'In the Land of Good Living,' by Kent Russell
Subtitled "A Journey to the Heart of Florida," Kent Russell's book chronicles the unfolding of a very bad idea: He and two friends – Iraq War veteran Noah and "dad-bodied" Canadian Glenn – decide to walk 1,000 miles across the state of Florida. (Yes, a very bad idea, but what do you expect from a person who decides to spend a whole summer with us, writing about City Council meetings and <checks archives> free wifi?) As the three trudge south down the dread peninsula, they encounter beauty, sleaze, vapidity and sagacity – sometimes all at once, as when they interview a man who plays Jesus at the Holy Land Experience or a dancer at Tampa's famed Mons Venus.