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Friday, June 1, 2007

Season of Smoke, Season of Rain

     A few weeks ago, I was driving northward through Jacksonville when I heard this weather report: "Today, tomorrow: sunny, mixed with occasional smoke," delivered in a bland tone despite the fact that evacuation orders for areas affected by the Okefenokee fires were being announced, urgently, on news bulletins.
     I thought: is this what will happen? We'll simply get used to smoke and fire as part of "the weather," the consequence of drought, which may be arbitrary, but the lack of water in reserve comes from our headlong development and reckless water use, and a world of behaviors which threaten to culminate in Florida as sandbar. (Yes, I'm more aware of this from reading the excellent Losing It All to Sprawl, and Brian Sullivan's review of The Swamp.)
     On my return south, it was still sunny and smoky in Jax, but as I came into South Florida, I was shocked to find Palm Beach County looked like the old pictures of Pittsburgh in the 1940s: I entered thick gloom with, off to the west, an angry glow which I realized, when I checked the clock, was actually the sun--it was only 5 P.M. The smoke from the fires near Naples, and the smoke from Georgia and North Florida, were being streamed to us, and stayed that way for days, so that in Miami we slept with the smell and woke with the taste of burning wood. More recently the wind shifted and the plume headed toward Atlanta. Still, we're getting daily reports of the falling level of Lake Okeechobee—lower than at any point in its recorded history.
     And so, we began to long for the rain.
     Today, it is raining steadily. Of course, this is the first day of "hurricane season," with all accompanying fanfare: predictions of lots of named storms and proclamations of government preparedness and 12 days of tax free supply buying. But it helps to remember that "hurricane season" is also "rainy season."
     And rain is wonderful for reading. So if you save a bit on those hurricane supplies, put it towards something you'll want to read this summer—and perhaps buy an Itty-Bitty Nite Lite for when the lights go out.
     Some new things to read on The Florida Book Review: reviews of David Kirby's latest collection of poems, Enid Shomer's stories in Tourist Season , crime writing by Vicki Hendricks and Ace Atkins, the memoir of musician Bobby Braddock, and our first feature, Keith Ferrell's essay on the career of John D. Macdonald and, especially, his Travis McGee books. We have lots more coming soon.
     Meanwhile, take a deep breath of the rain-cleaned air.
    —Lynne Barrett

6:18 pm edt

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The Florida Book Review

Winners of the 2010 Florida Book Awards
Children's Literature
Gold: Jan Godown Annino, She Sang Promise: The story of Betty Mae Jumper, Seminole Tribal Leader
Silver: Mary GrandPre and Jack Relutsky, Camille Saint-Saens's The Carnival of the Animals
Bronze: Henry Cole, A Nest for Celeste
Bronze: Brad Meltzer, Heroes for My Son
Bronze: Harvey E. Oyer III, The Last Egret: The Adventures of Charlie Pierce

Florida Nonfiction
Gold: Margaret Ross Tolbert, AQUIFERious
Silver: Julian M. Pleasants and Harry A. Kersey, Seminole Voices: Reflections on Their Changing Society
Bronze: Lu Vickers, Cypress Gardens, America's Tropical Wonderland
Bronze: Anna Lillios, Crossing the Creek
Bronze: Randy Wayne White and Carlene Fredericka Brennen, Randy Wayne White's Ultimate Tarpon Book

General Fiction
Gold: Mark Mustian, The Gendarme
Silver: Patricia Engel, Vida
Bronze:
T.M Shine, Nothing Happens Until It Happens to You
Mary Jane Ryals, Cookie and Me

Popular Fiction
Gold Medal: William Culver Hall, The Trouble With Panthers
Silver Medal: Randy Wayne White, Deep Shadow
Bronze Medal:
Joyce Elson Moore, The Tapestry Shop
Charles Martin, The Mountain Between Us
James Grippando, Money to Burn

Poetry
Gold: Carol Frost, Honeycomb
Silver: Lola Haskins, Still, the Mountain
Bronze:Kelle Groom, Five Kingdoms

Spanish Language Book
Gold Medal: Jose Alvarez, Los Alamos del Parque

Young Adult Literature
Gold Medal: Christina Diaz Gonzalez, The Red Umbrella

Visual Arts
Gold: Jason Steuber, Laura K. Nemmers, and Tracy Pfaff, Eds., Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art at Twenty Years: The Collection Catalogue
Silver: Margaret Ross Tolbert, AQUIFERious

For more information on these and past winners, please visit the Florida Book Awards website.

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