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Evelyn McDonnell, tattooed feminist, author of Mamarama: A Memoir of Sex, Kids, & Rock 'n' Roll, and former Herald pop culture critic speaks Sunday at 12 p.m. at the Miami Book Fair.

New Times: What do you think about today’s music? Coming from the 60s and 70s, where good music was so easily accessible, do you think music fans nowadays have to assert more effort into finding good music?

McDonnell: I came of age in the late 70s where they played Blondie and The Pretenders on the radio, but everything else I got from printed media. Or going to record stores and just talking to people. Like then, it demands a certain commitment from music lovers.

NT: What about mainstream music?

EM: Mainstream is not for music lovers anymore....

“Rarely has one man been blessed with such an auspicious destiny. Few have been endowed with so many gifts, opportunity and the good will of so many. That he squandered it so makes Cuba’s tragedy all the more wrenching.”

That man, of course, is Miami’s nemesis: Fidel Castro. The woman who wrote such an astute assessment is Ann Louise Bardach, who apeears at the Miami Book Fair on Sunday.

Bardach is a journalist who has covered Cuba for 15 years. She’s also been the target of some Miami residents’ ire over the years – namely, the hard-line Cuban exiles who think Bardach’s writings on Castro have been too soft, too forgiving. Bardach takes it all in stride, however: “At different times, different people in Miami hate me, while others love me. You cannot write about Cuban politics and have people love you all the time.”

Govind Armstrong has never been a prissy, stick-to-the-rules kind of chef. Even his culinary background is unconventional – instead of culinary school, he gathered his knowledge working with Wolfgang Puck at Spago at age 13, then working amidst a crowd of young, innovative chefs in acclaimed restaurants in California and Europe.

Armstrong will present his latest book, Small Bites, Big Nights: Seductive Little Plates for Intimate Occasions and Lavish Parties, tomorrow at the Book Fair.

He’s the executive chef and co-owner of Table 8, a chic, loungey restaurant that has bases in Los Angeles and right here on South Beach. It only makes sense that Armstrong’s cookbook would be an unconventional exploration of all things delicious. It’s organized into funky sections – “Celebr8,” “cre8,” and “l8 night” are among the loosly sorted “chapters” -- each of which include recipes for cocktails, appetizers, entrees, and desserts. By organizing (some might say disorganizing) his book in this fashion, Armstrong liberates aspiring cooks to create their own culinary experiences.

“I didn’t want to write a food bible that would just sit there on the shelf. I wanted this book to be totally approachable. I want people to get it dirty, use it often, and enjoy it. It’s about having a good time,” the celebrity chef explains.

Molly O'Neill will appear at the Miami Book Fair tomorrow, November 10, at 1:30 p.m. Her book, American Food Writing: An Anthology with Classic Recipes, cooks up a look at America’s history via over 100 concise and distinctive stories concerning food. O’Neill, the New York Times food columnist for a decade and host of the PBS series Great Food, talked with New Times:

NT: Just how much food writing did you have to read in order to compose this book?
MO: We read about 100 pages a week, for three years.

NT: After it was published, did you say, “Omigod, I forgot so and so? “
MO: Not forget, buy you’re always sad that -- I mean even though this is a huge book, there are people I wish that we’d been able to include.

NT: How come you didn’t include any of your own work?
MO: Well I have the introduction and all of the connective tissue. It would have seemed kind of piggish to put in more of my own writing.

NT: Any food writers complain to you about not being selected?
MO: Um-hmm.

NT: Care to name any?
MO: No. (laughs)