BOOKPATHS

Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California

This is the last weekend for the exhibition, “Charles Bukowski: Poet on the Edge.”

...The Huntington presents a much-anticipated exhibition on the life and works of Charles Bukowski, drawn from the archive of his papers donated to The Huntington by his wife, Linda Lee Bukowski, in 2006.

Philippines Book List

Abad, Gémino H. In another light: poems and essays (1976)

Abad, Gémino H. and Edna Z. Manlapaz, editors. Man of earth: an anthology of Filipino poetry and verse from English, 1905 to the mid-50s (1989)

Abad, Gémino H., editor. A native clearing: Filipino poetry and verse from English since the ‘50s to the present: from Edith L. Tiempo to Cirilo F. Bautista (1993)

Abad, Gémino H. and Alfred A. Yuson, editors. One hundred years of love poems: Philippine love poetry since 1905 (2004)

Abad, Gémino H. Orion’s belt and other writings (1996)

Abad, Gémino H. The space between (1985)

Agoncillo, Teodoro. Short history of the Philippines (1969)

Albado, Ceres S. Beautiful dreamer (1995)

Alfar, Dean Francis. Salamanca (2007)

Alfon, Estrella D., et al. 12 Philippine women writers (1994)

Arcellana, Francisco. The mats (1999)

Bacho, Peter. Cebu (1991)

Bacho, Peter. Dark blue suit: and other stories (1997)

Bacho, Peter. Nelson’s run (2002)

Bain, David H. Sitting in darkness: Americans in The Philippines (1984)

Barry, Coeli, editor. The many ways of being Muslim: fiction by Muslim Filipinos (2008)

Bautista, Cirilo F. Sunlight on broken stones (2000)

Belote, James and William. Corregidor: the saga of a fortress (1967)

Besa, Amy and Romy Dorotan. Memories of Philippine kitchens (2006)

Bobis, Merlinda. The kissing: a collection of short stories (2001) (in part)

Bonner, Raymond. Waltzing with a dictator: the Marcoses and the making of American policy Brainard, Cecilia Manguerra. Acapulco at sunset and other stories (1995)

Brainard, Cecilia Manguerra, editor. Growing up Filipino: stories for young adults (2003)

Brainard, Cecilia Manguerra. Magdalena (2002)

Brainard, Cecilia Manguerra. Philippine women in America: essays (1991)

Brainard, Cecilia Manguerra. Song of Yvonne (1991)

Brainard, Cecilia Manguerra. When the rainbow goddess wept (1994)

Brainard, Cecilia Manguerra. Woman with horns and other stories (1987)

Bresnahan, Mary I. Finding our feet: understanding crosscultural discourse (1991)

Bresnan, John, editor. Crisis in the Philippines: the Marcos era and beyond (1986)

Bulosan, Carlos. All the conspirators (1998)

Bulosan, Carlos. America is in the heart: a personal history (1943)

Bulosan, Carlos. The cry and the dedication (1995)

Bulosan, Carlos. If you want to know what we are: a Carlos Bulosan reader (1983)

Bulosan, Carlos. The laughter of my father (1946)

Bulosan, Carlos. On becoming Filipino: selected writings of Carlos Bulosan (1995)

Bulosan, Carlos. The power of the people (1986)

Bulosan, Carlos. Sound of falling light: letters in exile (1960)

Carbo, Nick and Eileen Tabios. Babaylan: an anthology of Filipina and Filipina American writers (2000)

Chai, Arlene J. The last time I saw mother (1995)

Chesnoff, Richard Z. Philippines (1980)

Dalisay, Jose Y. Killing time in a warm place (1992)

Dalisay, Jose Y. The scream of the butterfly (1999)

De la Costa, Horacio. Readings in Philippine history (1965)

De la Paz, Oliver. Names above houses (2001)

Delmendo, Sharon. The star-entangled banner: one hundred years of America in the Philippines (2004)

Finch, Philip. Sugarland (1991)

Francia, Luis. Brown river, white ocean: an anthology of twentieth-century Philippine literature in English (1993)

Francia, Luis. History of the Philippines: from Indios Bravos to Filipinos (2010)

Gloria, Eugene. Drivers at the short-time motel (2000)

Gloria, Eugene. Hoodlum birds (2006)

Going home to a landscape: writings by Filipinas (2003)

Goldoftas, Barbara. The green tiger: the costs of ecological decline in the Philippines (2006)

González, N. V. M. The bamboo dancers (1961)

González, N. V. M. The bread of salt and other stories (1993)

González, N. V. M. Children of the ash-covered loam, and other stories (1954)

González, N. V. M. The father and the maid: essays on Filipino life and letters (1990)

González, N. V. M. A grammar of dreams and other stories (1997)

González, N. V. M. Selected stories (1964)

González, N. V. M. The winds of April (1941)

Guillermo, Artemio R. Historical dictionary of the Philippines (2005)

Hagedorn, Jessica and Marissa Roth. Burning heart: a portrait of the Philippines (1999)

Hagedorn, Jessica Tarahata. Charlie Chan is dead: an anthology of contemporary Asian American fiction (1993) (in part)

Hagedorn, Jessica. Danger and beauty (2002)

Hagedorn, Jessica. Dangerous music (1975)

Hagedorn, Jessica. Dogeaters (1990)

Hagedorn, Jessica. Dream jungle (2003)

Hagedorn, Jessica. The ganster of love (1996)

Hahn, Emily. The islands (1981)

Hamilton-Paterson, James. Amazing disgrace (2006)

Hamilton-Paterson, James. America’s boy (1998)

Hamilton-Paterson, James. The bell boy (1990)

Hamilton-Paterson, James. Cooking with Fernet Branca (2004)

Hamilton-Paterson, James. Dutch Alps (1984)

Hamilton-Paterson, James. Ghosts of Manila (1994)

Hamilton-Paterson, James. The great deep: the sea and its thresholds (1992) (in part)

Hamilton-Paterson, James. Griefwork (1993)

Hamilton-Paterson, James. Loving monsters (2001)

Hamilton-Paterson, James. The music: stories (1995)

Hamilton-Paterson, James. Option three (1974)

Hamilton-Paterson, James. Playing with water: passion and solitude on a Philippine island (1987)

Hamilton-Paterson, James. A very personal war: the story of Cornelius Hawkridge (1971)

Hamilton-Paterson, James. The view from Mount Dog (1986)

Hau, Caroline. Necessary fictions: Philippine literature and the nation 1946-1980 (2001)

Holthe, Tess Uriza. When the elephants dance: a novel (2002)

Ingersoll, Joshena M. Golden years in The Philippines (1971)

Joaquin, Nick. A portrait of the artist as Filipino: an elegy in three scenes (1966)

Joaquin, Nick. Reportage on crime: thirteen horror happenings that hit the headlines (1977)

Joaquin, Nick. Reportage on lovers: a medley of factual romances, happy or tragical, most of which made news (1977)

Joaquin, Nick. Tropical baroque: four Manileño theatricals (1982) José, F. Sionil, Don Vicente: two novels (1999)

José, F. Sionil. Dusk: a novel (1998)

José, F. Sionil. Ermita (1988)

José, F. Sionil. The god stealer and other stories (1968)

José, F. Sionil. In search of the world (1998)

José, F. Sionil. Platinum: ten Filipino stories (1982)

José, F. Sionil. The pretenders (1997)

José, F. Sionil. Puppy love and other stories (1998)

José, F. Sionil. The Samsons: the pretenders and mass (2000)

José, F. Sionil. Sins: a novel (1996)

José, F. Sionil. Three Filipino women (1992)

José, F. Sionil. Tree (1978)

José, F. Sionil. Viajero (1993)

José, F. Sionil. Waywaya and other stories from the Philippines (1980)

Karnow, Stanley. In our image: America’s empire in the Philippines (1989)

Knox, Donald. Death march: the survivors of Bataan (1981)

Lawton, Manny. Some survived: an eyewitness account of the Bataan death march and the men who lived through it (2004)

Lim-Wilson, Fatima. Crossing the snow bridge (1995)

Martinez-Sicat, Maria Teresa. Imagining the nation in four Philippine novels (1994)

Miller, Stuart Creighton. Benevolent assimilation: the American conquest of the Philippines, 1899-1903 (1982)

Mo, Timothy. Brownout on Breadfruit Boulevard (1995)

Mojares, Resil B. House of memory: essays (1997)

Mojares, Resil B. Origins and rise of the Filipino novel: a generic study of the novel until 1940 (1983)

Mojares, Resil B. The war against the Americans: resistance and collaboration in Cebu, 1899-1906 (1999)

Mojares, Resil B., editor. The writers of Cebu: an anthology of prize-winning stories (1978)

Murray, Sabina. The caprices (2002)

Nance, John. The gentle Tasaday (1977)

Nimmo, Harry. The songs of Salanda: and other stories of Sulu (1994)

Nolledo, Wilfrido D. But for the lovers: a novel (1971)

Paulsen, Gary. Eastern sun winter moon: an autobiographical odyssey (2001)

Pedrosa, Carmen Navarro. Imelda Marcos: the rise and fall of one of the world’s most powerful woman (1987)

Prising, Robin. Manila goodbye (1975)

Puatu, Mar. Grandfather, the king (2001)

Realuyo, Bino A. The umbrella country (1999)

Reid, Robert and Eileen Guerrero. Corazon Aquino and the Brushfire Revolution (1995)

Rizal, Jose P. Noli me tangere (2006)

Rizal y Alonso, José. The subersive (1968)

Roley, Brian Ascalon. American son: a novel (2001)

Romero, Sophia G. Always hiding: a novel (1998)

Romulo, Beth D. Inside the palace: the rise and fall of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos (1987)

Rosca, Ninotchka. Endgame: the fall of Marcos (1987)

Rosca, Ninotchka. Twice blessed: a novel (1992)

Santos, Bienvenido N. Brother, my brother: a collection of stories by Bienvenido N. Santos (1960)

Santos, Bienvenido N. The day the dancers came: selected prose works (1991)

Santos, Bienvenido N. Distances, in time: selected poems (1983)

Santos, Bienvenido N. Dwell in the wilderness: selected short stories (1931-1941) (1985)

Santos, Bienvenido N. The man who (thought he) looked like Robert Taylor: a novel (1983)

Santos, Bienvenido N. Memory’s fictions: a personal history (1983)

Santos, Bienvenido N. The praying man: a novel (1982)

Santos, Bienvenido N. Villa Magdalena: a novel (1986)

Santos, Bienvenido N. The volcano: a novel (1986)

Santos, Bienvenido N. What the hell for you left your heart in San Francisco: a novel (1987)

Santos, Bienvenido N. You lovely people (1991)

Seagrave, Sterling. The Marcos dynasty: the incredible inside story (1988)

Schlegel, Stuart A. Wisdom from a rainforest: the spiritual journey of an anthropologist (1998)

Skinner, Michelle Cruz. Balikbayan, a Filipino homecoming (1988)

Spence, Hartzell. For every tear a victory (1969)

Tiempo, Edilberto K. Cracked mirror: a novel (1984)

Tiempo, Edilberto K. Literary criticism in the Philippines and other essays (1995)

Twain, Mark. Mark Twain’s weapons of satire: anti-imperialist writings on the Philippine-American War (1992)

Ty-Casper, Linda. Awaiting trespass: a pasi’on (1985)

Ty-Casper, Linda. Common continent: selected stories (1991)

Ty-Casper, Linda. DreamEden (1996)

Ty-Casper, Linda. Fortress in the plaza (1985)

Ty-Casper, Linda. The hazards of distance: a novel (1981)

Ty-Casper, Linda. Kulasyon: uninterrupted vigils (1995)

Ty-Casper, Linda. A small party in a garden (1988)

Ty-Casper, Linda. Ten thousand seeds (1987)

Ty-Casper, Linda. The three-cornered sun (1979)

Ty-Casper, Linda. Wings of stone (1986)

Villanueva, Marianne. Ginseng and other tales from Manila (1991)

Villanueva, Marianne, editor. Going home to a landscape: writings by Filipinas (2003)

Villanueva, Marianne. Mayor of the roses: stories (2005)

Wilson, Sloan. Pacific interlude (1982)

Wolff, Leon. Little brown brother: how the United States purchased and pacified the Philippines (2006)

Yuson, Alfred A. Great Philippine jungle energy care: a novel (1996)

Yuson, Alfred A. The music child and other stories (1991)

Yuson, Alfred A. Trading in mermaids (1993)

Yuson, Alfred A. Voyeurs and savages: a novel (1998)

Montecito, California

T. C. Boyle “finds inspiration at the doorstep of his Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house” in Montecito.

So right here, right out the window, is a kind of nature preserve all in itself, and if I want a bit more adventure with our fellow species, I can drive up over the San Marcos Pass and hike along the Santa Ynez River in the Los Padres National Forest or take the passenger boat out to Santa Cruz Island, which lies about 25 miles off the coast of Santa Barbara.

Abbey of St. Wandrille de Fontanelle, Normandy, France

Writer Adam Haslett explains why we "must read" A Time to Keep Silence, by Patrick Lee Fermor.

But after a few days amidst the silent rituals of the monastery, his mood changes.  'There are no automatic drains, such as conversation at meals, small talk, catching trains, or the hundred anxious trivialities that poison everyday life.'  Soon, 'dreamless nights came to an end with no harder shock than that of a boat's keep grounding on a lake shore.'

World

Author Mark Vanhoenacker offers "a world tour of bookstore cafes."

After an espresso or two has kicked jet lag into the long grass, I find no better place to plot a course in a city than at an independent bookstore cafe.

Egypt

Writer Tariq Ali comments on the chaos in Egypt and what it means for the Arab world.

The millions of people in the streets of Egypt are demanding a total overhaul.  They want, as in Tunisia, a new constitution that guarantees political and social rights.  They want an independent foreign policy that is decided in Cairo, not Tel Aviv or Washington.  They want to life the blockade of Gaza so that its people can live as normally as possible.

India

Ian Jack talks with Arundhati Roy, "India's bold and brilliant daughter."

Roy has a standard reply.  'Suppose there are 10 people in this room.  Seven are starving, and one is winning medals, and two are doing OK.  And I say, 'Look at these seven people who are starving,' and you say, 'Oh don't be so negative, no, things are not so bad -- look at the other three.'  Really?

Book'em Mysteries, South Pasadena, California

The Los Angeles Times' "bookstore of the week" is Book'em Mysteries in South Pasadena.

Book'em Mysteries has an extensive stock of colorful paperbacks, including all kinds of mysteries, from cozies to noir.  'We really wanted this bookstore to be for readers, not collectors,' Riley says.  'People that buy books because they want to read them, then might give them to a library or a friend.'

Alabama Book List

Agee, James. Let us now praise famous men: three tenant families (1941)

Allen, Peggy Vonsherie. The pecan orchard: journey of a sharecropper's daughter (2009)

Arnett, Paul, Joanne Cubbs and Eugene W. Metcalf, Jr.  Gee's Bend: the architecture of the quilt (2006)

Bailey, Douglas Fields. Devil make a third (1948)

Beidler, Philip D. First books: the printed word and cultural formation in early Alabama (1999)

Beidler, Philip D. Many voices, many rooms: a new anthology of Alabama writers (1998)

Beardsley, John, et al. Gee's Bend: the women and their quilts (2002)

Bell, Robert E. The butterfly tree (1991)

Blitz, John H. Moundville (2008)

Bonnie, Fred. Thanh Ho delivers: a novel (2000)

Brackner, Joey. Alabama folk pottery (2006)

Bragg, Rick. All over but the shoutin' (1997)

Bragg, Rick. The most they ever had (2009)

Bragg, Rick. The prince of Frogtown (2008)

Brewer, Sonny. The poet of Tolstoy Park (2005)

Brewer, Sonny. A sound like thunder: a novel (2006)

Brinkley, Douglas. Rose Parks (2000)

Brown, James Seay, editor. Up before daylight: life histories from the Alabama Writers' Project, 1938-1939 (1982)

Brown, Jerry Elijah, editor. Clearings in the thicket: an Alabama humanities reader: essays and stories from the 1983 Alabama History and Heritage Festival (1983)

Brown, Mary Ward. Tongues of flame (1986)

Brown, Rita Mae. Southern discomfort (1982)

Burns, Stewart, editor. Daybreak of freedom - the Montgomery bus boycott (1997)

Calisher, Hortense. False entry (1961)

Callahan, Nancy. The Freedom Quilting Bee (1987)

Capote, Truman. A Christmas memory (1966)

Capote, Truman. The Thanksgiving visitor (1968)

Carmer, Carl. Stars fell on Alabama (1934)

Childress, Mark. Crazy in Alabama (1993)

Cobb, William. A walk through fire (1992)

Coleman, Lonnie. Orphan Jim (1975)

Colquitt, James E., editor. Alabama bound: contemporary stories of a state (1995)

Covin, Kelly. Hear that train blow: a novel about the Scottsboro Case (1972)

Covington, Vicki. Bird of paradise (1990)

Covington, Vicki. Gathering home (1988)

Covington, Vicki. The last hotel for women: a novel (1996)

Covington, Vicki. Night ride home (1992)

Covington, Vicki. Women in a man's world, crying: essays (2002)

Davenport, L. J. Nature journal (2010)

Deal, Babs H. It's always three o'clock (1990)

Deal, Borden. The least one (1992)

Devoto, Pat Cunningham. Out of the night that covers me (2001)

Devoto, Pat Cunningham. The summer we got saved (2005)

Diouf, Sylviane A. Dreams of Africa in Alabama: the slave ship Clotilda and the story of the last Africans brought to America (2007)

Dorman, Lewy. Party politics in Alabama from 1850 through 1860 (1995)

Ellis, Helen. Eating the Cheshire cat: a novel (2000)

Eubanks, W. Ralph. The house at the end of the road: the story of three generations of an interracial family in the American South (2009)

Evans, Augusta Jane. St. Elmo (1974)

Flagg, Fannie. Fried green tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe (reprint 2005)

Flynt, Wayne. Alabama in the twentieth century (2004)

Foscue, Virginia O. Place names in Alabama (1989)

Foster, Patricia. All the lost girls: confessions of a southern daughter (2000)

Franklin, Tom. Hell at the breech (2003)

George, Anne. Murder gets a life: a southern sisters mystery (1999)

Going, William T. Essays on Alabama literature (1975)

Goodman, James. Stories of Scottsboro (1994)

Grooms, Anthony. Bombingham: a novel (2001)

Hale, S. Dennis. The prayer amendment: a satire of Southern politics and religion (2003)

Hamilton, Virginia. Alabama (1984)

Hannah, Barry. Ray (1980)

Harris, Trudier.  Summer snow: reflections from a Black daughter of the South (2003)

Hawkins, Martha. Finding Martha's Place: my journey through sin, salvation, and lots of soul food (2010)

Hemphill, Paul. Leaving Birmingham: notes of a native son (1993)

Henderson, George Wylie. Jule (1954)

Hoffman, Roy. Chicken dreaming corn (2004)

Hooper, Johnson, J. Adventures of Captain Simon Suggs, late of the Tallapoosa volunteers (1969)

Hubbs, G. Ward, editor. Rowdy tales from early Alabama: the humor of John Gorman Barr (1989)

Hughes Wright, Roberta. The birth of the Montgomery bus boycott (1991)

Jackson, Harvey H. Rivers of history: life on the Coosa, Tallapoosa, Cahaba, and Alabama (1995)

Jackson, Joshilyn. Gods in Alabama (2005)

Jeffries, Hasan Kwame. Bloody Lowndes: civil rights and Black power in Alabama's Black Belt (2009)

Jones, Tina N., editor. Belles' letters: contemporary fiction by Alabama women (1999)

Jordan, Weymouth T., et al. Ante-Bellum Alabama: town and country (1987)

Keller, Helen. The story of my life (2003)

Kennedy, Stetson. Palmetto Country (1942)

Kincaid, Nanci. Balls: a novel (1998)

King, Martin Luther, Jr. Letter from a Birmingham jail (1994)

King, Martin Luther, Jr. Stride toward freedom: the Montgomery story (1958)

King, Martin Luther, Jr. Why we can't wait (1968)

Kohl, Herbert. She would not be moved: how we tell the story of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott (2005)

Lamar, Jay and Jeanie Thompson, editors. The remembered gate: memoirs of Alabama writers (2002)

Lee, Harper. To kill a mockingbird (1960)

Lytle, Andrew. The long night (1941)

Maharidge, Dale and Michael Williamson. And their children after them: the legacy of 'Let us now praise famous men', James Agee, Walker Evans, and the rise and fall of cotton in the South (1989)

McCammon, Robert. Mystery walk (1983)

McCormack. John. Friend of the flock: tales of a country veterinarian (1997)

McCown, Clint. The weatherman: a novel (2004)

McDonald, Robin. Heart of a small town: photographs of Alabama towns (2003)

McDowell, Deborah E. Leaving Pipe Shop: memories of kin (1996)

McFarland, Dennis. Letter from Point Clear: a novel (2007)

McGuire, Danielle L. At the dark end of the street: Black women, rape and resistance: a new history of the Civil Rights Movement, from Rosa Parks to the rise of Black power (2010)

McKissack, Pat. Run away home (1997)

McNaron, Toni. I dwell in possibility: a memoir (1992)

McWhorter, Diane. Carry me home: Birmingham, Alabama: the climactic battle of the civil rights revolution (2001)

Moates, Marianne M. A bridge of childhood: Truman Capote's southern years (1989)

Monroeville, AL: the search for Harper Lee's Maycomb (1999)

Murari, Timeri. Goin' home (1980)

Murray, Albert. South to a very old place (1995)

Murray, Albert. Train whistle guitar (1974)

Naslund, Sena Jeter. Four spirits: a novel (2003)

Noble, Phil. Beyond the burning bus: the civil rights revolution in a southern town (2003)

Oliver, Julia. Goodbye to the buttermilk sky (2001)

Paddock, Jennifer. Point Clear (2006)

Parks, Rosa. I am Rosa Parks (1997)

Parks, Rosa. Rosa Parks: my story (1992)

Parks, Rosa. Quiet strength: the faith, the hope, and the heart of a woman who changed a nation (1994)

Perdue, Tito. Opportunities in Alabama agriculture: a novel (1994)

Phillips, Doug. Discovering Alabama wetlands (2002)

Phillips, W. Glasgow. Tuscaloosa: a novel (1994)

Piker, Joshua. Okfuskee: a Creek Indian town in colonial America (2004)

Raines, Howell. My soul is rested: movement days in the Deep South remembered (1977)

Raines, Howell. Whiskey men (1977)

Rambach, Peggy. Fighting gravity (2001)

Randolph, John N. The battle for Alabama's wilderness: saving the great gymnasiums of nature (2005)

Rayford, Julian Lee. Cottonmouth (1991)

Robbins, Kenneth. The city of churches: a novel (2004)

Rogers, William Warren. Alabama: the history of a Deep South state (1994)

Rosengarten, Theodore. All God's dangers: the life of Nate Shaw (1974)

Scully, Helen. In the hope of rising again (2005)

Seay, Solomon S. Jim Crow and me: stories from my life as a civil rights lawyer (2008)

Shields, Charles J. Mockingbird: a portrait of Harper Lee (2006)

Sikora, Frank. Until justice rolls down: the Birmingham church bombing case (2005)

Simonsen, Thordis, et al. You may plow here: the narrative of Sara Brooks (1986)

Smith, B. K. Something down the road (2002)

Stanley, Marie. Gulf Stream (2009)

Stribling, T. S. The forge (1931)

Stribling, T. S. The store (1932)

Stribling, T. S. The unfinished cathedral (1934)

Thornton, J. Mills. Dividing lines: municipal policies and the struggle for civil rights in Montgomery, Birmingham, and Selma (2002)

Wallace, Daniel. Big fish (1998)

Wallace, Daniel. The watermelon king (2004)

Warren, Lella. Foundation stone (1986)

Warren, Robert Penn. A place to come to: a novel (1977)

Webb, Samuel L. and Margaret E. Armbrester. Alabama governors: a political history of the state (2001)

Weidman, Jerome. Counselors-at-law (1980)

Williams, Benjamin Buford. Literary history of Alabama: the nineteenth century (1979)

Wilson, Edward O. Anthill: a novel (2010)

Wilson, Edward O. Naturalist (1994)

Windham, Kathryn Tucker. Alabama: one big front porch (2007)

Young, Beth Maynor and John C. Hall. Headwaters: a journey on Alabama rivers (2009)

 

Key West, Florida

Writer Edmund White explains why he, "like countless writers and artists," returns regularly to Key West.

The poet Elizabeth Bishop lived in Key West because it made time seem to go by more slowly.  If you're afraid of ageing and dying (as she was, as I am), then torpid small-town life in the heat is the best solution -- events start to creep by in a place that is almost tropical (it's the southernmost point in the US, just 90 miles north of Havana).