Books

During the second presidential debate, in early October, Donald Trump called Hillary Clinton “a fighter.” He said, “She doesn’t quit. She doesn’t give up.” While that’s very much true, the same can be said of Bernie Sanders, who’s endured quite a few blows, many of them from his own party.

There is a singular, solitary comfort that comes from curling up with a good book. Books are an escape into both fantasy and reality. They can help us to dream or to learn. They are loyal friends and confidants. Perhaps, then, it is no surprise that even in this digital age, the decades-old Miami Book Fair is still as well attended as it has ever been.

The Miami Book Fair kicked off yesterday, bringing another impressive roster of authors and events to Miami Dade College’s Wolfson Campus. But after making it through the presidential election and reading a plethora of angry Facebook comments, you might feel more like chugging a cocktail than picking up a new book.

Maybe they thought we’d all had a little too much of Donald Trump’s racist banter over the past few months. Or perhaps it just seemed all too real now that the guy who talked in broad strokes about banning Muslims and Mexican rapists is about to enter the Oval Office.

Need a dose of feminism in this postelection-funhouse version of reality? Yeah, us too. Luckily, the Miami Book Fair launches Sunday, bringing these inspiring women writers to push back against the nightmare of Election 2016 — or at least distract us from it for a bit.

Artemis Fowl II is a very bad boy. The 12-year-old is a crime prodigy who takes the skills he learned from his Irish mobster father and thwarts his opponents — who are fairies, by the way — through a quick wit and state-of-the-art tech. Fowl would fit in far better…

When I saw that Bob Dylan had won the Nobel Prize last Friday, I fired off a quick, emotional tweet: “Without qualifications, Bob Dylan winning a Nobel for literature is dumb.” Dylan’s literary award was last Friday’s black-and-blue dress, and if you don’t immediately pick a side, are you really…

You can feel the Bern at the Miami Book Fair this year. Senator Bernie Sanders will take the microphone at a special book fair event in his honor the evening of Nov. 19. He’ll be promoting his book, Our Revolution: A Future to Believe In, in which he “shares his…

If one of the joys of reading is that it takes you to a different world, this year’s Miami Book Fair does the reverse: It brings the world to you. Now in its 33rd year, the annual celebration of literature, creativity, and community-building through the written word will debut a…

As Wynwood, Miami’s burgeoning arts district, battles the Zika outbreak discovered in July, the neighborhood remains at a loss.  “The name Wynwood is on people’s minds on a national scale,” says Diego Orlandini, founder of the Wynwood Coloring Book. “They associate it with Zika. It’s time we show people what Wynwood…

In her career as a journalist and author, Geraldine Brooks has traveled the world. Born in Australia, Brooks became a U.S. citizen in 2002 and has ventured to the Middle East, Africa, the Balkans, and Yugoslavia in search of her next story.  And in November, she’ll head to Miami to…

New York Times best-selling author Brad Meltzer remembers living in his grandmother’s one-bedroom, six-person apartment in North Miami Beach as a teenager.  The first in his family to attend a four-year college, he is now the author of more than ten historical thrillers and the creator of Decoded, a show on the…

Three years after her father’s death, Annette Libeskind Berkovits could still barely surmount the grief. She kept avoiding the inevitable task of going through his clothes and belongings, instead keeping them out of sight, if never out of mind. When she finally decided to venture into his old room and navigate…

You’ve probably already heard about the headliners planned for the 2016 edition of the Miami Book Fair International: Daily Show host Trevor Noah, actor Alan Cumming, food star Padma Lakshmi and more. These are the subjects of the fair’s “Evenings With” series, its most popular events featuring talks and readings…

This Saturday, Bookleggers mobile library will celebrate its four-year anniversary in a fashion that could best sum up its run of bringing books to the masses in an unorthodox way: by drinking good beer, eating great food, and riding a mechanical alligator. If that doesn’t sum up Bookleggers outside-the-box business…

Three years ago, 18-year-old artist Israel Hernandez, also known as Reefa, was fatally tasered by police officers who found him creating a piece of illegal street art. The news split Miami in two. Some accused the cops of unwarranted brutality; others condemned Hernandez as a criminal. But filmmaker and producer…

Craig Pittman knows a thing or two about weird Florida. A native Floridian, the Tampa Bay Times reporter has spent his career wading through the wacky workings of the Sunshine State. His new book, Oh, Florida! How America’s Weirdest State Influences the Rest of the Country, dives deep into the bizarre…

Harry Potter has returned, and he’s officially adulting. Strange as it sounds, the boy who lived is 36 years old and embarking on a whole new adventure. One that involves a cursed child, apparently. A new play, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts 1 & 2, written by Jack…

Alex Noghaven and Atena Sherry can barely contain their excitement about the outlook of Miami’s writing scene. They talk in caffeinated bursts, speaking for and maneuvering around each other in conversation to fawn about the blooming literary landscape. “Miami is just kind of burgeoning with this stuff,” says Noghaven, 25…

Among the canon of misquotes, “Write drunk, edit sober” is something of a masterpiece. Most often attributed to Daiquiri namesake Ernest Hemingway, the louche imperative is actually a corruption of a fairly instructive Peter De Vries remark. While it may not be responsible for any Nobels, the advice has resonated…