Florida Literature: Who is your favorite author/character?

[Sundog]

I am always looking for recommendations for reading titles and authors. I'd rank my favorites (author: Character) like this.

1. Randy Wayne White: Doc Ford

2. James W. Hall: Thorne

3. Tim Dorsey: Serge E. Storms

4. Tom Corcoran: Alex Rutledge

Carl Hiaasen, Laurence Shames, Peter Matthiessen are also up there in the ranks. If anybody had any new names, titles, characters, let me know. I will appreciate your thoughts!

http://hoosierbeachbum.blogspot.com/

[sonofabeach]

Bob Morris has a few pretty good books, main character being Zack Chasteen
http://www.bobmorris.net/

[Spider Johnson]

Give Laurence Shames a try. You won't regret it!
One site about him and his books. There are others. I have not read any of his nonfiction books as of yet.
http://hubpages.com/hub/Discover_Laurence_Shames

Here is another Fla fiction author for you. Lawrence Sanders and the "McNally" series. Some of the series were written with or by Victor Lardo. (Lawrence Sanders passed in 1998. Victor continued to write the series until around 2004.)

There are some more authors that I cannot recall at the moment.

I am surprised to not see John D. McDonald's "Travis McGee" listed here.

[citcat]

The MASTER: John D. MacDonald, Travis McGee
Carl Hiaasen
Tom Corcoran

[LIPH]

I've read a lot of Carl Hiaasen's books, never read any of the others.

[Bfan53again]

Bob Morris has a few pretty good books, main character being Zack Chasteen
http://www.bobmorris.net/

Agreed, sundog's initial list has all my current favorites, but Bob Morris has quietly joined this fine group of writers.......

[RinglingRingling]

Read most of the Carl Hiassen books.

Even got an autographed one as a really nice birthday present.

Tom Cochran, the only one of his I remember reading (I think it was his), was the one he was selling at MOTM last year with pictures of pre-overdevelopment KW

[MacPhin]

i love your list of authors. i wish carl would get his next "adult" book out. i'm way past withdrawal.
we too picked up tom's book at motm last year, but it was his mystery collection that i started. this past year we purchased all the rest of the series. we also purchased quite a few of dorsey's.
macdonalds' travis mcgee i believe is a required read if you like florida authors. he started it all.

randy's books however, are our favorites. of course we are a bit biased because;
1. we spend so much time down in the barrier islands when we aren't here in massachusetts.
2. about 7 years ago randy invited us to his house. he was so generous and he hardly knew us. we had a great time as he told us of his travels and such. we met his friends while tasting his hot sauces that had just arrived from south america where the production was.

randy has become such a successful author that he can't be so free with his life, which is too bad. he now has to have a watch dog.

anyone interested in baseball should check out randy's documentry that has won an award. it's called "gift of the game". it has aired on pbs.


GIFT OF THE GAME, a documentary (DVD. 59 Minutes, suitable for all ages). This is the story of a letter from Lorian Hemingway to acclaimed Florida novelist Randy Wayne White that sends White on a journey recorded in The Gift of the Game. Lorian’s grandfather, Ernest Hemingway, had founded a little league team for his son Gregory when they were living in Cuba called the Gigi Stars. Despite his reservations about returning to Cuba - he was trapped by the Cuban military during the 1980 Mariel boatlift - the idea of finding these men who had been coached by one of America’s greatest writers was something that he could not pass up. White assembles his friends Bill “Spaceman” Lee (former pitcher of the Boston Red Sox), Jon Warden (former pitcher of the Detroit Tigers) and a ragtag group of 50-something-year-old baseball buddies and heads to Cuba to uncover this missing chapter from Hemingway's life.

Armed with little more than the address of Hemingway’s Finca, cartons of baseball gear, and a whole lot of enthusiasm, the group finds the boys-now-men who were once Gigi stars and in the process embark on a comic and dramatic journey into the fabric of their own lives. Some film highlights include former GiGis reminiscing about playing ball with "Papa;" legendary Cuban pitcher the Man with 100 Moves; Bill Lee’s Zen tactics, and an eerie recollection of the dark days of Mariel.
A playful and warm-hearted film, Gift of the Game offers a refreshing look at the possibility of building bridges between disparate cultures.

here's a link to randy's website if you're interested ( and no i'm not getting anything for this. i just really like the guys work).

http://www.randywaynewhite.com/index.html

[Sundog]

sonofabeach--Thanks for the Bob Morris tip. Haven't ready any of his stuff, but checked out his website. I will definitely get a book soon.

MacPhin--You met Randy Wayne White. I'm jealous. Thanks for the insight into his current life.

And yes, I was remiss in leaving out John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee. He kind of started all this, didn't he?

Thanks for the suggestions and comments. Keep them coming!

[Frank4]

I've read a lot of Carl Hiaasen's books, never read any of the others.

I really like Carl Hiaasen's books, I don't know of another author that makes me laugh out loud like he does

[blackjack]

I'm working on all the RWW Doc Ford novels and I think I have read most of Hiaasen's books (Skink is a great recurring character.) and really enjoy both authors for different reasons.

[Desdamona]

The MASTER: John D. MacDonald, Travis McGee

Sometimes I wish we had named our boat the "Busted Flush" just so folks
would quit thinking of it as a floating port-a-potty.

[TropicalTroubador]

Callahan's Key and Callahan's Con, by Spider Robinson. The former is the better book, and is the *other* thing that got me to Key West.

[weirdo0521]

I am always looking for recommendations for reading titles and authors. I'd rank my favorites (author: Character) like this.

1. Randy Wayne White: Doc Ford

2. James W. Hall: Thorne

3. Tim Dorsey: Serge E. Storms

4. Tom Corcoran: Alex Rutledge

Carl Hiaasen, Laurence Shames, Peter Matthiessen are also up there in the ranks. If anybody had any new names, titles, characters, let me know. I will appreciate your thoughts!

http://hoosierbeachbum.blogspot.com/

I'm right with you with 1 exception. Dorsey made Hiaasen seem like non-fiction. I've only read one of the Serge books, so I haven't written him off yet. Love the Doc Ford and Thorne series. Be sure and sample the godfather of them all, John D. Mac Donald and Travis McGee.

[Sundog]

Spider Robinson--another writer I haven't read yet. I'll try the Callahan's Key title first.

Travis McGee should be feeling the love out there.

Weirdo--Great insight. Tim Dorsey grew on me after the second book I read.

Never thought about Sanibel too much until I started reading Doc Ford. It's on my list of places I've got to go, now.

Again, thanks for the posts. I appreciate and enjoy reading them.

[Bfan53again]

Spider Robinson--another writer I haven't read yet. I'll try the Callahan's Key title first.

Travis McGee should be feeling the love out there.

Weirdo--Great insight. Tim Dorsey grew on me after the second book I read.

Never thought about Sanibel too much until I started reading Doc Ford. It's on my list of places I've got to go, now.

Again, thanks for the posts. I appreciate and enjoy reading them.

Tim Dorsey's writing is definitely an "acquired taste"......it took me 3 tries to finally get into the first book of his that I read. But now I'm a full-fledged Dorsey fan! His principal character, Serge Storms, is an absolute scream (even though he is a serial killer....... ).

Dorsey is one of the few authors I've read that makes me laugh out loud while reading.......

[Sundog]

Has anyone read anything by Darryl Wimberley? I picked up a book called Dead Man's Bay, with a main character named Barrett Raines. The first novel is apparently called A Rock and a Hard Place.

I'll read it eventually, but was curious if anyone had any information or opinions on this author and/or books.

Thanks!

[spartan1979]

I've read all the Doc Ford books, RRW books are my favorites. I've read most of James Hall's Thorne series and all of Corcoran's books.

I've read one of Dorsey's books and didn't really like it. I started a second one and decided I really didn't want to read it.

I've also read about a dozen of Hiassen's books. Some I really enjoyed, others were a struggle to get through. I read "Nature Girl" over Christmas and didn't care for it. I think I have to be in the right frame of mind to read his books.

[mrmiata]

1. Randy Wayne White - Doc Ford. I can't get enough.
2. Tom Corcoran - Alex Rutledge. The guy drives a '66 Shelby GT350H, so he's The Man.
3. Tim Dorsey - Serge, but only because Dorsey writes about him. I'm more a fan of the style of writing.
4. Carl Hiaasen - Skink. Something about a Governor gone native in a swim cap that's hysterical. Call me strange.
5. SV Date - No specific character, but love Date's writing.
6. John MacDonald - Travis McGee. The original, and always an awesome read. I can plow through a McGee novel in a day.

There are so many others that it's hard to list them all.

[big john]

The Run for Home by Leland Frederick Cooley

if you can find it, it's worth it. written @ 1959 its about the merchant marine
fleet in the 1920's. he also wrote "California" in 1973, a very popular book.
the author ran off to sea at age 17 and draws from personal experiances.
he later produced the Perry Como show. an interesting life to be sure and
he wrote some great books.