Nancy Drew The Greek Symbol Mystery

Before going to Athens, Greece I decided to read this Nancy Drew book to compare the book description to the place much like when I went to Merritt Island and read the Mystery of The Moss Covered Mansion beforehand.


The plot of this story has Nancy's friend Helen Nicholas approaching Nancy to help her when I large inheritance she is entitled to is stolen. As soon as Nancy arrives in Greece she finds herself and best friends Beth and George in danger.
A series of clues lead Nancy and her friends to a ring of art smugglers and to the secret of the Greek symbol.


From a readers perspective The Greek Symbol Mystery isn't one of the strongest mysteries from the Nancy Drew Series. I felt that the author was playing "the tourist" a bit too much and throwing in popular places in Athens rather than keeping the story flow consistent. Yes I suppose if Nancy was visiting Athens on business for a mystery chances are she would still be a tourist getting around the popular sites but I wasn't wrapped up in the story line the way that I wanted to be. Nancy goes shopping and buys Greek Linen and friends buy some jewellery. 


Not saying it was a bad story I just did not just the excitement and anticipation I got from reading The Moss Covered Mansion, after that I couldn't wait to get around Merritt Island and visit the places that Nancy visited there. Although I loved Greece the story didn't enhance the experience in the same way.

Trixie Belden 27 The Mystery of the Ghostly Galleon

The Mystery of the Ghostly Galleon by Katheryn Kenny (pseudonym name) is number 27 in the Trixie Belden Series. Miss Trask a long time established character in the series refreshingly gets her time in the spotlight as we learn more about her interesting family background that involves a Pirate's Inn and the long time unsolved mystery of the disappearing Captain Trask.  Still I was shocked to read about Miss Trask's grey hair, for some reason I always imagined her somewhat younger in appearance. The story includes all of The Bob Whites including  Dan. The story also does a good job of showcasing Trixie and Marts sibling rivalry whilst still maintaining a caring attitude towards his sister when she needs it most. The food in this book sounded delicious too. I love a book that remembers that writing good menus in restaurants is important. Here are some ... Flaming Trask -ka-babs  which are chunky beef wedges marinated in Pirate's Inn own special and delicate sauce skewered and cooked to perfection over an open fire. The Weak - Hearted Willies Chicken Pies whose interiors will please your palette and whose exteriors will melt your mouth and Captain Chowder creamy thick soup. 

Meet Felicity Audiobook

Meet Felicity written by Valerie Tripp is the first book in the Felicity series by American girl.
Meet Felicity came with the Felicity doll, who was wearing her "meet" dress as shown on the cover of the book. The book was also available to buy on it's own or as part of a boxed set of books.

I had already watched the American Girl movie on Felicity and the movie was not my favorite amongst the American Girl stories. This is probably due to the era. I love reasoning about the 1930's and 1940's and find this early area about patriots generally not as interesting.

Surprisingly I found this book a lot more interesting that I imagined it would be. I believe this is in part tp the fact that the first book in the series really only focuses on Felicity's relationship she develops with a horse she calls Penny. How she tames the horse and how she seta it free to escape a violent owner.

I was definitely encouraged to read further books in this series woth greater interest than I originally anticipated. The American Girl Felicity audiobooks I got as a cd pack for $20 off ebay including postage. That covers all books that are in the Felicity boxed set. The audiobook is well read with nothing in it distracting from getting the story across to the listener. A great read / listen to.

Beverly Gray at the World's Fair

This is it. Book number 6 and the only book in the series I have not read yet.
I have been enjoying starting the series at book 1 in preparation for this books arrival and will be happy to read on in order after this is finished in order to piece things together as they happened. The first time around I read the series in whatever order I could get them off eBay with a good condition dust jacket, this time I am reading to link the entire story together.

I decided to read one chapter as is was real late when I finished reading Beverly Grays Career and ended up reading 5 chapters. This is pretty much how this book read. Never a chapter alone as perhaps intended but like with any great compelling book in large digestible chunks, each time looking and thinking " I only have so many chapters left." it brought back memories as how I felt each time a Beverly Gray book arrived the first time I read the series. Even for me a inn tube person I considered getting a camera out to capture the arrival of this rare prize. It is great to find a series you can get really excited about. For me that excitement has come from Beverly Gray and Trixie Belden mainly now and The Secret Seven and Famous Five growing up.
Reading the series in order has also put the characters in better order for me. I can understand now why you would have 12 Alpha Deltas, as it allows Beverly to travel but still be with friends in adventures and mysteries. I do wish that Clair Blank as an author spent more time describing her characters. Most I would not have the faintest idea as to their facial features, hair color etc. Some Alpha Deltas I barely know anything about, where I grew up on Enid Blyton books where the characters seemed to be defined in a lot greater detail.

The story starts with Lois leaving on a ship for Paris to study art for a year. Ralf Mathews, Larry Owens and Paul Benson, all suitors in Beverly Gray's Career are all present.
Connie has arrived and we learn her name is really Constance Elwood and Connie is for short. Connie Elwood and Kathleen Ryan move in with Lenora and Beverly just after Lois leaves.

Lenora, Connie and Beverly leave for Chicago and Beverly runs into Shirley ( not a long time till they saw Shirley again as was stated would be the case in Career ) Kathleen Ryan stays in New York and Jim Stanton turns up. Kathleen raves about how good looking Jim is and I can't remember anyone carrying on about Larry being as good looking. Would of been good to have seen a movie and have them side by side to see who they picked for the actors to play Larry and Jim.

Beverly and Virginia become involved in a murder at the world's fair. When Lenora becomes a part of the investigating team, Lenora shows a spunk and prowess that Beverly seems to drift in and out of. Lenora states she loves detecting and again I think here is a girl who doesn't know what she wants to do for a career but she knows exactly what she loves doing. I then start to thinking is detective work that different to reporting? Why doesn't Beverly show more passion for pursuing the bad guys like Lenora does? Would a good reporter really hold off on a scoop story to get a fuller story later? Lenora spends a long time convincing Beverly that they should break into someones room to investigate. Lenora has a sense of urgency and gunho whilst Beverly is more contemplative.

The ending to the story was superb and again a great lead into the next adventure. The main mystery finished some time earlier and poor Beverly was attacked by a tiger and suffered yet another marriage proposal from poor Jim. You think he would get fed up of being shot down. We also learn of Shirley's fate. If the world fair hadn't of dated this book then the new invention showcased at the world fair of television definitely did. Funny to see Lenora scared of a cable car too considering they are so tame by today's standards.

Reading the books in order has done a lot to fill in gaps of who's who and learn more about the Alpha Deltas.

The Hudson River Mystery Trixie Belden

After reading The Sasquatch Mystery I was craving to read a Trixie Belden book that had a true Trixie vibe as I felt that for at least half of The Sasquatch Mystery I wasn't really in Trixieland.
Even though The Hudson River Mystery wasn't the next mystery in the series and I have been reading I grabbed it from the shelf because I wanted a mystery at home on Crabapple farm and I knew if the mystery was on The Hudson then the mystery was going to be at home.
I wasn't disappointed.
The story starts with Trixie doing chores at zcabapple farm with Honey giving a helping hand. Even Dan managed to turn up early in the story and even though it was a minor role it was great to see him back instead of hearing the usual he is working excuse.
Trixieisms to the max in this book didn't disappoint me. Gleeps, jeepers, Di and Dan both being present, Mart playing with words, being called Ms. schoolgirl Shamus, Mart telling Di she is attractive, Di calling Mart cute, Jim having a sparkle in his eyes talking to Trixie, what more could you want?
You get a bit of a history lesson of The Hudson with this one, reminiscent of what you got in The Mystery in Arizona.
Gosh I even learnt what to do if my car fell in a river and started sinking..... Hopefully I will never have to use that knowledge.
Add to this a good mystery based on Trixie thinking she saw a shark in The Hudson River and I was truly in Trixieland again. FINALLY.
What a great read and just what I needed.

American Girl A Kit Mystery Midnight in Lonesome Hollow

Midnight in Lonesome Hollow is a 1930's mystery starring Kit Kittredge of the American Girl Doll Series.

This book is set in Kentucky in 1934 where Kit is going to visit her Aunt Millie to help her set up a library.

The writer Kathleen Ernst has done a great job in looking at the traditions of the place and time whilst placing an emphasis on learning and reading without it being "thrown in your face". The book teaches you a lot about the 1930's whilst still sucking you into a good mystery. Don't get me wrong it's not a huge mystery but the charm of the book teaching you about The Great Depression with a mystery involvement is wonderful as long as your one who enjoys learning about history.

Kit comes across as quite a lot younger than Julie in the Julie Mystery series although this really isn't the case. I wonder why that is? I'll have to think further on that one as I read more Kit and Julie mysteries. I got more of both whilst in the USA this year.

But I have also found the website www.bookdepository.co.uk has free shipping worldwide and I can pick up more in the American Girl Mystery Series really cheaply.

One negative, being set in Kentucky rather than on home soil Kit doesn't have best friend Ruthie there for the story which is a shame, I'm a huge Ruthie fan.

Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew Mall Madness

Not my usual type of reading. Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew Mall Madness is an early readers book. Out of curiosity for how they are written I thought I would give this a go. The mystery seems to be centred on the idea that if you can do basic addition sums (maths) then you will have the answer to working out this story. Very predictable, though perhaps not for a young child it is aimed at. An okay read for the age group it is aimed at though I'm not convinced the moral of the story is all there. Seems a bit off somehow. If you have read it you will probably understand.