This review is presented as part of LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program.

This book is a discussion of the lifestyles and folkways of the people who live in Central Florida's forests, and how they deal with their environment. As someone with family connections to the Tampa area, I greatly enjoyed listening to this book. The people it described felt familiar to me, and I greatly enjoyed learning about the soil conditions (and how that affected the economies that have grown up in this region). It definitely is defensive towards its subject, but this didn't distract me from it. I would have liked more discussion about the plants and wildlife in the region is my only complaint.

The narration by Kenneth Klosterman was especially rewarding for me on a personal level; his accent reminded me of my grandfather (born and raised in Tarpon Springs) ( )

Living in Ocala National Forest, Roderick Edwards, the author, resides in a forest, about 25 miles from where I live. I can therefore relate to his musings about the land and its people. Local churches raise money to provide clothing and educational assistance to children being raised in the forest in the belief that forest families live there because they are needy. Whether it be a judgmental religious right or those from the politically correct left, forest people aren’t interested in these societal beliefs; they just want to be left alone to live their lives.

Forest living isn’t easy. There are bugs, snakes, and forest critters all trying to invade their homes, usually mobile homes. Sand roads to their homesteads often become impenetrable from heavy rains and flooding. Electricity to many of their homes is provided by personal generators that must be fueled. When a road is impassable, desperate treks are required to replenish quickly dissipating food and fuel.

Except for the unique environmental challenges faced by the forest people of Central Florida, people of our forest fully understand the attitudes of forest people from the Northwest and Canadian forests. “Leave Us Alone” is their common lifestyle refrain. ( )

This is by a Florida transplant that is explaining what living in Florida's Woods is like. If I knew this person and they shared this with me, I'd say that's cool. I'm glad you like it there (even with the negative bits shared), but I wouldn't take it as nonfiction.

Wikipedia pages have a reference list at the bottom so that one can review the source material. You can evaluate if it's reputable and go from there. I could not take this document seriously due to its many wikipedia references.

I think if this document realigned it's identity it could be better.

I received it through LibraryThing Early Reviews. ( )

This is a fascinating read! There's so much great information in this book! Bonus features include links to more great facts and stunning pictures! The author talks in a very personable way that likens to sitting on a porch drinking sweet tea with your neighbor! ( )

A very informative book that could have been great if it had only had the benefit of a good editor. The author obviously loves the region he writes about and is knowledgeable, but at the same time his writing is both superficial at times and relies too much on external links, instead of offering the information directly.

I felt, at times, as if I were reading a particularly good high school essay on the subject. That is to say, it's good, but it's still a high school essay. Looking at the author's catalog of works, I can see he's going for quantity over quality. I guess that's his choice. In essence, the book is a fantastic and useful website about aspects of Florida's forested areas, that someone decided to print and publish. ( )