Download electronic versions of selected books Download Dance of the Reptiles: Rampaging Tourists, Marauding Pythons, Larcenous Legislators, Crazed Celebrities, and Tar-Balled Beaches: Selected Columns (Vintage Original) Paperback from mediafire, rapishare, and mirror link
From Booklist
This is the third collection of Hiaasen’s op-ed pieces from the Miami Herald, following Kick Ass (2002). Known primarily for his mystery novels, Hiaasen also produces a weekly newspaper column, which often delivers blistering indictments of the people and policies that he believes ruin Florida. The “reptiles” of the title sometimes refer to actual reptiles, as in pythons and alligators. More often, the term refers to lobbyists, politicians, tourists, and environmental evildoers. The two- to three-page essays take direct aim at their targets (“Go Away” addresses the tourists and new residents who are spoiling Florida; “Drill, Spill and Kill” very effectively goes after BP) and span the years 2001–12, making many of them, like the ones focusing on former President George W. Bush, literally seem like old news. Still, even after the fact, they are entertaining for Hiaasen’s ability to awaken outrage and for his eye for oddity (the latter, of course, is a defining characteristic of his fiction). While this may seem like an unnecessary collection in this era of finding articles online, it is still, by turns, both hilarious and unnerving. --Connie Fletcher
Review
"Although some say the satire practically writes itself in this state, Hiaasen raises it to a higher level. One caveat, though: Unless you have an intravenous drip of blood pressure meds, you might want to read just a few of these columns at a time."
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Tampa Bay Times“Hiaasen doesn’t really need to keep his day job as a columnist for the Miami Herald, but fortunately for the residents of Florida and for his vast readership, he has. . . . The state of Florida does not come off too well in Hiaasen’s columns, but one welcome positive of the Sunshine State is obvious—Carl Hiaasen.”
—The Free-Lance Star (Fredericksburg, VA)
"Hiaasen makes this parade of idiocy and avarice palatable with a kind of gallows humor. The more appalling the situation, the greater the potential for hilarity. . . . He is not so much stridently liberal as steadfastly sensible, his wit girded by palpable anger."
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The Post and Courier (Charleston)
"Hiaasen employs a seasoned bullshit detector that is among the most acute in American journalism. . . . If Florida is the poster child for a nation’s fiscal and political disintegration, Hiaasen is the state’s galloping knight (in)errant, slaying the dragons of ineptitude, arrogance and idiocy."
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Kirkus Reviews
"Entertaining. . . . Hilarious and unnerving. . . for Hiaasen’s ability to awaken outrage and for his eye for oddity."
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BooklistPraise for Carl Hiaasen's previous column collections,
Paradise Screwed and
Kick Ass“Shows you that Hiaasen’s seemingly implausible fictional premises aren’t really far-fetched at all. He just knows Florida.”
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Playboy “Reminiscent of the snarky, opinionated newspaper articles of the great Mark Twain, Hiaasen’s columns are finely crafted little gems.”
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Booklist “Lively and well-reported . . . Illuminated by all the wit and keen descriptive powers of his fiction.”
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Salon See all Editorial Reviews
Books with free ebook downloads available Download Dance of the Reptiles: Rampaging Tourists, Marauding Pythons, Larcenous Legislators, Crazed Celebrities, and Tar-Balled Beaches: Selected Columns