News and Updates

January in the Midwest.

Say it with me now: “Ugggggggghhhhhh.”

It’s cold. It’s dreary. There’s snow. Ice. Snow over ice, a certain tailbone-cracking trap I seem to forget every winter. There’s also freezing rain. And snain (yes, Freida Florida, there is such a thing). Oh, and did I mention it’s cold? ANYway, all of this cold weather makes me want to sit inside and read and eat and maybe knit a row or two, then read and eat some more. Soon, however, I know I’ll tire of my own company, and my own cooking. And I can’t – well, shouldn’t – eat an entire carrot cake all by myself. What’s a hungry reader gal gonna do?

She’s going to host a book club, that’s what! She’s going to cook something ON THEME with the book and invite all of her reading and eating buddies – woot! But what to cook? Fortunately, some food-loving authors have done the work for us, including recipes right between the covers! Sound ymmy to you? Well, here are just a few to get you started:

LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE by Laura Esquivel, a book about family and food, with some magical realism thrown in. After being born on the kitchen table, food became a way of life for Tita, and she grew up to be a master chef. Each chapter of the novel begins with one of Tita’s recipes and her careful instructions for preparation. Published in 1992, adapted to the screen soon after. Read the book AND watch the movie. And gnosh!

HEARTBURN by Nora Ephron. A sidesplitting novel about the breakup of the perfect marriage. In this inspired confection of adultery, revenge, group therapy, and pot roast, the creator of “Sleepless in Seattle” reminds us that comedy depends on anguish as surely as a proper gravy depends on flour and butter.

TENDER AT THE BONE by Ruth Reichl. A memoir. Tender at the Bone is a remembrance of Ruth Reichl’s childhood into young adulthood, redolent with the atmosphere, good humor, and angst of a sensualist coming-of-age. This is on my TBR stack!

For you cozy mystery fans: DEATH BY BUBBLE TEA, by Jennifer J Chow. A delicious exploration into family, culture, and above all, food. Yale and Celine serve small dishes and refreshing drinks, but one day, one of their customers turns up dead. Yale and Celine are prime suspects due to the gold flakes that Celine added to the sweet drink as a garnish. Though the two cousins are polar opposites in every way, they must work together to find out what really happened to the victim or the only thing they’ll be serving is time.

If you like your memoirs a little more light hearted (and your cakes a little boozy), I recommend CAKE WALK – A FULLY BAKED MEMOIR, by sisters Susan Katein, Carole Algier and Kathy Lanyon. A hilarious adventure involving one-way streets, security guards, and the NYPD, all in an effort to get their cake into the hands of the producers at The Food Network and Rachel Ray.

If none of those appeal, just ask our friend Google for some version of “Novels that include a recipe.”

Now, go forth and cook! (And bring me a little smidgen, would you?)

P.S! Want to know more about hosting a book club? And the peach pie recipe I included with my novel? Scroll down or simply click HERE!

P.P.S. For kids, here is a very cute book that incorporates food, counting and friendship. Recipes on the author’s website!

In home decor, Danish “Hygge” is the trend. Roughly translated, hygge is anything which gives one a feeling of coziness, contentment and comfort. Think: plush rugs, soft fabrics, gentle hues, shimmering candles, clean lines, overstuffed chairs. Sounds like heaven, right?

Hygge-ness (is that a word?) comes in book form as well. In fact, it’s part of this genre’s name. Say hello to the Cozy Mystery!

According to our friend Wikipedia, Cozy Mysteries are “a sub-genre of crime fiction in which sex and violence occur offstage, the detective is an amateur sleuth, and the crime and detection take place in a small, socially intimate community.” Cozies tend to have a clever, likable main character (often a woman), lush, intimate settings (where neighbors know one another’s business), and a crime which has happened off-page. Readers are free to settle in to the Cozy’s quaint community with a likable cast of characters and puzzle alongside a novice or wanna-be detective who stumbles upon a mystery.

Make no mistake, however. Cozy Mysteries don’t just focus on lost cats or grandma’s missing ring. Much of the stumbling the main characters do is over dead bodies. And in the pursuit of truth, the main character might unknowingly put themselves in grave danger, though always live to tell the tale.

Interested in trying a little hygge reading? Here are a few great ones to get you started.

Happy reading!

Sometimes I get in the groove of reading books on one subject or time period. I thought it would be fun to highlight some novels in which the main character steals something, and the fall out which follows. Enjoy!

Reading the subject line of this post might make you wonder, ‘what’s to make peace with? Summer’s awesome!’

And it is! So much to do outside – tennis games, golf lessons, bike riding, swimming, spending time at the beach, a lake house, a national park or just a park in your neighborhood. Open-air bars, outdoor concerts, picnics, camping – truly, the list is endless.

But, summer, with all of its amazing activities, makes me uncomfortable.

Not the activities themselves, mind you. I am an absolute tennis nut, and I’m as happy as the next gal to sit in a beach chair and read. But my hard-won writing routine goes straight out the window once the temps hit 70, and suddenly, I’m adrift. I have no schedule to keep me at my desk, so I ricochet around my day like a wayward pinball. It’s a privileged problem, to be sure, but one I struggle with every year.

Summer is spontaneity. Sunny out? Time to head to the beach. Or plant those flowers. Or get a drink at that cute place on the lakefront. Even WFH peeps manage to squeeze in a walk or at least work on their tan while tapping away on their laptops. With so many healthy, fun, positive activities to pursue, guarding my special writing time seems downright Scrooge-ish.

Also, summer allows me to procrastinate doing the very thing I love to do, which is a very screwed up way to operate. If I had a therapist, he or she would be able to concur. Fredrik Bachman, author of A Man Called Ove and Anxious People explains this habit in this hilarious monologue:

This summer, even though I will get nowhere near Mr. Backman’s eight hours of writing, I’ve started to make a detailed plan each day, working my writing time around my summer activities instead of the other way around. This way I can enjoy the summer activities guilt-free, and hopefully get a little fulfilling work done in between. We’ll see how this goes…

How about you? Is there a season that stresses you out? Which is it, and why? I’d love to hear your stories.

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Okay! So, you’ve got your group, you’ve selected your host/space, and you’re choosing your book. (If you haven’t read my intro post to hosting a book club, read here first).

So! What type of book? I think one mistake most beginning book clubbers make is to just randomly choose one that’s on the on the end cap at Target. Now, let me be clear – there is NOTHING wrong with those books. Many times, they are well-written, best-selling, fast-paced who-dunnits or light, beach read rom-coms, which are fun and addicting. However, sometimes these genre-type books are not necessarily the best picks for Book Clubs, because, after discussing how hot the main guy/girl is, or how you didn’t see the ending coming, with the nanny actually being the killer, your discussion is basically over.

If you want a book you can discuss at a deeper level, you need to look at books that make you, as a reader, think, “what would I do in this situation?” There are no right and wrong answers and your group members will enjoy sharing their own opinions and feelings, and maybe find themselves challenged by points brought up by the story or their fellow book-clubbers. For those who read to expand their minds and their horizons, these thinking-type books provide fertile ground for in-depth discussions.

A few examples of books that made me think:

The Midnight Library, by Matt Haig – A story about a young woman who feels her life is meaningless and decides to commit suicide. However, she ends up in The Midnight Library, where her old junior high librarian explains all the books on the shelves are her Books of Regrets, which she has the option of opening and experiencing how her life would have been different. Each one of us has those niggling thoughts about, ‘what if I had taken that job/said yes to that guy/moved in with that woman/told my boss to stuff it?’ Great fodder for conversation and self-reflection.

The Measure by Nikki Erlick – In this novel, every person in the world receives a length of string, which indicates how long their life will be. We see how different characters live or change their lives according to their string’s length. If you had a short string, how would you live your life differently? What about if you had a long string and the person you were about to marry had a short string? Talk about a conversation starter! You may have to kick people out of your house at the end of the night, or cut off the wine!

Pretty much any WWII book in which people are hiding those sought by the German SS make wonderful Book Club books. I think about these people a lot – would I, could I, have put my children at risk in order to save others? What a difficult, heartbreaking decision. Books like Sophie’s Choice, The Zookeeper’s Wife, The Whispering Town, The Pianist, Sarah’s Key, The Light in Hidden Places, and, of course, The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, will keep you thinking long after your meeting is over.

All The Ugly and Wonderful Things, by Bryn Greenwood is fraught with questions about love and family, and bound to spark a very lively discussion among group members. This one made me uncomfortable in all the right ways, forcing me to question my belief in people and their motivations. Lots of gray area to debate!

I hope this list has helped you discover a book your club will enjoy getting into the weeds with, if that is their cuppa.

If not, stay tuned for a post on a different type of Book Club – including one of my favorite subjects – foooooooooood.

Mmmmmmm!

Hello dear reader!

Thank you so much for your interest in More Than A Thief. It truly means the world to me. It’s like I’ve just made the most delicious meal I am capable of making and you have just sat down at my table and picked up your fork. Now I am holding my breath, hoping you will enjoy it!

So how did a nice lady like me (?) end up writing a story about a kleptomaniac and an alleged killer? I’m so glad you asked.

After my middle grade book, Best Friends Forever: A WWII Scrapbook came out, my editor asked for another historical topic I could possibly put into scrapbook format. I tried to think of what subject or person a middle schooler might find fascinating. Looking back to my own schooling, every year in social studies, we had to write a report on a famous person, and I remember scanning the list, eagerly searching for someone interesting. Or mysterious.  Or even slightly creepy. Every year I was disappointed, and ended up writing about Abe Lincoln, because he grew up in a log cabin and I loved log cabins. 

So, in considering my next book, I thought about who or what I would have wanted to see on that list. The Salem witch hunt came to mind, but that subject was overdone at the time. Then one name came to mind: Lizzie Borden. I began researching and was both shocked and thrilled by all that I found. Thus began a 10 year journey in crafting many different versions, finally ending up with the book you see here:

Ok, reader, time to grab a copy and dig in. And if you enjoy More Than A Thief, I’d be forever grateful if you’d pop a review onto Amazon, Indiebound, Goodreads, or share on any of your socials. And tell your friends! Word of mouth is still the number one form of advertising. Enjoy!

In case you missed it, singer Shakira shocked the world by admitting her sons, aged 9 and 11, hated the Barbie movie, finding it emasculating. She further knocked the public for a loop by saying she agreed with them – “I’m raising two boys. I want ’em to feel powerful too [while] respecting women. I like pop culture when it attempts to empower women without robbing men of their possibility to be men, to protect and provide.”

We are in an all-or-nothing era. Women are great. Men are evil. Democrats are X. Republicans are Y. At least that’s what the loudest voices are telling us. Some of those voices are the movie producers. Some are “journalists.” Others are book publishers. Five minutes strolling through a bookstore or through a publisher’s upcoming list, you will be inundated with books for all ages featuring strong, female characters. Great! I’m all for strong females.

But what about the boys? Yes, they can read these books about the strong, spunky girls, and many do. But with the emphasis today on readers wanting to “see themselves on the page” shouldn’t a decent portion of new books also feature male protagonists? Or will today’s young boys have to be satisfied reading books from a past decade? As an author, this concerns me. As a mother, this makes me angry. I would never want my sons or my daughters to feel ‘less than.’ To uphold one, must we tromp on the other?

Though my most recent book featured a ‘strong female protagonist,’ my next work features a 12 year old boy as the main character. I’ve been querying agents for many months and hearing next to nothing. Is it because my book is about a boy, and right now, the push is for girl books? Possibly. Of course, it could be my writing or the plot or the voice. But I can’t help wonder if the minute an agent sees the word, ‘boy’, she or he presses the reject button.

I admire Shakira for voicing her opinion, as unpopular (or “shocking!”) as the media would have us believe it to be. Her words may be the first to put a tiny crack in the all-or-nothing, strong-or-stupid bubble in which we’ve been encased these last few years. Respect and admiration for all – is that so much to ask?

So, you want to start an in-person book club. Good for you! And I mean that literally. It is GOOD for you to hang with people who share your love of literature. Research shows feeling connected can help people with everything from maintaining a healthy body mass to improving cancer survival. Plus, it’s fun!

Ok, first things first – choosing your members. Maybe you start with just you and your best pal. Maybe you and your best pal each pick one or two more people. Or maybe you start one with your tennis friends or people from your choir or gym. The one requirement is an interest in books. And don’t worry about getting the exact right combo of people. A book club will add and lose members over its lifetime, and that is just fine.

Once you’ve got your group, you need to pick a meeting place. Your house? (Every time?) Or group members take turns hosting? Maybe nobody is keen on hosting so you pick a nearby coffee shop or wine bar:) Most book clubs meet after work hours, but the time can vary depending on the groups’ schedules.

Next: the book! For the first meeting, you choose the book. Give everyone a good month’s heads up on the title so they can buy the book or grab it from the library. *Many libraries have special Book Club services where you can reserve a book for all of your members, so check that out!*

At the first meeting, members can discuss the parameters of future book choices. Do you want to read all fiction? Some non-fiction? Any genres to be avoided or encouraged? Some groups assign a theme for each month – Non-fiction, WWII, Poetry, Cookbook/foodie, Classics, Mystery, Autobiography/Biography, Books set in foreign countries, Thrillers – the possibilities are endless! Many times, members are surprised to find they enjoyed a book they wouldn’t have picked themselves, so try not to be overly narrow in your focus.

When it’s your turn to choose or suggest a book, do me (and yourself) a favor – don’t default to the “Best Sellers” as a rule. Don’t get me wrong, some Best Sellers are best sellers for their incredible plot and prose. Others, not so much. The way publishing works is, each season publishers decide which will be their “lead” books, the books they will heavily promote, submitting them to NYT, sending out 300 copies to industry professionals, pushing for them to be featured in book store end caps and tables, etc.( I cannot tell you how many times I saw the cover of “Lessons in Chemistry” in my feed, on my kindle, on end caps at Target.)

Instead, if you have the time, talk to a librarian or book seller. Ask them what THEY are reading. Many bookstores have a shelf with Staff Recommendations, with little index cards stating why they enjoyed a book. Online, Goodreads is a great place to learn about wonderful books that might be flying under the advertising radar. There are also book-tokkers and instagrammers who post their reviews on books they’re reading, and most do not get paid for their reviews so you can count on them being more honest than publishers trying to earn big bucks.

The last thing you may want to look for is books that have discussion guides either included in the back matter or on the author’s website. Good questions are vital for promoting interesting discussions. Otherwise, it devolves into two minutes of “I liked it,” and “I hated it” and the rest of the meeting spent on jibber jabber.

Some authors include related material besides discussion questions that can add to your Book Club experience. For MORE THAN A THIEF, I include a recipe for Penelope’s Peach Pie on my Book Clubs page. Which brings me to next week’s post: How to Host an In-Person Book Club, part deux!

One of the biggest and most delightful surprises so far in this crazy publishing journey of mine is the number of adult Book Clubs who have invited me to be their guest. Club members read my book and then I come to their meeting where they then pepper me with amazing and thought-provoking questions. It’s been a blast!

But Book Clubs aren’t for everyone. There are usually adult beverages involved, and lots of snacks, so if you’re trying to cut down on either of those, you might decide just to avoid the temptation. The meetings tend to be held in the evenings, which can be tough, schedule-wise, travel-wise and childcare-wise. And, as much as you want to talk crap about the main character’s best friend, or how you correctly guessed the mermaid was actually a werewolf, book clubs are full of PEOPLE, and after a hard day of whatever you do, you might prefer the company of your bathtub, the TV or your goldfish.

Enter On-line Book clubs! Read a book with others, share your thoughts and opinions, all without having to do your make up or leave the comfort of your favorite spot on the couch. (And they’re free, too!) Goodreads boasts groups for every genre, every age group, practically every hair color. Amazon offers public and private (just you and your pals) book clubs. Reddit has a book club too – with 166K members! Comment when you want, make new reading friends, learn about new (and old) books, and keep the convo going. If you can’t find an online group you like, you can always start your own!

Can’t think of a better way to sign off than with this link to “The 7 People You’ll Find in Every Book Club” starring the wonderful cast of Schitt’s Creek. Enjoy!

Hello and thanks for stopping by!

For entrance into the giveaway, you must:

#1 Subscribe to my newsletter (either using the pop up or via the box at the verrrrry bottom of this page) If you are already a subscriber, thank you. You do not need to subscribe again. If you are new, you will also need to verify your free subscription in the welcome email sent to the address you’ve provided. Also, welcome!

#2 Fill out THIS form, which is your official entry

That’s it! You’re done. UNLESS you want to DOUBLE your chances of winning. Sound good? Then you can:

#3 Purchase a copy of More Than A Thief between March 22 and March 31, 2024 (either Kindle or Paperback version) and email verification of purchase to [email protected]. I will add your name a second time to the list.

And now the small print:

This contest runs between March 22, 2024 and March 31, 2024.
Entrance open to all ages. Members of Beverly Patt’s nuclear family excluded.
Winners will be chosen from among proper entrants using an online randomizer and will be contacted via email. (Make sure you add my email to your ‘safe list.’) Winners will have 48 hours to claim their prize before forfeiting it to the next randomly selected entrant.
The first entrant selected will win the $100 amazon gift card, which will be delivered via email. The second entrant selected will win the Elegant Farmer Peach Pie (or one similar depending on availability.) A physical address must be given for the pie’s delivery.
This promotion isn’t sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with Instagram or any other social media used throughout the contest.

And in the heartfelt words of Taylor Swift,

Yours,

Beverly Patt