RARE BOOK CAFE: Author Larry Baker, whose book The Flamingo Rising was on the ALA banned book list

WATCH LIVE: We're delighted to have author Larry Baker as the guest Thursday at 9:30 p.m. on Rare Book Cafe. His most well-known book is The Flamingo Rising, which was adapted for television and featured on the Hallmark Hall of Fame. It was also included on the American Library Association's Banned Book List.

The Flamingo Rising is set in St. Augustine (where Larry lived for several years) and deals with feuding families who run a drive-in movie theater and a next-door funeral home. It draws on his experience running drive-ins in Oklahoma and Texas. And we have it on good authority that the scene where the dead woman was found on the toilet really happened. And Larry had to carry her to her car.

Larry draws from his life in most his books. He was elected twice to the Iowa City City Council and wrote a novel, Athens/America (2005), based on the experience. Right after the book came out, Larry ran for a third term but finished fifth. Apparently too many people recognized themselves in the book.

His most recent book, The Education of Nancy Adams (2014), is set in the St. Augustine and is about a young widow who returns to her old high school to teach. He lives in Iowa City and teaches history at a community college in Cedar Rapids. He's very old school when it comes to electronics. He has banned laptops and computers from his classroom because research shows handwritten notes are retained better.

You can watch Larry Baker LIVE right here on the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair blog or you can tune in to Blab.im and participate in the conversation. It's easy to get on Blab.im. Here's how: Open your Twitter account then open a new window on our browser and navigate to Blab.im. Log in using your Twitter account. Choose the subjects that interest you so Blab can make recommendations. (You can ignore the recommendations.) In the SEARCH field, type Rare Book Cafe. Scroll down a little way and you should see the icon for the program. Subscribe to it and you will receive a notice when it goes on the air.

You can watch the replays for any Rare Book Cafe on Blab and you can see selected ones right here on the book fair blog. Rare Book Cafe is sponsored by the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair.