It’s the holiday season. We know how tough it can be to find that perfect Christmas, Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa gift. But fortunately for you Jitney Books lives to serve. In our catalog we have ten Miami based books written by Miami based authors with covers by Miami based artists. To help you find that perfect book for that perfect person we asked each Jitney author who they thought would most appreciate their books.
For anyone who needs a good laugh, then a good cry, then more laughter, Jan Becker’s The Sunshine Chronicles.
A weird, wild romp through what Publishers Weekly calls “a vividly written memoir constructed from the author’s Facebook posts.” Join Becker as she navigates domestic life amidst a zany cast of characters such as creepy maintenance men with tawdry agendas, and annually invasive snowbirds. The Sunshine Chronicles is an innovative and hilarious look at life in South Florida that is both quirky and profound. It’s nearly impossible to put this book down once you view the world through Becker’s perspective.
For someone wanting the imperfect, perfect gift, Timothy Schmand’s Just Johnson: the London Delivery.
Looking for the perfect gift for someone special?
It doesn’t exist — you can’t afford it and they don’t deserve it. How about The Good Enough Gift? It exists, you can afford it and they deserve it. The gift is Just Johnson: the London Delivery, a novel with enough sex, drugs, mayhem and murder to make the time your true love spends with you worthwhile. Something they can read while searching for their soulmate. After they’ve pried themselves from your dreadful clutch, The Good Enough Gift will remind them, mistakes were made, but they can be overcome.
For someone looking to shake things up, Luis Garcia’s Missing.
For this year’s holiday dinner, we’re lacing the gravy with LSD to see who has their shit together. Missing by Luis Garcia, may be the perfect gift to shake things up. This collection of short stories (perfect for all the ADHD-afflicted / Instagram-addicted people we know) is rife with misfits and outcasts telling their stories. Stories about taking drugs at work, necrophilia, sitting in jail, detox, Santeria, love, and more. This book will give you a deep look into a world no one gets to see without paying dire consequences. Give it to a friend. Let them know you care.
For that special someone suffering a midlife crisis, David Rolland’s The End of the Century.
Have a guy or girl in your life complaining about back pains and mortgage payments? Take them back to a simpler time of the late summer and fall of 1999. In this coming of age novel, recent college grad Matt Traxler and his drug dealer Jay Rasco, drive cross country to Miami in search of Ponce de Leon’s Fountain of Youth. This gift will help anyone seeking to time travel backwards to when their biggest worry was if Y2K would be the end of us all.
For those seeking to romp through Miami in satirical fashion, J.J. Colagrande’s Deco 2.0.
Its basic premise of American entitlement versus American exceptionalism is woven in fast blog like chapters, where characters come and go, grow and learn, that in America you have to reap what you sow. The novella, also an adaptation of Voltaire’s Candide, is a quick read, hilarious, and will appeal to anyone who knows Miami’s unique nuances and chooses to laugh at them rather than cringe. This is a book you can read in one sitting and then will pass onto someone else to read. You won’t be disappointed.
For that special, difficult someone in your life, Abel M.Folgar’s translation of Facundo Soto’s Juego de Chicos.
A recent video concerning the Copa Libertadores final with River Plate and Boca Juniors competing for the famed trophy had the line “Mi amor, los que vemos fútbol no somos civilizados…” in it. Google the violence surrounding the derby. Google intolerance in soccer. Seriously consider how fully civilized you might be. We who watch football might not be civilized from the get-go, but we can work towards becoming better human beings. My translation of Facundo Soto’s Juego de Chicos is a good place to start.
For any music fan, Joey Maya’s The Drummer of Miami Beach: The Story of Joey Wrecked.
The perfect gift for any music fan that wants to read an exciting, but yet cerebral book about what really happens to the rest of us non-rock-stars. The Misfits sold out The Forum in under 15 minutes. Punk festivals throughout the United States and Europe now attract tens of thousands. Joey Wrecked was there from day one. Roger Miret from Agnostic Front, who picked up the baby-faced, wide-eyed, Miami Beach drummer at the airport in NYC, says it best: “Joey was there from the beginning. I just never knew how he got here. Now I know!” Trust me, you want to know. Happy holidays!
For someone who wants to understand what Miami is now, what Miami is becoming, but not what Miami was, J.J. Colagrande’s Reduce Heat Continue To Boil.
This novel is filled with slow revealed secrets and wonderful intertwined story lines. At the same time, it’s a wonderful coming-of-age of story of a young empowered millennial female Latina protagonist. It’s a sexy, funny ride that won’t let you down.
