Marriage, Murder and Peanuts
Viewing an M.C. Escher painting inspires fascination and frustration. My feelings waver between total awe that he is able to fit all these figures into one uninterrupted whole and the feeling that—as remarkable as the picture may be—it's just too perfect, too forced, to work.
Kids + Junie B. Jones = FUN
Kids ages 4-8 and their parents should get ready for a ton of fun when Junie B. Jones' Stupid Smelly Bus rolls into town June 14. The bright pink Junie B. Jones bus will be in the Jackson metro area as part of a five-week nationwide tour.
Did He Do It?
Did grocery delivery driver Willie McGee crawl through a window, wake mother of three Willette Hawkins from her sleep as she held her infant daughter and rape her? Or did Hawkins wake up after a nightmare and believe it actually happened? Did she make it up?
Simply Surviving
When I think of a future dystopian society accompanied by a series of natural disasters, movies like "Waterworld" and "Mad Max Beyond the Thunderdome" are regrettably the first stories that come to mind.
Books for Mom
Getting any gift for Mom is always a daunting task. It's either classy or sassy, depending on her style. So why not get her a book? It can appeal to both sides, and do and learn something new on her special day.
Books for Grads
Transitional states such as graduation can render a person wide open emotional lows and highs. This is actually the perfect moment to go out and explore the world. The following is a sampling from an ocean of books to get you amped up to splash into life freshly, wildly and mindfully.
Death by Cubicle
Instead of delving into a 9-to-5 pace, Colleen Kinder sought out a national fellowship that took her to Cuba. The 2003 Yale graduate spent her first year out of college marching with students opposed to Fidel Castro, volunteering in a nursing home, salsa dancing and writing.
Shhh ... It's Top Secret
They're out there—the aliens. You may not want to believe, but I have seen proof.
Biography of a Bomb
On July 24, 1945, President Harry Truman approached Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and told him the United States had developed a "new and powerful weapon." After years of deceiving their Soviet allies, the Americans confessed that they had successfully tested the world's first atomic bomb the week before.
A Story That Deserves Telling
When three white men invaded the home of an African American family in rural Attala County, the nation saw much of the story through the eyes of Billy McMillan, a photographer and reporter at his father-in-law's weekly paper, the Kosciusko Star-Herald.
The Secrets of War
In "The Surrendered" (Riverhead, 2010, $17.79), Chang-rae Lee tells a story of love, loss and sacrifice with a deceptive ease that will hook readers from the first sentence and hold them to the last page.
Passion, Obsession and Art
In "Swan Thieves" (Little, Brown and Company, 2010, $26.99), author Elizabeth Kostova combines art, obsession, passion and the great lengths people will go to defend their loves.
Reveling in the Details
How do you measure the heft of a novel? I don't mean its weight in your hand, but its importance, its influence. If you're an inveterate reader, as in firmly established by long persistence, you realize you take in every word, you know the novel's characters, you assimilate what happens to them, using your own life to interpret.
Southern? Not So Much
Years ago, Oxford American magazine published an issue with a Southern Womanhood theme, featuring Ashley Judd in a University of Kentucky jersey. Men lusted after southern women in numerous articles.
Build a Cozy Nest
In their new book, "The Comfortable Home: How to Invest in Your Nest and Live Well for Less" (Clarkson Potter, 2009, $35), co-authors Bob Williams and Mitchell Gold, business partners and owners of the home-furnishing company Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams, give easy-to-follow ideas on how to decorate or redecorate your home. They place a lot of focus on the planning that goes into creating functional, comfortable and budget-friendly rooms. According to Gold and Williams, before you can decorate a room appropriately you need to know the function of that room and how it is going to be used. Once you know that, decorating becomes much easier.