Annabelle Tometich’s delightful sense of humor sweetens even the toughest, most humiliating moments of her life in her outstanding memoir, The Mango Tree (Little, Brown and Company, 2024). Beginning with an epigraph from her mother’s Facebook feed, the book announces its tone immediately: laugh-out-loud funny. “I shook my family tree and a bunch of nuts […]
“A Florida Dance: Life Stories from the Sunshine State” by Doug Alderson
February 10, 2026 by Leave a Comment
I have enjoyed all of Doug Alderson’s award-winning books, but I was truly blown away by his latest, A Florida Dance: Life Stories from the Sunshine State (Earthways Press 2026). I know Doug through Tallahassee’s writing community and consider him a friend, but the praise I’m offering here is fully earned. These stories are so […]
“Finding Angels” by Rhett DeVane
September 8, 2025 by 1 Comment
As sweet as the tea required at every Southern ladies’ luncheon, Finding Angels: A Heartfelt Collection of Love, Laughter, and Hope (2025) by Rhett DeVane is sure to bring a generous helping of light-hearted pleasure to your reading list. This collection of fifty short stories and poems is best savored slowly—like daily devotionals—but you may […]
Gale Massey interviews Les Standiford, Writers In Paradise Conference Co-Director; & Marina Pruna, Conference Coordinator
July 1, 2025 by Leave a Comment
Writers In Paradise is widely considered one of Florida’s preeminent annual writer’s conferences. It is consistently held on the pristine campus of Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida. This conference was initially founded in 2005 by Dennis Lehane and Sterling Watson. Les Standiford serves as Co-Director along with Dennis Lehane, and Marina Pruna is the […]
“Boy With Wings” by Mark Mustian
March 21, 2025 by Leave a Comment
Is Johnny Cruel an angel or a demon or just an ordinary boy with an unusual birthmark? In Mark Mustian’s literary novel Boy With Wings (Koehler Books 2025), characters often struggle to make sense of Johnny Cruel’s unusual wings—and readers may feel the same. At times, Johnny is heroic; at others, vengeful. In this novel of […]
Books of Note: “Queen of the Clouds” by Taylor C. Phillips and “Greed at the Happy Valley Motor Inn and Resort by Leslie Noyes
March 18, 2025 by Leave a Comment
Queen of the Clouds by Taylor C. Phillips First woman to fly around the world—Amelia Earhart, right? Wrong! Yet most of us remember Earhart’s name rather than the two women who did complete that amazing solo journey. Queen of the Clouds: Joan Merriam Smith and Jerrie Mock’s Epic Quest to Become the First Woman to […]