Favorite reads of my childhood

Book blogger Paper Cuts had a post a while back about books that she enjoyed before blogging, and that inspired me to have a post like that too!  There have been many I have adored over the years and I wanted to spotlight a few, starting with the ones I loved to read in elementary school.  The library was (and still is) my friend, and I loved to go browsing there yet always seemed to leave with an unread book from one of the following series. When I was young though, mystery stories really appealed to me, and they were the genre I would most often check out.

Nancy Drew series

by Carolyn Keene

I had a teacher in fourth grade with shoulder length strawberry blonde hair, and I always kind of thought of her as a grown up Nancy Drew.  And she was a fantastic teacher.  But anyways.  I devoured this series when I was young - I so wanted to go solving mysteries with my friends and a boyfriend in a nice car.  Nancy is just so logical and brave and curious, and that really appealed to me as a kid.  I haven't read Nancy Drew mysteries in a while, and in a way I am afraid to. They were so perfect to me when I was young, that I fear some magic will be missing when I re-read them.  The things I enjoyed about this series, really stemmed from the mystery, and I don't want to find the mysteries too easy now that I'm older.

The Three Investigators series

by Robert Arthur

"The Three Investigators" series first caught my eye because they used Alfred Hitchcock's name on the cover.  Not sure why he was included, but because my Mom is a Hitchcock fan and made me watch some of his films (for the longest time though we were too afraid to watch Psycho), I was attracted to reading this series.  And what an awesome premise!  Jupiter, boy genius, has an Uncle who owns a scrapyard, and he has created a headquarters in the middle with it completely covered with all the junk.  But with secret passages in and out.  So cool!  This book also inspired me to try to learn Morse code (with indifferent results) and also carry a bit of chalk around with me. You know, in case I get kidnapped and have to make markers.  The adventures these three boys went on were so much fun, and Jupiter was such a great detective.

The Boxcar Children series

by Gertrude Chandler Warner

When I think of these books, I don't remember the mystery aspect as much as the idea of children living in their own little home.  Growing up I didn't have my own room, so having a secretive boxcar to sleep and arrange the way I wanted would have been heaven.  The characters of the Boxcar children were also especially vivid to me, and they worked so well together.  I think just those two aspects make this story immediately appealing to children.  And the author would create such descriptive passages about their lives that it was easy to really believe in this world.  And for some reason it made me crave bread and milk.  And I don't even like milk.

Encyclopedia Brown series

by Donald J. Sobol

I still like to read these stories!  Encyclopedia Brown was another boy genius who was always able to solve a mystery within a few pages.  And the best part was the opportunity given for the reader to solve the mystery as well!  I was never very good at solving the mystery when I was young - partly because I wasn't patient enough to really sit there and think over the details, but flipping to the back and reading how Encyclopedia solved the mystery was always such a highlight for me.  I think I just preferred to have him tell me than to try to guess.  (Now, if I reread these stories,  I need to figure out how they were solved, because I can't be beat by a 10 year old boy!  I still am though.... sometimes...)  Another fun part of this series is the recurring cast of characters - Encyclopedia's friend and body guard Sally, the ever mischievous Bugs Meany and a whole slew of well meaning and less well meaning kids that inhabited the small town of Idaville.  The stories are so clever and inventive, and great for quick entertainment.

My Favorite Book: Austenland, a review

Re-reading and reviewing the books that are near and dear:
Austenland
by Shannon Hale


Plot Summary:
Jane Hayes is a seemingly normal young New Yorker, but she has a secret. Her obsession with Mr. Darcy, as played by Colin Firth in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, is ruining her love life: no real man can compare. But when a wealthy relative bequeaths her a trip to an English resort catering to Austen-crazed women, Jane's fantasies of meeting the perfect Regency-era gentleman suddenly become realer than she ever could have imagined.

Decked out in empire-waist gowns, Jane struggles to master Regency etiquette and flirts with gardeners and gentlemen; or maybe even, she suspects, with the actors who are playing them. It's all a game, Jane knows. And yet the longer she stays, the more her insecurities seem to fall away, and the more she wonders: Is she about to kick the Austen obsession for good, or could all her dreams actually culminate in a Mr. Darcy of her own?

Review:
Confession.  I'm not a big Jane Austen fan.  I'm an Anglophile, I like the time period, I like the manners, and the costumes.  I like the movie versions (for the most part) and enjoy the storylines.  But for some reason her writing doesn't do anything for me.  Too confined and proper perhaps - along the lines of Charlotte Bronte's opinion on Austen.  But for me, Austenland is not about Jane Austen.  It's for those girls who have that character crush, and then see that movie with that actor, and he just captures the whole reason for crushing on the character somehow.  And then everything just gets worse.  You probably understand.  I understand.  The point is though, Shannon Hale understands.  And she wrote this book for us.  And it is gloriously funny, touching, irreverent, and just plain understanding.  Because I know the character isn't real, the actors are just playing a part, and perfect guys don't exist.  But I don't read books to reinforce reality.  I have a 9-5 job for that.  So with Jane Hayes I can play and just imagine what it might be like.  And feel a little silly for it, but it's okay because Jane is my funny friend and knows just how silly it all is too. 

Having hilarious but insightful thoughts coming from a character isn't all this book offers though.  The romance is light and chick-lit-y, but absolutely heart-warming and smile-inducing.  There are short, entertaining chapters illuminating Jane's previous boyfriends and sharply drawn characters that always made me laugh.  The nature of this book is wish-fulfillment for females, I think, and it doesn't disappoint at all.  Add the humor, romance, and witty writing, and this is one of my most highly recommended light, entertaining reads.