Local Favorites

Florida has long been a beacon for retirees, but for many, the American dream of owning a home there was a fantasy. That changed in the 1950s, when the so-called "installment land sales industry" hawked billions of dollars of Florida residential property, sight unseen, to retiring northerners. For o ... Read More about

Punta Gorda is a historic waterfront town located in Southwest Florida where the Peace River and Charlotte Harbor meet on the Gulf of Mexico. Punta Gorda has grown since its inception but still maintains its Southern charm. The area was first occupied by Native Americans and later discovered in the ... Read More about

A Land Remembered has been ranked #1 Best Florida Book eight times in annual polls conducted by Florida Monthly Magazine. In this best-selling novel, Patrick Smith tells the story of three generations of the MacIveys, a Florida family who battle the hardships of the frontier to rise from a dirt-poo ... Read More about

The Living Gulf Coast - A Nature Guide to Southwest Florida is a 6X9 trade paperback. The book contains 512 pages, is fully indexed, and has more than 600 color photographs by more than a dozen award-winning Florida photographers. These include Alan Maltz, Dick Fortune, Sara Lopez, Heather Green, R. ... Read More about

Hop aboard the Charlotte Harbor and Northern Railway for a trip across the trestle to Gasparilla Island. Natural beauty and the sportfishing life brought the Cabots, Vanderbilts and Du Ponts to this island paradise, where local fishing families danced, ate and drank with the rich and famous at thei ... Read More about

This new edition of Bruce Hunt's popular guide reveals the real, old-time Florida still to be found on the back roads of the Sunshine state in little towns that lure you in with their quaintness and keep you there for a spell with their friendly occupants. The towns featured all have a population of ... Read More about