The Florida Keys: A History & Guide Tenth Edition

I read this book for pleasure when I can't get to Florida. And when I'm in The Keys, everything around me is enriched because of the poetic natural history and darkly funny and discomfiting anecdotes in this book. One day Joy Williams will win start winning icon-status literary awards, and people will marvel that this book even exists. If reading it discourages you from visiting The Keys, as one reviewer has put it, then the rest of us are probably a little happier and a little more hopeful for your absence.

Wonderful guide by a real writer. You will be astounded by the turn of phrases that you don't expect in a guide book. If you love the keys, you'll love this book.

I drove from Miami to Key West twice in the late 80's using Joy Williams' book "The Florida Keys" in its first 1987 edition as my guide. It pointed me to so many side trips and told me so much history that I turned the three hour drive into six, and enjoyed every minute. Today I read a review by Ms. Williams of "Flannery: a Biography of Flannery O'Connor" in the New York TImes and was prompted to look her up on Amazon. What a pleasure to see that there are new editions of "The Florida Keys". Sorry to see that she won't be writing any more, but I will order the 10th edition today.

A friend loaned me an old edition, and then I found this one. I really enjoyed learning about the Keys prior to my visit. Made it much more meaningful!

Purchased for an upcoming trip to the keys, granted I am halfway thru so keep that in mind... I wanted to embrace the vibe and with this book you feel that the vibe was destroyed by humans within the past 50 years. It is in depth, informative and well written but with an undercurrent of "you should have seen it when"... I am still looking forward to my visit but with an eye more on what it used to be. Mayhaps that was the intent of the author??

I have mixed feelings about this book. It's last revision was in the year 2000. I felt cheated by Amazon, even though the edition date is in the very fine print at the start of the preview. On the other hand, I loved the history of the keys presented here and would rate the history at 5 stars. It was very interesting. So 0 stars on timelyness and 5 stars on history equals a down average to 2 stars.

I actually read about this book in one of Chuck Wendig's writing books. It was a great and interesting read packed full of information about the Keys. I focused on the Key West section, as that's where I was headed, and I loved reading about all the niche places to try and history there. I loved reading about the places I visited once I left too; accurate information and a fun view on the trip.

A must read

a dated book

Ok