February 2010
The Secret of Shadow Ranch
Finally! George and Bess make their appearance. Ned is in “Europe” and we hear a good bit about him, off and on — also found a mistake. At the beginning of the book, Nancy tells George that she’s knitting a sweater for her dad. But at the end, she’s knitting a sweater for Ned. Also… no boating mishaps. Being in the dessert helps – though of course there was that river flood issue but Nancy was on a horse, not in a boat. Here’s my copy:
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The Mystery at Lilac Inn
Nancy Drew should stay out of boats. The first four books have had boat accidents – and no, not all of them have been boat accidents with Helen. It’s Nancy – she’s bad luck in boats. This is my copy. The binding isn’t happy. Sniff. How much does it cost to have the binding repaired on a Nancy Drew book? 
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Liz’s creative bookmarks
Liz went through the Smoothie cookbook to find recipes she would be interested in making. She’s opposed to dog-earing pages (good for her!) but didn’t have enough bookmarks – or small papers to use as bookmarks. So she improvised – with large pieces of paper, a pop tart package (with a piece of poptart inside), some fabric, some candy wrappers, and who knows what else.
The child is weird.
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The Bungalow Mystery
I had forgotten that so many of the first books in the Nancy Drew series featured Nancy’s friend Helen – and lots of different male dates for Nancy. I’m so used to George, Bess, and Ned that I’m thrown when Nancy is hanging out with Helen (who she mostly drops once Helen gets married) and dates so many different guys.
I’d also forgotten how often Nancy’s mysteries are tied to her father’s cases. The Bungalow Mystery is another one of those – what a coincidence! Also… beware of FOREIGN model cars. People who drive them are quite obviously crooks. Also, if you ask good people if they drive foreign cars, they will be a wee bit offended by the question.
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When Everything Changed
It’s a good thing I’m still super busy at work. If I’d been able to read When Everything Changed nonstop and tweet my way through it, I’d have been blaming the patriarchy all over the place. And I know some of y’all get tired of that. Because you don’t want to think about all of the ways that you’re still bowing to the patriarchy – that we all are bowing to the patriarchy.
Everything did change – kind of – but we never got quite to where we should have been – on women’s rights or race.
PATRIARCHY. Bah.
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The Hidden Staircase
I wonder what happened to my copy of The Hidden Staircase (Nancy Drew #2.) I’m very sure I owned it. My dad probably sold it in that infamous yard sale. Hmph.
Nancy really really could have used a cell phone in this mystery. So could Mr Drew. And also maybe Helen. (I had forgotten about Helen and Jim’s romance. Very amusing in that patriarchal sort of way.) Also amusing in this one were the food references. How exciting – floating island for dessert! Yum!
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Skybreaker
We enjoyed listening to Airborn on audio last year and were looking forward to listening to Skybreaker – the sequel to Airborn. I was disappointed – First, Matt’s become far too self-conscious about his lack of money. The whining and lack of self-confidence became tiresome and Matt became a character that I no longer respected. Second, Nadira could have been a really interesting character but Oppel ditched her almost completely by the time they boarded the Hyperion. Why spend all of that time early in the book causing us to be interested in her and then barely mention her name once the story really got moving?
The next book in the series is Star Climber. I’m not sure I really want to read it. I’ve peeked that the synopsis and one review and it looks like we’ll find Matt whining his way through another adventure. That’s too bad.
The Child Thief
Should I start by confessing that I don’t really like Peter Pan? And I cannot stand the Disney-fied Tinkerbell, though I supposed I probably had some weird fondness for her when I was young. I think the problem was that I saw the Disney Peter Pan before I read Barrie’s original. The early tainting ruined it all for me.
And then there was Brom and Child Thief. I was opposed to reading it because the dude needs to get another name – does he think he’s Prince? Or Madonna? I was opposed to reading it because… see above. I was interested in reading it because naked women prints inside of a YA book – awesome, that doesn’t happen very often.
So – I read it. And ended up paying 60 cents for the pleasure because I was working my butt off and couldn’t read more than a chapter a night for almost a full week. I wanted to read it straight through. It was good. I might almost like Peter Pan again. Maybe. I definitely like The Lost Boys – particularly since this particular group of Devils weren’t just boys.