The Florida Book Review

Home
The Florida Book Review

Web magazine We review books with Florida settings or subjects and cover the Florida literary scene

19/05/2024

New at FBR: "Joy Castro’s ONE BRILLIANT FLAME takes us to a Key West still known as Cayo Hueso, or the Island of Bones, in 1886," writes Lauren Rivera Fernández. "Populated by cigar rollers, former slaves, battle-worn insurgents, factory owners, and artists who across decades escaped slavery in Cuba, it has a prosperous cigar trade and a small, thriving community. Now a Spanish Royal decree has abolished Cuba's slavery and indentured servitude, and a movement for independence is brewing there. Exposing the class, racial, and gender biases that governed conventional behaviors, Castro depicts a powder keg of passion and longing." Read the review on our Florida Fiction page:

One Brilliant Flame by Joy Castro (Lake Union Publishing, Paperback, 340 pages. $16.99) Reviewed by Lauren Rivera Fernández Joy Castro’s One Brilliant Flame takes us to a Key West still...

16/04/2024

New at FBR: Bob Morison writes:
"This is a beautiful book. Beautiful to look at, to hold, to thumb through its heavy, lightly glossed pages. University Press of Florida gave Rick Kilby’s FLORIDA'S HEALING WATERS the generous treatment it deserves for its hundreds of photos and other images from the heyday of Florida’s mineral springs in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when people flocked here to bathe in and drink the water."
But, as is true so often in Florida, beauty is one side of the story, and profit is another. "The Fountain of Youth Bath House near St. Petersburg promised hot sulphur and salt baths as nature’s sure cure for rheumatism, neuralgia, and kidney, liver, and skin trouble. Dyspepsia and gastritis got a lot of play. The water at Magnesia Springs near Gainesville specialized in kidney and bladder complications. Some spas touted the precise chemical composition of their offerings, and it was the norm for the water to smell and taste foul, but only Punta Gorda’s has tested radioactive. Suffice it to say that the Sunshine State was hyping its waters long before they were packaged as swampland real estate." Read the full review on our Florida History Page:

Florida’s Healing Waters: Gilded Age Mineral Springs, Seaside Resorts and Health Spas by Rick Kilby (University Press of Florida, Paperback, 228 pp., $29.95) Reviewed by Bob Morison This is...

15/04/2024

New YA Book Review at FBR. Check out Emily Chaffins' reconsideration of MISSION LIBERTAD by Lizette M. Lantigua. This YA novel set in the 1970s in Florida and Cuba was first published in 2012, when Chaffins first read it. Reading it again now she finds that "Lantigua’s historical novel for teens is sad, funny, and heartwarming all at the same time. A Cuban American and former South Florida reporter for Univision, the Miami Herald / El Nuevo Herald, and Telemundo, Lantigua incorporates detailed research and historical information. This, by the way, also makes the book an interesting read for adults."
Read the review and learn more on our YA page:

On this page: ◇ Mission Libertad by Lizette M. Lantigua, a reconsideration by Emily Chaffins ◇ Total Constant Order by Crissa-Jean Chappell, a reconsideration by J. Armelle ◇ We are the Ants by...

23/11/2022

FBR blogged the Miami Book Fair this weekend. Read the blog, see the photos, on our website:

November 13-21, 2022 the Florida Book Review team is blogging from Miami Book Fair, which will take place both in-person and virtually. For those far from Miami, we try to create some of the...

Address

Website

http://www.floridabookreview.net/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when The Florida Book Review posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Address
Alerts
Claim ownership or report listing
Want your business to be the top-listed Media Company?

Country:

City: