My young adult friend Tina, who had known us and our children for several years, had a question. She had been paying attention as our nest had emptied with our youngest two children heading to college a year apart. “Virginia, are you really this happy or is this a front?”

Leaving the theater after seeing the current version of Little Women, my daughter-in-law and I discussed the perennial question of which character we identified with, and she brought up an interesting point. 

Nothing brings on the need for a Pity Party like a sheet of paper with the heading “INSTRUCTIONS FOR SCALING/ROOT PLANING PATIENTS” from the periodontist. I’ve been in this predicament enough times that I’ve become an expert at making plans.

Surrounding myself with things that make me feel good is a coping mechanism for dealing with the days when the writing won’t come or the rejection letters do. The photograph, “Lunch Atop a Skyscraper,” is one of those. 

Paul Yoon’s novel, Run Me to the Earth, begins in the 1960s in Laos during the Vietnam War. The author’s note at the beginning sets the stage for three orphans, Alisak, Prany, and Noi, who learn to navigate their motorcycles between the unexploded cluster bombs or “bombies.”

I should have known to sift through all the Styrofoam peanuts, plastic bubbles, and newspaper stuffing when I opened my daughter’s package, but I was probably relieved that I finally got into it at all. 

Facebook friends formed a tag team this week and have taken me back to talk about an old book instead of a new one. Who would have thought that the 125thanniversary of the New York Public Library would have such significance for a country girl from Mississippi?

A funny thing turned up in our recent move that took me back in time. We were living in Germany, and our planned trip over the Thanksgiving holiday season had a few glitches.

A prologue set on Tuesday, September 21, 1926 at 9:12 p.m. sets the stage for The Hollows, a mystery by Jess Montgomery, located in Ohio near a railroad track through the Appalachian hills.

The Shetlands are cute and friendly, but not too bright. In fact, they might be more aptly named Dumb and Dumber. Proof lies in looking carefully at the area on either side of the fence.

Today’s wealth of young adult literature hadn’t appeared when I was an avid teenage reader. I did love the series of Nancy Drew and Sue Barton, Student Nurse, but I don’t remember a lot of others. 

I’ve lived long enough to know that a new year brings expectations that will be met along with a number of things one would never supposed could happen. As I look back on this year, I have to admit that 2019 brought more than its share of unexpecteds. 

In a new kind of two-for-one, I pulled out a treat to celebrate the holidays (and to ignore packing boxes for a while). 

Joseph has lost his staff. The moss on the manger roof is splotchy. The donkey has no ears and the cow only one of her horns. 

Surprisingly, A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles first appeared on my radar in a recommendation at a conference for children’s book writers.

I love making the chocolate covered cherries at Christmas as much for the memories they bring as for the current consumption. I had made them and left them out for indulgence the first year our oldest son brought his wife home for the Christmas gathering

Packing for the recent move took me through a mass of books, and since we are downsizing, not all of them could go to the new place. A very few made the trash heap as no more use to anybody.

The question came up on Facebook last week as a friend posted, “I’ve had two people recently ask me what the “theme” of my Christmas tree is. Um ...?” I assume the ones asking the question have a theme – starry skies, angels, elves, or bobbleheads – who knows?

Normally, the words I associate with our church choir director run to things like knowledgeable, humorous, big-voiced, committed, and playful.

All the stuff from the old house was at the new house on our final run about 5 PM as we moved across town, and I just needed a little break. A few minutes with a new book highly recommended by my librarian daughter should give me energy