Popular Fiction: Florida novels (Professor Steve Brahlek)

In this best-selling novel, Patrick Smith tells the story of three generations of the MacIveys, a Florida family who battle the hardships of the frontier to rise from a dirt-poor Cracker life to the wealth and standing of real estate tycoons. The story opens in 1858, when Tobias MacIvey arrives in the Florida wilderness to start a new life with his wife and infant son, and ends two generations later with Solomon MacIvey, who realizes that the land has been exploited far beyond human need. The sweeping story that emerges is a rich, rugged Florida history featuring a memorable cast of crusty, indomitable Crackers battling wild animals, rustlers, Confederate deserters, mosquitoes, starvation, hurricanes, and freezes to carve a kingdom out of a swamp. But their most formidable adversary turns out to be greed, including finally their own. Love and tenderness are here too: the hopes and passions of each new generation, friendships with the persecuted blacks and Indians, and respect for the land and its wildlife. A Land Remembered was winner of the Florida Historical Society Tebeau Prize as the Most Outstanding Florida Historical Novel.

A story of a group of people who rely on their own courage and ingenuity to survive in a town which escaped nuclear bombing.

At the moment when I was sealing my vows with a gentle kiss, to which Atala at this time made but a feeble resistance, a rapid stream of lightning, followed by a tremendous clap of thunder, filled all the forest with sulphur and light, and shivered a tree at our feet. We fled, trembling with fright. But oh, wonderful!—in the calm which succeeded this shock, we head the sound of a bell! We both stood speechless and listened to this noise, so extraordinary in such a wilderness... —from Atala Now considered the father of French literary Romanticism, François-René Chateaubriand was still unknown as an author when he published Atala in 1801, but the sensation it caused skyrocketed him to fame. The story of doomed Indian lovers in 17th-century America, where Catholicism was taking hold and beginning to impassion natives, it is a celebration of nature and innocence, romance and religious feeling. Hard to find in print, this classic of the fiction of early America is essential reading for anyone seeking a deeper appreciation of 19th-century literature. French writer, diplomat, and politician FRANÇOIS-RENÉ, VICOMTE DE CHATEAUBRIAND (1768–1848) is also the author of René (1802) and Les Martyrs (1809), among other works. A passionate epicure, he lent his name to the cut of beef tenderloin now known as Chateaubriand.

Inspired by a near-mythic event of the wild Florida frontier at the turn of the twentieth century, Shadow Country reimagines the legend of the inspired Everglades sugar planter and notorious outlaw E. J. Watson, who drives himself relentlessly toward his own violent end at the hands of neighbors who mostly admired him, in a killing that obsessed his favorite son

The land was theirs, but so were its hardships

Strawberries -- big, ripe, and juicy. Ten-year-old Birdie Boyer can hardly wait to start picking them. But her family has just moved to the Florida backwoods, and they haven′t even begun their planting. ";Don′t count your biddies ′fore they′re hatched, gal young un!"; her father tells her.

Making the new farm prosper is not easy. There is heat to suffer through, and droughts, and cold snaps. And, perhaps most worrisome of all for the Boyers, there are rowdy neighbors, just itching to start a feud.

TRAVIS McGEE
He's a self-described beach bum who won his houseboat in a card game. He's also a knight errant who's wary of credit cards, retirement benefits, political parties, mortgages, and television. He only works when his cash runs out and his rule is simple: he'll help you find whatever was taken from you, as long as he can keep half....
With an introduction by CARL HIAASEN

No novel better epitomizes the love between a child and a pet than The Yearling. Young Jody adopts an orphaned fawn he calls Flag and makes it a part of his family and his best friend. But life in the Florida backwoods is harsh, and so, as his family fights off wolves, bears, and even alligators, and faces failure in their tenuous subsistence farming, Jody must finally part with his dear animal friend. There has been a film and even a musical based on this moving story, a fine work of great American literature.

Janie Crawford, a Southern Black woman in the 1930’s, journeys from being a free-spirited girl to a woman of independence and substance.

Harry Morgan was hard, the classic Hemingway hero, rum-running, gun-running and man-running from Cuba to the Florida Keys in the depression. He ran risks, too, from stray coastguard bullets and sudden double-crosses. But it was the only way he could keep his boat, keep his independence, and keep his belly full. "This active, passionate life on the verge of the tropics is perfect material for the Hemingway style, and the reader carries away from the book a sense of freshness and exhilaration; trade winds, southern cities and warm seas all admirably described by the instrument of precision with which he writes." - "New Statesman".
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

A bizarre series of killings in Florida lead a one-time journalist onto the trail of a former colleague. The columnist is conducting a vendetta against tourists spoiling the beauty of the area. His headquarters are somewhere in the Everglades, his gang are a mixed-up bunch.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

At the moment when I was sealing my vows with a gentle kiss, to which Atala at this time made but a feeble resistance, a rapid stream of lightning, followed by a tremendous clap of thunder, filled all the forest with sulphur and light, and shivered a tree at our feet. We fled, trembling with fright. But oh, wonderful!—in the calm which succeeded this shock, we head the sound of a bell! We both stood speechless and listened to this noise, so extraordinary in such a wilderness... —from Atala Now considered the father of French literary Romanticism, François-René Chateaubriand was still unknown as an author when he published Atala in 1801, but the sensation it caused skyrocketed him to fame. The story of doomed Indian lovers in 17th-century America, where Catholicism was taking hold and beginning to impassion natives, it is a celebration of nature and innocence, romance and religious feeling. Hard to find in print, this classic of the fiction of early America is essential reading for anyone seeking a deeper appreciation of 19th-century literature. French writer, diplomat, and politician FRANÇOIS-RENÉ, VICOMTE DE CHATEAUBRIAND (1768–1848) is also the author of René (1802) and Les Martyrs (1809), among other works. A passionate epicure, he lent his name to the cut of beef tenderloin now known as Chateaubriand.

Inspired by a near-mythic event of the wild Florida frontier at the turn of the twentieth century, Shadow Country reimagines the legend of the inspired Everglades sugar planter and notorious outlaw E. J. Watson, who drives himself relentlessly toward his own violent end at the hands of neighbors who mostly admired him, in a killing that obsessed his favorite son.

An American classic, is a luminous and haunting novel about Janie Crawford, a Southern black woman in the 1930s whose journey from a free-spirited girl to a woman of independence and substance has inspired writers and readers for close to seventy years. This poetic, graceful love story, rooted in black folk traditions and steeped in mythic realism, celebrates, boldly and brilliantly, African-American culture and heritage. And in a powerful, mesmerizing narrative, it pays quiet tribute to a black woman, who, though constricted by the times, still demanded to be heard.

Harry Morgan was hard, the classic Hemingway hero, rum-running, gun-running and man-running from Cuba to the Florida Keys in the depression. He ran risks, too, from stray coastguard bullets and sudden double-crosses. But it was the only way he could keep his boat, keep his independence, and keep his belly full. "This active, passionate life on the verge of the tropics is perfect material for the Hemingway style, and the reader carries away from the book a sense of freshness and exhilaration; trade winds, southern cities and warm seas all admirably described by the instrument of precision with which he writes." - "New Statesman".
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.