Way Back Wednesday - Trixie Belden #1

When I was a little girl, Trixie Belden was my hero. I loved reading these books over and over again. My babysitter's daughter was the one who got me hooked on Trixie Belden and I could lose myself for hours in the adventures of Trixie and the Bob-Whites (a club formed by Trixie, her brothers, and her friends). I owned the original 16 books, the Whitman 1970s hardcover editions, and these were my pride and joy as a youngster.

Because of my love for Trixie, I've decided to start a new segment here on Bobbi's Book Nook and I'm calling it Way Back Wednesday. I'm going to do reviews of the Trixie Belden books from my past. Today I'm starting with the very first book in the series, The Secret of the Mansion.

The Secret of the Mansion - 1948

The book opens with thirteen-year-old Trixie begging her mother for a horse. Her two older brothers - Brian and Mart - are away at camp for the summer and Trixie is stuck on the family farm with her younger brother Bobby. The Belden family - who live on Crabapple Farm - can't afford a horse, so Trixie is trying to save all her money. I could relate to Trixie because I wanted a horse so badly when I was younger, but never had the opportunity to go riding.

Trixie is excited when people start moving into the mansion on the hill - and a horse trailer is seen unloading horses! The Wheelers, a wealthy family from New York City, are moving into the mansion with their teenaged daughter, Honey.

At first, tomboy Trixie thinks Honey is a stuckup sissy, but they soon become fast friends. Trixie realizes that Honey really is a "poor little rich girl." Honey's parents are never home, and she has grown up in boarding schools, camps and with governesses. Trixie helps her new friend overcome these things.

Later in the book, we learn another of Trixie's neighbors has been taken to the hospital. Trixie uses this chance to explore the old man's rundown old mansion. Trixie and Honey climb inside an unlocked window to look around. They are shocked to find a tall, redheaded boy asleep on a mattress!

The boy turns out to be Jim Frayne, the old man's grand-nephew, and he is running away from his abusive stepfather. The three become friends, and the girls start smuggling food up to the mansion for Jim. Local rumors say the old man hid his money somewhere in the house. Honey and Jim are doubtful, but Trixie is sure the money is there somewhere, if only they could find it before Jim's evil stepfather comes looking for him. I can remember having strong feelings of dislike for this evil stepfather. Up until this point, I had only read about wicked step-mothers.

Eventually, the stepfather does come looking for Jim after a newspaper article appeared, telling of a jet crashing near Sleepyside-on-Hudson (Trixie's home town); the newspaper also features the legend of the old man's fortune.

The very night the article appears in the newspaper, Jim's stepfather shows up. Mysteriously, the mansion catches fire and burns to the ground. When Trixie and Honey go to the old house the next morning to visit Jim, they find him gone.

Jim has run away again ... this time with a half million dollars! The money had been hidden in the mattress Jim had been sleeping on all the time! Trixie and Honey are confronted by the stepfather's lawyer who asks them to track Jim down for him. This story is continued in The Red Trailer Mystery.

Full of thrills, chills and mystery, The Secret of the Mansion is the book that started my fascination with the world of Trixie Belden.

More BBAW Contests

Here are links to more wonderful give-aways to celebrate Book Bloggers Appreciation Week:

--Bookish Ruth is giving about the first 3 Percy Jackson and the Olympians books

--She Reads Books - In the Land of Invisible Women by Qanta Ahmed.

Another Great Contest

Literate Housewife is having a great contest to win Philippa Gregory's new book, The Other Queen. Any visitors to this site know I love the work of Philippa Gregory! Check out was Literate Housewife is doing:

On the 27th, my husband is taking me to DC to meet her in person (!!!!!) at the National Book Festival. With Book Blogger Appreciation Week to top it all off, this is so my month! So, to bring two of my passions together, I’m going to host a Philippa Gregory Scavenger Hunt beginning Sunday, September 15. Here are the details:

Between now and midnight EST on Sunday, I will be adding a graphic of my favorite historical fiction author in 10 places on my blog. The first person to email me and correctly identify each place I’ve added her photo will win. If no one correctly identifies all of the posts by 5pm EST on Tuesday, September 16, the winner will be the person who has sent me an email with the most correct locations. If there is a tie, I’ll use Randomizer to select the winner. So, even if you can’t find all of her pictures, submit your entry!

So, what might you get for prowling around my blog looking for Philippa? How about a copy of The Other Queen? I won’t be able to send you the book until the 29th, though. I hope you don’t mind. You see, unless disaster strikes and I can’t make it to DC, I will be bringing this copy of the book with me to have it signed to you by Philippa! What do you think? You’re coming back on Sunday, aren’t you?

Book Blogging Appreciation Week Contests

Here are only a few of the wonderful contests for next weeks Book Blogging Appreciation Week:

--On My Bookshelf is having a book give-away for a hardcover copy of Heart Sick AND an Advance Reader Edition of Sweetheart!

--Caribous Mom is giving away a hard cover edition of The Heretic’s Daughter, by Kathleen Kent. Caribous alway has excellent reviews.

--Literary Escapism has several books to give-away. I love this site because there are always great reviews.

--Writing on the Edge does wonderful reviews, so check out her give-away.

--Traci's Book Bag is also having a give-away. I'm new to her site, but I like what I see.

Young Adult Challenge 2008

It has taken me all summer, but I finally finished posting the last review for the Young Adult Challenge 2008. Here are the books I read:



Twilight

New Moon

Eclipse

Breaking Dawn

Jinx

The Neverending Story

The Mysterious Benedict Society

Ally Finkle's Rules for Girls: The New Girl

Prom Nights from Hell

Dragon's Keep

Evernight

The Mediator Series

Fablehaven

Speaking Out: A Collection of Writings From Mercer County

According to the press release for SPEAKING OUT:

This book, SPEAKING OUT: A Collection of Writings from Mercer County, was prompted by an experience in the classroom where poet Nikki Finny pointed out through her poetry the need for people to take responsibility for their own lives and their experiences by sharing them and refusing to give in to people who would take away our individual freedom to be who we want to be. In that classroom sat a young girl who idolized Ms. Finny, with her statuesque beauty and eloquent poetry. The girl tried to copy everything about this amazing presence: her walk, her hair, her voice, and her writing. However, that same girl walked out of that class, and out of high school as a graduate, only to be murdered by a relative later that summer, a victim of unspeakable sexual abuse. The experience has haunted this teacher: What did she not hear? What did she not understand about her own identity that enabled someone to so completely dominate her? It has remained an unfinished work in this teacher's mind, and the workshops that evinced this anthology were an effort to empower women in particular and all humans in general. We must be sensitive to the plight of those around us, and share our lives and beliefs in our own value so that they too can claim their God-given joy in living.

I am very proud of this book because it is a work from my community. The short stories and poems contained in this book were penned by students, teachers, and other enthusiast writers from my hometown. It is a wonderful collection and a great statement about the caliber of writers from Kentucky.

The Fifth Dimension

A DROP OF BLOOD SPILT IS A UNIVERSE LOST FOREVER


The Fifth Dimension, by Rory Macaraeg, starts out like your typical science fiction story with a space traveler - David - travelling to another planet to do observations. He notes the people appear to be living in the middle ages and he witnesses them tying up a girl and leaving her to be sacrificed to a giant dragon (reminsent of King Kong). David decides to take action and rescues the girl, badly wounding the dragon with his weapon - think of a phaser from Star Trek. This sets in motion a challenge to the status quo between dragon and human and creates a war between the two. As the war progresses, David learns the dragons are intelligent and are driven to what they do by a group of dragon elders. David, himself is being guided by elders from Earth. The rest of the book morphs into a story of David battling in his asteral form, while fulfilling an ancient prophesy told in a book.

This book had a lot of holes, especially the mystery of both dragons and humans speaking David's language and him accepting this without question. Mr. Macaraeg has a very good method of storytelling that holds the reader's interest throughout the book, but the book is obviously written by a novice. I could not find much information on Rory Macaraeg, so I'm not sure if this was is first book. All in all, this was a fairly good science fiction story.

Historical Fiction Challenge

As you can probably tell from my last few posts, I'm trying to gather up all my reviews from the different challenges I've attempted this year. As usual, I didn't realize I had already completed so many until I started counting.



Here are the books I read for the Historical Fiction Challenge:

The Other Boleyn Girl

The Bone Garden

The Boleyn Inheritance

The Queen's Fool

The Virgin's Lover

Feather Crowns

Memoirs of a Geisha

Presidential Reading Challenge

COMPLETED
I have completed level 3 of the Presidential Reading Challenge. The following is a list of books I read and reviewed:

--John Adams

--Laura Bush

--The Madness of Mary Lincoln

--The Truth About Hillary

--Lincoln: The Man Behind the Myths

Book Awards Reading Challenge

COMPLETED
I have completed the Book Awards Reading Challenge. The following are the books I have read and reviewed:



--A Kiss of Shadows- 2000 Paranormal Excellence Award for Romantic Literature

--Everything's Eventual- 2003 Horror Guild Award

--John Adams - 2002 Pulitzer Prize

--On Writing - 2001 Locus Award for Non-Fiction

--Postmortem - 1991 Edgar Award for Best First Novel

--Shilo and Other Storie - 1983 Ernest Hemingway Foundation Award

--The Bean Trees - 1988 Arizona Press Club Award

--The Other Boleyn Girl - 2002 Parker Pen Novel of the Year Award

--The Poisonwood Bible - 1998 National Book Prize of South Africa

Southern Book Challenge 2008

I have completed the Southern Book Challenge. I read and reviewed the following books:




1.) Big Stone Gap

2.) Feather Crowns

3.) The Bean Trees

4.) The Outsiders

Jinx

Meg Cabot has the formula to writing a teen book down pat. She knows how to plan out her plots well: Girl meets Boy who she, a) doesn't like or, b) is best friends with and doesn't like romantically. Then, Girl finds out she has something extraordinary in her life (either supernatural powers, unknown royalty, or internal strength), followed by denial, denial, denial, a lot of complaining, and eventual acceptance. To finish, she realizes she loves the Boy she either hates or is best friends with. Happy ever after. It may be a formula, but it's a formula that works.

Jean Honeychurch is so unlucky that even her family calls her Jinx. To escape an unpleasant situation with a boy who refuses to let her end their relationship, Jinx moves from Iowa to Manhattan to live with her aunt and her family in their swanky Upper East Side townhouse. It's no surprise that the klutzy, small-town 16-year-old doesn't fit in with snotty, chic cousin Torrance - Tory - and her friends, and she definitely doesn't share their fondness for drugs and alcohol. Tory, who has been practicing witchcraft for some time, soon realizes that Jinx also has the gift and invites her cousin to join her coven. But Jinx knows the dangers of playing with magic and refuses. Tory sees Jinx's snub as a threat and plots against her. Though she wants to leave magic behind, Jinx must learn to harness the mysterious powers that are her birthright before Tory does too much damage. Ms. Cabot creates believable conflict and avoids being too fantastical, as Tory's mental instability is more dangerous than her Wiccan powers.

I found Jinx to be a cute story - in the vein of a milder The Craft story - although it did have a few minor flaws. Namely the title character; Jinx's character was a little confusing at some times. The way she talked about her oh-so-dreaded secret from her hometown made it seem like it was something extremely incriminating, but when that secret was revealed, I didn't find it to be that horrible. Strangely, my favorite aspect of this novel was Jinx's cousin Tory's diabolical character. It kept some surprises and twists in the plot. Jinx is a character who questions herself a lot and does not realize that the BOY OF HER DREAMS actually likes HER.

For the most part, this book was sweet and charming and I spent a wonderful afternoon enjoying the story. If you have teenage daughters, this is a great book with a moral. Even though drugs and alcohol are mentioned early in the book and several times throughout, Jinx turns out to be an excellent role model and a good influence.

If you love heart-warming, young adult fiction, then Jinx by Meg Cabot is perfect for a few hours of escapism reading.

The Dark

The Dark is by English horror writer James Herbert. This is not a new book - it was published in 1980 - but I read it on a recommendation from my 16 year old daughter.

Beechwood is a mansion on Willow Road and the site of several mass murders and suicides. The house appears to feed on people who come in contact with it, causing them to perpetrate acts of horrific violence, releasing man's most primal fears and instincts. When Beechwood is demolished, this darkness ventures out beyond the parameters of the house, causing those with whom it comes into contact to act out their basest instincts and destroy those who remain unaffected. This novel engages the reader, as the protagonists in the book try to sort things out and defeat this evil entity.

The Dark is creepily atmospheric and nicely "English" in feeling. At times, however, the story felt like it was overly complicated when Mr. Herbert would jump from scene to scene, perspective to perspective and person to person - often with little rhyme or reason, and sometimes with no apparent cause; the overall story could have been a bit more seamless. I also found the ending to be a bit ... abrupt. There is no explanation given for exactly what happened or why, and we're left a bit unsettled. Then again, that could have been his point.

Well-written and interesting, devotees of the horror genre, as well as fans of James Herbert, will enjoy this book. This creepy book is a great little gem to add to your collection.

This is the first book I read for the R.I.P. III Challenge.

A Jolly Good Fellow

Paperback: 220 pages
Publisher: Good Harbor Press; 1st edition (November 26, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 097996380X
ISBN-13: 978-0979963803



A Jolly Good Fellow is by Stephen Masse of Massachusetts.

With just two weeks before Christmas, Duncan Wagner makes the decision to kidnap the son of his most despised enemy, State Representative Win Booker. When he drives into the wealthy Boston neighborhood to carry out his plan, he is surprised to find the boy - Gabriel - hitchhiking. This is where Wagner's quest for revenge begins as he finds himself face to face with a real boy and no clue about how to run a kidnapping. This story captures the true motives behind an unpredictable kidnapping

Gabriel doesn't appear upset by his apparent kidnapping and even after have several opportunities to escape he chooses to remain with Duncan. The boy begins to develop a close relationship with Duncan, and helps him in the kidnapping process. On the surface this sounds like a case of Stockholm syndrome, but underneath you discover a little boy who is only angry at his parents. Mr. Masse's description of the friendship between a young child and a lonely adult is heartwarming. Gabriel is a multi-faceted character, one who loves reading books and tries to eat a vegetarian diet, but he still wets the bed at night.

Stephen Masse does a great job of taking a man and a boy from very different backgrounds and developing them into heartwarming characters. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys good stories with unpredictable endings. A Jolly Good Fellow is the winner of the Silver Medal in the 2008 Independent Publisher Book Awards.

Tess Gerritsen Give-Away

Jenn at Jenn's Bookshelf is having a book give-away to celebrate the release of The Keepsake by Tess Gerritsen.

To enter, leave a comment here. Winners will be announced on Saturday, September 6th.

Big Stone Gap

Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani was the library book club book of the month. The club met yesterday for lunch and we had a wonderful discussion about this book.

This is Ms. Trigiani debut novel and it is set in 1970s Blue Ridge Mountains. Her heroine, Ave Maria Mulligan, possesses strength, dignity, as well as vulnerability when she sets out on the most important journey of her life - the search for authentic identity and fulfillment in love. The character of Ave Maria is believable and the supporting characters are a delight to read. The Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia are wonderfully depicted and visually real and gracious.

Ave Maria is shattered by the death of her beloved, immigrant mother, and she faces middle-age as an independent, but lonely woman. Ms. Trigiani sculpts her novel around Ave Maria's inability to feel, to act on impulses of love, to become something other than Big Stone Gap's sensible, efficient, spinster-like institution.

Soon enough, Ave Maria must determine not only how to treat multiple marriage proposals but to come to grips with her own startling origins. Ms. Trigiani is simply extraordinary in he resolution of Ave Maria's quest for identity, never compromising real epiphany for cliched answers. Ms. Trigiani prophetically states that

"the great mysteries in life can only be solved person to person. We can pull each other through."

Americans are lucky to have yet another Southern woman to be our guide to the truths of the heart.

I really enjoyed this book because it allowed me to view the people indiginous to this region as more than toothless illiterates. (I live in a town just a few hours from Big Stone Gap.) This book was a pleasure because Ms. Trigiani's affection for these people is most touching and it's how I've come to feel. People are more than their "twangy" accents or improper grammar.

R.I.P. III Challenge

Okay, so I told myself I was not signing up for any more book challenges this year, but Stainless Steel Droppings has made that decision impossible! He is having a R.I.P. III Challenge - R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril Challenge - that I can't resist. I have signed up to do Perils the First - read 4 books from September 1 to October 31st. I can choose from the following categories:

--Mystery
--Suspense
--Thriller
--Dark Fantasy
--Gothic
--Horror
--Supernatural

Right now, I'm not 100% sure which books I'll be reading, but the following are a few I'm looking forward to:

--The Shadows - Book 11 in the Vampire Huntress™ Series by L.A. Banks
--Break of Dawn - Book 3 in the Vampire Babylon series by Chris Marie Green
--East of Fools - Book 4 in the Morganville Vampire series by Rachel Caine
--When Twilight Burns - Book 4 in the Gardella Vampire Chronicles by Colleen Gleason
--Lover Enshrined - Book 6 of the Black Daggar Brotherhood series by J.R. Ward

Hum - I see a vampire marathon headed my way!

The Accidental Time Machine

The Accidental Time Machine by Joe Haldeman is the first book I read for the new on-line book club "Reading with Becky".

The time travel genre has undergone so much variation but Mr. Haldeman offers a new twist: a device that travels in one direction only, to the future. Lowly MIT research assistant Matt Fuller works long days - and sometimes many nights - in a physics lab, until one day he makes an odd discovery. A sensitive quantum calibrator - don't let this term scare you, there are no boring scientific details in this book - keeps disappearing and reappearing moments later when he hits the reset button.

Matt realizes that the device functions as a crude, forward-traveling time machine and he suddenly has visions of a Nobel Prize dancing in his head. After a few experiments, he is able to send a pet turtle into the future, and the turtle returns as good as new. Feeling on the verge of greatness, Matt latches his device to a car and leaps into the future.

The interesting wrinkle here is that each jump ahead is 12 times longer than the last. Matt's successive futures involve jail time, unwelcome celebrity, a time after the Second Coming of Jesus and assorted holocausts in the earth's climate. He begins to long for his native era. This book delivers cutting-edge technological speculation and irresistibly compelling reading.

The Accidental Time Machine is a fun, quick read, one I thoroughly enjoyed. Not perhaps ultra deep, as the book does not tackle any of the great questions of life or of science fiction, but it was an enjoyable time travel romp, the story of one man and later a companion of his and their journey farther and farther into the future. I would recommend this to all readers, not just science fiction lovers.


***For more information on "Reading With Becky", click the icon on the sidebar. The book for September will be The Count of Monte Cristo. We would love to have you join us!

More Book Give-Aways

Here are a few more end of summer book give-aways:

Scribe Vibe is giving away Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. Contest ends August 31st.

Zen Sanity is giving away The Diary of Anne Frank. Contest ends August 31st.

Amateur de Livre is giving away Bleachers by John Grisham. Contest ends August 31st.

My Friend Amy is giving away a Grand Prize package:

--A copy of A Passion Most Pure
--A copy of A Passion Redeemed signed by Julie!
--A 3.5 bag of Boston baked beans (this is a candy, fyi, if you didn't know!)
--A $15 Starbucks gift card so you can lose yourself in a good book!

And two additional people will win copies of A Passion Redeemed!


Again, go forth and enter!

End of Summer Book Give-Away

Florinda at the 3 R's is having a huge book give-away at her site. She has them listed into 4 different groups:

Book Bag #1
The Monster of Florence, by Douglas Preston (nf, hc)
Miscarriage of Justice, by Justice "Kip" Gayden (f, hc)

Book Bag #2
A Rose by the Door, by Deborah Bedford (f, pb)
Remember Me, by Deborah Bedford (f, pb)
He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not, by Trish Ryan (nf, hc)

Book Bag #3
Child 44, by Tom Rob Smith (f, hc)
Close, by Martina Cole (f, hc)

Book Bag #4
Made in the U.S.A., by Billie Letts (f, hc)
Off Season, by Anne Rivers Siddons (f, hc)

(f=fiction, nf=nonfiction, hc=hardcover, pb=paperback)
And I'll throw in the "book bag," too, although it may really be a re-usable grocery bag.

Click on her link above and here's what you do:

Leave a comment on this post AND state which book bag(s) you're interested in. You may enter for more than one bag, but can't win more than one. Please include your e-mail if it's not readily available on your blog or profile. Even if you don't have your own blog, you must leave a comment - no e-mail entries will be accepted!

For TWO additional entries, mention the giveaway in a post on your blog and link back here. (Be sure to let me know you've done so!)

The deadline for entry is Friday, September 5. Winners will be chosen at random, one for each book bag. Winners will be announced here and contacted by e-mail.
If there are no takers for a book bag, its contents will be donated to the Friends of the Library bookstore.

So, go forth and enter!