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

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

Suzanne Beecher, Touchstone, $24.99 (256p) ISBN 9781439112878

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)