Former BJ reporters Thrity Umrigar and David Giffels went to Miami for the Nov. 16-23 International Book Fair at Dade College . . . and found each other.

It wasn’t easy. There were 600 authors at the book fair.

David’s latest is his commentary in photographer Andrew Borowiecz’s “The New Heartland: Looking for America’s Dream.” It was an updated, wider- geography version of Chuck Ayers drawing and Russ Musarra commenting in their “Walks Around Akron” series in the BJ that became a book, too.

Andrew’s camera and David’s prose found that “The once rolling farmlands that used to surround Ohio’s cities and define Middle America were rapidly giving way to vast suburban housing developments of nearly identical, hastily built mini-mansions with enormous garages and fancy yards. Homogenization and conformity had won over the American dream.”

Thrity’s latest is “The Story Hour,” another novel set in her native India.

Her previous novels are “Bombay Time” (2002), “The Space Between Us” (2007), “If Today be Sweet” (2008), “The Weight of Heaven” (2010) and “The World We Found” (2012), and all set in the country of her birth, as was her memoir, “First Darling of the Morning”  (2008).

David’s previous works are “The Hard Way on Purpose: Essays From the Rust Belt,” “All the Way Home: Building a Family in a Falling-Down House,” “Wheels of Fortune: The Story of Rubber in Akron” (co-authored by Steve Love) and “We Are Devo!: Are We Not Men?” about the Akron music group.

Quips Thrity of the BJ reunion photo op:

“What would I do without my buddy David David Giffels? At the Miami book fair authors party together.”

Thrity wasn’t sure she would make it to Miami because she was scheduled to take off from Cleveland Hopkins Airport at a time when Northeast Ohio’s on-again, off-again winter was looking bleak.

The eight-day book festival drew hundreds of thousands to downtown Miami.

Authors came from Argentina, Bosnia, Brazil, Canada, China, Cuba, Dominican Republic, England, France, Finland, Guatemala, Haiti, Hong Kong, Israel, Ireland, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Philippines, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Taiwan and Trinidad.