Nancy Pembroke #1 College Maid and #2 Vacation in Canada

In Nancy Pembroke #1, Nancy Pembroke, College Maid, Nancy and her best friend, Jeanette, go away to college in Eastport.  Nancy chose Eastport because her beloved Uncle John lives there, and Nancy cannot bear to be far away from him.  The girls soon experience constant hazing by the girls of the sophomore class.  Meanwhile, the girls look forward to joining a sorority.

Nancy is rather immature, wild, and flighty during the early books in this series.  I like her well enough, but at times, she is rather hard to take.  Nancy has an unusually close relationship with her uncle which comes across as incestuous.  On page 83, Nancy gives Uncle John an "especially loving kiss."  On page 134, Uncle John gives Nancy a "tenderly indulgent" smile.  On page 144, Nancy lays "a caressing hand on his."

From page 220:

[Uncle John] smiled his slow, thoughtful smile. "I thought perhaps you might enjoy being nearer me—"

He never finished his sentence, for Nancy's arms around his neck and her kisses on his mouth made further speech impossible, and left no possible doubt of her preference.

The hazing includes girls being whipped and paddled.  Hazing is so prevalent in this book that it seems like the girls attend college solely for the purpose of harassing each other.  They certainly are not very interested in studies.

This book contains lengthy poetry that was written by Jeanette.  The poetry actually isn't bad at all, and I read some of it in the early part of the story.  I then decided that the poetry was taking up too much time and was way too long.  The poems sometimes cover around two entire pages.  After reading the first few poems, I skipped over the rest of them.  I don't have time for that.

I enjoyed this book.

In Nancy Pembroke #2, Nancy Pembroke's Vacation in Canada, the girls go on an incredibly boring vacation in Canada where the reader must endure lengthy explanations about the historical significance of every statue seen in Canada.

On page 9, Nancy gives Uncle John six kisses.

Uncle John prepares to depart for Europe, and he may be gone for a year.  Nancy is utterly devastated, and she acts like he has died.  I don't understand Nancy's unhealthy attachment to her uncle.  She does still have her parents, so I fail to understand why she is so very dependent on her uncle.

This book is an extremely boring travelogue.  It actually makes the more boring Stratemeyer Syndicate travelogues seem rather good in comparison.  This book is basically a history book.

It also doesn't help that Nancy continues to behave like she has no common sense.  For instance, she cannot get a bottle of ginger ale open, so she smashes the neck of the bottle against a bowl, breaking it.  The drink spews, and then the girls seriously consider drinking the remains of the ginger ale from the broken bottle.  Fortunately, the girls decide to throw out the ginger ale.

I read around half of the book, then I skipped over chunks of 10 to 15 pages at a time.  Each time I skipped ahead, I briefly read more historical information similar to what I saw during the previous set of pages.

I did not like this book.