June Books

I didn't start and finish all these books in June.  Like many of us, I read more than one book at a time. Sometimes it takes me weeks or months to finish a book.  Most of them I read in less than a week, though.  So, here's the list:

     London Belongs to Me  -  Norman Collins

     The Dangerous Islands  -  Ann Bridge

     Red Knife  -  William Kent Krueger

     Celia's House  -  D. E. Stevenson

     The Claverton Affair  -  John Rhode

     Memories, Dreams and Reflections  -  Marianne Faithfull

     A Grave Talent  -  Laurie R. King

     The Clue of the Velvet Mask  -  Carolyn Keene

     Furiously Happy  -  Jenny Lawson

     Huntingtower  -  John Buchan

I've already posted about some of these, some I won't post about at all, and I will post about a few more of them.

Nancy Drew and Laurie R. King and Home Depot and Electrolux!

I'm going to apologize for this post right now.  I slept for about two and a half hours last night, so I'm not operating at full steam.  If only I were capable of taking a nap.

I think sleep evaded me because I am angry about the problems we're having with our new washing machine and the response from both the store we bought it from (Home Depot) and the manufacturer (Electrolux).  The Electrolux compact stackable washer and dryer were rated in the top four of their kind, so we chose them.

We bought them on 2/19/16 but the washer was out of stock, so they weren't delivered until 4/12/16.  After the power button was pushed and the cycle particulars were chosen on the touch pad screen, I couldn't get the Start button (also touch screen) to make it start.  We called Electrolux, who sent out a repairman in 5/1/16, who admitted that he had no experience with these machines.  He didn't do anything except keep touching the screen.  He finally got it to start and suggested that I wasn't moving my finger on the screen properly.  Really?  I don't want to have to do magic spells to do laundry.

It seemed to work okay as long as I didn't try to go from one load to the next without turning the washer off.  I wasn't happy, but I was feeling my way along.  But this week, it's gone back to not starting.  I'm waiting for the repairman.  If he can't fix it, it's going back to the store, one way or another.  I think it's a lemon.

We called Home Depot and Electrolux.  Electrolux pawned it off on Home Depot since that's where we bought it.  Home Depot said that there's only a 30-day return window and that it starts with the purchase date.  I pointed out that our paperwork says a 90-day return window and that it's ridiculous for any warranty / return period to start before you have the appliance.

They finally agreed to a return  -  but we have to take it back to them, they won't pick it up, even if we get the replacement washer from them!  Two strong young men delivered the washer and dryer, hefting them up a flight of stairs to the second floor.  So how are my husband (71) and I (63), who don't own a truck, supposed to get this damn thing back to them?  And why should that be our responsibility?  Stay tuned.

Despite all this, I've been managing a lot of reading.  A friend gave me A Grave Talent when I was in Massachusetts a few weeks ago.  I've read all the Mary Russell books, but I haven't read any of the Kate Martinelli books.  I liked this one and plan to read others.

Kate has moved to San Francisco and has a new partner, Al Hawkin.  He's not pleased to have someone he doesn't know, a woman to boot, working with him on a case involving strangled little girls.  But, as a woman, she'll be good to use for the press.  The murders seem to have some connection to a commune type place.  They discover that a famous artist lives there under an assumed name.  They also find out that she was convicted of strangling a little girl she babysat for.

They become convinced that she didn't kill the three little girls who have just been strangled and that she was innocent of the previous murder.  They have a new suspect.  The artist helps with a trap

I liked the characters in the book.  There was enough detail that I felt I got to know them.  That's often missing.

In the summer, I have to read at least one Nancy Drew book.  This is one I bought recently, so I decided to read (re-re-read) it before I put it with my collection.  I collect Nancy Drew books, only the originals, not first editions, but before they rewrote them starting in 1959.  They rewrote them to remove some racist stereotyping and to update the stories.  I prefer the flavor of the originals, warts and all.

Nancy and her friends, George and Bess, and sometimes her boyfriend Ned, try to figure out why parties are being used to burgle the houses where the parties are held.  Does it have anything to do with the party company hired to stage the parties?  Does her friend Linda, who works for the company, have anything to do with it?  Who are the criminals wearing velvet masks?  Read it and find out.

Nancy Drew and Mystery Muffins

At least once a summer, I read a Nancy Drew mystery.  The only reason I wanted to go to school was to learn to read so I could read Nancy Drew books all by myself and not have to depend on my sister to read them to me.

Nancy showed me how mysterious and exciting life could be and how great it was to help people in trouble (even if you often got chloroformed or kidnapped or knocked on the head).  The books taught me about a time already intriguingly out of date when I was reading them in the 1950s and 1960s.  Those 'roadsters'!  Those 'frocks'!  'Tea rooms'!  They weren't dumbed down, so there were words I had to look up, new words to learn.

For just a few hours, I can pretend I'm 12 again, sitting on the Virginia Creeper covered porch with a cold Coke and a bag of chips, whiling away a summer afternoon.  I spent a great deal of time sussing out non-existent mysteries in my neighborhood.  I eventually graduated to wanting to be Mrs. Emma Peel, from the TV series The Avengers.  Again, I fell sadly short of my ideal.

I only read and enjoy the older books, not the 1960's rewrites or the later yellow back editions.  I've been quietly collecting them over the years, but the values have been creeping up.  Here are two editions of The Sign of the Twisted Candles, the book I just read.  The contents are identical, but the editions are different.

If you really want to get into collecting Nancy Drew books, the reference book you need is Farah's Guide, a chunkster of a book by David Farah, who apparently has no life outside of Nancy Drew.  Nancy Drew books were reprinted frequently, but the publisher didn't list the print dates, only the original copyright date.  Other than physical differences, you can't tell when your book was printed.    Farah has researched hundreds, maybe thousands, of editions and put together this guide to unraveling the ages of your Nancy Drew books.  The section on The Sign of the Twisted Candles alone is eleven pages long!  Things like this confuse me, so I've never been able to tell with any certainty when my books were printed.

I also have both editions of the Nancy Drew board games, one from 1957 and one from 1959.  My sister and I had one while growing up, but it disappeared from the attic at some point.  I bought one and found another for my sister, I think one of the best presents I ever gave her.  Occasionally, I get mine out and my husband will trounce me  -  every time.  I still love moving the little metal cars around Moon Lake, The Haunted Bridge, The Moss-Covered Mansion, and other places from the books.

While chatting with my friend Katrina (http://piningforthewest.co.uk), I mentioned that I'd just baked some Surprise Muffins.  They're masquerading as Mystery Muffins in the title of this post.  She asked for the recipe, so here it is Katrina.  (It's from an old Betty Crocker cookbook.)  Let me know if you can't read any of it.  I use the Popular Muffins version because I don't have much of a sweet tooth and the Sweet Muffins are too sweet for me.  I'm also a vegan, so I substitute soy milk for dairy milk and I use an egg substitute that I make myself.  It's noted in my barely legible handwriting on the recipe.  I just realized that I cut the 'surprise' part off the recipe.  The surprise is that you fill the muffin papers half full, put a teaspoon of your favorite jam or jelly in the center, and then fill with the rest of the batter.  Surprise!