It was a time when there were no rules governing the sale of tax free bonds. From 1971 until 1973 I was part of group known as the "Memphis Bond Daddies". We sold tax free, bearer bonds over the phone. Our home base was Pensacola, Florida. The deregulation of the stock brokerage business in the 1970's and the huge bear market made it so that brokers could not sit behind their desks waiting for the phone to ring. They had to adapt the "cold calling" techniques perfected by the bond daddies. Today huge investment banks have managed us out of our retirement funds. Trillions have been lost, and like in the days of the bond daddy, no one will go to jail. Insurance companies sell insurance without anything to pay claims. The smart guys on Wall Street believe, if they don't get caught, it must be legal. Lawmakers get their lifeblood contributions from big firms and big banks. The regulators are young lawyers, looking to get a big paying job with the firms they are regulating. This is the account of my three years as a "Bond Daddy", and how we started it all.

The lure of fast money pulls Aaron and Jack into a world driven by high-pressure commission sales where morals and ethics take a backseat to big paydays. Best friends since high school, Aaron and Jack are hired by a brokerage firm that begins the strict training of each broker before they are licensed. Surviving the firm's grueling interview process, harsh cold-calling and aggressive tactics, each takes a different path in an attempt to endure the shark-infested trading floor. Aaron's natural aptitude with people gives him quick success; however, Jacks first sale eludes him for monthscausing marital problems and pushing him to the brink of depression. But as the friends turn into big producers, the firm's partners do more than just take them from the poor house to fancy cars. Aaron and Jack are introduced to a hedonistic lifestyle filled with wild adventures and seedy relationships riddled with dangerous vices. Inspired by actual events from a 1970s Houston, Texas, boiler room operation, Bond Daddy chronicles the successes, excesses, and failures of men pushed to their limits who end up secretly living abroad, wasting away in prison or mysteriously murdered.

Bond is an adventuresome Tuxedo cat who one day finds something new in his living room, a Big Green Hill. Bond decides to climb the Big Green Hill all alone while his Daddy is not home. As Bond discovers that climbing alone can be scary, he also soon discovers that the Big Green Hill is not a hill at all, it's a green couch. Daddy encourages Bond to climb the couch only when he is around to catch Bond if he falls. Bond and the Big Green Hill is filled with imagination and moralistic endings that will capture the hearts of children and parents everywhere.

Surrounded by violence, prostitution and alcoholic abuse, the familys options were very limited. The author explains their experiences with a philosophical view. How he and his brothers faced their circumstances and their efforts in finding ways to get by. With occasional concerns of others and the One upstairs, they managed to survive and avoid becoming victims of the unfavorable influences that were all around them. You will often hear of individual hardship situations. Poverty and hunger, mistreatment and abuse are evident in all walks of life. The author makes the experiences of his family vivid to even the most unbelieving reader. Battered by continual family hostilities, from a father guilty of rampant sexual appetites and alcoholic abuse, to a mother who sought any means to provide for the family in the early years, they were ultimately abandoned by their parents.

Sometimes daddies are loud and playful. Other times they are quiet and compassionate. And they are always loving. Sebastien Braun's appealing text and charming illustrations follow a day in the life of a bear and his bear cub in this celebration of the bond between father and child.

A humorous and heartwarming picture book from legendary musician Chris "Ludacris" Bridges about the special bond between father and daughter. Karma and her daddy love to make music together! Karma sets up the rhyme and daddy finishes it. Together, they're the perfect team! But when it's time for Karma to write her daddy a rap for his birthday all on her own, she can't quite make it perfect. What rhymes with banana anyway? Told with heart and humor, Karma soon realizes that she never has to do anything alone as long as she has daddy by her side.

From furry bears to silky hares, Caldecott Honoree Nancy Tafuri celebrates the extra special bond between daddies and their babies in this perfect gift for Father's Day. Little ones love daddy hugs. Feathered hugs . . . whiskered hugs . . . cozy hugs. Just-daddy-and-me hugs. All across the woodlands, animal daddies and their little ones cuddle up together. From furry bear hugs to silky hare hugs, Nancy Tafuri celebrates all the hugs that are extra special because they are just-daddy-and-me hugs. A special author's note includes a list of critters to seek and find on each page, along with their scientific names.