It started out a little slow, perhaps because it's been a few months since I've read a critical text, but then it became very readable. I was using this book to prepare for a prose poem panel discussion at a writing conference and found it extremely useful. It seems like the prose poem is finally well on its way to becoming a more accepted form. Recent collections such as Tony Tost's "The Invisible Bride" and Mary Koncel's "You Can Tell The Horse Anything" further this point. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested on prose poems, but don't expect an easy definition.

This book is the second in the series about the kids in a neighborhood in Florida (see "Crossing Jordan" for list). The main character is real preteen dealing with the uncertainty of the foster care system. It is a book about a girl who not only survives, but also builds a life for herself and thrives among an unlikely family. She is a character full of life and determination. A great read for 4th grade through beginning high school! This book is full of North Florida local color (the real Florida away from the glow of Disney World). I know because it is set in our town and she captures it to a T with all of its fun and quirkiness! It makes a great read aloud! My son begs me to read more each night!!

I love the characters in this book. They have flaws and virtues and could all realistically exist in the pretend neighborhood of Anna Casey's world. (which is loosely based on a a very real neighborhood that is located a few blocks from the school where I am a media specialist.) Many of the students that have already read, "Crossing Jordan," eagerly read this second novel of Adrian Fogelin and enjoy it very much. Not only because they recognize characters from the first book, but because there is much adventure and character driven
comedy in this book as well.
I have always felt that the cover of this book did not reflect the quality of the story within. I noticed that the cover has been changed--but it is still a cover to attract elementary school girls--while there is much in this story to interest both elementary and middle school boys as well. I'd like to see the Vietnam vet portrayed with a wooded scene and the two main characters hiding from him on the cover. This book is well written and entertaining and still deserves a more intriguing cover.

This book was one of the best books I have ever read! In this book Anna and her friend Eb are living with a foster parent named Ms. Dupree and they are trying to fit into her environment! Other events also make this book interesting! This was such a good book I could not stop reading it!In the end Anna learns her place in the world!