We’ll close out the year with this thought from the late Bart Giamatti, courtesy of my Collegian pal-turned-Facebook friend Pat Johnson:

It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops. Today, October 2, a Sunday of rain and broken branches and leaf-clogged drains and slick streets, it stopped, and summer was gone.

“The Green Fields of the Mind”

from “A Great and Glorious Game: Baseball Writings of A. Bartlett Giamatti, et. al

This thought is not entirely applicable if you happen to live in the subtropics, where as I was listening to the Red Sox season coming to its heartbreaking end it was in the low 90s and sunny as all hell. But it captures the mood.

Oct. 12: OK this really is the last Sox quote of the year but I just had to add this line from today’s Globe, from the great Dan Shaughnessy:

Yes, it’s that time of year when I pay attention to my blog again, increase my stats with confused Red Sox fans searching for quotes who somehow find themselves on a mostly literary blog — and celebrate the continuing renaissance of the world’s greatest baseball team. Or at least my favorite.

We’ll start this one out with Tito, as quoted in a Boston Globe story about Kevin Youkilis, the power hitting infielder with the wiggly batting stance and hasty temper:

“Look, he hit me with a helmet once. I don’t want to get hit with a helmet. But I think sometimes Youk is misrepresented. He’s not worried about his own stats. He wants the team to win so badly.’’

Not for nothing does a certain Yankee fan friend of mine refer to him as “you kill us.” Go Sox!

The Man Booker Prize was announced yesterday and — huzzah! — the winner was Hilary Mantel for her most recent novel Wolf Hall. Which I haven’t read yet but am looking forward to mightily because 1) It’s set in the Tudor era (the protagonist is Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII’s righthand man for a good while) and 2) My friend Mags gave it to me for my birthday.

But I’m especially excited because I was already a Mantel fan having recently read her French Revolution novel A Place of Greater Safety — and I have to say it’s the best novel I’ve read this year. It’s dense, rich, complex and so so so illuminating on the characters of three of the Revolution’s main players — Georges-Jacques Danton, Camille Desmoulin and that old villain from the Scarlet Pimpernel and so much more, Maximilien Robespierre. Mantel makes them human, even Robespierre. And reminds us that the Revolution wasn’t an overnight lop-the-king’s-head-off-whoops-let’s-call-in-Napoleon kind of event that it can become for us ignorant Americans. I became even more of a Mantel fan when I looked her up on wikipedia and learned that she has overcome considerable personal and medical challenges in order to write these big, absorbing, excellent novels.

Anyway. just figured I’d chime in and express my delight — and urge everyone to read Mantel. You can find her books, including A Place of Greater Safety and, soon, Wolf Hall, at the Monroe County Public Library, of course.

Sure we’re better known for Disney World, South Beach and real estate swindles but Florida has a rich and continuing literary heritage, dammit — and in today’s Miami Herald my friend and occasional editor Connie Ogle provides a list of her picks for the best. The only change I’d make is to add “The Truth About Lorin Jones” by Alison Lurie — always my recommendation for a Key West novel, if anyone asks me. And if you want to read one book to get a pretty good sense of Florida history — especially South Florida — you can’t beat “The Swamp” by Michael Grunwald.

It’s here, my big day in South Florida biblio-journalism. First, a review in the Miami Herald of Larry’s Kidney, an entertaining account of two cousins and their quest in China for a kidney, a bride and a better understanding of their relationship. And by the way props to The Herald and to the hardworking book (and Weekend section) editor Connie Ogle for keeping on keeping on in this economic climate. The Sun-Sentinel recently laid off longtime book editor Chauncey Mabe — he’ll still be doing freelance book reviews for them but it’s a major institutional loss for South Florida readers.

Anyway. I also had a manifesto about how people do too read books so there in today’s Solares Hill but sadly I can’t provide a link because The Citizen has a very strange approach toward online access. Enough said. If you happen to be in the Florida Keys you can get yourself a Sunday paper. Or you could buy the whole Sunday paper online and get a PDF that includes Solares Hill. Basically my point was the publishing industry is in some trouble but people are still reading, based on my observations at the circulation desk at the Monroe County Library’s May Hill Russell Branch and also because of human nature (we crave drama and narrative in whatever form we can get it). And I gave a somewhat random summer reading list — random because unlike real professional book writers I’m not recommending all new books because I don’t have access to all those books, but just fun, mostly lighter reads I’ve come across in the last year or so. Unfortuantely they didn’t have time to include a last-minute addition to the list of Vern’s book, The Lost Chalice, but I’m sure you’ll be hearing more about that from me and others in the near future.

Summer Reading Recommendations:

“Stone’s Fall” by Iain Pears – This is a brand new novel, from the author of “The Instance of the Fingerpost.” It’s historical fiction with a mystery at its heart – why did financier and industrialist Julius Stone take a header out of his living room window? It proceeds in several chunks with different narrators, heading back through time, from post-World War II Paris to Venice in 1867. Long but absorbing.

“Martyr” by Rory Clement – Another new one, by an English journalist turned novelist. This is historical fiction set during the reign of Elizabeth I and uses an older brother of William Shakespeare, named John, as its protagonist, a sort of Renaissance detective in the service of Sir Francis Walsingham. If you are a fan of Philippa Gregory, Jean Plaidy or other fictions set in this time period, this is a worthy addition with more attention paid to ordinary people caught up in the religious wars than the machinations of royalty. (Note: the comments on this book have been edited after I received the comment from Clements, posted below — a very nice man as well as a good writer and a good reminder to me that even though I write this stuff in a kind of personal, casual style it’s still publication.)

“The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher” by Kate Summerscale – Another work set in the past, this one nonfiction. It’s about a murder that takes place in an upper class home – the murder of a small child – and the London detective who arrives to solve the case. Summerscale skillfully blends the shocking story itself as well as the social milieu in which it happened (Victorian England) and the literary influences Whicher and the case had (the birth of the detective novel).

“The Lost City of Z” by David Grann – In 1925, Sir Percy Fawcett set off into the Amazon looking for the fabled South American city usually called El Dorado but known in his journals and letters simply as Z. His companions were his young son and the son’s friend, neither of whom had any experience in that environment. They never returned. Fawcett’s obsession, and the quest to find out what happened to him, are parallel tracks in this book and Grann himself ventures into the still-hostile environment. His conclusions are surprising and surprisingly persuasive.

“The Book of Air and Shadows” by Michael Gruber – I am not a Dan Brown fan but I’m fond of bibliothrillers – pageturners with a rare book or manuscript at their heart – and this is the best one I’ve found yet. The item at issue in this case is a lost Shakespeare manuscript but it’s Gruber’s writing, and the voice of his protagonist – a former Olympic weightlifter turned attorney – that kept me enthralled.

“Blindspot” by Jane Kamensky and Jill Lepore – Two eminent historians – one a professor at Harvard the other at Tufts – write a novel. Together. This sounds like it could have been a very bad idea. Instead, it’s a ton of fun. Set in Boston a decade before the American Revolution, it is the story of a penniless Scottish painter and his apprentice, whom he believes to be a 16-year-old boy but who is actually the 21-year-old disgraced daughter of a prominent Boston family. What are the odds they’ll fall in love? Told in alternating voices – the painter’s traditional first person picaresque novel, the apprentice’s letters to a childhood friend – it is a lusty romance but also deals with serious issues like gender, sexual orientation, race and political liberty. Not to mention art.

“His Majesty’s Dragon” by Naomi Novik – I can’t believe I’m publicly admitting that I read and loved a book with dragons – so I might as well admit I read and loved FIVE books with dragons, all in the series called Temeraire (after, of course, is our protagonist dragon). “His Majesty’s Dragon” and its sequels are terrific. They are set in the Napoleonic Wars and are commonly described as “Patrick O’Brian with dragons.” Alternate history, fantasy, call it what you will. But if you’re at all interested, just give it a try. Here’s a heresy for you: I think Novik is actually better than O’Brian at conveying the terrible carnage Napoleon wreaked across Europe, since so much of her books are set on land, as opposed to sea. Seriously, not counting Harry Potter I hadn’t read anything with dragons in it since junior high. Now I’m counting the days until the next installment comes out in October.

“One Good Turn” by Kate Atkinson – Actually you should probably start from the beginning of this trilogy, “Case Histories,” which features former cop turned private detective Jackson Brodie. They’re mysteries, with Brodie solving some puzzle or other usually with a couple of bodies along the way, but they truly excel as character studies and Atkinson is a fabulous writer – funny and humane and totally original. Her first novel won the Whitbread Award, so she’s got the literary chops – and unlike some other literary types she doesn’t feel compelled to adopt a pseudonym when she writes a crime novel that can be pigeonholed as genre work. The third in this series, by the way, is called “When Will There Be Good News?” I just listed OGT because it was my favorite, possibly because it’s the first one I read.

“The Given Day” by Dennis Lehane – Best known for crime novels like “Mystic River,” Lehane swung for the fences in this epic historical novel, set in Boston in 1919 – a time when World War I had just ended, the city was beset by fears of anarchist terrorism, influenza was wiping out populations. The book culminates in the Boston Police strike, a historic event, and takes in different parts of society, including Irish, Italian and African-American.

“Julie & Julia” by Julie Powell – This memoir is about to come out as a movie, starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams, directed by Nora Ephron. So brace yourselves: It will be everywhere. Despite the fact that this book started out as a blog based on a gimmicky premise – young New Yorker Julie Powell attempts to cook every recipe in Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” in a year – it’s a fun, endearing read. And it’s not just a blog committed to paper; it’s a real memoir, chronicling love, family, society and the knotty problem of what to do when you’re turning 30 and your original ambitions just aren’t panning out.

So how cool is this? First Publisher’s Weekly comes out with a rave review for The Lost Chalice, my friend Vern’s new book about the antiquities smuggling trade in Italy, where he has lived and reported for the last several years. And then, just a few weeks before the official publication date, Tina Brown’s cool new site The Daily Beast, features another rave in its Book Beast section. Worth checking just for the photo! You go, Vern! And to think the contract for this book was signed at my dining room table … (Vern, a very good friend indeed, flew in from Rome for our big 40th birthday party. For the weekend. And I’m using “our” not in the royal we sense but because it was also my husband’s and friend Jason’s birthdays so that’s why we had a big bash, OK?!)

This book, I should note, is available at the Key West Library as well as fine bookstores everywhere.

If you happened to be a regular reader of this blog, no doubt you’ve give up by now. But just in case: just wait. Until Sunday. Or keep your eye on the (old school) press, printed paper, local (Solares Hill) and regional (Miami Herald). And for those of you who don’t feel like doing that I’ll be posting some links.

I spent a lot of the spring reading, by the way, although a lot of the reading was what many, including me, might consider junk. I’m still considering writing a piece about my winter/spring of junk reading. I truly don’t know if it was some sort of reaction to the economy or just a personal thing. I’m mostly pulling out of it but the lure is still strong.

Especially since I have untrammeled access to pretty much any kind of book, including lots of junk, at my NEW JOB at the MONROE COUNTY LIBRARY, the MAY HILL RUSSELL BRANCH in Key West!!! Woo hoo! Yes, I’m now a library assistant at the circulation desk and this, aside from a couple of epic stories like the 1994 Cuban Rafter Crisis and some hurricanes, is the most physically demanding job I’ve had since high school. But fun! Really fun! I see books all day, lots of books, and readers and people I’ve known for years and people I’m just meeting and I bike home for lunch. Life is good.

OK I might as well mention some of my recent reading. “Julie & Julia” — I really did not expect to like this one for a bunch of reasons, and I wound up liking it a lot. Now I’m a little afraid to see the movie. “Larry’s Kidney” by Daniel Asa Rose. Stay tuned. “Martyr” by Rory Clements — I’ve already confessed in print about my fondness for Tudor Trash (Philippa Gregory et. al.) but this was different — a crime novel! Set in the Tudor era. With John Shakespeare, Will’s older brother, as the detective! OK, he’s an agent for Sir Francis Walsingham (that was Geoffrey Rush in the movie). It really illustrated the daily dilemmas faced by ordinary people (not just scheming royalty) in a time of massive religious, social and political upheaval. Naomi Novik’s Temeraire books. Patrick O’Brian with dragons. Yes, dragons. Seriously, check them out.

My husband and I have a long-running, never-to-be-resolved argument about which Tom McGuane novel set in Key West is better. He likes Panama, I prefer 92 in the Shade. But there’s no dispute about which was made into a better movie, mainly because, to my knowledge, they never made a movie of Panama. The movie version of 92 in the Shade, however, is not only an entertaining film with a knockout cast (Peter Fonda! Warren Oates! Harry Dean Stanton! Elizabeth Ashley! Margot Kidder!). It’s essential viewing for anyone interested in Key West’s recent history, especially of that really really interesting era when the Navy was leaving, the new bridges and water line weren’t here yet and marijuana smuggling was completely out of hand.

McGuane himself wrote the screenplay AND directed (no comment here on whether that’s a good idea) and lots of it was shot in Key West. In other words, a great document of classic 1970s Key West. Plus an entertaining movie.

It was distributed on VHS — unfortunately the copy at the Monroe County Library seems to have gone missing — but has not, to my knowledge been released on DVD. You can, however, see the film right here in Key West with a bunch of other Key Westers this Saturday, March 28 – in a special showing that will benefit Heron Peacock Supported Living. VIP tickets are $60; regular admission is $25 and it all takes place at the Doubletree Grand Key Resort. For tickets or more information call Sherry Read at 305-294-2648 or email her at sherrykw2 at aol.com.

OK I got nothing for St. Patrick’s Day — other than a hearty recommendation that anyone near Key West stop by Finnegan’s Wake tonight on the good chance that a very good band, Skraeling, will be playing their usual St. Patrick’s Day gig there. What I do have is a link to my review in Sunday’s Miami Herald of The Lost City of Z by David Grann. It’s a great tale about the last of the great Victorian explorers, Percy Fawcett, who disappeared into the Amazon rainforest in 1925 looking for, essentially, El Dorado. Grann retraces his steps both on the ground and in the archives and does an excellent job telling the tale.