Dear Reader Column 10-24-05

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Dear Reader,

I have a special book for you to sample this week. Maura Conlon-McIvor is the author, and this is her first book. Well, it's kind of her first book. Her book was released, in hardcover, in 2004 and the name of it was FBI Girl: How I Learned To Crack My Father's Code.

But now her book just came out in trade paperback and it's called She's All Eyes: Memoirs of an Irish-American Daughter. The name has changed, the cover has changed, but the story didn't change--to protect the innocent! (I couldn't help myself, I used to watch "Dragnet.")

So why does the outside of a book change, but the inside story stay the same? Because sometimes people do judge a book by its cover, even me.

My first impression of the hardcover book, FBI Girl, was that the memoir was probably about a girl whose father was an FBI man and she'd followed in his footsteps. I expected to read a story about how she made her way through the ranks of the FBI, along with some shoot-em-up stories. But that's not what the book is about at all, and that's why the cover and the title were changed when it was released in paperback.

When you click to read the sample from the newly released paperback book She's All Eyes, (remember, that's the new title) you'll find the heart-warming story of a young girl who's trying to connect with her father and figure herself out, too. The author said that when she was only 13 years old, she decided some day she needed to write a book because, "Sometimes the people that have the most love to give are the most misunderstood."

I talked with Maura last week and she would love to hear your feedback about She's All Eyes. Sample her book, then send me an email, and I'll forward your comments on to her. Authors love to hear from you. I have 25 copies of She's All Eyes to give away. When you send me your comments, you're automatically entered in the drawing.

To sample the book She's All Eyes, and to see the two different covers, go to: http://www.emailbookclub.com/alt/alleyes/

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

Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com
www.DearReader.com

AUTHORBUZZ: free stuff, tours, personal stories. This week's authors: Susan Squires, The Hunger; Barbara Delinsky, Looking for Peyton Place; Rochelle Krich, Now You See Me.
Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader

Comments

[Joan Smith]

Wonderful description of a fascinating man! The author has a great imagination and descriptive talents. I'd love to read the rest of the book!

[Catherine]

I rarely have read a short excerpt of a book that was so evocative of my childhood. I am a fifty year old woman,who had a father that seemed a stereotypical as Maura's father in "She's all Eyes...". The description of her father's top drawer remined me so much of how my father would neatly arrange his belongings in his dresser. How much more complex our lives have become with the cell phones, computers, and all the paraphernalia that I feel required to carry around in a bag everyday. Also the description of opening the trunk of his car to the feeling of the heat rising out of the trunk and the smell of the baseball mitts. It bought back the sweet nostalgia for my youth and those days when attention from your father was a precious gift.

[belle mcdougall]

This was a great book...I've already read it and it didn't take me very long because I was so engrossed in this little girl's life. It was heart breaking to feel the shyness, the need, the lonliness and the love all wrapped up in the coming of age and awareness the story tells. I'm looking forward to her next book very much.

[belle mcdougall]

This was a great book...I've already read it and it didn't take me very long because I was so engrossed in this little girl's life. It was heart breaking to feel the shyness, the need, the lonliness and the love all wrapped up in the coming of age and awareness the story tells. I'm looking forward to her next book very much.

[Lesa]

I just read "She's all eyes. ." and I must agree with everyone else. I immediately began thinking of my own childhood and how I related to my parents, their relationships, and my perceptions at that age. How Maura knew that her tone, rhythm and child like words would touch our hearts and compell us to follow the life of seven year old is really quite clever. I plan to read the book not only for the story, but to be seven and innocent again.