Dear Reader

Dear Reader Column - February 28, 2022

Dear Reader,

I worry way too much. If you've been reading my daily column for a while, you obviously know it's not the first time I've fessed up to being a worrywart. Hmm, am I using an incorrect spelling? Is it worrywart? Or worrywort? (Great, something else to worry about.)

Even Google couldn't squelch my spelling worry--seems you can take your pick. It depends on whose entry you want to believe. But I did find some worrywart comfort as I was researching the origin of worrywart. You know how if you have some affliction and you find someone else who has it, you're not happy they suffer from the same thing you do, but for some reason there is a bit of comfort in discovering you're not the only one.

Well I discovered there are oodles of us worrywarts, but we shouldn't worry that we're to blame. In researching worrywart, I think that cartoonist J. R. Williams is somewhat responsible for our worry afflictions. Mr. Williams took little, every day worries and put them centerstage in a popular cartoon strip called Worry Wart back in the 40s. Worry Wart was the name of a character who caused others to worry. Yes, Worry Wart stayed worry-free but only because he passed his worries onto all the people around him, including my dad who loved to read the funnies, and then my dad passed the worrywart thing on to me. Okay, so I don't know that for sure, but at the moment it sounds comforting that my worrying isn't all my fault.

"Help yourself not to worry," therapists tell us worriers. And one of the techniques they preach is, "Don't worry about worrying, just accept the fact that you are worrying."

So I'm trying not to worry, that I'm worrying, instead I'll acknowledge the fact that I'm worrying--but isn't that the problem with worrying? I know I'm worrying, I acknowledge I'm worrying and I just keep on worrying. This is all getting too complicated for me. This column is going nowhere. I'm worried that I can't make this work today...so I'm outta here.

Talk to you tomorrow.

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

Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]

AUTHORBUZZ: Discover new books, "meet" the authors and enter to win.

DON'T JUST SIT THERE, DO NOTHING (NONFICTION) by Jessie Asya Kanzer

I wanna share a life-changing secret with you: We don't get what we want; we get what we are. Join me on a journey of healing and creation where we use ancient teachings to tap into the Great Power within us--so that our life can finally reflect our innate greatness! My book, Don't Just Sit There, DO NOTHING: Healing, Chilling, and Living with the Tao Te Ching, is the work of a lifetime. In it, I share my own story of profound transformation and help you shift your perception as well, so you too can shift your life.

I'm giving away five SIGNED copies, to enter the drawing, click on the link to Authorbuzz and the book jacket to enter.

Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader click on DON'T JUST SIT THERE, DO NOTHING to read more and to email author Jessie Asya Kanzer, you'll get a reply.

Dear Reader Column - February 25, 2022

Dear Reader,

It's time to enter this month's Chocolate Cookie Giveaway. Every month I bake for three lucky readers. To enter the cookie drawing, and see photos of young cookie bakers and read a testimonial, from one of last month's cookie winners, click here.

Book club readers have been sharing their favorite soup recipes. Today Jane R., shares one of her family favorites, and she suggests the soup goes perfect with blueberry muffins, so I've included my favorite blueberry muffin recipe (below).

"Hi Suzanne, our family likes soups of all kinds. My husband and I were born and raised 'up north' and it wasn't until after our college graduations that we began to move south. Even though we've lived in Texas for nearly 40 years, soup is still one of our favorite meals--summer and winter.

One of the things I like best about making a pot of soup (besides the delicious leftovers and how it makes the kitchen smell so good!) is the fact that soup recipes are very forgiving. If you want to add more of something or even substitute an ingredient, it is usually a pretty safe thing to do and that holds true for both of these recipes as well. I hope you enjoy them as much as our family does!" – Jane R.

CHICKEN & WILD RICE SOUP
(6-8 servings)
Freezes well

1 box long grain and wild rice
2-3 large chicken breasts
1 medium onion, diced
8 oz fresh mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup butter or margarine (or less)
6 Tbsp instant chicken bouillon
2 cups diced celery
Broccoli, chopped (one medium bunch or to taste)
2 cups diced carrots
Salt & pepper

Bring chicken to boil in 8 cups of water in a large pot. Cook until tender. Remove chicken and save water in pot.

Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces (or shred). Meanwhile, prepare the rice according to package directions and set aside.

Add bouillon cubes, carrots, celery, and broccoli to water and cook until crisp-tender (5 minutes at most).

Saute mushrooms and onion in butter and add to soup mixture.

Add chicken and prepared rice and heat thoroughly.

Serve with blueberry muffins or crusty bread.

SUZANNE'S FAVORITE BUTTERMILK BLUEBERRY MUFFINS
(makes12 muffins)

2 cups all purpose flour
1 T baking powder
Pinch of salt
1/2 heaping cup sugar
2 eggs
1 generous cup buttermilk
6 T butter, melted and cooled
1 tsp vanilla, overflowing

1 heaping cup blueberries (fresh or frozen is fine, and you can use any type of berries with the recipe)

Powdered sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Put paper liners in a muffin tin. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Stir in the sugar.

Put eggs in a bowl and beat lightly, then beat in the buttermilk, melted butter and vanilla extract. (I just mix by hand.)

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, pour in the beaten liquid ingredients and add the berries. Stir until combined, DO NOT overmix. Fill tins with muffin batter.

Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until well risen, golden brown and firm to the touch. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Put them on a wire rack to cool, or dust with powdered sugar, then eat them warm.

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

Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]

KIDSBUZZ: Looking for a great read for kids ages 4-6? Acclaimed and bestselling author Robie H. Harris's SOMEWHERE captures the magic of a child finding her inner strength and curiosity--and discovering somewhere new all on her own. For a chance to win free copies, to talk with the authors, see http://www.authorbuzz.com/kidsbuzz.

Dear Reader Column - February 24, 2022

Dear Reader,

It's time for my Chocolate Chip Cookie Giveaway so make sure to enter the drawing today. My homemade cookies will be delivered right to your door if you were one of the three names drawn. To enter this month's drawing, click here. 

Book club reader Maria M. shared one of her favorite soup recipes with me. She says, "Don't skip the butter at the end of the recipe, it really adds a little something to the dish.

ROASTED BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP
From Cookie and Kate
(Yields 4 bowls)

1 large butternut squash (about 3 pounds), halved vertically and seeds removed
1 tablespoon olive oil, plus more for drizzling
1/2 cup chopped shallot (about 1 large shallot bulb)
1 teaspoon salt
4 garlic cloves, pressed or minced
1 teaspoon maple syrup
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
3 to 4 cups (24 to 32 ounces) vegetable broth, as needed
1 to 2 tablespoons butter, to taste

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit and line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Place the butternut squash on the pan and drizzle each half with just enough olive oil to lightly coat the squash on the inside (about 1/2 teaspoon each). Rub the oil over the inside of the squash and sprinkle it with salt and pepper.

Turn the squash face down and roast until it is tender and completely cooked through, about 40 to 50 minutes (don't worry if the skin or flesh browns--that's good for flavor). Set the squash aside until it's cool enough to handle, about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a large soup pot, warm 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat until shimmering (if your blender has a soup preset, use a medium skillet to minimize dishes.) Add the chopped shallot and 1 teaspoon salt. Cook, stirring often, until the shallot has softened and is starting to turn golden on the edges, about 3 to 4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute, stirring frequently. Transfer the contents to your stand blender.

Use a large spoon to scoop the butternut squash flesh into your blender. Discard the tough skin. Add the maple syrup, nutmeg and a few twists of freshly ground black pepper to the blender. Pour in 3 cups vegetable broth, being careful not to fill the container past the maximum fill line (you can work in batches if necessary, and stir in any remaining broth later).

Securely fasten the lid. Blend on high (or select the soup preset, if available), being careful to avoid hot steam escaping from the lid. Stop once your soup is ultra creamy and warmed through.

If you would like to thin out your soup a bit more, stir in the remaining cup of broth. Add 1 to 2 tablespoons butter or olive oil, to taste, and blend well. Taste and stir in more salt and pepper, if necessary.

If your soup is piping hot from the blending process, you can pour it into serving bowls. If not, pour it back into your soup pot and warm the soup over medium heat, stirring often, until it's nice and steamy. I like to top individual bowls with some extra black pepper.

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

Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]

KIDSBUZZ: Click here to discover new books, "meet" the authors and enter to win.

Dear Reader Column - February 23, 2022

Dear Reader,

Today our guest writer is Peggy P. Sutton, one of the 2021 Honorable Mentions from my Write a DearReader Contest. The quality of writing in the 2021 Write a DearReader Contest was outstanding. Thank you so much Peggy for sharing your story with us.

Russell's Obituary

A week before his 95th birthday, my friend Russell asked me to type his obituary. I swallowed quickly and said, "It would be an honor. I'd be happy to help, so when you need it, it will be ready." I tried to emphasize 'when' as though it was an abstract vague time in the future. In truth, Russell had been in poor health, and 95 was just a week away.

He sent me several pages from a yellow legal pad, filled with careful printing that was still a struggle to read in places. I meticulously typed information about his siblings, children, and wife. Russell and his wife had been married 62 years. That gave me pause. They were married longer than I have been alive. When he lost his wife a few years ago, they had been together for nearly all of his life. How did he survive that?

As I typed in his education, career highlights, and offices held in civic organizations, I felt a strange realization; this is it. This is his life boiled down to part of a column in the local newspaper. I thought about his career achievements and awards, and thought those were probably really important at the time. They probably consumed a lot of his time and energy. And yet, a couple of decades later, the immediacy, the stress of the moment had faded away. What was left was a curious recounting of a life, but not the details that made it memorable and, hopefully, happier than not. I read with interest that he and his wife had lived in 11 places during their marriage. I thought about the new starts, the goodbyes to old neighbors and neighborhoods, the moving logistics that probably seemed overwhelming at the time.

Reading other obituaries has never given me the same feeling. Perhaps because I was typing the notes, and this seemed more immediate. I've only known Russell as an old man. He was a senior citizen when I met him nearly 20 years ago. This gave me a small glimpse of what his life was like when he was younger, healthier, busy with so many clubs, committees, promotions, and relocations. Would he, I wondered, have done anything differently if he could see into the future?

It made me think about what my obituary would say, years from now, one hopes. But the listing of career notes would not convey the way work and stress can take over my life. And yet, soon enough, that career will just be lines in a column in the local paper, noticed or not. I remind myself that all this pressure will be distilled into a small amount of ink on a quickly recycled page of newsprint. As I'm beginning to realize, this is not what's important. Will it matter a year from now, five years, ten?

Could I possibly let go of some of this constant worry that more needed to be done? The habit of rushing is a difficult one to break. I am gradually getting better at slowing down more and stressing less. I have discovered leisure is a garden in need of constant care. I smile more, I take more deep breaths, and try not to be weighed down by the crisis of the day. More and more often, I stop to watch the hummingbirds at my feeders, pause to enjoy the sound of my husband's laugh, and savor a little extra time with my dog.

Russell died a couple of months later. I keep his obituary handy, to remind me of what really counts.

-- Peggy P. Sutton
Honorable Mention, 2021 Write a DearReader Contest

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

Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]

KIDSBUZZ: Looking for a great read for kids ages 4-6? Acclaimed and bestselling author Robie H. Harris's SOMEWHERE captures the magic of a child finding her inner strength and curiosity--and discovering somewhere new all on her own. For a chance to win free copies, to talk with the authors, see http://www.authorbuzz.com/kidsbuzz.

 

Dear Reader Column - February 22, 2022

Dear Reader,

Today's guest author, Laurie Zaleski, is the Founder and President of Funny Farm, a rescue and sanctuary located in Mays Landing, NJ. Inspired by her mother and her love of animals, Laurie has led her rescue farm to become one of the largest animal rescues in the northeast. Funny Farm has earned many awards including the Top 10 places to visit in all of New Jersey. Laurie is also the Founder and CEO of Art-Z Graphics and a licensed pilot. She has been named a New Jersey Heartland Hero, is listed in the 2019 Who's Who of Professional Women, and has received numerous awards and acknowledgements for her work to save animals and educate the public about animal abuse. Her memoir, Funny Farm: My Unexpected Life with 600 Rescue Animals, goes on sale today.

Laurie is giving away two copies of Funny Farm: My Unexpected Life with 600 Rescue Animals. To enter the drawing, send an email your preferred mailing address to: [email protected]

Find out more about Funny Farm Rescue and Sanctuary at: https://funnyfarmrescue.org/

Please welcome Laurie Zaleski...

One of my many passions is flying. Ever since I was a small girl, I have always been fascinated by anything that flies from small bugs, to giant swans, to huge aircraft.

Another passion I have is animal rescue. One day, a lady brought me an orphaned 2-day-old baby turkey I named Rosie.

Rosie lived in my house with the dogs and cats. She followed me everywhere, even jumping up on my lap to take her little naps. There were no if, ands, or turkey-butts about it. I was her mom.

My friends would invite me out to a restaurant and they would all carry beautiful purses. Mine was a little different. It had a special space just for Rosie and another compartment for her food because she ate every 2 hours. After a while, they heard little chirps coming from my purse and I would just tell them the truth, which was much better than any story I could have made up. I just said, "I have a baby turkey in there!" They rolled their eyes and said, "Only Laurie!"

I knew it was my job to teach Rosie how to fly, after all, she is a bird. I have a small Cessna 150 I nicknamed "The Blonde Bomber." It was time to combine my passions, animals and airplanes!

As we flew, I put her up on the dashboard so she could see out the windows. Rosie loved every minute of it. My plan was to push the yoke abruptly down causing the airplane to be completely weightless, at least for a few seconds. As a kid, I called it the "tummy tickler" much like the feeling you get on a roller coaster.

Each time I would climb a little, and then push the yoke in. Sure enough, Rosie's little wings began to flap, and flap. After about 3 times, she learned to fly! The more she'd fly, the more she'd chirp! We did this several times until I determined, she, herself, was "airworthy."

Since then, I have had many animals in my little Cessna. There were a variety of missions from animal rescues to visits of animals I had in special hospitals. At the time, there were very few women pilots.

Certainly, I worked hard to learn to fly and nothing was handed to me. Like most things in my life, I knew if something was going to happen, I couldn't sit around wishing. With the determination I learned from my mother, I knew that absolutely nothing was impossible!

-- Laurie Zaleski

To enter my drawing for one of two copies of my book, Funny Farm: My Unexpected Life with 600 Rescue Animals, send an email to: [email protected]

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

Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]

KIDSBUZZ: Click here to discover new books, "meet" the authors and enter to win.

Dear Reader Column - February 21, 2022

Dear Reader,

I'm not signed up for an official volunteer opportunity right now, and lately I've been chastising myself about it. My very first volunteer job, when my husband and I moved to Sarasota, was assisting homeless people who wanted to get their clothes washed while they showered. When I decided to leave that position I moved on to other volunteering opportunities. But lately I've been feeling guilty, because right now, I'm not volunteering anywhere. And I've been asking myself, 'Suzanne, why aren't you volunteering and doing your share to help others?'

The first excuse that came to mind was, 'I don't really have any extra time.' My immediate retort, 'But isn't that what most people say? If you really want to do something Suzanne, you can make the time. It's all about choices.' And that's true. But when I took an inventory of how I spend my time, I realized the needs of my family have changed, at least for now.

So I've decided to stop feeling guilty, and instead remind myself that right now I'm volunteering in my own backyard. I'm trying to be the best wife, mom and grandmother I can be, and that means spending quality time with my grandchildren, continuing to be Mom to my grown children taking their calls when they need someone to listen, working on fun projects with my husband, taking care of our rescued cats, and devoting a little more time to myself, too. Because if I'm a happier, more well adjusted person, then I'll have more good stuff to share with other people.

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

Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]

* Congratulations to the winners of The Lonely Hunter by Guest Author Aimée Lutkin: Melanie S., Brenda G., Dawn M., Sheri M. and Birnie M.

KIDSBUZZ: Click here to discover new books, "meet" the authors and enter to win.

Dear Reader Column - February 18, 2022

Dear Reader,

It's been my favorite cake since I was a kid, but I never knew the name of it. To me, it was always the "funeral cake." I know that sounds a little strange, but I grew up in a small town and whenever someone passed away, neighbors would take food over to the bereaved family, so they didn't have to worry about cooking. Even if they didn't have much of an appetite, most likely there would be a steady stream of friends and relatives stopping by, and they could offer them something to eat.

I was an only child so I’d always tag along with my parents and while they were talking to the other adults, I'd look for the "funeral cake." Oh boy, was it good. A devil's food cake with a buttercream frosting.

When my mother passed away and her friends and neighbors brought food over to the house, guess what showed up--the funeral cake. I wasn't hungry, couldn't eat a thing, but how could I resist? So after everyone left, I ate the rest of the cake myself.

Months later I got a note from Betty, the funeral cake baker: "Suzanne, I was thinking of you and your mother today, and I remembered that you asked me for the recipe."

Of course, I couldn’t resist. I baked "the funeral cake" later that day, and it tasted just like I remembered.

The Devil's Food Cake with Buttercream Frosting

Cream 1/2 cup shortening and 1 1/2 cups sugar.
Add 1 egg.
Add 1/2 cup milk alternately with the following ingredients that have been sifted together:
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup cocoa

Add 1 cup boiling water and 1 tsp real vanilla.

Grease and flour pans, add the cake batter and bake at 350 degrees for the following times:
Loaf pan: 40 minutes
Layer cake: 2 round pans - 30 minutes
Cupcakes: 17 minutes

Frosting
Cook until thick, stirring constantly:
1/2 cup milk and 2 tablespoons flour (then let the mixture cool)
Whip together: one stick of soft butter and 1/2 cup sugar Then whip the two mixtures together.

*If you make a layer cake, then double the frosting recipe.

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

Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]

* Congratulations to the winners of With Love From London by Guest Author Sarah Jio: Deanna R., Lisa A., Ruth V., Joan A. and Marianne J.

AUTHORBUZZ: Discover new books, "meet" the authors and enter to win.

Dear Reader Column - February 17, 2022

Dear Reader,

Today our guest writer is, Laura Shaffer, one of the 2021 Honorable Mentions from my Write a DearReader Contest. Thank you so much Laura for sharing your story with us.

I am the youngest of four girls. If our mother asked, "Who broke the vase?," we responded by birth order.

Sarah, the oldest, said, "Lisa."

Lisa said, "Becky."

Becky said, "Laura."

I had no one's name to say. Until the day I created Mary Lousa. If anything got broken or misplaced, Mary Lousa did it. She took the brunt of my childhood misdeeds. Our parents didn't condone lying, but I think they knew I needed Mary Lousa for a while.

Mary Lousa first came to my parents' home when I was about eight. I can't remember how old I was when she disappeared. After my sisters and I moved and had families of our own, Mary Lousa resurfaced once again.

After a family gathering, my mother emailed us something like this:

It was great seeing everybody. Now that you all have gone, I am missing a few things. My blue knitting needles and small silver scissors. They were both by my big chair. Did anyone see them?

We responded with four "nos." Someone typed one name: "Mary Lousa."

Mary Lousa was an active member of our family once again. She took the strangest things. She hid the remote control, a throw pillow, and a can opener. Usually, she returned the items to out-of-reach places, making us scratch our heads and ask, 'Why would she put the remote control under the sofa?'

Once while I cat sat, Mary Loosa stole the kitty litter scooper. I never did find it.

Our mother sent us another email after a long weekend visit. In the subject line, she wrote "Mary Loosa on the Loose."

Mum typed, "That girl has been busy."

Trash talking began as emails flew back and forth.

"She is so bad."

"What a slut!"

That message went too far. "Don't call her names," I typed. "I created her. I will defend her."

"When did you start defending a thief?" another sister retorted.

Poor Mary Lousa/Loosa. Even with the name calling, she insisted on visiting our mother's house. Her antics halted during COVID, however. She stayed away like everybody else.

Once restrictions were lifted, Mary Lousa reappeared after we visited our mother. Fortunately, she only removed items from one table to another.

As adults, I believe Mary Lousa reflects a bit of each of us. She helps us to laugh at ourselves and understand the need for make believe when we take ourselves too seriously.

This summer, my 93-year-old mother, a rug hooker, completed a pre-stamped piece. A young girl about twelve faces the sea. We can only see the back of her turquoise dress. The wind whips her black hair about her shoulders. Appropriately, Mum has titled the piece "Mary Loosa." To Mary Loosa's left is a cliff. On the other side of it, I imagine Mary Loosa has pitched an item or two from my mother's house, such as a kitty litter scooper. If I listen closely, I can hear her giggles float out to sea.

--- Laura Shaffer
Honorable Mention, 2021 Write a DearReader Contest

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)
JONAH BENNETT: A Bennett Mafia Novella by Tijan

(FICTION)
TAKING THE LEAP: A River Rain Novel by Kristen Ashley

(NONFICTION)
RACING WITH ALOHA: An Inspiring Journey from Humble Barefoot Maui Boy to Champion in the Water by Fred Haywood

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

Dear Reader Column - February 16, 2022

Dear Reader,

I'm eating an orange in between typing today's column. I sure hope my column turns out better than this orange tastes, because it's dry.

You know, when I moved from Wisconsin to Florida, one of the things I was really looking forward to eating a fresh orange every morning. I constantly see television commercials about how great our Florida oranges taste, but I don't know where they're at--certainly not in Florida.

It's puzzling. Most of the oranges I see in the grocery stores have a California sticker on them. And when I drive down the interstate, semis overflowing with Florida oranges pass by me. Where the heck are they headed? Not to my grocery store, that's for sure.

I only have an avocado tree in my yard, so if I want to peel a Florida fresh orange, I have to go for a walk and steal one from a neighbor's overhanging tree.

This past Christmas I placed orders with a local orange grove to ship Florida oranges to my friends, and when they called raving about how sweet and juicy they were, I was jealous. I think next year I'm just going to add myself to my own holiday list.

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

Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]

AUTHORBUZZ: Discover new books, "meet" the authors and enter to win.

RACING WITH ALOHA: An Inspiring Journey from Humble Barefoot Maui Boy to Champion in the Water by Fred Haywood

Racing with Aloha is part adventure tale, part spiritual memoir. I met my friend Mark Spitz in high school, which led me to a championship swimming career. Later, I surfed isolated Indonesian beaches, mentored a young Laird Hamilton, and competed in world-renowned windsurfing contests, from Maui to England to Africa during the sport's heyday.

I'm giving away five copies click on the link to Authorbuzz for a chance to win one of five books and to learn how you can enter for a chance to win a pair of Maui Jim sunglasses!

Go to: AUTHORBUZZ click on RACING WITH ALOHA to read more and to email author Fred Haywood, you'll get a reply.

Dear Reader Column - February 15, 2022

Dear Reader,

Our guest author today Ben Rawlence, is a former researcher for Human Rights Watch in the horn of Africa. His new book is The Treeline: The Last Forest and the Future of Life on Earth. The book takes us on a journey of wonder and awe at the incredible creativity and resilience of trees and the mysterious workings of the forest upon which we rely for the air we breathe.

Ben is also the author of City of Thorns and Radio Congo and is the founder and director of Black Mountains College and lives with his family in Wales.

Ben says, "I never set out to become a writer, I just found that I liked doing it and had stories to tell. Now I confess I am addicted. It's a kind of curse, if I don't write, I don't feel good. So I try and write for at least an hour each day."

Ben is giving away three copies of The Treeline. To enter the drawing, send an email with your preferred shipping address to: [email protected]

Please welcome author Ben Rawlence...

Dear Reader,

You have a heartbeat. Did you know that the planet has one too? In fact it has more than one. The daily pulse of breathing in and breathing out of plants exhaling oxygen and inhaling carbon dioxide, the seasonal pulse of deciduous plants and trees photosynthesizing during the spring and summer and then shutting down for the winter, and lastly, the most amazing and dramatic heartbeat--of ice, rising and falling like a white blanket over the top of the earth every 100,000 years. The ice ages have defined life on earth for millions of years and, each time the ice has retreated north, the forest has followed on its heels, rising and falling, like breath.

And as the lichen, moss, then grass and trees has colonised the rock, the advancing treeline has transformed the surface of the planet into a habitable crust of soil and plants. There is barely a square inch of the northern hemisphere that has not been passed over, and blessed, by the treeline.

I went North, to the Arctic circle, to catch a glimpse of the future where the planet is warming fastest: where the trees are on the move more than ever. I was completely unprepared for what I found. Forests have been shifting north since World War Two, trees are popping up where they have no right to exist and all the other denizens of the forest, including humans, are confused.

The clues to the changes underway and what they might mean for humans and non-humans alike are to be found in the past: the study of rocks, ice and trees. And if we are to find new, more healthy and respectful ways of co-existing on this planet with other species, then we must pay attention to older ways of living in harmony with the forest, ways of life practised by indigenous peoples of the woods the world over.

In The Treeline we meet the Sami people of Norway herding reindeer on the tundra, the Nganasan of Siberia whose lives have been turned upside down first by communism then by its ending, the Koyukon of Alaska who first noticed changes signalled by the birds a century ago and the Anishinaabe of Canada who have confronted the traumatic history of colonialism and in the process created the largest protected enclave of old growth forest in North America.

Trees offer us a warning but also consolation, and in their generous, creative and social, example they show us a way out of the dead end we have driven down. The Treeline is an invitation to take a walk in the woods and participate in the infinite, mysterious and majestic unfolding algorithm that is the co-evolution of all life on earth.

-- Ben Rawlence

Ben is giving away three copies of The Treeline. To enter the drawing, send an email with your preferred shipping address to: [email protected]

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

Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]

AUTHORBUZZ: Discover new books, "meet" the authors and enter to win.

TAKING THE LEAP: A River Rain Novel by Kristen Ashley

River Rain is back! Sweeping from the mountains of Arizona, to parties in New York City, the next in the River Rain series, brings on one of my  favorite tropes. A bashful woman who's willing to take what she can get and a good man lying to himself about his future, that future being with her. Can Alex and Rix see the possibility and take the leap? I'm giving away five copies, click on the link to Authorbuzz and the book jacket to enter.

Go to: AUTHORBUZZ click on TAKING THE LEAP to read more and to email author Kristen Ashley, you'll get a reply.