Making Good Time:
True Stories of How We Do, and Don't, Get Around in South Florida
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"If you've ever tried to get from one place to another in South Florida, you will love this book." - T.D. Allman, author of Miami, City of the Future "Hold onto your roof mattresses: Making Good Time is a loving, alarming, definitive collection of only-in-Miami road tales. Some of South Florida's most treasured writers tackle one of its true miseries—and now I'm nostalgic for I-95 traffic." - Kenny Malone, Co-host of NPR's Planet Money "Making Good Time takes us inside a car broken down on the side of an off-ramp, a divorce occuring in real time on a county bus, and a house being robbed by boat. A collection of wonderful true stories, the book imaginatively illustrates how our cities, infrastructures, and the way we get around shape our destinies and our lives." - Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class Edited and with an Introduction by Lynne Barrett
Contributors: Diana Abu-Jaber Chantel Acevedo Preston L. Allen Jan Becker Madeleine Blais Richard Blanco Terence Cantarella Antolin Garcia Carbonell Joe Clifford Jennine Capó Crucet Anjanette Delgado Denise Duhamel & Julie Marie Wade Patricia Engel M.J. Fièvre Steven Harris Fabienne Josaphat Larry Lebowitz Louis K. Lowy Sammy Mack Jennifer Maritza McCauley Blanca Mesa Nick Moran Marina Pruna Moré Lauren Doyle Owens Alex Segura Les Standiford Thomas Swick Monica Uszerowicz Nick Vagnoni Ana Veciana-Suarez Norma Watkins |
Illustrator: Anuj Shrestha / Topos Graphics / Publisher Jai Alai Books
Published by Jai-Alai Books
Book I of The Miami Trilogy Made possible by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation |
MAKING GOOD TIME: TRUE STORIES ABOUT HOW WE DO, AND DON'T GET AROUND IN SOUTH FLORIDA, edited and with an introduction by Lynne Barrett, published by Jai-Alai Books, launched in Fall 2019 at Books and Books in Coral Gables, FL. Twenty of the thirty-two stellar authors who contributed new nonfiction about the adventures and misadventures of moving around on our (crazy) South Florida map were on hand, giving the SRO crowd brief glimpses of their work. Since then there have been many events, in person and virtual.
Copies are available via the press or Books & Books--which you can call and they will mail one, or visit one of their stores, now reopened with social distancing.
Copies are available via the press or Books & Books--which you can call and they will mail one, or visit one of their stores, now reopened with social distancing.
On the radio! WLRN Public Media's Chris Remington interviewed Lynne Barrett for Sundial, talking about MAKING GOOD TIME: True Stories of How We Do, And Don't, Get Around in South Florida, and the funny, sad, frightening, and thrilling stories told by its 32 contributors.
On the Web: On August 29, national Independent Bookstore Day, Books and Books hosted a Making Good Time reading and discussion, which I emceed, with contributors Chantel Acevedo, Fabienne Josaphat, Sammy Mack, Thomas Swick, and Ana Veciana Suarez sharing their work.
We talked about aspects of access, limits, boundaries, and the meanings our journeys accrue that are in this book, and also how our current situation has amplified many of the anthology's themes.
You can now enjoy the Crowdcast recording of the event here, via Books and Books.
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Jai-Alai Books
Independent booksellers where readers have found or ordered Making Good Time: Books & Books: The Coral Gables, and Arsht, and Suniland Shops stores have hosted Making Good Time events.You can find the book there and at their stores in Miami Beach, Coconut Grove, and Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands. 
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Making Good Time was the cover story in the November issue of the Biscayne Times, with an excerpt from my introduction, nonfiction stories by Madeleine Blais, Terence Cantarella, Lauren Doyle Owens, Alex Segura, and a collaborative essay journey on I-95 by Denise Duhamel and Julie Marie Wade.
You can check out the Biscayne Times cover feature online. Sneak peek at the feature's first page & start of my introduction, below: 
Image: courtesy of The Biscayne Times, Nov. 2019. Spread photo by Silvia Rios.
At the 2019 Miami Book Fair Making Good Time session on Sunday, Nov. 24, Lynne Barrett, Terence Cantarella, Jennine Capo Crucet, Sammy Mack, and Alex Segura read from and discussed the book, other stellar contributors to the anthology on hand for the conversation and to sign books afterwards.
The book launch at Books & Books in Coral Gables, FL, Sept. 21, 2019
P. Scott Cunningham, Jai-Alai Books Publisher, and MGT editor Lynne Barrett at the podium at the book launch in Sept. 2019, Books & Books, Coral Gables. (Photo credit: Marina Pruna)
Events: L to R: MDT-TV host Stephanie Saint Come interviewing Lynne Barrett, Jan Becker, and Louis K. Lowy.
Along with Jan Becker and Louis K. Lowy, I was interviewed about Making Good Time by MDC-TV in a Sept. 2019 feature. The program can be viewed online.
Ewa Joseffson, Flavorpill Miami, writes:
Miami author Lynne Barrett has done much for the literary community around these parts, as both the founding editor of Gulf Stream Magazine and the founder and editor of the Florida Book Review. Her third collection of short stories melds various styles and subjects, from the dot.com bubble (written with actual links in hyperblue, underlined font) and a sort of magical realism story about a gossip columnist — tales delineating the last decade's rapid move from boom to bust in an aesthetic of prose that's just as unpredictable as the times Barrett is describing. On her website, she writes: "...there are two human sides to magpie acquisitiveness: we can identify with the stubbornness of unreasonable desire, but we also fear it in others." |