Recipes for a happy life..
 Sarasota Resident Susan Beecher has a new book out in June called Muffins and Mayhem: Recipes for a Happy, if Disorderly Life. Beecher, the creator of the successful online book club DearReader.com, rediscovers her path to the present through a recipe box and opening her heart to her readers.
Raised in Cuba City, Wisconsin (population 2,000), and with a firm appreciation for hard work, Beecher recalls her own arduous childhood years followed by her evolution from single, drug-addicted, teenage mother to successful businesswoman, mother, grandmother, and wife of the man of her dreams. Tracing memories evoked by the recipes she loves to cook, Beecher shares her belief that with love and dedication even the most challenging obstacles can be overcome.
Muffins and Mayhem was inspired by a reader who had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and was wondering how to leave a legacy to her children. Beecher suggested a recipe box filled with memories and family stories. Helping this reader turned out to be a gift to Beecher as well, and she decided to share the stories and recipes that help keep her grounded.
Dished up with a healthy portion of anecdotes— whether she's ironing the clothing 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, Beecher's personal tales remind us to take life lightly and enjoy our time with those we love.
Part memoir, part recipe book, Muffins and Mayhem is a perfect summer read. Beecher has owned a restaurant, founded and published a business magazine, established a non-profit program to feed the homeless, and home-schooled her youngest son. She writes a daily column for DearReader.com and designs book clubs for publishers, booksellers, and libraries across the country.
Muffins and Mayhem: Recipes for a Happy if Disorderly Life
By Suzanne Beecher. Published by Touchstone. June 1, 2010. ISBN: 1439112878. $24.95
Common sense medicine...
 In her new book, Good Medicine: A Return to Common Sense, Dr. Carol Roberts combines her Harvard education and 30 years of experience as a physician to show her readers that healthcare is not just about drugs and surgery.
Instead, she believes true healthcare involves patients in their own health by educating them about the results of their choices. Dr. Roberts book relates stories about patients diagnosed with memory loss and Lou Gehrig's disease, among others. She explains how balancing nutrition, minerals and other whole body issues helped these people return to healthier lives.
Roberts' Good Medicine can show readers how to shape their own well being with practical techniques that are based on looking at one's body as a complete system, not as a mere collection of symptoms.
Good Medicine includes chapters on nutrition, digestion, toxins, sex, and heart health. Readers are shown why the digestive system is the “gateway to optimal health,” and how they can break the habit of consuming foods that might be killing them and replace those foods with nutrient rich foods.
Dr. Roberts also discusses vitamins and tells which ones work, why they work, and how much of them someone should, or shouldn't, be taking. Good Medicine also shows why spirituality is as important as physical medicine. As Dr. Roberts states, "If you rely on high tech medicine and pharmaceuticals without attending to these common sense measures, you are putting the cart before the horse. The majority of cancers and heart attacks can be prevented by good health habits and smart decisions about how we live our lives."
Carol L. Roberts, M. D. is a graduate of Harvard University and the University of Texas College of Medicine. She did her residency training at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and is a Ear, Nose and Throat specialist and also in Holistic Medicine physician. She is the Founder and Medical Director of Wellness Works www.wellnessworks.us of Sarasota and Brandon, where she uses conventional medicine with natural and holistic techniques.
Good Medicine: A Return to Common Sense
By Carol L. Roberts M.D. ISBN: 978-0977931620. Publisher: Mercurius Press. December 2009. $19.95
A rich and suspenseful saga...
 The Test by Patricia Gussin is her third novel. “A seamless, sensational, and suspenseful story about family, value, and choices,” The Test is the tale of one family fractured by the very thing meant to bring them together.
Renowned philanthropist and billionaire Paul Parnell had reached the pinnacle of monetary success, but not without cost. Had he put too much emphasis on work and spent too little time with his family? Determined to leave something far more valuable than money to his six children, Paul instructs his lawyers to create an unusual last will and testament.
This unorthodox will, which stipulates that the lion's share of Paul's two billion dollar estate be given to the heirs who pass "the test," was Paul's last hope of creating an enduring legacy by inspiring his six children to give back to society and embrace a code of moral values—in only one year. Before these very different siblings can complete the test, they'll be forced to face their personal demons and the evil influence that could claim one of their own.
Board-certified in Family Medicine, Gussin practiced medicine and has directed medical research in her role as worldwide vice president for a leading healthcare company. She is the author of Shadow of Death, which was nominated for “Best First Novel” in the Thriller Awards, sponsored by the International Thriller Writers, and Twisted Justice. She and her husband Bob divide their time between Longboat Key, East Hampton, New York, and their vineyards in New Zealand.
The Test
By Patricia Gussin. Oceanview Publishing. ISBN: 978-1-933515-19-9. October 2009. $24.95.
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Even more suspense...
Sarasota resident and bestselling author Karen Rose’s latest suspense novel I Can See You was Rose's second hardcover release of 2009; February 2009's publication of Kill For Me was praised by Publishers Weekly, who said that “Rose juggles a large cast, a huge body count and a complex plot with terrifying ease.”
I Can See You has now come out in paperback and is Rose's tenth thriller. The story is about Evie Wilson, an online shopkeeper on a website called "Shadowland." Homicide detective Noah Webster has been investigating a string of suspicious suicides that leads him to Evie when one of her online test subjects is found dead of apparent suicide, but Evie believes otherwise.
Noah soon discovers that many of the apparent suicides in his case had avatars in "Shadowland." As murder victims connected to the website begin to appear more frequently, Noah asks Evie to be his virtual guide in the investigation. However, they don't realize that the killer is closer than they think—and that he holds a special grudge against Evie.
With four of her previous mass market titles being USA Today bestsellers, Rose follows in the footsteps of such bestselling suspense authors as Lisa Jackson and Sandra Brown who got their start in mass market paperback.
A former chemical engineer and high school chemistry and physics teacher, Karen has lived in Sarasota with her family for many years.
I Can See You
By Karen Rose. Grand Central Publishing. Hardcover $18.99; August 2009. Paperback May 2010. ISBN-10: 0446538353. $7.99
A spiritual journey...
The Only Things You Ever Really Keep Are the Things You Gave Away is a collection of poetry and prose that shares a spiritual journey.
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As a child, to escape a violent father, author Cher St. John would go to the creek behind her trailer and remember her Bible studies. "Jesus loves the children," she recalled, "so that must mean me." At that same creek, at the age of eight, she begged her life be taken. Instead, she believes God came to comfort her and keep her safe. She then realized how lucky she was to have found her heavenly father, and her earthly one would never hurt her again.
In her book, in successions of prose and verse, she tells her story of physical and spiritual journeys through life.
Cher St. John left her native San Diego, California, to find work in New York City before finally settling in Bradenton. She enjoys art, music, movies, the theater, ballet and, of course, writing poetry. You might also find her on a nature walk. She is single and has a daughter.
The Only Things You Ever Really Keep Are the Things You Gave Away
By Cher St. John. ISBN: 978-1-4349-0275-7. Dorrance Publishing Co., Inc. $10
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