Dear Reader

Dear Reader Column 07-31-06

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Dear Reader,

My husband and I have cleared our house of any snack type foods. Our new rule is: if you can eat it without any preparation it's banned from our cupboards---with the exception of fruits and vegetables. My dear husband wants to lose 15 pounds and I want to lose three. I know, go ahead and slap me now. But the three pounds I've gained, there's no room for them in some of my pants and that's never happened to me before. Besides I've been eating too much sugar lately.

We discussed this new lifestyle when my husband and I were driving home from our Smoky Mountain vacation. Perhaps that's the reason I had to make several extra stops on the way, to eat the good stuff while it was still legal. After one caramel apple and some black and red licorice, I thought things were under control, but temptation got the best of me when I drove by a billboard on a winding mountain road advertising homemade chocolate candies. Ah, such effective marketing. Immediately there were visions of hand dipped dark chocolate covered peanuts and caramels dancing in my head and I just had to stop. It was one of my better decisions and after four pieces of hand dipped delights, that was it. I committed myself to our new lifestyle.

But it's been a little over a week and today I'm beginning to rethink things. One of them is that you shouldn't make any new life decisions immediately after returning from a vacation, because your mind isn't living in the real world yet. Especially if you've just spent 10 days in the mountains, where everyone knows the air is thinner. It's obvious I wasn't getting enough oxygen. You can't be held accountable for contracts or agreements you entered into when your mind was oxygen impaired.

It's all a sugary blur today and I'm not sure how or why I agreed to this new lifestyle thing, but I am sure that I want a cookie or a dark chocolate Dove Bar and I want it now.

Those pants that don't fit anymore? I never really liked them anyway.

Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.

Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com 
http://www.DearReader.com

AUTHORBUZZ: We're going to the movies again this week; plus get a $ off coupon even if you don't win a book; and of course signed free books from these terrific authors: Elisabeth Brink, Save Your Own; Y. Euny Hong, Kept; Stephen J. Cannell, White Sister; and Brenda Novak, Dead Silence. Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader

READ THE CLASSICS: The Recognitions, by William Gaddis, and enter the free Penguin Classic's Drawing. Go to: http://www.supportlibrary.com/nl/path_go.cfm?x=815&site=20

Dear Reader Column 07-28-06

Join my email book club. Over 330,000 people read 5-minutes a day. To see what books I'm featuring this week, go to: http://www.dearreader.com/

Dear Reader,

On the way home from our vacation in the Smoky Mountains, my husband and I stopped in a little town called Cherokee and I found the best caramel apple I've had since I lived in Wisconsin. I found something else too, but I almost didn't bother to pick it up because it was so tiny, I thought it must be a kid's toy wallet.

But there it was, lying on the sidewalk, so what the heck. Opened it up, couldn't find any identification, but when I looked in the side of the wallet: one hundred, two hundred, three hundred, four hundred, five hundred, six hundred, seven hundred and thirty dollars!

It's the weirdest feeling when you find a wallet with $730 dollars in it. Things got serious real fast. I looked around to see if anyone was watching and then I held the wallet down inside of my book bag, so I could discreetly count the bills again. Yep, my math was right the first time. Is this real money? I must've watched way too much TV when I was kid, because the first thing I thought about was that I should smile because I must be on "Candid Camera."

Okay, a wallet, no ID, a whole lotta money in it, what to do? Several troubling scenarios were coming to mind. Since there wasn't any ID or credit cards in the wallet, maybe this was all the money somebody had. I shuddered at the thought. Imagine traveling and you lose every single penny that you brought with you. My husband and I decided to split up and canvass the area.

We spent 30 minutes asking, "Did you lose a wallet?" and when nobody claimed it, I decided to leave my name and cell phone number at the Visitor's Center.

It was our last day in the Smoky Mountains. We were heading back home, but the drive was extremely unsettling because I couldn't get the money out of my mind. Oh boy, did I hope the owner would eventually call. What was I going to do with this money, this money that wasn't mine? I felt like I was carrying stolen goods.

And then my cell phone rang and the man on the other end of the line described the wallet "to a T". Glenn and his wife (I never did get her name) live in Michigan and they were on vacation. The wallet was Glenn's backup wallet. He had cleverly slipped it in his boot, but when he tried on a pair of shoes, the wallet must have worked its way up out of his boot and onto the sidewalk.

Glenn was one happy guy and I was one relieved woman.

Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.

Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com 
http://www.DearReader.com

P.S. Send me an email and let me know what you thought of this week's book. I always share your comments with the author and publisher. Thanks a lot. I appreciate it.

READ THE CLASSICS: The Recognitions, by William Gaddis, and enter the free Penguin Classic's Drawing. Go to: http://www.supportlibrary.com/nl/path_go.cfm?x=815&site=20 

Dear Reader Column 07-27-06

Join my email book club. Over 330,000 people read 5-minutes a day. To see what books I'm featuring this week, go to: http://www.dearreader.com/

Dear Reader,

Last year when we vacationed in the Smoky Mountains three wild turkeys visited us every morning. But this year, the wildlife had a different agenda, as it should be, after all they never signed up to entertain me on my vacation. For the first nine days of our vacation, the only visitors that showed up on our second-story deck were crows. Now I admit I'm usually the kind of person who shoos the crows away, hoping some other more "worthy" bird will visit. But when you're hankering for a brush with nature and big crows--I mean really big crows show up--would've taken only two of 'em to make a pie, well you work with what you've got.

I knew the rule: Don't feed wildlife in the Smoky Mountains. But in my mind it seemed like crows were residential critters and excluded from that list. Crows aren't fussy eaters. They loved the smorgasbord spread I set out on the deck railing; shortbread cookies, tortilla chips, wheat crackers, bread and sunflower seeds.

Word got around fast. "Good eats at Suzanne's cabin." And pretty soon a squirrel RSVP'd, too. Okay another residential exemption, so I didn't think there was any harm in letting him dine on a few sunflower seeds. But he was a pig. No manners at all. Inhaled three cups of sunflower seeds and the next thing I knew he was lying prostrate on the railing, four little paws hanging down, his head turned looking at me and I swear his eyes were saying, "I can't believe I ate the whole thing!"

Call 911--I was tempted to offer him an Alka Seltzer, but 10 minutes later he jumped up and headed back for a second helping. No way, I brushed the seeds off the railing and told him to come back tomorrow.

But a simple brush of sunflower seeds was like waving a magician's wand, because 15 minutes later, instead of a squirrel--"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh!" I could hear my husband yelling, but I couldn't see what was wrong until I turned around and there on the deck, eight feet away, was a BIG BLACK BEAR munching on leftover seeds.

Close the door! Find the camera! Catch my breath! I couldn't believe it--a BIG BLACK BEAR was right in front of me.

Q. What do you do when a bear is eating lunch on your deck?

A. Nothing. You wait for him to leave and pray he doesn't want dessert.

And he didn't. Once the seeds were gone he went quietly on his way.

To see vacation photos, including one of the BIG BLACK BEAR go to:

http://www.supportlibrary.com/nl/users/master2/web/vacation2006.html

Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.

Warmest regards,
Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com
http://www.DearReader.com

AUTHORBUZZ: Amazing contests this week including having an author call into your book club and of course signed free books from these terrific authors: Judy Merrill Larsen, All the Numbers; John Shors, Beneath a Marble Sky; Karin Slaughter, Triptych; and Carly Phillips, Cross My Heart. Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader

READ THE CLASSICS: The Recognitions, by William Gaddis, and enter the free Penguin Classic's Drawing. Go to: http://www.supportlibrary.com/nl/path_go.cfm?x=815&site=20

Dear Reader Column 07-26-06

Join my email book club. Over 330,000 people read 5-minutes a day. To see what books I'm featuring this week, go to: http://www.dearreader.com/

Dear Reader,

"How was your vacation?" It's the first question everyone asks because my husband and I just returned from a two-week vacation in the Smoky Mountains.

I'd like to say it was a repeat of last year's best-ever vacation, but the truth is this year our vacation started out complicated. It took my husband and me awhile to let go of a work mind-set. Some pressing issues we were dealing with before we left lingered on and when it dawned on us that we were three days into our vacation--sitting in a gorgeous cabin in the middle of the Smokies--but still working, we were angry. So we gave ourselves twenty lashes and finally got down to the task at hand--being on vacation.

So, let's try that one more time, "How was your vacation?" After the first three days, it was wonderful!

This year's vacation cast of characters was quite colorful: a bear, a wallet, a squirrel that didn't know when to quit, a woman who's way too hard on herself, the poor birds that nobody loved, two caramel apples with nuts, and fame for a couple of hours. Where do I begin?

I think tomorrow I'll begin with my close encounter--I mean really close encounter with a big black bear. And of course, I'll have photos.

It's so nice to be back.

By the way, thank you very kindly to everyone who sent an email to my guest columnists. I realize how fortunate I am to hear from readers every day, but most writers don't get that kind of feedback. The guest columnists loved reading your emails and they were very touched by your generosity. You really made a difference in their lives. I know, because they wrote and told me. You are the best. What a great book club.

Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.

Warmest regards,
Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com 
http://www.DearReader.com

READ THE CLASSICS: The Recognitions, by William Gaddis, and enter the free Penguin Classic's Drawing. Go to: http://www.supportlibrary.com/nl/path_go.cfm?x=815&site=20 

Dear Reader Column 07-25-06

Join my email book club. Over 330,000 people read 5-minutes a day. To see what books I'm featuring this week, go to: http://www.dearreader.com/

Dear Reader,

Every month this year I'm baking for a book club reader. If you haven't entered any of my Chocolate Chip Cookie giveaways, you should. Someone has to win and it might as well be you dunking my chocolate chip cookies--they taste mighty fine.

So send me an email, tell me why you need my chocolate chip cookies and you're entered. It's as simple as that. I'd love to bake for you. To enter July's Chocolate Chip Cookie give away email your "Why I need cookies" entry, by midnight July 28th to:

enter-to-win@emailbookclub.com

Be sure to check out our new Penguin Classic, THE RECOGNITIONS, by William Gaddis. You'll find the link after my column in every day's email.

Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.

Warmest regards,
Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com 
http://www.DearReader.com

READ THE CLASSICS: The Recognitions, by William Gaddis, and enter the free Penguin Classic's Drawing. Go to: http://www.supportlibrary.com/nl/path_go.cfm?x=815&site=20 

Dear Reader Column 07-24-06

Join my email book club. Over 330,000 people read 5-minutes a day. To see what books I'm featuring this week, go to: http://www.dearreader.com/

Dear Reader,

I'll be back in the office tomorrow, returning from my two week vacation in the Smoky Mountains.

My husband and I listened to audio books on our drive to the mountains. If you're taking a driving vacation this year, or you like to listen to books on your way to work, send me an email. I have 70 audio books to give away to readers. Send your email to:

enter-to-win4@emailbookclub.com

Have you sampled this month's Penguin Classic yet? The link is featured after my column every day.

It's nice to be back--talk to you tomorrow.

Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.

Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com
http://www.DearReader.com

AUTHORBUZZ: Amazing contests this week including having an author call into your book club and of course signed free books from these terrific authors: Judy Merrill Larsen, All the Numbers; John Shors, Beneath a Marble Sky; Karin Slaughter, Triptych; and Carly Phillips, Cross My Heart. Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader

READ THE CLASSICS: The Recognitions, by William Gaddis, and enter the free Penguin Classic's Drawing. Go to: http://www.supportlibrary.com/nl/path_go.cfm?x=815&site=20

Dear Reader Column 07-21-06

Join my email book club. Over 330,000 people read 5-minutes a day. To see what books I'm featuring this week, go to: http://www.dearreader.com/

Dear Reader,

I'm on vacation this week and some of my friends have graciously offered to fill in for me while I'm gone. Today's column is written by my good friend and author Thomas Sullivan (Sully).

A couple of months back, I wrote a column about the kind of person who makes you feel so comfortable that if you had to call them up at 3 a.m. and ask for their help, you know they wouldn't give you the third degree. They'd just hop out of bed and inquire, "Where should I meet you and tell me what I can do to help."

We haven't met in person, and I admit I've never had the need to ring Sully in the wee hours of the morning. But it's nice to know that without a doubt, he's one of my 3 a.m. friends.

Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.

Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com
http://www.DearReader.com

Today's guest columnist, Thomas Sullivan...

The trouble with pinch-hitting for Suzanne is that I won't get 'my' daily boost from one of her uplifting columns. Maybe uplifting doesn't quite cover it. You come here looking for new books, but inevitably you find a glimpse of yourself or some centering philosophical tidbit that gets the day rolling. Book sampling is terrific, but I don't know any reader at this site who isn't hooked on the columns. And I know a lot of Suzanne's readers. When my novel Second Soul was featured last fall, the email came pouring in. It was easy to see how loyal and deeply personal a following she has.

The columns stand on merit, but I think some of the reason people relate to Suzanne is simply because fundamentally she is a book person. To give or promote reading is to give wisdom, joy and passion. That came home to me, when I was teaching reading a couple of decades ago, through a student I'll call Allen.

Years behind grade level, intimidating in size, Allen was used to being shunted to the back of the room for another semester of quiet failure. He lacked skills and confidence but there was common sense locked up inside him, and I made it a point to draw it out. Had to fake it a bit, putting words in his mouth, reinterpreting whatever I could coax out of him, but soon the students began to respect him and then he began to respect himself. It seemed like at least a minor victory, something to get him through the class.

I didn't know how much he had grown or how hungry he was to enter the magical world of books until the next fall when he stopped by my room. He had a list of some 200 words he had looked up in the dictionary---words from my first novel, which was no easy read. I was so choked up; I could barely speak to him.

Here was this high school kid who had never finished a book before, freed at last to summer's diversions, and he had taken this upon himself. I tell you, you never know what you give someone when you facilitate their journey into reading.

Allen went on to become an avid reader with access to realms he might never have otherwise known. At another level, this is what Suzanne does for countless readers on their journey. Facilitates. Enables. A third of a million people who visit this site know that and are grateful.

Nice to meet you in this sanctuary. Feel free to email me at mn333mn@earthlink.net or visit my official author web site at: http://www.thomassullivanauthor.com/

I'll also be sending out free copies of one of my books to five readers picked at random over the next month who mention that they read at Suzanne's book clubs, so include your address if you would like a chance at that. My next novel, The Water Wolf, is due out from NAL's Onyx imprint in paperback October 3, 2006.

--Sully (Thomas Sullivan)
mn333mn@earthlink.net

READ THE CLASSICS: The Recognitions, by William Gaddis, and enter the free Penguin Classic's Drawing. Go to: http://www.supportlibrary.com/nl/path_go.cfm?x=815&site=20

Dear Reader Column 07-20-06

Join my email book club. Over 330,000 people read 5-minutes a day. To see what books I'm featuring this week, go to: http://www.dearreader.com/

Dear Reader,

I'm on vacation this week and some of my friends have graciously offered to fill in for me while I'm gone. Today's column is written by one of my mentors, and very good friend, William J. Duncan.

It was a very bad day, in fact it had been a tough couple of months when I first met William. We were strangers, but he came to my rescue. "Why don't you write your column on Saturday and Sunday, too?" he asked in the first email he sent to me.

What a nice, encouraging, thing to say. The very words I needed to hear to get me out of my funk and back into writing. And we've been friends ever since.

William's a complicated guy to describe, so I asked him to do it for me:

"I am a retired newspaper editor from California. I now edit The Senior Times, a magazine section that enfolds every first Monday in the daily News-Review in Roseburg, Oregon. I also write a weekly column on the News-Review's Opinion Page every Thursday. I write book reviews for the News-Review. I teach college level writing courses. Remember, I am retired."

Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.

Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com 
http://www.DearReader.com

And so here he is, today's "retired" guest columnist, William J. Duncan...

When you write a guest column for Suzanne's DearReader.com you automatically know the audience, like you, are biblioholics. So you won't be surprised if my ramblings are about books. I have a sweatshirt with the saying "So Many Books, So Little Time." Each time I wear it, I get comments from complete strangers.

Thomas Carlyle said: "All that mankind has done, thought or been, is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of books." Daniel J. Boorstein, the retired head librarian for the Library of Congress, said in a report to Congress in 1984: "Books are the main source of our knowledge, our reservoir of faith, memory, wisdom, morality, poetry, philosophy and science."

I became a reader in my growing up years in Panama City, Fla. and found that the written word could take me anywhere I wanted to go. I quickly discovered I enjoyed non-fiction best, because I could learn about new places, new things, and new ideas. Even today I find pleasure in reading the encyclopedia. Even more so, I find hours of enjoyment reading dictionaries and discovering new words. Maybe that is because I am a writer.

Tony Hillerman in his autobiography, Seldom Disappointed, describes a writer "as a bag lady going through life with a sack and a pointed stick collecting stuff."

If you dug around in my work space, you would agree with Hillerman's analogy. I am a collector of bits and pieces of information, newspaper clippings, magazine clippings, scraps of paper on which I have scribbled notes, notebooks that I have filled with information. I am a notebook keeper and have hundreds of notebooks filled with miscellany.

To be truthful, I think I prefer shopping for books in a used bookstore rather than a new bookstore. It is not necessarily the price difference, but the selection. The more disorganized the store is, the better I like it because every aisle, every shelf becomes an adventure.

When I visit my daughter's home in Eugene, Oregon, I invariably slip away and walk a few blocks to a large Goodwill Store that has a separate room filled with books. The Goodwill is jokingly referred to by my daughter as dad's bookstore. One Christmas, as a gag gift, she gave me a $5 gift certificate to Goodwill. She made it out to the "frugal book buyer." I smiled, folded it neatly and placed it in my billfold. Five dollars goes a long way when you are paying an average of 50 cents a book.

Months later while visiting my daughter I walked to my favorite bookstore. I piled up $7.50 worth of books and presented the cashier the $5 gift certificate along with my cash. The cashier called the manager, a young woman who had just graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in management.

She examined the certificate and asked me where I got it. I told her it was a gag gift from my daughter. She wanted to see some identification and asked for my daughter's name and telephone number.

She called my daughter, who added to my problem by calling me "the book bandit." The manager took her seriously and called her headquarters for instructions. After a lengthy discussion, wiser heads considered that I was not a criminal and accepted the certificate as partial payment for the books, but with a reprimand that next time I have a proper name filled out, rather than "frugal book buyer."

Since I write a weekly newspaper column I wrote about the incident and I received a letter of apology from Goodwill with another $5 gift certificate. I framed the letter, the gift certificate and a wanted poster for the notorious book bandit that my daughter made for the next gag gift.

Please do email. I love to hear from readers because they feed me column material. You can reach me via email at:
semperfi@douglasfast.net

William J. Duncan

AUTHORBUZZ: Amazing contests this week including a chance to be a character in a novel, and of course signed free books from these terrific authors: Will Staeger, Public Enemy; Brandon Massey, The Other Brother; Carolyn Haines, Bones to Pick; Gayle Lynds, The Last Sypmaster; and Robin Parrish, Relentless. Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader

READ THE CLASSICS: The Recognitions, by William Gaddis, and enter the free Penguin Classic's Drawing. Go to: http://www.supportlibrary.com/nl/path_go.cfm?x=815&site=20 

Dear Reader Column 07-19-06

Join my email book club. Over 330,000 people read 5-minutes a day. To see what books I'm featuring this week, go to: http://www.dearreader.com/

Dear Reader,

I'm on vacation this week and some of my friends have graciously offered to fill in for me while I'm gone. Today's column is written by one of my biggest "cheerleaders", author M.J. Rose.

Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.

Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com
http://www.DearReader.com

Today's guest columnist, author M.J. Rose...

I have been the lucky recipient of a box of Suzanne's famous Chocolate Chip Cookies (hereafter referred to as CCCs) but not often enough to satisfy my husband who finds them the best he's ever eaten.

So one day this past winter, I decided it was time to bite the bullet - or the chip to be more precise - and make a batch myself. After all, I can make pies from scratch and have even whipped up a perfect chocolate mousse upon occasion.

How tough could Suzanne's cookies be?

I followed her recipe on that snowy afternoon and watched with pleasure as Doug took his first bite.

Sweetly, he thanked me for my efforts and pronounced the cookie: "Good."

Good?

Suzanne's CCCs are not good, they are great. Nay, they are sublime. How could mine only be good?

Since I am lucky enough to know Suzanne, I called her to find out what I had done wrong.

"I screwed up," I cried. "The cookies failed."

"Now, now," she said. "I'm sure they didn't fail." (She's always so positive.)

"They did, they did."

So we went over the recipe step by step. She was becoming mystified. I had done everything right. Or so it seemed. Then we got to the very last step.

After the cookies are done her recipe says to freeze them.

"No, of course I didn't do that," I told her. "I didn't want to save them for later. Doug wanted them right away."

"Ah!" she said in that wise tone she has. "You have to freeze them first. It sets the chocolate."

So chocolate needs to set. Who knows that other than Suzanne?

Two hours and another batch later, I took four cookies out of the freezer and let them thaw. Sure enough my CCC expert pronounced them almost as good as Suzanne's.

"Almost?" I asked in dismay.

"Really close."

"What's wrong with them now?"

"She sends at least three dozen--you only made one tray full."

Which proves Suzanne has no equals not even when it comes to making Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Thanks for Reading,

M.J. Rose
mjroseAuthor@aol.com
http://www.mjrose.com/

P.S. I have two books out this summer --Lying In Bed-- which happens to be dedicated to Suzanne Beecher, and The Venus Fix: #3 in the Dr. Morgan Snow series of psychological suspense. Email me for the chance to win a copy of both.
==========================================

READ THE CLASSICS: The Recognitions, by William Gaddis, and enter the free Penguin Classic's Drawing. Go to: http://www.supportlibrary.com/nl/path_go.cfm?x=815&site=20

Dear Reader Column 07-18-06

Join my email book club. Over 330,000 people read 5-minutes a day. To see what books I'm featuring this week, go to: http://www.dearreader.com/

Dear Reader,

I'm on vacation this week and some of my friends have graciously offered to fill in for me while I'm gone. Today's column is written by author Douglas Clegg. Doug reads at the book clubs every day. He's a huge fan and one heck of a nice guy.

Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.

Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com 
http://www.DearReader.com

Today's guest columnist, author Douglas Clegg...

I am a wanderer among the dead.

It's true.

It's not just because I write fantasy, horror, and suspense that I like dead writers. But I do like them. I don't mean I like their corpses -- honest! I prefer the company of living writers, and I read a lot of books from both the quick and the dead.

I like writers who still make me feel the way I felt when I first read their fiction. And many of them are long-gone.

Charles Dickens is tops on my list. He wrote novels to change the way we think about the world, to express a reality of life that fiction needed to reveal, and created unforgettable characters (Miss Haversham, Pip, Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, Ebenezeer Scrooge, to name just a handful.)

Then there's Shirley Jackson, whose short story The Lottery was practically required reading when I was young, and whose novel The Haunting of Hill House has influenced me greatly as a novelist. Others include Anya Seton (if you've never read Green Darkness or Katherine, please read them), Daphne DuMaurier (her horror stories alone would put her up with my favorites, but the gothic, Rebecca, and then My Cousin Rachel and Jamaica Inn are just must-reads, in my opinion, as well.) In short stories, my favorite writer has been dead for a long time: Guy De Maupassant. Never read him? Read him. You will not regret it.

Actually, the list of dead writers I love is so long that I can't list them all -- but I re-read their work all the time for pure pleasure. And to me, none of these writers is dead; their prose resurrects them so I can hear their voices as I read their tales. It's as if they're standing near me, telling their stories.

The most exciting thing is when I find a living writer whose work has that quality where I, again, awaken to the pure enjoyment of reading. One of these is Bryce Courtney, whose novel The Power of One, blew me away. It's one of the most wonderful novels I have read in the past decade.

What are some of your favorites who seem to have written classic tales that are unforgettable? Are there hidden gems among the novels and stories you love that few other people know about? Drop me a line and let me know and please come by my website at http://www.douglasclegg.com/ to say hello.

Thank you,
Douglas Clegg
DClegg@DouglasClegg.com

READ THE CLASSICS: The Recognitions, by William Gaddis, and enter the free Penguin Classic's Drawing. Go to: http://www.supportlibrary.com/nl/path_go.cfm?x=815&site=20