Randy Susan Meyers

Brooklyn Girl Books

Home to Women Under Scrutiny, 19 Myths About Cheating and The Comfort of Food Cookbook.

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Women Under Scrutiny

Compiled by Randy Susan Meyers and edited by Nancy MacDonald.

Women Under Scrutiny is an honest, intimate examination of the relationships we have with our bodies, hair, and faces, how we’ve been treated by the world based on our appearance—and how we have treated others. The women who created the serious, humorous, and courageous work in this anthology—women ages seventeen to seventy-six—represent an array of cultures and religions from across the United States. They are an extraordinary group of women who all share one thing: the ability to tell the truth.

Women Under Scrutiny grew out of Randy Susan Meyers’ novel, Waisted, the story of two women who torture themselves and are brutalized by others around weight issues, who get caught in the war against women, disguised as a war against fat.

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Bitch he says untired of counting every sin you commit at 3AM when you peel
your body out of bed
and tiptoe to the kitchen
for a sliver of chicken pressed onto a Wheat Thin
—from Kimberly Ann Priest, “Record of Wrongs”

Skin as foreign as your native tongue
You don’t belong here
Go back to where you came from
This place is for us
Not your kind
 —from Shoma Webster, “Dark Bodies”

The mask that I so carefully crafted out of expensive lotions, oils, and promise-filled creams is now peeling, slipping, and threatening to expose. All that will remain is the unembellished, plain and simple truth, which, for too long, has waited in the wings
— Sahar Abdulaziz, “Slipping, Sliding, All But Vanished

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All profits from Women Under Scrutiny will go to Rosie’s Place in Boston, Massachusetts.Rosie’s Place was founded in 1974 as the first women’s shelter in the United States with a mission to provide a safe and nurturing environment that helps poor and homeless women maintain their dignity, seek opportunity and find security in their lives. Today, Rosie’s Place not only provides meals and shelter but also creates answers for 12,000 women a year through wide-ranging support, housing and education services.

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19 Myths About Cheating:
A Novella

"Of course, it began with a man. Aren’t troubles with men a woman’s daily bread? Worse yet, I was sleeping with the trouble and he wasn’t my husband—a secret as undeserved as cruel. Adam’s marriage crimes were cold but not savage, and certainly not worthy of infidelity."

A novel from Brooklyn Girl Books and Randy Susan Meyers.

Isabelle wanted one good reason to shave her legs with joy. She begins her affair for many reasons—her husband treats her as an employee, her daughter turns more sour each day, and she feels she’s holding onto pretty by her teeth. But the lust isn’t worth the guilt, and when her daughter strikes up an unexpected friendship with the daughter of her lover, Isabelle’s two worlds approach a devastating collision.

Praise

“Whether the reader agrees with these myths or not, the truth is that not every story of infidelity is made equal. In 19 Myths About Cheating, Meyers offers a myriad of possibilities behind the choice to stray from a marriage that are unrelated to lack of love or even desire for a spouse. That and Meyers excellent story-telling skills, make the story not only distinctive but also a challenge for preconceived notions about why infidelity happens in the first place.”—Adriana Delgado, Seattle Post Intelligencer

“Randy Susan Meyers brings her razor-sharp humor, wit, insight, pathos & empathy to 19 MYTHS ABOUT CHEATING as she brings a marriage to life, and then to the brink of death, with deftness and sensitivity. I found myself saying, yes, yes, marriage is just like this, over and over.  She has us rooting for everyone and hoping that this time, love will triumph over adversity and that the book will last just a few pages longer.”
—M.J. Rose, NYT Best selling author

The Comfort of Food Cookbook

If you'd like a copy of The Comfort of Food Cookbook, please fill out a book club request here.

A cookbook for book clubs!

When I was a girl, it was family lore that my Aunt Irene, when she cooked something awful, yelled: “It’s a loser” to her husband (Uncle Bobby) as he walked in the house. From that same side of the family, my Aunt Merle would get so frustrated when she’d burnt something beyond help that she’d throw out the pot rather than wash it.

I’ve been known to come out with more than a few losers, and, once (okay, maybe twice or thrice, but don’t tell my husband) buried a burnt casserole dish deep in the garbage. On the other hand, (usually with a little help from my friends) I’ve made a few dishes that held an opium-like addiction.

My first cooking experiment was throwing a raw chicken into a pot of cold water and then turning on the gas. I was seven. (More on this in my chicken soup recipe.) Thus was born a loose attitude towards cooking that continues to this day. Sometimes my experiments worked. Sometimes they imitated Aunt Irene’s losers.

I promise the recipes included here are from the winner side of the ledger.

These recipes are from my friends and my family—or they’re original or adapted from almost-perfect ones I found. Thus, the instructions hold the time, place, and flavor of the original, as written to me or as found from an ancient cookbook or a mystery novel. None of them is like the other.

All of them can be adapted—because it’s the only way I can cook. They all come with the essence of my favorite people—either because they inspired the recipe or they ate the dish with special appreciation.

Ah, cooking: I love it when I have the time, hate it when I don’t—but always prefer homemade to a restaurant (even if I’m eating Seinfeld style. Yes, a bowl of cereal: sometimes I call it supper.

I put together this limited edition cookbook as a way to thank book groups for welcoming me into their homes and hearts.

"The clear and distinctive voice of Randy Susan Meyers will have you enraptured and wanting more."
—The Massachusetts Center for the Book