Bitten
My Unexpected Love Affair with Florida
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
When Andrew Furman left the rolling hills of Pennsylvania behind for a new job in Florida, he feared the worst. While he’d heard much of the fabled “southern charm,” he wondered what could possibly be charming about fist-sized mosquitoes, oppressive humidity, and ever-lurking alligators.
It wasn’t long before he began to notice that the real Florida right outside his office window was very different from the stereotypes portrayed in movies, television, and even state-promoted tourism advertisements. In Bitten, Furman shares his amazement at the beautiful and the bizarre of his adopted state. Over seventeen years, he and his family have shed their Yankee sensibilities and awakened to the terra incognita of their new home.
As he learns to fish for snook—a wily fish that inhabits, among other areas, the concrete-lined canals that crisscross the state—and seeks out the state’s oldest live oak, a behemoth that pre-dates Columbus, Furman realizes that falling in love with Florida is a fun and sometimes humbling process of discovery. Each chapter highlights a fascinating aspect of his journey into the natural environment he once avoided, from snail kites to lizards and cassia to coontie.
Sharing his attempts at night fishing, growing native plants, birding, and hiking the Everglades, Furman will inspire you to explore the real Florida. And, if you aren’t lucky enough to reside in the Sunshine State, he’ll at least convince you to unplug for an hour or two and enjoy the natural beauty of wherever it is you call home.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This love letter to the Sunshine State is a collection of witty observations and simple pleasures written by Furman, a professor of English at Florida Atlantic University (My Los Angeles in Black and (Almost) White), who left Pennsylvania for a new job in 1996. With almost childlike wonder and awe, he marvels at its sheer beauty and variety of nature, ignoring the overdevelopment, to focus on the sturdy live oak, coontie plants, local gardens abundant with vegetables and herbs, and the joy of fishing in the dark. The author, a bird watcher, exhibits his deep appreciation for the state's feathered creatures such as orioles, cardinals, doves, woodpeckers, and his favorite, the burrowing owl. If Furman had totally bought the hype, he would not have mentioned the fierce rainy season, hurricanes, and the oppressive heat that bakes everything. He can tell an amusing tale when he hits his stride, especially as in the trip to Venus, Fla., or matching wits with squirrels, but sometimes he can be long-winded when, for example, writing on Thoreau in Florida. Still, this Furman book is not your usual travel guide; instead, it is a highly personal view of one man and his adopted paradise.
