Seasons of Real Florida

No wonder Jeff Klinkenberg loves Florida. At any time of year he can find a place in the state that''s ripe to enjoy or a person whose story has aged to perfection. Arranged by season, the book opens in the fall, which Klinkenberg says is like spring in the north - a time of celebration: ""Having survived our harshest season, we feel renewed,"" Fair weather, good food, and the joys of nature lie ahead, described here in essays that are like time capsules of ""old Florida values."" Preserving the past, they reveal Klinkenberg''s waggish appreciation of the state''s history, folkways, and landscape, not to mention its ribs, smoked mullet, stone crab claws, and fresh lemonade. Many pieces focus off the beaten path and on modern rogues who seem to turn their backsides to the subdivisions and shopping malls that pave the state: Miss Ruby, whose fruit stand features rutabagas, boiled peanuts, and her own brightly colored plywood paintings; an 85-year-old resident of the remote island of Cayo Costa who hums Beethoven while she hunts for shells; the scientists who test mosquito repellent in Everglades National Park; and the unofficial caretaker of Lilly Spring on the Santa Fe River.