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Adam Gopnik illuminates the evening with stories rather than excerpts: "I feel writers are often poor representatives of their book and the most fun is in the Q & A anyway."

Marci Calabretta is a contributor to the Florida Book Review. Calabretta attended the Adam Gopnik talk on Thursday, Nov. 15 . You can check out FBR's full live blog of the 2012 book fair here.

Two strikes and he may be out. A second judge has ruled that he will not hear GOP Congressman Allen West's request for a recount, virtually assuring Patrick Murphy of the District 18 Congressional seat.  It happened in St.

This week on The Florida Roundup:  Have state GOP leaders taken the election as a cue to change course? 

Remember back in August when there was a community uproar because someone left a dog on a roof of a factory building?

Apart from the politics and the voting law that caused so many voting problems, the Associated Press is pinpointing another reason for Florida's election day train wreck.

Basically, the state has no central formula for allocating voters to precincts or booths and scanners to voters.

It's another one of those stories about how bad Florida is at something that other states have been on top of for years:

Earlier this week, we asked you to help us tell a story—140 characters at a time—in honor of Miami Book Fair International.

We tweeted out the first line, given to us by Pulitzer-winning author Junot Díaz: “The dogs hadn’t barked all week.”

Following his loss to President Obama for the Presidency, Mitt Romney didn't have a lot of nice things to say.

Annette Taddeo's race to become the chairwoman of the Florida Democratic Party just got a little easier. 

What? You mean Obamacare's Medicaid expansion WON'T blow a hole in our state budget after all?

One in five Floridians is currently receiving food stamp benefits and the number is rising in South Florida.   But tucked into a recent report by the Department of Children and Families, are some encouraging signs of economic recovery.  

Lawyers for Congressman Allen West will be in a St. Lucie County courtroom today to try to get a full recount in his contest with Democrat Patrick Murphy.

The attorneys will be demanding that elections officials recount early voting ballots in the race for Florida's 18th Congressional District.

In a similar legal challenge last week, a Palm Beach County judge dismissed West's motion to impound ballots and voting machines for a possible recount.

It’s been a watering hole that has seen Miami grow from an insect-infested swamp town to a city of millions, gateway to Latin America. It’s weathered the worst of Miami and the best – all to the beat of South Florida’s music scene. No pretensions in this joint. It’s real, it’s genuine – it’s Tobacco Road. South Florida Arts Beat contributor, Chris DeAngelis, reveals the life of Miami’s booze and blues legend.

Written by Chris DeAngelis, produced and hosted by Ed Bell for WLRN’s South Florida Arts Beat.

For those of you who just don't want to let this election season go, then we have the story  for you. Congressman Allen West has one last chance to pull out a win in the 18th congressional district. The race still hasn't been certified.  Lawyers for West are scheduled to be in court in St. Lucie County on 

Friday to try to get a full recount in his contest with Democrat Patrick Murphy, who is so convinced he's won the seat that he's already gone to Congressional freshman orientation.

 Both West and Murphy are now in Washington, D.C. 

One in five Floridians - about 3.6 million - is receiving food stamp benefits and the number is rising in South Florida, according to new data released by the state..

Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties all saw increased enrollment in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in October.

The Sun Sentinel reports that the trend is particularly troubling for Broward County

A court in St. Lucie County is allowing Rep. Allen West  two hours on Friday to make his case for recounting the election that may have cost him his seat in Congress. 

Right now, unofficial results show that Democrat Patrick Murphy has a 0.58 percent lead over West.

Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International airport will be a very busy airport this Thanksgiving holiday.

In fact, it's going to be the 10th busiest in the country, according to booking data from the travel company Orbitz.

Every year Orbitz releases lists of the busiest and least busy airports for Thanksgiving.

Daniel Smith, a professor at the University of Florida and expert on election data, says that Florida's new voting law, which cut early voting days from 14 to 8 days, limited voter participation among minorities.

Smith had long warned legislators that last year's voting law would disproportionately affect minority voters, who use early voting significantly more than other groups.

He says that his warnings months ago were right.

Former Gov. Charlie Crist is standing with state Democrats in favor of a bill to fix election problems that embarrassed the state last week.

State Rep. Darryl Rouson of St. Petersburg is the House sponsor of the bill, which would restore early voting to 14 days and allow non-government buildings to be used as early voting site.

Crist's name continues to surface as a possible Democratic challenger to Gov. Rick Scott in 2016. He has left the Republican Party and remains an independent who likes to call himself "Citizen Crist."

South Florida Democratic candidates who had no reason to expect victory are preparing to be sworn in to office now thanks to the votes of people whom the pollsters largely ignored: unlikely voters.

Foreclosures are on the decline in South Florida.

That's according to the latest report from the research firm RealtyTrac.

The Miami Marlins' latest moves are striking out with city officials. They're reacting angrily to the team owner's latest plans to dismantle the team.

Five star players are set to be traded to the Toronto Blue Jays in what some are calling a fire sale.

All week, we're talking with Florida authors appearing at the Miami Book Fair. So Spoke the Earth is an anthology of stories, poems and essays about Haiti.

The book is divided into three sections: death and tragedy; the nation’s rich storytelling tradition; and Haiti’s economic struggles.

Although the book was published in the United States (by Women Writers of Haitian Descent), all of the pieces in the second section are in French or Haitian Creole. 

Robert Kerstein is a government professor at the University of Tampa. But when he's not teaching on the other coast, he likes hanging out in Key West. His frequent trips there have translated into a new book about how the little city at the bottom of the peninsula has managed to maintain its unique character while becoming a major tourist town. The book is called Key West: On The Edge, Inventing the Conch Republic. And this weekend, Kerstein will be appearing at the Miami Book Fair International. 

In a White House ceremony Wednesday, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in North Miami joined an elite group of just 69 museums to be awarded the National Medal for Museum and Library Service - one the nation's top seals of approval for museums and libraries.

"Well, I guess you could compare it to the Emmy's or Oscars,"  said  Susan Hildreth, Director of the Institute for Museum and Library Service.

On Election Day this year, Florida went from having zero openly gay lawmakers in the state Legislature to two.

David Richardson won a seat in the Florida House representing Miami Beach and Joe Saunders won a seat representing a part of Orlando. Both men are openly gay.

Up until last week, Florida was the biggest state in the U.S. to have never elected an openly gay person to office in their state legislature. 

Chuck Wolfe, president of the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, says that Florida was actually part of a national trend.

Gov. Rick Scott-- the man who spent his own money traveling the country in an effort to stop health care reform-- has announced he is actually going to work with the federal government to implement the health care reform law in Florida.

Since the 2010 health care law was passed, Florida officials and Scott have dragged their feet in implementing the health care law here. They have even turned away millions of dollars allocated through the law that would go to programs that help low-income women and children.

However, things have since changed.