Dear Reader

Dear Reader Column 01-23-08

Join my email book club. Over 350,000 people read 5-minutes a day. To see what books I'm featuring this week, go to: http://www.dearreader.com/

Dear Reader,

"Why is it there? What does it do? How does it work?"

When I was a kid nobody had to orientate me to who, what, where, when, why, and how. Those questions came built-in. I found the answers intriguing, but my parents, on the other hand, wished I'd just be quiet.

"I don't know, Suzanne."

Hmm, it was a mystery. And when my parents couldn't tell me the answer, it made me even more determined to find out.

Most of the time when you do something wrong, you know it's wrong when you're doing it. Tommy Bowden and I on the other hand, were innocent of "knowing." And that's why the two of us stripped the bark off our neighbor's old oak tree, because nobody could tell us what was underneath. Innocent and guilty at the same time. Unfortunately guilty trumped innocent in the eyes of our parents.

It looked like a neighborhood pow-wow. Everyone was huddled around the oak tree, including my parents and Tommy's mom and dad. Wow, something must have happened. So Tommy and I went to investigate. And when my mother asked, "Do you know who did this?"

Out of the mouths of "innocent" babes came, "Oh we did that!"

And again my mother wished I'd just be quiet.

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

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

READ THE CLASSICS: The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas and enter the free Penguin Classic's Drawing. Go to: http://tinyurl.com/32qr54

Dear Reader Column 10-15-07

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,

Father Knows Less Or: Can I Cook My Sister? by Wendell Jamieson is the title of our bonus book this week. "Why is 'red' for stop and 'green' for go?"or "Do nose hairs turn gray?" and "How many hours of TV does it take to turn your brain into mush?"

Author Wendell Jamieson's son kept asking question after question. But Dad didn't always know the answers, so once-and-for-all he decided to find out. Father Knows Less is a delightful book that will tug at your childlike curiosity. At least that's what happened to me. Okay now, so tell me again, why all of a sudden are there long strands of hair growing on my big toe?

Enjoy the sample read and enter the drawing. Send me an email with your comments about the book and you're automatically entered in the free book giveaway. I have 20 books to give away to readers and I'll forward your comments on to the author.

To sample and enter, go to:
http://tinyurl.com/ysaumm

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

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

AUTHORBUZZ: With so many new books out every week, we promise these are five that deserve your attention: Sam Barone, Empire Rising; Angela Hunt, Doesn't She Look Natural; Mike Esposito, M.D., Locked In; Jerry Camery-Hoggatt, Giver of Gifts; and Laurie Perry, Drunk, Divorced & Covered in Cat Hair. Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader

READ THE CLASSICS: The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov and enter the free Penguin Classic's Drawing. Go to: http://tinyurl.com/yu9uk7

Dear Reader Column 06-11-07

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,

My mother told me the day before she died that what was really important in life, was love. It was a strange sentiment to hear her convey, because my mother had a hard time showing her love. But somehow at the end, she must have gotten a glimpse of what I saw and felt the other night.

It's four in the morning. Paul, my grandson, is in All Children's Hospital and I'm spending the night with him. There are four cribs in the room, each one has a baby in it and there's a mom, dad, or grandparent like me, sitting in the chair beside it. I've never been comfortable sharing a room with anyone, but this evening, even though we're all strangers, instantly there's a bond. Each one of us is hoping to hear good news when the doctors make their rounds in the morning. Each one of us is hoping nothing bad happens during the night.

There's a curtain in-between each baby's crib, but there's really no privacy. You can't help but overhear. Across the room, a husky man is leaning over a crib whispering to his four month old daughter, "Don't worry honey, Daddy will always take care of you." And then he rings for the nurse, because Daddy's trying to figure out how to safely give his baby girl a hug. She just had a tumor removed from her brain and he doesn't want to hurt her.

It's hard 'not' to hear, and it's even harder to hold back the tears. A doctor is trying to help the mother next to me understand why her newborn baby's brain didn't develop like it should, and so her daughter will need a lot of special assistance when she's growing up. Then a nurse wheels the baby's crib out of the room, they need to do more tests. And the mother is left alone. I hear her crying.

Across the room from my grandson a mother is trying to sleep in the reclining chair next to her baby's crib. She brought her baby here from Michigan, because the doctors at the hospital where she lives kept telling her nothing was wrong. But she knew something wasn't right. And now she's been told that her new baby boy can't hear or see, and won't be able to do much of anything except "be." But simply "being" is plenty for this mother to love. She's hoping to be able to take her son home in a few days, so his brothers and sisters can get to know him.

My grandson is finally asleep and I lay him back in his crib. I'm tired. The days and nights are long in the hospital. But tonight I'm at ease. The doctor says in a couple more days we'll be taking home a healthy boy. I felt a little guilty hearing such good news.

I've always thought my job, my purpose here on earth, certainly must be something more dramatic than simply loving and taking care of the people around me. So I've strived to be clever, artistic, and talented in business. But as I sit here at four in the morning, looking around the room and looking at my grandson, I realize I've been looking at life all wrong. It's not complicated, there's nothing to prove. My mother was right. It's really very simple. What's really important is love.

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

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

AUTHORBUZZ: Find out about great books from these terrific authors plus a chance to win signed copies: Jennifer O'Connell, Everything I Needed to Know About Being a Girl I Learned From Judy Blume; Shane Gericke, Cut to the Bon; Tanya Lee Stone, A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl; Robert Dunn, Meet the Annas; and Chris Grabenstein, Whack A Mole. Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader

Dear Reader Column 03-27-07

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,

There's a glob of mayonnaise sitting on top of my new antique desk. It's intentional. I put two tablespoons of mayo on a paper towel, turned the towel over, and applied light pressure to the watermark on my desk.

It's not fair--that was my first thought. I followed the rules, "coastered" every bottle and glass before I set them down on my desk. But the water droplets from the sweating glass transferred through the coaster to the top of my new antique desk anyway. Worthless coaster. How could this happen?

Can you believe everything you read on the Internet? I'm hoping I can believe the woman who recommended I smear mayonnaise on my desk and wait. Fifteen minutes, the timer is ticking. I keep peeking--lifting up the paper towel. The answer woman didn't mention anything about not peeking. It's always been difficult for me to wait.

Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one--the watermark is gone! It disappeared!

Isn't life--and mayonnaise wonderful?

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

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

READ THE CLASSICS: Main Street by Sinclair Lewis and enter the free Penguin Classic's Drawing. Go to:
http://tinyurl.com/2eutpk

Dear Reader Column 01-15-07

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,

When I was planting geraniums in front of my house the other day, feeling all calm and relaxed, it started to drizzle and the drizzle turned into a pretty good rain. But I kept on working anyway until all of a sudden, in the middle of the downpour, I was surrounded--they were everywhere. Snails! Slimy, disgusting, huge--I'm talking Texas-sized snails crawling all over the very plants I'd just been lovingly tending.

I've never been squeamish about garden creatures before. Bugs, grubs, they've never bothered me. Big, fat night crawlers--no fear--I bait my own hook, and I even talk to them when I'm gardening, "Keep up the good work, guys. Thanks for hanging out in my dirt." But apparently I've met my match, because when I saw an army of snails crawling all over my geraniums--I freaked.

It's no exaggeration. 'What to do, what to do?' I picked a bunch of them off the geraniums, but when I saw them crawling on my gardening glove--what was I going to do with them now? Scream! and fling them into the street. The people in the cars passing by thought I was a nut. 'What is this woman throwing at us?' But I couldn't help myself.

"Help!" I threw my gardening gloves on the ground and went running into the house, yelling for my husband. "You've got to come out and get rid of these snails!"

That was the end of my gardening for the day, and the day after that, and the day after that. I was getting worried I'd never be able to garden again, so I decided to find out how to get rid of snails.

Every website I visited on the Internet had a photo of a snail, but I couldn't even stand to look at it, so I started visiting websites for children. "Meet Mr. Snail!" Yeah, Mr. Snail is supposed to look like a cute little cartoon character, with his smiley face and his little wiggly tentacles, but I knew the truth. Those smiley, little, slithering, things would invade your garden and hunt you down.

Unfortunately the best way to get rid of snails is to pick them off the plants, put them in a sealed bag and well, you know what. But since I'd already attempted that method and failed, I decided to get them drunk. Yes, option number two was to sink a jar into the ground, so the top is flush with the dirt, fill the jar almost to the top with beer and watch those snails conga line right up to the bar, fall in and party to the end.

It's been a couple of weeks since I've seen any snails in my garden, but when I walked by my neighbor's house the other day I noticed they've put a ceramic snail in their front yard. I know it's supposed to be cute, but I still don't like it. I think I'm going to have to get it drunk.

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

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

AUTHORBUZZ: These great writers are giving away dozens and dozens of great reads this week: John Lescroart, The Suspect; Linda Fairstein, Bad Blood; Tom Sullivan, Adventures in Darkness; Pamela Samuels-Young, In Firm Pursuit; and Mark A. Michaels and Patricia Johnson, The Essence of Tantric Sexuality. Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader

READ THE CLASSICS: Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham and enter the free Penguin Classic's Drawing. Go to: http://www.supportlibrary.com/nl/path_go.cfm?x=815&site=3

Dear Reader Column 10-23-06

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 invite you to sample a special book this week, Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert. It was the book I took with me on vacation and after I finished reading it, I even went back and thumbed through it a second time.

You can sample the book, and of course I'm giving away free copies, but the excerpt starts at Chapter One, and the first couple of paragraphs of Daniel's FORWARD shouldn't be missed.

From the FORWARD:

"What would you do right now if you learned that you were going to die in ten minutes? Would you race upstairs and light that Marlboro you've been hiding in your sock drawer since the Ford administration? Would you waltz into your boss's office and present him with a detailed description of his personal defects? Would you drive out to that steakhouse near the new mall and order a T-bone, medium rare, with an extra side of the really 'bad' cholesterol?

Hard to say, of course, but of all the things you might do in your final ten minutes, it's a pretty safe bet that few of them are things you actually did today.

Now, some people will bemoan this fact, wag their fingers in your direction, and tell you sternly that you should live every minute of your life as though it were your last, which only goes to show that some people would spend their final ten minutes giving other people dumb advice."

Oh, yes, Daniel's a Harvard College Professor of Psychology, but he doesn't write like one. (That's a compliment Daniel!)

So, do you think you know what makes you happy? Start reading and find out. Read the sample, send me an email telling me what you think (I'll forward your comments on to the professor) and you're entered in the book drawing. Go to:

http://www.supportlibrary.com/nl/path_go.cfm?x=805&site=13

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

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

AUTHORBUZZ: This week make sure you enter to win signed free books from these terrific authors: Don Bruns, South Beach Shakedown; Mark Coggins, Candy From Strangers; Katherine Lanpher, Leap Days; Pamela Samuels-Young, Every Reasonable Doubt; and Paramhansa Yogananda, The Essence of the Bhagavad Gita. Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader

READ THE CLASSICS: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, by Harriet Jacobs, and enter the free Penguin Classic's Drawing. Go to: http://www.supportlibrary.com/nl/path_go.cfm?x=815&site=23

Dear Reader Column 10-19-06

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,

If you missed Monday's birthday column be sure to join in the fun today!

AuthorBuzz made its debut in the online book clubs one year ago and we're celebrating all this week!

Happy Birthday to AuthorBuzz!

If you've never visited AuthorBuzz, the link appears right after my column every Monday and Thursday. Each week click on the link and you'll be introduced to new authors and they're always giving away fun and sometimes unusual things.

Book club readers have won over 1500 signed books, a trench coat, boxes of chocolates, Starbucks gift certificates, jewelry, and Sandy Hall and her grandson, Tyler Dalton won author Alex Kava's Crime Lab Tour Contest. Their prize included airfare from Spartanburg, South Carolina to Omaha, Nebraska where Alex's latest novel, A Necessary Evil takes place and they toured the crime lab.

Author, Ad Hudler, flew to Denver to meet book club reader and winner, Dorie Furman. Ad cooked dinner for Dorie and her friends and then they discussed Ad's book, Househusband, in the charming Virginia Village library.

Jane Cleland, author of Consigned to Death, gave away copies of her book and free appraisals for antiques. "The coolest thing that's happened so far," Jane said, "is that we 'found' a $30,000 watercolor--a Thomas Moran--thrilling to the owner and worthy of some buzz in arty circles!"

Authors have received more than a quarter of a million emails from book club readers. If you haven't joined the fun, be sure to visit AuthorBuzz today. Take a look around, send this week's authors an email and then join the party.

As part of the birthday celebration I'm giving away 100 books to readers! Visit AuthorBuzz, then enter the drawing by going to:

http://www.emailbookclub.com/photo/give2.html

Happy Birthday AuthorBuzz!

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

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

AUTHORBUZZ: This week brings lots of signed free books and short stories from these terrific authors: Martha Powers, Death Angel; Lise Haines, Small Acts of Sex and Electricity; Connie Brockway, Hot Dish; Diane Setterfield, The Thirteenth Tale; and Mark Terry, The Devil's Pitchfork. Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader

READ THE CLASSICS: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, by Harriet Jacobs, and enter the free Penguin Classic's Drawing. Go to: http://www.supportlibrary.com/nl/path_go.cfm?x=815&site=23

Dear Reader Column 10-16-06

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,

AuthorBuzz made its debut in the online book clubs one year ago and we're celebrating all this week!

Happy Birthday to AuthorBuzz!

If you've never visited AuthorBuzz, the link appears right after my column every Monday and Thursday. Each week click on the link and you'll be introduced to new authors and they're always giving away fun and sometimes unusual things.

Book club readers have won over 1500 signed books, a trench coat, boxes of chocolates, Starbucks gift certificates, jewelry, and Sandy Hall and her grandson, Tyler Dalton won author Alex Kava's Crime Lab Tour Contest. Their prize included airfare from Spartanburg, South Carolina to Omaha, Nebraska where Alex's latest novel, A Necessary Evil takes place and they toured the crime lab.

Author, Ad Hudler, flew to Denver to meet book club reader and winner, Ken Weiner. Ad cooked dinner for Ken and his friends and then they discussed Ad's book, Househusband, in the charming Virginia Village library.

Jane Cleland, author of Consigned to Death, gave away copies of her book and free appraisals for antiques. "The coolest thing that's happened so far," Jane said, "is that we 'found' a $30,000 watercolor--a Thomas Moran--thrilling to the owner and worthy of some buzz in arty circles!"

Authors have received more than a quarter of a million emails from book club readers. If you haven't joined the fun, be sure to visit AuthorBuzz today. Take a look around, send this week's authors an email and then join the party.

As part of the birthday celebration I'm giving away 100 books to readers! Visit AuthorBuzz, then enter the drawings by going to:

http://www.emailbookclub.com/photo/give2.html

Happy Birthday AuthorBuzz!

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

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

AUTHORBUZZ: This week brings lots of signed free books and short stories from these terrific authors: Martha Powers, Death Angel; Lise Haines, Small Acts of Sex and Electricity; Connie Brockway, Hot Dish; Diane Setterfield, The Thirteenth Tale; and Mark Terry, The Devil's Pitchfork. Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader

READ THE CLASSICS: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, by Harriet Jacobs, and enter the free Penguin Classic's Drawing. Go to: http://www.supportlibrary.com/nl/path_go.cfm?x=815&site=23

Dear Reader Column 09-19-06

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 an ironer from way back. Every Saturday morning my mother would leave me a list of chores to have done by the time she got home from work, and ironing was always at the top of the list. Everything needed to be ironed, including socks, sheets, pillow cases and even underwear. I did it, but I never understood the logic of it all. Wash the clothes, roll them up while they're still wet, freeze them, and instead of playing softball on Saturday, it was my job to unroll those frozen stiffs and iron the wrinkles out of them.

Why didn't we just dry the clothes? Because my mother said it cost too much to run the dryer. But then, when the small freezer on the top part of our refrigerator wouldn't hold the frozen peas and my dad's underwear too, we bought a new upright freezer, put it in the basement, and all we kept in it were our frozen clothes.

Wash the clothes, roll them up, freeze in the wrinkles, and buy a freezer whose only purpose was to freeze the sheets? But hey, I was just a kid--what did I know?

Old habits die hard and I confess I continue to iron some of my clothes today, including pillow cases and yes, if the sheets come out of the dryer with too many wrinkles I give them the once over, too. But ever since I moved out of my parents' home, I'm proud to say, I've never ironed anyone's frozen underwear.

But what if Mother really did know best? Thinking about my mother's laundry ritual piqued my curiosity, so over the weekend I decided to do a "freeze-or-not-to-freeze" laundry experiment. I washed eight pillow cases, dried four of them and froze four of them while they were still wet. Which ones were easier to iron? And did I save money by not using the dryer? It was a true test, because I still have some of the pillow cases that my grandmother made, the same ones I used to iron when I was a kid.

For freezer to ironing results go to:

http://www.emailbookclub.com/photo/iron.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

P.S. Congratulations to the winners of last week's special book, Kicked, Bitten, and Scratched: Life and Lessons at the World's Premier School for Exotic Animal Trainers, by Amy Sutherland: Deane Happ, Jesse Douglas, Julie Pearl, Mike Williams, Karen Christiansen, Mandy Smith, Angela Calicchio, Susan Milby, Christy Maslak, Jane Baker, Florinda Pendley, Lorraine Taylor, Bonnie Hamilton, Brenda Veinotte, Don Clanton, Ilina Chaudhuri, Suzanne Medici, Kerry Kuhn, Valerie O'Connell and Andrea Mercado.

READ THE CLASSICS: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain, and enter the free Penguin Classic's Drawing. Go to: http://www.supportlibrary.com/nl/path_go.cfm?x=815&site=22

Dear Reader Column 09-11-06

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,

Imagine attending a college where your final exam is a hands-on test to see if you know how to give a spider monkey a back rub, teach a hyena to pirouette, or get a cougar to walk on a leash and heel at your command.

This week's special book, Kicked, Bitten, and Scratched: Life and Lessons at the World's Premier School for Exotic Animal Trainers, by Amy Sutherland will tell you all about it.

To start reading Kicked, Bitten, and Scratched go to:

http://www.supportlibrary.com/nl/path_go.cfm?x=805&site=9

After you've sampled the book, click on Enter Our Book Giveaway. Tell me what you thought of the sample read and when you send me an email including your comments, you're automatically entered in the free book giveaway. I have 20 copies to give away to readers. I'll forward your comments on to the author.

Enjoy the read--and keep an eye on your fingers when you're turning the page, those tigers have sharp teeth!

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

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

AUTHORBUZZ: Terrific contests this week! WIN a $100 gift certificate to Amazon.com, a jewelry box and of course signed free books from these wonderful authors: Paul Levine, Kill All the Lawyers; Nalini Singh, Slave to Sensation; Douglas Clegg, The Lady of Serpents; Marie Bostwick, River's Edge; and Anjali Banerjee, Invisible Lives. Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader