Showing results by narrator "Anthony Perez" in All Categories

"In almost any culture, at any time, you can find food writing,” writes guest editor Mark Bittman in his introduction. “Food means growing and hardship, and health and medicine, and work and holiday. In its abundance it is a gift and a joy, and in its absence a curse and a tragedy. If a culture has writing, that culture has food writing.” The stories in this year’s Best American Food Writing are brilliant, eye-opening windows into the heart of our country’s culture.

Startling new evidence in a cold case that's haunted Pete drags the exiled PI back to his hometown of Miami. But as Pete and his partner, Kathy Bentley, delve deeper into the unsolved murder, they become entangled in Miami’s obsession with a charismatic and dangerous cult leader and his even more menacing followers. At the same time, the detectives find themselves at odds with a Florida politician’s fixation on wealth, fame, and power. It all converges in the heart of the Magic City, and Pete is left scrambling to pick up the pieces—or die trying.

Hector and his amigo Mando are looking for adventure as they hit the road on a leisurely bike trip from their East L.A. neighborhood to the beach in Santa Monica. They've just set out when the fun begins, as Hector literally stumbles into a starring role in a TV commercial. Then he turns out to be the one-millionth fan at a Dodger game--and is escorted to a private box and treated like a VIP!

In the early 1500s, Ponce de Leon was one of the most important Spanish military figures in the Caribbean. He made his first voyage across the Atlantic with Christopher Columbus and then, after years of battle with the native Taino, became the first governor of Puerto Rico. Although the story of his search for the Fountain of Youth is entirely fictional, his noteworthy expedition to—and naming of—Florida is one of his greatest legacies.

Compared to other industrialized nations, the United States is losing ground across nearly every indicator of social health. Its race problem, argues Eduardo Porter, is largely to blame. In American Poison, the New York Times veteran shows how racial animus has stunted the development of nearly every institution crucial for a healthy society, including organized labor, public education, and the social safety net. The consequences are profound and are only growing graver with time.

Pete Fernandez has settled into an easy, if somewhat boring life as a PI. The days of chasing murderous killers are behind him. Or are they? When his sometimes partner Kathy Bentley approaches him with a potential new client, Pete balks. Not because he doesn’t need the money, but because the case involves Gaspar Varela, a former Miami police officer serving a life sentence for the murder of his wife—one of the most infamous crimes in Miami history. The client? None other than Varela’s daughter, Maya, who’s doggedly supported her father’s claims of innocence.

Pete Fernandez should be dead. His life—professional and personal—is in ruins. His best friend is dead. His newspaper career is past tense. His ex is staying with him as her own marriage crumbles. On top of that, the former journalist finds himself in the eye of a dangerous storm; investigating a missing girl with an unexpected partner and inching closer and closer to a vicious, calculating killer cutting a swath of blood across Miami—while at the same time battling his own personal demons that refuse to be silenced.

Barbara Anderson narrates with brutal honesty the day-to-day experience of having a child with disabilities: the challenges inside and outside the home, health and life complications, the shifting priorities, the daily Mt. Everest-sized struggle of having a child with an—until now—irreversible diagnosis such as infantile cerebral palsy.

Ivy, Mateo and Cal used to be close - best friends back in middle school. So when Cal pulls into campus late for class and runs into Ivy and Mateo, they decide to ditch school. Just like old times. But they're not the only ones ditching school that day. When Ivy, Cal and Mateo spot Brian 'Boney' Mahoney acting suspiciously downtown they follow him into an empty building and walk straight into the middle of a murder scene. With their day of freedom about to turn deadly, it's only a matter of time before everyone's secrets are revealed.

A year has passed since Pete Fernandez’s latest, closest brush with death. After months of recovery, the newly sober Pete has managed to rebuild his life, contentedly running a small Miami bookstore and steering clear of the dangers of private eye work. So when an aging Cuban mobster asks Pete to find out who killed his drug-addicted jazz-pianist son and to locate his missing daughter-in-law, Pete balks. Until another victim suggests that the murder of the gangster’s son may be connected to the people who nearly ended Pete’s life.

Lina has come home to the country of her childhood. Sent away from Colombia to England after her mother's death 20 years before, she's searching for the one person who can tell her about their shared past. She's never forgotten Matty - her childhood friend and protector who now runs the Anthill, a day care refuge for the street kids of Medellín. Lina begins volunteering there, but her reunion with Matty is not what she hoped for.

There are plenty of words Jonah Collins could use to describe Dylan Ramírez. 'Arrogant', 'spoiled', and 'golden boy', to name a few. Likewise, Dylan thinks he has Jonah all figured out: an attention-seeking asshat who never shuts his filthy mouth. Their friends are convinced Jonah's and Dylan's disdain for one another is just thinly veiled lust - a rumour that surges like wildfire when the two wake up in the same bed after homecoming...

When Hector's mother suggests that he and his amigo Mando get out of East L.A. for the weekend and see some of the world, he's thinking Paris. So he's a little disappointed when they end up in Fresno, sleeping on a lumpy couch in his Uncle Julio's messy apartment. Hector figures it's going to be one boring weekend. He couldn't be more wrong.

Margaret Millar's husband, Kenneth, who wrote under the name of Ross Macdonald, received more attention for his Lew Archer books, but her equally noteworthy mysteries are among the best of the genre. This story of love and greed among the rich and eccentric citizens of a California city - very much like the Millars' beloved Santa Barbara - is full of the things that make her work memorable - a wickedly twisted plot, sly observations on all social levels, and a writing style that welcomes you to the party like an old friend.

Claire Walker has always had her life in perfect order, including her high-powered job at one of Manhattan's top corporate law firms. Yet the one thing she cannot seem to find is a perfect love to complete it, until fate pushes Matías de León into her path. Matías is a Spanish artist who is everything that Claire is not: free-spirited and creative, chaos to her order. She falls for him, hard—and he for her. A year later, however, Claire begins to question everything about their relationship. How can they possibly work long-term when they're so different? Might it be best to end it?

After the violent, shadowy events surrounding his father's disappearance and his siblings' disbandment, Martín flees Mexico City with his wife, newborn son, and dog. Isolated and homesick in Madrid, Martín awakes one sticky, hot morning, quietly overwhelmed by the circumstances - his growing aversion to his son, the dog's sudden illness, and the vague unresolved danger from his abandoned homeland.

When the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 solidifies Castro’s power in Cuba, 12-year-old Cumba’s family makes the difficult decision to send him to Florida alone. Faced with the prospect of living in another country by himself, he tries to remember the sound of his father’s clarinet, the smell of his mother’s lavender perfume.

Lina has come home to the country of her childhood. Sent away from Colombia to England after her mother's death 20 years before, she's searching for the one person who can tell her about their shared past. She's never forgotten Matty, her childhood friend and protector, who now runs The Anthill, a day-care refuge for the street kids of Medellín. Lina begins volunteering there, but her reunion with Matty is not what she hoped for. Medellín is entering a new era, and Matty appears to have taken the city's attempts to redefine itself post-conflict to heart.

The 1992 Los Angeles Riots: six days of looting, arson, assault, and murder. America's second largest city in chaos. In All Involved Ryan Gattis weaves a heart-stopping narrative from the perspectives of characters whose stories of the riots were never told. In six sections, each covering a single day, we follow the intersecting lives of 17 people: gang members, firefighters, nurses, law enforcement officers, and graffiti artists, every one changed for ever.

Neither Mason, a US Special Forces medic, nor Lisette, a foreign correspondent, has emerged from America's long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan unscathed. Yet, for them, war still exerts a terrible draw - the noble calling, the camaraderie, the life-and-death stakes. Where else in the world can such a person go? All roads lead to Colombia, where the US has partnered with the local government to stamp out a vicious civil war and keep the predatory narco gangs at bay. Mason is ready for the good war, and Lisette is more than ready to cover it.