‘Tis the season of piecing together travel itineraries, planning elaborate gatherings, and figuring out how to make your gingerbread cookies finally turn out right. On top of all that, you’re frantically searching high and low to find the perfect gift for those loved ones who feel impossible to shop for. Simply put, we wouldn’t blame you for feeling a little overwhelmed.
So, as we continue to host our holiday sale, we want to make your life a little easier with this gift guide featuring highlights from our new releases for the year. Whether your loved ones are passionate about history, science, gardening, or entertainment, we have a match for them.
To order these books, visit our website and use code XM23 for discounts. Orders over $75 will receive free shipping within the US and a free tote bag (while supplies last).
For the nature lover
Wild Florida: An Animal Odyssey
By Kirsten Hines
Kirsten Hines provides a captivating visual and narrative journey into the ecology of Florida’s animals in Wild Florida. The intimate and artistic photographs in this book introduce readers to the wide variety of wildlife that thrives within the state. In essays that accompany her images, Hines offers stories and observations about each species and encourages conservation of the natural areas that support them.
For the Disney adult
Mickey and the Teamsters: A Fight for Fair Unions at Disney
By Mike Schneider
Behind the costumes, life isn’t always magic and fairy dust for the people who play the iconic characters of Mickey Mouse, Goofy, and Cinderella at Walt Disney World. In a surprising tale of corruption alongside activism, Mickey and the Teamsters reveals the little-known story of Teamsters Local 385, the union that represents these performers. It spotlights Donna-Lynne Dalton, a former cast member who stood up for other Disney performers against deep-rooted problems in the union that was supposed to protect them.
For the Florida history fanatic
Once Upon a Time in Florida: Stories of Life in the Land of Promises
Edited by Jacki Levine
Distributed on behalf of Florida Humanities
Once Upon a Time in Florida transports readers into the eventful life and times of this remarkable state through 50 stories vividly rendered by some of the nation’s most acclaimed writers and scholars, along with 150 evocative images. This collection opens more than 14,000 years ago with the first people to inhabit the peninsula and continues through the state’s territorial beginnings, the era of slavery, statehood, the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Jim Crow period, and Florida’s transformation into a complex, powerful megastate.
For the classic rock devotee
Good Day Sunshine State: How the Beatles Rocked Florida
Edited by Jacki Levine
Co-published with Florida Humanities
In 1964, Beatlemania flooded the United States. The Beatles appeared live on the Ed Sullivan Show and embarked on their first tour of North America—and they spent more time in Florida than anywhere else. Good Day Sunshine State dives into this momentous time and place, exploring the band’s seismic influence on the people and culture of the state.
Two books for the aspiring leader
Janet Reno: A Life
By Judith Hicks Stiehm
In this first full biography of former United States attorney general Janet Reno, Judith Hicks Stiehm describes the independent and unconventional life of a woman who grew up on a rural South Florida homestead and rose to occupy one of the top positions in the United States government, whose ethics and example served as inspiration for women in law and politics across the nation.
Mary McLeod Bethune the Pan-Africanist
By Ashley Robertson Preston
This book examines the Pan-Africanism of Mary McLeod Bethune through her work, which internationalized the scope of Black women’s organizations to create solidarity among Africans throughout the diaspora. Broadening the familiar view of Bethune as an advocate for racial and gender equality within the United States, Ashley Preston argues that Bethune consistently sought to unify African descendants around the world with her writings, through travel, and as an advisor.
Two books for the justice advocate
From Death Row to Freedom: The Struggle for Racial Justice in the Pitts-Lee Case
By Phillip A. Hubbart
This book is an insider’s account of the case of Freddie Pitts and Wilbert Lee, two Black men who were wrongfully charged and convicted of the murder of two white gas station attendants in Port St. Joe, Florida, in 1963, and sentenced to death. Phillip Hubbart, a defense lawyer for Pitts and Lee for more than 10 years, examines the crime, the trial, and the appeals with both a keen legal perspective and an awareness of the endemic racism that pervaded the case and obstructed justice.
Justice Pursued: The Exoneration of Nathan Myers and Clifford Williams
By Bruce Horovitz
In 2019, Nathan Myers and Clifford Williams were released after almost 43 years in prison in the first exoneration brought about through a Conviction Integrity Review unit in Florida. Justice Pursued is the story of this wrongful conviction and its landmark reversal, which made headlines as it was initiated by the same state office that sought the death penalty for both men in 1976.
For the the memoir reader
Operation Pedro Pan: The Untold Exodus of 14,048 Cuban Children
By Yvonne M. Conde
Revised Edition
On August 11, 1961, at the age of ten, Yvonne Conde left Cuba in one of the world’s largest political exoduses of children in history—Operation Pedro Pan. Between 1960 and 1962 over 14,000 children were sent out of Cuba alone by parents who feared for their children’s future under Castro. Conde presents many of their stories in this book.
For the person who names their plants
100 Roses for the South Florida Garden
By Victor Lazzari
Contrary to common belief, many varieties of roses can flourish in Florida’s heat and humidity. A much-needed guide for both home gardeners and landscape professionals, 100 Roses for the South Florida Garden equips readers with the knowledge to successfully grow this popular plant in the state’s tropical climate.
For the backyard farmer
Organic Methods for Vegetable Gardening in Florida
By Ginny Stibolt and Melissa Markham
Second Edition
In this guide, expert botanist Ginny Stibolt and Master Gardener Melissa Markham provide simple and accessible advice for successful vegetable gardening in Florida, where soil types vary and cool-weather crops are grown right through the mild winters.
For the sustainability superstar
Climate-Wise Landscaping: Practical Actions for a Sustainable Future
By Sue Reed and Ginny Stibolt
Second Edition
Proposed solutions to climate change often seem expensive and complex and can leave us as individuals at a loss, wondering what, if anything, can be done. This book is packed with simple, practical steps for beautifying any landscape or garden, while helping protect the planet and the species that call it home. This book is the ideal tool for homeowners, gardeners, and landscape professionals who want to be part of the solution to climate change.
For the person who’s always trying to convince you to go on a backpacking trip
Backpacking Florida
By Johnny Molloy
From the coastal bluffs of the Panhandle to the wild Everglades, Backpacking Florida features 40 overnight trail adventures covering a total of 600 miles across the state. Expert outdoorsman Johnny Molloy provides readers with the tools and information they need to unplug and experience Florida’s amazing variety of ecosystems up close.
For the martial artist
Capoeira Connections: A Memoir in Motion
By Katya Wesolowski
Originating in the Black Atlantic world as a fusion of dance and martial art, capoeira was a marginalized practice for much of its history. Today it is globally popular. This ethnographic memoir weaves together the history of capoeira, recent transformations in the practice, and personal insights from author Katya Wesolowski’s thirty years of experience as a capoeirista.
Two books for the serious museumgoer
Cosmonaut: A Cultural History
By Cathleen S. Lewis
In this book, Cathleen Lewis discusses how the public image of the Soviet cosmonaut developed beginning in the 1950s and the ways this icon has been reinterpreted throughout the years. Lewis highlights how cosmonaut figures have been celebrated through newspapers, radio, parades, monuments, museums, films, and even postage stamps and lapel pins, examining how cosmonaut imagery has been effective propaganda up to the present day.
All Things Beautiful: Wonders from the Collections of the Florida Museum of Natural History
By the Florida Museum of Natural History
Distributed on behalf of the Florida Museum of Natural History
All Things Beautiful reveals some of the remarkable animals, plants, fossils, and cultural heritage materials that make up the 40 million+ specimens and objects of the Florida Museum of Natural History. With 10 chapters exploring diverse themes, award-winning environmental journalist Heather Dewar captures the vast scope of the museum’s activities to document and discover all forms of life on Earth. Profiles of pathbreaking curators explore the excitement of generating new knowledge, from living in the field with Komodo dragons to discovering new species and using cutting-edge technologies to see and share collections worldwide.
To order any of these books at discount prices, visit upress.ufl.edu and use code XM23 at checkout.
Orders over $75 will receive free shipping within the US and a free tote bag while supplies last. Sale ends December 15, 2023.
Happy holidays to all of our readers!
The Florida Bookshelf 