June Mini Alphabet

June's mini challenge is to review a book about a father figure.  Like Sands Through the Hourglass is the story of Bill and Susan Seaforth Hayes.  Bill is certainly a father figure as he raised his five children after his divorce from their mother, Mary.  Susan, when she married him was introduced as their stepmother by the spouses of his children and as Susan by the children.  Bill joining the soap "Days of Our Lives" was is part to be able to be home with the children and not on the road.

The title of the book comes from the beginning of "Days" and is spoken by the late McDonald Carey still "Like sands through an hourglass, these are the days of our lives."  Certainly, the book takes us through many of the days of the lives of its authors.  Bill and Susan each tell us about their backgrounds and some of their experiences in show business.  Throughout there are references to Bill's children.  I think the following says why I feel this book fits this mini challenge, "my children, who are--and always will be---my life's treasures,"  if only every father could feel that way.

I am happy to see that I had the opportunity to meet Bill Hayes, many years ago, when he was appearing in summer stock.  He did give me an autograph and I am sure I still have it in my possession.  I may have heard of this book before but an article about the new book the two had written mentioned their autobiography.  I purchased both books, this one in hard copy and the other as an e-book.  There are many things I learned about the Hayes that I did not know before and I really recommend this book to anyone who wants to read a good autobiography.  They mention the famous people they worked with and met in a very positive manner.

We often forget how people whose skins are darker than ours were treated in the early days of television.  Stars like Pearl Bailey, Lena Horne and Nat Cole were not allowed to work with whites on camera.  Bill has an appreciation of diversity as do I and mentions others who have been taught negative concepts as violence and hate.  He then refers to the same Hammerstein song that I refer to often "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught."  We need to remember not to teach our children more about acceptance of others vs hating those we hate.  If I feel ill will toward someone, I hope it is for an action they have taken toward me vs the color of their skin or their political affiliation.

Day 3 BEA

Networking in Real Life

In 1986, I saw an article in the paper that Margaret Sutton would be visiting Coudersport, PA and speak.  I managed to get more information and went to Coudersport to see her.  Judy Bolton books have always been a favorite series of mine.  Most of my books were back in Philadelphia but, I had the last book of the series sent to me.  I did manage to get it autographed.  I also met wonderful people.  Many of them, I still call friends and get to see each year in Coudersport.  The fans I learned are called Phantom Friends.  I am proud to be one of them.

I also belong to JudyBoltonFans and NancyDrewSleuths at groups.yahoo.com.  I am more active on the Judy group than the Nancy one.  The Nancy group sponsers a chat group on messenger.  Through this group, I chatted with Maria, Bill, Todd, JK, or Kevin.   I had met Bill as he is also a Phantom Friend but had not met any of the others until 2007 when I went to a Nancy Drew Convention and met Todd.  The chats with Maria eventually turned into phone calls.  I finally met her in 2008 before she and Felipe married in a church as a way of celebrating their 10th anniversary.  It was not until later that we became Bubba and Zada to her boys who I call our grandboys.

Some of the Phantom Friends are authors and I have been introduced to their works through the yahoo group.  There is a small book store called From My Shelf Books located in Wellsboro.  I am proud to say I am a member there.  The owners have authors come and sign books sometimes.  I order new books through them and sometimes older books.  Since, I started doing reading challenges, I have introduced some titles and authors to them and they have introduced some books to me.

Copy Cat Crimes

Copy Cat Crimes by Karen Ann Wilson is the 2nd book in Samantha Holt series. Sam is a Technician/Assistant to Dr. Louis Augustin. One day a basket of kittens is left at the door of the vet. There is $300 cash in the basket which turns out to be bogus. Only one of the kittens survives as the three had cleft palates. Sam calls the kitten Randy. The kittens look like Pearl which is the cat of one Arnold Silor. The police answer when Sam calls him. They spend the rest of the book trying to find out who murdered Arnold and finding a fourth kitten which they learned Pearl had.


I did not like this book as much as some others I have read but would recommend it as a light read and a good mystery.

Armchair BEA

1. Please tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you? How long have you been blogging? Why did you get into blogging? I am very recent to blogging I started at the end of last year 2011 because I wanted to enter book challenges and they require you post reviews.
2. What are you currently reading, or what is your favorite book you have read so far in 2012?  I am currently reading a book by Bill and Susan Hayes called "Like Sands Through the Hourglass" as well as an ebook.  I do not have a favorite book that I have read.  I enjoyed the three books that start with Fifty Shades of Grey.
3. Tell us one non-book-related thing that everyone reading your blog may not know about you.  I collect autographs and usually have no problem asking for them but could only say "work" when I was close to Bob Denver (he said that on Doobie Gillis) and is better known as Gilligan.
4. What is your favorite feature on your blog (i.e. author interviews, memes, something specific to your blog)? Mainly reviews for challenges.
5. Where do you see your blog in five years?  I hope I am still able to read and type.
6. Which is your favorite post that you have written that you want everyone to read? Probably my review of Buried since the author liked it.
7. If you could eat dinner with any author or character, who would it be and why?  I did eat dinner at the same time as Margaret Sutton so it would have to be her character, Judy Bolton.  I am a member of the Judy Bolton Yahoo Group and love Margaret's books.
8. What literary location would you most like to visit? Why? I have visited a lot of Judy Bolton locations so it would have to be Dragon's Mouth which is part of Yellowstone.  Would be able to see Old Faithful also and it is reachable without flying.
9. What is your favorite part about the book blogging community? Is there anything that you would like to see change in the coming years?  I would have to say getting to know what is coming out and figuring which ones to buy.  I enjoy the ones I read.
10. Have your reading tastes changed since you started blogging? How?  I have read books I would never have thought of buying like the Fifty Shades of Grey that deals with an area I would not have read about or would have been willing to discuss.  The subject matter of the Fifty books is not one that would have been discussed on talk shows or in public.  I have also been reading in genres I would not have read any books in because of a challenge I entered.

Wicked Wildfire

The Wicked Wildfire Read-A-Thon is a time when we all get together to dedicate the days of June 20-24to as much reading as possible. You read as much as you can in order to get yourself a little further through that huge to-read pile! We know real life gets in the way and even if you can’t participate more than one day, you’re welcome to join in on the fun!

In the meanwhile, we will be hosting book-related challenges where you can win some awesome prizes and have a Twitter party at the hashtag #WWReadathon! You can posts updates on your blog, Twitter, Goodreads or Facebook — as long as the profile is public and we all can enjoy your reading progress!

Fifty Percent Off Murder

50% Off Murder is by Josie Belle and is the first book of "Good Buy Girls Mysteries". The Good Buy Girls are friends who love bargains. They clip and share coupons and get together to get the best buys at sales by planning ahead. The town librarian, Claire Freemont comes late to a meeting with a cake but without her cake knife. Maggie Gerber goes to visit her at the library the next day. They discover a dead man who has been stabbed with a knife. The murder weapon turns out to be Claire's knife and she is arrested by the new sheriff, Same Collins, who was Maggie's old boyfriend. The dead man is from Claire's past. Maggie and the rest of the girls try to clear Claire of the murder. They enlist the local ice cream window person as Claire's lawyer as he was a member of the bar. They find out that the dead man had been known to lend money to people and then take over there business and put in franchises which gave them some suspects. We learn a lot about the "girl" and the other members of their community while they are investigating. Will they get Claire off? Will Maggie take over the thrift shop? What other adventures will happen? Reading the book will answer the first question but, we will have to wait for more books to find out the answers to the other two questions. I love cozy mysteries and this book sure fits the bill. I certainly would recommend it to other mystery lovers.

Borrowing the Bride

This book is by Roni Denholtz.

Brett Ryerson believes his first love, Julie Merritt, is engaged to Warren Wesley.  He decides to borrow her  for a few days to convince her that Warren is wrong for her.  What he does not know if that she had broken her engagement but promised not to tell anyone until after the celebration for Warren's win as mayor.  Brett introduces her to several people who have much to tell her about Warren.

Julie decided to go along with him to see if she still had feelings for him and if he had any feelings for her.  His parents are able to see that she does before he realizes that he does.  He learns from someone else that she had broken the engagement and wondered why she had not told him.  She was about to say something just before he learned her secret.

I have not met Roni but we are both fans of Judy Bolton and I have read other books she has written.  I have loved all of them and would recommend them to others who like romance.