By Holly Hargett
This holiday season, why not make your gift-giving extra special with a book by a talented local author?
Start by shopping independent bookstores like Tombolo Books, Book + Bottle, Oxford Exchange, Pieces of A Dream, Back in the Day, Books on the Beach and the new bookstore opening on Corey Avenue. For comic books, Emerald City and Wilson’s Book Store are a trip, and museums such as The Dali proffer an eclectic collection.
You can shop for gifts and meet a former local author at Tombolo Books when award winning journalist Anne Hull talks about her new book set in the South’s racist ‘60s, Through the Groves, with Colette Bancroft, Tampa Bay Times’ Book Critic. Pick up Paul Wilborn’s Florida Hustle, Tom Gribbin’s The Last Florida Boy, Roy Peter Clark’s Tell It Like It Is: A Guide to Clear and Honest Writing, Gary Mormino’s Dreams in the New Century: Instant Cities, Shattered Hopes and Florida’s Turning Point, L. L. Kirchner’s Blissful Thinking, Craig Pittman’s The State You’re in: Florida Men, Florida Women, and Other Wildlife, Bill DeYoung’s Vintage St. Pete & Pinellas Vol. 3, and Carol J. Perry’s Now You See It.
Tara Lush’s Gator Queen is a hoot! Lush’s cozy mysteries are fan faves. Here, Maggie Andrews returns to her Florida hometown to uphold her father’s gator-trapping legacy, while her sister Vera pursues her dream of opening a bookstore. Trouble ensues when a rival gator trapper is murdered, making Vera the prime suspect. With the bookstore’s opening looming, they must catch the real killer and restore their family’s reputation.
Dr. Thomas Hallock delves into cultivating contentment through poetry and prose in Happy Neighborhood. He explores how individuals, especially men, reconcile their pasts to find happiness at home. These meditations blend daily life in St. Petersburg with personal, literary and cultural reflections on diverse topics (infidelity, fatherhood).
Jennifer McMahon’s My Darling Girl is a chilling Christmas tale. Alison reluctantly welcomes her dying, estranged, and abusive mother, Mavis, into her Vermont home. As eerie occurrences unfurl, Alison suspects a sinister presence in her family, testing her resolve to shield her loved ones.
Andrea Rinard’s Murmurations serves up 26 short stories featuring diverse women navigating the complexities of everyday life. Her stark, surreal, and heartfelt tales distill the essence of human experiences, offering moments both familiar and profound.
