What a wonderful gift this book has made! I have been trying the recipies and they just get more delicious each time!The stories really give the reader a sense of being part of Mangoes and the fun they must have! The design of the book is so handy and makes trying a recipe all the more enjoyable. Can't wait for the next edition!!!

Love the recipes. also the style of the book makes it so easy to use. can't wait for the next one

An excellent cookbook that's fun to read, too! Chef Paul lets you peak inside his world, giving you insight to his creativity through the origins of some of his favorite recipes. The stories about some of his creations are really funny. The recipes are easy to follow, and the dishes are amazing. Great way to impress your dinner guests! There's even a Key West section including the best Key Lime Pie recipe I've ever tried. (The secret is in the sauce!) The spiral-bound top and cardboard bottom let the book stand up so the recipe is easy to follow as you cook. Excellent Key West souvenier--who wants another t-shirt?! Overall, a charming collection of stories, original pen-and-ink sketches by the restaurant owner, and inspiring recipes for delicious dishes that look impressive, yet are easy to prepare.

This is a murder mystery whose characters you come to love and identify with, one you wish would keep on reading, because you never want it to end. It is satisfying on every level.

Also recommended: My only recommendation for the decade has got to be Keshner's COCKPIT CONFESSIONS OF AN AIRLINE PILOT, which ( although mis-titled ) is a meaty odyssey, a barrel of fun, and a search for truth.

This is a first for me, actually taking the time to review a book. We have spent every other annual vacation in Key West for the past twelve years, and we tend to follow the news from the Conch Republic, whenever we see any. At anyrate, when MURDER IN KEY WEST came out, I had to read it, and it is terrific. Great characters, brutal, twisted story, and the sex is [great]. Read it, you'll love it.

A fabulous murder mystery unfolds in Key West, great cast of characters, delicious sex and a satisfying ending... what more is there to life?

The book consists of many vignettes on real people who live, or have lived in Key West.

Each story touched my heart, made me laugh and sometimes cry.

June Keith is a powerful writer on the human condition. Simple, truthful, and to the point. Each story makes you think and reflect.

I also read More Postcards From Paradise, in anticipation of my trip to Key West. The book, made me feel comfortable in a place I've never been before.

June Keith feels like an old friend, even though We've never met.

I half expected to meet her, and the many people she wrote about so eloquently in these two fine books. The photographs really made the stories come alive for me.

Customer Comments Al Mosier (KWkindaguy@aol.com), rating=10: Just returned from a sojourn in the Keys. Seems that everywhere I turned I met June Keith. I purchased her book at Margaritaville on Duval, but saw it everywhere. If you haven't already met June, it's time. June lives, works and writes in Key West. She spends her time waitressing at the Lighthouse Cafe on Duval. She also does a column for the Miami Herald. This book is a compilation of those columns. The title is apt. These are postcards; short sketches about the people and places June has come to know as a nineteen year resident of the southernmost city. She writes about real people; their lives, their loves and their problems. It is a real picture of the town the way it was through the 80's and early 90's. You can't see this town anymore --trust me, I'm just back. The only way to visit what once was KW is through the pages of June's book. Her style is easy and readable. I passed my copy around amongst friends and we all enjoyed her breezy way with words. Be prepared to laugh a littl and cry a lot. The death toll is high. If you really want to see KW as it was before it became a Disneyfied parody of itself, you can do no better than read POSTCARDS.Hemingway, Hersey and Keith. Interesting combination of writers, no?

Midwest Book Review: Columns and essays based on Key West living offer colorful armchair traveller pursuit as they reveal the legends and personalities of the region. This is a hilarious and involving collection of vignettes which will delight a wide audience as well as any with a special affection for and knowledge of the area.

Vicky Moon has assembled a nice assortment of Southern salad recipes that take the reader up the eastern coast, from the Florida Keys to Northern Virginia and Washington, D. C. She calls it "Margaritaville to Egoville." The book is witty with bits of humor and antidotes about her travels.

BEST DRESSED SOUTHERN SALADS has a catchy title and the small, but compact book is filled with some luscious sounding recipes. I like the small size of the book, because you can easily take it with you to the grocery store when you shop for the dressing and salad ingredients.

I tried several of her salads and enjoyed them. I'm looking forward to trying more recipes as we get into the summer months when our produce is at its peak.

This lovely, little cookbook combines recipes and fun, inside-the-loop stories about prominant Southern figures. I thoroughly enjoyed Vicky Moon's book "Middleburg Mystique," and I'm glad this book is just as good.

Chris and his parents moved to Key West. Chris and his father became treasure divers. Chris' Mother was tired of living in Key West so she went back to Flintville where they used to live. She left because she was around at home all day while Chris and his Dad were out looking for treasure. They lived there for 5- years life was very hard for them. But they found some exciting treasure while living in Key West. They found a 17th century anchor and gold and silver coins from a Spanish galleon called the Sevillia. So that forced them to go to Seville, Spain. There they found some more information about the Sevillia in Legajos. Then they came back to Key West and told everyone about the Sevillia. Do I or do I not agree with the author? Well I would say yes I agree with him. Because I like the way he writes his stories. Mr. Strasser makes you feel like you are in the story. It sounds so true. Because when people go look for treasure they sell it rght away. Some people give but they waited for weeks but they still got thier treasure. If I found something special underwater then I would keep it somewhere safe. Would I or would I not recommend this book,and who would I recommend it to? Yes, I would recommend it to people who like underwater adventure.

My teacher just recommended this book to me. I am so glad that she did also. I have really enjoyed this book a lot and I am looking foward to buying it! This is the best book I have read in a long time! This is a great book to read if you like contemporary books.

As a New Englander, I need what sunshine I can get and this book has it with its marvelous range of the Gulf's Cuban/Italian/Creole/Mexican/Vietnamese flavors. I particularly love that the recipes are adaptable to what I can find here, and the beautiful photos are a plus (and an inspiration) as well.

I love to read cookbooks as well as use them. Gulf Coast Kitchens is engaging and fun to read. It is well researched with lots of interesting vignettes. The writing is colorful and lively. The recipes are a good mix of down-home and exotic dishes.

Easy fixings are a priority for me. Gulf Costs Kitchen's simple instructions with tips for advance preparation makes each recipe a dream.

I have already given several books as gifts. If you try it, you will love it, too!

This book is a terrific resource for all aspects of the Keys. We used three guidebooks, and this had the best information for places, wildlife, historic sites, etc. The only caveat is that you pretty much have to read the entire book in order to gain the full benefit, then use as needed. This is as opposed to picking it up cold and flipping through for information - the book isn't structured to be a quick guide.

If you are looking for a lot of information about the Florida keys this is the book to buy. I have several, and none compares. The ones which combine Miami and the Keys often give scant coverage to the Keys. These women do a VERY thorough job. The only drawback is that the pictures are in black and white. So take pictures when you get there. For both extent and depth of coverage, this one can't be beat. tdullmaier@yahoo.com

This author really knows the area and gave great tips and tidbits of history and information to make our trip more interesting. Her restaurant reviews were right on target. We ate incredibly well the entire trip! If you go to Key West, take her suggestions - ours too, and try the following restaurants: Louie's Backyard, Camilles, Blue Heaven (a must for breakfast or a fabulous lunch). As for tours and excursions, we tried the following based on information in her book and had a great time: Tall ship dinner cruise; The Butterfly conservatory (Wings of Imagination); Truman's Little White House; Hemmingway House; Audubon House. These restaurants and tours were not all we tried but they topped the list.

Go enjoy the Keys - and don't leave without this book.

I like using guide books, and have used others when visiting Key West, but this one is the ultimate. I felt like the author was sitting in the back seat of our rental car, providing a narration as we wandered around looking for sights and scenes that we had never seen before. The restaurant reviews were right on, and funny even. My husband and I liked the discussion of Hemingway and Tennessee Williams, and, believe it or not, we'd never heard of a wonderful movie, 'The Rose Tattoo,' filmed in Key West - which we never, ever miss when they show it late at night. We read about it in this book. Also, she recommends lots of books about Key West which we will read in preparation for our next trip. There are free sights to see on the road between Key West and Miami, and we'd never have known about them, either. Along the Overseas Highway there are some terrific beaches, libraries, a Pioneers Cemetery - on a beach! - a Hurricane Monument - that you don't know about unless you read about them in this book. Anytime someone we know is headed for the Keys, we give them this book. It's a winner.

This is one great book. I love Key West and someday I'm going to move there. It's home. When I discovered this book I didn't expect the reaction it gave me. It brought me back. The characters, the craziness, and the surreal island life of the Keys came rushing back to me like a tidal wave. It reminded me of what I love and miss about Key West. A wonderful read.

Ah, here we are. Here are those oft' cited "glory days of yesteryear" lovingly reprinted by John Boisonault and Tom Corcoran - and the timing couldn't be better. From a literary perspective, it's of course Springtime with various versions of "season" winding down. Jasmine and Cereus perfume the often thunderous nights and a hammock'd or curled-up casual sip'n read offers just the sought after relaxation. Nothing could be finer or more suitable than Key West Collection. With a deft, self-depreciating yet mannered air, Ms. Raymer recounts first-hand adventures and mis-adventures in the "open air asylum" of old Key West. Here is a roustabout Last Resort of costume parties, nudity, famous writers, domestic squabbles, internecine jealousies, street bums, dirtbags, cruise ship passengers, body piercings and arguments over who got here first. Sound familiar? The beauty of the selection, of course, is how little much of our "lifestyle" has changed over the past 50 years. There is, however, one aspect that veritably screams out for notice...and that is humor, ingenuity and tolerance. I've had the pleasure of meeting many of the characters in this book. (The description of Cigarette Willy, alone, brought back a swirl of memories from that place before modernization and AIDS where one "merely had to wish to make it so.") Events like Fantasy Fest, the Suds Run, the Hemingway Festival and the Conch Republic Celebration were hatched in a hazy improvisation long before being certified as "annual events". It is worth noting that all of the events in this book took place in those days often cited as when Key West was "dying" - those days when Duval Street was shuttered and the streets were empty. Well, as the Key West Collection attests, someone was here, and though they may not have been rapaciously gouging the City and its tourists for every last penny they could squeeze out of them, they somehow managed to thrive with renegade humor and world famous alacrity. In fact, they survived so well that they created the "Key West" that so many tourists come here, in vain, to discover. Tom Corcoran's photographs from the near distant past, evoke a time of shrimpers, flop houses, stripper bars, lazy afternoons, grey weatherered buildings and Tennessee Williams - not tricked-up plastic faux once-upon-a-time trinket stands, mind you: the real thing. It's there in the scented evening air, in the smell of fresh Cuban bread and stand-up buche. It's there in a note from 1981 wherein the authoress can't find Tennessee Williams' house because "the streets were being dug up for sewer installation". We even read of a squabble between usurer Juius Stone and "Charlie Ramos" over the location of the "truly southernmost house". Key West Collection is the perfect gift for the newly arrived who'd like to know a bit more about their new "home" before they form an idea of what it ought to be. -Bud Nevero

This a great and fun reminder of great island of Key West.
I recommend it as fun bathroom book.

Tolien compiles the grafitti of Key West into one fun-filled, sometimes appalling book. It's great for laughs and for providing conversations. It's a must own book!