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AUTHORBUZZ: Discover new books, "meet" the authors and enter to win: Goto: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader
Dear Reader,
Every other Wednesday, before my housekeeper shows up, somehow I manage to find a place to hide our messy stuff. After she leaves, everything looks tidy, the air smells clean and it feels like our house is just the right size. When I look around I see a quaint, comfortable, historical home, but as the week progresses, my house gets smaller and smaller. I pull things out of the drawer, but some things never make it back. Why keep putting my tennis shoes and hat back in the closet, when I'm just going to have to retrieve them again tomorrow morning when I go for my walk? If company were coming--company who I felt the need to hide the everyday me from--in thirty minutes, I could have myself hidden away again. But maybe as long as the house is clean, what's the harm in having the real me, hanging out--all over--in every room?
Perhaps I should think of the everyday stuff sitting out in the open around my house, as "family photos." My hat is really a "picture" of me--I'm just not in it at the moment. Those newspapers haphazardly stacked in the corner, they're a picture-perfect shot of my husband. He loves to read the Wall Street Journal. And the plastic ball with the noisy bell, the next time I step on it with my bare feet, instead of chastising myself, "Why the heck don't I keep that thing picked up?" I'll think of Abby, my gray kitty and how cute she looks when she's batting it around the floor.
There's a limit to everything and I suppose there's even a limit to how many "family photos" one house can possess. But for right now, my little mental ruse is working. When I look around, my house isn't filled with messy stuff--it's filled with "family photos." "Oh look at that, my husband let his chili bowl sit out overnight and the heat from it left a ring on my new end table. What a treat!" It's one of those "forever" family photos I'll never forget. Now every time I walk by my brand new end table, the one that took me months to find, that "picture" will always remind me of my husband, and how much he loves my chili. Isn't that sweet?
* Ellen K., get ready to blow bubbles, you are the winner of my recent Bubble Machine Giveaway. Enjoy!
And the winners of The Memory Garden by Guest Columnist, Mary Rickert: Patricia G., Donna N. and Paulette B.
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com
AUTHORBUZZ: THE SANDPIPER (Fiction) by Susan Lovell
Nina Judd draws on great writers and poets to shepherd her dear family--not of blood but of choice--through some of life's hardest challenges. First there is her friend Ellie Cameron whose heart breaks the day the soldiers knock on her door in 1968. Thirty years later Ellie's beautiful grown daughters Kate and Jamie--bonded by a blood oath but separated by painful secrets--need Aunt Nina's boundless love to help heal their hurts and guide them toward openness and forgiveness.
Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader click on THE SANDPIPER to read more and to email author Susan Lovell, you'll get a reply.
AUTHORBUZZ: With so many new books out every week, we promise these titles deserve your attention:
(Fiction)
THE NEW ME by Mary Marcus
(NonFiction)
HAMSTER ISLAND by Joan Heartwell
(Fiction)
ONE PERFECT SPRING by Irene Hannon
(Fiction)
THE SANDPIPER by Susan Lovell
(Fiction)
DUNGEON GAMES by Lexi Blake
Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader
* This month's Penguin Classics book THE HOUSE OF ULLOA by Emilia Pardo. Start reading now and don't forget to enter the drawing for your chance to win a Penguin Totebag: http://www.supportlibrary.com/bc/v.cfm?L=drclassqqxqQ1AFEF39295A&c=CLASSICS
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