REGISTRATION REQUIRED. Join us for an outdoor book club that focuses on our natural world. We discuss our all-time favorite nature titles, both fiction and non-fiction. The book club meets at parks throughout St. Johns County, practically in your own backyard! This month we will be meeting in Vaill Point Park.

This month we’ll be reading the chilling true story of the destructive power of hurricanes and the effect of one in particular upon Florida. Last Train to Paradise is acclaimed novelist Les Standiford’s fast-paced and gripping true account of the extraordinary construction and spectacular demise of the Key West Railroad–one of the greatest engineering feats ever undertaken, destroyed in one fell swoop by the Labor Day hurricane of 1935. Brilliant and driven entrepreneur Henry Flagler’s dream fulfilled, the Key West Railroad stood as a magnificent achievement for more than twenty-two years, heralded as ‘the eighth wonder of the world.’ Standiford brings the full force and fury of 1935’s deadly ‘storm of the century’ and its sweeping destruction of ‘the railroad that crossed an ocean’ to terrifying life. Last Train to Paradise celebrates a crowning achievement of Gilded Age ambition in a sweeping tale of the powerful forces of human ingenuity colliding with the even greater forces of nature’s wrath. This title is available on the Libby platform as an e-book and an e-audiobook. Please contact Amy directly if you’d prefer a print copy of the book.

This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. If the weather is sunny, please bring your own camp chair for sitting out under the trees. If it’s rainy, we’ll be sitting in the park pavilion. Feel free to bring your own snacks & beverages! Please notify us at least 3 days in advance if you should need a sign language interpreter. If you have questions please contact Amy at aackerman@sjcfl.us or 904.827.6934.

This book club is a partnership between the St. Johns County Public Library System and the St. Johns County Parks & Recreation Department.  Some materials are supplied by the Friends of the Main Library St. Augustine.