Heather B. Moore sets her book, In the Shadow of a Queen, in the time of Queen Victoria. The novel is based on the life of Victoria’s fourth daughter and sixth child, Princess Louise, using original sources research. The princess has a reputation of being the most beautiful and most talented child of Victoria and Albert.

Maybe it’s just me, but my feeling is that life is picking up where it left off pre-pandemic. This week’s already filled calendar was augmented with a little bit of this and a little bit of that thrown in all the cracks. Next week’s calendar portends a similar week.

Eighth grader Ginny Shepard, in Sara St. Antoine’s new book Front Country, falls prey to a sudden obsession that overshadows the rest of her life. She falls in love with the most adorable animal she has ever seen, the pika, and then learns that it may not survive in the midst of climate change.

I give thanks today for an aunt who kept old family pictures, a cousin who knew how to put them on a thumb drive, and a daughter who knew how to take them off and send them to me. Included is this cherished picture of lifelong friends who became my great-grandmothers.

As she has done before, Kristina McMorris takes us back into historical fiction with her new book, The Ways We Hide. Her first chapter begins in Brooklyn, New York in 1942 as Fenna Vos becomes disenchanted with her partner in her magic act.

My introduction to this blog has an abject apology to Laura Numeroff, who did a much more enchanting list with, “If you give a mouse a cookie.”

Elizabeth Strout returns to my favorite fictional divorced couple in Lucy by the Sea. It is not necessary, though it would be a lot of fun, to read the previous two books in what could be loosely termed a trilogy with this couple whose friendship comes and goes long after their marriage is over.

In her book that I read recently, Katherine Paterson tells the story of her short experience in teaching. When she had no problems with a class that had previously caused great difficulty to a strong authoritarian male teacher, one of the students gave this explanation, “She had this Look. When she fixed it on you, you knew to stop what you were doing and straighten up.”

In an updated adult version of a book published by Dial Books for Young Readers in 2014, Westminster John Knox Press brings us Stories of My Life, by Katherine Paterson. It has differences and similarities to a memoir.

As I have been glued to the screen watching the ceremonies that have surrounded Queen Elizabeth II’s death, I have found it remarkable how many common people have related personally to her – many of them not even British. I count myself in this group – about as common as they come and not British.

Rightfully, music becomes an underlying theme in Duet, Phillip Hoose’s newest book focusing on the mockingbird. Five states, including my home state of Mississippi, have chosen it as the official bird. Mockingbirds have their own music and also borrow from other birds, sounds in nature, and even noises that humans make.

Currently, I am in a waiting mode in the book publishing process. The next step is not up to me, nor is the date that it will occur. So, what do I do as I wait? I remember some of the fun things that have happened along the way.

Author Alda Dobbs read my review of The Barefoot Dreams of Petra Luna and took pity on my impatience for the sequel and sent me an advance reading copy of The Other Side of the River to cut my wait. In this sequel, twelve-year-old Petra must find a way in this world that is totally new to her, beginning with the immigrant camp with double death threats of smallpox and hunger.

A couple of garden animals and a Facebook meme took my mind back to the classroom. It never takes much. As they say, “Once a teacher, always a teacher.”

Sarah C. Campbell, with some help from her husband Richard P. Campbell, has once again taken words and photographs to bring meaning for children to a mathematical and scientific concept in her newest book Infinity: Figuring Out Forever that goes on sale tomorrow, August 30.

Al, the only living brother of the four that reached adulthood, the three remaining Butler sisters-in-law, a bunch of Butler cousins, and a few stray in-laws finally had a post-Covid gathering this past June. The oldest sister-in-law brought out family pictures, letters, and memorabilia that began a wonderful time of sharing memories. I asked about one missing item.

I have been anticipating Linda Williams Jackson’s newest book, The Lucky Ones, for some time. Thankfully, Lemuria Book Store had it in anticipation of her appearance at the Mississippi Book Festival when we made a recent trip to Jackson.

The question that popped up on Facebook with an assortment of banned books brought back a memory first and a curiosity later. The question asked, “Why was A Light in the Attic banned?”

If you have a little person in your life that needs to be introduced to books and counting, I have a great suggestion. Five Hiding Ostriches by Barbara Barbieri McGrath is just out.

Rinker Buck, in his new book Life on the Mississippi, takes his readers with him as he builds a flatboat modeled after those from the early 1800s. It takes a year, combining care for his aging mother with work on the boat, to build it before he sails the flatboat two thousand miles down the Mississippi to New Orleans.