Browse by Subject: Culture

Gourmets and novices alike will rave over easy-to-prepare recipes such as Key Lime Drop Cookies, Frozen Key Lime Cake Supreme, and Key Lime Rum Sherbet.

Tyler Gillespie takes readers on an exuberant search for the state behind the caricatures, finding Florida’s humanity: a beautiful mix of hopes, dreams, and second chances.

Filled with rare photographs, vintage postcards and advertisements, and fascinating descriptions from over 100 years ago, this book spotlights a little-known time in history when tourists poured into Florida in search of good health. Rick Kilby shows how Florida’s natural wonders were promoted and developed as restorative destinations for America’s emerging upper class.

Journalist, activist, and adventurer, Jane Wood Reno was one of the most groundbreaking and colorful American women of the twentieth century. Told by her grandson, George Hurchalla, this is an intimate biography of a free thinker who shattered barriers during the explosive early years of Miami.

This book is a behind-the-scenes look at the bizarre crime of astronaut Lisa Nowak, who drove 900 miles to intercept and confront her romantic rival in an airport parking lot—allegedly using diapers on the trip so she wouldn’t have to stop. This is a riveting journey inside the high-pressure world of one of America’s most elite agencies and the life of one beleaguered astronaut.

Filled with colorful photographs and infused with the joy of two expert chefs celebrating the foods that are closest to their hearts, Taste the Islands brings the places, histories, and rhythms of the Caribbean into your home kitchen.  

In this narrated cookbook, Adela Hernandez Gonzmart and Ferdie Pacheco memorialize their passion for the Columbia, the nation’s largest Spanish restaurant and Florida’s oldest restaurant. This special 115th anniversary edition of the The Columbia Restaurant Spanish Cookbook features a touching foreword by Andrea Gonzmart Williams, granddaughter of Adela.

When Ray Whaley set out to accomplish his bucket-list goal of kayaking the length of the St. Johns River, it didn’t take long for him to realize he was in over his head. The longest river in Florida, stretching 310 miles between Vero Beach and Jacksonville, the St. Johns had been paddled in its entirety by only a handful of people. Whaley found himself blazing his own trail on an exciting and unexpected adventure.           

With an eye for the illogical and a flair for the irreverent, journalist Mark Lane aims his sharp wit at one of the most intriguing duties of the Florida legislature—signing state symbols into law. In Roaring Reptiles, Bountiful Citrus, and Neon Pies, he spotlights nineteen things that have been proposed and/or appointed to officially define Florida.

Discover some of Florida’s most fascinating personalities in this entertaining kaleidoscope of interviews. Made in Florida showcases a colorful lineup of notable people who got their start in the state and who have helped make it the unique, diverse place it is today.