After a business trip to DC, our son Mark encountered a dilemma as he approached his gate. Representative John Lewis sat waiting to board the same plane. Mark watched as people were drawn to go speak to the congressman.

I first got an offer to preview an advance reading copy of Who Is Alex Trebek? by Lisa Rogak from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. Then I saw Alex on TV plugging his own memoir called The Answer Is . . . Reflections on My Life.

In all honesty, Alex Trebek and I started off with a shaky relationship. I remembered Art Fleming from the original Jeopardy! Alex was no Art Fleming, just a young upstart replacing a mature professor.

If you leave a Washington Heights apartment to travel across town to the academically upscale Riverdale Academy Day School as the “new kid” with only a smattering of kids of color in the whole grade, the ante has already been elevated.

I came to appreciate Amoun Sleem’s wisdom as we worked together for over a year on her autobiography told in A Gypsy Dreaming in Jerusalem. She gave me credit as the “wordsmith who helped me put my narrative in order” in her acknowledgements.

While it is often exciting to find a new book by a new author that hits the spot, sometimes I like to know before I open a book what I’m getting and that I am going to like it. I can do this sometimes when I see an author’s name I know.

We’ve had a few queries after our recent move about how we’ve enjoyed the peace and quiet in the country. One of those has been true – the other, not so much.

I originally wrote this piece and took the photograph for picture book month in 2018, but in light of Mississippi’s current flag news, I am doing a blog rerun with this picture book that recounts an almost forgotten part of our history.

There have been naysayers who have said it couldn’t be done, and some have used a common idiom to describe that “never,” but it has happened.

Heather Lende, with the style and wit of Erma Bombeck, gives an account of life and politics in Haines, Alaska in Of Bears and Ballots.  

The old saying of “Misery loves company,” fits what I’m hearing from my writing buddies these days. 

The title may be inaccurate by this time, but I recommend reading The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History by John M. Barry.

I have been thinking back to see if I could remember the first time I knew we had a broken system. I must have been about four years old. 

Part of Casey’s trouble appears from the beginning of Lily King’s novel, Writers and Lovers, with a broken romantic relationship and her mother’s death. 

Renowned author Laurie Halse Anderson brought her audience to laughter with her comment, “You’re gonna die!” 

If you are looking for a book that will do nothing but entertain you, The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner will fill the bill. 

I first met Shannan in happier times, relishing our roles as volunteers at the Kaigler Book Festival. 

People who heard his presentations and met him at the Kaigler Book Festival concluded that prolific artist illustrator Wendell Minor never sleeps. That would explain the three books I describe here that came out so close together, two brand new and one a reissue of an old favorite.

I am partial to the metaphor of this pandemic that says we are all in the same storm, but not in the same boat. 

Being a member of the Degrummond Book Group often takes me out of my comfort zone (also sometimes known as a rut). The pick for this month was The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman.