Melbourne Beach

Melbourne Beach
Author: Frank J. Thomas
Publisher: American Chronicles
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2006
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781596291744

In addition to the beautiful palmetto lined beaches and the rhythm of the rising and falling tides, one of the major attractions of Melbourne Beach is that, unlike the "space age" communities of concrete block in the surrounding area, the town "had a history." Thomas introduces readers to an array of unique characters, describes the changes that Melbourne Beach has undergone since the turn of the 20th century, and relates his concern about the effects of "progress" on the natural beauty of his adopted home. Learn about the town's excitement over its first stop sign, and how a woman makes a second one for weekends after she becomes the victim of Melbourne's first automobile accident. Meet Orval Gardenour, the town's first real policeman, who finally gained respect by rescuing a loggerhead turtle from the trunk of a poacher's car, and experience the Great Cat Hunt of 1930, in which seventy-four strays met their demise. During the forty-five years that Frank Thomas has lived in this small community on Florida's eastern coast, he has taken it upon himself to dig into old records and document the oral histories of the "old timers" who made the town what it is today. The result is a witty, poignant account of Melbourne Beach residents' adventures, victories, tragedies, and comedies,

Coming to Pass

Coming to Pass
Author: Susan Cerulean
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Total Pages: 303
Release: 2015
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0820347655

"Ten years ago, Sue Cerulean realized the coastlines of her childhood along the New Jersey shore and of her adult years (a little-developed necklace of Gulf islands in Florida) were beginning to shift into the sea. She began to chronicle the story of "her" coastal areas as they are now, as they once were, and how they might be as Earth's oceans rise. Cerulean and her husband, oceanographer Jeff Chanton, have taken many field trips in various parts of these coastal areas"--

Kids Don't Have Backs

Kids Don't Have Backs
Author: Tom Pelham
Publisher: Bookbaby
Total Pages: 184
Release: 2021-11-16
Genre:
ISBN: 9781098395391

Kids Don't Have Backs is a collection of stories by lawyer and former Secretary of the Florida Dept. of Community Affairs Tom Pelham, drawn from his memories of growing up in the late 1940's, 1950's, and early 1960's on a family farm in Holmes County, Florida, in the rural Florida Panhandle. It was a time of economic hardship and transformative change -- electricity came to the area only in the mid 1950's. These stories bring to life, from a child's point of view, many aspects of this challenging and colorful time. Beginning farm life in 1947 in a two-room shanty with no electric lights, indoor plumbing, or air conditioning, and no tractors or modern farm equipment or vehicles to assist in working the land, the author's family, through backbreaking physical labor, ingenuity, and sheer will, overcame tremendous adversity to eventually expand the farm to 400 acres and build and move into a proper house with modern conveniences. The hard work created a thirst for pastimes, and the introduction of vehicles and electricity brought greater access to the outside world via picture shows, the sports pages, radio, and TV, propelling the author and his siblings to explore the world beyond the farm.

Sweetgum Slough

Sweetgum Slough
Author: Claire Karssiens
Publisher: iUniverse
Total Pages: 125
Release: 2009-07-16
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1935278738

Told with love and a profound appreciation for a time, place and people, this series of engaging vignettes explores six years in the life of a young girl in 1930s Florida. Nameless and faceless, the little girl wanders through these stories filled with curiosity and questions as she meets the ingenious people of the Great Depression in rural Florida. Although an outsider, she is quickly accepted by this strong, struggling and kindly community. She shares their simple joys, great tragedies and dark secrets. The rich tales in Sweetgum Slough are about the sweet and earthy roots of learning. While these stories are, indeed, about joy and hookworms and red-taled fishes, they are more about a child's need for freedom to adventure, choose paths, take risks, examine and question. Claire Karssiens's memoir is as unique as it is memorable. Her lyrical prose and stunning imagery beautifully capture 1930s Florida and will sweep you into the very heart of a little girl's soul.

An American Son

An American Son
Author: Marco Rubio
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 393
Release: 2012-06-19
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1101592370

Few politicians have risen to national prominence as quickly as Marco Rubio. Here is the full story of his unlikely journey. Florida Senator Marco Rubio electrified the 2012 Republican National Con­vention by telling the story of his parents, who were struggling immigrants from Cuba. They embraced their new country and taught their children to appreciate its unique opportunities. Every sacrifice they made over the years, as they worked hard at blue-collar jobs in Miami and Las Vegas, was for their children. Young Marco grew up dreaming about football, not politics. In this fas­cinating memoir, he reveals how he ended up running for the West Miami City Commission, and then the Florida House of Representatives. In just six years he rose to Speaker of the Florida House. He then won his U.S. Senate campaign as an extreme long shot. Now Rubio speaks on the national stage about the better future that’s possible if we return to our founding principles. In that vision, as in his fam­ily’s story, Rubio proves that the American Dream is still alive for those who pursue it.

Out East

Out East
Author: John Glynn
Publisher: Hachette UK
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2019-05-14
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1538746646

An "extraordinary" debut memoir of first love, identity, and self-discovery among a group of friends who became family in a Montauk summer house (Andrew Solomon, National Book Award winner). They call Montauk the end of the world, a spit of land jutting into the Atlantic. The house was a ramshackle split-level set on a hill, and each summer thirty-one people would sleep between its thin walls and shag carpets. Against the moonlight the house's octagonal roof resembled a bee's nest. It was dubbed The Hive. In 2013, John Glynn joined the share house. Packing his duffel for that first Memorial Day Weekend, he prayed for clarity. At twenty-seven, he was crippled by an all-encompassing loneliness, a feeling he had carried in his heart for as long as he could remember. John didn't understand the loneliness. He just knew it was there. Like the moon gone dark. Out East is the portrait of a summer, of The Hive and the people who lived in it, and John's own reckoning with a half-formed sense of self. From Memorial Day to Labor Day, The Hive was a center of gravity, a port of call, a home. Friendships, conflicts, secrets and epiphanies blossomed within this tightly woven friend group and came to define how they would live out the rest of their twenties and beyond. Blending the sand-strewn milieu of George Howe Colt's The Big House with the radiant aching of Olivia Liang's The Lonely City, Out East is a keenly wrought story of love and transformation, longing and escape in our own contemporary moment. "An unforgettable story told with feeling and humor and above all with the razor-sharp skill of a delicate and highly gifted writer." -- André Aciman, New York Times bestselling author of Call Me by Your Name "Out East is full of intimacy and hope and frustration and joy, an extraordinary tale of emotional awakening and lacerating ambivalence, a confession of self-doubt that becomes self-knowledge." -- Andrew Solomon, National Book Award winner An Entertainment Weekly Best Book of May 2019A Time magazine Best Book of May 2019Cosmopolitan Best Book of May 2019An O, the Oprah Magazine Best LGBTQ Book of 2019

A Land Remembered

A Land Remembered
Author: Patrick D Smith
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 286
Release: 2012-10-01
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1561645826

A Land Remembered has become Florida's favorite novel. Now this Student Edition in two volumes makes this rich, rugged story of the American pioneer spirit more accessible to young readers. Patrick Smith tells of three generations of the MacIveys, a Florida family battling the hardships of the frontier. The story opens in 1858, when Tobias and Emma MacIvey arrive in the Florida wilderness with their son, Zech, to start a new life, and ends in 1968 with Solomon MacIvey, who realizes that his wealth has not been worth the cost to the land. Between is a sweeping story rich in Florida history with a cast of memorable characters who battle wild animals, rustlers, Confederate deserters, mosquitoes, starvation, hurricanes, and freezes to carve a kingdom out of the Florida swamp. In this volume, meet young Zech MacIvey, who learns to ride like the wind through the Florida scrub on Ishmael, his marshtackie horse, his dogs, Nip and Tuck, at this side. His parents, Tobias and Emma, scratch a living from the land, gathering wild cows from the swamp and herding them across the state to market. Zech learns the ways of the land from the Seminoles, with whom his life becomes entwined as he grows into manhood. Next in series > > See all of the books in this series

All Boys Aren't Blue

All Boys Aren't Blue
Author: George M. Johnson
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Total Pages: 191
Release: 2020-04-28
Genre: Young Adult Nonfiction
ISBN: 0374312729

In a series of personal essays, prominent journalist and LGBTQIA+ activist George M. Johnson's All Boys Aren't Blue explores their childhood, adolescence, and college years in New Jersey and Virginia. A New York Times Bestseller! Good Morning America, NBC Nightly News, Today Show, and MSNBC feature stories From the memories of getting his teeth kicked out by bullies at age five, to flea marketing with his loving grandmother, to his first sexual relationships, this young-adult memoir weaves together the trials and triumphs faced by Black queer boys. Both a primer for teens eager to be allies as well as a reassuring testimony for young queer men of color, All Boys Aren't Blue covers topics such as gender identity, toxic masculinity, brotherhood, family, structural marginalization, consent, and Black joy. Johnson's emotionally frank style of writing will appeal directly to young adults. (Johnson used he/him pronouns at the time of publication.) Velshi Banned Book Club Indie Bestseller Teen Vogue Recommended Read Buzzfeed Recommended Read People Magazine Best Book of the Summer A New York Library Best Book of 2020 A Chicago Public Library Best Book of 2020 ... and more!

Through the Groves

Through the Groves
Author: Anne Hull
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company
Total Pages: 156
Release: 2023-06-20
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1466805013

“Hypnotic and tender, this book reminds us that even if we leave our homes, our homes never leave us.” —Oprah Daily “[Hull] has that sly eye for sublime details, but also a killer instinct for tight storytelling.” —Carl Hiaasen, New York Times Book Review A richly evocative coming-of-age memoir set in the Florida orange groves of the 1960s by a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Anne Hull grew up in rural Central Florida, barefoot half the time and running through the orange groves her father’s family had worked for generations. The ground trembled from the vibrations of bulldozers and jackhammers clearing land for Walt Disney World. “Look now,” her father told her as they rode through the mossy landscape together. “It will all be gone.” But the real threat was at home, where Hull was pulled between her idealistic but self-destructive father and her mother, a glamorous outsider from Brooklyn struggling with her own aspirations. All the while, Hull felt the pressures of girlhood closing in. She dreamed of becoming a traveling salesman who ate in motel coffee shops, accompanied by her baton-twirling babysitter. As her sexual identity took shape, Hull knew the place she loved would never love her back and began plotting her escape. Here, Hull captures it all—the smells and sounds of a disappearing way of life, the secret rituals and rhythms of a doomed family, the casual racism of the rural South in the 1960s, and the suffocating expectations placed on girls and women. Vividly atmospheric and haunting, Through the Groves will speak to anyone who’s ever left home to cut a path of their own.

Ordinary Girls

Ordinary Girls
Author: Jaquira Díaz
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2020-06-16
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1643750828

One of the Must-Read Books of 2019 According to O: The Oprah Magazine * Time * Bustle * Electric Literature * Publishers Weekly * The Millions * The Week * Good Housekeeping “There is more life packed on each page of Ordinary Girls than some lives hold in a lifetime.” —Julia Alvarez In this searing memoir, Jaquira Díaz writes fiercely and eloquently of her challenging girlhood and triumphant coming of age. While growing up in housing projects in Puerto Rico and Miami Beach, Díaz found herself caught between extremes. As her family split apart and her mother battled schizophrenia, she was supported by the love of her friends. As she longed for a family and home, her life was upended by violence. As she celebrated her Puerto Rican culture, she couldn’t find support for her burgeoning sexual identity. From her own struggles with depression and sexual assault to Puerto Rico’s history of colonialism, every page of Ordinary Girls vibrates with music and lyricism. Díaz writes with raw and refreshing honesty, triumphantly mapping a way out of despair toward love and hope to become her version of the girl she always wanted to be. Reminiscent of Tara Westover’s Educated, Kiese Laymon’s Heavy, Mary Karr’s The Liars’ Club, and Terese Marie Mailhot’s Heart Berries, Jaquira Díaz’s memoir provides a vivid portrait of a life lived in (and beyond) the borders of Puerto Rico and its complicated history—and reads as electrically as a novel.