Sweet Dreams #19 Love Song and #20 The Popularity Summer

Sweet Dreams #19, Love Song, Anne Park, 1982

When Dennis, a popular senior, asks Elizabeth for a date, she's so surprised and happy, she's practically floating on air.  She's never liked a boy as much as she likes Dennis.

But can their relationship ever work out?  Dennis comes from a wealthy family and Elizabeth's mother can barely make ends meet.  Worse, Dennis refuses to go steady.  He says he likes Elizabeth but he keeps going out with other girls.  Especially perfect Melissa who comes from the "right side of the tracks."

Elizabeth never knows where she stands.  How much does Melissa mean to Dennis and how much does Elizabeth mean to him?  Could Dennis really love a girl who came from the wrong part of town?

I like the first half of the story a lot.  I was a little bored during the second half and partly skimmed it.  Overall, this is a very good book

Sweet Dreams #20, The Popularity Summer, Rosemary Vernon, 1983

When Frannie's friends first told her about the Popularity Plan, she didn't believe them.  How could anything ever help her with her shyness or even get her a boyfriend?  But it worked!

Now, a year later, she's going steady with Ronnie, and even helping her shy cousin Joleen use the Popularity Plan herself.  But watching Joleen's first romance come true, Frannie begins to wonder about her own.  Does Ronnie still love her?  Does she still love him?  Whatever happened to the tingle she used to feel?

And if she does still love him, why is it so hard to say "no" to that handsome lifeguard who keeps asking her out?

I couldn't read the first book, Popularity Plan, so I didn't try to read this one.

Sweet Dreams #17 Ask Annie and #18 Ten-Boy Summer

Sweet Dreams #17 Ask Annie, Suzanne Rand, 1982

Annie's shyness disappeared when she started giving the guys advice about their girlfriends.  Now all the boys talk to her, especially Tim, the boy Annie's crazy about.

At first, Annie's thrilled just to be with Tim—until he asks Annie about how to keep beautiful, stuck-up Marcy in line.  Now Annie needs some advice of her own.  If she helps Tim keep Marcy, she'll never get a chance with him.  But if she doesn't, will Tim stop being her friend?

This is a pretty good book.

Sweet Dreams #18 Ten-Boy Summer, Janet Quin-Harkin, 1982

Jill's vacation gets off to a wild start when her best friend, Toni, thinks up a contest—who can be the first to date ten new boys!  It seems like a great solution to a boring summer until the girls get into a big fight over one of the boys.  Suddenly the friendly competition turns into all-out war.

Then, Jill meets Date Number Three and she knows she's in love.  And Craig likes her too—in fact, he wants her all to himself.  But he doesn't know about the contest, and Jill's afraid to tell him.

If she drops out of the contest, Jill won't be able to face her best friend.  If she doesn't, she'll lose the boy she loves.

This sort of story is too stupid for me.  I read part of it and quit.  I was not interested.

The Difficulty of Finding a Good Book to Read

In my summary of my 2019 reading, I explained how I was less interested in reading than I was previously.  This trend has continued and is worsening.

I have actually read seven books so far this month, so I am still reading.  However, I'm not enjoying the books very much.  I broke away from the Sweet Dreams set again at the start of this month.  I tried reading a few vintage series books from the 1930s.  The series books of the 1930s have always been favorites.  Unfortunately, the books aren't doing much for me right now.

The latest Nancy Drew Diaries book, Hidden Pictures, arrived last Sunday.  I can't tell you how I excited I was!  I always enjoy the process of reading and reviewing the Diaries books, even when I don't like the book.  I knew I was in for a fun experience regardless, and I read that book quickly.

As I wrote in my review of Hidden Pictures, I felt a loss when I finished the book.  I want to read a pile of books that are exactly like it.  Where do I find them?  This is so distressing.

I then decided that a book by Mildred Wirt Benson ought to do it, so I read The Hollow Wall Mystery.  I enjoyed it, but honestly, not that much.  The book is good, but it's not what I want to be reading.

So, back to Sweet Dreams.  If I'm not even going to enjoy reading books that I ought to enjoy reading, then I might as well continue attacking my TBR pile.

This weekend I have read or attempted to read these six Sweet Dreams books.  That six books are involved should tell you that I didn't read most of them.

I quit Dial L for Love and Too Much to Lose early in each story.  I actually read Lights, Camera, Love.  It's a good book.  Magic Moments has a strong opening, but then I got bored and quit partway through the story.  Love Notes seems boring from the start, so I couldn't read it.  I tend not to read any of the books that feature girls who are strongly into learning dance or becoming a professional musician.  I am now reading Ghost of a Chance, and it's pretty good so far.

I definitely like the Wildfire Romance series better than Sweet Dreams.  This is still just based on a one-fifth of the Sweet Dreams series as compared to the entire Wildfire Romance set.  My opinion could change, but it's holding steady as I sample additional Sweet Dreams books.

The Wildfire Romance books feature slightly more of a type of book that strongly appeals to me.  I prefer the books where the girl has a more significant problem that must be solved, rather than a bunch of fluff.

I will continue with Sweet Dreams reviews.  Many of them will just consist of the publisher's summary followed by a short statement of whether I enjoyed the book.  Since I have been unable to read many of them, my statement will be short and to the point.

I am putting the Sweet Dreams books up for sale as I progress through the set. 

Sweet Dreams books on eBay

Nancy Drew Diaries #19 Hidden Pictures

In Nancy Drew Diaries #19, Hidden Pictures, Nancy receives a newspaper article in the mail.  The article tells about an employee who disappeared from the Carlisle Museum—and then reappeared inside a vintage photo displayed in the museum's Christopher DeSantos exhibit!

Nancy, Bess, and George travel to Shady Oaks, where the museum is located.  Upon their arrival, the girls learn that another person has vanished, and this victim has also reappeared inside a vintage photo in the exhibit.  The photos are locked inside their frames via combination locks, which makes tampering highly unlikely.  Nancy feels certain that spirits are not responsible, and she sets out to uncover the culprit.

The entire Nancy Drew Diaries series has been plagued by the constant switching between bad authors and good authors.  Each time we get a good book, we then get a bad book, and the cycle repeats.  Since I did not like the previous book, as it bears too much resemblance to The Haunting on Heliotrope Lane, I fully expected this book to be good, which would fit the constantly changing pattern of the series.  I was correct.  And of course, this means that the next book will probably be awful.

This book has none of the problems of any of the substandard books in this series.  Since I have read the books in this series months apart from each other over the course of the last seven years, it's hard to compare how good the books are to each other.  Looking over my past reviews, I estimate that this book is one of the top five to seven books in the set, which to date contains 20 titles.

The story starts off very strong and is interesting from the very first page.  I was captivated immediately and read through the entire book quickly.

On page 28, the girls end up with an extra plate of eggs at a restaurant, due to the sudden departure of a dining companion.  "Bess happily ate them herself."  Ah, nice.  This fits the continuity of the original Nancy Drew series.  This is also a big clue that this author did not write any of the Diaries books where George eats a large quantity of food for no reason.

From page 102:

Both [Bess] and George looked concerned by the idea that I might be the next target, and I could tell that Bess in particular was remembering being kidnapped herself, not too long ago.

Bess was kidnapped in the previous title, The Stolen Show.  Normally, I would conclude that this author also wrote that book, but The Stolen Show is too much like Heliotrope Lane.  There is no way that the author of Heliotrope Lane wrote this new book, unless the author of Heliotrope Lane suffers from multiple personality disorder.

This book has no mention of the restroom or needing to pee.  Nobody smirks.

The other books in the series make mention of Nancy being forgetful or unaware of basic life details when she is focused on a case.  This often comes across as a cheap shot taken at Nancy, due to how the author conveys this information.

On page 151, Nancy suddenly realizes that it is morning, and that she hadn't noticed that they were at the police station all night long.  The way the information is conveyed is perfect and does not make Nancy look bad at all.  Nancy is just uber-focused on the case.  Well done, ghostwriter!

This story actually is sabotage for the umpteenth time.  However, this is creative sabotage of the type usually seen in the Hardy Boys Adventures series.  This type of sabotage is fascinating.

This book is very good to excellent.  I actually felt a loss when I finished, because I wanted to read another book just like it.  I enjoyed this book more than all of the books I read from October through early January.  Granted, I read many books during this time that didn't much appeal to me, but it is still impressive that this book is stronger than everything I read in late 2019.

I actually greatly enjoy modern Nancy Drew when done right.  This book is that type.

In closing, I want to explain my current perspective on the cause of the problems with the Nancy Drew Diaries series.  I recently realized that the ghostwriters must be given considerable latitude in how the stories are developed and written.  The old days of yore where the book packager exercised complete control over Nancy Drew are long gone.  The publisher is letting the ghostwriters do whatever they want.  That's the problem.

I drew this conclusion after reading Reuben Sack's posts on Instagram.  Reuben Sack is the ghostwriter for A Nancy Drew Christmas and six of the Hardy Boys Adventures books.  Reuben Sack is one of the good writers.

The Mad Man of Black Bear Mountain  Reuben Sack:  "[T]his one's set in a slightly exaggerated version of my own backyard."

A Nancy Drew Christmas  This book has the word "hell" in it, which offended some fans.  A reviewer on Amazon complained about the language as well as "lesbian, gay people" in the book, which weren't even in the book.  Sack was offended by the review and called the reviewer out on her bigotry.

Dungeons and Detectives  Reuben Sack:  "I went on a gleefully nerdy rampage with this one—D&D, comic shops, LARPing, and a Halloween costume bash at a haunted medieval castle."

The post about Dungeons and Detectives made me realize that the ghostwriters must be developing the stories to a significant degree.  The bad writers are the ones responsible for the mediocre Nancy Drew Diaries stories.  Simon and Schuster is negligent in not doing an adequate job of making sure that the series is consistently good and in line with how Nancy Drew ought to be portrayed.

Sweet Dreams #15 Thinking of You and #16 How Do You Say Goodbye

Sweet Dreams #15 Thinking of You, Jeanette Nobile, 1982

Is Fran too smart to fall in love...

Fran's tired of being called a "brain"... and missing all the fun!  She wants to be like everyone else for a change—to go to parties, have dates, and fall in love.

Can she get Paul to notice her... change her image just a little... and still be herself?

I liked this book at first, then I became annoyed.  Fran is way too insecure.  I skimmed most of the book and then read the ending.




Sweet Dreams #16 How Do You Say Goodbye, Margaret Burman, 1982

Lisa knows she should break up with Lawrence.  He's not right for her and she knows it.  But Lisa's got a big problem—she can't say no.  To anyone.  So when Lawrence asks her to go steady, she accepts (sort of) even though she's just met Alex.  He's the boy Lisa really likes and wants to see a lot more of.  Now she has two boyfriends but she's miserable.

Lisa wants to straighten things out, but she's afraid of hurting Lawrence.  So she lives a double life of lies and confusion, trying to keep Lawrence and Alex apart.  And it works—until the night when her lies go too far.

I was okay with the story at the beginning until it becomes clear that Lisa is a complete idiot.  She knows that she doesn't want to go steady with Lawrence, but she won't tell him that.  She says, "Probably—almost definitely—I'll wear your chain.  You hold onto it until then."  She next tells him, "I'm more that ninety-nine percent sure.  I can almost promise you for a fact that I will feel pleased and proud to go steady with you."

A bit later on page 86, Lisa tells Lawrence, "Um, I've almost made up my mind—I mean, I am ninety-nine and forty-four-one-hundredths-percent sure that we can really just go along almost as if I'd told you yes."  To his credit, Lawrence is getting annoyed.  I had completely lost patience with idiot Lisa and quit reading the book.  I wanted to slap her.

eBay's Packing Slip Inaction

In June 2018, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that states can charge sales tax on purchases made from out-of-state businesses.  Prior to this ruling, most Americans paid very little sales tax online.  The only sales tax paid was on transactions with businesses that had a physical presence in the buyer's home state, such as Walmart.

As of June 2018, very few states had enacted laws assessing sales tax on online purchases.  As the few states which had enacted laws began to reap the benefits of having those laws in place, the vast majority of the remaining states quickly began passing sales tax laws for all online purchases.

This page on eBay lists the states for which sales tax is collected from buyers.  As of this writing, 38 states plus the District of Columbia charge sales tax on all online transactions.  This is problematic for me as an eBay seller, simply because eBay hasn't changed its packing slip to include sales tax.  What are they thinking?

I find that most all other sites quickly adapt to change, while eBay lags behind by a couple of years.  I am sure that eBay has been informed that its packing slip does not indicate the sales tax that has been charged to the buyer.  You would think that they would want to fix it in a timely fashion, but months have already gone by with no change.

I always print a packing slip and place inside the package simply as a safeguard in case the shipping label gets ripped off of the package.  I know of one past case when a shipping label did get ripped off of a package that I mailed.  The package was sent to the mail recovery center where it was opened.  The packing slip was found with the buyer's address, so the package was forwarded to the buyer.  

It is very important that the buyer's address is inside the package so that a damaged package can be recovered.

Most buyers probably do not look at the packing slip.  I toss all of the packing slips that are inside the packages that I receive.  However, some buyers might look at the packing slip.  If so, then the packing slip had darned well better have the actual amount that the buyer paid for the item.  That's where eBay is failing us.

The following image shows the eBay packing slip total as compared to the PayPal packing slip total for the same eBay transaction.

I feel that I will look bad if I use the eBay packing slip.  The eBay packing slip does not acknowledge the sales tax, like the money just vanished into oblivion.  As the seller, I never receive the sales tax.  The $0.79 collected by eBay never reaches my account and will be sent to the buyer's state.  However, the tax ought to be shown on anything that the buyer will see.  The PayPal packing slip shows exactly what the buyer paid. 

I now have to go into PayPal to print the packing slips.  It takes longer, and it annoys me.  Since I have to go to extra trouble, I have added the URL of my Etsy shop to the PayPal packing slip.  If I have to spend extra time getting the packing slips printed, then I'm going to advertise my Etsy shop on them.  I'm probably never going to get an Etsy sale from inclusion of the URL, since most buyers never look at packing slips.  However, I gain personal satisfaction in just knowing that the Etsy URL is on the paper.  Take that, eBay.

Today's Book Find + 10% Off on eBay and Etsy

These books were purchased locally today.

The Hardy Boys picture cover books have the original text and list to Desert Giant on the back cover.  The Nancy Drew matte picture cover books have the original text and were printed during the early 1960s.

The Nancy Drew flashlight edition is one of the textured flashlight variants.  This format is explained in my post, "Hidden Clues #6 The Textured Nancy Drew Flashlight Editions."  By the way, this reminds me that I dropped the ball on my Hidden Clues string of posts.  I will have to get back to them. 

The softcover Nancy Drew books are in pretty nice shape overall.

I actually wanted to do two Facebook posts tonight, one on the book find and one about my eBay and Etsy listings.  However, Facebook does not allow normal visibility to more than one post per day on my Jennifer's Series Books Facebook page.  Whenever I publish two posts in the same day on my page, the second one is mostly invisible.  Even when the second post is the more interesting of the two posts, which should result in more views for that post, it instead ends up with far fewer views. 

This has happened too many times for it just to be a random occurrence.  Websites do throttle traffic for various reasons.  In my case, I'm sure Facebook is trying to get me to pay for advertising.  I would pay for Amazon Prime long before I would ever pay for any Facebook advertising.  And I continue to refuse to get a Prime account.  So there you go.

Besides, I do not believe that paying for Facebook advertising will actually help gain me more traffic.  I have read accounts of people paying advertising only to find that traffic decreases in the long run.  These people claim that Facebook allegedly throttles the traffic even more in order to force the user to continue to pay for visibility.  I'm not going to play that game.

My solution was this blog post with the book finds mentioned first, followed by what I wanted to mention about my eBay and Etsy listings.

I was fortunate to receive eBay promotions for each of the last three months in 2019.  This resulted in me being able to list over 300 listings each month without having to pay an overage.  The promotions were granted undoubtedly because of the holiday season.  Now it's January, and I have not received a promotion.  I have an overage looming.

In an attempt to avoid the overage, I have placed all of my eBay listings at 10% off for the next week until the end of the day Saturday, January 25. 

Jennifer's Series Books on eBay

I have also reduced the prices of my Chalet School books yet again.  They are now at fire sale prices.

I recently listed quite a few Sweet Dreams books on eBay.

Jennifer's Series Books on Etsy

I also placed my Etsy listings on sale until the end of the day Saturday, January 25.

If you see this post after the close of the sales, the discount will no longer be active and will not be honored.

Sweet Dreams #13 The Summer Jenny Fell in Love and #14 Dance of Love

Sweet Dreams #13 The Summer Jenny Fell in Love, Barbara Conklin, 1982

Jenny's summer gets off to a bad start when her mother decides to take in boarders... and seventeen-year-old Cliff and his mother move in.

Suddenly the house just isn't big enough.  Wherever Jenny turns, Cliff seems to be in the way.  And even though they are both trying hard, they just can't get along.

Then Cliff starts interfering with Jenny's love life, trying to protect her from the one boy she's always dreamed of dating.  At first Jenny is furious, but then she realizes Cliff is jealous.  And Jenny is touched.

Will Jenny's summer turn into something wonderful—and totally unexpected?

At first, I really enjoyed the book.  By halfway through the story, I became intensely annoyed that Jenny and Cliff keep yelling at each other.  Cliff overreacts over tiny things, and Jenny ends up screaming at him.  Both of them come across as mentally unstable.

I quit reading the book halfway through.  I couldn't take it anymore.

Sweet Dreams #14 Dance of Love, Jocelyn Saal, 1982

If Polly follows her heart, will she lose her best friend and her most cherished dream...

Ever since third grade, Polly and Jennifer have shared everything from ballet lessons to boy talk.  They both dream of becoming famous dancers... and falling in love.  Then Polly meets Cott Townsend, and her plans get turned upside down.  Can Polly win Cott's love, keep Jennifer's friendship, and still be true to herself?

This book bored me, and I could not read it.