Perspective: Ex Libris Florida

Ex Libris Florida

By SAMANTHA PUCKETT

GETTING BENCHED: Thomas E. Brennan, former chief justice of the Michigan Supreme Court and founding dean and president of the Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Lansing, Mich., knows about the bench. When he decided to write a novel about eight justices of the Supreme Court of Michigan, he knew what he was doing; he was there. His book, The Bench, tells the collective story of the women and men who wear the black robe; they have their own stories to tell, too. With a touch of humor and a lot of realistic dialogue and solid writing, Brennan breathes life -- and intrigue -- into the bench and those who occupy it. Brennan lives in Palm Harbor and East Lansing, Mich.. The Bench is available for $22.95 at www.amazon.com.

HUNTING MEMORIES: Rose Marie Otten-Judd, born in St. Petersburg, grew up hunting with her father in the Ocala National Forest. But with the warm, comforting memories of those hunting trips came a hard-learned lesson about growing up. Based on stories from the author's childhood, Hopkins Prairie bounces between the forest, where the story about an unbreakable father-daughter bond is told, and the courtroom, where two girls learn that life will throw them a proverbial curve ball now and then. The book is available for $12.95 at local book stores and online at www.bn.com and www.amazon.com. Otten-Judd now lives in Homosassa Springs.

A GIFT FROM LIFE: After her mother's death from lung cancer, Treasure Island writer Judith Harris was left to deal with thoughts of her own mortality. She sifted through her thoughts on paper, and the catharsis of journaling became a novel: Pearls For My Birthday: A Gift From Cancer. A story about love, compassion and forgiveness, a celebration of life and a lesson about acceptance of death, Harris' story is a poignant narrative. Pearls For My Birthday is available for $8.95 at www.iuniverse.com, www.amazon.comand www.bn.com.

OVERCOMING MENTAL ILLNESS: In the style of a personal journal, Overcoming OCD and Schizophrenia with God in My Life is the inspirational story of 28-year-old Chip Correll of Oldsmar and his struggle with mental illness. This autobiography explores the stigma attached to the mentally ill, the specifics of dealing with obsessive-compulsive disorder and schizophrenia (including medication and treatment), and how the author's dedication to Christianity has helped him cope with it. To order Overcoming OCD, send a check or money order for $11.95 to Deloris Nelson, P.O. Box 16542, Clearwater, FL 33766; allow three weeks for delivery.

POEMS FOR GRUMPS: The clever poetry of Palm Harbor's Graal Braun is collected in Wormwood and Whines: Poetry for Grouchy People. Not only are these poems funny, but they're good, too. Take,for example, this excerpt from "A Postscript for the Statue of Liberty": "Forget that dying land, my friend, forget/The strutting martinet, the cardboard shack,/The bloody coup d'etat, the crazed left-winger;/I offer you instead a cigarette,/A mobile home, an '80's Cadillac,/Madonna,Mickey Mouse, and Jerry Springer." Wormwood and Whines is divided into chapters by subject: Dissing the Disingenuous; Birds, Bees and Beasts; Cultural Detritus; Deficient, Deluded and Demented; The Millennial Morass; Nosegays for Agnostics and My Beliefs in Case I Become Famous and People Want to Know, if that gives you any idea of what kind of humor we're dealing with here. The book is available at Barnes & Noble book stores for $9.95.

"F' IS FOR FLORIDA: An informative and fun-to-read book for children from preschool to fifth grade, the wonderful S is for Sunshine: A Florida Alphabet (Sleeping Bear Press, $16.95) is chock full of Florida facts. "L is for Lake Okeechobee . . . the largest freshwater lake in Florida and the second largest in the United States" and "S is for St. Augustine, where a coquinafort was erected. So our nation's oldest city and its settlers were protected." Written by Carol Crane of Bradenton and beautifully illustrated by Michael Glenn Monroe, S is for Sunshine is aperfectly entertaining educational tool for Florida parents.

- Samantha Puckett is on the Times staff.