Florida

Neco said, "Where is Joe Merchant? by Jimmy Buffet is a crazy tale set in and around the Florida Keys. Big Trouble by Dave Barry is a crazy tale set in Miami. I chose those two books because I think the nearly unbelievable craziness exemplifies living in Florida, where stuff you'd say could never happen anywhere else happens easily there. Marley and Me, a story about a man and wife raise a large dog, family, and careers, is also set in Miami and a good non-fiction. But I think I'd have to give my Florida vote to something by Hemingway, who lived in the Florida Keys. He's one of my favorite authors but his books that I can recall off the top of my head are all set elsewhere."

First, Dave Barry's book Big Trouble. In the city of Coconut Grove, Florida, these things happen: A struggling adman named Eliot Arnold drives home from a meeting with the Client From Hell. His teenage son, Matt, fills his Squirtmaster 9000 for his turn at a high school game called Killer. Matt's intended victim, Jenny Herk, sits down in front of the TV with her mom for what she hopes will be a peaceful evening, for once. Jenny's alcoholic and secretly embezzling stepfather, Arthur, emerges from the maid's room, angry at being rebuffed, again. Henry and Leonard, two hit men from New Jersey, pull up to the Herks' house for a real game of Killer, Arthur's embezzlement apparently not having been quite so secret to his employers after all. And a homeless man named Puggy settles down for the night in a treehouse just inside the Herks' yard. In a few minutes, a chain of events that will change the lives of each and every one of them will begin, leaving some of them wiser, some of them deader, and some of them definitely looking for a new line of work.

Where is Joe Merchant? by Jimmy Buffet seems to be more about bopping around the islands of the Caribbean than about Florida. Five years ago, the rock star Joe Merchant committed suicide, yet he keeps popping back into the tabloid headlines like a piece of toast. Will Frank Bama ever be able to talk with a woman? Will Trevor Kane succeed in calming a deadly storm by taking off her clothes? Why did the Jet Ski Killer cross the road? Who is that weirdo with eyes tattooed on his eyelids so he can see while he sleeps? And where is rock star Joe Merchant? Find out in Buffett's modern-day pirate story.

Marley and Me by John Grogan makes us ask, is it possible for humans to discover the key to happiness through a bigger-than-life, bad-boy dog? Just ask the Grogans. John and Jenny were just beginning their life together. They were young and in love, with not a care in the world. Then they brought home Marley, a wiggly yellow furball of a puppy. Life would never be the same. Marley grew into a barreling, 97-pound streamroller of a Labrador retriever, who crashed through screen doors, gouged through drywall, and stole women's undergarments. Obedience school did no good -- Marley was expelled. But Marley's love and loyalty were boundless, too. (Hmm, does location come into this anywhere?)

Would anyone like to suggest a Floria book by Ernest Hemingway?