Sandi and Augie by John Benton

From the back cover of Sandi:

At seventeen, Sandi viewed "life in the fast lane" as pretty exciting.  But within two years, she learned that it inevitably leads to a dead end.  Because she was often "high," she was fired from her job in a pizza parlor.  Left with no means of supporting her insatiable drug habit, she teamed up with another junkie, Maggie, who supported herself and her young daughter by robbing bakeries.  From there they went on to credit card scams and prostitution.

After Maggie was imprisoned and Sandi almost lost her life while pushing drugs, Sandi realized that she was hopelessly tangled in a web of self-destruction from which she could never break free.  Therefore, when a loving, concerned neighbor told Sandi how she could find a new life in Jesus Christ, she didn't take too long to yield her life to Him.

Content: theft, drug use

Maggie's idea to rob bakeries is stupid.  Maggie drives a truck that delivers bread to bakeries.  Of course the bakeries would figure out that they all got robbed around the time that the delivery truck arrived.  These characters are such stupid criminals.

While this is a good book, I didn't enjoy it as much as other titles.

From the back cover of Augie:

When Augie was first approached by a cute young addict and prostitute who needed assistance in ripping off a customer, he agreed, believing "one time can't hurt."  Unfortunately, that impulsive attitude led him into drug addiction.  As their drug habits grew to be insatiable, Augie and Paula were imperiled by involvement in dangerous crimes to support themselves. 

After Augie mistakenly cheated an underworld kingpin, his days were numbered.  When Augie was shot by a hit man, Paula realized that their lives were destined to end violently.  Therefore, she eagerly received some information given to her by some loving people from the Walter Hoving Home.  Was it possible that they could really find a refuge before it was too late?

Content: prostitution, drug use, hijacking, mugging, homocide

From page  87:

We walked into the apartment, and Paula went over to a couple of old books that were on her dresser.  She opened up one of them.  What was she up to?

I immediately guessed what was next.

Paula walked over to me and showed me the book.  There was a big hole cut out of the pages, and the bullets were inside.  Pretty smart, I thought.

Of course.  What else would a criminal be doing with a book?

The schemes in these books are often amusing.  A man approaches Augie.  He fixes up tenements, but he has a competitor who puts in cheap fixtures and sells at a high price.  The man hires Augie to steal from his competitor so that he can use the fixtures in his tenements, where he charges a more fair price.  Sure, by stealing what he needs.  Pretty soon, Augie is stealing toilets.  Imagine what that looks like: Augie walking down the street, carrying a toilet.

From page 112:

"If I were you, kid, I’d walk in there and kill that Malinsky," the other cop told me.

I couldn’t believe it!  A cop telling me to waste Malinsky?  Then I thought about it.  They must be after Malinsky.  They knew he was murdering people.  And if Malinsky got killed, that would be the end of that.

"You mean to tell me you wouldn't care if I walked in there and killed Malinsky?" I demanded.

"Listen, we don’t have to paint you a picture.  Malinsky’s knocked off quite a few people.  The best thing that could happen would be for somebody to get rid of him for us.  Go get him, kid!"

The cops walked back to their car.  "We've got to go, man."  They didn’t even frisk me for weapons!

This is crazy.

I forced myself to read this book after not reading any of these books for three weeks.  The book is good, but I didn't enjoy it that much.

The 2023 Friends of the Library Book Sale

On February 24, I attended the Friends of the Library Book Sale.  While I did purchase some vintage series books, the sale did not have a very good overall selection of them.  This is partly because of the aftermath of the pandemic.  The sale isn't quite back to normal, although it is getting there.  That aside, the older books continue to become more scarce and show up less often as the years pass.

The Oklahoma City Fire Marshal has cracked down on businesses and is strictly enforcing the fire code.  Years ago, the library book sale let everyone in the door regardless of how many people were present.  It was too crowded.  

This year they enforced the capacity limit, and people had to remain in line until the crowd inside thinned out.  I heard that on the second day of the sale that the wait time at one point was 1 hour and 15 minutes to get inside, and that was after the sale had already been open for a couple of hours.  I was at the sale on the first day and was third in line, so the capacity limit did not impact me.  

What is really nice about the fire code being strictly enforced is that the sale is now required to have eight feet of space in between the lines of tables.  Years ago the tables were only around four feet apart, which left very little room.

Due to rising costs, the book sale raised prices this year.  In the general section, hardcover books went up from $1.00 each to $2.00 each.  Softcover books went up from $0.50 each to $1.00 each.  This forced me to avoid purchasing any softcover books that were in rough shape. Normally, I would have purchased those as well, but I felt that $1.00 each was too much to pay for examples in poor condition.  I did see other people grab them, however.  

The first photo shows all of the vintage series books that I found at the sale.  The selection wasn't good, even though I did find some worthwhile books.  

Click or tap on images in order to see them at a higher resolution.

The Nancy Drew and Judy Bolton books with dust jackets are from the 1940s and have pulp paper.  I'm not too enthusiastic about that era due to the continuing deterioration in condition, but still, it was nice finding some books in dust jacket.  I haven't found many books in dust jackets in recent years.  They show up infrequently.

For at least five years, my greatest interest has been in looking at the vintage teen books.  I find a better selection on those tables than I do for the vintage series books.  The heyday of the vintage series books at the library book sale has passed.  For me, the sale is more about the vintage teen books, especially since this sale is just about the only place where I can ever find vintage teen books in the wild.  Bookstores don't have them.

I spent around 2 hours in the general section going back and forth at least eight times in the vintage paperbacks section.  Half of the books were on top of the tables on an area about 3 feet wide by 15 to 20 feet long.  This photo is of some of the books on top of the tables.

The other half of the books were on the floor under the tables.  This next photo shows some of the books on the floor.

I took both of the above photos after I had already been looking for over an hour.  I had gotten most of what I wanted by that point, but after I took the photos, I checked a few more times and found even more books.  The books are always so mixed together that it is very hard to spot the ones I want.  I also want books that I'm not going to recognize easily, so I tend to miss those on the first few passes.

Most of the books that I purchased at this year's sale were vintage teen books.  Someone donated a large number of Sweet Valley High books plus some other great vintage teen books.  This is what I purchased.

I would have been disappointed if the only books I had found had been the low number of vintage series books.  The vintage teen books are what made this a great sale.

The Friends of the Library Book Sale 2013-2019

I always take photos of whatever books I purchase at the library book sale.  I don't always place the photos online.  This post contains photos from past book sales that I haven't published in this blog.  Some photos were placed on Facebook.   

Always click or tap on a photo in order to view it at a higher resolution.

This photo is of what I purchased in 2013.  I didn't get very many books, but I did find some good ones.

I had forgotten about this purchase of Rocket Jumper.  Over the years, I have found four different copies of Rocket Jumper locally.  It is a scarce book to most people, but not to me, since I keep finding it.

My 2014 book sale photos are in a photo album on my Facebook page.

2014 Book Sale Photos


2015 was probably the worst of any year.  These books were purchased that year.

2016 was better.

I don't know where my 2017 photos are.  


I purchased these books in 2018.

These books were purchased in 2019. 

Stephanie and Candi by John Benton

From the back cover of Stephanie:

Sixteen-year-old Stephanie Conder could no longer stand living with her "drill sergeant" father and timid mother.  So when her boyfriend offered her a new lifestyle that promised undreamed-of rewards, she jumped at the chance.  At first, Stephanie found living in a posh New York City apartment exciting.  But there was a price to pay. 

She soon became involved in despicable crimes and fell victim to an enslaving drug habit.  As she sunk lower into a meaningless existence, Stephanie was sure that she would die a violent death and saw no way out.  Her criminal acts resulted in an inevitable term at Riker's Island.  Despite the horror of prison, here she found the hope and freedom she needed to release her from her miserable lifestyle. 

Content: car theft, physical abuse, drug use, burglary, abduction, gun violence, credit card fraud

Stephanie doesn't like her father, so she turns to a life of crime.  This is a bit illogical.

Max, a drug dealer, is owed money by several people.  He orders Stephanie to help him.  She is to find a way to make each person pay his debt, or she can kill each person.  Max doesn't care which Stephanie chooses.  Since she doesn't want to kill anyone, she takes the first man, Jeffrey, to a motel where she handcuffs him to the toilet.  Jeffrey obtains Max's money from his contacts, and then Max orders Stephanie take additional people to the motel.

Pretty soon, Stephanie has several prisoners with her in the motel room.  I find this part of the story to be a bit absurd.  Somehow, one woman manages to keep several men under her control in a motel room while they are free to move around in the room.  Bizarrely, these people grow loyal to Stephanie and begin helping her with her schemes.

This is a very good book.

From the back cover of Candi:

Candi and Kathy used and pushed drugs—and the narcotics agents were on to their game.  After narrowly dodging the law, they moved to another part of town.  Kathy decided prostitution was a safer business, and tried to persuade Candi to join her.  But Candi knew she could never lower herself to that. 

Her decision to help another dealer ended up sending her to the hospital with a shotgun wound.  When she went back to Kathy, she began to steal money for a living.  Though she resented robbery, to her it was better than prostitution.  What would she do when an angry pimp gave her the choice between prostitution and her life?

Content:  prostitution, drug use, robbery

I enjoyed this book.

Denise by John Benton

From the back cover of Denise:

"Denise, I know a way to get rid of all those problems you're having.  I mean all of them."

You probably know someone like Frank—a high school drug pusher who always had an answer ready.  And someone like Denise was ready for anything.  After all, who wouldn't want some kicks, when your mother literally kicks you around?  Who wouldn't want to run away when you discover a dark family secret about yourself?

Denise left her troubles at home and found something far worse on the streets.  Heroin... prostitution... loneliness.  In the end, she felt more used and abused than ever, until...

Someone gave Denise a choice—perhaps the most difficult one she'd ever had to make.  She had to face the truth.  She had to change.  

Would she do it ?  Find out.

This was the very first book that I read by John Benton last summer.  I don't remember much about it, but I placed sticky notes on a few pages.

This book contains strong homophobic content.  A majority of Benton's books contain implied homophobic statements, but they are much worse and quite prominent in parts of this book.  Normally I would include some examples of the content, but I'm not comfortable doing so.  

Many of my followers are gay, and I won't subject them to reading these statements.  I don't want the statements in this blog, since they could be misconstrued as being endorsed by me regardless of what I write.  I'm thinking about how search engine results highlight short phrases from sites in the search results.  I can't risk having that happen.

This is why I was flabbergasted and offended last summer when a member of the Vintage Teen Books group suggested that gay members of the group would be scared of being in my group due to me allowing discussion of these books.  Most people understand that old books have objectionable content and that group moderators do not endorse that content.  Good grief!

Read this post for the full context about this book and the Vintage Teen Books group.

I marked a hilarious passage from pages 46 and 47.  Denise and her boyfriend, Frank, go out to the garage to smoke marijuana.

We went out back into the garage and lit up in the darkness.  We had almost finished the joint when suddenly the lights went on.  I yanked the stick out of my mouth and threw it on the floor.  But not in time, for there stood my mother!

"What on earth is going on out here?" she demanded.

I stuttered, trying to think of something to say.  But Frank piped up with, "We're smoking pot."

That stupid Frank!  I thought he was so smart, so cool.  Why did he admit it?  This was going to be nothing but trouble for me—and him too!

"Smoking pot?" Mom asked.  "Where did you get it?"

"Well, I just happened to have a few joints with me, Mrs. Brady.  Do you want some?"

I couldn't believe what I was hearing.  No way would Frank be able to spend the night at our house now.  He'd be lucky if Mom just threw him out and didn't call the cops!

"I've got another joint, Mrs. Brady," Frank said.  "Denise and I were just going to smoke it.  Why don't you join us?"

Mom hesitated and looked around to see if anyone else was there.  Then she smiled faintly and said, "You know, I've always wondered about marijuana.  I've heard some good things about it and lots of bad.  But I've always had a secret desire to try it."

That was all the encouragement Frank needed.  He quickly lit the stick, handed it to her and said, "Inhale, taking a deep breath.  Then hold it."

When she did, it absolutely disgusted me—that big, fat slob, smoking pot!  So when Frank took the stick and handed it to me, I pushed it away with, "No thanks, Frank.  I'll see you later."

Denise is a very good book.

Valarie and Sheila by John Benton

From the back cover of Valarie:

Arrested for prostitution, Valarie was unable to stop the horrible suicide of another inmate.  But what she saw and knew about her friend's death made her a very real danger to her captors, who arranged for her to be released in custody of "Uncle Harvey."  In return for her freedom, she was forced to work in Harvey's massage parlor, where she found life to be as dangerous as ever. 

There seemed to be no way out for Valarie—no place of safety—no friend who could be trusted —no future.  Would she be better off back on the streets?  Valarie will show you that there is always hope and help available, if you will only reach out to claim it.

Content: prostitution, suicide witnessed by protagonist, physical violence, gun violence, theft, drug abuse

The suicide in this book is highly likely to be triggering.  Valarie witnesses her friend commit suicide by hanging in the adjacent cell.  Valarie screams for the guards repeatedly as she tries to stop her friend.  The guards ignore the cries for help.  The scene is quite disturbing and infuriating.  These books are based on true stories, so this happened.

This is another typically thrilling John Benton book.

My summary of Sheila:

Sheila is addicted to heroin and uses prostitution to fund her habit.  Sheila is so addicted that she can only get straight instead of high.  Sheila must leave her little girl, Robin, alone in their apartment while she walks the streets looking for a trick.  Child welfare begins asking questions, so Sheila flees with her daughter.

Sheila gets an apartment on the second floor of a strip club.  Her employer takes her to conventions where she services all the rich businessmen, making plenty of money for her habit.  But finally, Sheila's lifestyle catches up with her, and she risks losing everything.

Content: child abuse, prostitution, stripping, drug abuse, gun violence, theft

The publisher's summary focuses on around the last 50 pages of the story, so I opted not to use it.  I cannot stand it when publishers choose to focus on the ending instead of the main part of the story.

This is another excellent John Benton book.

Nikki and Connie by John Benton

From the back cover of Nikki:

Abandoned by her father, Nikki and her mother struggled to make ends meet, but fell further and further into poverty and degradation.  When the opportunity came to fly to Miami and make good money at the same time, Nikki jumped at the chance, not knowing what she was in for.  Soon she was living the life of a drug courier—with no way out.  Nikki needed a Friend she could trust, but would she find Him in time to save her life?

Content: completed suicide, suicidal ideation, murder, gun violence, physical violence, drug trafficking 

This book is like Lefty in that it is nonstop action from start to finish.  The book is exciting, and I read it quickly.  This is an excellent book.

From the back cover of Connie:

You've read about teenagers with too little love and too much time and money.  Now read about Connie—a desperate seventeen-year-old.  Connie is the story of what happens when families stop connecting—when parents are too overwhelmed by their own troubles to notice what's happening to their children.

Whether you are a parent or a teenager yourself, you will cry with Connie.  But in the end you'll thrill to the unseen Presence whose power of infinite love and healing gives Connie's story a happy ending.

Content: multiple suicide attempts (alcohol and pills, jumping in front of cars, jumping in the river), alcohol abuse, marijuana, heroin, gang rape, false rape accusation, domestic violence

Connie tells outrageous lies, sometimes just to hurt.  She tells her father that his best salesman raped her, just so that her father would feel bad.  

Early in the story, Connie is eager to get her friend out of detention, so she tells one of her lies.

"Now, Mrs. Sweigart," I soothed, "let me tell you something.  I was in the bathroom with Myra just before this class.  You see, she had a terrible problem I'm sure she didn't want to tell you about."

[snip]

"Now, Mrs. Sweigart, don't you dare tell one person.  If you do, it could mean big problems.  But the reason Myra was late for class was that she just had a miscarriage.  That's why I was in the bathroom, to help her."

"A what?" Mrs. Sweigart yelled in shock.

"Myra just had a miscarriage," I whispered, loud enough for Myra to hear.

Mouth wide open, Mrs. Sweigart looked over at Myra, then back at me.  "You're lying!" she shouted.

Connie then convinces Mrs. Sweigart that she is telling the truth.  Mrs. Sweigart becomes very solicitous and wants to take Myra to the hospital.  Connie can't have that happen, so she says that the father's identity must remain a secret.

"Oh?" Mrs. Sweigart asked, trying to mask her eagerness.  Then she whispered, "Whom did she have this immoral relationship with?"

I put my hand to my mouth.  "I've already said more than I should have, " I told her.  "I promised Myra I would never tell."

"Oh, come on, girls, you can trust me," Mrs. Sweigart pressed.  "I told you I can keep a secret.  Just tell me who was the father of the baby."

"Now, Mrs. Sweigart, it really didn't look like a baby.  I mean, she was hardly pregnant."

"I don't care what it looked like," Mrs. Sweigart responded.  "I just want to know who the man was.  I mean, we've got to do something about men like that!"

[snip]

I decided this was the time to drop the bombshell—and also to get Myra out of there.

[snip]

"The father of Myra's baby was Mr. Reintjes, the principal," I lied.

[snip]

"Mr. Reintjes?" she repeated.  "I'd never... Well, now that you mention it, I have felt uncomfortable around that man a couple of times.  I knew he was a big flirt, and I caught him looking me up and down once.  But I didn't think... Hmmmm.  That man must have nothing but sex on his mind..."

This entire passage is gold.  I quoted the most important parts.  It's amusing in an off-color fashion that they mention that the baby didn't look like a baby.  Um, okay.  And to implicate the principal with the teacher coming up with her own explanation that it was true... This is how easy it is to ruin someone's reputation.

As with all of these books, I really enjoyed this one.

Article on Weeding Out Books

I saw an article about how to thin out one's book collection. 

How to Get Rid of Book Clutter

I thought it would be fun to play along.  The article gives five questions to ask when deciding whether to keep a book.

Question 1: Is This A Duplicate?

My answer:  This depends upon what is meant by "duplicate."  If I have two books that are exactly the same in all ways, then I do purge one of them.  

I have 67 copies of Nancy Drew #2 The Hidden Staircase.  They are not duplicates, and I must keep all of them.

Question 2: Is The Material In The Book Out Of Date, Or Still Current & Relevant?

My answer:  I still like my books, so they are relevant.  If I get tired of them, then they become irrelevant.  Do they have outdated information in them?  Of course, but that makes them interesting.

Question 3: Have I Read This Before & Will I Read It Again?

My answer:  That's not a fair question.  I will never read most of the physical books that I have.  I can't read books published in other languages, but I like the cover art.

But seriously, I do sell books that I didn't particularly enjoy.  I know that I will never try to read the Grace Harlowe books again, so I sold all of them.  I had some really scarce titles.

Question 4: Why Do I Want To Keep This Book?

I keep it because I like it.  If I decide that I don't like it, then out it goes!

Question 5: Could I Get This Book At The Library To Read Again?

99% of the books I own are not available from the library.  I remember when it was suggested that I should use the library instead of risking buying books that I might not like.  How would that work with the kinds of books I read?

The article to which I linked at the beginning of this post is a great article.  Some of the suggestions don't apply to me.  If you would like to read about how I have reduced my book clutter, read through these posts.

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