ARC December

Well its December and I made it through the ARC challenge! YAY!

If you remember last month I said I was going to read Buttercream Bump Off by Jenn McKinlay. But I had gotten the Jim Henson Biography for my kindle from the library at the time I wrote my November blog post. So I decided to read that as my Dec. book instead. Well...I read both books so you will get a 2fer with me. :)

The first book I'll be reviewing is the  Jim Henson: The Biography  by Brian Jay Jones.

The book is of course about Jim Henson. I have been a muppets fan forever. I kept my eye out for the book on the Media on demand website so I could borrow the book. When I showed up I put a hold on it the wait was not that long. I was 3rd on the list. :) It took me about 3-4 days reading the book. The book itself is about 600 pages from what I saw on Amazon.

The book was great. When TV first came out Jim was fascinated with it and begged his parents to get one. When they did and he was watching it. He knew he wanted to work do something on Television. He just didn't know that puppet would be how he do it. From the start of commercials with coffee maker Wilkens coffee to other coffee makers to Alpo, and skits on the nightly talk shows. The book mentions how he got each of the puppetters to work with him and his wife Jane. Much from the Puppetters conventions. He wanted Frank Oz to work with him, but Fran was too young, only 17 or so so After he graduated High school Frank went to work with Jim. When Sesame Street came to be popular, Jim kept trying to make sure to let people know that the Muppets weren't just a kid thing. 

It was interesting how somethings that Jim did way back when turned out later to be a different character for either Muppet show or Sesame Street. Like Cookie Monster was just a monster for a commercial, then later he was used for Sesame Street. Or seeds were planted for something later in his career (Fraggle Rock). After he did the TV thing he wanted to branch out into movies. 

What I didn't know was In the 90's Jim was trying to make a deal with Disney, for them to buy the Muppets(Not Sesame Street characters. That he wanted to belong to CTW.) but the deal failed. So Negotiations stopped. And that Jim Stopped the Muppet show at Season 5(even though it was popular). I thought it was cancelled(P.S. Disney can you please release seasons 4 and 5 of the show please. I want to complete my collection). lol

The book was great. Definitely for someone who is a Muppets fan. To me the Muppet show, and the first 3 Muppet movies were the best (Along with Sesame Street from back in the day).  The Muppet movies and specials now are not the same.

Here is my Journal page for the book

Now for my next book 

The book Buttercream Bump Off (Cupcake Bakery Mystery) by Jenn McKinlay. It is 2nd in the Cupcake Bakery Murder. Mel and Angie run Fairy Tale cupcakes bakery.In this book Valentine's day is coming up and the bakery is gearing up for the holiday with cupcakes and baking lessons with couples. Along with a contest to help strum up business against a rival cupcake bakery near by. Mel's mother has a date. Unfortunately the date ends up dead by the hot tub. Mel tries to figure out who did it as her mom is lead suspect. The B storyline is that Angie who has had a crush on Tate(their friend and business partner) since they were in high school, is dating the son of the guy who died. and Tate,  is jealous, but took a long time to figure out why he was jealous.

This was a fun book to read. It was also a quick read. Read it in a day. And like other cozy mysteries, there are recipes at the end of the book.

Here is my art for this book

Well thats it for me. I'm going to pick another 12 books to read for next year. I dout I will be doing art about the book like this year though. This was a great challenge. it helped me go through my TBR pile.(though I have plenty in the drawer to read. and in my Kindle.) I have read 29 books(as of Dec.7. the day I'm writing this blog post ) this year. Not bad.(but I use to have read a lot more than that. It was a mixed of hard copy books and ebooks on my kindle. Currently I am reading Death by the Dozen by Jenn McKinlay the 3rd book in the cupcake series.