November in Miami means only one thing for a lot of people – besides Thanksgiving, of course. It’s the month when book lovers unite with authors from all over the world to converge downtown on Miami Dade College for the annual Miami Book Fair, now in its 40th year.
Everyone loves walking the three-day Street Fair to discover new books, peruse the wares of local artisans, enjoy live music from the Off the Shelf stage or take the kiddies through Children’s Alley, but the real treat is meeting the authors.
An almost daunting schedule of appearances gives you a chance to get up close and personal with many authors promoting their new titles in every genre. Some do readings from their books and talk about their work, others are interviewed by a facilitator or appear with fellow writers in group discussions. No matter the forum, there’s always an opportunity to ask questions, buy new books and get them signed.
Running Nov. 12-19, the event begins with a free opening night block party with Grammy-winning DJ/producer Louie Vega and kicks off six days of “Evenings With,” a popular nighttime series of author conversations that frequently sell out. Coming to you from the worlds of pop culture to politics this year are Jada Pinkett Smith, Joan Baez, Jan. 6 whistleblower Cassidy Hutchinson and Henry Winkler, among others. Tickets are already on sale.
(Courtesy of Miami Book Fair)
Martin Baron
While the Street Fair is ongoing Nov. 17-19 down on the ground around the college’s Wolfson Campus, you’ll want to seek out the author appearances going on simultaneously in auditoriums and classrooms in surrounding buildings. The choices are infinite, but we’ve picked out some standout titles whose authors would be a treat to meet.
For fans of The Washington Post or media intrigue there is Martin Baron’s “Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos and The Washington Post.” The author was just seven months into his job at the helm of this historic American newspaper when Amazon founder Jeff Bezos bought the Post in 2013. Then came President Donald Trump, followed by an explosion of the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements. Baron’s book gives readers an insider’s look into how the paper managed it all in what is described as an “epic power struggle between politics, money, media and tech.”
(Sharon Greer/Courtesy of Miami Book Fair)
Jeffrey Toobin
Former CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin reminds us that Trump didn’t invent right-wing extremism in his book “Homegrown: Timothy McVeigh and the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism.” Toobin details McVeigh’s damaging legacy, from the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. The book provides not only a powerful retelling of one of the great outrages of our time, but a warning for the future.
“Labeled: Ward of the State” is a powerful memoir by Kenisha Anthony, who overcame being an abandoned child of drug-addicted parents in Florida’s broken child-welfare system to earning a graduate degree and becoming a respected social worker and advocate for change. Her book is described as a vivid portrait of her journey from victim to victor, rising above hardships that could have easily left her defeated and destitute. You don’t have to have been a child in foster care to gain inspiration from her story. For anyone who’s faced adversity, beat the odds and refused to be labeled, her book is worth a read and meeting her in person would be a privilege.
(Courtesy of Miami Book )
Kenisha Anthony
In the category of technology, but maybe not really, Miami Book Fair has several offerings, such as “Recoding America: Why Government is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better” by Jennifer Pahlka. The author is a former U.S. deputy chief technology officer and founder of Code for America. Pahlka has a fresh take on solutions to our bureaucratic dysfunction to strengthen democracies, so they become more adept at making government work for everyone.
“Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud” by Ben McKenzie and Jacob Silverman is about, you guessed it, the mess that is cryptocurrency, from its moment in the sun to its remarkable crash. Those of us interested in crypto charlatans who are following the Sam Bankman-Fried case will want to dive into this read.
(Courtesy of Miami Book Fair)
Jennifer Pahlka
Last but not least of the titles recommended on this topic is “The End of Reality: How Four Billionaires are Selling a Fantasy Future of the Metaverse, Mars, and Crypto” by Jonathan Taplin. Concerning to be sure, Taplin sets off alarms about how Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Marc Andreesen (the four) are destroying America for their own greedy purposes and dystopian ventures.
Moving on to the glories of fiction, the critically acclaimed author of “In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd” brings us a new novel about the search for freedom and the power of community that spans decades of residents in one fictional Miami Beach art deco apartment building.
Ana Menéndez’s “The Apartment” focuses on unit 2B at The Helena, where residents across 70 years have included a Cuban concert pianist; the widow of an intelligence officer; a man waiting on a green card marriage to run its course so that he can divorce his wife and marry his lover; a building manager with a secret identity; a troubled young refugee named Lenin; and its newest tenant, a mysterious woman with a murky past. What’s the point? You’ll have to read the book or meet the author at the Fair to ask her.
In the subcategory of historical fiction comes “A Right Worthy Woman” by Ruth P. Watson, which examines the real-life Maggie Lena Walker, a descendent of slavery who became the first Black woman in the United States to own a bank – one of the few to survive the Great Depression. Born in Virginia one year before the end of the Civil War, Walker smashed every barrier constraining Black Americans in the Jim Crow South. Her extensive contributions to the formation of Richmond’s “Black Wall Street” are brought to vivid life in this book.
Find out when and where all of these authors will be appearing and check out the entire schedule at MiamiBookFair.com. You’ll also find advice on the best way to get there and where to park. Access to the Fair is through Street Fair; admission is free for everyone Friday, Nov. 17; it’s $10 for adults, $5 for those ages 13-18 and 62 and up, and free for kids 12 and under on Saturday and Sunday. Buy your tickets online in advance and you’ll save a bit of money on those one-day access prices. Two-day passes, available online only, cost $15 for adults and $8 for those ages 13-18 and 62 and up.
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(Courtesy of Miami Book Fair)
Ben McKenzie
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(Courtesy of Miami Book Fair)
Ana Menéndez
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(Courtesy of Miami Book Fair)
Ruth P. Watson
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(Courtesy of Miami Book Fair)
Jonathan Taplin/Maggie Smith