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Dear Reader,
Today's guest author, Beth Harbison, is The New York Times bestselling author of several novels, including, One Less Problem Without You; Driving with the Top Down; Thin, Rich, Pretty; Secrets of a Shoe Addict, and Shoe Addicts Anonymous. Beth grew up in Potomac, Maryland, outside Washington, DC, and now shares her time between that suburb, New York City, and a quiet home on the eastern shore. Her latest novel is called Every Time You Go Away.
Please do email and say hello to Beth. She always delights in hearing from readers.
Contact: [email protected]
Words with Friends
In 1985, I went to Greece with my then-boyfriend's mom (a woman who has lasted the test of time and remains my dear friend to this day) and one of my best friends from high school. Because we were flying on "Creaky Scary Chartered Airlines," I packed light and brought one thing for recreation: a fabulous little folding Travel Scrabble with sticky plastic letters, like Colorforms.
We laughed our way through many games and passed the time nicely on the plane. So when, the next year, I went off to school in England, I took my trusty Scrabble board with me. And, with a personality I had then but no longer can imagine having, I frequently invited strangers to join me in a game.
There was a time on a train from Kings Cross station to my pal's home in Nottinghamshire. The Friday afternoon train was wildly, extravagantly overfilled. Many were sitting on the grungy floor at the front of the car. I asked a stranger if he wanted to play Scrabble and he did. As I recall, we both got a little over-competitive and my remaining thought is that "Zen" is a proper noun so it. Doesn't. Count.
On my way home at Christmas, I was in the aisle seat of a 3-row on a 747, crossing the Atlantic back to the US. An extremely hot guy--he looked like Sting and it was the 80's so Sting was on my mind--got the window seat. Right up to the time the jet engines revved, it looked like it would just be the two of us in that row and so we started a game of Scrabble. Obviously I had plans for that leading to our marriage but that was foiled by the toddling entrance of a wide woman from The Gambia, who, upon our approach to JFK, looked at the clouds, commented on them as "snow" and proceeded to puke all over our seats and the floor and all of our belongings on the seats and floor...including that Scrabble game.
I threw it out. I had to.
Now years have passed and we have the internet and my bonding-with-people-over-words thing has continued in the form of online versions of Scrabble. At this moment, I'm playing with my daughter, her ex-boyfriend, my former publicist, my ex-brother-in-law's daughter, and a woman who used to live in my neighborhood but whom I've never actually met. I count them all as friends now.
Communication often comes with words, sometimes just one at a time.
--Beth Harbison
Welcome Beth to the book club at [email protected]
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]
** AUTHORBUZZ **
AS THE POPPIES BLOOMED (Fiction) by Maral Boyadjian
I have woven together the memories of my four grandparents, all Armenian Genocide survivors, and my love for historical fiction, to create this story full of sensitive, stubborn, and passionate people who lived and loved in the highlands of my ancestor's. A captivating love story of two Armenians who dare to break their village's ancient courtship rules, never suspecting the upheaval that will soon envelop their land and their hearts.
Go to: AUTHORBUZZ click on AS THE POPPIES BLOOMED to read more and to email author Maral Boyadjian, you'll get a reply.
* This month's Penguin Classics book is AMIABLE WITH BIG TEETH, by Claude McKay. I have a Penguin totebag to share with a lucky reader. Start reading this month's Penguin Classics book by clicking this link, and enter-to-win for your chance to win the adorable totebag.
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