Review: Muffins & Mayhem

Muffins & Mayhem: Recipes for a Happy, if Disorderly Life by Suzanne Beecher

(For review from Media Muscle)

Synopsis:

(From press release) Pull up a chair and dig into this delicious dish of confessions and reminiscences from an everyday person who had big dreams. In Muffins & Mayhem: Recipes for a Happy - if Disorderly - Life, Suzanne Beecher, beloved creator of the hugely successful online book club DearReader.com, rediscovers her path to the present through a recipe box and opens her heart to her readers.

Raised in Cuba City, Wisconsin, boasting 2,000 people, with a firm appreciation for hard work, Suzanne recalls her own arduous childhood years followed by her evolution from single, drug addicted, teenage mother to successful businesswoman, mother, grandmother, and wife of her best friend - the man of her dreams. Tracing memories evoked by the recipes she love to cook, Suzanne reassures us that with love and dedication even the most challenging obstacles will be overcome.

Muffins & Mayhem was inspired by a reader who had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and was wondering how to leave a legacy to her children. Suzanne suggested a recipe box filled with memories and family stories. Helping this reader turned out to be a gift to Suzanne as well, and she decided to share the stories and recipes that help keep her grounded in today's unpredictable world.

Dished up with a healthy portion of hilarity; whether she's ironing the clothes her mother deliberately froze solid, being the only girl in an auto mechanics course, or getting her pearl chandelier earring stuck between her teeth while driving, Suzanne's personal tales remind us to take life lightly and enjoy our time with those we love.

So bake up some of Suzanne's blueberry muffins, pour a tall glass of tea and make some time to savor the days when all food was slow food and people came together to enrich the quality of each other's lives.

Muffins and Mayhem is a ticket back home...

Thoughts:

I have been a member of one of Suzanne's online book clubs at DearReader.com for a long time and I'll have to say it's one of the best ways to find out if a particular book is up your alley or just doesn't suit your reading tastes. I very excited when I was given the opportunity to review Suzanne's book, Muffins & Mayhem. After reading Suzanne's daily column for DearReader.com I knew the book would be funny, but it would also be very heart felt and full of lessons for life.

Muffins & Mayhem is filled with stories from Suzanne's past as well as recipes. I've tried a couple of them and they are out of this world, wicked good! You gotta try Suzanne's Lava Cakes (pg. 6) and LOL, Skunk Beans (pg. 194)! This is a book for families who like to cook together, eat together and keep their family traditions alive. This book was inspired by a reader who had terminal cancer and wanted to leave something behind for her children, but you don't have to ill to realize how wonderful this kind of thing would be for any family.

Take Suzanne's suggestion to heart and create a recipe box of your own families recipes and stories to pass on to your children. What a wonderful legacy! This was a wonderful book, that I'll remember long after the last page.

Muffins & Mayhem is available now from your favorite bookseller.

I give this book 5 out of 5 apples from my book bag!