Episode 701: Fun Florida Books

Episode 701 Fun Florida books logo

Welcome to Reading With Libraries!

Thank you for joining us on the SEVENTH SEASON of our Reader’s Advisory podcast! This is our season opener, and we are going to have a wide variety of new genres and topics to share with you this season. We are so glad you’re here to join us. We always enjoy our book group podcast, and we hope you do, too! It’s hard to be an expert on ALL of the great books out there! So we pick a new genre each week to chat about and hopefully provide you with some insight into what may be an unfamiliar genre!

We are wrapping up summer, and starting off a new semester. But it’s always the right time to have some fun with books – and Florida books are always fun! Whether they are zany, scary, or just generally weird, Florida books are a good genre to enjoy when you need to brighten up your day.

This week we have a new Guest Host, here to enjoy book group discussion with us: Cassandra, from the St Cloud Technical and Community College library. In addition to being a reader, Cassandra has lived in Florida and can speak to some of the lovely and exciting aspects of the state. Thanks for joining us today!

Beverages:

Each week we like to connect the theme of our books with our beverages! This week we are enjoying cocktails with a Florida theme, so they will help you to feel the summertime fun.

The Rum Runner:

The story goes that this Key West cocktail was created in the 1950s at the Holiday Isle Tiki Bar in Islamorada, Florida. It was named for the bootleggers who smuggled in the liquor during Prohibition and later to avoid taxes. There’s nothing taxing about this decidedly tropical rum-and-liqueur–packed libation.

ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons (1 ounce) fresh lime juice
  • 2 tablespoons (1 ounce) fresh orange juice
  • 2 tablespoons (1 ounce) unsweetened pineapple juice
  • 2 tablespoons (1 ounce) banana liqueur
  • 2 tablespoons (1 ounce) light rum
  • 2 tablespoons (1 ounce) dark rum
  • 1 tablespoon (1/2 ounce) Chambord
  • 1 tablespoon (1/2 ounce) Grenadine
  • Garnish: fruit skewer (pineapple, banana, orange, lime)

Directions

Instructions Checklist

  • Step 1
    Pour all ingredients into an ice-filled cocktail shaker, and shake vigorously. Strain into an ice-filled hurricane glass. Garnish,  if desired.

Key Lime Daiquiris

Pull out your panama hats and palmetto fans—you will think you are in Hemmingway’s Key West when you mix up a couple of these tropical cocktails.

Ingredients

  • 3 teaspoons grenadine
  • 2 tablespoons fresh Key lime juice (from 2 Key limes)
  • 3 ounces light rum
  • 1/2 cup crushed ice
  • Key lime slices, for garnish

Directions

Stir together grenadine and lime juice until dissolved; transfer to a blender. Add rum and ice to blender. Process until smooth, about 30 seconds. Pour mixture into 2 hurricane glasses; garnish with lime slices.

Miami Vice Cocktail

This is a great drink to make for BBQs, and entertaining events. It looks impressive, and tastes like a tropical paradise.

Ingredients

  • ▢ 2 Ounces Rum Divided
  • ▢ 2 Cups Ice Divided
  • ▢ 1 Cup Strawberries Hulled, and Roughly Chopped
  • ▢ 1 Ounce Lime Juice Freshly Squeezed
  • ▢ 2 Ounces Cream of Coconut
  • ▢ 2 Ounces Pineapple Juice
  • ▢ Pineapple Slices For Garnish, If Desired

Instructions

  1. In a blender, blend strawberries, lime juice, and rum. Pour into a glass and place in freezer.
  2. Rinse out blender. Blend rum, pineapple juice, and cream of coconut.
  3. Pour into glass, swirling if desired. Garnish with a slice of pineapple

Genre Discussion:

You can find all kinds of stories about Florida: the beautiful beaches, the scary bugs and snakes, the wonderful food, the antics of the ubiquitous Florida Man stories. A place so filled with excitement in real life really lends itself to some exciting books – both fiction and nonfiction.

You can check out a fun website called Trip Fiction for all sorts of books. They have a collection of books about Florida, with some Florida quotes:

Florida is a place of unparalleled diversity of backgrounds, experiences and vision. It makes our culture unique, but it can also make it difficult to define a common identity and create a sense of community that reaches beyond our neighborhoods to all corners of our state’ – Jeb Bush

‘Florida is a strange place: hot, beautiful, ugly. I love it here, and how nothing makes sense but still, somehow, there is a rhythm’ – Roxane Gay

From zany mysteries to somber historical fiction to humor and everything in between, you can find all kinds of very enjoyable books. Any time you need to add some Florida sunshine to your day, grab one of these books to enjoy!

Suggested Reading Resources:

Our Book Discussion

We have our beverages, we are familiar with this week’s genre, let’s get to the book discussion! We will give you a list of all the books we share today. You can click on any of these links to go to Amazon.com for more information. If you buy anything while you are there, Amazon will give us a small percent of their profits from your purchase. Thanks in advance for helping to support the mission of CMLE – we appreciate it! 

Conclusion:

Thank you so much for joining us on Reading With Libraries! 

Special thanks to our Guest Host, Cassandra! We’re so glad you were able to join us today!

Join us next Thursday with another genre, more guest hosts for our book group, and more books to share and discuss. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast so you don’t miss a single episode! And if you want to hear more about the work we do in libraries or expand your library skills, check out our podcast Linking Our Libraries!

Bring your book ideas, bring your beverages, and join us back here on Thursday!