“Cozy” is a complicated concept in central Florida, especially when it comes to the winter. We just don’t have the same touchstones as others. While many of our Yankee countrymen are donning cable-knit, Floridians are still heading to rapidly-eroding beaches, excited that the water has finally dipped below 85 degrees. Our pumpkin spices are icy, our sweaters still tucked away until those two cold weeks in January. Luckily, curling up with a good book is a cozy activity you can do from both a beach chair and in front of a roaring fireplace. With Florida being home to hundreds of writers—including many in Tampa Bay—here’s a non-definitive list of new releases from Florida’s own to keep your cozy time local.

PoetryMusical Tables by Billy Collins In November, the writer and Winter Park resident released his new book, “Musical Tables,” via Penguin Random House. The work is one of his longest books—I counted 129 poems—and in a lot of ways, also one of his shortest. There are poems that are like a single line or couplet, and it’s a wonder how Collins, 81, ended up going in this direction. FFO: Chords, the Tao Te Ching if it was funnier (Penguin Random House, $26) Credit: Penguin Random House
Nonfiction 100 Things To Do In Tampa Bay Before You Die (3rd Edition) by Kristen Hare After releasing the first edition of “100 Things” in 2014, Tampa Bay Times obituary writer Kristen Hare returned this year with the third installment that’s not only a guidebook for newcomers but a secret list of things that even the most seasoned Tampa Bay locals might not have done. For fans of: road trips, not arguing over what to do today (Reedy Press, $17) Credit: Photo via Reedy Press
The Cuban Sandwich: A History In Layers by Andrew T. Huse, Bárbara C. Cruz, Jeff HouckIf there was a must have book for self-respecting Tampeños, this is it. Across nearly 150 pages, this gastronomical triumvirate of local historians present deep research that criss-crosses the northern hemisphere from Cuba, to Florida, Nevada, Chicago, the east coast, all the way to Ireland, all in the name of sending to press a definitive history of Florida’s iconic sandwich.FFO: Going down the wormhole, salami, being the most interesting person at the lunch counter (University Press of Florida, $24.95) Credit: Photo via University Press of Florida
Championship Hangover: The Urban Meyer Years in Florida, the Aftermath, and the Long Road Back by John CrowleyThis one was published in 2021, but didn’t hit our eyeballs until after the pandemic. Crowley is a local product (and alum of Ybor City’s Booker T. Washington when it was a middle school) and former Seminole fan who was so shaken by the end of the Charlie Ward era that he switched alliances. His book reads like a diary entry and is strangely cathartic for anyone who’s ever been left in a lurch by their favorite team’s trials and tribulations. FFO: Danny Wuerffel, being non-committal about Urban Meyer’s off-field gaffes (Newman Springs Publishing, $13.95) Credit: Photo via Newman Springs Publishing
Daffodil Hill: Uprooting My Life, Buying a Farm, and Learning to Bloom by Jake KeiserWhen Keiser was living in Tampa, she ran a high-powered PR firm and juggled dinners, galas, and relationships. But at 38, after a failed marriage, several miscarriages, and filled with anxiety, Keiser makes the biggest impulse purchase of a lifetime: a working farm in rural Mississippi. She learns how to haul wood, shoot a gun, and care for the 75 animals that call her farm home—including herself. FFO: The Growing Season, Cork Dork, and cottagecore (Penguin Random House, $28) Credit: Photo via Penguin Random House
Dreams In the New Century by Gary Mormino Everyone’s flocking to the free state of Florida, but they should all pay a toll to Mormino first. A living legend in the state, USF St. Petersburg’s Frank E. Duckwall Professor of History Emeritus returned this year with a masterful, thick, reflection and education on the conflicts, grifts, and cultural nuances that entail life in this post-9/11 Sunshine State. From the environment to development, elections, immigration and more, Mormino covers it in this ominous work that should be required reading in the state capitol and at universities across the peninsula. FFO: Policymaking, dragging ponzi schemers, occasionally thinking about the apocalypse (University Press of Florida, $34.95) Credit: Photo via University Press of Florida
Florida! A hyper-local guide to the Flora, Fauna, and Fantasy of the Most Far-out State in America by Gabrielle Calise A nearly 600-page bible with a puffy, pale-almost-pastel-pink cover that’s almost soft enough to sleep on after the second bottle of wine you had because you didn’t want to stop reading the damn thing. The book—published by A24, which brought the state into homes via films like “The Florida Project,” “Zola” and “Spring Breakers”—can be used as a road trip planner, but is a trip in itself. FFO: A24, sleeping on beaches and getting lost taking the backroads (A24, $50) Credit: Photo via A24
Anastasia Samoylova & Walker Evans: Floridas Miami photographer Anastasia Samoylova’s latest book made Smithsonian Magazine’s list of “10 Best Photography Books of 2022.” The book, published by German publishing house Steidl in May, is a collaboration between Samoylova and late photographer Walker Evans. Samoylova discovered Evans’ work while traveling the state of Florida for her first book, 2020’s “FloodZone.” Like Samoylova, Evans took a minimalist approach to photographing Florida. ToMiami New Times, Samoylova expressed an “aesthetic kinship” with Evans, whose archival photographs accompany hers in Floridas. Together, Evans’ and Samoylova’s photos deliver Florida past alongside Florida present in this pictorial tale of two Floridas.FFO: Looking at pictures instead of reading, Florida (Steidl, $61)—Jennifer Ring Credit: Photo via Steidl
Florida’s Carnivorous Plants: Understanding, Identifying, and Cultivating the State’s Native Species by Kenny Coogan If you thought only Florida’s fauna was frightening, think again! Turns out our native flora is also fucking terrifying. Florida is home to more native carnivorous plants than any other state in the country (pardon?), and those little vampires use appealing scents and sticky fluids to trap their live prey. If bloodthirsty butterworts make your heart pitter-patter, check out this resource book which includes an identification guide, propagation tips, and how to grow at home. FFO: Little Shop of Horrors, Nature’s vulgar and cruel brutality, eccentric gardening. (Pineapple Press, $22.95) Credit: Photo via Pineapple Press
Lost Storytellers: The Information Apocalypse in the Modern Newsroom by John Pendygraft Some halls of journalism still dangerously believe in the kind of bothsidesism that legitimizes voices which are 100% wrong and often peddle hateful rhetoric. Former Tampa Bay Times photojournalist Pendygraft addresses the rise in fake news in parts of his new book, which at times feels like a reckoning. I’m always interested in anything that might shed light on the thinking inside Tampa Bay’s biggest newsroom, and was not disappointed. FFO: Nieman Lab newsletters, arguing about the usefulness of social media (University Press of Florida, $28) Credit: Photo via University Press of Florida
Oldest Tampa Bay by Joshua Ginsberg The Bay area’s preeminent riddler, and author of “Tampa Bay Scavenger,” is back with a book that looks even further back than Henry Plant as it gives readers 90 quick-hit chapters that introduce the Bay area’s historical pioneers and events. FFO: Trivia, their 813 area code (Reedy Press, $22.50) Credit: Photo via Reedy Press
Rogers Park Golf Course: 18 Holes Of History by Lionel Ballard & Ursula K Odom Tampa’s Rogers Park is a living history museum, and people who know all about it still walk the greens and fairways every day. Blake High School alum Lionel Ballard (pictured above, left, with Jim Dent, who was the first person to offer Ballard a caddy gig) realized that no one had put together a definitive history of the community staple, so he did it himself—and it’s a good thing he did. Some of the folks he talked to over the last few years have passed, but their stories and pictures about how this hub of Black family life has evolved are now enshrined in this niche work that should be on the shelf of any local sports fan. FFO: Black history, local sports, the “Tampeño” v. “Tampanian” debate (Sula Too Publishing, $32)
Tampa Triangle Dead Zone by Capt. Bill Miller OK, this book is 25 years old and probably not non-fiction, but revisiting it, and finally getting to meet its author, was a highlight of 2022. Capt. Bill Miller’s wild conspiracy theories still hold water, and you’ll never look at your home carpet, or the waters surrounding our neck of the woods, the same again. FFO: Unsolved Mysteries, R. L. Stine, taking mushrooms (Ticket To Adventure Inc., $14.95) Credit: Photo by Blake Yeager
We Carry Their Bones by Erin Kimmerle Forensic anthropologist Kimmerle reports on one of the darkest chapters of Florida’s history: The Arthur G. Dozier School For Boys. Established in 1900 and running until 2011, the reform school subjected its mostly Black students (aged 6-21) to torture, rape, slave labor, and other brutal conditions. Many students were killed by guards or trying to escape, only to be buried somewhere on campus. After the school was shut down, Dr. Kimmerle began to “ground map” the school’s graveyard, only to discover twice the amount of graves elsewhere on the grounds. As Kimmerle and her team worked to identify remains to reunite the boys with their families, they were threatened and harassed by those who wanted to keep the truth buried. FFO: The Nickel Boys, Bellevue, Midnight in Chernobyl (William Morrow, $27.99)
Literary fiction All Day is A Long Time by David Sanchez At age 14, bookish David runs away from home to chase a girl and ends up falling in love with crack cocaine instead. He spends the next decade weaving in and out of jail, rehab, and Florida’s gulf coast, all while trying to maintain his sobriety. Florida writer Karen Russell wrote: “Sanchez is a literary cartographer, mapping an intricate overlay of his young narrator’s psychological states and Florida’s real beaches and swamps, those coastlines in continuous revision.” FFO: ”The Mars Room”, “Cherry,” and probably ”Euphoria” (Catapult, $27)
The Displacements by Bruce Holsinger The Larsen-Hall family has the American dream: healthy kids, a loving marriage, money, success, and a brand new house in Miami—until Luna, the world’s first category six hurricane, upends everything. This thrill of a novel follows the family who, with no home, career, or finances, end up with a FEMA mega-shelter with a cast of characters including a drug-dealing insurance agent, a group of Dickensian kids, and a relief worker trying to keep everyone together. FFO: The Leftovers, and page-turning suspense. (Riverhead, $27) Credit: Photo via Penguin Random House
Florida Woman by Deb Rogers After a ridiculous crime she never meant to commit goes viral, Jamie becomes a “Florida Woman.” With a court order for community service, Jamie begins work at Atlas, a shelter for rescued monkeys, hoping for a fresh start. But something sinister is lurking in the woods, with the staff performing cryptic rituals. As Jamie dives deeper, she finds a truth stranger than any Florida headline. FFO: Karen Russell, Kristin Arnett, and ”Tiger King” (Hanover Square Press, $27.99) Credit: Photo via Harper Collins
Beach reads The Homewreckers by Mary Kay Andrews Young widow Hattie Kavanaugh loves her work as a home renovator—and the money pit she’s recently acquired. So in dire need of some cash for both her home and Kavanaugh & Son Restorations, she’s thrilled to be cast on a renovation reality TV show, opposite a handsome cad. However, demotion reveals a mystery about a missing wife from years before and brings out a burned-out detective to investigate. While juggling a love triangle (because of course there’s a love triangle), a possible arsonist, financial woes, and stubborn vintage wallpaper, will Hattie’s heart flip or flop? FFO: Cozy mysteries, HGTV, and love triangles (St. Martin’s Publishing Group, $17.99) Credit: Photo via Macmillan
The Librarian Spy by Madeline Martin This World War II novel follows the paths of two women. The first is American Ava, a librarian at the Library of Congress who gets transferred to Lisbon, Portugal with a new mission to gather intelligence for the government while posing as a librarian. Then there is French Elaine, who works for a printing press run by the French resistance. As the war rages on, both Ava and Elaine are connected through coded messages and their mutual hope to survive. FFO: The Rose Code, The Warsaw Orphan, and Nazis suffering. (HQ Fiction, $28.99) Credit: Photo via Harper Collins Australia
The Sweetness of Forgetting (10th Anniversary Edition) by Kristin HarmelHope McKenna-Smith has been through the wringer: after losing her mother, her husband left her, and now she’s left with money troubles and a failing bakery all while trying to raise a troubled preteen as a single mom. Her beloved French grandmother, Mamie, has Alzheimer’s Disease but, in a moment of clarity, begins to reveal mysterious parts of her past in WWII Paris, including a secret she’s held on to for all these years. The 10th-anniversary edition of this book includes a new author’s note and recipes, which should keep you plenty busy this winter. FFO: Strong matriarchs, Parisian WWII stories, and French pastry (Gallery Books, $17.99) Credit: Photo via Gallery Books
Crime fiction All The Broken Girls by Linda Hurtado Bond A serial killer is stalking West Tampa, leaving a broken doll at every scene (someone call Chief Dugan!). Cuban American crime reporter Mari Alvarez is on the hunt for the killer, counting on her Abuela’s Azabache charm to protect her. But, level-headed homicide detective Tony Garcia needs more than a journalist’s hunch to crack the case—he needs proof. Will the pair solve it before the killer strikes again? Written by Fox 13’s Linda Hurtado, an award-winning journalist and Tampa local. FFO: Serial killers, sexual tension, and special charms (Entangled Publishing, $8.99) Credit: Photo via Entangled Publishing
Death a Sketch: A Paint & Shine Mystery 3 by Cheryl Hollon Miranda’s business—an Appalachian adventure tour with art and moonshine—is about to host a sporting goods company retreat. While Miranda has planned some laid-back team-building exercises, the company executives prefer something a bit more competitive. The workers are divided up into teams and told that only the winners will keep their jobs. As tension spikes, a participant is found dead, but the competition still rages on. Can Miranda figure out who the killer is among these cut-throat customers? FFO: Maddie Day, Bethany Blake, and those who hate CEOs. (Kensington, $8.99) Credit: Photo via Kensington
Live and Let Grind (A Coffee Lover’s Mystery Book 3) by Tara Lush If you prefer your mysteries cozy and to revolve around cafes instead of police stations, then take a trip to Devil’s Beach, Florida, where laid-off journalist Lana Lewis runs the Perkatory, a thriving coffee shop. When Lana’s neighbor Gus is killed, everyone around her becomes a suspect. Is it Lana’s best friend, Erica, who screamed at him over his leaf blowing? Mickey and Doug, who were burned by Gus’s pirate-themed tourist cruise business? An ex-wife? Will Lana be able to snoop out the real killer before time runs out? FFO: Cleo Coyle, Laura Child, cold-brew (Crooked Lane Books, $28.99) Credit: Photo via Crooked Lane Books
Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six by Lisa UngerTampa Bay’s prolific thriller-writer is at it again! When Hannah’s rich tech brother books her a secluded luxury cabin for her birthday, complete with a personal chef and hot tub, Hannah is excited to relax with her brother, their spouses, and another couple. But both the house and the guests have secrets, and with a deadly storm brewing, a creepy host lurking, and a stranger in their midst, the dream vacation tumbles into a nightmare. FFO: Locked-room thrillers, Ruth Ware, and hating on Airbnb (Park Row Books, $27.99) Credit: Photo via Park Row Books
Horror Helen House by Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya The unnamed narrator has lost her sister. So has her new girlfriend, Amber. When they arrive at Amber’s parents’ rural home, an uncomfortable first meeting becomes a nightmare when the narrator finds herself in a family’s decades-long mourning ritual. Sometimes terrifying, sometimes erotic, “Helen House” is a queer ghost story dealing with trauma and grief. FFO: Carmen Maria Machado, Shirley Jackson, A24 films. (Burrow Press, $20) Credit: Burrow Press
Young adult and kids Catastrophe Theory by Rebecca Lowry Warchut Vera Garcia’s soccer career is cut short by a brain tumor. Her single mother, Eliza, is terrified of losing her daughter and holds on too tight. When they arrive in St. Pete for surgery, Hurricane Phoenix starts barreling towards them, so mother-daughter must face the chaos together. This surreal novel blends coming of age with love, art, and history. FFO: When The Moon Was Ours, Salvador Dali (Woodhall Press, $18.95) Credit: Photo via Woodhall Press
Dreaming of Tampa Illustrated by Nathan Heinze Sports teams are a good way to make a kid fall in love with a city, but this board book is the next best thing and the perfect reinforcement to all your trips on the TECO Streetcar, to Ybor City, downtown Tampa and Hyde Park. FFO: Being a good parent (Arcadia, $9.99) Credit: Photo via Arcadia Publishing
The Dec. 1, 2022 cover of Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. Credit: Design by Joe Frontel
The Dec. 1, 2022 cover of Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. Credit: Design by Joe Frontel

Caroline DeBruhl is a writer, tarot-reader, and wedding officiant living in Tampa. She follows The Dark Mother, Hekate, a primordial goddess of many things, including crossroads, ghosts, liminal spaces,...

Read his 2016 intro letter and disclosures from 2022 and 2021. Ray Roa started freelancing for Creative Loafing Tampa in January 2011 and was hired as music editor in August 2016. He became Editor-In-Chief...