Muffins and Mayhem: Recipes for a Happy (if Disorderly) Life Book

"While it’s well known that food and stories make for a great combination, Muffins & Mayhem takes their relationship to a whole new level. Brimming over with the stuff of life, this is a book to curl up with and devour." —JOEL BEN IZZY, storyteller and author of The Beggar King and The Secret of Happiness

Suzanne Beecher’s happy, loving voice has brought more than 350,000 people to her online book club at DearReader.com, where her daily column offers her candid, thought-provoking reflections on life, inspiring countless readers to look at their "ordinary" lives in a new way. By turns funny and poignant, Suzanne is the reassuring friend across the kitchen table with a refreshing, jaunty attitude about life, even in the face of whatever difficulties it may bring.

Suzanne has had her own share of troubles to overcome. Left home alone at an early age, she struggled with difficult and distant parents, dealt with heartbreak, became a hard-working single mom, and overcame two substance addictions and a physical impairment. But along the way, she found comfort in baking and sharing food with her friends and family. She learned to take the good with the bad, and her life is now inspiring proof that faith and persistence are the keys to success.

This beautifully written celebration of food, friends, and family will nourish Suzanne’s numerous fans and those who have yet to discover her simple, homespun magic.

Publishers Weekly

Beecher, the woman behind the online book club DearReader.com, gives her fans a new story to follow - her own - in this recipe-laden memoir of dysfunction and small victories. Inspired by a reader who, having been diagnosed with lung cancer, asked for advice on what to leave her children, Beecher decided to pair a list of nostalgic recipes with the stories behind them. But those hoping for charming tales of afterschool cupcakes or Rockwellian family dinners will be in for a surprise. Beecher’s childhood was far from bucolic: an only child raised by emotionally distant parents, she got pregnant in high school and bounced between jobs and relationships until finding her calling in food. Depending on one’s perspective, this detailed account of her journey will either soothe or grate; her penchant for recounting every setback, minor victory, and anecdote requires either an appetite for drama or consumption in short bites. As for the dishes that close each chapter, they are only there to provide comfort: Funeral Cakes, goulash, and banana bread, while perfectly acceptable, are more plot device than playbook. Photos (June)