THE LIFE AND TIMES OF MIAMI BEACH

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF MIAMI BEACH Ann Armbruster (Knopf, $45) You would think it was a new colony, from the way we act, professing the sudden newfound hipness of Miami’s South Beach as though we were the ones to discover it. But as Armbruster’s thoroughly entertaining historical account details, with archival photographs from the turn of the century to the present, Miami was the place the hot went to cool out when glamour reigned. Far from bursting a bubble, knowing where Jackie Gleason stayed and Desi Arnaz played only adds to the conviction that Miami Beach is, indeed, worth our rediscovery. And anyone who has made the trip — or dreams of doing so — should treat this handsome tome as necessary poolside reading. A- — Rebecca Ascher-Walsh