Fast becoming one of the hottest and hippest centers of fashion, art, and business, South Beach oozes visual appeal, night and day. From the bars to the beaches, this stunning and lush compilation of images and words depicts the seductive and stylish Tropical Deco world of South Beach, Florida. More than 100 full-color photographs. Regional tour.

Considered by many as the country’s most dynamic, fastest growing and sexiest city, Miami is more popular than ever before. Yet, it is a city that doesn’t merely change but evolves, never rewriting the past, just adding to its illustrious heritage. And this is the real beauty of Miami. The chic Surf Club and the vibrant Faena Hotel did not replace the emblematic Raleigh of the 1940s nor the Ritz Carlton of the 50s, rather they complement them. Classics like Joe’s Stone Crab continue to serve their signature fare to sell-out crowds each night, as new establishments attract with name chefs. The iconic art deco architecture remains on full display as the modern Herzog & de Meuron-designed Perez Art Museum stands in stark contrast. Replete with arts and culture year round from the international art at The Bass to the street art of Wynwood Walls, each December, the city is taken over by the global cultural elite for Art Basel Miami Beach, a fair that attracts over 80,000 visitors who turn out for the momentous art, such as Maurizio Cattelan’s show stopping “Comedian”, and the exuberant festivities hosted each evening.

HOT SAND. HOT CLUBS. HOT GUYS.What more could two girls want? Try the same guy.SPRING BREAK. SOUTH BEACH. 'NUFF SAID.On a trip to a place where anything can happen -- and does -- two ex-best friends discover that a chance encounter can lead to the chance of a lifetime.HOLLY: Dream date or bad fate? She wants true love--and a break from her strict parents. Perhaps a spring fling will do? ALEXA: Flirting with destiny or flirting with disaster? The guy of her dreams turns out to be her friend's first love. How far is she willing to go? This year, Spring Break is going to be scandalous!

From the acclaimed bestselling author of Philistines at the Hedgerow comes a remarkably revealing profile of the Miami Beach no one knows–a tale of fabulous excess, thwarted power, and rekindled lives that will take its place among the decade’s best works of social portraiture. Created from a mix of swampland and dredged-up barrier reef, Miami Beach has always been one part drifter-mecca and one part fantasyland, simultaneously a catch basin for con men, fast-talk artists, and shameless self-promoters, and a Shangri-La for sun worshippers and hardcore hedonists. In Miami Beach it’s often said that "if you’re not indicted you’re not invited." But the city’s mad, fascinating complexity resists easy stereotyping. Fool’s Paradise is more than just a present-day profile of a dark Eden. Gaines journeys back into the city’s social and cultural history, unearthing stories of the resort’s past that are every bit as absorbing–and jaw-dropping–as those of its present. The book begins with a snapshot of the city’s current excess (this is, after all, a sun-washed hamlet that boasts, on a per capita basis, more bars–and breast implants–than any other place in America), then plunges into the Beach’s origins, chronicling the audacious rise of such hoteliers as the Fontainebleau’s Ben Novack and the Eden Roc’s Harry Mufson, the sharp-elbowed tactics of Al Capone and Frank Sinatra, and the Mac-10 shooting sprees of the Marielito and Colombian drug lords. From there, the narrative shifts to two wildly eccentric souls who gave their lives to preserving the city’s architectural dazzle and creating its color palette, introduces us to "the Most Powerful Man in Miami Beach," and arrives finally in the modern day, where we meet, among others, a kinky German playboy who once owned a quarter of South Beach and publicly flaunts his sexual escapades; a fabulously successful nightclub promoter whose addictive past seems to have given him a portal into the night world’s id; and a gaggle of young sexy models, dreamers, and schemers on a mission to achieve significance. Evoking the Beach’s surreal blend of flashy Vegas and old Hollywood glamour, as well as its manic desperation and reckless wealth, Gaines persuasively demonstrates that though the Beach is–in the words of its most famous drag queen–"an island of broken toys . . . a place where people get away with things they’d never get away with anyplace else," it casts an irresistible spell.

Left suddenly penniless and alone, twenty-nine-year-old trust fund child Gabriel Tucker discovers his only asset is an old Miami Beach apartment building named the Venus De Milo Arms and heads for Florida to rebuild his life, only to become caught up in the outrageous and decadent world of South Beach, surrounded by a colorful assortment of offbeat characters. Original.

Miami is one of the great destinations of the world. Gerald Hoberman, the widely acclaimed, award winning, master photographer, author and designer took to the air over Miami in a romantic helium-filled blimp. What better way to capture the vibrant sunny disposition of Miami and the beaches, that sparkling jewel of Florida's coastline on camera? Hoberman then comes down to earth so to speak, camera at the ready and in an extraordinary display of further photographic and artistic virtuosity, incisively captures the very spirit and essence of Miami as never before. Each impactful image will leave the reader spellbound from cover to cover. Accompanied by well researched, informative and entertaining text, it also has some typical Hoberman serendipity thrown in for good measure to add "spice to the gingerbread." This book, one of a kind, will provide many fascinating hours of riveting reading. It is a "must have" for travelers planning a journey there. It is a wonderful memento for those who have already visited and deserves a special pride of place, in the homes and libraries of the people who proudly call Miami home.