When Net Galley offers a book by Karen Cushman, I know I need to make a request. Known best for her Newbery Award winners, Catherine, Called Birdy and The Midwife’s Apprentice, she is in her element when she sets her books in her home state of Oregon.

Daddy’s temper had kicked in before we could get lunch after church on that Sunday. Little did he know that he would soon be adding a story to his family lore. He confronted my teenaged aunt who had been given what seemed like a simple assignment for the church service.

His younger siblings claimed it was unfair that Murray seemed to get out of any punishment because he could always make me laugh. Evidence came in his required essay with a word count that I assigned for playing ball in the house. Scattered throughout were numbering notes to document the progress of the word count with notice that he had a bonus of five extra.

Get ready to order ahead a middle-grade-and-up book (out on February 18) that casts a realistic look at the dynamics when an addiction problem piles on top of other family issues. Kerry Madden-Lunsford’s new book Werewolf Hamlet takes the reader there.   

Setting aside my time for sheer pleasure on our recent snow day (all two inches!), I pulled out the newest Louise Penny mystery, The Grey Wolf. On my reserve list for months at the Oak Grove Public Library, my turn had come with perfect timing. I expected nothing but watching over the top of my book as the snow fell while sitting in my favorite chair with a cup of tea.

When all was said and done yesterday, we got about two inches of snow – not nearly as much as our friends in New Orleans, but still. The day filled with pop-ins from the two grandsons next door, mostly exuberant 11-year-old Owen. Benjamin, recovering from a head cold and nearing the blasé world of teenage, was a bit more subdued. The day went like this.

Our long anticipated trip to Alaska brought either serendipity (a happy coincidence) or lagniappe (something additional or extra). You may decide. Whatever it was, it continues.

On July 13, 2007, in Fairbanks, Alaska, our young server asked a question before she took our breakfast order. “Are you a writer?”

For many years, one of my favorite quotes from Shakespeare has been, “And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.” Perhaps this fondness comes from the nature lover or the writer in me or a combination of the two.

When I was six, my two little sisters and I excitedly bounced out of bed on Christmas morning, pretty sure that Santa Claus had come with presents during the night. We gathered with Mama and Daddy around the cedar tree we had cut in the woods.

Jasmine Warga has a new middle grade book out called A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall. On the whole, I love realistic books, but now and then one with a slice of magical realism touches my fancy. This is just such a book.

I’ve been fond of a smooth braid since I wore them growing up. Cynthia Leitich Smith created just that kind of braid with three plotlines threaded smoothly through to a delightful conclusion in her new book, On a Wing and a Tear.

At 6:53 on November 5, 2024, Allen and I took our place as number 11 and 12 in the line awaiting the opening of our Lamar County polling place. By the seven o’clock opening, the line had doubled. It would triple by the time we cast our votes.

When one of your very favorite YA fiction authors (Ruta Sepetys) joins one of your very favorite YA nonfiction authors (Steve Sheinken) to write a book together, there is just one possibility for what to do. I requested the advance copy from Net Galley and began what promised to be a good read.

I would find it hard to decide if I love most the music of the poetry or the life-depicting meaning of the Teacher in the third chapter of Ecclesiastes with its traditional pairings. I am not alone. Some of my readers will go back far enough to remember Pete Seeger’s classic song “Turn, Turn, Turn” with probably the most famous recording by The Byrds.

If you live in South Mississippi, you may have to squint to see it, but September brings hints of fall.

Both of my fans have asked what happened to my blog. The short answer is life. With its twists and turns, the blog has had to take a breather. Today seemed a good day to return since it is a Saturday as Saturdays were meant to be.

Before there was binge TV watching, there was binge reading. Since I have started a new binge set, I’ve been thinking about some binge reading from my past.

Normally, I do not look for books with more than one author, but Break to You publicity had an intriguing topic for me – two teens in juvenile detention. Break to You has three authors: Neal Shusterman, Debra Young, and Michelle Knowlden. As a writer, I can’t figure out how you even write with one other person, much less two, but these three have figured it out.

Just when you were sure Romeo and Juliet died tragic deaths because of love, here comes their daughter Rosaline Montague to straighten out the story in A Fair Daughter of Verona by Christina Dodd.

Okay, so I borrowed the title of this blog from the current issue of Thema. There is a reason for that. More than a year ago I saw the invitation on the Thema website to write with this theme. Probably a year before that I had written a poem triggered by seeing the wood violets blooming beneath the trees in my yard.