Dance of the Reptiles: Rampaging Tourists, Marauding Pythons, Larcenous Legislators, Crazed Celebrities, and Tar-Balled Beaches: Selected Columns

Very well written. Even though I don't live in Florida I can identify with all of the columns. I've read everything else he has written.

Having lived in Florida and mercifully escaped the craziness, I can attest to the truth that CH brings to these articles that he wrote for the Miami Herald. It's great to have them gathered in a book to enjoy and also to be "mindboggled" at the kind of ridiculous, idiotic stuff that goes on in every nook and cranny of Florida. When he talks about the buffoonish legislature, he's not joking. The "joke" is only on the residents of the state who have voted the idiots into office. I'll never forget one of my most unforgettable moments in the whacko world of FL and it's "laws." When I registered my car, I asked about car inspections -- when, where, etc. having come from a state that mandated car inspections. I was told that FL didn't require inspections -- and the reason -- some of the counties wanted to do it and others didn't so the "lege" threw up their collective hands and said -- we can't agree so we won't mandate them. Hence, Florida has some of worst pieces of mobile junk on the roads of any state in the union. This is the same legislature that brought the world the "Stand Your Ground" gun law and which allows every goober who wants one to carry a gun everywhere he goes. It's rather chilling to be in Publix and realize that you are surrounded by a lot of people carrying a gun who may decide he wants to do a little target practice in the cereal aisle.Hiaasen also highlights the stupidity of the US government still kowtowing to a group of south FL Cubans who are still holding the US hostage to their hatred of Castro which has prevented the US from dropping the embargo on Americans being able to easily visit Cuba. Meanwhile --- we can freely visit and trade with Vietnam -- a country that accounted for the deaths of 55,000American military. Hiaasen proves the point the truth is stranger than fiction and that "you can't make this stuff up" when it comes to revealing the crazy stuff that occurs on a regular basis in FL and with more frequency in the rest of the US as that brand of crazy spreads via the Tea Party crazies and politicians like Marco Rubio, Allen West, Rick Scott and other assorted plagues -- including Jeb Bush that have spread from FL.

This one is not a novel, probably a collection of columns. I'm sure the description says this. Like other books of Hiassen's columns, I am amazed he gets in the paper as he exposes so much, names names. But it also ages quickly as it's related to news. Maybe we couldn't take a book of 500 pages that tracked just one issue like draining the swamps.It reminds me a lot of Hawaii. Always selling paradise and turning it into a parking lot..With no good mitigation of runoff, ruining watershed, allowing septic tanks near the ocean. Fight! Fight! Fight! We have to fight every little battle, we have to. Everyone read this, think of your community, and keep on fighting, exposing, testifying, and if you have Hiassen's talent, keep writing.It's such a downer, so if you want an upper, feel good thing, not for you. If you want to be informed, it's for you.I'd say I loved it, but I will say I have set it aside for a while to come back to.

I have been a Hiaasen fan since I bought the first edition of his first novel, "Tourist Season." I have all of his essay collections (Miami "Herald" columns, actually) plus "Team Rodent" (about the Disney empire). Why am I not more enthusiastic about a collection of what is, effectively, more of the same? Because, after all these years, his subject matter has become profoundly depressing. We have come to the point where he writes about a government (especially in his home state) that doesn't even pretend to care. So you will read about inconceivable atrocities that would be funny if they weren't true, or if you had any sense anything would actually happen to the people who perpetrate them. As a Floridian long past middle age, I think I figured it out. My generation knows what has been lost, but the succeeding ones never knew much better than what they have now. So I'm left to wonder, like poor old Bob Dole, "Where's the outrage?"

Carl Hiaasen is a Florida native and retired newspaper columnist (The Miami Herald) who always hits the nail squarely on the head with his articles and stories about Florida - the environment, development, politics, general loony-tunes in government and society - you name it. His fiction is hilarious but with a sharp bite of truth to it. Non-fiction, Dance Of The Reptiles includes selected columns about everything from clueless tourists who go on Everglades tours to feed sharks; pythons released into the Everglades by their owners once they grow big enough to eat a baby elephant; twisted politicians; oil spills (yes, even in Florida), gun laws, money (who has it and where/when/who they got it from, and why), an expose of conditions at Florida prisons (not funny). . His political stories aren't confined to Florida, so everyone who reads Dance Of The Reptiles will probably see a column about something familiar.

This is not a novel. It is a book full of jokes. Some of them are funny, but I wanted the book to read. This is no good. What’s the weather would like to get my money returned

This collection of short news snippets would be hilarious if they were not about the successful thwarting of EPA efforts and the unremitting stupidity or venality of Florida politicians. Tourists, developers, retirees and sportsmen each have their turn to shine in Hiaasen's spotlight. Sadly for me, uncharitably looking forward not just to the next hurricane but to the rising sea level (which by rights will be a catastrophe of biblical proportions), this is not really enjoyable reading. As Haasen points out, everyone shares the cost of rebuilding poorly situated, insured structures, and some of those injured are there through no choice/fault of their own.

I love Hiassen's honesty. It makes me wonder why anyone would want to visit Florida let alone live there. I have read all his books and await the release of Razor Girl. The several times I have visited Florida all I can think about are his observations. He is a great writer.

I was expecting the usual, a funny Hiaasen story. Instead I got a book of rants.

my husband loves it

A collection of op-ed (opinion editorials) - these are very short, virulently written, but often decidedly un-funny texts about some aspects of life in Florida. While Hiaasen's books frequently make me laugh, this one makes me embarrassed to have ever liked anything by the same author - he basically starts with suggesting that tourists should be tortured if they get stoned, or drunk, or otherwise annoying, anywhere near his place, as deterrence ... not sure whether he's sucking up to the heavily armed right wingers (not his favorite target audience, I thought from the books) or really dumb enough to believe in deterrence.If you're looking for a good read, check out his crime novels instead. This one just contains unfunny drivel from ten-year-old newspapers.

Carl Hiaasen is a great entertaining read....if you enjoyed his books you will also enjoy this book. This book is specifically of his columns written for the Miami Herald over the past several years, all quick reads and very funny stuff.