PAM IORIO, Mayor of Tampa
RAY ARSENAULT, Author, Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice/ USF-St. Petersburg professor
The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, by Lawrence Wright: "It's essentially the history of al-Qaeda and Islamic extremism. It begins in Egypt in the 1940 and ends with the attack on the twin towers. You know the ending but you can't believe it, that they ended up producing a movement that ends where it does. It's a frightening book in a way, but it's in no way sensational or gratuitous."
KATHY CASTOR, U.S. Representative, Florida 11th District
The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise, by Michael Grunwald: "It's simply the most comprehensive analysis of the impacts that growth and development have had on the Everglades. Anyone who cares about Florida's beautiful natural environment and realizes it's interconnected will be fascinated." A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini: "Even though it is a fictional account of the struggles of an orphan girl who becomes a woman in Afghanistan, you can't help but relate to the circumstances of the country. If someone's looking for a book that will outright make them weep, that's the one."
BRAD CULPEPPER, Tampa attorney/ Former defensive lineman for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
A Land Remembered, by Patrick Smith: "Like a Michener book, but about Florida. It traces a family from the 1860s to the 1970s and how they grow wealthy. It harkens to a simpler but far more difficult time. I'd recommend the book to anyone who lives in Florida."
CARLA JIMENEZ, Co-owner, Inkwood Books, Tampa
Fiction: The Gathering, by Anne Enright. "It's a stunning piece of writing — it just won the Booker Prize." Nonfiction: Deep Economy, by Bill McKibben. "It's a radical re-examining of how we define growth and progress." Big-Box Swindle, by Stacy Mitchell: "This highly acclaimed expose of the reality behind the big box hype features several local businesses including Inkwood. Mitchell is the nationally recognized expert on retail development and independent business and has the facts and analysis to back up her claims. A timely and informative message for anyone who cares about community."
LORNA BRACEWELL, Singer/songwriter
The Origins of Totalitarianism, by Hannah Arendt: "I read this book during my six-week tour of Germany, Denmark and the Czech Republic; I'm sure that is part of the reason why I found it to be so revelatory. Arendt delves fearlessly into some of the most baffling and horrific events in modern history and emerges with a profound call to action: 'The subterranean stream of Western history has finally come to the surface and usurped the dignity of our tradition. This is the reality in which we live. And this is why all efforts to escape from the grimness of the present into nostalgia for a still intact past, or into the anticipated oblivion of a better future, are vain.' As you can probably infer, it is a disquieting, challenging and brilliant read."
JUDY GENSHAFT, President, University of South Florida
Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen: "The book was so different. It took me into an absolutely different world that I didn't know about. Very gripping and suspenseful. You can't put it down."
DAVID BROWN, Co-owner, Old Tampa Book Company
Dark Light, by Randy Wayne White: "I can't say it's my absolute favorite this year, but I loved Dark Light. I enjoy the chief protagonist of the series, Doc Ford. All of these mysteries, there are 12 of them, take place on the west coast of Florida, this one shortly after Hurricane Charley."
PENELOPE LIVINGSTON, Old Tampa Book Company staff
Moon Woman, by Pamela Duncan: "I found Pamela Duncan in another used book store — not ours." Duncan's book helped fuel "this whole Appalachian thing" (perhaps aided by a bit of wanderlust), and Livingston went on to read Duncan's other books, Plant Life and The Big Beautiful. "Now I'm hooked on another writer; he's from Kentucky: Silas House." House writes about mountain life and Kentucky coal-mining families in Clay's Quilt, The Coal Tattoo and A Parchment of Leaves.
JENNIFER PIERCE, Founder, Book Bus mobile literacy outreach program
Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Mo Willems: "This book really engages kids more in terms of role-playing than as a read-aloud. It works with as little as one or as many as 50 kids at once. Pigeon is the most clever, conniving character in kids' books. He's a riot. Willems' Pigeon series teaches morals and character without being preachy, and lets kids see that they have control and the ability to say no."
DAVID AUDET, Filmmaker/ Hillsborough Community College professor
Tourist Season, by Enid Shomer: "Laced with dollops of humor amongst mysterious journeys through various personal landscapes. I was made familiar with the unfamiliar. Enid lives in Tampa and manages to unravel some of the shadows of this Floridian temperament, as well as other American alleys and byways."
ENID SHOMER, Novelist/ poet/ author of the story collection Tourist Season
The Sea, by John Banville; Headlong, by Michael Frayn; Outlaw Style, by R.T. Smith: "Banville is an amazing stylist. The novel's about a man who goes back to a seaside resort he went to as a child after his wife dies — the language is fluid, melodious. He has a huge vocabulary — I'm having to look up words. But even if you don't look them up, it doesn't matter. Headlong is funny, and it's about art — to make art funny I think is very hard. I want to give you one book of poetry. I edited Outlaw Style and I love it — he's a Southerner and he's trying to understand the whole race thing."
BOB DEVIN JONES, Director/ actor/ playwright/ Studio@620 co-artistic director
Baudolino, by Umberto Eco: "A really excellent book to read right now. Where but the Middle Ages do you find a comparable parcel of fantasy, hubris, myth, lies, grand histrionics, more lies and then finally a fascinating twisted invented history? Umberto Eco's narrative is filled with wit, intelligence and beguiling stupid beauty. The perfect book to be submerged in, and emerge from, nicely beat up. I am the protagonist of this tome."
BOB ROSS, Independent film critic at bobrossmovies.com
The Beatles, The Biography, by Bob Spitz: "As one who fancied himself something of a Beatle cognoscente, I found astonishing — OK, make that really interesting — info about the guys and their early environs on almost every page. And it's a fairly long book. Even if you aren't a fan (is that possible?), you'll find yourself meditating on the amount of sheer random confluence that turned four vaguely connected strangers into the greatest pop quartet of all time."
CHARLES MATTOCKS, Host, TV show The Poor Chef
The Greatest Salesman in the World, by Og Mandino: "I live my life by the amazing values [in the book] that allow us to be the best we can be, to never give up on your dreams or your hopes or our loves. It has allowed me not to judge someone before I know them and has shown me that we have a job to do and that's share truth and enlighten people in any way we can, our purpose is not just to take but to give."
DAVE REEDER, Car Bomb Driver frontman
Punk Diary 1970-1979, by George Gimarc; Rip it Up and Start Again, PostPunk 1978-1984, by Simon Reynolds: "I'm trying to catch up on the music and history of punk that got by me. Of course I was into the Ramones, Clash, Dead Kennedys, etc. But now I'm reading about and listening to less well-known but great stuff like The Stranglers, Gang of Four and Germs. I know I'm a few decades behind musically, but these bands I'm discovering are new and fresh to me."
PAT FENDA, Entertainer/ owner of Strictly Entertainment talent agency
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia, by Elizabeth Gilbert: "The book was funny, poignant and inspiring. A true tale of a bad divorce and how this female author took a year — four months in Italy, four months in an ashram in India and then four months helping some folks in Thailand — to find herself and love again. Really great!"
DAVID JENKINS, Jobsite Theater artistic director
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K. Rowling: Yeah, yeah — me and everyone else on the planet. I don't care about the fanfics, slash or where Dumbledore liked to hide his wand, but I enjoyed the closure on a really great series. I read so little for pleasure, these books were fantastic to whisk me away at the end of a day.
ANNA KATE MACKLE, Florida Orchestra principal harp
Harry Potter books 1-7, by J.K. Rowling: "This August, I decided to read the entire Harry Potter series. With an 18-month old baby, I really had not had the time to read much lately, but I really got into the books and took time almost every day (usually at night) to read. It took me two months to read all seven books, and I almost felt sad when I was finished, because I enjoyed the books so much that I didn't want the story to end."
RONNY ELLIOTT, Singer/ songwriter
A People's History Of The United States, by Howard Zinn: This book has inspired me and given me the necessary background to move away from my pro-immigrant stance. No, I haven't taken up the banner of Lou Dobbs. I've just come out against Columbus, the pilgrims and those other pasty johnny-come-latelys. Dashiell Hammett [The Maltese Falcon, The Thin Man] invented a genre. Like Little Richard, he deserves our gratitude. Peter Guralnick [Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm and Blues and the Southern Dream of Freedom; Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley] doesn't own a computer. He's my hero.
SUSAN COMAS, Owner, Bayboro Books, St. Petersburg
Falling Man, by Don DeLillo: "This novel begins with the towers falling and ends with the planes hitting the towers. In between is a powerful account of emotions experienced by a few people who dealt with 9/11 firsthand. As is typical with DeLillo novels, I would find myself going back over a passage and getting more out of it each time. A haunting and intriguing read."
LESLIE REINER, Co-owner, Inkwood Books, Tampa
"Having a bookseller have to pick one book as a favorite, even from the narrowed field of books read this year, is impossible, akin to asking someone from Vinyl Fever for their favorite song, or a restaurant critic for their favorite dish. Just one? Not even my top 10? Since I easily spend three times as much a day reading as other people (according to that NEA study), I am using that to justify sending in three titles: The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson, a beautiful story of sibling love and rivalry set around WWII; The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penny, an amazing mix of love, suspense, history and adventure set in 1867 Canada; and Away, by Amy Bloom, an astonishing tale of an immigrant woman's courage, full of humor and Bloom's stellar writing."
DAVID McKALIP, St. Petersburg neurosurgeon/ chairman, Cut Taxes Now political action group
The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand: "Rand, writing in the middle of the 20th century, predicted much of what is going wrong in our country and world today as governments, large corporations and others take control of our lives ... often at our own request."
RACHEL MORAN, Gal about town
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, by Haruki Murakami: "The scope of the story is huge, and the symbolism is so stark, but Murakami is very respectful of modern Japanese influences, and the book feels elegant and important, where a lesser writer would have made it base and derivative. Bret Easton Ellis' Lunar Park is fun, too — it reminds me of my cousin Sean."
CARRIE OLIN, Florida Orchestra marketing services manager
Last Night I Dreamed of Peace: The Diary of Dang Thuy Tram, by Dang Thuy Tram: "Tram, a 20-something doctor, kept the diaries between 1968-1970, up until a few days before she was killed by American soldiers. I have a personal connection with the diaries because my dad's childhood friends, Fred and Robert Whitehurst, were directly responsible for finding the diaries, returning them to Tram's family, and eventually publishing the diaries. Apparently, the diary is the number one-selling book of all time in Vietnam as well!"
PATTI-JO PEARL, 3Square Creative Studios creative director and partner
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, by Marina Lewycka: "Two estranged sisters, Ukrainian immigrants now living near London, are dismayed to learn their 84-year-old widowed father, Nikolai, has fallen in love with Valentina, a 'fluffy pink grenade' of a woman less than half his age. Both funny (Valentina is a hoot!) and poignant, this little treasure of a book touched me with its sly, soulful depiction of a disintegrating family struggling to find common ground, resulting in tragic consequences."
JEANNIE PIEROLA, Super chef
The Devil in the Kitchen, by Marco Pierre White: "My sous chef Chad Johnson loaned it to me and insisted that I read it. Wow, what a great read! For anybody who has ever been super passionate, on a mission and determined to ascend at something, this is the book. While it is about the culinary world and this provocative chef, it has a deeper meaning about vision and following your heart, soul and intellect. I absolutely dug it."
SAMM SIMPSON, Anti-war activist and congressional candidate
The War Against the Weak: Eugenics and American's Campaign to Create a Master Race, by Edwin Black: "This book was disturbing and eye-opening. I'd never been taught the link between social engineering and the resulting 'population control' theories of American eugenic research, [which] evolved to its most logical conclusion [with the] Nazi atrocities. Black forces the reader to wrestle with a deeply disturbing American past. The War Against the Weak reaffirms that a looming wickedness lies within the heart of man. Then, as now, this wickedness must be confessed, examined and repudiated. This is a war that is still being waged."
SUSAN STANTON, Former Largo city manager
The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court, by Jeffrey Toobin: "Toobin reveals the complex organizational dynamics between members of the court and how their collective life experiences and political beliefs affect the way they interpret the Constitution and make law. Toobin best illustrates this in his analysis of the court's activism in the 2000 presidential election, Gore vs. Bush. Toobin's book is a must-read for all young people interested in constitutional law."
WENGAY NEWTON, St. Pete city councilman/ president, Westminster Heights Neighborhood Association
The Fair Tax Book, by Neal Boortz & Congressman John Linder: "With people all over the country being taxed into submission and all of our jobs going overseas [Boortz and Linder argue that] the Fair Tax will: eliminate the income tax and the dreaded IRS; jump-start the U.S. economy; bring businesses and jobs back the United States ... [and] last but not least, make April 15 just another beautiful spring day.
JACK WILKINS, USF professor of saxophone/ jazz recording artist
John Hammond on Record: An Autobiography, by John Hammond: "Hammond was a talent scout and moving force with Columbia Records, 'discovering' and recording Billie Holiday, Count Basie, Benny Goodman and later artists like Aretha Franklin. It is an interesting look into the way the record business got started in the U.S. and how some of the great jazz recordings came about."
REBEKAH PULLEY, Singer/songwriter
How can I pick just one? I did enjoy The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck because it was just an amazingly well-written and touching story. The character O-lan broke my heart. Malinche by Laura Esquivel was a beautiful tale in its lyrical expression — the thought that corn was more valuable than gold to her still enters my thoughts now and again. And The Good Omen by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett was great because we all need to laugh about Armageddon sometimes. OK, I won't lie — I liked Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling and was a little sad that it was the last one.
RAY HINST, Owner, Haslam's Book Store, St. Petersburg
Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Carr: "It's a best-seller for young adults, but it's also on the Marine Corps Commandant and Naval War College reading lists. It operates on a bunch of levels. Mankind has pinned its hopes [in a confrontation with an alien race] on a group of kids on a space station. It's a great study of intergroup dynamics; that's why the military got a hold of it."
PHOTO CREDITS
Iorio, Arsenault, Culpepper, Genshaft, Brown, Livingston, Pierce, Shomer, Reeder, Jenkins, Elliott, Jimenez, Reiner, Moran, Pierola, Pulley: Eric Snider
Devin Jones, Comas, Newton, Hinst: Alex Pickett, Bracewell: Lexi Pierson, McKalip: Wayne Garcia, Stanton: Max Linsky
MORE COVER STORY
Reading While Loafing - CL writers and editors on the best books they've read this year.
