Dear Reader

Dear Reader Column 08-29-14

Subscribe to one of Suzanne's online bookclubs and receive her daily column at: DearReader.com


AUTHORBUZZ: Discover new books, "meet" the authors and enter to win: Goto: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader

Dear Reader,

My brother-in-law gave me an aluminum-cased recipe book from the 1930s, and today I'm trying one of the recipes. The woman who used to own the cookbook made a handwritten note that this chicken recipe was "Delicious!" So today I'm giving it a try. Let me know if you try it, too.

"Delicious" Chicken Casserole

2 cups cooked rice
6 tablespoons margarine/butter
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup milk
3 cups chicken, cooked, cubed
1/2 cup toasted, chopped almonds
2 tablespoons minced pimento
6 tablespoons flour
1/8 teaspoons pepper

Melt margarine, stir in flour, salt and pepper. Gradually add chicken broth and milk. Cook, stirring constantly until smooth and thickened. Place in alternate layers in casserole cooked rice and chicken mixture. Sprinkle over each layer some almonds and some pimento. Cover top with buttered bread crumbs.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

* Congratulations to the winners of In the Field of Grace by Guest Columnist Tessa Afshar: Kathy C., Marlys W., Marian W., Anne R., Linda H., Linda U., Joanne H., Dorie F., Stephanie C. and Maris S.

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

Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]

AUTHORBUZZ: FLOWER FOR THE QUEEN (Fiction) by Caroline Vermalle and Ryan von Ruben

An adventure story about a venturesome life of a plant hunter set in South African tropical forests. It combines the thrilling hunt for a precious flower with unique characters, cunning intrigue and a heart-rendering love story.

Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader click on FLOWER FOR THE QUEEN to read more and to email authors Caroline Vermalle and Ryan von Ruben, you'll get a reply.

Dear Reader Column 08-28-14

Subscribe to one of Suzanne's online bookclubs and receive her daily column at: DearReader.com


AUTHORBUZZ: Discover new books, "meet" the authors and enter to win: Goto: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader

Dear Reader,

A little bit of whimsy.

Black is my favorite color, at least when I'm eating spaghetti. Because no matter how careful I am, the red sauce ends up on my shirt, or my skirt, or if a noodle slips off my fork--I'm here to tell you spaghetti sauce does not come out of white ankle socks very easily. My husband teases me about my spaghetti mishaps, and rightly so, because I used to joke that if I wanted to know what he'd eaten for lunch, all I had to do was look at his shirt.

My homemade spaghetti was on the menu yesterday, but when I headed for my bedroom, to change into something more appropriate (anything black) my husband handed me a whimsical spaghetti eating solution. He'd made it himself, especially for me. I'm sure you'll want one, too.

If you're afflicted with the same spaghetti eating problem as I am, take a look at what my husband made for me and you can follow his step-by-step instructions complete with photos showing you how to make your own. Go to: http://www.emailbookclub.com/photo/bib.html

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

Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]

AUTHORBUZZ: With so many new books out every week, we promise these titles deserve your attention:

(Thriller)
BLACK SKIES by Leo J. Maloney

(Young Adult)
SCREAMING DIVAS by Suzanne Kamata

(Fiction)
RESOLUTIONS by Teri Riggs

(Fiction)
FLOWER FOR THE QUEEN by Caroline Vermalle and Ryan von Ruben

Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader

 

 

 

Dear Reader Column 08-27-14

Subscribe to one of Suzanne's online bookclubs and receive her daily column at: DearReader.com


AUTHORBUZZ: Discover new books, "meet" the authors and enter to win: Goto: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader

Dear Reader,

Too much stuff! So I cleared out some closets, cupboards and drawers this past weekend. Nice stuff, cool stuff, but things I hadn't used for over a year. It's stuff that's too good to toss out, and yes, I could donate it, but I thought it would be fun to create a surprise box filled with stuff. Who doesn't like surprises? I know I sure do.

Need some stuff? Or maybe you'd enjoy getting a surprise box in the mail? Enter today.

It's a Surprise Box filled with Good Stuff giveaway. Simply email your name and mailing address (in case you're the winner) and promise to send a photo--everybody will want to see the cool box of stuff--and you'll be entered in the random drawing.

To enter, send an email to: [email protected]

Have a great Wednesday. Be sure to enter, I'm packing up my stuff today.

I have mailed out aprons to the winners of last week's Apron Giveaway, be watching your mailbox, Gladys A., Carol K. and Diane N.

And congratulations to the winners of The Cat Sitter's Nine Lives by Guest Author John Clement: Donna N., Linda F. Susan B. and Kathy D.

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

Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]

AUTHORBUZZ: RESOLUTIONS (Fiction) by Teri Riggs

Two ex-lovers join forces to stop a drug lord turned terrorist in the rainforests of Colombia. On the run, they must learn to trust each other again in order to stay alive. Action packed romantic suspense.

Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader click on RESOLUTIONS to read more and to email author Teri Riggs, you'll get a reply.

Dear Reader Column 08-26-14

Subscribe to one of Suzanne's online bookclubs and receive her daily column at: DearReader.com


AUTHORBUZZ: Discover new books, "meet" the authors and enter to win: Goto: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader

Dear Reader,

A big welcome to today's guest columnist, author Julia Keller.

Julia's new novel, Summer of the Dead, is the third in her mystery series featuring prosecutor Belfa Elkins. A native of Huntington, West Virginia, she won a Pulitzer Prize during her journalism career at the Chicago Tribune. Julia suggests that you read Summer of the Dead in an abandoned cabin by the light of a flickering candle.

Win your own copy of Summer of the Dead. Julia is giving away five copies to book club readers. You have to enter to win. Send an email to: [email protected]

Take it away Julia Keller...

My first apartment as an adult was the second floor of a rickety old Victorian house in Ashland, Kentucky, an abode so chopped up and oddly configured that it was possible to get lost on your way from the kitchen to the bathroom. The apartment had only four rooms, but those rooms seemed to shift their locations when you weren't looking, like that staircase at Hogwarts Academy in the Harry Potter books. I suspected early on that the elderly owner, who lived on the first floor and who could never remember my name, was visiting the place and rummaging through my meager belongings while I was at work; this was confirmed when I called home one day to check my answering machine and she picked up the phone. Instead of "Hello," she said, "This is that girl's apartment."

What makes the place so vivid in my memory, though, is not the irregular layout or the batty landlady. It's the fact that, within that space, I first read Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim and Heart of Darkness. By the light of a high window, I read those stirring tales of great adventure--moral adventure as well as the more familiar kind set on the high seas and within a haunted jungle.

And thus I came to believe this about reading: What we read is important, yes, but where we read is also critical. The physical locale--the context--in which we engage with a book is an important part of the reading experience.

I first read Willa Cather's The Song of the Lark in the Marshall University library in Huntington, West Virginia. I first encountered Michael Connelly's crime fiction on a flight to Great Britain--and because of his storytelling acumen, I'd swear the trip lasted minutes, not hours.

I discovered Denise Mina in a downtown Chicago bookstore when I was early for a doctor's appointment and read Exile in the waiting room. Stephen King's Misery will forever be linked to a long car trip through the American West. (I wasn't driving.) James Lee Burke's novels are yoked to a shady back porch on a succession of glorious summer afternoons.

Dedicated readers can tell you not just which books they love--but where they were when they read them. Every book tells a story--the one that the author wants to tell, yes, but also the reader's story. What's yours?

--Julia Keller Enter to win a copy of Summer of the Dead email: [email protected]

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

Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]

AUTHORBUZZ: SCREAMING DIVAS (Young Adult) by Suzanne Kamata

At sixteen, Trudy Baxter is fed up with her debutante mom and deadbeat dad, and her standing reservation at the juvenile delinquent center. Changing her name to Trudy Sin, she starts a band with Cassie, Esther, and Harumi. Together they are The Screaming Divas. But will music heal them, or tear them apart?

Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader click on SCREAMING DIVAS to find out more about the book and the author, Suzanne Kamata. Send her an email, she'd love to hear from you.

Dear Reader Column 08-25-14

Subscribe to one of Suzanne's online bookclubs and receive her daily column at: DearReader.com


AUTHORBUZZ: Discover new books, "meet" the authors and enter to win: Goto: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader

Dear Reader,

Wiggle, wiggle, scream!

If you missed last week's lizard in the shoe column, go to: http://dearreader.typepad.com/dear/2014/08/dear-reader-column-08-21-14.html

Readers tell some stories of their own. Emails from readers:

"Suzanne--Lucky you, that lizard must have been extremely friendly, or a pacifist of some kind! The Florida lizards are rather harmless, but they do bite, as I can attest to since my two basset hounds chase after them all the time. Sometimes one of them ends up with a lizard hanging from one of their long ears! I don't blame the lizards, it must be scary for a huge dog head coming at them, so they do what they must. The dogs just shake their heads a few times and the lizards tend to fall, or rather fly, off. You would think they would learn from this experience and stay clear of the back porch, but no...every day is a lizard catch adventure for Gracie and Rosie! Love to read your stories, thanks!"--Sharon

"Your lizard is so cute. I'm kind of glad he won. Lucky Us is wonderful. I have already ordered my copy because I won't be able to leave it after this week's reading. Thanks for choosing it."
Dorothy M., Hurst Library, Northwest University

"My husband and I are heading to Florida tomorrow for a long weekend to meet our brand-new grandson. I shall be sure to check my shoes."
Mary H., Barlow Memorial Library

"Oh how I 'connected' with your tennis shoe story. It's so good to learn that I am not the only one to get 'carried away' in the yard. I see something from the kitchen window that needs attention in the yard. I head out to take care of it AND an hour or so later I head back into the house having most likely ruined another set of clothes. I do have garden clothes that I wear when I plan to work in the yard, but when I'm going out to do just one thing I don't take the time to change and most times I regret it. Happy new home to your 'shoe lizard'! From a reader who so looks forward to your daily email. Thank you for sharing your life with us."--Nancy

"Such a cute story and I understand. I know the little lizards that you are talking about. I used to stay in Florida and they would always be around the house."--Nichelle J.

"I had a wonderful laugh this morning looking at the picture of the lizard poking its head out of your tennis shoe! I can only imagine what it will say to its friends and family about the close call. I am glad that you gave it a chance to exit your shoe with its life intact. Thank you for starting my day out with a laugh...it's so good share pictures with friends."--Cheryl V.

Today's the last day to enter my apron giveaway. To enter go to: http://www.dearreader.com/win/aprons1108.html

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

Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]

AUTHORBUZZ: BLACK SKIES (Thriller) by Leo J. Maloney

The first five people who email me and can tell me the name of the rogue terrorist in Black Skies will receive an autographed book.

A team of Navy SEALs wiped out in a surprise attack. A motorcade of dignitaries ambushed--and the U.S. Secretary of State abducted. But this is no random act of terror. A vision of evil unprecedented in scope has been triggered.

Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader click on BLACK SKIES to read more and to email author Leo J. Maloney, you'll get a reply.

Dear Reader Column 08-22-14

Subscribe to one of Suzanne's online bookclubs and receive her daily column at: DearReader.com


AUTHORBUZZ: Discover new books, "meet" the authors and enter to win: Goto: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader

Dear Reader,

It's time for the popular apron giveaway today.

I always tell folks it's practically impossible to swear or think bad thoughts about people when I'm wearing an apron. When I have an apron on I'm surrounded by the smells of a warm apple pie right out of the oven, or I imagine biting into pieces of left-over crust that Grandma Hale sprinkled with a little sugar and cinnamon. Or I could be basking in the sun. It's summertime, no school, my parents are at work and for two hours I can do anything I want, be anybody I want to be.

Wearing an apron has become part of my daily wardrobe. The aprons I like best are the ones that were worn by somebody else--somebody else I never knew. A light stain on an old apron, doesn't bother me a bit. It's character, it's history. It's a chance for me to imagine in my mind who used to own the apron. There doesn't seem to be any bad karma in the aprons I've discovered so far. Only great cooks and loving mothers used to wear the aprons I wear now. Nobody was a grump, burned their 2-layer cakes, or had unhappy households. These are the stories I feel in my heart when I tie a bow in my apron strings.

I'm so used to wearing an apron that sometimes I forget I have it on, until I'm pushing my cart down the grocery store aisle. But it's okay, because folks give me a warm-hearted smile when they see me wearing an apron. Yeah, okay, part of those warm feelings might be sympathy because they're thinking, "Look at that nice woman, she's probably lost part of her mind and that's why she wears an apron to the market. But she does look sweet," and so they smile.

I want to pass some of my good apron karma today, so I'm giving away three hand-me-down aprons. To enter my apron giveaway, go to: http://www.dearreader.com/win/aprons1108.html

Go ahead, treat yourself.

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

Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]

AUTHORBUZZ: THE MOUNTAINTOP SCHOOL FOR DOGS AND OTHER SECOND CHANCES (Fiction) by Ellen Cooney

Have you ever trusted your instincts about an adventure full of unknowns? Would you like a journey to a world of rescues, hope, and healing? Whether or not you've ever loved a dog, you'll be deeply emotionally involved in my new novel, hailed by John Grogan of Marley and Me as "a book that will grab your heart and not let go."

Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader click on THE MOUNTAINTOP SCHOOL FOR DOGS to read more and to email author Ellen Cooney, you'll get a reply.

Dear Reader Column 08-21-14

Subscribe to one of Suzanne's online bookclubs and receive her daily column at: DearReader.com


AUTHORBUZZ: Discover new books, "meet" the authors and enter to win: Goto: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader

Dear Reader,

I've trashed more tennis shoes by just thinking I'm going to go outside and pull a few weeds. Before I know it, I've been yanking weeds for an hour and when I look down, I see that I've ruined another pair of tennis shoes.

Tennis shoes go through my personal shoe cycle. A brand new pair is treated with a lot of respect, like Sunday church shoes when I was a kid. As soon as they start showing some wear, they advance to every day tennis shoes. When those shoes start to look like they've been through a kid's summer vacation, I move them into my gardening shoe category. When the "tennies" are totally trashed from gardening they become mulch shoes. Mulch shoes are only good for one wear and I mulch once or twice a year. Once you wear tennis shoes in a round of mulching, they are covered with wood chips and they are finished.

I started keeping my gardening tennis shoes outside on the back stoop so I wouldn't track dirt in the house. When I put on my tennis shoes today, and I did my normal routine of shaking them and banging them together, dirt and a lizard fell out. (Little lizards/geckos are common here in Florida. They eat bugs, are cute and are very friendly.)

I put my shoes on, but before heading outdoors, I made a quick stop at my computer. I was responding to an email when I felt something moving in my shoe. My first thought was that the shoes must have gotten wet and the inside support was breaking apart. But when I felt more movement, I immediately retreated to one of the basic rules that you learn when you move to Florida: "If you think you feel something crawling on your body, it probably is!

You've never seen a woman rip off a tennis shoe so fast in your life. I was already feeling a little fragile today--maybe it was just my imagination?

My husband's in charge of bugs, so I handed him my shoe, "Tell me if you can see anything down by the toe." He banged the shoe and another lizard appeared. But no amount of whacking my shoes together would chase that lizard out. Apparently he'd set up housekeeping and was determined to stand his ground. It probably was his wife that I chased out earlier. So those tennis shoes are skipping the mulch cycle. What could I do? The lizard won.

To see a photo of my lizard's new home, go to: http://www.emailbookclub.com/photo/lizard.html

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

Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]

AUTHORBUZZ: With so many new books out every week, we promise these titles deserve your attention:

(Fiction)
BLIND MOON ALLEY by John Florio

(Fiction)
DUNGEON GAMES by Lexi Blake

(Fiction)
UPSIDE DOWN by Fern Michaels

(Fiction)
THE MOUNTAINTOP SCHOOL FOR DOGS AND OTHER SECOND CHANCES by Ellen Cooney

Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader

 

 

 

Dear Reader Column 08-20-14

Subscribe to one of Suzanne's online bookclubs and receive her daily column at: DearReader.com


AUTHORBUZZ: Discover new books, "meet" the authors and enter to win: Goto: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader

Dear Reader,

I think one of my ancestors must have coined the phrase, "I'm sick to my stomach over it," because my relatives 'were' and 'are' always sick to their stomachs. Whenever I had a stomach ache as a kid, my mother would shrug it off as no big deal.

"Oh, it's nothing," she say, "you just have the Tindell Tummy. You got it from your father's side of the family."

The famous Tindell Tummy does run through our family tree, way back to the Civil War, when one of my relatives was sent home, relieved of his duties, because of his stomach ailments.

So my mother was right. It's true. I did inherit my own personal barometer for stress. Because even today, stress can start anywhere in my life, but it always ends up in my tummy.

* Congratulations to the winners of The Objects of Her Affection by Guest Columnist Sonya Cobb: Karen M., Sharon B. and Mary R.

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

Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]

AUTHORBUZZ: UPSIDE DOWN (Fiction) by Fern Michaels

The women of the Sisterhood have long been aided and supported by the men in their lives and now, for the first time, the male allies of the Sisterhood are taking center stage! Jack Emery has grown frustrated by the criminal justice system. He forms an off-the-grid spy group called BOLO Consultants. The "guy group" tackles overlooked cases with a little help from the Sisterhood!

Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader click on UPSIDE DOWN to read more and to email author Fern Michaels, you'll get a reply.

Dear Reader Column 08-19-14

Subscribe to one of Suzanne's online bookclubs and receive her daily column at: DearReader.com


AUTHORBUZZ: Discover new books, "meet" the authors and enter to win: Goto: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader

Dear Reader,

What an honor to feature today's guest columnist, author Sigmund Brouwer, the best-selling author of nearly thirty novels, with close to four million books in print. Based on his inspiration for Thief of Glory, which Sigmund wrote as a way to learn and honor the his parent's stories, especially of his father's boyhood in a Japanese concentration camp, Sigmund leads The Chapters of Our Lives memoir seminars across the United States and Canada. His father plays the fictional role of Jeremiah in the book trailer at www.thiefofglory.com

Sigmund is giving away ten copies of Thief of Glory to readers who email him with questions at [email protected]. Sigmund also loves the chance to visit book clubs as a way to help boys and girls with cleft palates receive a new smile: www.thiefofglory.com/book-club-readers

Welcome author Sigmund Brouwer to the book clubs...

A few months back during a visit with my parents, my father blurted, "Itchy knee, sun she go."

He smiled at my confusion, then continued, "Rock she chi, hat chi, coo ju."

I knew this was not Dutch, his original language.

"Huh," he said. "It's still with me."

His triumphant smile faded. "After all these years, I can still count."

Then I understood.

In his memory, he was a boy again, counting in Japanese. Those same words were in the draft of my novel he had just finished reading, but I had not known how those words were pronounced. Ichi for one, ni for two, and so on.

During World War II, women and children in Japanese internment camps in the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia, had to endure daily roll call--tenko--and remain bowed as they counted out those numbers until the soldiers were satisfied that no one had escaped camp. Often, a woman or child would faint in the intense heat and humidity; this indignity was minor in comparison to the other horrors of camp.

Willem, my father, was seven when Japanese Imperial forces invaded the island. His own father died during the building of the Burma Railway, something he would not discover until the war ended three years later, when my father and his mother and siblings would board a ship for Holland, their only possessions the clothes they wore.

My inspiration for the novel was to learn more about my father by learning about the events that had formed him. My research was a combination of reading accounts of other survivors and trying to cajole my father for memories. Along the way, I discovered by sharing with him what I'd learned, he would open up more and share his own stories.

It was a process that helped me understand a core truth, that to be human is to tell stories, and that telling stories is what makes us human. In short, we are our stories. We connect by telling others our stories, but it's through listening that we truly bond.

--Sigmund Brouwer

Send Sigmund an email at: [email protected]

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

Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]

AUTHORBUZZ: DUNGEON GAMES (Fiction) by Lexi Blake

Dallas cop Derek Brighton and PI Karina Mills have been circling each other for years. They have chemistry, but they also have a difficult history between them. When a killer targets Karina, Derek knows the time has come to deal with the fact that the perfect woman might have been in front of him all along.

Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader click on DUNGEON GAMES to find out more about the book and the author, Lexi Blake. Send her an email, she'd love to hear from you.

Dear Reader Column 08-18-14

Subscribe to one of Suzanne's online bookclubs and receive her daily column at: DearReader.com


AUTHORBUZZ: Discover new books, "meet" the authors and enter to win: Goto: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader

Dear Reader,

(Suzanne's taking a vacation day today. Enjoy one of her favorites.)

I realized the other day that I used to get up and wonder what surprise was in store for me. I haven't been doing that lately, don't know why, but I need to get back into the habit, because it was fun. It didn't have to be anything big, but wherever I went, whatever I did, I was on the lookout for possibilities. Every day was a grab bag filled with something new and exciting.

It reminded me of when I was a kid and I used to love spending my allowance on a surprise grab bag. It was a small brown paper sack, taped shut and filled with who knows what--that was the surprise. After I paid for the bag, I didn't open it right away. Instead I'd carry it around with me, sometimes for the entire day. Of course I was dying to know what was inside. It was all I could think about. Guessing and pretending, why, by the end of the day I'd imagined 20 or 30 different possibilities and each time I opened that bag in my mind, I was joyfully surprised by another wonderful gift.

The anticipation--it was quite a build-up and when I finally opened the bag, there were trinket toys inside, not nearly as grandiose as I'd imagined, but that's not what mattered any more. Those trinkets may not have looked like much to anyone else, but I knew them better. Thinking about the possibilities of what was in the bag had made my day.

I wonder what's in store for me today.

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

Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]

AUTHORBUZZ: BLIND MOON ALLEY (Fiction) by John Florio

It's Prohibition. It's Philadelphia. And Jersey Leo doesn't fit in. Jersey is an albino of mixed race. Known as "Snowball" on the street, he tends bar at a speakeasy the locals call the Ink Well. There, he's considered a hero for having saved the life of a young boy. But when his old grade school buddy, Aaron Garvey, calls from death row and asks for one last favor, all h ell breaks loose.

Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader click on BLIND MOON ALLEY to read more and to email author John Florio, you'll get a reply.