Böcker av Craig Pittman

"A much-loved Florida writer chronicles the quirky, touching, and thought-provoking stories of the Sunshine State today In Welcome to Florida, award-winning investigative journalist and New York Times bestselling author Craig Pittman introduces readers to the people, creatures, places, and issues that make up the Florida of today. Through lively stories told with cutting insight and always with a joke at the ready, Pittman captures the heart of what he calls "The Most Interesting State." From threats to Florida's environment to a hippo that became an official state citizen, these tales range from the moving to the bizarre. Pittman follows the escapades of crime writers, hungry predators, politicians, and developers across the state. At the core of this collection is a deep sense of admiration for the resilience of those who live here. Again and again, this book showcases the power of "ordinary Floridians fighting to save some part of the state that they hold dear." Often, that means folks rallying to protect the state's unique natural landscape; sometimes it means former CIA agents incorporating their own island community. Welcome to Florida is both a love letter to and hilarious deep dive into the nation's fastest-growing state. Imbued with Pittman's characteristic humor and undeniable fondness for both the weird and wonderful parts of his home, this book shows why, despite some of its reputations, Florida continues to prove irresistible. "--

A Garden & Gun Best Book of 2020 "Witty and passionate." --Lauren Groff "Craig Pittman has a remarkable talent for telling stories set in the Sunshine State that never fail to fascinate and entertain."--Gilbert King "The definitive book on one of America's least understood apex predators. The story of how Florida's panthers were saved from extinction is one that both deserves and needs to be told." --Dane Huckelbridge The captivating tale of the Florida panther, its survival and rescue from extinction With novelistic detail and an eye for the absurd, Craig Pittman recounts the extraordinary story of the people who brought the panther back from the brink of extinction, the ones who nearly pushed the species over the edge, and the cats that were caught in the middle. This being Florida, there's more than a little weirdness, too. An engrossing narrative of wry humor, sharp writing and exhaustive reportage, Cat Tale shows what it takes to bring one species back and what unexpected costs such a decision brings.

After its Peruvian discovery in 2002, Phragmipedium kovachii became the rarest and most sought-after orchid in the world. Prices soared to $10,000 on the black market. Then one showed up at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, where every year more than 100,000 people visit. They come for the lush landscape on Sarasota Bay and for Selby's vast orchid collection, one of the most magnificent in the world.The collision between Selby's scientists and the smugglers of Phrag. Kovachii, a rare ladyslipper orchid hailed as the most significant and beautiful new species discovered in a century, led to search warrants, a grand jury investigation, and criminal charges. It made headlines around the country, cost the gardens hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations, and led to tremendous internal turmoil.Investigative journalist Craig Pittman unravels this tangled web to shine a spotlight on flaws in the international treaties governing trade in endangered wildlife--which may protect individual plants and animals in shipping but do little to halt the destruction of whole colonies in the wild. The Scent of Scandal unspools like a riveting mystery novel, stranger than anything in Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief or the film Adaptation. Pittman shows how some people can become so obsessed--with beauty, with profit, with fame--that they will ignore everything, even the law.