We asked Mitch Kaplan, owner of Miami institution Books & Books, for his recommendations for summer reads, and a theme quickly emerged: ‘Tis the season for Florida authors. All four of this month’s selections come from writers local to South Florida, from our state’s chief export in political satire to a memoir by a onetime class clown. All of these selections are available in exclusive signed copies from Books & Books, so as always, we encourage you to buy local!
Fever Beach by Carl Hiaasen
Hiaasen’s latest book is being billed as his “wildest and most entertaining novel to date,” which, given the competition—14 previous novels brimming with satire, commentary and site-specific details—is high praise. Fever Beach resurrects Twilly Spree, an environmental zealot from Hiaasen’s previous books Sick Puppy and Scat, and places him into a mosaic of colorful characters ripped from our zeitgeist: Dale Figgo, a far-right white supremacist and single-celled organism outcast from the Proud Boys; Viva Morales, whose charitable foundation isn’t what it seems; Claude and Elektra Mink, ascendant members of the American oligarch class; and a congressman with a penchant for nubile girls. If all of this feels a little too close to home, that’s the point; as a story in this month’s Atlantic put it, “We’re All Living in a Carl Hiaasen Novel.”
The Namaste Club by Asha Elias
Critics of this juicy tale about Florida’s elite wellness set have found corollaries not in bookstores but on our TV screens, comparing its gleeful dissection of hedonistic wealth and upper-crust hypocrisy to streaming series such as “The White Lotus” and “Nine Perfect Strangers.” There’s clearly a demographic overlap in this delectable beach read, which takes place at the fictional but all-too-familiar Namaste Club off the Treasure Coast, run by a blazingly blonde Instagram influencer named (of course) Shakti, whose ostensibly serene “Transcendence Week” is primed to go off the rails. Guests at the retreat include a wealthy divorcee and her equally divorced best friend; an heiress to a family fortune who has promised a vow of silence for the week of self-care; and a Vero Beach tradwife who is fond of the Second Amendment. Throw in a yoga instructor with a man bun and a resident alligator, and this novel, Elias’ follow-up to Pink Glass Houses, has all the ingredients for a wicked SoFla cocktail to rival Hiaasen’s.
Old School Indian by Aaron John Curtis
The title of Thomas Wolfe’s famous novel You Can’t Go Home Again is tested in this alternately witty and moving book from Miamian—and longtime Books & Books “quartermaster”—Aaron John Curtis. Home, for protagonist Abe Jacobs, is the Saint Regis tribal reservation where he was raised, and which he left at 18 to pursue a poetry career and a relationship that evolved into an open marriage. He’s now 43, the passions of his marriage have dwindled, and he’s been diagnosed with a rare, potentially fatal disease for which his Miami doctors have little recourse. So he returns to his Mohawk Saint Regis Rez to skeptically submit to the mystical “healings” of his Great Uncle Budge, a recovered alcoholic with a penchant for punk music. The resulting “spirit quests,” to borrow a term used at length on “Star Trek: Voyager,” force a reconnection with his heritage that Abe has long avoided.
Class Clown: The Memoirs of a Professional Wiseass: How I Went 77 Years Without Growing Up by Dave Barry
If you haven’t felt old lately, it’s worth noting that Dave Barry Turns 40 was published 35 years ago. Now, Miami’s most enduring humor columnist is the ripe age of 77 and still as sharp as ever, as evidenced by this memoir. It follows his rise from high school, where he proudly earned the “class clown” distinction, through his years in literature and rock ‘n’ roll—Bruce Springsteen once backed up Barry in a live performance, not the other way around—to his tenure as a news reporter in Pennsylvania, his wilderness as a writing consultant in the business world, and his Pulitzer Prize-winning column for the Miami Herald, which he maintained for 22 years. Among its many recollections, Class Clown chronicles how Barry alienated Neil Diamond’s global fan base and earned the ire of the entire state of Indiana, to say nothing of his crusade against telemarketers. Covering the joys and triumphs as well as the more difficult facets of Barry’s life, the book probably won’t be this prolific writer’s last work. But if it is, I can’t imagine a more comprehensive sendoff.
For more of Boca magazine’s arts and entertainment coverage, click here.
