Jake Cline

Presenting the #BookerPrize2025 shortlist.

Find out more about the books and authors: thebookerprizes.com/bp2025

That was a fun show!

Guided by angels, pursued by chemtrails: the weird world of Florida health chief’s influential wife Brianna Ladapo, the wife of Florida surgeon general Dr Joseph Ladapo, claims her husband won’t work with anyone she hasn’t vetted

“Ladapo claimed she floated an inch above the ground during a session with a former Navy Seal and self-proclaimed traditional healing guru, whom she said her husband had also seen and had similar experiences with.”

National Book Award longlist!

It’s remarkable how many (white) pundits I hear talking about where we’re at without mentioning racism as the obvious thread that runs through all of this.

They haven’t learned a damn thing.

A review of a nonfiction book should be a review of the book, not 90 percent the reviewer's own personal take on the subject matter, using another writer's published work as a pretext to summarize the book that *they* would have written.

Melvyn Bragg decides to step down from presenting In Our Time After 26 years on the programme, the legendary presenter bids farewell to the series

A huge moment -- Melvyn Bragg steps down from In Our Time after over a quarter of a century. What a programme and what a legacy! Just a model for how to make great, clever, engaging radio, and a twenty-seven-year experiment that proves there's a huge global audience for smart, scholarly programming.

Any other lyrics— don’t even try chronic town murmur or reckoning btw— just form vowels and syllables, and mean it

The whole album is about 🔥 , about everything you think about 🔥 as being: cleansing, something that destroys everything in its path. It’s an element that’s everywhere; the metaphorical & allegorical interpretations of 🔥 are endless.” M. Stipe

Happy anniversary to Document, released on 8.31.1987

That club was a goldmine in the ‘90s: the Ramones, Screaming Trees, The Jesus Lizard, The Amps, Fugazi, Beck (with The Cardigans), Faith No More, Helmet, Bradley Nowell of Sublime, L7, Seaweed. The one that got away: David Bowie.

It’s this Bob Dylan tour rehearsal at a Fort Lauderdale nightclub in 1995.

Hard to think of a clearer declaration of dictatorship than "the Crooked game of politics is over"

“I can’t believe that the DeSantis administration would insult the families and survivors of the Pulse tragedy in this way,” Smith said. “But I suppose I should not be surprised.”

“This is a hostile act by the state government against the city of Orlando. The city did not consent to this. They did not approve of this. This is a city road, not a state road. And so at this point, the state of Florida has vandalized city property.”

What is book criticism for? On why thinking of reviews as ads or mere opinions shortchanges literary culture

Ten days later and I was still fuming over some really wrongheaded characterizations of book criticism on this website, so I blogged about it: americanorphan.substack.com/p/what-is-bo...

A bird perches in front of a beach cam on Surfline.

Checking out the Erin swell on Surfline …

Belle and Sebastian are playing Miami (and my workplace) in May.

The Best Cuban Sandwiches in Miami Miamians are passionate about what makes the perfect Cuban sandwich. Here are eight places that get it right.

The surest way to get on someone’s bad side in Miami is to serve them a Cuban sandwich with salami.

Bon Appétit magazine asked me why that is.

For their upcoming issue, I wrote about the “three Floridas” that claim the sandwich. @bonappetit.bsky.social www.bonappetit.com/story/best-c...

Federal judge overturns large part of Florida’s book ban law The judge ruled the law is unconstitutional as it infringes on the First Amendment rights of students.

A press conference this morning with the Governor, AG, and Commissioner might bring new details on plans to spend taxpayer dollars appealing this ruling, but for now, we continue to celebrate this affirmation of First Amendment rights for Floridians.

www.cfpublic.org/education/20...

Book Club: Kate Riley’s ‘Ruth’ finds wit and wonder in a closed world

The death of book reviews is not greatly exaggerated, but it’s greatly protracted. This time, the bell tolls for book reviews from the Associated Press. Readers of papers across the country won’t see reviews syndicated from the AP after Aug. 31. (More below)
s2.washingtonpost.com/camp-rw/?tra...

KISS is getting a Kennedy Center honor... maybe the single funniest decision any president has ever made

Every so often, everything makes sense: but not in a way that I can understand.

Cuban exiles honored at Miami's 'Ellis Island of the South' as Trump ramps up immigrant arrests Miami’s Freedom Tower stood as a beacon of hope for Cubans fleeing communist rule at the height of the Cold War. The U.S.

“What we’re doing here is reminding people what immigrants can accomplish when they’re given the opportunity.”

to say that I'm not giving up on the idea and meaning and value of criticism in ANY field, movies, books, music, theater, dance, whatever. As a reader/person/human, it has sustained me for a lifetime! We have to keep fighting for it. [End of thread—and again, apologies!]

Two years ago today …

Every ten years or so, I update the homepage of the Silkworm website

Miami has seen a rash of restaurant closings, such that five wonderful places we highlighted last summer on our list of ‌Miami’s 25 Best Restaurants are now gone.

Yet as a Miami native, I never tire of watching local owners fight. This made it easy to fill those five spots on our updated list below:

The Billionaire Behind Mysterious Immigration Ads Targeting Miami Republicans

A profile of South Florida billionaire Michael B. Fernández, a former Republican who is financing a billboard campaign to oust the Miami MAGAs who have facilitated the inhumane treatment of undocumented immigrants.

🎁🔗

A Tough Season for Grove Restaurants - Coconut Grove Spotlight Rising costs and slower traffic have put the squeeze on local dining spots. Restaurant owners are responding with different strategies to survive leaner times.

“International visitors to Miami are generally not visiting or spending as much as they did a year ago,” the Visitor’s Bureau concluded in a June 2025 report.

It helps explain why Miami restaurants are closing in droves and Grove owners are losing faith.

coconutgrovespotlight.com/2025/07/31/a...

60,000 Gazans have been killed. 18,500 were children. These are their names. Palestinian children have been killed at a rate of more than one per hour since the war began.

Here's a gift link to the @washingtonpost.com's virtually endless story today listing all the known names of the children killed in Gaza. wapo.st/3IRLZn6