The Allure of Immortality: An American Cult, a Florida Swamp, and a Renegade Prophet
by Lyn Millner
Wall Street Journal’s Five Best Books About Cults
“Relates the headshaking tale of how [Cyrus] Teed converted two hundred seekers into celibate Koreshans and led them from Chicago to a Southwest Florida promised land, based on a religion-science . . . and the irresistible idea that the entire universe was contained in a hollow earth.”—Foreword Reviews
“What Lyn Millner does in her outstanding new book . . . is meticulously winnow truth from myth as she fleshes out the characters who were the Koreshans. . . . The result is an account that’s as exhaustive as it is interesting. Millner approaches her subject with an appealingly contemporary voice and sensibilities.”—Fort Myers News-Press
“Millner’s writing is historical journalism at its finest. . . . The Allure of Immortality interweaves the stories of Teed, his followers, the press, turn of the century society, and the harsh and beautiful landscape of southwest Florida.”—Florida Book Review
“Riveting. . . . At once fascinating biography and contextualizing cultural history, [Lyn] Millner’s study puts the Koreshan movement squarely in the company of many other friendly and rival organizations.”—Florida Weekly
“The story is fantastic enough to captivate anyone.”—Gulfshore Life
Jacksonville: The Consolidation Story, from Civil Rights to the Jaguars
by James B. Crooks
“A well-crafted case study of urban rebirth in the South. . . . Balanced and thoughtful.”—Choice
“A brilliant narrative that explains how the city has grown from a small cow town on the narrowest portion of the St. Johns River to a major metropolis in the sun belt.”—H-Net
“Crooks, the historian-in-residence during the administration of Jacksonville mayor Tommy Hazouri (1987–1991), was in an excellent position to observe community development at close range. His experiences and insights are quite evident in this solidly researched study.”—Journal of American History
“A reminder of just how backward a city Jacksonville was in many ways in the 1950s and 1960s.”—Florida Times-Union
“Particularly useful for its examination of how blacks viewed their prospects in this ‘Bold New City’ and how civil rights activists pressed their claims within the new consolidated government. . . . A primer for those concerned about southern growth in the twenty-first century.”—Journal of Southern History
“In 1967, voters in Jacksonville and the suburban areas of Duval County supported a successful city-county consolidation that transformed Jacksonville into Florida’s largest city. James Crook’s detailed study of Jacksonville before and after the consolidation provides a wealth of information and insight about the community.”—Florida Historical Quarterly
Bravura!: Lucia Chase and the American Ballet Theatre
by Alex C. Ewing
“Bravura addresses a dearth of knowledgeable tomes about the ABT, and is filled with the kind of tidbits fanatics will revel in. Ewing writes with both the studiousness of a scholar and the emotional attachment of a son, which, when you think about it, are also components that go into making good ballet.”—The New Yorker
“This compelling book, part dance history, part family chronicle, fills an aching gap on the dance bookshelf.”—Dance Magazine
“An enjoyable book about ABT’s founding patron and artistic director. An undeniably good yarn. With ideal fluidity, Ewing weaves his mother’s personal and professional stories into a thoughtful narrative devoid of any sense of compromised perspective. He has a real talent for personality description and portrays all the famous people in the book—even the less admirable ones—as multidimensional, sympathetic figures.”—Backstage
“ABT’s robust and rambunctious ups and downs are chronicled in rich detail, but the complicated details of wheeling and dealing never overwhelm the human stories in what Ewing calls ‘possibly the most complex and adventurous start-up ever to be attempted in the annals of dance.’”—Winston-Salem Journal
Power and Paradise in Walt Disney’s World
by Cher Krause Knight
“Well-researched and concise. By approaching Walt Disney World as a multilayered text with many meanings, Knight appreciates its complexity as a popular culture artifact worthy of admiration and scrutiny.”—Journal of American Culture
“[An] accessible overview of how Disney imagines its ‘magic’ to work.”—Florida Historical Quarterly
The Florida Bookshelf 