To celebrate the Miami Book Fair, we’ve put together a reading list focusing on this famous city. Be transported back in time with Gary Monroe’s photos of South Beach and learn about famed architect Alfred Browning Parker and renowned journalist Jane Wood Reno. Read about the history of African Americans in Miami, and enjoy delicious recipes from the Versailles Restaurant. Books are on sale with code XM20 through December 16.
And don’t miss any of our authors participating in the Miami Book Fair!
The Extraordinary Life of Jane Wood Reno: Miami’s Trailblazing Journalist
George Hurchalla
Jane Wood Reno wrote countless freelance articles under male names for the Miami Daily News until she became so indispensable that the paper was forced to take her on staff and let her publish under her own name.
The Last Resort: Jewish South Beach, 1977-1986
Gary Monroe
The Last Resort memorializes an era, a culture, and a history. Monroe offers an exquisitely rendered portrait of a community most people have forgotten.
Center of Dreams: Building a World-Class Performing Arts Complex in Miami
Les Standiford
Discover how one building project revolutionized Miami, and how one man helped turn a fractious tropical city into a cultural capital of the Americas.
Before the Pioneers: Indians, Settlers, Slaves, and the Founding of Miami
Andrew K. Frank
Before the Pioneers takes readers back through forgotten eras to the stories of the people who shaped the land along the Miami River long before most modern histories of the city begin.
The Discipline of Nature: Architect Alfred Browning Parker in Florida
Edited by Allan Shulman
Parker’s expression of organic architecture changed over the course of his career, partly in response to national trends, but always in step with Florida’s maturity. This work examines Parker’s career that stretched from 1942 until his death in 2011.
White Sand Black Beach: Civil Rights, Public Space, and Miami’s Virginia Key
Gregory W. Bush
In White Sand Black Beach, historian and longtime Miami activist Gregory Bush recounts the unique story of activists in the Jim Crow era staging a wade-in at a whites-only beach, and the current state of the public waterfront in Miami.
Black Miami in the Twentieth Century
Marvin Dunn
The first book devoted to the history of African Americans in south Florida and their pivotal role in the growth and development of Miami, this book traces their triumphs, drudgery, and courage during the first 100 years of the city’s history.
George Merrick, Son of the South Wind: Visionary Creator of Coral Gables
Arva Moore Parks
With unprecedented access to the Merrick family, and mining a treasure trove of Merrick’s personal letters, documents, speeches, and manuscripts, Parks presents the remarkable story of George Merrick and the development of one of the nation’s most iconic planned cities.
The Versailles Restaurant Cookbook
Ana Quincoces and Nicole Valls
The Versailles Restaurant has been at the heart of the Cuban-American community for decades. This cookbook features some of the most beloved recipes from this Miami institution.
Miami for Families: A Vacation Guide for Parents and Kids
Laura Albritton
Laura Albritton, mother and long-time Miami resident, divides the metropolis into eight manageable neighborhoods, so you can organize your trip and maximize family fun.
Waiting at Joe’s
Deeny Kaplan Lorber
By giving voice to staff members, Deeny Kaplan Lorber reveals the inner workings of Joe’s in this collection of fascinating, intimate vignettes.
Miami: City of the Future, Revised Edition
T.D. Allman
With trenchant observations and witty prose, T. D. Allman takes readers on a tour of Miami’s people, cultures, politics, and neighborhoods.
Miami Architecture: An AIA Guide Featuring Downtown, the Beaches, and Coconut Grove
Allan T. Shulman, Randall C. Robinson Jr., and James F. Donnelly
Ideal for residents, professionals, vacationers, and day-trippers, this authoritative guidebook provides a broad, accessible architectural overview of the notable buildings that can be found in the core of downtown Miami, Miami Beach, and Coconut Grove.
Saving South Beach
M. Barron Stofik
In Saving South Beach, historic preservation clashes with development as each side vies for control of South Beach.
Digging Miami
Robert S. Carr
Robert Carr traces the rich 11,000-year human heritage of the Miami area from the time of its first inhabitants through the arrival of European settlers and up to the early twentieth century.
The Architecture of Alfred Browning Parker: Miami’s Maverick Modernist
Randolph C. Henning
Randolph Henning’s overview of the life work of modernist master Alfred Browning Parker features sixty-nine of the more than five hundred residential and commercial structures Parker created between 1942 and 2001.
Tales from the 5th Street Gym: Ali, the Dundees, and Miami’s Golden Age of Boxing
Ferdie Pacheco
Discover the secret history of one of boxing’s most hallowed grounds, as Pacheco recalls the rise, heyday, and fall of the “sweet science” at Miami Beach.
Coming to Miami: A Social History
Melanie Shell-Weiss
From pineapple groves to Cuban exiles to South Beach nightclubs, this impeccably researched and lucidly written book reveals much about the Miami’s multicultural diversity.
Designing the Good Life: Norman M. Giller and the Development of Miami Modernism
Norman M. Giller and Sarah Giller Nelson
Designing the Good Life is a personal account of the post-World War II movement, Miami Modernism, that shaped a city and defined an era.
South of the South: Jewish Activists and the Civil Rights Movement in Miami, 1945-1960
Raymond A. Mohl
Using revealing primary materials from the careers of two remarkable Jewish women, Raymond Mohl offers an original interpretation of the role of Jewish civil rights activists in promoting racial change in post-World War II Miami.
The Florida Bookshelf 