To paraphrase a long-ago governor of North Carolina, it's a long time between series entries.

But Nelson County resident Rita Mae Brown finally returns to her Runnymede series, and sisters Juts and Wheezie Hunsenmeir, in The Sand Castle (103 pages, Grove Press, $18.95). The series began with 1978's "Six of One" and continued with 1988's "Bingo" and 1999's "Loose Lips." Now, after a long wait, comes "The Sand Castle," set in the small town of Runnymede, Md., in 1952.

Brown, who for years has been focusing on her two best-selling mystery series, centers this slim novel on family and its pleasures and heartaches.

. . .

Biographies of Civil War figures are anything but rare, and more seem to be appearing with the approach of the war's sesquicentennial.

Darrell L. Collins, the author of several books on the war, turns his attention to one of the war's neglected personages in Major General Robert E. Rodes of the Army of Northern Virginia (494 pages, Savas Beatie, $32.95).

Rodes, a native of Lynchburg and a graduate of Virginia Military Institute, served in all of the Army of Northern Virginia's major campaigns, distinguishing himself at Chancellorsville, faltering at Gettysburg and falling at Third Winchester on Sept. 19, 1864.

Collins, whose ancestors served on both sides of the conflict, lives in Colorado.

. . .

Sadly, the Richmond Braves are in their final season here, but diamond devotees will find plenty to rekindle memories in Baseball in Richmond (128 pages, Arcadia Publishing, $19.99) by lifelong Hanover County resident Ron Pomfrey.

People who remember Parker Field (The Diamond's predecessor), the Richmond Virginians (the longtime Triple-A franchise that preceded the R-Braves) and even earlier events will find Pomfrey's history of the past 100 years of Richmond baseball -- and the bounty of photos -- irresistible.

-- Jay Strafford