Bunny cuddles up with a copy of ‘Freddy goes to Florida’ and her Teddy Bear. Walter Brooks began writing a series of books in the mid-1920s about a farm of talking animals that included a pig named Freddy. The first[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Dream of Orchids by Phyllis A. Whitney My rating: 4 of 5 stars This book is part of my Florida collection. Setting: Key West. First, Phyllis Whitney is a tremendous writer. There is so much to point to that is[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Announced today is a pilot to be made of Charles Willeford’s ‘Hoke Moseley’. The deeply dark set of novels are set in Miami and have quite a cult following. The books haven’t been in print for many years, so this[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Time for a good book about Florida and Swampy is well indulging! You can indulge, too! Nab a book off the shelf at your home, your local book store or library and log in a few pages or more this[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Walter Powell, daughter and friend at Smith’s Stemper Store in Land O’Lakes in the 1920s. This photo is from Elizabeth & Susan MacManus’ ‘Going, Going…Almost Gone’, 2012. Author MacManus points out that folks then, as now, would get baby critters[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
This review followed well with meeting Mr. Ste. Calire in September 2012 at a talk he gave at the Marion County Museum of History and Archaeology in Ocala. Here’s Swampy and Mr. Ste. Claire below. This is a terrific book[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
To further celebrate Thank a Mailman Day, here’s a Florida book to read! Theodore Pratt wrote many books with Florida as a setting. With out a doubt the best of these was ‘The Barefoot Mailman’. The book chronicles a fictional[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
This undated postcard shows the Bahia Mar Yacht basin, the home of the famed Travis McGee. He lived at slip F-18 on the Busted Flush. John D. MacDonald created the hero of McGee and wrote 21 novels to tell his[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Hernando de Soto among the Apalachee by Charles R. Ewen & John H. Hamm My rating: 5 of 5 stars A terrific literal mapping out of DeSoto’s trek across Florida and his visit near Tallahassee. Very thorough and lots of[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
The Saint in Miami by Leslie Charteris My rating: 5 of 5 stars This is an outstanding book for many reasons. It’s the first Charteris book I’ve read and I must seek more. The writing is very good.The characters are[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
This 1888 photograph of the Indian River shore shows the coquina rock that lies beneath to many of us. This photo is from ‘Victorian Florida: America’s Last Frontier’ by Floyd and Marion Rinhart. You can purchase a copy by clicking[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Jackie Gleason and his new home in Miami Beach in 1964: the Miami Civic Auditorium, later renamed The Jackie Gleason Theater. From ‘How Sweet It Is – The Jackie Gleason Story’ by James Bacon. Click here if you would like[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…