The Animators by Kayla Rae Whitaker

After meeting in a college art class, Sharon and Mel(ody) become inseparable, their lives absolutely intertwined as they start their own animation company, drink and smoke, work, and even live together in the studio. Just as they're becoming legitimate stars, an unexpected emergency derails everything.

The book's about creative energy and inspiration, and it's about friendship and how close two people can be and still not really see one another. These women mine their personal lives to make intimate, biographical films, but not everyone is estatic to find themselves part of the movies.

I loved this book - they're self-absorbed, self-destructive artists in the prime of their lives. But they're forced into a delayed adulthood that ultimately expands their perspective and their work. It's sometimes hard to watch them sleepwalk through life with such oblivion - hard to watch because it's easy to recognize yourself in these characters.

Razor Girl by Carl Hiaasen

Some stories are just so strange they have to be true - and the con artist at the core of Razor Girl is one of those; her scam involves shaving her privates while behind the wheel, "accidentally" rear-ending someone, her hiked skirt and blood droplets for effect.

This book is a return to former-detective, health officer Andrew Yancy and his endangered bit of paradise. A big-city lawyer and his high-maintenance fiance are planning a new McMansion on the lot next to Yancy's house. Things didn't go so well for the last guy that tried to build there ...

Throw into the mix a reality TV star who isn't what he seems, his beleaguered Hollywood agent, and a Florida redneck with a man-crush. Typical Hiaasen!

Truly, it's prime-form Hiaasen too, with a story that hums right along and a plot you couldn't possibly predict. Nobody does comedy-mixed-with-satire the way he does, and it seems like Florida is determined to provide fodder for these novels (we'll call that a silver lining).

Sunny Side Up by Jennifer Holm and Matthew Holm

Spending the second half of the summer at Grandpa's in Florida isn't exactly what Sunny had planned. But that was before what happened on July 4th.

This bright, full-color graphic novel was authored by the same sibling pair who do the Babymouse and Squish books. It's still a kids' book, but it's a more realistic style and subject matter - a major theme is family secrets. Plus it's set in the 1970s, so adult readers will appreciate the cultural references (Dorothy Hamill hair, the bicentennial).

Sunny learns a lot in Florida - she makes friends (of all ages), evades an alligator, discovers comic books, and learns to trap lost cats. It's a great story, and it builds tension by flipping forward and backward in time.

I'll be curious to see if the 1970s timeframe makes it less interesting to 2010s kids, or if it doesn't matter because the story is still relatable.

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

Charles Nancy has built a good (but boring) life for himself: accounting job, a beautiful fiance, and a quiet, uneventful London existence almost completely free from embarrassment. That is, until his long-estranged father in Florida dies and Charlie discovers the fun, fantastic, and completely unabashed brother he never knew. Charlie's life quickly becomes anything BUT boring.

It's a wonderful Neil Gaiman story of ancient gods and timeless grudges, acted out on several planes of existence. It turns out Charlie's dad was actually the trickster god Anansi, and this long-lost brother has inherited Dad's old embarrassing, supernatural tendencies.

I picked up this audiobook because I read an article with another author, Joe Hill, about his favorite audiobooks - he says this is the best he's ever heard. That's a recommendation I couldn't pass up - turns out, I wholeheartedly agree! Narrator Lenny Henry does a truly stellar job with accents, inflections, and characterizations that range from a 104-year-old woman, to an animated clay spider, to island men and women, to London executives, to ancient animal gods and goddesses, and much, much more.

Skink - No Surrender by Carl Hiaasen

Worried about his possibly-missing cousin Malley, a teenage boy stumbles into an important friendship on the beach: Skink, the eccentric former Florida governor familiar to fans of Hiaasen's adult novels.

It's the typical teen novel where a guy just can't wait for the police to do their job and has to take matters into his own hands. The difference is that in this one he's got a ethically oriented yet unstable adult to drive, guide, and kick ass; just when Richard needs an ally to rescue Malley from an internet predator, the slightly crazy swamp dweller with a million-dollar smile turns up for the caper.

It's a rare Hiaasen novel that doesn't take on environmental vigilantism - although Skink still finds a couple ways to educate everyone on native fauna. And while the wacko forms of death that are a Hiaasen hallmark are toned down a bit for the juvenile audience, because he wrote this one for teens he gets to leave in some of the gore.

I'm not sure why Hiaasen was determined to break into the young adult market, but the book feels a bit watered down to reach the market. I enjoyed the book (and I've long thought a Skink-centric novel was overdue), but the same story with only a few tweaks would easily have been a more satisfying adult novel. He wouldn't have even needed to change the character's ages - adults can handle a book with a teen protagonist.

Bad Monkey by Carl Hiaasen

Have I mentioned how much I love Carl Hiaasen?

This time, two guys each fight "progress" that is destroying their little corners of paradise - one a former cop in Florida with an illegal, unfinished McMansion next door, the other a Bahamian whose beach is sold out from under him and developed.

Stir that together with a sexy coroner, lots of hungry sharks, a scary voodoo queen, an angry monkey (who was in Pirates of the Caribbean with Johnny Depp), bad seafood, and a little Medicare fraud and you've got another fantastic, truth-is-stranger-than-fiction Hiaasen novel.

The action is fast-paced, the dialog snappy, and the hurricane imminent. Hiaasen's books are always full of pop culture references, and this one's par for the course; you might argue that Hiaasen's not really breaking any new ground here, but I've yet to bog down in a dull moment or yawn at the antics. He keeps the story moving, twisting in the wind, and I still find myself barking out unexpected laughter.

Highly recommended!

The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady by Elizabeth Stuckey-French

Unknowingly, Marylou took part in a 1950s study of radioactivity. The effects destroyed her family, killed her daughter, and wrecked her health. So now, 60 years later, Marylou is determined to find the smug bastard who made her drink that cocktail and make him pay.

Except Marylou's no cold-blooded killer, and Dr.Wilson Spriggs' health is declining with Alzheimers. Once her plans to kill Wilson disintegrate, Marylou decides to mess with his family - but it turns out she really likes the grandkids. Now what?

It's a darkly funny book full of interesting characters - each living in their own bubble and ignoring one another in the way families sometimes do. Will the radioactive lady destroy their family? Or will Otis build a reactor in the shed and nuke them all first? Will Florida ever see the hurricane Vic's been wishing for? And does Elvis ultimately have all the answers?

The Lola Quartet by Emily St. John Mandel

Ten years post-high school, Gavin's falling apart. And while a series of unfortunate events threw him off-kilter, ultimately it's the news he may have fathered a child in high school that truly unhinges his life.

In the stories of Gavin's high school friends, this novel presents a multi-faceted tale of failure and disappointment and happenstance. While the characters lost touch with one another as young adults, each is tied and connected to the others by an unseen chain of people and events.

The drama - and a sort of mystery - is revealed gradually through the book. Back and forth through time and across the five main character's lives, the reader gathers clues right up until the end. What happened back then? And what is happening now? Even the last page had me rewinding a bit.

Swamplandia! by Karen Russell

Since Eva Bigtree's mom (and the star of their family's Everglades alligator wresting show) died of cancer, things have been going downhill fast for Swamplandia! As the tourism dries up, her already crazy dad, The Chief, goes off on bigger and bigger schemes in an attempt to reinvigorate their appeal. And each of the Bigtree kids finds their own way to deal with the changes and their loss.

This book has been super-hyped as "THE BOOK" of the year, and I couldn't resist the setup: a girl alligator wrestler? Yes, please!

But I wasn't prepared for the dream-like surrealism of the story; I was never completely sure what was true and what might be fantasy or hallucination. It is a great story, lyrically written and fascinating, worth pondering - and potentially awesome for a book discussion title.

Star Island by Carl Hiaasen

Celebrity's not always what it seems, but you've certainly never seen it like this: Talentless pop starlet Cherry Pye is such a wild, uncontrollable mess that her handlers have hired a body double to cover her absences. It works perfectly, mostly, until an obsessive paparazzo nabs the wrong girl in a misguided kidnapping. Throw in a matched pair of publicists without a whit of morality between them, parents only worried about their cash cow, and a bodyguard with a string-trimmer for a hand ... well, it's a classic, absurd Hiassen comedy/drama combo.

If you haven't read Hiaasen before, go ahead and start here. You won't be disappointed. It's dark comedy with a social conscience. You'll feel smarter, yet still thoroughly entertained.

For those of you who have read Hiaasen before, this one feels like coming home. Hiaasen's been writing kids books and nonfiction the last few years, and I have to say I've been missing his adult fiction something fierce.

In Star Island, I was rewarded with visits from several familiar characters: when Jim Dial first appears I thought, "Oh look! Jim retired. How nice!" ... like he's a distant uncle.

Each of Hiaasen's books take a jab at one or two (or more) of Florida's abundant evils: stupid tourists, greedy developers, addled retirees, faux environmentalists, clueless anglers or duffers, etc. The pickin's ripe in Florida. But he was overdue to give the bloated, star-studded world of South Miami it's due diligence.

To me, this book feels like a postcard from a long-lost friend.

Murder at the Bad Girl's Bar & Grill by N.M. Kelby

A couple years back I read Whale Season, Kelby's first novel, because Carl Hiaasen recommended it. Since then, she has carved out a nice niche for herself in the "wacky Florida writers" genre.

Danni Keene, retired from a career as professional B-horror movie scream queen, is just trying to run a bar. Except dead bodies keep turning up in the dumpster, and somebody torched her yellow Hummer. Then things get really weird when the 3 pink buses pull in - filled with the Rose and Puppet Circus.

This book is entertaining and well written. The wacky characters kept me interested, and their intertwined storylines kept me guessing. Even once we know "whodunnit," the story doesn't collapse like many mysteries. This one had a few more twists and turns keep you wondering.