Cocktails with Candace: Join Candace Bushnell for chatting and cocktailing at this special event at Margarita Grille for her sequel to The Carrie Diaries — Summer and the City (Balzar + Bray, $18.99) – which reveals the irresistible story of Carrie met Samantha and Miranda. Summer is a magical time in New York City and Carrie is in love with all of it—the crazy characters in her neighborhood, the vintage-clothing boutiques, the wild parties, and the glamorous man who has swept her off her feet. Best of all, she's finally in a real writing class, taking her first steps toward fulfilling her dream.  This sequel brings surprising revelations as Carrie learns to navigate her way around the Big Apple, going from being a country "sparrow"—as Samantha Jones dubs her— to the person she always wanted to be. But as it becomes increasingly difficult to reconcile her past with her future, Carrie realizes that making it in New York is much more complicated than she ever imagined. Click here to purchase your tickets.

Yoani Sánchez is an unusual dissident: no street protests, no attacks on big políticos, no calls for revolution. Rather, she produces a simple diary about what it means to live under the Castro regime in Cuba: the chronic hunger and the difficulty of shopping; the art of repairing ancient appliances; the struggles of living under a propaganda machine that pushes deep into public and private life. For these simple acts of truth-telling her life is one of constant threat. But she continues on, refusing to be silenced — a living response to all who have ceased to believe in a future for Cuba. She shares this all in Havana Real: One Woman’s Fight to Tell the Truth About Cuba Today (Melville House, $16.95).

Because she has not been allowed to leave Cuba to promote and discuss her book, she instead has relied upon follow writers and friends to speak on her behalf. Books & Books is proud to host Ted Henken — a professor of Black and Hispanic Studies at Baruch College in New York and friend of Yoani – to lead the conversation about this remarkable writer, which will include special guests Carlos Alberto Montaner and fellow blogger Ernesto Morales Licea who now lives in the U.S. 

In the middle of New York City lies a neighborhood where all secrets are valuable, all assets are liquid, and all deals are sealed with a blessing rather than a contract. Welcome to the diamond district. Ninety percent of all diamonds that enter America pass through these few blocks, but the inner workings of this mysterious world are known only to the people who inhabit it.

In Precious Objects (Scribner, $24), twenty-six-year-old journalist Alicia Oltuski, the daughter and granddaughter of diamond dealers, seamlessly blends family narrative with literary reportage to reveal the fascinating secrets of the diamond industry and its madcap characters: an Elvis-impersonating dealer, a duo of diamond-detective brothers, and her own eccentric father.

With insight and drama, Oltuski limns her family’s diamond-paved move from communist Siberia to a displaced persons camp in post–World War II Germany to New York’s diamond district, exploring the connections among Jews and the industry, the gem and its lore, and the exotic citizens of this secluded world.

Entertaining and illuminating, Precious Objects offers an insider’s look at the history, business, and society behind one of the world’s most coveted natural resources, providing an unforgettable backstage pass to an extraordinary and timeless show.

Alicia Oltuski received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and an MFA in writing from Columbia University, where she was awarded a David Berg Foundation Fellowship. Her work has appeared on NPR’s Berlin Stories, in The Faster Times, The Bulletin in Philadelphia, and other publications. She has taught at the University of the Arts and lives in the Washington, D.C. area with her husband.

Parenting counselor Elahe Mehrel brings her workshop – Crossing the Invisible Bridge to Our Children’s World – to Books & Books. Mehrel believes that by becoming aware of parenting effects, mothers and fathers can guide their children to grow into confident individuals with positive beliefs about themselves and others. Children raised with empathy have the ability to extend that quality in all their relationships.

Join us for this free workshop, when Mehrel will introduce an interactive practice for parents to communicate with their children. She’ll train participants in the mirroring and validation skills, which improve parent-child relationships and positively impact the self-esteem of kids at any age. Parents will feel the effects of the “plasticity of the brain,” that even the most rigid dynamics can change. Enjoy this hands-on practice to better the quality of the "space” between you and your child. Founder of the Art of Parenting, Mehrel is certified by the renowned International Living Values Program, as well as the American Guidance Institute: STEP, Guardian Ad Litem, Family Central's Conscious Discipline, and TIKKUN: Art of Building Relationships. 

Free and open to the public. Parents only, please. There will be no child-care provided.

In many ways the world has never seen a First Lady like Michelle Obama. From the precedent of her race to the singularity of her style, she has been the object of immense fascination. What she says, what she does, and not least, what she wears, is scrutinized around the world.

Writing at the crossroads of politics and fashion, Kate Betts explains why Michelle Obama’s style matters, and how she has helped liberate a generation of women from the false idea that style and substance are mutually exclusive. Following the transformation of Mrs. Obama from her early days on the campaign trail to her first state dinner at the White House, Betts, a longtime fashion journalist and former editor in chief of Harper’s Bazaar, reminds us that while style can be expressed in what you wear, it is inextricably bound up in who you are and what you believe in. In a smart, breezy voice backed by extensive interviews and historical research, Betts shows how Michelle Obama’s  bold confidence and self-possession have made her into an icon and transformed the way women see themselves, their roles, and their own style.

With two hundred color photographs, original designer sketches, and historical images, Everyday Icon is not only a lavish tour of our First Lady’s style statements, but also a fascinating behind-the-scenes account of how she created her image and, more important, what that image says about American style today. Much has been written about Michelle Obama, but Kate Betts places her in a broader cultural and historical context; Everyday Icon is the definitive book on how a working mother of two became an unforgettable, global style icon.

En El Apóstol Rebelde (CreateSpace, $19.50),  Mauricio Puerta cuestiona las diferentes inconsistencias del nuevo testamento, esas que todos hemos querido cuestionar, pero que no lo hemos hecho por temor a nuestras creencias o educación temprana. Descubra, con sustento histórico, la verdadera interpretación del mensaje traído hace mas de 2,000 años. Se deben interpretar las escrituras literalmente, o al acomodo del momento y de quién las interpreta? Habrá un verdadero mensaje de amor basado en castigos? O se tratará de un proceso de evolución como seres humanos? Acompañe al autor a escuchar de viva voz y cuestionando esa enseñanza acomodada y copiada de otras culturas más antiguas ira descifrando el mensaje del Maestro, de una manera como jamás lo había escuchado.

The Shooting Salvationist (Steelforth, $27) chronicles what may be the most famous story you have never heard. In the 1920’s, the Reverend J. Frank Norris railed against vice and conspiracies he saw everywhere to a congregation of more than 10,000 at First Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, the largest congregation in America, the first “megachurch.” Norris controlled a radio station, a tabloid newspaper and a valuable tract of land in downtown Fort Worth. Constantly at odds with the oil boomtown’s civic leaders, he aggressively defended his activism, observing, “John the Baptist was into politics.” 
 
Following the death of William Jennings Bryan, Norris was a national figure poised to become the leading fundamentalist in America. This changed, however, in a moment of violence one sweltering Saturday in July when he shot and killed an unarmed man in his church office. Norris was indicted for murder and, if convicted, would be executed in the state of Texas’ electric chair.
 
At a time when newspaper wire services and national retailers were unifying American popular culture as never before, Norris’ murder trial was front page news from coast to coast.  Set during the Jazz Age, when Prohibition was the law of the land, The Shooting Salvationist leads to a courtroom drama pitting some of the most powerful lawyers of the era against each other with the life of a wildly popular, and equally loathed, religious leader hanging in the balance. 
 

Readers’ Circle Lunch: What Are You Reading? Tell us at this special luncheon where books are the main course – along with the delicious food from the Café at Books & Books by Chef Allen. Come with an appetite for book talk. Share your favorites – or least favorites – with fellow book lovers, including some local lights, both writers and readers. What’s on your bedside table? What’s on your to-read list? Whatever your preference – fiction or biography, mysteries or current affairs, memoir or science – join us. Meet people with similar reading tastes, and those who can open up whole new genres for you. Think of it as a Novel Networker, a Readers’ Retreat, a Book Social. Plus we’ll have some free advanced copies of books to share with you. 

RSVP REQUIRED: The luncheon costs $25 a person. Space is limited. Please click here or email marketing@booksandbooks.com to reserve your space today. 

Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Olen Butler has written fiction about farranging topics including hell, extraterrestrials, and the Vietnam War. With A Small Hotel, his twelfth novel, he has turned his attention to a new topic—the complexities of a male-female relationship—and delivers a beautifully told story of love, loss, and redemption.

Set in contemporary New Orleans but working its way back in time, A Small Hotel (Grove Press, $24) chronicles the relationship between Michael and Kelly Hayes, who have decided to separate after twenty years of marriage. The book begins on the day that the Hays are to finalize their divorce. Kelly is due to be in court, but instead she drives from her home in Pensacola, Florida, across the panhandle to New Orleans and checks into Room 303 at the Olivier House in the city’s French Quarter—the hotel where she and Michael fell in love some twenty years earlier and where she now finds herself about to make a decision that will forever affect her, Michael, and their nineteen-year-old daughter, Samantha.

Butler masterfully weaves scenes of the present with memories from both the viewpoint of Michael and Kelly—scenes that span twenty years, taking the reader back to critical moments in the couple’s relationship and showing two people deeply in love but also struggling with their own insecurities and inabilities to express this love.

An intelligent, deeply moving, and remarkably written portrait of a relationship that reads as a cross between a romance novel and a literary page turner, A Small Hotel is a masterful story that will remind readers once again why Robert Olen Butler has been called the “best living American writer” (Jeff Guinn, Fort Worth Star-Telegram).

CANCELLED: Unfortunately, the author is unable to leave his country and is unable to make his event. We will let you know if the event has been rescheduled. 

Note: This event is in Spanish.

Esta noche nos complace presentar la novela Agonía en la isla del periodista nicaragüense Douglas Carcache. Carcache es jefe de información del diario La Prensa, en Managua. Ser periodista en Cuba no es fácil. Querer ejercer el periodismo fuera de los canales oficiales menos todavía. Pero a eso aspira el protagonista de esta novela: «... Es mi historia, quiero contarla yo....» A su alrededor, las esperanzas de los cubanos se derriten como trocitos de hielo bajo el sol tropical. La novela capta imágenes palpitantes de la realidad contemporánea en la isla.

Join us for Family Game Night at Books & Books – and bring the whole family, kids and grownups alike. Miami native and award-winning game inventor Eric Poses will host a fun-filled family game night with his latest creation, The Greatest Day Ever Game($21.99) — an exciting and original matching game that kids (ages 5 and older)... and parents... will love. "Imagine a day full of laughter and play. If you play your cards right, today could be your day!" Hang out with 20 amazing friends, indulge in 20 spectacular presents and cruise around the world's coolest neighborhood in this exciting and unforgettable matching game that brings to life The Greatest Day Ever for any kid. Free and open to the public

Before that first bell rings on the new school year, teachers come feel the love with our Wonders of Teaching – Teacher Appreciation Night. No matter how eager you are to get back in the classroom after a well-deserved summer break, we know that first early-morning wakeup can be tough. So, we want you to know how much we appreciate you before 2011-12 gets into full swing. We’ll toast you – with actual bubbly! -- and all you do day in and day out to meet the individual needs of students. We’ll offer someresources and materials – free stuff! – to help you create vibrant, nurturing learning environments. It’s a chance to mix and mingle with your fellow educators, talk about your ideas for the new school year. As part of our continuing Wonders of Teaching series with Art for Learning, A4L Director of School Programs Janet Evans will lead us in an interactive classroom activity – so much fun it’ll feel like a party game – and let you know how you can join the fun with Arts for Learning and experience how art can be used in the classroom to motivate and teach. Sarah Nasif from Random House publishing will share the teaching guides and other online resources Random House offers. And find out what the hot new titles are for your students. Learn about the possibilities for educational sales and author school visits from Laura Deutsch andDebra Linn of Books & Books. Plus get your Educator Discount – everyday, always – off all purchases. 

Have you joined the Facebook Nation yet? A little unsure of just how to begin? Or if you have started, are you getting the most out of your social network? Well, wonder no longer. With their kind demeanor and easy-to-understand way of explaining, Luis and Jorge Saladrigas – founders of Media57 – New Media Solutions – will guide you into the wonderful world of social networking with the Facing Facebook Workshop. Learn how you can expand your world and enrich your friendships in a few easy keystrokes. Find out some inside tips for making the most of your online experience. What’s Twitter – and why should I give a tweet? What’s the etiquette for taking Facebook into my business life? How many “friends” are enough? Do I have to know the lingo to post? Luis and Jorge will take put friendly faces on the Facebook experience and social networking universe for newcomers.Free and open to the public.

Book Club Mixer: Miami’s renowned bookseller and author Raquel Roque gives us the definitive book of Cuban cuisine: encyclopedic in its range, but intimate and accessible in tone with more than five hundred recipes for classic, home-style dishes—from black bean soup to pork empanadas, from ropa vieja to black beans and croquetas, from tostones to arroz con pollo, from churros to café con leche—as well as the vividly told stories behind the recipes.

Based on the author’s family recipes, this is real Cuban cooking presented with today’s busy cooks in mind. Whether you are an experienced cook or a novice, a lover of Cuban cuisine or just discovering it, The Cuban Kitchen (Knopf, $19.95) will become an essential part of your kitchen library. 

Don Roy Doyle is back in town.

Tough and quick-witted, he's fresh out of prison, where he served three years for a diamond swindle. Now he's back to collect his share of the proceeds, but the money has vanished.

A local family dynasty which has controlled the island's politics for generations, a cop with a grudge, the FBI, and the Russian mob all have a stake in the action. They're convinced Cuba is on the verge of "opening up", and they all want Doyle gone. In this tightly-knit town, who can be trusted? And how long can Doyle stay alive?

Setup On Front Street takes you inside the world of Key West noir, a world tucked way back in the shadows, where the tourists never go.

What's in a name?

In our "look at me" era, everyone's a brand. Privacy now seems a quaint relic, and self-effacement is a thing of the past. Yet, as Nom de Plume (Harper, $24.99) reminds us, this was not always the case. Exploring the fascinating stories of more than a dozen authorial impostors across several centuries and cultures, Carmela Ciuraru plumbs the creative process and the darker, often crippling aspects of fame.

Biographies have chronicled the lives of pseudonymous authors such as Mark Twain, Isak Dinesen, and George Eliot, but never before have the stories behind many noms de plume been collected into a single volume. These are narratives of secrecy, obsession, modesty, scandal, defiance, and shame: Only through the protective guise of Lewis Carroll could a shy, half-deaf Victorian mathematician at Oxford feel free to let his imagination run wild. The "three weird sisters" (as they were called by the poet Ted Hughes) from Yorkshire—the Brontes—produced instant bestsellers that transformed them into literary icons, yet they wrote under the cloak of male authorship. Bored by her aristocratic milieu, a cigar-smoking, cross-dressing baroness rejected the rules of propriety by having sexual liaisons with men and women alike, publishing novels and plays under the name George Sand.

Grounded by research yet highly accessible and engaging, these provocative, astonishing stories reveal the complex motives of writers who harbored secret identities—sometimes playfully, sometimes with terrible anguish and tragic consequences. A wide-ranging examination of pseudonyms both familiar and obscure, Nom de Plume is part detective story, part expose, part literary history, and an absorbing psychological meditation on identity and creativity.

We're having a Cuban Kitchen Party to celebrate the publication of our own Raquel Roque! 

Music, anecdotes, dominos, guayaberas and of course, recipes from yesterday and today! 

What is Cuban cuisine? A delectable intermingling of Spanish, Portuguese, Arabian, Chinese, and African culinary traditions—a true melting pot of all the influences that combine in Cuban culture. Now, Raquel Roque gives us the definitive book of Cuban cuisine: encyclopedic in its range, but intimate and accessible in tone with more than five hundred recipes for classic, home-style dishes—from black bean soup to pork empanadas, from ropa vieja to black beans and croquetas, from tostones to arroz con pollo, from churros to café con leche—as well as the vividly told stories behind the recipes.

Based on the author’s family recipes, this is real Cuban cooking presented with today’s busy cooks in mind. Whether you are an experienced cook or a novice, a lover of Cuban cuisine or just discovering it, The Cuban Kitchen (Knopf, $19.95) will become an essential part of your kitchen library.

Meet Wince, The Monster of Worry, and his number one nemesis, the WorryBug!

In this engaging follow-up to The Monster Who Couldn't decide, Andi Green has created a whimsical adventure that brings another emotion to life. Join Wince as he discovers the secret to keeping his worries from getting monstrous. Using unique drawings and clever rhymes, Don't Feed the WorryBug carries an insightful message that readers of all ages will enjoy.  

Join us for the Second in a series of four, free community forums sponsored by the ACLU of Florida with panelists: Pinecrest Mayor Cindy Lerner, Former State Representative; Dan Gelber, Former State Senator and Attorney General candidate Cynthia Stafford, State Representative (D), District 109 to be moderated by Howard Simon, Executive Director of the ACLU of Florida.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the War on Drugs. For decades, the ACLU has opposed the campaign’s misguided and destructive policies. After 40 years and $1 trillion spent, the War on Drugs has failed to meet any of its declared goals. With this forum, we ask the community to rethink the approach to drug policy that has existed for the past 40 years and erase some of the harmful public policies. After extensive study, the ACLU has concluded that the War on Drugs has not only failed to reduce illegal drug use but also may be the policy most responsible for the rapid erosion of our due process and privacy rights in recent decades. These erosions include the warrantless drug testing of workers and students; the civil forfeiture of people’s homes, cars, and assets; the racially discriminatory drug-courier profiles; and the unconstitutional searches of people’s homes, as well as the explosion of the prison population and the race-based policies that have filled our prisons. Our panelists are well equipped to discuss the War on Drugs, which violates the fundamental rights of privacy and personal autonomy that are guaranteed by our Constitution and perpetuates the racism already deeply embedded in our society. The War on Drugs has also become another significant vehicle for perpetuating race discrimination in the United States. Ethan Nadelmann, from Drug Policy Alliance, has called it the “new Jim Crow” legislation. Throughout the state, the ACLU of Florida is working on a public education campaign about the negative impact of the War on Drugs – and is leading efforts to mitigate its worst effects on our local communities.

GAME NIGHT IS ON!

Bring your friends for a night of hilarious game play with two party games that will revolutionize your social calendar! And you'll be able to focus on the fun as local game inventor, Eric Poses, walks you through his bestselling Loaded Questions game (1,000,000+ sold) and his latest creation, Awkward Family Photos (based on the hit website).

Meet Wince, The Monster of Worry, and his number one nemesis, the WorryBug!

In this engaging follow-up to The Monster Who Couldn't decide, Andi Green has created a whimsical adventure that brings another emotion to life. Join Wince as he discovers the secret to keeping his worries from getting monstrous. Using unique drawings and clever rhymes, Don't Feed the WorryBug carries an insightful message that readers of all ages will enjoy.  

Who is Bernie Madoff, and how did he pull off the biggest Ponzi scheme in history?

These questions have fascinated people ever since the news broke about the respected New York financier who swindled his friends, relatives, and other investors out of $65 billion through a fraud that lasted for decades. Many have speculated about what might have happened or what must have happened, but no reporter has been able to get the full story--until now.

In The Wizard of Lies (Times Books, $30), Diana B. Henriques of The New York Times--who has led the paper's coverage of the Madoff scandal since the day the story broke--has written the definitive book on the man and his scheme, drawing on unprecedented access and more than one hundred interviews with people at all levels and on all sides of the crime, including Madoff's first interviews for publication since his arrest. Henriques also provides vivid details from the various lawsuits, government investigations, and court filings that will explode the myths that have come to surround the story.

A true-life financial thriller, The Wizard of Lies contrasts Madoff's remarkable rise on Wall Street, where he became one of the country’s most trusted and respected traders, with dramatic scenes from his accelerating slide toward self-destruction. It is also the most complete account of the heartbreaking personal disasters and landmark legal battles triggered by Madoff’s downfall--the suicides, business failures, fractured families, shuttered charities--and the clear lessons this timeless scandal offers to Washington, Wall Street, and Main Street.

Mr. and Mrs. Fang called it art.

Their children called it mischief.

Performance artists Caleb and Camille Fang dedicated themselves to making great art. But when an artist’s work lies in subverting normality, it can be difficult to raise well-adjusted children. Just ask Buster and Annie Fang. For as long as they can remember, they starred (unwillingly) in their parents’ madcap pieces. But now that they are grown up, the chaos of their childhood has made it difficult to cope with life outside the fishbowl of their parents’ strange world.

When the lives they’ve built come crashing down, brother and sister have nowhere to go but home, where they discover that Caleb and Camille are planning one last performance–their magnum opus–whether the kids agree to participate or not. Soon, ambition breeds conflict, bringing the Fangs to face the difficult decision about what’s ultimately more important: their family or their art.

Filled with Kevin Wilson’s endless creativity, vibrant prose, sharp humor, and keen sense of the complex performances that unfold in the relationships of people who love one another, The Family Fang (Ecco, $23.99) is a masterfully executed tale that is as bizarre as it is touching.

En Toda la verdad, autor Eleonor Hernandez, “recoge los momentos más fuertes de mi vida y también los más felices. Sobre todo lo más que me motivó a escribirlo fue lo que nos tocó vivir en el mundo de las drogas. Un mundo donde si la familia no se une y se aferra a Dios con uñas y dientes, se derrumba todo.

The Love Story of JFK Jr. and Christina HaagAn elegy to first love, a lost New York, and a young man who led his life with surprising and abundant grace
When Christina Haag was growing up on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, John F. Kennedy, Jr., was just one of the boys in her circle of prep school friends, a skinny kid who lived with his mother and sister on Fifth Avenue and who happened to have a Secret Service detail following him at a discreet distance at all times. A decade later, after they had both graduated from Brown University and were living in New York City, Christina and John were cast in an off-Broadway play together. It was then that John confessed his long-standing crush on her, and they embarked on a five-year love affair. Glamorous and often in the public eye, but also passionate and deeply intimate, their relationship was transformative for both of them. With exquisite prose, Haag paints a portrait of a young man with an enormous capacity for love, and an adventurous spirit that drove him to live life to its fullest.
A haunting book, Come to the Edge (Spiegel & Grau, $25) is a lasting evocation of a time and a place—of the indelible sting of the loss of young love, and of the people who shape you and remain with you, whether in person or in spirit. It is about being young and full of hope, with all the potential of your life as yet unfulfilled, and of coming of age at a moment in New York’s history when the city at once held danger, magic, and endless possibilities for self-discovery.  Rarely has a love story been told so beautifully. 5pm

If you’re a comedian and the world’s fate is in your hands, it’s no laughing matter. 

Die Laughing, a humorously dark sci-fi adventure, is set in the 1950s of flying saucers, communist paranoia, and live television.

Beamed aboard an alien spaceship, Las Vegas funny man Sam E. Lakeside is forced to participate in a plan to rob the earth of its oil.

When the shape-shifting aliens – who take on the form of Trixie Norton, Nat King Cole and others they’ve seen on TV – and their leader, a power-hungry mobster, murder Sam’s best friend and manager, Sam vows revenge.

He recruits a blacklisted comic book writer and the mobster’s girlfriend, and drags them cross-country to thwart the aliens. Their journey takes them to New York City and the Steve Allen Show, where the key to the alien’s conquest lies.

Sam, embroiled in an escalating tangle of violence, love, and lies, is forced to choose between what he wants most in the world – to be a star – or the planet’s survival.

A former firefighter, Louis K. Lowy is the recipient of a State of Florida Individual Artist Fellowship. His work has appeared in, among others, Coral Living Magazine, New Plains Review, Pushing Out the Boat Magazine, The MacGuffin Magazine, and The Chaffey Review.

As Faith Reynolds enters her freshman year of college, she is a complete and utter nervous wreck.  With her best friend Derek suddenly pulling out the romance card and her dark, mysterious classmate staring her down at every turn, Faith somehow feels stuck in the middle without dating either one.  And fortune may or may not be with her when a devilshly sexy stranger offers her a welcome escape.

Boys, romance, classes, and annoying roommates are all within the realm of the expected for a college frosh.  Trying to solve the mysterious murders of young college coeds near campus is not.  Darkness seems to be creeping into every corner of Faith's life, no matter the hour.  And when she seeks the truth, danger seems to be the only thing that finds her.

Faith is well aware of the strange currents in the air, particularly when she sets off static sparks with everything she touches.  Before long, she finds herself entrenched in the deep-seeded battle between werewolves and vampires.  The war has reached the tipping point, and Faith has the power to determine where the scales fall.  But the most important question may be with whom does her loyalty lie?

Deliciously suspenseful and immediately addictive, Blood on the Moon features a headstrong heroine and all of the thrills, chills, and otherworldly boys with deadly charm that a human could ask for.

Jennifer Knight makes her debut with Blood on the Moon. She voraciously reads and writes paranormal young adult fiction. She lives in Palmetto Bay, Florida with her husband and two children.

The Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment is proud to present Garden Cities: Theory & Practice of Agrarian Urbanism by renowned US urbanist Andrés Duany, the fifth in its series of Senior Fellow Books.

This book details a type of community plan and management that enables a comprehensive interaction of agriculture with modern society. Agrarian Urbanism may not be for everyone, but it is one of the more beneficial methods to develop and dwell on the land. Because of its mitigating effect on climate change, a neo-agrarian way of life should be made available to as many as possible. If the food-growing machine that is the traditional village were reorganized, it could be made viable again. Historically, most villages were based on food production and distribution as the principal economic and social activity, but today most agricultural landscapes adjacent to towns are valued for additional reasons and protected by government policy to keep them economically viable.

As the outline of the 21st century becomes clear, villages are again emerging as practical and desirable. But they will proliferate only if their design and management is handled in a thoroughly modern way to make the lifestyle appealing to more people.

Andrés Duany, F.A.I.A, R.I.C.S is an architect whose work focuses on town and country planning. He and his wife, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, founded their practice in 1980. More than 200 of their plans are in the process of implementation, several in the United Kingdom. They were founding members of the Congress for the New Urbanism.

Coral Gables Gallery Night Opening: The Children's Trust Miami Heart Gallery
is a traveling, museum-quality exhibit featuring portraits of children
in Miami-Dade's foster care system who are available for adoption.
This year's photos have a Mediterranean flare that accentuates the
locations throughout Coral Gables that served as backdrops for the
photo shoots, including the iconic Biltmore Hotel. Adopting a child out
of foster care can be the most rewarding experience of a lifetime, both
for your family and your new child. Legal adoption means that the
child becomes a member of your family and is no longer a part of the
foster care system. As an adoptive parent, you make all decisions for
your adopted child, just as you would for your biological children.
Almost anyone can adopt. You don't have to be married. You don't have
to make a lot of money. You just need to be willing to love and provide
for a child in need. For additional information visit us on www.miamiheartgallery.org.

Live Music in the Courtyard: Emmet Cohen Trio

As a subtropical city and the southernmost metropolitan area in the United States, Miami has always lured both visitors and migrants from throughout the Americas. During its first half-century they came primarily from the American North, then from the Latin South, and eventually from across the hemisphere and beyond. But if Miami's seductive appeal is one half of the story, the other half is that few people have ever ended up staying there. Today, by many measures, Miami is one of the most transient of all major metropolitan areas in America.

Miami: Mistress of the Americas (University of Pennsylvania Press, $22.50) tells the story of an urban transformation, perfectly timed to coincide with the surging forces of globalization. Author Jan Nijman connects different historical episodes and geographical regions to illustrate how transience has shaped the city to the present day, from the migrant labor camps in south Miami-Dade to the affluent gated communities along Biscayne Bay. Transience offers opportunities, connecting business flows and creating an ethnically hybrid workforce, and also poses challenges: high mobility and population turnover impede identification of Miami as home.

According to Nijman, Miami is "mistress of the Americas" because of its cultural influence and economic dominance at the nexus of north and south. Nijman likens the city itself to a hotel; people check in, go about their business or pleasure, then check out. Locals, born and raised in the area, make up only one-fifth of the population. Exiles, those who have come to Miami as a temporary haven due to political or economic necessity, are typically yearning to return to their homeland. Mobiles, the affluent and well educated, who reside in Miami's most prized neighborhoods, are constantly on the move.

As a social laboratory in urban change and human relationships in a high-speed, high-mobility era, Miami raises important questions about identity, citizenship, place-attachment, transnationalism, and cosmopolitanism. As such, it offers an intriguing window onto our global urban future.

Live Music in the Courtyard: Juanita-Marie Franklin