Book Review: My Days
Katie 
My Days is all about Marion Ross, who you probably know as Mrs. C from Happy Days. Marion had always said that she would never write an autobiography, but at the urging of her son she ended up writing one and I think she did a great job with it. The first half of the book is about her growing up, how she decided she wanted to be an actress and background on her family growing up and her marriage to a man who turned out to be a functioning alcoholic. She was born “Marian” but changed it to “Marion” simply because she thought that name would look better on a marquee. She always wanted to be a star and the center of attention. About halfway through the book she gets to her Happy Days days and after talking about them a bit the majority of the second half of the book was an approach I thought to be very interesting for an autobiography – she had David Laurell interview some of her coworkers/ cast mates – including Garry Marshall and Erin Moran, both of whom sadly passed away from the time the book was started to the time she finished and released it. She also interviews with Ron Howard (who also wrote the foreward), Henry Winkler, Scott Baio and her children. All of them seem to have the same opinion of her – she was wonderful and a kick ass actress.
I really enjoyed this book and how it was constructed. It was nice to hear about Marion’s personal life, which she was previously pretty guarded about talking about.
I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review, I was not otherwise compensated.
About the Book
For eleven seasons, Marion Ross was head of one of America’s favorite television households. Now meet the lovable real-life woman behind the Happy Days mom . . .
Before she was affectionately known to millions as “Mrs. C.,” Marion Ross began her career as a Paramount starlet who went on to appear in nearly every major TV series of the 1950s and 1960s—including Love, American Style, in which she donned an apron that would cinch her career. Soon after came the fateful phone call from producer Garry Marshall that made her an “overnight” success, and changed her life . . .
In this warm and candid memoir, filled with loving recollections from the award-winning Happy Days team—from break-out star Henry Winkler to Cunningham “wild child” Erin Moran—Ross shares what it was like to be a starry-eyed young girl with dreams in poor, rural Minnesota, and the resilience, sacrifices, and determination it took to make them come true. She recalls her early years in the business, being in the company of such luminaries as Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, and Noel Coward, yet always feeling the Hollywood outsider—a painful invisibility that mirrored her own childhood. She reveals the absolute joys of playing a wife and mother on TV, and the struggles of maintaining those roles in real life. But among Ross’s most heart-rending recollections are those of finally finding a soulmate—another secret hope of hers made true well beyond her expectations.
Funny, poignant, and revealing—and featuring Garry Marshall’s final illuminating interview—as well as a touching foreword from her “TV son” Ron Howard, and a conversation with her real-life son and daughter, Marion Ross’s story is one of inspiration, persistence, and gratitude. It’s also a glowing tribute to all those who fulfilled her dreams—and in turn, gave us some of the happiest days of our own lives.
Alan Alexander Milne is probably best known for the creation of Winnie the Pooh and friends. But AA Milne was also a playwright, screen writer and novelist. Even 60 years after his death, he is a mystery to many. He died resentful because he was only known as a ‘whimsical’ children’s author. His son, Christopher Robin, felt exploited, even though the stories were a combination of things that happened to Christopher, things that happened during AA Milne’s childhood and other things that were made up. But Christopher was always picked on about being the “real” Christopher Robin. He ended up marrying his first cousin which led to them having a handicapped child – their daughter, Clare, had Cerebral Palsy. Alan married Daphne and they slept in separate rooms. Many believe Daphne to be ‘anti sex’. Most of Christopher’s time was spent with a nanny growing up. It is also said that the home they lived in was cursed – it was sold to Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones, who ended up found dead in the pool.
Stop coding is all about how to become an automated test engineer with no coding knowledge needed. I found this to be interesting since what he is looking to replace is what I had been doing at work, so it was interesting to me and also scary – how easily we could all be replaced! It is easier to retest quickly when things are automated so it saves time and money. In addition to talking about 
Alou is about baseball great Felipe Alou in his own words. The intro to the book is by none other than Pedro Martinez. Felipe and 2 of his brothers (Matty and Jesus) were the only 3 brothers in the major leagues to share an outfield. Felipe is often credited as the first Dominican to reach the major leagues, but he says that it was Ozzie Virgil Sr who did it before him. The book is interesting and has a lot of great stories and facts about Felipe and his family. His last name is actually not Alou, but Rojas. He never faced a lefty pitcher until he was a professional baseball player because in the Dominican Republic being left handed was considered a curse so they were all right handed. (Or if they weren’t, tried to be.) He has a 4th brother, Juan, who stayed home to protect his home in the Dominican Republic and ended up becoming a pretty great civil engineer. There is a lot of information about Felipe’s family as well – he has 11 children and has been married 4 times. Tragically one of his sons died while he was diving into a pool by breaking his neck and Felipe talks about what it was like to find out about that while he was playing ball and having to fly straight home to the funeral from a game. This was a really interesting read and I enjoyed it.
This is an adorable book with paper dolls to cut out of the Royal couple – Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. There is a body for Harry and a body for Meghan and then throughout the book there are outfits that the couple has been seen wearing before as well as where they had worn them. At the end of the book there is some royal trivia and information about the couple. This is a really cute idea, but I hope that a new version comes out after the wedding with their wedding outfits! That would just be grand, wouldn’t it?
The version of Make It Easy, Cupcake, I got to review was just a snippet of some of the pages of the full book, so I haven’t gotten to see ALL the designs that are featured in this book but the ones that I did see were totally awesome. The book is full of fun cupcake ideas – the one that I liked the most was a BBQ which featured baked beans, hot dogs and burgers – all as cupcakes! Totally adorable and the book has easy step by step instructions as well as photos of the steps so you can easily follow along and make your own awesome cupcakes, easy! I also liked the crab cupcake.. I am not much of a baker or a decorator but I am just saying if you want to make me happy for my birthday some hot dog cupcakes and crab cupcakes are probably the way to go…
I braced myself before opening up this book filled with 101 new “dad jokes”. The book is illustrated so that it actually looks like Dads are telling the jokes. I think that most of these will make you chuckle – but I’m not saying if they will because you think they are funny or because they are just that bad…
My Favorite Sport: Baseball, is a short book about the game of Baseball. First it talks a bit about what baseball is and how the game works. At the end of each section is a “Do You Remember” with a question about something that you learned from what you just read. There is also a glossary with some of the terms that you should know if you want to play and learn about baseball. This is a nice easy read for a kid who is just learning to read and loves sports.
This book about Sharks is all about the different kinds of sharks in the ocean. There are more than 400 species out there but this book focuses on 20 of them. Different types of sharks can range in size from 6 inches to 40 feet!! Each chapter focuses on a different species and lets you know a few fast facts about them – like their length and weight and where in the world they are most commonly found. Then there is another fact about their teeth under the “Shark Bite Files”. I could probably have done without seeing so many creepy shark teeth throughout this book, but it was really interesting to see all the different types of sharks and what they look like.
The Picky Eater is about Piper. Otherwise she is a good student and a great little pig. But she is NOT a good eater – because she will only eat food that starts with the letter P! Her parents try to give her other things to eat but she always refuses. If they ask her to take 5 bites that is all she will take. Then she tells them what she would have preferred instead, that starts with a P. Rice should be Pasta. Apples should be Pears! Finally her Mother had enough and told her that if she didn’t want to eat she didn’t have to but she had to be silent. By Friday she started to try new foods because she was so hungry!