Completely Booked - Official Podcast of the Jacksonville Public Library

Nat Glover was born in 1943, in segregated Jacksonville, Florida. At seventeen, he unknowingly headed into an angry white mob and the Ku Klux Klan attacking young black protestors staging a sit-in at a downtown whites-only lunch counter. Known as "Ax Handle Saturday," this harrowing encounter with racism would commit him to a lifetime of fighting for justice.

He joined the Jacksonville Police Department in 1966 where he was named Police Officer of the Year four times, promoted to detective, rose to sergeant, and was appointed the city's first hostage negotiator. In 1995, Duval County voters elected him the first Black sheriff in Florida since Reconstruction.

Hear more about his incredible work and his new memoir, Striving for Justice: A Black Sheriff.

Nathaniel Glover has garnered national recognition for his community policing, ban on choke holds, and de-escalation training. Then-President Bill Clinton and U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno praised his initiatives during a walk-along with Glover in Jacksonville.

He was also a mayoral candidate in 2003 and served as the 29th President of his alma mater, Edward Waters University. He was twice nominated for the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Male President of the Year. The school's stadium is named the Nathaniel Glover Community Field and Stadium.

He received a "Great Floridian" designation in 2016 for his dedication to law enforcement, higher education, and the city of Jacksonville. He was inducted into the Florida Law Enforcement Officer's Hall of Fame in 2021. His memoir, Striving for Justice: A Black Sheriff, was released on August 22, 2023. Book proceeds help fund scholarships for need-based students through the Florida State College at Jacksonville's Foundation and the "Where They Will Shine Scholarship Fund". Learn more at www.strivingforjusticebook.com.

Interviewer Keitha Nelson is an award-winning journalist with 19 years of experience in the field of broadcasting. She currently serves as the co-anchor for Good Morning Jacksonville, First Coast News, NBC12/ABC25.

She's a true storyteller with the ability to connect with audiences. Throughout her career, Keitha has covered several major stories including Hurricanes Katrina, Matthew, and Irma as well as the Kamiyah Mobley story and Ahmaud Arbery shooting trial.

Keitha is a regular speaker and volunteer. Most recently, she's been honored with a Ken Knight award for her coverage and positive impact within the community. Notably, she has also won an Award of Excellence in Broadcast Journalism from Women in Media. Keitha has contributed to team awards including both an Edward R. Murrow and a Peabody for Hurricane Katrina coverage and an Emmy.

She serves on the board of Jacksonville non-profit Hope at Hand, which provides art and poetry therapy to at-risk populations. Keitha is also a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated.

Check out Striving for Justice from the library! https://jkpl.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/default/search/results?qu=striving+for+justice+glover&te=

• African American Life in Jacksonville by Herman Mason
• It Still Hurts, by Marshelle Berry
• Florida's Historic African American Homes, by Jada Wright-Greene

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Tim Gilmore is a prolific local history author who has written extensively about Jacksonville. As the writer and creator of www.jaxpsychogeo.com, a project that explores place and catalogs the Southern Gothic, he has told more than 700 stories of strange and historic locations in and around Jacksonville, Florida. He has also published 22 books.

"Ever since UNF English Professor Alex Menocal introduced me to the concept of psychogeography years ago, I've been enthralled with it," Gilmore says. "It's a portmanteau word, the psychology of geography, [meaning] something like the spirit of place. It's where the name for my website, jaxpsychogeo, comes from."

Gilmore seems equally fascinated with Jacksonville and its people. He is also the founder of JaxbyJax. A literary arts festival, now in its 10th year, JaxbyJax was built on the theme of "Jacksonville Writers Writing Jacksonville." Few writers have written about Jacksonville more than Gilmore.

He joined us last November to talk about his latest book, The Culture Wars of Warren Folks.

Tim Gilmore has written 22 books including Box Broken Open: The Architecture of Ted Pappas; Murder Capital: Eight Stories, 1890s-1980s; Channeling Anna Fletcher; Repossessions: Mass Shooting in Baymeadows; The Book of Isaiah: A Vision of the Founder of a City, illustrated by Shep Shepard; Devil in the Baptist Church: Bob Gray's Unholy Trinity; and The Mad Atlas of Virginia King. Four of the works he's written for the stage have been produced by Florida State College at Jacksonville DramaWorks and his writing has appeared in numerous publications both locally and nationally.

JaxPsychoGeo has received mention in publications including The Miami Herald, The Washington Post and The New Yorker and was featured in the A24 book Florida! A Hyper-Local Guide to the Flora, Fauna and Fantasy of the Most Far-Out State in America.

Gilmore teaches Literature and Writing at Florida State College at Jacksonville. He's received awards from FSCJ, the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville and Jacksonville City Council. He holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Florida. You can also read his twice-weekly newsletter, Tim Gilmore's deadpaper, at timgilmore.substack.com.

Interviewer Shep Shepard is a professor of English at FSCJ's Nassau Center. He received his Ph.D. in English from the University of Florida and has worked as a full-time instructor at FSCJ for twenty years. In his spare time, he produces music under various monikers, edits fiction and nonfiction prose, creates digital art, and enjoys time with his wife Ana and their dogs Meka and Moxie.

Check out Tim's work from the Library Catalog: https://jkpl.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/default/search/results?qu=AUTHOR%3D%22tim+gilmore%22&te=

I've long been a huge Cormac McCarthy fan. I've assigned The Road to numerous classes over the years. Of all the McCarthy I've read, I most highly recommend The Road and two of his earlier novels:

• First, there's the 1973 novel Child of God, which somehow manages to be one of the most horrifying things I've ever read and one of the most beautiful. Few writers could achieve that strange incongruous feat, perhaps none better than McCarthy.
• Meanwhile, his 1979 novel Suttree paints as detailed a picture of down-and-out Knoxville, Tennessee, as Joyce ever painted of Dublin. It's perhaps the greatest American psychogeographical work.

When I recently read John Oliver Killens' 1954 novel Youngblood, I couldn't believe I'd not read him already. This novel, alongside Harry Crews' newly reissued 1978 memoir A Childhood, has to be among the best writings ever to come out of Georgia. The two of them work like split-screen, a Black childhood and a white childhood, both so different and so similar. Both writers had ties to Jacksonville. Crews said mid-20th century Jax was the place poor Georgia farmers went when the crops failed.

Various artists and writers have used psychogeography in different ways. I've returned time and again to my favorite such writings, which I can't recommend enough – novels like Peter Ackroyd's Chatterton and Hawksmoor and Toni Morrison's Beloved. On the face of it, Ackroyd and Morrison couldn't be more different, but they both explore how culture is haunted by history and how patterns of history present themselves as ghostly. Then there's Joseph Mitchell's Joe Gould's Secret, a nonfiction account of a homeless Greenwich Village icon who claimed to have written the longest book in the world.

I'd be negligent if I didn't give a shout-out to our local literary community, which runs so much deeper and wider than most locals realize and includes works like Julie Delegal's Seen and Andres Rojas's Third Winter in Our Second Country and Johnny Masiulewicz's Happy Tapir zine series.

I could name dozens of other writers I admire and their works, but as soon as I attempt a long list, I'll foolishly omit someone and lose a few nights' sleep. (I already see 15 or 20 people in my mind's eye whose names I didn't mention, but could have, just now.)

Anyone who wants an extensive list of writers participating in the Jax community, just look at the archives for the last nine festivals at jaxbyjax.com. I'll just say this is the 10th year of JaxbyJax Literary Arts Festival, which my wife Jo Carlisle and I founded and then relinquished to the more capable hands of Darlyn and Brad Kuhn.

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Cat Sebastian writes queer historical romance. Her books have received starred reviews from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and Booklist, and she's been featured in the Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly, and Jezebel. She was born in New Jersey and lived in New York and Arizona before settling down in a swampy part of the South. When she isn't writing, she's probably reading, having one-sided conversations with her dog, or doing the crossword puzzle.

Interviewer Lori Sterling is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor who focuses on helping LGBT+ individuals both at her private practice, Tea Time Therapy, and with her career as a medical care coordinator at JASMYN, a nationally recognized LGBT+ youth center located in Jacksonville Florida. When not advocating for or working with the community, you can most likely find her painting, playing Animal Crossing, or on the mat with her Brazilian Jiu Jitsu class.

Check out more of Cat's work from the library! - https://jkpl.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/default/search/results?qu=AUTHOR%3D%22cat+sebastian%22&te=

"Here are some non-fiction books and memoirs I've recently read for research purposes, and which I've loved."

• The Summer Game by Roger Angell
• Up in the Old Hotel by Joseph Mitchell
• Can't Anybody Here Play This Game by Jimmy Breslin
• A Drinking Life by Pete Hamill - https://jkpl.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/default/search/results?qu=drinking+life+hamill&te=
• City Boy by Edmund White - https://jkpl.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/default/search/results?qu=TITLE%3D%22city+boy%22&qu=AUTHOR%3Dwhite&te=

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For many childhood summers, Mark Woods piled into a station wagon with his parents and two sisters and headed to America's national parks. Mark's most vivid childhood memories are set against a backdrop of mountains, woods, and fireflies in places like Redwood, Yosemite, and Grand Canyon national parks.

On the eve of turning fifty and a little burned out, Mark decided to reconnect with the great outdoors. He'd spend a year visiting the national parks and write a book - thanks to a coveted fellowship from the Society of Professional Journalists.

Mark had initially intended to write a book about the future of the national parks, but Lassoing the Sun grew into something more: a book about family, the parks, and the legacies we inherit and the ones we leave behind. His book, Lassoing the Sun, is about a journey that started with a sunrise in Maine, finished with a sunset in Hawaii and had a life-changing event in the middle: his mother's death.

Mark Woods is the author of Lassoing the Sun: A Year in America's National Parks. He has been Metro columnist at the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville since 2003. Before that, he spent 20 years as a sportswriter at newspapers in Florida, Kentucky, Missouri and Indiana. He covered the earthquake in Haiti, Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, political conventions, Olympics, Wimbledon, the Masters, the World Cup and 11 Super Bowls – but he says none of those assignments compare with what he did in 2012, the year that led to Lassoing the Sun.

Each year, the Society of Professional Journalists awards the Eugene C. Pulliam Fellowship to one writer in America. Mark Woods, who most Jacksonville readers will recognize from his work at the Florida Times-Union, won the fellowship in 2011. His project, built around the National Park Service and celebrating its centennial in 2016, asked the question: What is the future of our parks? The coveted fellowship allowed Woods to devote the following year to his plan — explore one park a month, each symbolizing a different issue for the future, from rising seas to fading night skies.

Interviewer Barbara Goodman is an International Park consultant and co-founder of the Riverfront Parks Conservancy. Barbara retired from the National Park Service in 2015 after 33 years of service; most recently as the Superintendent of the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve for 18 years. During this time she provided the leadership and vision for the development of an unprecedented tri-lateral agreement between the National Park Service, Florida Park Service, and the City of Jacksonville Preservation Parks to create a seamless system of parks and to cooperate in planning, promotion, and resource protection.

Barbara provides consultation assistance and guidance to Directors of National Park systems internationally in the areas of park planning and tourism in association with Global Parks and the International Conservation Caucus Foundation. She served as the Deputy Secretary, Land and Recreation at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection overseeing the Florida State Park System – which includes 175 parks, 800,000 acres, 100 miles of beaches, 7,500 miles of trails, 4,000 miles of paddling trails; and the Florida State Lands program providing oversight for 12 million acres of public lands, land sales acquisition and the Florida Forever program.

Check out Lassoing the Sun from the Library! - https://jkpl.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/default/search/results?qu=AUTHOR%3D%22mark+woods%22&te=

"Earnest and heartfelt, [Lassoing the Sun] captures how one family handles the joys and sorrows of life, with America's most beautiful landscapes standing in the background."--Travel & Leisure

"I've done several columns about local places. Seems like this one (https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/columns/mark-woods/2021/04/16/celebrate-national-park-week-list-10-my-favorite-nearby-spots-jacksonville-timucuan-st-augustine/7247473002/) might be fitting for a National Parks talk."

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Sohrab Homi Fracis's new book of North Florida and elsewhere stories, True Fiction, won the 2023 International Book Award for story collections. American Book Award winner Rilla Askew says of it: "True Fiction is a tour de force." Fracis is the first Asian American author to win the Iowa Short Fiction Award, described by the New York Times Book Review as "among the most prestigious literary prizes America offers," for his first book, Ticket to Minto: Stories of India and America. Publishers Weekly called it "A reminder of how satisfying the short story form can be...the work of an impressive new talent."

His novel, Go Home, was shortlisted by Stanford University Libraries for the William Saroyan International Prize. Singapore Poetry described it as "newly poignant and even heartbreaking." He taught literature and creative writing at University of North Florida. He was Twin Cities Visiting Writer in Residence at Augsburg College and Artist in Residence at Yaddo. He received the Florida Individual Artist Fellowship in Literature/Fiction. The South Asian Literary Association bestowed on him its Distinguished Achievement Award.

Interviewer Michelle Lizet Flores is a graduate of FSU and NYU creative writing programs. She currently works as a teacher and co-hosts the What's in a Verse Poetry Open Mic in Jacksonville, FL. She has previously been published in magazines and journals such as The Miami Rail, Chircú Journal, and Travel Latina. A finalist for the Juan Felipe Herrera Award for Poetry, she is the author of the chapbooks Cuentos from the Swamp and Memoria, as well as the picture book, Carlito the Bat Learns to Trick or Treat. Her short fiction can be found in the anthology, Places We Build in the Universe through Flowersong Press. Her first full-length collection of poetry, Invasive Species, is forthcoming through Finishing Line Press. Find out more at michellelizetflores.com.

Check out Sohrab's work from the library! https://jkpl.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/default/search/results?qu=sohrab+homi+fracis&te=

In addition to books and movies, I also love music and sports. Lately my Spotify playlists center around contemporary folk rock by such musicians as The Paper Kites, Birdtalker, Plains, Ondara, Bonny Light Horseman, and River Whyless. Some of my characters are aspiring musicians, as in "Open Mic," the first story in True Fiction.

Playing college sports in India taught me to hang in there when things were going wrong and then to turn them around. I still follow professional tennis and not long ago watched stars such as Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, and Venus Williams live at the Miami Open. I'm excited about the resurgent Jacksonville Jaguars. Go Jags! I see sportsmen as contemporary gladiators. Having been one helped me write the battlefield combat scene in True Fiction's concluding/signature novelette, "The Legend of Rostam and Sohrab," based on my ancient-Persian naming legend.

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Tracey Enerson Wood loves discovering amazing women whose stories have been lost to history and bringing them to life for today's readers.

Her debut novel, The Engineer's Wife, historical fiction about the woman who built the Brooklyn Bridge, is an international and USA Today bestseller. Her newest book, The President's Wife, is centered on Edith Bolling Wilson, the second wife of Woodrow Wilson. She is sometimes described as America's first woman President because of the role she played after the President's massive stroke in October 1919.

Tracey has always had a writing bug. While working as a Registered Nurse, starting her own Interior Design company, raising two children, and bouncing around the world as a military wife, she indulged in her passion as a playwright, screenwriter and novelist. She has authored magazine columns and other non-fiction, written and directed plays of all lengths, including Grits, Fleas and Carrots, Rocks and Other Hard Places, Alone, and Fog. Her screenplays include Strike Three and Roebling's Bridge.

Other passions include food and cooking, and honoring military heroes. A New Jersey native, she now lives with her family in Florida.

Interviewer Jessica Hatch has a passion for writing laugh-out-loud fiction with a strong-beating heart. Her first novel, My Big Fake Wedding, debuted at #1 on Amazon's "Humorous American Literature" charts in August 2022. It went on to be a Lonely Victories Best Book of 2022, and her follow-up, How to Keep a Husband for Ten Days, was a BookLovr pick for spring 2023.

Jessica has worked in book publishing since 2013. She has had bylines published in Writer's Digest, The Millions, and G*Mob Magazine, among others, and she is a proud alumna of the Mors Tua Vita Mea workshop in Sezze Romano, Italy. Before being acquired by Bookouture, her debut novel won a pitch slam at the Brooklyn Book Festival in 2018 and was workshopped by acclaimed author Rumaan Alam at Aspen Summer Words in 2019.

Jessica was born outside of Richmond, Virginia, and now lives in Jacksonville, Florida, with her bartender husband, Paul, and their three cats. When she is not writing, you can find her jogging on the Riverwalk or planning her next international trip. Say hello on Instagram at @JessicaNHatch.

Check out Tracey's work from the library!

For more excellent historical fiction, try these titles!

• The Woman at the Front, by Lecia Cornwall
• The Personal Librarian, by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray
• The Social Graces, by Renée Rosen

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Hank Phillippi Ryan is the USA Today bestselling author of 14 psychological thrillers, winning the most prestigious awards in the genre: five Agathas, five Anthonys, and the coveted Mary Higgins Clark Award. She is also an on-air investigative reporter for Boston's WHDH-TV, with 37 EMMYs and dozens more journalism honors. National book critics call her "a superb and gifted storyteller"; she's the only author to win the Agatha in four categories: Best First, Best Novel, Best Short Story and Best Non-Fiction. A story of psychological manipulation exploring the dark heart of marriage and friendship, her newest page-turning standalone thriller, The House Guest, has been dubbed "Gaslight meets Thelma & Louise."

Hank is also the host of Crime Time on A Mighty Blaze and co-host of First Chapter Fun and The Back Room. She is a past president of National Sisters in Crime. Visit Hank at HankPhillippiRyan.com, Twitter @HankPRyan, Instagram @hankpryan and Facebook at HankPhillippiRyanAuthor.

You can also check out Hank on Crime Time, First Chapter Fun, and The Back Room.

Interviewer Michael Wiley's new novel is The Long Way Out, featuring Franky Dast, an exonerated ex-con who investigates a series of murders in Northeast Florida. Michael is also the author of three mystery and detective series, including the Shamus Award-winning Joe Kozmarski books, the Daniel Turner thrillers, and, most recently, the Sam Kelson PI novels, which are currently in development for television. His short stories appear often in magazines and anthologies, including Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2022.

Check out all of Hank's books from the library! - https://jkpl.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/default/search/results?qu=AUTHOR%3D%22hank+phillippi+ryan%22&te=

Read similar books from other authors, including:

• The Wife by Alafair Burke
• The Family Remains by Lisa Jewell
• The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager

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Jacksonville Public LibraryWebsite: https://jaxpubliclibrary.org/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/jaxlibrary Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JaxLibrary/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jaxlibrary/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/jaxpubliclibraryfl Contact Us: [email protected]

Note: This podcast episode will only be available for one week from the date of publishing [10/6/23]

Angeline Boulley, an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, is a storyteller who writes about her Ojibwe community in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. She is a former Director of the Office of Indian Education at the U.S. Department of Education. Angeline lives in southwest Michigan, but her home will always be on Sugar Island. Firekeeper’s Daughter is her debut novel, and was an instant #1 NYT Bestseller. The book has been named the Walter Dean Myers Award for Outstanding Children’s Literature, the Printz Award, the William C. Morris award for YA debut literature, and was an American Indian Youth Literature Award Honor Book.

Interviewer Stacey Horan writes about things that scare her, and her goal is to keep writing until nothing scares her anymore. She is the indie author of seven young adult novels, including two paranormal thrillers (Sycamore Lane and Inland) and a five-book adventure/mystery series (The Elixir Vitae Adventures). Stacey was awarded a silver medal in Young Adult Fiction for Inland by the Florida Authors and Publishers Association, and one of her short stories, “The Bench at the End of the Dock”, was the winning entry in Jacksonville Magazine’s Fiction Writing Contest.

Stacey also hosts a podcast called The Bookshop at the End of the Internet, which is dedicated to helping book lovers discover new authors and has over 185 episodes released to date. You can learn more about Stacey at her website at www.staceyhoran.com or on social media at @staceyleehoran.

Check out all of Angeline's work from the library! https://jkpl.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/default/search/results?qu=AUTHOR%3D%22angeline+boulley%22&te= 

More teen books with a focus on social issues:

• Code Talker, by Joseph Bruchac
• The Black Girls Left Standing, by Juliana Goodman
• Anatomy, by Dana Schwartz

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Jacksonville Public Library
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Joe Hill is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Fireman, Heart-Shaped Box, and others. Much of his work has been adapted for film, including Horns (starring Daniel Radcliffe), the Blumhouse smash The Black Phone (adapted from his short story), and Locke & Key, a hit Netflix series based on the comic he co-created with artist Gabriel Rodriguez. He lives in New England.

Interviewer Badr Milligan is a project manager by day and a podcast creator by night. Since 2012, he has been vocal in sharing his interests with the world and amplifying the stories of others. He's the creator and host of the award-winning podcast, The Short Box: A Comic Book Talk Show (https://www.theshortboxpodcast.com), and recently launched The Nexxt Spin (https://www.buzzsprout.com/1787208) podcast for music lovers. In 2018, he helped form the Jax Podcaster’s United Group (https://jaxpodcastersunited.com/), a collective of podcasters and audio creators dedicated to helping one another through collaboration and community. Badr is also an FSCJ alumnus and veteran of the Florida Air National Guard, using both experiences to run his own small business, The Short Box Entertainment Company (https://theshortboxentertainment.com/). 

Check out all of Joe's work from the library: https://jkpl.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/default/search/results?qu=AUTHOR%3D%22joe+hill%22&te=

"Here in the early part of the 21st century, everyday life is full of noise and digital distractions – which makes it all the more important to find time for the cup of tea, the quiet corner, and a good novel. Even if all you can manage is twenty minutes of peaceful reading time, your brain will thank you. At the moment I’m especially stunned and moved by the work of Willy Vlautin. I guess he’s the best American novelist writing right now. Check out The Night Always Comes but brace yourself – this novel comes hard for your heart. It’s about one violent, bewildering, endless evening in the life of a young woman living on the ragged edge of poverty, and it left me staggered."

"I’m a horror guy, so no one will be surprised to hear that so far my favorite movie of the year has been Evil Dead Rise. It’s really a film about the dissolution of the American Family… by way of woodchipper and chainsaw. Fellini it ain’t; more like a bloody, gore-clogged, R-rated episode of The Three Stooges. So it’s not for all tastes – but it suits mine just fine."

"For a long time, I wrote with the stereo on and the volume turned way up. AC/DC and Led Zeppelin were my noise of choice. These days, though, I tend to work in silence, the better to hear the voices in my head (and one of the best things about being a writer is I can spend all day listening to imaginary voices and I get paid for it instead of locked up). But when I’m doing some light revision, I might throw on some moody indie singer-songwriter stuff full of heartache and distorted guitar. The record by boygenius fits the bill and has been in regular rotation since it came out."

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Jacksonville Public Library
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Deb Rogers' novel Florida Woman was published in July 2022 by Hanover Square Press, an imprint of HarperCollins. Called "a bewitching debut" by Publisher's Weekly, Florida Woman was featured as an Indie Next Pick by the American Booksellers Association. Deb has lived and traveled throughout Florida working as an educator, policymaker and victim advocate, and she now lives on the Atlantic side of the state in the very haunted and very beautiful town of St. Augustine. While she'd love to stumble upon hidden pirate treasure along the coast someday, her daily obsessions tend to be thriller and heist movies, word puzzles, licorice, Florida manatees, and, of course, monkeys. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @debontherocks, or learn more on her website debrogersauthor.com.

Interviewer Kay Huggins is a creative, the owner of Aphelion Editing and Consulting, and the host of the Raindrop Corner Podcast. As a longtime resident of Jacksonville, Florida, they have sought to support local artistry, foster thought-provoking content, and aid in human rights advocacy. Kay is an English major with a concentration in psychology. For over a decade, their life has been dazzled with project management, technology industries, logistics, editing, writing, and production. Through the intersectionality of Kay's craft, they aim to champion the community by providing a platform to marginalized groups. Currently, Kay is writing their debut novel and enjoying leisure moments with their fur babies.

READ

Jamie is a Florida Woman. She grew up on the beach, thrives in humidity, has weathered more hurricanes than she can count, and now, after going viral for an outrageous crime she never meant to commit in the first place, she has the requisite headline to her name. But when the chance comes for her to escape viral infamy and imminent jail time by taking a community service placement at Atlas, a shelter for rescued monkeys, it seems like just the fresh start Jamie needs to finally get her life back on track — until it's not.

Something sinister stirs in the palmetto woods surrounding her cabin, and secrets lurk among the three beguiling women who run the shelter and affectionately take Jamie under their wing for the summer.

Check out Deb's work from the library! -- https://jkpl.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/default/search/results?qu=deb+rogers&te=

"Florida Woman ushers in a new talent who knows the quirkiness of the Sunshine State." – Sun Sentinel

1. Learn about the origins of Central Florida's monkey problem by reading The Bitter Southerner's well-researched article: "Who Knew Monkeys Could Swim" by Jordan Blumetti.
2. Visit the Florida Museum of Natural History and take a walk through our state's past, beginning in the Eocene epoch (when Florida was underwater).
3. Read some of Deb's favorite books that are set in Florida including The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean, Lightwood by Steph Post and Swamplandia!( by Karen Russell.

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Jacksonville Public LibraryWebsite: https://jaxpubliclibrary.org/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/jaxlibrary Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JaxLibrary/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jaxlibrary/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/jaxpubliclibraryfl Contact Us: [email protected]