Tampa Book Buzz

book buzz:historic photos of tampa, text and captions by ralph brower

Historic Photos of Tampa
text and captions by Ralph Brower

Remember those carefully-packed time capsules your fourth-grade class buried in the school’s playground all those years ago? The book Historic Photos of Tampa is a time capsule of sorts, a peek into Tampa’s history, carefully packed with a variety of photos from all walks of life.

In the book’s preface, publisher Todd Bottorff states that “this book seeks to provide easy access to a valuable, objective look into Tampa history.” Using photographs from the Burgert Brothers — some not often seen in other photo collection books — Historic Photos of Tampa presents local history in four parts:

(1) Beginning of Cigar City to the Turn of the Century
(2) Tampa at the Beginning of the 20th Century
(3) The Roaring 20s, Great Depression and Economic Recovery
(4) World War II and the Baby Boom

Each chapter gives a brief, one-page summary of the local history of that era and each photograph has a caption that gives additional historical information while explaining the photo’s origins, date and subject matter. The book’s photos are marvelous. There are pictures of famous buildings, waterways, horse-drawn carriages, store marquees, parties, industries, Ybor cigar factories, traffic, parades, carnivals, buildings under construction, and a variety of people: famous, not so famous, at work, at play and walking down the street.

I wish that the captions had received as much time and attention as the photograph selection process obviously did. The captions were oddly inconsistent: some gave a great deal of information while others were short and choppy; some were carefully written and edited, while other captions — too many of them, sadly — had grammatical and typographical errors.

Overall, however, the captions are a small part of the book. Beautiful, wonderful photos are
the center of Historic Photos of Tampa. The photographs are black and white, but the Tampa Bay area history is colorful.

Book Buzzometer: B+

(cross-posted at www.sticksoffire.com)

news and notes:buck, sturm, deitche, upcoming books

• Missing Pearl S. Buck manuscript has been “unearthed” after 30 years.
• Local author Eric Sturm has quit his 9-to-5 job and will concentrate full-time on his local events newsletter, website and new webfeed.
• Local author Scott Deitche’s new book The Silent Don:The Criminal Underworld of Santo Trafficante, Jr. was mentioned recently in the Tampa Tribune.
• The always-wonderful book blog The Millions has a great list of upcoming books for the second half of 2007.

book buzz:bottles from the deep by ellen c. gerth

Bottles from the Deep:Patent Medicines, Bitters and Other Bottles from the Wreck of the Steamship Republic by Ellen C. Gerth (ISBN 1-933034-07-6)

Stephen Sweet’s Infallible Liniment.  Drake’s Plantation Bitters.  Clarke and White Mineral Water.  Dr. McMunn’s Elixir of Opium.  Mexican Mustang Liniment.

These fanciful concoctions, commonplace in 19th century America, are re-introduced and detailed in Ellen C. Gerth’s wonderful book Bottles from the Deep:Patent Medicines, Bitters and Other Bottles From the Wreck of the Steamship Republic.  Gerth recounts the complete story of the Civil War steamer the SS Republic – the ship’s cargo of gold and silver coins, along with condiments, ink and other supplies desperately needed by Southern citizens; the hurricane that sank the ship after two days of high waves and fierce winds; and the 2004 archaeological excavation of the wreck (by the Tampa-based company Odyssey Marine Exploration) that yielded more than 51,000 coins and over 6,000 bottles, many of them intact.

Packed with luscious color photographs, lithographs and replicas of 19th century advertisements, Bottles from the Deep will appeal to everyone from armchair archeologists and bottle/glass collectors to us regular folk who enjoy learning something new while getting a glimpse into the past.  With her graceful, easy-to-understand presentation of historical and archeological information, Gerth has unveiled yet another recently-discovered treasure: her book.

Now if I could just get my hands on some Phalon and Son’s Chemical Hair Invigorator for my husband…

Book Buzz Barometer: A

Click here to learn more about Gerth’s book.

february events for book lovers

As always, there are numerous book signings and book-related events in the Tampa Bay area this month.  Here are a few to consider:

• February 6 at 6 p.m. at the South Tampa Barnes and Noble — New York Times sports columnist William Rhoden will sign copies of his book Third and a Mile:The Trials and Triumphs of the Black Quarterback.  Also appearing will be legendary former NFL quarterbacks Marlin Brisco, Warren Moon, James Harris and Doug Williams.
• February 11 at the Sirata Beach Resort in St. Pete — The St. Pete Beach Library presents Sunday to Die For IV.  The $35 ticket price gets you high tea at the Sirata Beach Resort and the chance to meet ten mystery authors: James O. Born, Blaize Clement, Lary Crews, Cody Fowler Davis, Ray Dix, Lee Irby, Nick Lucas, Wendy Howell Mills, Diane Sawyer and James Swain.
• February 15 at 7 p.m. at the University of South Florida Marshall Center Ballroom — Horror author — legend, really — Peter Straub will give a lecture titled Why Would Anyone Read That Stuff?
• February 22 at 7 p.m. at Inkwood Books — USF basketball alum Tony Grier will sign his debut book A Raging Bull:Chasing the Big Time
• February 27 at 2 p.m. at the Centennial Park Library in Holiday — The Florida Humanities Council presents author Gary Mormino, whose lecture is titled Land of Sunshine, State of Dreams:A Social History of Florida

(cross-posted at www.sticksoffire.com)

book buzz:know where you going? you gotta know where you been! by barbara j. sorey

Know Where You Going? You Gotta Know Where You Been! by Barbara J. Sorey ISBN 978-0-595-37610-0

Barbara J. Sorey’s love of history, family and geneology is evident in her book Know Where You Going? You Gotta Know Where You Been!, in which she shares stories of her life as an African-American growing up in Clearwater, Florida, during segregation. Sorey writes about family vacations, how her parents met, the excitement of moving to a new home, the bonds of family and neighborhood, and her experiences at church and school. She often provides too much information for the casual reader, however, with passages like:

The Davis family lived next door to us. Mr. Jessie Davis was the head of the family. His wife’s name was Sally. They had two daughters, Alma and Gertrude. Gertrude, the eldest daughter, was married to Mr. Fred. They had no children. Alma, it seemed, was always between marriages and had a whole lot of children! Her eldest children were two boys around the same age as Jeannette and I, Ricky and Robert Samuel. The other children, Larry, Thad, Alma, Sally and Jessica, were born later. There were two houses on their property. Mr. and Mrs. Davis lived in the main house with Alma and her kids. Gertrude and Mr. Fred lived in the second house behind the main house.

Such detail, while admirable, makes this book a sometimes-difficult read for someone who is unfamiliar with Sorey’s family or neighborhood. Those readers who share this familiarity, or who have a strong interest in local history, will find Know Where You Going? You Gotta Know Where You Been! to be a richly-detailed trip down memory lane.

Book Buzz Barometer: C-

Sorey blogs at http://goldanddiamond.spaces.live.com/.

local author news:gabi lorino, wendy boucher, rita and j.c. de la torre, frank trebin lastra

*Local author/performer/Ewan MacGregor stalker Gabi Lorino (The Independent Woman’s Guide to Life) is working on a sequel called One Bridesmaid’s Descent into Madness. Her corresponding one-woman show will be part of the Orlando International Fringe Festival in May.

p.s. — I lost my copy of Lorino’s book in my recent move, then found it, finished it this weekend, and will post my review on TBB this week.

*Local author Wendy Boucher will talk to the Tampa Writers Alliance on May 3 about self-promotion for authors and will give the nuts-and-bolts of blogging. Boucher will also take part in a panel discussion at the South Tampa Barnes & Noble on May 16 (more on this soon, because Yours Truly will also be part of the panel).

*Local authors Rita and J.C. De La Torre will be at the Dunedin Books-A-Party this Saturday. J.C. is currently working on a screenplay adaptation of his book Ancient Rising, while Rita is preparing for the upcoming publication of her new book Dark Dragons.

*Frank Trebin Lastra, born and raised in Ybor City, is making use of his childhood with his new book Ybor City:The Making of a Landmark Town. The University of Tampa Press is releasing Lastra’s book on April 24.

new book on the university of south florida

The Oracle reports that Mark Greenberg’s book on the history of USF is nearing completion. Greenberg is the director of the Florida Studies Center and the Special Collections Department of the USF Library and was asked to write this book by USF president Judy Genshaft. The University of South Florida:The First Fifty Years will be a “coffee-table pictorial history” with more than 300 photographs. Greenberg expects the book to be available in March of 2006.

added to my must read list…

…Hitler’s Soldiers in the Sunshine State by Robert Billinger. The St. Pete Times wrote about this book a couple of days ago. The author, a history professor at Wingate University in North Carolina, wrote about the German POWs who were detained throughout Florida. About 500 of them were housed at MacDill. I had no idea, but then again, I’ve never been a big history buff. (My sister and The Husband are both majoring in history at different schools and I’m hoping to absorb some knowledge just by hanging out with them.) This sounds like a book The Husband would like for his birthday.