Let Literary Sunshine In

How do you feel when surrounded by some good books?

“In a good bookroom you feel in some mysterious ways that you are sorting the wisdom contained in all books through your skin, without even opening them?”

(Mark Twain)

If you like to read, what can be better than coming on down to sunny South Florida to hear your favorite authors read from their most recent books? In doing so, you might even excite yourself further amid the multicultural stew that exists in this ever changing region. I’m talking here about the November 2023 Miami Book Fair, one of the largest gatherings of national and international book exhibitors in the United States.

Know then as former Reading and English professor, I regularly attended this annual event at Miami Dade College Wolfson Campus to enhance my teaching efforts with the fair’s timely works of literature to inspire my students to embrace reading books as a lifelong endeavor. I sometimes found time as well to converse “one on one” with authors about their writing works along the “Street Fair” grounds located in the heart of downtown Miami. In addition to  book talk activities, I also found spontaneous excitement in sampling new tastes in international food, witnessing creative performances of art, dance, and music as well as exchanging views with other serious book lovers.

So in the photo set below, check out the lineup of author talks that I attended this past weekend with some brief comments about their featured books.

David Brooks – “How To Know A Person”

The talented writer of New York Times and PBS television fame offered fresh hope through storytelling about how to engage in better conversations with kind regard for others. His timely advice included looking someone in the eye, listening more and posing thoughtful questions in order to see something larger in them to thus provide a better version of ourselves.

Maggie Smith – “You Could Make This Place Beautiful”

Writing this latest collection of poems became a powerful tool for Maggie to overcome her emotional trauma of juggling time as a full time Ohio mother and ambitiously driven writer. This strong stand she stated to overcome her serious depression state then provided  strong support for believing in “why can’t we have it all?

James McBride – “The Heaven on Earth Grocery Store”

With relaxing ease, Mr. McBride spoke about his past experiences working with kids in challenging institutional settings. He noted how these children of “special needs” who somehow managed to survive in such crisis filled environments inspired the chosen characters for this latest book.

Carl Hiasson – “Wrecker”

Mr. Hiasson’s past career as a Miami Herald journalist dictated later on that he’d expend great effort to research the settings and characters of his humorously entertaining novels. In talking candidly with this receptive crowd, he thus revealed some startling insights about how issues of racism, environmentalism, and illicit drug trade during a lengthy stay in Key West, Florida inspired him how to write his latest book.

Dave Barry – “Swamp Story”, Adam Mansbach – “The Golem of Brooklyn”, Ben Purkert – The Men Can’t  Be Saved”

The always satirically funny writer highlighted a three person panel with other humorists that proved to be a “wild wacky, and witty” affair. Imagine each of them cracking jokes about their recent literary efforts centered around scary encounters with python monsters, time traveling chiropractors, and a giant Jewish protector called a “Golem.”

Heather Cox Richardson and Tracy K. Smith – “Democracy Awakening – Notes on the State of America”

The assault on America’s Democracy from a historical perspective sparked interesting conversations between the Heather, the syndicated columnist/History professor and Tracy, an accomplished poetess and English professor then. But most interested me seemed to be their differing views about how their writing efforts came about by either conventionally planning the various writing drafts logically step by step or intuitively shifting to unpredictable immediacy of the present moment.

T.C. Boyle – “Blue Skies”

Just one look at this lanky looking hipster and you can sense he’s all about expressing “anti- establishment” viewpoints about materialistic American society today. So I observed then an emotional talk about his latest “Eco- Thriller” to be a fierce attack on why humans appear unwilling and unable to cope with “climate change” and “global warming”, which he felt would result in the ultimate destruction of our planet.