by Barbara Drake (MFA ’04)

There’s still time to squeeze in some summer reading. Our curated list of 20 recent titles by (or about) UF grads, professors and Gator supporters offers thrillers, steamy romances, a history of Southern rock and more. All can be purchased online or at bookstores. (And all will be just as good in the fall, winter or spring.)

Thrillers

Lawyers Framed For Murder Bestselling author and UF journalism alum Michael Connelly (BSJ ’80) treats readers to a “deliciously suspenseful…unputdownable thriller” in “The Law of Innocence” (Little, Brown, 2020), part of his Lincoln Lawyer series. Defense attorney Mickey Haller is framed for the death of a client and finds himself in LA’s Twin Towers Correctional Center, mounting his own defense while fending off prisoners with scores to settle. “Narration in the first person, showing a canny legal mind working furiously to hit on the right legal play, calibrates the suspense to an unbearable, read-in-one-sitting level” (Amazon Best Book of November 2020).

Outwitting a Serial Killer James Patterson is recognized as the world’s bestselling author, but did you know he is also a supporter of the UF College of Education? The honorary Gator’s newest entry in the Women’s Murder Club series is “21st Birthday” (Little, Brown, cowritten with Maxine Paetro, 2021), in which detective Lindsay Boxer vows to protect a young woman from a serial killer long enough to see her 21st birthday. But as members of the Women’s Murder Club dig up details, they realize there isn’t a woman in California who is safe from the reach of an unspeakable threat – unless they find the madman in time.

Bad Spirit on the Loose Acclaimed “12 Monkeys” screenwriter Anna M. Elias (BSTel ’86) turns to otherworldly fiction in “The Vessels” (Vesuvian, 2020), her debut novel. In the Vessels Program, spirits of the dead inhabit the bodies of human vessels and visit their still-living relations to right past wrongs. Reno native Sam recruits four human vessels, who willingly allow four spirits to inhabit them for seven days to find redemption. But one spirit is bent in destruction and must be stopped. “Fast-paced, emotionally compelling, and hard to put down … a blend of murder mystery, spiritual travelogue, and thought-provoking thriller” (Midwest Book Review).

Fiction

A Post-Civil War Epic In the tradition of Mark Twain and Cormac McCarthy comes the pulse-quickening epic “Ivory Shoals” (McSweeney’s, 2021), by John Brandon, a former student in UF’s creative writing program. Twelve-year-old Gussie Dwyer treks across the peninsula of post-Civil War Florida in search of his father, who has no idea of his son’s existence. He crosses paths with hardened Floridians of every stripe, from the brave and noble to cutthroat villains, none worse than his amoral shark of a half-brother. Will he survive his quest, and at what cost?

Courting Desire In “The Body in Question” (Vintage, 2020), a 52-year-old married photographer and a younger anatomy professor are sequestered as jurors on a sensational murder trial in Central Florida. As the shocking details of the crime are revealed in the courtroom, the two fall into a furtive after-hours affair, keeping their oath never to discuss the trial. During deliberations, the lovers learn they are on opposing sides of the case – complicating everything. A NY Times Notable Book of the Year, this novel by creative writing Professor Emeritus Jill Ciment has been hailed as “a fantastic rendering of female desire … Few writers can tackle the bedroom – or female libido … but Ciment is a master.”

Love & Family Messes Thomas Calder’s (BA ’08) debut novel, “The Wind Under the Door” (Unsolicited, 2021) has been called “a love letter to contemporary Asheville.” At 40, Ford Carson has forged a new life as a visual artist in the mountains of western North Carolina. A chance meeting with Grace Burnett leads to a burgeoning love affair. But the romance is complicated by Grace’s estranged husband and the unexpected arrival of Ford’s own estranged son. “Alive with moody, complex feelings and populated with wonderfully human characters making terrible human mistakes” (Jeni McFarland).

Town & Grown Humor For decades, the V-shaped sign for the Florida Motel, on SW 13th Street, was a Gainesville icon. Alum Jay Gilbert (BSBA ’81) knew it well; not only did his family own the motel in the 1970s, he worked there as a front-desk clerk, maid and pool boy, all while attending UF. Gilbert fictionalizes that experience in his coming-of-age novel, “The Florida Motel” (Paradox, 2020). Teen Helgi tries to escape the craziness of his parent’s motel business by attending the local university, where he falls in love with “the” girl on campus and is threatened by a frat boy with GQ looks and money. Will Helgi get the girl and find normalcy, or remain a prisoner of the Florida Motel? Winner of a Silver Medal from the Florida Writers Association.

Young Adult Fiction

Sci-Fi For Lovers Science fiction meets queer romance in “Fragile Remedy” (Flux, 2021), a YA dystopian novel by Maria Ingrande Mora (BA ’02), who credits UF prof Kenneth Kidd with inspiring her to write. Sixteen-year-old Nate is a GEM (Genetically Engineered Medi-Tissue), created to save the Gathos City elite from a fatal epidemic ravaging the population. After outliving his lifespan, Nate finds shelter with a group of misfits and falls in love with the fiercely protective Reed. But Nate’s inbuilt drug dependence leaves him with only two options: work for a terrorist organization to obtain the drug Remedy or stay, and die, with the boy he loves. A Junior Library Guild Gold Star selection.

Isn’t Being Human Enough Maritza Moulite (BA ’13) earned a degree in women’s studies from UF before pairing with her sister, Maika, to pen the bestselling YA novel “Dear Haiti, Love Alaine” in 2019. The Moulite sisters are back with “One of the Good Ones” (Inkyard, 2021). When 18-year-old social activist Kezi Smith is killed at a Black Lives Matter protest, the media immortalizes her as perfect and angelic. Her sisters Happy and Genny embark on a journey to honor Kezi in their own way, using an heirloom copy of “The Negro Motorist Green Book” as their guide. But an unexpected twist changes everything. “An explosive look behind the hashtags at race and history, taking readers on a road trip mapped by love and grief. Close to perfection” (Kirkus Starred Review).

A Brother’s Disappearance Both a poet and a fiction writer, Phoebe North (MFA ’09) crafts young adult novels with compelling characters and heartbreaking conflicts. Her newest, “Strange Creatures” (Balzer + Bray, 2021), centers on a young teen’s search for her disappeared brother, with whom she created a fantasy world, called Gumlea, in the woods behind their house. “A devastatingly tragic and deeply immersive masterpiece” (School Library Journal).

Memoir & Biography

Punching Back at Cancer When fitness expert and race announcer Fitz Koehler (MSSM ’98) was diagnosed with a cancerous breast lump in 2019, she refused to play victim or allow cancer to steal her career or time with family. In “My Noisy Cancer Comeback” (Fitzness, 2020), Koehler reveals the juicy, no-holds-barred details of the 16-month battle she conducted while zigzagging across the United States to cover 22 race weekends. Her inspirational tale encompasses the terror of diagnosis, bald heads and black dresses, parenting with cancer, perspective and triumph.

Fighting a Wrongful Conviction UF criminology Emeritus Professor Paul Magnarella (JD ’91) explores the life and turbulent times of former Black Panther member and American expatriate Pete O’Neal in “Black Panther in Exile” (Univ. Press Florida, 2020). Founder of the Kansas City branch of the Black Panther Party and arrested in 1969 for transporting a shotgun across state lines, O’Neal was free on bail when he fled the U.S. for Tanzania, where he continues his social justice work. As O’Neal’s lawyer from 1997 to 2001, Magnarella unsuccessfully attempted to overturn what he argues was a wrongful conviction. Florida Book Awards, Silver Medical for General Nonfiction.

Brooklyn Boyhood Readers of the Hudson Review and Yale Review know R.J. Cardullo (BA ’73) for his trenchant film and drama criticism. He turns from art to his own life in “Straight Out of Brooklyn: A Critical Memoir” (TouchPoint, 2021), exploring how he was shaped by his Italian-American roots and his extended working-class family. Cardullo revisits the baseball he played, the English his family learned as well as the Italian he unlearned (or lost in translation), the Mafiosi he met and marked, and the religion of his youth that he abandoned, but which did not abandon him.

Father of AC This Floridian’s invention changed the world, but few people have heard of him. Gator athlete-turned-educator Linda Hansen Caldwell (BSPE ’76) changes that with her biography, “He Made Ice and Changed the World: The Story of Florida’s John Gorrie” (Atlantic, 2020). A physician, scientist and humanitarian, Dr. Gorrie sought to cure malaria and yellow fever by cooling the air of patients’ rooms; the result, in 1842, was the first air conditioner. While Gorrie did not profit from his invention, its development and adoption in the 19th century transformed public health, architecture and industry.

Nonfiction

Jacksonville’s Rock Roots Alum and former UF journalism teacher Michael Ray Fitzgerald (MAMC ’07) tells the story of an enduring rock movement in “Jacksonville and the Roots of Southern Rock” (Univ. Press Florida, 2020). “At long last, we have a detailed account of not only the beginnings of Jacksonville’s pride, Lynyrd Skynyrd, but also the seeds that were planted to grow The Allman Brothers Band, Cowboy, Molly Hatchet, and all of the other greats of southern rock” (Michael Buffalo Smith). Florida Book Awards, Bronze Medal for Florida Nonfiction.

Florida Nature Anthology Alum Leslie K. Poole (BSJ ‘78) and chaired UF history professor Jack E. Davis have paired again as editors of “The Wilder Heart of Florida: More Writers Inspired by Florida Nature” (Univ. Press Florida, 2021). Thirty-four well-known and emerging writers explore the spell of “our weird, wild state,” including Lauren Groff on the beauty of Paynes Prairie; Miccosukee elder Buffalo Tiger on his tribe’s relationship to the land; Loren “Toch” Brown on the habits of alligators; and Presidential inaugural poet Richard Blanco on “Some Days with the Sea.”

Listen to the Seashells In “The Sound of the Sea” (W.W. Norton, 2021), acclaimed environmental author Cynthia Barnett (BSJ ’89, MA ’03) blends cultural history and science to trace our long love affair with seashells and the hidden lives of the animals that make them – revealing what they tell us about our warming, acidifying oceans. “In the deeply researched tradition of Rachel Carson’s sea trilogy, Barnett enchantingly weaves poetic musings with deep-seated conservation wisdom and ocean science,” writes Douglas Brinkley. “An instant classic of nature history.”

In Praise of the Steel For 15 years, folklorist Robert L Stone (BSME ’67) documented House of God and Church of God congregations, where electric steel guitars are central to musical worship. He shares rarely seen images of this powerful tradition in “Can’t Nobody Do Me Like Jesus! Photographs from the Sacred Steel Community” (Univ. Press Miss., 2020). Stone also produced an accompanying CD, “Sacred Steel,” as well as a documentary film of the same name; he was awarded a Florida Folk Heritage Award in 2011.

A Citrus Revival Former Orlando Sentinel journalist Dan Tracy takes readers behind the scenes of a citrus family’s struggles in “School of Squeeze: Dying to Thriving in Agribusiness” (Fifth Estate, 2020). World War II hero Jerry Brown founded Florida Food Products in the 1950s and helped lead Florida Citrus Mutual to success. But when his sons Jerry “Gator” Brown (BSA ’77) and Tom Brown (JD ’65) took over, business was sagging, eviscerated by global competition. “School of Squeeze” tells how the sibling team reinvented the company with the help of UF researchers, new crops and new production models.

Average to Extraordinary Author Jim Roddy’s “Walk-On Method” (2020) tells the stories of 31 underdog athletes who parlayed their college experience into habits that yielded career and business success. Chapter 30 spotlights Bobby Raymond (BSBA ’84), a 1981 UF football walk-on who became the Gators’ starting kicker and led the SEC in several categories in 1983. “Focus every day” is Raymond’s pearl of wisdom. Other athletes’ advice: “take a big shot,” “make a passion statement” and “run uphill.”