To enhance your reading pleasure, let a Copperfish into your life

Recently, I raced up to Punta Gorda to meet the owners of Copperfish Books. I’m a man who loves bookstores, and I’d never had the opportunity to fish there. My visit was most delightful and informative. Cathy Graham and Serena Wyckoff have created a well-planned, well-stocked, and most comfortable space to browse, peruse, contemplate, and ask for advice. You can even sit down.  

They keep track of and stock the potential and actual best-sellers as well as a wide variety of other new books. Like most independents, they combine new books with used – and they also have an antiquarian section. They stock a deep assortment of Florida writers, particularly Charlotte County scribes, and they offer stimulating selections on Florida yesterday and today.

They will handle special orders, including searches for out of print titles. They have introduced a 20% discount on most newly released adult hardcover books. They insist, “If we don’t have it in stock, we can order it for you.”

Cathy and Serena

If you, your organization, or your book club need multiple copies of the same title, Cathy and Serena offer 25% off most new books with a minimum purchase of 20 copies. They also have a trading/credit program that can save book addicts a good deal of money. Also, they support local authors by offering to stock their books through a consignment program.

At Copperfish Books, you can enjoy range of literary events. Readings and signings by local authors are scheduled regularly. There is a book club that meets on a website-posted schedule with two sessions on meeting days: 9am and 6pm. New copies of the book club selections are discounted 10%. RSVPs are requested.  

Because the owners planned for Copperfish to be a lively cultural meeting space, they made it possible to rearrange some of the display furniture and seat up to 80 attendees comfortably. . . .

To read the entire article, including an interview with the proprietors, as it appears in the August 3, 2017 Charlotte County edition of Florida Weekly, click here: Florida Weekly – Copperfish Books

This article may appear in other editions of Florida Weekly. Let’s hope so! So many books, so little time.

Game warden adventures reveal an important side of Florida’s nature

Bad Guys, Bullets, and Boat Chases: True Stories of Florida Game Wardens, by Bob H. Lee. University Press of Florida. 272 pages. Hardcover $24.95.

Though its main purpose lies elsewhere, this vivid treatment of the life of game wardens underscores the fact that Florida has been impressively dedicated to the stewardship of natural resources. Across the state, smaller and larger preserves – some quite enormous – protect the habitat of wildlife. Mr. Lee’s book enables us to visit stunning (and sometimes scraggly) locations. 

The author’s focus is on the people who work for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), a combination of two previous agencies. FWC has over eight hundred conservation law enforcement officers and another thirteen hundred additional employees. The conservation officers and investigators (“game wardens”) “have full police powers and statewide jurisdiction.” From the tales Mr. Lee has collected, readers will learn that this is no job for the timid.

There are bad guys out there illegally killing or capturing wildlife for profit. They are often skilled, sometimes organized into gangs, and always ready take enormous risks to satisfy their greed or their addiction to the thrill of violence.

The seventeen chapters offer a variety of stories illustrating the skills and courage of these wardens. Although sometimes the main business is to wait in hiding while anticipating the actions of lawbreakers, most often the stories are brimming with confrontations and high-stakes action.

Bob H. Lee

Among the earlier narratives is the fascinating story of Eastern Airlines flight #401 as it streaked downwards into the Florida Everglades marshlands. Bob Lee tracks the ensuing discovery of the wrecked plane by an airboat-driving young warden, along with his role in the compromised rescue operation. His was Gray Leonhard’s first experience of such a disaster. His long game warden career included hundreds of search-and-rescue operations in which the FWC assisted other law enforcement and rescue agencies.

There are more airboat chases in the book than airboat rescue missions. Whatever the vehicle, game wardens need to foil criminal actions such as deer and turkey poaching, gill-netting operations, and other illegal activities. Confrontations with alligators, snakes, and other dangerous species are also part of a game warden’s work. Alligator and snake skins are profitable commodities, and there are laws governing the harvesting of these money-makers that wardens must enforce. . . .

To read the entire review, as it appears in the May 10, 2017 Fort Myers Florida Weekly and the May 11 Naples and  Punta Gorda / Port Charlotte editions, click here: Florida Weekly – Bob Lee

Touring with young Elvis: the making of a phenom

Elvis Ignited: The Rise of an Icon in Florida, by Bob Kealing. University Press of Florida.  280 pages. Hardcover $28.00.

Bob Kealing makes the case that the best Elvis is the earliest Elvis and that the managerial strategies of Tom Parker kept a great American original from reaching his full potential. By focusing on the emergence of Elvis during his Florida tours in 1955 and 1956, Mr. Kealing can handle in lavish detail the months of a young, unschooled performer’s leap from total unknown in May of 1955 to – by August of 1956 – a celebrated icon of a burgeoning culture without a name. A hillbilly rocker with a sexy performance style, Elvis had the girls swooning, their parents fuming, and the music industry paying close attention. 

Tom Parker helped shape the Elvis who caught fire, but his dominating and generally conservative decisions about girlfriends, songs, and – only too soon – insipid movie rolls, repressed rather than released Elvis’s unique talents. Parker shielded Elvis from other influences and demanded total loyalty.

Packaged in road tours to Daytona Beach, Tampa, Fort Myers, Ocala, Orlando, Jacksonville, and elsewhere, Elvis and the two musicians who accompanied him nurtured a distinctive sound blending various musical and cultural traditions. They learned by doing. They didn’t begin as headliners, but in a remarkably short time ascended to top billing. They moved from smaller venues to more prestigious ones and attracted both critical and supportive journalists who helped shape expectations.

Bob Kealing has the details. Ransacking print coverage of the young troubadour, interviewing scores of people who met him along the way, following the one-lane paths of those early tours, the author captures the spirit of time and place as a new kind of music made its way up of the charts. Mr. Kealing must have tracked down almost every young woman still alive with whom Elvis flirted in about a year and a half of performances. No longer young, they have great memories to share.

Kealing

 

As have other biographers and music historians, Mr. Kealing pays attention to the nurturing of Elvis by the genial owner of Sun Records in Memphis. When Parker pushed for the big time by switching Elvis over to the giant, less edgy RCA, something was already lost.

West Palm Beach, Sarasota, Pensacola, Miami, Lakeland, (Waycross Georgia), St. Petersburg – and then on to the greater stages of big cities, television, and movies. It’s as if once out of the Florida orbit, Elvis lost his essential self, smothered under packaging that distorted his true nature and gift. . . .

To read the entire review, as it appears in the April 5, 2017 Fort Myers Florida Weekly and the April 6 Naples, Bonita Springs, Punta Gorda / Port Charlotte, and Palm Beach editons, click here: Florida Weekly – Elvis Ignited

Classic Naples-based series says adieu with class

Death in the Dark, by Kinley Roby. Privately published. 277 pages. Kindle e-book $2.99.

This is Mr. Roby’s 11^th and final Harry Brock Mystery. Though he had planned for it to be the last, an unexpected dilemma must have sullied the closure experience a bit. Accidentally deleting the almost completed text file and its backup from his computer (a cautionary tale, writer friends), he had to laboriously reconstruct his narrative. In the interim, the publisher of the first ten series titles decided to abandon the detective fiction genre, leaving the author with little choice but to self-publish it via Amazon’s Digital Services division.  

The good news is that it is here, but so far only as an e-book. A confessed fan of the series, I found it once again meeting the high bar of the others in most ways. Readers may trip over the typos of one kind or another that haven’t yet been corrected, but there are still so many things to enjoy.

Roby sets the series in a disguised version of Naples and environs. Those familiar with the area will have fun penetrating the place names (such as “Vienna Village”) the author invents for familiar locations, as well his presentation of the cultural environment.

Roby

Harry is still running his PI business, patrolling the patch of government land called Bartram’s Hammock on the edge of the Everglades. He inhabits a small house in exchange for warden duties, and he gets mixed up in cases that also involve local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies. And, as in past adventures, beautiful women are omnipresent.

He is still spending time with his older friend and neighbor Tucker. These aging outdoorsmen are still doing a bit of farming. It’s a delight that Kinley Roby allows us to see them tending to pets with whom they carry on conversations. Harry and Tucker are an intelligent, humorous odd couple. Tucker’s niece Delia, temporarily living with her uncle, is one of several attractive women whom Harry admires and with whom a relationship almost blooms.

Plot? An enormous international trade in stolen art run by cutthroat thieves is leaving a trail of bodies and threatens to leave more if Harry and the law enforcement officials can’t put a stop to the menace. Some of those involved in this illicit industry are on the edge of cooperating with the authorities to save their own lives and perhaps some of their filthy lucre. The ins and outs of the complex schemes that all sides are hatching create the intellectual stimulation that Kinley Roby’s novels always deliver.

The dialogue between Harry and his friends in uniform captures the nature of their relationships as well as the ways professionals develop and refine plans designed to take down the criminals. Mr. Roby’s characters are well-delineated by their patterns of speech and other tools of this writer’s trade. . . .

To read the entire review, as it appears in the March 15, 2017 Fort Myers Florida Weekly and the March 16 Naples, Bonita Springs, Punta Gorda / Port Charlotte, and Palm Beach editions, click here: Florida Weekly – Death in the Dark

Naples writer-photographer follows up on award-winning travel book

A (mostly) Kids’ Guide to Sanibel & Captiva Islands and the Fort Myers Coast, by Karen T. Bartlett. Mostly Kids Guides LLC. 80 pages. Oversized paperback $19.95.

Wow is the word for this second entry in Karen T. Bartlett’s Mostly Kids Guides series. And while these dazzling, humorous, and information-packed books are aimed at kids, even a 75-year-old like yours truly can enjoy them. What’s not to like? 

An intense color palette, high-energy graphics, and the friendly voice of a caring story-teller combine with a treasure trove of data and plenty of kid friendly attitude.

This book is as thorough as 80 oversized pages can be while keeping the focus on children, their parents, and grandparents. Excitement is everywhere, as are helpful hints. Ms. Bartlett also includes quirky quiz questions to keep readers engaged.

Maps help set the scene, and abundant photographs detail it and stimulate our appetites for exploration.

Manatees, roseate spoonbills, iguanas, loggerhead turtles, bald eagles, and all kinds of regional animal life parade through the books. All the places that offer environmental education (and there are far more than you’d think) are lovingly described. Places that are just plain fun are enumerated with fondness and precision.

Annual festivals, pirate lore, the distinctions of the various beaches, local transportation, Indian mounds, fishing guides, miniature golf, picnic spots – it’s all here.

And there’s more than just what’s indicated in the title. The other barrier islands that protect the Fort Myers coast also receive attention: Cabbage Key, Gasparilla Island, Pine Island, and Cayo Costa are on the itinerary of the imagination. So is the “sand castle capital of the universe,” better known as Fort Myers Beach, with all its vacation attractions. It takes up Estero Island. On another Island is Lovers Key State Park, whose joys Ms. Bartlett sings.

There’s plenty here, as well, about “mainland” Fort Myers.

Can you overuse works like ”fantastic?” Just in case, Karen Bartlett indulges her penchant for coinages such as “sand-sational” and “ginormous.” She’s got a gazillion of them! A kind of laugh-out-loud, raucous music for a child’s ear. Hey, if the kids are laughing, then the adults who are taking them through the wonders of this stretch of Southwest Florida are going to be happy too. . . .

To read the entire review, as it appears in the February 8, 2017 Fort Myers Florida Weekly and the February 9 Naples, Bonita Springs, and Palm Beach editions, click here: Florida Weekly – Kids’ Guide to Sanibel & Captiva

You can buy this book online and at many area shops, including: Barnes & Noble – all three stores: Naples, Estero & Fort Myers.

Naples

Cottontails Children’s Boutique, Collier County Museum (main)

Marco

 Sunshine Booksellers

Lee County

Annette’s Book Nook – Fort Myers Beach, Bailey’s General Store – Sanibel, Edison and Ford Winter Estates – Fort Myers, Gene’s Books – Sanibel, MacIntosh Books & Paper – Sanibel, Nanny’s Childrens Shoppe – Sanibel, The Shell Factory – North Fort Myers, Traders Gulf Coast Grill & Gifts – Sanibel, Tween Waters Inn Island Resort – Captiva, South Seas Island Resort – Captiva

 

Note: 

Naples-based publishing company Mostly Kids Guides, LLC took top honors in Salt Lake City this past spring in the IBPA (Independent Book Publishers Association) Benjamin Franklin Awards. The winning book, earning the Silver award for travel, was “A (mostly) Kids’ Guide to Naples, Marco Island & The Everglades.” It was the only travel book among the top three winners featuring a U.S. destination. The other two winning books featured Paris and Naples, Italy. 

With over 3,000 members, IBPA is the largest publishing trade association in the U.S. The Benjamin Franklin Awards are among the highest honors in the industry.”

Motives and means collide in shadowy Sunshine State thriller

The Gail Force, by Robert Lane. Mason Alley Publishing. 341 pages. Trade paperback $14.95.

This fourth title in the Jake Travis series maintains the powerful rush of suspense, the intricate observations about places and personalities, and the complex tradecraft of its hero that has come to be expected. The task that Jake undertakes is unusually convoluted, the stakes are high, and the women are so very, very attractive. 

Karl Anderson and his pretty wife Riley have found trouble. Karl has disappointed a sinister fellow named Phillip Agatha who under the cover of running an art gallery is an entrepreneur in blackmail and murder. Karl does not escape Agatha’s wrath, but he manages to get Riley on her way to safety. Soon she is depending on Jake to protect her, which means eventually dealing with Agatha.

Agatha, known as the Fat Man, is the target of an FBI investigation, but he seems to lead a charmed life for one in this position. Though there may be people he deals with who would like to rat him out, he may have influence inside the FBI, someone whose personal and professional interests benefit from Agatha’s services. This is truly one of those “you can’t tell the good guys from the bad guys” situations, and Mr. Lane handles all the implications and nuances of this morally murky environment with great skill.

Jake and his long-time, super-skilled buddies team up with an FBI sting meant to bring down Agatha. Millions of dollars flow in and out of various accounts to make this happen. This alliance is managed by Jake’s FBI insider, attractive female Agent Binelli with whom Jake has partnered before. This task brings him, under cover of course, to Agatha’s offices and his super yacht, “The Gail Force.” Agatha is a man of incredible taste and the money to indulge it. He’d like to keep it that way. He sends his lovely assistant Christina to show Jake around. She is quite a distraction, and their relationships builds from role playing to flirtation and is on the edge of becoming much more.

Robert Lane

In fact, just as suspenseful as the painstakingly schemed mission is the growing magnetism between Jake and the much younger Christina. Jake’s attraction to her complicates the reader’s understanding of his healthy, uplifting, and fortunate relationship with Kathleen. It’s clear that Kathleen, developed in the previous Jake Travis novels, is the love of his life, the perfect mate, and perhaps more than he deserves. The scenes between them are magic in every way. . . .

To read the entire review, as it appears in the November 23, 2016 Fort Myers Florida Weekly and the November 24 Naples, Bonita Springs, Palm Beach Gardens / Jupiter, and Palm Beach / West Palm Beach editions, click here: Florida Weekly – The Gail Force

A guide to understanding and addressing sea level change

Sea Level Rise in Florida: Science, Impacts, and Options, by Albert C. Hine, Don P. Chambers, Tonya D. Clayton, Mark R. Hafen, and Gary T. Mitchum. University Press of Florida. 176 pages. 76 color & 4 b/w illustrations. Hardcover $34.95.

Easily accessible to most readers with a scientific background, tougher sledding for the rest of us, this compact, well-illustrated volume clarifies the forces that cause sea level change and the consequences of such change. 

Since we tend to use sea level as a basis for measurement, we assume it’s a constant. However, it is not a constant. The fact of sea level variation is true everywhere, yet Florida has its own unique variations to complicate the decisions of policy-makers. Yes, sea level is and has been rising, the pace of the rise has been accelerating, and there is reason to believe that this pattern will continue for centuries.

The opening chapter, simply and clearly titled “Sea Level Has Always Been Changing,” introduces the evidence regarding seal level fluctuation both globally and in our largely peninsular state. Graphs, charts, and photographs support the lucid explanations by Albert C. Hine as he presents the consensus understandings about how and why sea level changes occur. Geologic changes always have and always will affect sea level. Tides have an influence. Florida’s stressed coastal system factors into the sea level change equation, and the rise in sea level in turn adds to the stress.

Albert C. Hine

Hine presents an abundance of scientific information on the technology and record keeping that bears witness to sea level change.

The second chapter, by Chambers and Mitchum, connects research on recent sea level rise with methods of predicting the future. The authors handle such topics as how the natural movement of water and how human enterprises, globally and regionally, affect the storage and release of water. The warming of the oceans is a significant factor in sea level change: “Warmer water is less dense than cooler water, so if the amount of mass stays the same then the volume must be larger, since density is mass divided by volume.”

Glacial melting has been and will continue to be a major factor in sea level rise. . . .

To read the entire review, as it appear in the November 2, 2016 Fort Myers Florida Weekly and the November 3 Naples, Bonita Springs, Punta Gorda / Port Charlotte and Palm Beach Gardens / Jupiter editions click here: Florida Weekly – Sea Level Rise

“Best. State. Ever.: A Florida Man Defends His Homeland,” by Dave Barry

G. P. Putnam’s Sons. 240 pages. Hardcover $27.00.

—a hilarious and insightful tour of the Sunshine State

Dave Barry has long been one of the funniest writers in the United States and one of the shrewdest analysts of the ridiculous in our manners and mores. During and after his two decades as an award-winning columnist for the Miami Herald, Barry has offered snappy prose that just makes one laugh out loud. This new book finds him cracking wise as he poses as a Florida tour guide who makes no apologies, but rather revels in the nonsense found in his beloved state. Laughter is the best defense. 

Dave Barry’s introduction insists that other states, so often looking down on Florida, have nothing to brag about. While California, Illinois, New Jersey, and New York are in a tie with Florida for incompetence and corruption, Florida’s much lower level of taxation provides incompetence and corruption at a bargain rate.

A brief history of Florida follows, as only Barry could conceive it. He argues that Florida emerged during a period called Global Rising and that the first humans crossed land bridges from Asia to and through North America in search of Spring Break. He notes that the Florida Land Boom was curbed by a 1926 hurricane that turned Miami back into a sleepy little village, but one with far more kindling.

And so it goes: “Under Florida’s ‘stand your ground’ law it is legal to kill anybody for any reason as long as you are standing on your ground.” A recent court ruling: “sitting is also OK.”

Then the tour begins.

Barry provides a fine “on the road” frame around his fresh version of the Skunk Ape story. He compares the Skunk-Ape Research Headquarters to “a tiki bar frequented by motorcycle gangs.” The master of this domain, Dave Shealy, is always looking to add new attractions to his campground and roadside attraction. Barry applauds him as a survivor of changing times, himself “an endangered species.” No skunk apes were spotted during Barry’s visit.

Dave Barry

A supercharged chapter links visits to Weeki Wachee, with its lovely dancing mermaids, and Spongeorama, with its . . . sponges. Weeki Wachee, born at the beginning of the Florida tourist attraction boom, rocketed when the American Broadcasting Company bought the spring in 1959. Since its heyday, it has continued to struggle along, though Barry admits that it’s “low-key bordering on sleepy” that endures as if “the fifties never ended there.” It’s a kind of time machine to a more pleasant America.

Spongeorama is a highly informative place that needs a facelift. Barry has fun following advice in the educational film on choosing the best sponge for his needs. He settles on the wool sponge – “the Cadillac of sponges.”

Barry lodges at Hotel Cassadaga, his refuge while exploring “The Psychic Capital of the World.” The town of Cassadaga is another Florida landmark set back in time. When a spiritual medium fits Barry into her not-so-crowded schedule, he just can’t resist. When she “sees” canisters and asks if canisters were important in his life, Barry feels he should cooperate, but he ends up letting the medium down.

Nor does the number 76 mean anything special to him, as Judy suggests it might. The Q & A between Judy and her new client is hilarious, though probably not to her. Barry insinuates that there might be some faking going on in this historic, possibly haunted town.

But the place that he considers the height of fake is actually quite new. This is the burgeoning metropolis for seniors called The Villages. Boomtown for boomers and their elders, it is rumored to have a swinging lifestyle hidden under a veneer of act-your-age propriety. . . .

To read the entire review, click here: Best. State. Ever.: | Washington Independendent Review of Books

Compendium of Florida facts and follies links the loony, lousy and laughable

Oh, Florida! How America’s Weirdest State Influences the Rest of the Country, by Craig Pittman. St. Martin’s Press. 336 pages. Hardcover $26.99.

Already a New York Times best-seller, this book belongs in every Florida home. No, it’s not a hurricane survival guide, rather it’s a rambling encyclopedia of Florida freakiness. It reminds us of what we have been surviving while warning others to enter at their own risk. Craig Pittman is the literary entrepreneur of what’s odd – and yet often trendsetting – about our populous state with the seemingly endless coastline. It’s local color with a laugh and a blush.  

Mr. Pittman presents his learning, lore, and laughs in eighteen friendly chapters, perhaps to make us think we are strolling along on a Florida golf course. Having established a central focus for each chapter, he generally stays in bounds even while addressing Florida hazards. Every now and then, Craig Pittman does need to take an extra stroke penalty.

There’s something called “school of beauties” criticism, not very well respected, in which the critic simply oohs and aahs and quotes passages. I’m tempted to go there, but then I wouldn’t know how or when to stop. Readers will find their own favorite passages in this delightful romp. So, here are some of the themes and categories:

Florida is, and has been forever, a land of hucksters. Think swampland, think Cape Coral, think rum-running, think of a rainy, often overcast state that named itself the Sunshine State.

Craig Pittman – Photo by Cherie Diez

Florida is a land of “surface flash” that leads people to overlook truly interesting architecture. Why stand gaga in front of Cinderella’s Castle when you can find ten Frank Lloyd Wright buildings on the Lakeland campus of Florida Southern College?

Florida is the land of mermaids and manatees, alligators and armadillos. That’s enough freakiness for one state. But we have more. . . .

To read the full review, as it appears in the October 5, 2016 Fort Myers Florida Weekly and the October 6 Naples, Bonita Springs, Punta Gorda / Port Charlotte, and Palm Beach Gardens / Jupiter editions, click here: Florida Weekly – Pittman

Nostalgia is now in colorful Florida guidebook

A New Guide to Old Florida Attractions: From Mermaids to Singing Towers, by Doug Alderson. Pineapple Press. 184 pages. Trade paperback $14.95.

In this gloriously illustrated book, with many of the 132 color photographs by the author, novelty and nostalgia blend and complement one another. Mr. Alderson provides a feast of adventures for the Florida tourist and the long-time resident who has not yet ventured forth to the distant corners and often remote inland crossroads of this varied and sizeable state.

In the first part of his book (divided into five chapters), Doug Alderson presents a sturdy and engaging history of Florida tourism. Here he underscores the early fascination with Florida through referencing several classic studies of Florida exploration. In chapter 1, we learn that tourism as an industry began to flourish after the Seminole Wars and the Civil War. The late 19^th century ushered in the interest in Florida’s freshwater springs, especially the supposedly restorative mineral springs. Just as popular were rides on the steamboats that plied several of Florida’s rivers. White Sulphur Springs was the first commercialized mineral spring, though over the decades it has had many rivals.

Today’s nascent medical tourism industry owes a debt to the heritage of health tourism. I’ll take a mineral spa to a hospital any time.

In Chapter 2, Mr. Alderson’s guidebook focuses on the interest, then and now, in Florida’s coastal delights. Beach tourism, tourism involving Native American history and customs, and the growing ease of tourism that followed the proliferation of automobiles and highways receive detailed, vivid attention. We are now familiar with roadside attractions, but first came the roads! The early prominence of St. Petersburg as a tourist destination became more and more challenged by the growing highway network.

The author treats nature tourism in chapter 3. Here Mr. Alderson pays attention to national and state parks, the high profile of St. Augustine and environs, and environmental challenges that came with growth and incursions into the Florida wilderness. The beauties of the Everglades, the work of the Civilian Conservation Corps, and the abundance of historical museums all get energetic discussion.

Alderson

Chapter 4 considers further the uneasy blending of the natural and the man made in the development of tourist destinations. Many such destinations are detailed later in the book, but for now we can ponder the hybrid nature of such attractions as Cypress Gardens (now absorbed into LEGOLAND), Jungle Island, Monkey Jungle, Tombstone Territory, and various places where concrete dinosaurs and other creatures can’t quite roam the earth.  But you might be able to climb on one, have someone take your picture, and perhaps enjoy a snack and miniature golf. . . .

To read the entire review, as it appears in the September 14, 2016 Fort Myers Florida Weekly and the September 15 Naples, Bonita Springs, Punta Gorda / Port Charlotte, and Palm Beach / West Palm Beach editions, click here: Florida Weekly – New Guide to Old Florida