We never know what will happen next in Florida. We know only that, any minute now, something will. Every few months, Dave Barry gets a call from some media person wanting to know, “What the hell is wrong with Florida?” Somehow, the state’s acquired an image as a subtropical festival of stupid, and as a loyal Floridian, Dave begs to differ. Sure, there was the 2000 election. And people seem to take their pants off for no good reason. And it has flying insects the size of LeBron James. But it is a great state, and Dave is going to tell you why. Join him as he celebrates Florida from Key West at the bottom to whatever it is that’s at the top, from the Sunshine State’s earliest history to the fun-fair of weirdness and gunfire (“Our motto: ‘Come back! We weren’t firing at you!’”) that it is today.
It’s the most hilarious book yet from “the funniest damn writer in the whole country” (Carl Hiaasen, and he should know). By the end, you’ll have to admit that whatever else you might think about Florida—you can never say it’s boring.
Flo's Review
I am the only member of my family to live in Florida, so I can always count on my family to call and text me with comments regarding Florida -- especially around elections. And I can't tell you how many crazy "this actually happened in Florida" type stories I've seen. So as soon as I discovered that this book was a Thing, I knew I had to get it.
The first part was HILARIOUS and exactly what I thought this book would be. It was filled with random, crazy facts about Florida and random, crazy anecdotes about Florida described with Dave Barry's classic dry humor. I literally laughed out loud at many a section. But while these Random Acts of Crazy in Florida can fill a book, I guess they can't really fill a book? So after the Introduction and A Brief History of Florida, the rest of the book is devoted to hearing about Dave's visits to random, crazy attractions in the state. Unfortunately, I did not really enjoy the first one ("The Skunk Ape") and that left me setting aside the book for awhile before picking it back up again. I finally decided to just skip the rest of that chapter and move on. The next 6 were okay: I really enjoyed some, like hearing about Weeki Wachee and Spongeorama, and others were just okay, like hearing about LIV.
All in all, this is a fast and fun read. If you like hearing about quirky places to add to your bucket list, this will make a good read for you. As for me, I will have to agree with a few of Dave's final words: I love this crazy state.
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