Books

The state Board of Education on Wednesday approved a new rule that will lead to Florida officials publishing an annual list of library books and instructional materials that have drawn public objections, in a move that the board’s chairman said will “provide transparency for our families.”

In Dizz Tate's new novel Brutes, a group of 13-year- old Florida girls try to find one of their classmates when she goes missing.

While visitors to Koreshan State Park in Estero have often asked whether there was any connection between Cyrus Teed Koresh — the man who founded The Koreshan Unity which called the land home beginning in the early 1800s, and David Koresh — the man who led the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas from the mid 1980s until the group’s fiery demise during an FBI siege gone wrong on their Mount Carmel compound on April 19th, 1993 — the answer was always no, there is no connection between the two and the similarity between their names is purely coincidental. Well, new evidence has come to light that seems to prove there was most certainly a connection of some kind.

While many large tracts of land in Southwest Florida have been forever lost to development over the past century or so, quite a bit of it has been preserved thanks to the dedicated efforts of countless people and organizations — and the local, state, and federal elected officials who environmental advocates could convince that wetlands were valuable for their own sake. For example, more than 70% of land in Collier County has been preserved as public land. Think Fakahatchee Strand State Park, Picayune Strand State Forest, Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, Big Cypress National Preserve, Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, and the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge, just to name a few. We explore some of this fascinating history with the co-authors of the new book, “Enjoyment of the Same: A History of Public Lands in Southwest Florida.”

A Florida Department of Education workgroup is crafting a training that all school-library workers must use in selecting books and other materials. The group was formed to carry out part of a new law passed this year.

Legal documents cited common law acts and statutes dating back to the 1700s and 1800s. Lawyers say the case has wasted tens of thousands in taxpayer money.

Phillip DePoy is a prolific novelist, poet, and playwright. He was nominated for a Shamus Award for a book in his popular Flap Tucker series, and received…

Susan Adger’s forbears came to Florida in the late 1800’s and have now been here for five generations. True Florida crackers, Susan’s family loved to tell…

Born in Tallahassee and raised in Tampa, Vanessa LaFaye moved to Europe during her senior year of college, settling in the UK. Thirty years later, in…

Cyrus Teed may not be a name that stands out in Florida history. But, in the early part of the 20th century, Teed and his religious group the Koreshans,…