At Oak Grove Public Library, the library I frequent most often, a new wrinkle has been the final line in my checkout slip and on the email they send to document my loans. 

The prologue (love a good prologue!) sets a backstory for the mystery to come – the mystery part a foregone conclusion with a book titled A Baker Street Wedding. 

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.

If Christmas is coming there must be a Richard Paul Evans book as well. 

What, you might ask, do Scrooge, the Grinch, and Al have in common? Quite a bit it turns out. 

My interest in epilepsy began in grade school when I saw a girl sitting a couple of benches ahead of me having a grand mal seizure. 

I like living here in Hattiesburg. I really do, but I miss autumn. 

As a rule of thumb, I have an aversion to people who take a favorite book and either make a movie or add extensions of any kind to it. The more I loved it, the worse I take offense to any deviation 

To be fair, the lady on the phone from the insurance company called less than an hour after the accident and had no way of knowing I was in the middle of a reasonably contained mob waiting turns to talk to judges. 

Of course, I could not leave picture book week without a contribution from Ezra Jack Keats. Apt. 3is a current favorite.

Planning Thanksgiving dinner for a Mississippian with a daughter-in-law who grew up in New Hampshire first of all requires a definition of terms.

My third choice for this picture book month is nonfiction with a biography of one of the first African American congressmen, The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch. 

Ever helpful as my first reader and assuming I can turn out a blog on any subject, Al called me outside to see his discovery that had popped up overnight. “Can you write a blog about mushrooms?” 

Customarily, I have introduced my grandson Benjamin to picture books I think he will enjoy. In this case, he returned the favor by introducing me to The Snail and the Whale.

As voting reached near fever pitch in this midyear election, I have thought about this right to participate that so often goes unheralded and ignored. 

Celebrating picture book month on my blog this month begins with a cookbook of all things! Each Monday of November will feature a different kind of picture book.

I love research as much as the next basic nerd. However, there are times when even those of us who fit this description get a laugh at things people choose to investigate and the results that should have been self-evident without a study. 

Heather Montgomery gives a warning at the beginning of Something Rotten that her book is not for squeamish souls, reckless readers, or the tenderhearted. Her subtitle, “A Fresh Look at Roadkill,” suggests a reason for her advice. 

Try googling “happy place” and you will come up with exotic places and crowded locations in expensive sites. Requirements to participate may include travel, money, and time. Maybe that works for some people, but not for me. 

Louise Wolfe, the Muskogee (Creek) protagonist in this novel, moves between her life as a high school senior in a school that is minimally diverse and the rich culture of her ancestry