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.
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Maylon Rice is a former journalist who worked for several northwest Arkansas publications. He can be reached via email at [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author.