As is our traveling habit, we loaded the car and headed out at the crack of dawn to put an hour or so behind us before we stopped for breakfast. We took our break at Ward’s in Magee, 

There have been biographies of Arthur Conan Doyle before, but none quite like Margalit Fox’s Conan Doyle for the Defense. Looking at the true story about one specific incident in Doyle’s life in this book, Sherlock Holmes himself could be proud. 

Shinrin-yoku or Forest Bathing, the quirky name for this pursuit, does not require the removal of your clothes. In fact, it’s probably a good idea to wear long sleeves and pants since chiggers and ticks may be involved. 

Sometimes classifying a book can become difficult as is the case with Lillian Li’s Number One Chinese Restaurant – at least beyond the ethnicity! 

With no affluenza to interfere, Shakria Hall has a full ride to Harvard on a Bill Gates scholarship. She grew up in Mississippi, a state not often put into prestigious rankings, in the town of Bassfield, not widely known even in Mississippi. 

In a collection of interviews, Conversations with Will D. Campbell, University Press of Mississippi brings us an irascible and irreverent character saying what he thinks exactly like he thinks it in twelve interviews from 1971 to 2009.

If I may alter a phrase from Forrest Gump’s mother, “Husbands are like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get.” On this sixtieth anniversary of acquiring one, I can prove my point. 

The first time I remember Gary Alipio reading his work aloud in our SCBWI critique group, he had the voice down pat of a middle-school boy in deep trouble who had to finish an essay as punishment – 10,000 words if I remember correctly. 

I seldom repeat a blog, but Richard Peck has died. He had been a long time favorite author for me and my junior high students, and I considered it a high honor in 2010 when I was his chauffeur at the Kaigler Book Festival. 

The words of this title might describe the life goals of author Elaine Magliaro who worked as an elementary teacher for more than thirty years and finished up that career with three years as a school librarian, but they actually do something quite different. 

Little by little. A flood starts with a drop of water. A beach begins with a grain of sand. A novel opens with a single word. I don’t have to tell you we live in a stressed-out world that leaves an individual wondering what one person could possibly do. 

The degree of intrigue in the title of Jess Butterworth’s novel, Running on the Roof of the World,is no match for the tale she spins. Set in Tibet where Tash must follow rules of the Chinese soldiers, problems come out into the open when a man publicly sets himself on fire to protest the occupation. 

In a disclaimer right up front, neither my mother, my daughter, nor I could claim to be “birders,” but that doesn’t keep us from being interested in them, especially mother birds which seem just right for my blog before Mother’s Day.

I think the first time I heard the perk mentioned was when a writer friend did a week-long workshop with my junior high language arts students. She said, “One of the best things about being a writer is that you can work in your pajamas.” 

A friend recommended the book, Quiet by Susan Cain, that will be of interest to both introverts and extroverts, and even to those in-betweens called ambiverts. 

Card carrying nerds often find their excitement in places that might be strange to regular people. Frequently research is involved, as in the case of my recent jubilation.

The book title, The Neuroscientist Who Lost Her Mind, presents an intriguing promise that is kept by Barbara K. Lipska writing with Elaine McArdle in her memoir. 

Champions don’t all come in athletic form as Deborah Abela confirms in her book The Stupendously Spectacular Spelling Bee.

The invitation was universal. It covered tomorrow, next week, whenever you happen to be passing; covered you, your children, your elderly parents, your crazy Aunt Martha, your weird cousin Joe; covered with or without a specific invitation. I can hear it now from the door as we left the door of country people – or they left from ours. Now, I issue my own invitation to my remodeled website.