Nervous Water and Other Florida Stories is a collection of six short stories that explore the spirit of fly-fishing today. The author uses tales of stalking fish in Florida to examine environmentalism, philosophy, fishing as entertainment, the nature of celebrity, the meaning of relationships, and the importance of fishing to our identities. Nervous water can tell you where the fish are moving just beneath the surface, but it also implies that just under the surface lies an uneasiness, an apprehension about the future, and that within this anxiety lives the possibility—maybe even the promise—of something better.

In one of the finest novels yet in Tapply's long-running series, Nervous Water explores the previously hidden past of his much beloved character, Boston attorney Brady Coyne. Contacted by an aged relative with whom he'd long lost touch, Brady agrees to help his Uncle Moze with a sensitive family matter. Having received a diagnosis of terminal cancer, Moze is looking to mend fences with his only daughter. But the daughter seems to have simply disappeared, leaving no clues or hints as to her whereabouts. As Brady tackles the seemingly impossible task of finding his cousin - a case that looks less and less like a simple missing person case - it becomes clear that whatever is going on now is related to a dark, undiscussed episode in his family's past: the brutal, still unsolved murder of another of Brady's uncles.

Former high school classmates reckon with the death of a friend in this stunning debut novel. Along the Intracoastal waterways of North Florida, Daniel and Aubrey navigated adolescence with the electric intensity that radiates from young people defined by otherness: Aubrey, a self-identified "Southern cracker" and Daniel, the mixed-race son of Jamaican immigrants. When the news of Aubrey’s death reaches Daniel in New York, years after they’d lost contact, he is left to grapple with the legacy of his precious and imperfect love for her. At ease now in his own queerness, he is nonetheless drawn back to the muggy haze of his Palm Coast upbringing, tinged by racism and poverty, to find out what happened to Aubrey. Along the way, he reconsiders his and his family’s history, both in Jamaica and in this place he once called home. Buoyed by his teenage track-team buddies—Twig, a long-distance runner; Desmond, a sprinter; Egypt, Des’s girlfriend; and Jess, a chef—Daniel begins a frantic search for meaning in Aubrey’s death, recklessly confronting the drunken country boy he believes may have killed her. Sensitive to the complexities of class, race, and sexuality both in the American South and in Jamaica, All the Water I’ve Seen Is Running is a novel of uncommon tenderness, grief, and joy. All the while, it evokes the beauty and threat of the place Daniel calls home—where the river meets the ocean.

'Magnificent . . . Lauren Groff is a virtuoso' Emily St John Mandel 'A blistering collection . . . lyrical and oblique' Guardian 'Not to be missed . . . deep and dark and resonant' Ann Patchett 'It's beautiful. It's giving me rich, grand nightmares' Observer In these vigorous stories, Lauren Groff brings her electric storytelling to a world in which storms, snakes and sinkholes lurk at the edge of everyday life, but the greater threats are of a human, emotional and psychological nature. Among those navigating it all are a resourceful pair of abandoned sisters; a lonely boy, grown up; a restless, childless couple; a searching, homeless woman; and an unforgettable conflicted wife and mother. Florida is an exploration of the connections behind human pleasure and pain, hope and despair, love and fury. 'Innovative and terrifyingly relevant. Any one of these stories is a bracing read; together they form a masterpiece' Stylist 'Lushly evocative . . . mesmerising . . . a writer whose turn of phrase can stop you on your tracks' Financial Times

Wil LaBossier writes about waterscapes and fishing with the precision and articulate grace of a robotics engineer--which he happens to be when not poling the flats of the Florida Keys. Nervous Water is a delight, and deserves a place on the same bookshelf with the best American angling literature."--Randy Wayne White.

A lively account of how Darwin’s work on natural selection transformed science and society, and an investigation into the mysterious illness that plagued its author. By early morning of June 30, 1860, a large crowd began to congregate in front of Oxford University’s brand-new Museum of Natural History. The occasion was the annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and the subject of discussion was Charles Darwin’s new treatise: fact or fiction? Darwin, a simultaneously reclusive and intellectually audacious squire from Kent, claimed to have solved “that mystery of mysteries,” introducing a logical explanation of the origin of species—how they adapted, even transmogrified, through natural selection. At stake, on that summer’s day of spirited debate, was the very foundation of modern biology, not to mention the future of the church. Without fear of exaggeration, Darwin’s thesis would forever change our understanding of the life sciences and the natural world. And yet the author himself was nowhere to be found in the debate hall—instead, he was miles away, seeking respite from a spate of illnesses that had plagued him for much of his adult life. In Origin Story, medical historian Howard Markel recounts the two-year period (1858 to 1860) of Darwin’s writing of On the Origin of Species through its spectacular success and controversy. Simultaneously, Markel delves into the mysterious health symptoms Darwin developed, combing the literature to emerge with a cogent diagnosis of a case that has long fascinated medical historians. The result is a colorful portrait of the man, his friends and enemies, and his seminal work, which resonates to this day.

Mavis Gallant is the modern master of what Henry James called the international story, the fine-grained evocation of the quandaries of people who must make their way in the world without any place to call their own. The irreducible complexity of the very idea of home is especially at issue in the stories Gallant has written about Montreal, where she was born, although she has lived in Paris for more than half a century. Varieties of Exile, Russell Banks's extensive new selection from Gallant's work, demonstrates anew the remarkable reach of this writer's singular art. Among its contents are three previously uncollected stories, as well as the celebrated semi-autobiographical sequence about Linnet Muir—stories that are wise, funny, and full of insight into the perils and promise of growing up and breaking loose.

Explores the nature and appeal of swimming, from the history of the strokes to aspects of modern Olympic competition, as well as the author's personal experiences and milestones in the sport.

“A riotous journey into the heart of insanity also known as the State of Florida. Bravo!”—Gary Shteyngart, author of Lake Success Florida, circa 1980. Reed Crowe, the eponymous Florida Man, is a middle-aged beach bum, beleaguered and disenfranchised, living on ill-gotten gains deep in the jungly heart of Florida. When sinkholes start opening on Emerald Island, not only are Reed Crowe's seedy businesses—a moribund motel and a shabby amusement park—endangered, but so are his secrets. Crowe, amateur spelunker, begins uncovering artifacts that change his understanding of the island’s history, as well as his understanding of his family’s birthright as pioneering homesteaders. Meanwhile, there are other Florida men with whom Crowe must contend. Hector “Catface” Morales, a Cuban refugee, trained assassin, and crack-addicted Marielito, is seeking revenge on Reed for stealing his stash of drugs and leaving him for dead (unbeknownst to Reed) in the wreckage of a plane crash in the Everglades decades ago. Loner and misanthrope Henry Yahchilane, a Seminole native, has something to hide on the island. So does irascible and pervy Wayne Wade, Reed Crowe’s childhood friend turned bad penny. Then there are the Florida women, including Heidi Karavas, Reed Crowe’s ex-wife, now a globe-trekking art curator, and Nina Arango, a Cuban refugee and fiercely protective woman with whom Reed Crowe falls in love. There are curses. There are sea monsters. There are biblical storms. There’s something called the Jupiter Effect. Ultimately, Florida Man is a generation-spanning story about how a man decides to live his life, and how despite staying landlocked and stubbornly in one place, the world nevertheless comes to him.

The Story of Us Humans explains human nature and human history, including the origins of our species, emotions, behavior, morals, and society. It explains what we are, how we got here, and where we are today by describing the origin, history, and current ways of our neighborhoods, religion, government, science, technology, and business. Written in plain language, it explains what astronomy, physics, geology, biology, chemistry, anthropology, history, religion, social science, and political science tell us about ourselves. Most everyone feels that human success is measured in terms of healthy and happy children and communities. Human thoughts and actions involve little besides love and children, spouse and family, community and justice because we are parenting mammals and social primates. Each of us simply wants to laugh and joke with our family and friends, pursue life, raise children and strive to be a valued and contributing member of our community. We have made incredible progress building civilization in just a few hundred generations using nothing except our animal minds. Have you wondered: * What are the laws of nature and how many laws are there? * How did molecular life begin and then evolve into worms fish, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, primates, and humans? * What are the differences between these animals? * How did we get from the Big Bang to bacteria and on to Christianity, democracy, and globalization? * What is life like for gatherer-hunters? * When did we first become farmers and first build cities, and what was life like at those times? * What was life like in Ancient Mesopotamia, Ancient Athens, 13th-century Cahokia, Medieval China and Europe, 19th-Century New England, Yoruban villages, and in the U.S. during the 1920s? * What was the Industrial Revolution and how has it changed our lives? * What are the Hindu, Muslim, Confucian, Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, and Humanist religions and world views? * How have our wages, infant mortality rates, lifespans, crime rates, and poverty and inequality rates varied through the ages? * What are the biggest economic and social secrets in the U.S. today? * What are some meaningful goals and priorities for our civilization and how can we measure the success of our attempts to reach those goals? Includes questions, index, bibliography, and 1,200 internet links taking you to images, videos, and discussed documents.