I'll step back as the on-again and off-again Special Session begins next week down in Little Rock.
As previously written, an out-of-state literary expert challenged me once to "list" 50 Arkansas books that were not simply text books on history or about civil war battles or soldiers.
At first, I thought it to be quite a challenge, but after a look at my bookshelves of volumes gathered down through the years, this is not a great challenge.
See if you have read some, all or many of these. They are not listed in a particular order.
1. A Painted House by John Grisham.
2. The Daughter of the Republican by Bernice Babcock.
3. Victory over Japan by Ellen Gilchrist.
4. Things That Fall from the Sky – by Kevin Brockmeier.
5. Camp Nine – by Vivienne Schiffer.
6. Beasts of Prey by Ayana Gray.
7. Simpkinsville and Vicinity – edited by Ethel C. Simpson.
8. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings – by Maya Angelou.
9. The Dixie Association by Donald "Skip" Hays.
10. True Grit by Charles Portis.
11. Sassafras Mountain Sketches by Beverly Dresbach.
12, Goodbye Sweet Water by Henry Duman.
13. Looking For Hogeye by Roy Reed.
14. The Barling Darling by Billy Higgins.
15. At War and on the Home Front by Susan Parks Spencer.
16. Under A Buttermilk Moon by Roy Webster.
17. The Captain's Wife by Douglas Kelly.
18. Plantation Princess from Another Planet by Louise Mann.
19. Of The Hills and Us by Fred Starr.
20. Africa Alone by Sandy McMath.
21. Bench Warmer by Bill Lancaster.
22. Acres of Sky by Charles Morrow Wilson.
23. Blind Judgement by Grif Stockley.
24. Gravely The Mules Stopped Dancing by Charles Allbright.
25. True Stories of Needed Justice by Judge Henry Smith.
26. The Grudge Creek and Wad Chronicles by Richard Allin.
27. Toss of a Lemon by Padma Viswanathan.
28. Deep In The Holler by Elizabeth Hardin Burke.
29. I Met A Goat On the Road by Denele Campbell.
30. The Blood Latitudes by William Harrison.
31. The Arkansas Traveller by Liz Smith Parkhurst.
32. The Errand of the Eye by Hope Norman Coulter.
33. A Lovely Murder by Lori Erickson.
34. If You Walk Long Enough by Nancy Hartney.
35. Tin Hollow by J. B. Hogan
36. When Men Betray by Webb Hubbell.
37. Arkansas Mischief by Susan McDougal.
38. Do The Right Thing by Mike Huckabee.
39. Open Windows by John Workman.
40. The Cockroaches of Stay More by Donald S. Harrington.
41. Noble's Way by Dusty Richards
42. Dead Until Dark by Charlene Harris.
43. Letters to a Shooting Star by Keith Hale.
44. Weedy Rough by Douglas Jones.
45. Iron Shoes by Molly Giles.
46. Home by Adrienne Thompson.
47. The Mighty Mites by Jim Dent.
48. Sex and the Single Girl – by Helen Gurley Brown.
49. Remembering Ella: A 1912 Murder and Mystery by Nita Gould.
50. Holly Street by Steve Petkoff.
Some of the books may seem narrow in focus, such as Holly Street, a focus of a street in Helena, but these volumes do weave a pretty good tapestry of Arkansas and Arkansas books.
Next week: back to the political grind.