Drina Ballet Series Update

On March 1, I was asked about my reading of the Drina Ballet books.  I replied, "I have read the first three and have enjoyed them.  I am stuck at the beginning of the fourth book only because I got distracted."

I was distracted by passive media.  My attention span has been poor for the last two years, and I find it very hard to follow through with reading multiple books in a set.  I am currently horrible at it, and I cannot get myself under control.  My low reading output has been caused by the stress of the pandemic, the debacle of the last two school years, and other events.

On March 6, I gave an update on my reading via my Facebook page.

I made progress today.  I finally read through Drina #5 Drina Dances in Italy and am now reading #6 Drina Dances Again. I managed to finish my reviews of the first four Drina books.  The images are in place, and the posts are completely written.  They just need to be proofread.  

I set a rule for myself where I am requiring myself to write reviews of any books that I read.  I didn't do well with that last year. 

Furthermore, when my reading paused again, I set another rule where I must read all of the Drina books before I allow myself to read anything else.  Roadblock!

Since I could not allow myself to break the two rules, I had to push past the roadblock.  So here I am.  The Drina posts will not be published until I am close to finishing reading through the set.

I am now on spring break.  I have two recent acquisitions that I very much want to read, one of them in particular.  Since I must follow the rule where I am required to finish reading the Drina books before I can read anything else, I am now quite motivated to get the Drina books finished as fast as I can.  

I am not listing books on eBay or Etsy.  I am not watching passive media.  I have dropped everything.  It's Drina or bust.  I'm reading the Drina books as quickly as I can one after another.  I am now reading #8 Drina Dances in Madeira.  

Setting a rule for myself that I cannot allow myself to break works quite well.  This is getting done.

I have noticed an uptick of Drina books selling on eBay ever since I first mentioned this series.  Apparently at least one or two people decided to work on a set.  I thought I'd give some more information for anyone else who is wondering whether they might like these books.  They aren't easy to acquire and can be pricey.  Buying these books requires a bit of an investment, at least to get any titles beyond the first few. 

In my introductory post, I shared scans of the first 15 pages of text from the first book so that you can get an idea of whether you would like the book.

The Drina Ballet Series

A few people have asked me how well I'm enjoying the books, so here are my ratings.  

 1.  Ballet for Drina - excellent

 2.  Drina's Dancing Year - excellent

 3.  Drina Dances in Exile - excellent

 4.  Drina Dances in Italy - mixed bag but overall good to very good

 5.  Drina Dances Again - overall very good

 6.  Drina Dances in New York - excellent

 7.  Drina Dances in Paris - excellent

 8.  Drina Dances in Madeira - not finished but so far very good

I paused in my reading of the Drina books for many days when I was at the beginning of #4 Drina Dances in Italy.  I blamed my lack of progress on being distracted, which I was.  Now that I have read the book and struggled to read much of it, I have realized that I didn't find it as good as the other books.  It's disjointed and has way too much travelogue content. 

#5 Drina Dances Again is more interesting than the previous book, but it is not quite as good as the other books I have read.

#1, 2, 3, 6, and 7 are just excellent books.  I love all of them.

This is a series that must be read in order.  Oh, I suppose you could read them out of order, but that would take away most of the impact.  Each book begins immediately after the close of the previous book and continues with the overarching story.  

I have known where the story is going the entire time that I've been reading the books.  (Even though I do know some important plot details for the final books, please don't mention anything to me since you could end up telling me more than what I already know.)

Even if I hadn't known all along what the overarching story is, I would have guessed.  It's not hard to figure out.  Knowing where this is going doesn't take away from my pleasure.  I am enjoying seeing how this develops.

Drina starts the series as a young child.  She is around nine or ten years old during the first book.  In #5 Drina Dances in New York, Drina is 14 1/2 and falls in love.  With #5, the books transition more towards young adult books even though the tone is the same.  

A month ago, I purchased #11 Drina Ballerina so that I could read the conclusion to the series.  I originally wasn't going to purchase it since it has some negative reviews.  I changed my mind later.  The book still hasn't arrived.  It's coming from England, so it hopefully will arrive soon.  I am getting concerned.  The main problem is that if the book arrives after I finish #10 and start something else, then I might never read it.  I know how I am.  Once I move past a set, I won't ever get back to it.  If the book is going to arrive, I hope it does so at the start of next week.

With my current determination and reading speed, I should finish the set by around Monday.  That's why #11 needs to show up double-quick.

Omicron, Snow, Snark, Sleet, and the Book Sale

January and February 2022 pretty much had it all, and most of it was bad.  March isn't any better, and in some ways, it's even worse.  Could we get out of this alternate timeline and go back to a more normal world?  Maybe someday...

As the year began, the Omicron wave was building into its peak.  I continued to double-mask at school, and I got lessons ready two weeks in advance in case I fell ill.  I didn't get sick, but I didn't know that I wouldn't.  It was so hard to keep everything ready for two weeks in advance.  I am still trying to stay ahead by at least one week while aiming for two. 

School was closed on January 14 because of the surge in cases.  That was the first snow day we used, and we had just two snow days built into the calendar.

School was closed on February 2, 3, and 4 due to a winter storm which resulted in around five inches of snow.  Those days closed were also snow days, so we had used two more days than we had been allotted.  We will use an alternate plan to make up the extra days, so we will soon begin to add time to each school day.  

The three-day closure impacted a test, which messed that up quite well.  I wasn't otherwise concerned about the closure and shifting everything around, but having it impact a test was a problem.  I wasn't concerned about the upcoming book sale, although I should have been.  Meanwhile...

On February 13, I received a snarky message from a member of a group that I manage on Facebook.  This person was unhappy that a post had been declined.  They made a point to look at all of my old posts in the group, as they had done before, to find something to use against me.  They quoted an old post of mine back at me and added some snarky comments and emojis to get their message across. 

This message was not the first one of its type that had been sent to me.  I handed the situation to the other moderators and had them deal with it.  Even so, I took quite a hit and had a bit of an autoimmune flare the week of February 13.

Friday, February 25 was the scheduled date for the beginning of the 2022 Friends of the Library Book Sale in Oklahoma City.  The sale was not held in 2021 because of the pandemic.  2021 was the only year that the sale was skipped since its inception.

The 2020 Friends of the Library Book Sale

Several times in the last two years, I have mentioned my belief that the books that would have been donated to the library book sale were instead going to local bookstores. 

Where Are the Books?

In the above post, I showed off some vintage teen books that I purchased in a local store, books that would have been at the 2021 library book sale if they had been taking donations and if they had held that sale.

I have found far more vintage teen books in local stores during the last year than I normally do, and I'm certain that many of them would have found their way to the library book sale during normal times.

After we got past the winter storm that impacted school on February 2, 3, and 4, everything began to settle back down.  As I mentioned, I wasn't worried about the library book sale.  Even if there were a snow or ice event, it wouldn't be a big deal at the end of February.  No worries.

During the week of February 13, chatter began about a possible winter storm the week of February 20.  Oh, surely not.  But if so, it wouldn't be a problem, not near the end of February.  By February 20, the local media were hyping it up to get higher ratings.  The forecast amounts were low enough that I didn't think that the impact would be that great. 

I was still somewhat concerned, however.  By Tuesday, February 22, I knew we were going to get some sleet, but I thought that it wouldn't impact roads past Thursday, February 24.  We were supposed to get a trace to perhaps one-half inch of sleet.  Temperatures were expected to begin warming up. 

I was more concerned about school, since I had another test scheduled.  I decided that it would be okay if we missed school on Wednesday and were open again on Thursday.  I came up with a doable plan if school were closed on Wednesday and Thursday.  School shouldn't be closed for more than two days, since we weren't supposed to get much and temperatures would begin warming.

We ended up getting a lot more sleet than was forecast, and it was colder than forecast.  The central part of the Oklahoma City metro ended up with 1 1/2 to 2 inches of sleet which then compacted into a thick sheet of ice covering all surfaces.  It simply would not melt due to very cold temperatures.  Since we had already used up our snow days, the district pivoted to remote learning for February 23, 24, and 25, which of course screwed up the scheduled test and destroyed all my plans.  

I was so stressed that week.  I was worried about the test that ended up being postponed into the following week.  I knew that students weren't going to do well because of the delay.  I was concerned about the book sale.  I knew that they couldn't cancel it.  The people running the book sale said that it would go on regardless, because the books were in place and the building would go to someone else for the next week.

I hoped that the sleet would begin melting on Thursday, but it didn't.  The main roads were not too bad to drive on by that point, but all secondary roads were sheets of ice as well as all parking lots that hadn't been plowed.

On my Facebook page, I announced that I was closing my eBay and Etsy stores for a few days so that I wouldn't have to go to the post office.  I knew that I was going to make it to the book sale regardless, but I wanted to avoid anything extra.

I have no problem driving on ice.  I have rather new tires, since I had all four tires replaced in September after I popped a tire.  The tires were close to wearing out, so it was logical to replace all of them instead of just one.  I also knew that my decision meant that I would have good traction on ice during the upcoming winter season.

My concern about driving on ice, which is why I limit it as much as possible, is that I cannot control what other drivers do.  Some people think that they can drive as normal and pull right out in front of another vehicle, not realizing that the other driver cannot stop on the ice.  I try to stay home when roads are icy as much as possible so that I am not endangered by those drivers.

That I was going to the book sale was never in question.  I was going, no matter what.  The fairgrounds are 12 miles away from my home.  In normal driving conditions, the trip takes around 20 minutes. 

The start time of the sale was supposed to be 9 AM, but it was changed to 10 AM because of the roads.  I felt that the start time should have been delayed to 1 PM.  I didn't think many people would be there at the start time, and I would have preferred to have left later in the morning.  

Nevertheless, I was going, and I was leaving very early since I couldn't be sure how early the diehards would show up.  I can't remember exactly when I left, but it was probably around 7:20 AM.  I reached the fairgrounds by around 7:50 AM.

My neighborhood was quite icy, but I got out of it fine.  The main roads were partially iced, but they weren't a problem.  The most trouble I had in my journey was at the fairgrounds.  The ice had not been removed from most of the parking lots.  Once I entered the fairgrounds and began driving across the pavement, the car's low traction warning light came on.  I could tell that the tires had almost no traction on the ice.  I was going around 10 mph, so I made it okay, and I soon reached an area with better traction.  Finally, I made it to a parking space right in front of the building.  There was hardly anyone there, which was not surprising.

The library sale was odd this year.  The sale was extremely short on volunteers.  Many volunteers had dropped because of covid fears, and many more had dropped because of the ice.  They did not have anywhere near enough volunteers.

I was third in line, which was the closest I had ever been to being first in line.  The lack of volunteers resulted in the belt barriers not being placed correctly.  Some people moved them, and later, the person in charge of the entire sale got everything set right for our section.

The lack of volunteers meant that the sale was quite short on cashiers.  We were told that we would be on the honor system.  We were given tally slips and told to figure out our own totals.  Many books were still in boxes in the outer lobby since not enough volunteers had shown up that week.

I will publish a separate post showing the books that I purchased at the sale.  I could tell that the library had received far fewer donations than usual.  I had suspected that would be the case.  Remember that I believed that the books were probably going to local stores.

The library sale always overwhelmingly consists of library discards.  After all, it is a library sale.  I don't know what percent of the books are usually library discards, but let's say 75% of them are.  At this year's sale, I would say that 90% of the books were library discards.  The sale had about as many books as usual, but the books were two years' worth of library discards.  

This meant that the books I most wanted to see at the sale simply were not there.  The old series books were almost completely absent.  They were never donated and had probably been sold to local stores.

On Saturday, February 26, I went back to the sale to see what I had missed.  This resulted in me finding more vintage teen books.  The sleet was melting pretty well by that point, but it meant trudging through deep puddles of melted sleet that were trapped by the sleet that hadn't melted.

I found that I was drained by all that had happened during the last full week in February.  I began to have a more pronounced autoimmune reaction, which has gotten worse this week.  I always have a delayed reaction where I notice the worst symptoms of a flare beginning around two weeks after an event.  The library sale was two weeks ago today.

Today is Friday, March 11, which was supposed to be the last day of school before spring break.  It is snowing, quite well in fact.  We are getting more snow than was forecast, and school is closed again for remote learning.  This is the latest in March we have ever been closed due to snow or ice, so this is quite an abnormal event, just like everything else from the last two years.  We now have lost eight days of school this semester.  

The bright side is that spring break started one day early due to the snow.  10 days at home is exactly what I need.

Keeping a Group on Topic When Nobody Understands the Topic

Being a Facebook moderator should not be as impossible as it is.  Sometimes I just want to scream into the void.  The experience is that frustrating and infuriating.  

I have already written about my great problems with the group Collecting Vintage Children's Series Books.

Running a Large Facebook Group Is Stressful and Not Fun

Facebook's Problematic Approach to Groups

As the creator of multiple groups, I want to have pretty photos in place to represent each group.  Those photos have been my downfall.  I have known it for years, but I didn't feel like removing the photos and turning them into informational banners. 

This was the very first cover photo for the Collecting group.

It was created and put in place by one of the founding members of the Collecting group on the very first day that the group existed on August 5, 2013.  Sometime in 2014, I changed the group photo to the one seen below.

That was the beginning of the downfall of the group.  The original cover photo really emphasized the Hardy Boys series, and I should have created an image that overly emphasized Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys.  The membership began to increase rapidly.  We began to have more and more problems as general children's book enthusiasts joined the group by the hundreds.

In 2017, I changed the group photo again, in part because Facebook kept changing the parameters for the group photo.  Also, I had this misguided belief that placing more series in the photo would somehow help.  I was so wrong.

The above photo stayed in place until last month.  I have known for several years that the image was the problem, but I didn't feel like changing it.  Finally, I did it.

I created it quickly, and I could make it better.  The point is that we finally have a group image in place that tells the general public that the group is for Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, and similar series.  The group is not for all children's books that exist, and it is not for all series that exist.  

Beginning the evening that I changed the group photo, the membership requests have just about stalled.  Suddenly, the general public is not trying to join the group.  This is a fabulous development.  

We typically have had 20 or more new members per week.  Sometimes over 100 people joined per week.  Only three people have joined in the last week.  I hope this trend continues.

I also put in place two membership questions.

1.  Why do you want to join this group?

2.  This group focuses on Stratemeyer Syndicate properties (like Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys) and similar rival series (like Judy Bolton and Three Investigators). Which Stratemeyer and non-Stratemeyer series do you like?

It's interesting how many of the spammers cannot be bothered to fake an answer.  Some of them put a period as the answer to try to trick their way into the group.  Facebook has a setting where moderators can have Facebook approve all requests where the questions have been answered.  That's why some people answer the questions with a period.  I don't use that setting, so the trick doesn't work.

I have another group, Vintage Teen Books, which worried me from before I ever even created it, just because I knew what could, or rather would, happen if I didn't make all of the right decisions.  I did not want the Vintage Teen Books group to follow the same trajectory as the Collecting group.  Some of the same problems were inevitable, but I hoped that I could more aggressively prevent from having the group turn into one big problem.

The Vintage Teen Books group was badly needed, since unfortunately the existing Facebook groups lumped all children's books in with the middle-grade books and the teen books.  I wanted a discussion group for only the teen books.  I didn't want to see the other books.

I struggled with the group's name, since words like "teen" and "adult" (which is part of the category name "young adult") are search terms used by spammers to find groups where they can post links to adult content.  I really, really struggled with the name.  I decided to avoid the word "adult" and went with "teen," even though it would attract some of the same people.

Everything was fine at first, but Baby-Sitters Club has been the bane of my existence.  That series is incredibly popular, but it is a middle-grade or tween series.  The books are not teen books.  

Teen books as defined for the group I created are books that feature characters who are in their late teens.  The characters are of high school or college age.  The books also must have been marketed to teens, featuring dating and social issues.  They are not children's books.

Anyway, from early in the group's existence, members kept wanting to post about Baby-Sitters Club.  I allowed some of it at first, but eventually I had to disallow all mention of that series.  Members also kept posting about books published under Scholastic's Apple imprint.  Those are middle-grade books, not teen.

I have continued to get more insistent about how those books are not within the group's focus.  It's been a tough battle to fight.  The battle was mostly lost before it began because of the reference book and existing Facebook groups that consider children's books, middle-grade books, and teen books to be all in the same genre.  Oh my gosh, people!

I also think that people don't know that the word "tween" means something different than the word "teen."  Tween books are middle-grade, and teen books are young adult.

Many years ago, I did not know what was meant by the classification "tween."  I saw it in libraries.  I knew it was something with children's books, but I didn't understand it.  I'm sure that many people don't know what it means, which is why I use middle-grade hoping that people think of middle school or late elementary school years.

I knew that the Vintage Teen group photo was not helping the situation just like what happened with the Collecting group. 

Prospective members were missing the message conveyed by the selection of books featured in the photo.

I wasn't ready to change the group photo.  I put a membership question in place.

1.  MUST ANSWER: This group focuses on pre-2000 vintage teen books that feature characters in their late teens (SVH, Fear Street, Christopher Pike, etc.). What are your favorites?

I then found that a frighteningly high percentage of prospective members were answering with "Baby-Sitters Club."  Oh, no!  No, no, no!  BSC are not teen books!

Dear me.  I then changed the group photo.

After I changed the group photo, I felt like membership requests slowed down slightly.  However, too many people were continuing to answer the question with Baby-Sitters Club.  What to do?!

I created a second membership question.

2.  MUST ANSWER: Indicate your awareness that this group does not allow discussion of Baby-Sitters Club, middle-grade books, and children's books. None of these books should be listed in your answer to the first question.

Ha.  If this doesn't work, then nothing will.  Membership requests have now fallen off noticeably more than they had.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed.  The second question should scare off the people who think the group is about the Baby-Sitters Club.

Today, I read an answer to the second question that made me very happy.  The prospective member wrote, "I am totally aware and grateful."  YES!  This is someone like me who understands that children's and middle-grade books are not teen books.  Just let us have a place to discuss our books.  

Gatekeeping of Opinions in the Facebook Groups

Some people are extremely intolerant of differing opinions.  Just this week, I noticed two instances in the Facebook groups of people getting offended over someone's opinion and asking that the post or comment be deleted from the group.  If it's one of my groups, I'm not having that.  I'm not going to censor opinions.

I will say, before I continue, that I was put in a very difficult position after the Nancy Drew series began airing on The CW.  I allowed discussions in one group that I moderate.  The people who didn't like the show (actually just one person) made repetitive comments every single week about how much they hated the show.  They weren't even watching it!  I have gotten to the point where I just ignore everything this person says.  I'm able to do that.  It's kind of a superpower I have where I can just let my eyes skim over certain people's comments and not take in enough of the content to be annoyed.  I know who to tune out, and I do.

Other people have more trouble doing that.  I was in the middle of two factions.  There were the people who were extremely annoyed about the negative comments, and the people making the negative comments.  The people making the negative comments didn't want to be censored.  I do agree with that sentiment, but I also believe that people shouldn't be obnoxious.  So, I quite well understood the people who wanted the negative comments squelched.  It was tough having to navigate through that time.  I wrote about it in "Finding a Middle Ground to Discuss CW's Nancy Drew."

There has also been some conflict and gatekeeping this week concerning discussion of CW's Nancy Drew, but thankfully not in any group that I moderate.  In one of those groups, someone made a statement about Ace and his relationship with Nancy.  Paraphrasing, it was to the effect that Ace isn't good enough for Nancy and so they shouldn't be together.

Nace shippers became upset and wanted the comment removed because they considered it to be deeply offensive.  Other people were more rational, saying that there was nothing wrong with the comment and that it was an opinion.

Right!  I am not a Nace shipper, and their relationship does nothing for me.  I would prefer for them not to be together.  Don't get me wrong; I adore Ace.  I'm just not into the Nace thing at all.  I'd rather them just be good pals.  I am mostly staying away from the CW Nancy Drew forums because of all the fan art and sappiness about Nace. 

I keep my opinion about Nace very quiet on Facebook because the Nace shippers can't tolerate a different opinion.  I am resigned that Nancy and Ace will be together, but I was totally Team Agent Park during the third season. 

I was annoyed about that attempt at gatekeeping.  It is apparent that the Nace shippers do not believe that anyone has the right to say anything against Nace.  

I run a group about vintage teen books, like Sweet Valley High and others.  Someone posted about the book Dinky Hocker Shoots Smack!  The book is not about what it sounds like, and I think we would have been better off if Dinky had used heroin.   

I haven’t read the book, but apparently Dinky Hocker is overweight and tries to help other overweight kids, possibly trying to force them to diet.  Something like that.

What happened is that somebody looked up the book and found out about the overweight characters.  They said that the book featured fat-shaming and bullying.  Someone else responded to that comment saying that social norms were different back in those days and that the book should be read with an open mind.  The first person then went off on the second person, calling them a "mansplaining male" and saying that they were trying to explain women and eating disorders.  The first person then reported the second person's comment to the mods. 

That was when I saw the comment thread.  I was annoyed that someone was wasting my time on a comment that did not need to be removed.  There is nothing wrong with someone saying that things were different years ago and that we have to keep that in mind.  That person is entitled to say what they want.  I instead thought that the "mansplaining" comment was the inappropriate one.  I thought about removing it.  I then decided that I didn't want my time wasted having to watch over the post.  I did not remove any comments, and I closed commenting. 

I wrote this as my reason:

Members - It's apparent that we aren't going to be able to continue discussing this post.  Someone reported a comment, which expressed an opinion.  Members do have a right to their opinion, even if you think they are wrong or even if they are actually wrong.  I will not censor comments when they express a member's opinion about a book.  Comments are now closed.

A few years back in another group, a member contacted me, telling me to tell another member to quit commenting on his posts.  Say what?  I'm not touching that.  Members have a right to comment on any post.  I suggested that this member block the other member.  Wouldn't that make sense?  I didn't need to be involved.

Thin Grosset and Dunlap Nancy Drew Books

During the 1970s, Grosset and Dunlap printed some Nancy Drew books in a rather thin picture cover edition.  Collectors often mistake these books for the pirated editions from Taiwan.

Taiwanese Nancy Drew Books

The first photo seen below shows some Nancy Drew picture cover books, which are all the actual Grosset and Dunlap books.  Some of the rather thin Grosset and Dunlap books were placed in the middle of the group.  The thin books are #6, 34, 52, and 52 in about the middle of the photo.  These four books are about the thickness of the most thick of the pirated books.

You will need to click on the image in order to see it clearly.

This next photo shows the pirated books from Taiwan.  Most of them are noticeably different in appearance from the Grosset and Dunlap books.

Some are close in appearance to the Grosset and Dunlap books.

The following photo shows the four thin Grosset and Dunlap books to the left followed by the five thickest of the pirated books, which are the ones that look the most like Grosset and Dunlap books.

The thickness is about the same, but the yellow on the pirated spines looks to be a bit washed-out.  Most notably, the spine symbols of the pirated editions are a good bit smaller.  All of the print is smaller on the spines.  The vertical edges of the spines of the pirated editions are more flat and less rounded than the Grosset and Dunlap editions. 

Being aware of these differences will help those searching for the pirated editions from being tricked by thin regular editions seen in online listings.

Girl Scouts in the Ozarks by Nancy Nance

I have owned Girl Scouts in the Ozarks for three years.  I wanted to try it before selling it, but I had not been motivated enough to follow through.  Since I have had trouble enjoying most books in recent months, I decided to give the book a try. 

I first ran an online search, where I saw that Kirkus Reviews declares the book to be "a much better girl scout book than the average run."  I know better than to trust Kirkus Reviews, since the reviews tend to offer the opposite opinion of what I think about most books, but I was nevertheless swayed into trying the book.

The characters are not described at all except for one girl who is more timid and another who is adventurous.  The reader learns nothing about the girls' lives, hair color, personalities, or anything else.  Having eight girls rapidly introduced without any description makes a book hard to start reading.

Depending upon what one wants in a book, the book could be considered good to very good.  I am not the target audience, which is girls who are interested in scouting.  I found some stretches of text to be interesting while others bored me.

The reader gets a heavy dose of Ozark lore, fishing, frog-hunting, squirrel-hunting, bird-watching, folk song lyrics, cooking, dialect, and identification of flowers and trees.  This is excellent content for those who want a book about scouting and all that it entails.  I did find some of it to be interesting; however, I would rather just read about a great adventure.  The two protagonists do experience an adventure towards the end of the story when they are held captive by moonshiners.  

I dislike the illustrations.  Interestingly, I found a review shown on a page about scouting books where the illustrations are said to be "striking in their woodcut simplicity."  

While the illustrations are striking, I still don't care for them.  Like with anything, it's a matter of personal taste.  I mentally compared these illustrations to the ones from the Nancy Drew books of the 1970s.  Those are considered awful by most collectors, but I would rather see illustrations like those in a book.

The same review says that the dialect is handled skillfully.  While that may be true, I hate reading dialect in books.  I don't enjoy having to sound out the dialect to figure out what is being said.  In this book, "b'ile" means "boil."  I kept pausing each time it came up.  By halfway through the book, I was used to it and knew immediately what it meant.

I skimmed some of the dialect, and I skipped the song lyrics and some of the information about bird species and tree identification.

I found some parts of the book to be very good and other parts not very interesting.  The book contains some really good information about life in the Ozarks during the early 20th century.  I do have a generally positive opinion of this book.  The book might be very good, but for me personally, it is overall just good.

Facebook's Problematic Approach to Groups

Facebook is the cause of most all problems I have with the groups.  Actually, just one group is a big problem, Collecting Vintage Children's Series Books.  Last month, I wrote about the problems in that group. 

The root cause is that Facebook promotes the groups to random people.  My experience last night proved this to me, even though I was already certain.  Before I get to that, I want to mention my news feed.

Facebook continually places posts in my feed that are not even slightly of interest to me.  Sometimes what is chosen is close enough that I find the content to be of some interest.  But they also place really odd stuff in my feed, and I wonder what I did to trigger the algorithm to choose me for that content. 

Just a few days ago, Facebook placed multiple posts in my feed featuring Black social justice content.  It was a random selection, yet somehow not since I saw posts from multiple Facebook pages featuring similar content. 

Awhile back, Facebook spent around a week presenting me with various recording artists, all of whom were completely unknown to me.  Presenting me with random stuff makes no sense.  The algorithm is apparently designed with the goal of creating growth by throwing random content at users.  All it does is make me want to flee.

Facebook does present me with posts from some Facebook pages run by Queen fans.  This at least is logical since I am a member of several Queen groups.  However, when the posts are presented to me, they are disconcertingly numerous.  Facebook is trying to force me to like one certain page in particular.  Enough!  

I find it curious that I have never once seen anything featuring the Bee Gees.  I am not a member of any Bee Gees groups.  I find a large percent of Facebook content to be frustratingly inane, so I am wary of the Bee Gees groups.  

I also don't follow the official Bee Gees page.  I'm not interested in the kinds of posts made by that account.  I choose venues other than Facebook for Bee Gees discussion. 

Still, it doesn't make sense why I haven't triggered Facebook's algorithm.  I created a Bee Gees blog and Facebook page in December, which I have not followed up on yet, so nobody follows either one.  Google knows I did this, since Google knows everything.  Google even owns Blogger.  That aside, Google shares its search information with Facebook almost immediately.  I can use Google to find a certain website, and then I'll be on Facebook a short time later seeing an ad for that site.  

Just the existence of the Bee Gees Facebook page tied to my account ought to trigger the algorithm.  Despite all the technology behind Facebook, the site is woefully inept.  Facebook's algorithm is too flawed to see what should be obvious.  Instead, it suggests recording artists not remotely connected to anything I have seen in my entire life.

I am placing a link to the Bee Gees blog and Facebook page here just to see if Google will begin to index them.  This blog of mine should have a high enough Google ranking to help the situation.

My World of the Bee Gees Facebook page

My World of the Bee Gees Blog

My idea is to post photos of all of my Bee Gees stuff, and the Series Books for Girls blog is not the place for that.  That content needs to be somewhere else, so that's my plan once I feel like taking the time to execute it.

Going back to the series book groups, I don't enjoy most of them very much.  This is because of the troublemakers and people who try to use the groups as their own personal playgrounds.  It is hard to handle these people, and it is hard to know when to finally say enough.

I do like my own private group, Jennifer's Series Books.  I have one membership question:  "Why do you want to join this group?"  Prospective members who are the ones I want will have no problem answering this question to my satisfaction. 

I mentioned my group on my Facebook page last night.  I had a few people request to join who answered the question fine.  I approved them.

I had a few people who were probably okay due to which groups they were already in, but the question was not answered.  I declined and told them that I required the question be answered as a formality.  A couple of those people promptly answered and were approved. 

I also had a few people ask to join who appeared to have no connection to any of the series book groups.  Those people did not answer the question.  I declined, saying that the question needed to be answered.  So far, those people have not tried again.  Hmm...

I do believe Facebook suggested my little group to a few random people last night.  Gee, thanks Facebook.  Quit doing that. 

Requiring an appropriate answer to the question prevents the random people from joining.  The questions have also been added to the series book groups that I manage.  Just yesterday, someone answered, "I LOVE BOOKSSS!" to the question.  Based on that vague response and my intuition, I declined the request.

It's too bad that Facebook didn't have the membership question feature 10 years ago, because the series book groups would not be in such a mess if we had been able to approve only the people who truly fit.

Jennifer's Series Books Group on Facebook (The membership question must be answered!)

The group is basically for people who follow my Facebook page, this blog, or me in some aspect.  Posts will often mirror the posts from the Facebook page, although sometimes I post something in one place and not the other.  Posts will usually be about series books but also sometimes vintage teen books or other books that I have read.  I will sometimes mention buying and selling topics.  I will occasionally mention when I have listed a bunch of books for sale.  I don't do that very often since I dislike promoting myself.

Nancy Drew Diaries #23 The Blue Lady of Coffin Hall

In Nancy Drew Diaries #23, The Blue Lady of Coffin Hall, Nancy helps Ned investigate a haunted library, which he plans to feature in his podcast.  The spirit of Harriet Coffin, known as the Blue Lady, is said to be haunting the tower room of Coffin Hall.

The ghostwriter of this book is well-versed in series book lore.  Easter eggs are scattered throughout the text.  The tower room in the library and the librarian's name, Irene, are obvious nods to the Judy Bolton series.  The name Harriet is a nod to Harriet Stratemeyer Adams of the Stratemeyer Syndicate.

The Blue Lady has a glowing dress, which reminds me of the revised text version of The Mystery at Lilac Inn.

The reader learns on page 45 that Bess has started carrying poetry books around with her.  She reads her favorite lines to her friends.  This reminds me of Wilma in the Kay Tracey series.

I also noted some names, words, and phrases that loosely reminded me of various series books: weird blue light, automatic ghost-alert system, and hoaxers.  They could be just coincidence, but I believe that the ghostwriters who place series book lore into their stories also use words and phrases that they know will make the readers think of certain books and stories.  One ghostwriter placed words referring to the original 56 Nancy Drew books all through one of the Nancy Drew Girl Detective books.

The cover art pays homage to the Nancy Drew television series from The CW.  Nancy wears a scarf, carries a shoulder bag, and is wearing a locket.  Take a look at this press photo from episode 3.01 of CW's Nancy Drew in which Nancy can be seen with the shoulder bag and scarf.  She is also wearing the locket, but it is almost completely hidden by the scarf.

Whether Harriet Coffin's ghost is real is left unresolved.  This is similar to The Kachina Doll Mystery.  It could also be considered a nod to CW's version of Nancy Drew, which has leaned hard into the supernatural, unlike any past version of Nancy Drew.

The culprit is quite predictable.  Without getting into the specific details, something gave it away early in the book, so I knew the identity of one of the culprits from near the beginning.

The characterization of Ned is off.  He's depicted as a bit too scared.  That said, the inconsistency with Ned fits in with the continuing inconsistency of the entire Nancy Drew Diaries series. The tone and characterization change with each book since the series apparently has quite a few ghostwriters and little oversight from the editors.

I found the ending to be odd and a bit confusing.  After I finished, I couldn't figure out exactly what the deal is with the culprits.  I also couldn't decide if this book is sabotage.  I would say that this book is not true sabotage, but it could be interpreted as having a sabotage aspect.  There is other stuff going on.

I make note of whether the Nancy Drew Diaries books are sabotage because it has been an overused plot device for many years and has gotten old.  This book doesn't come across as true sabotage, so it isn't tiring like the blatant sabotage books.

I felt that this was a pretty good book right after I finished reading it.  I must say that now that some time has passed, I feel that the book is just good.  It's like I have a somewhat negative feeling about the book even though I enjoyed reading it.  This has happened to me before with some of the Nancy Drew Diaries books.

Each time the Nancy Drew Diaries series is mentioned on Facebook, someone asks if the books are good.  That question is impossible to answer.  I certainly can't give a blanket rating of "good" to the series.  Some books are good, some great, some stupid, and one is the worst Nancy Drew book ever. 

Fans also ask if the books are like the old Nancy Drew books.  The series cannot be like the old Nancy Drew books because it is in first person.  Aside from that, a few books are similar in a modern fashion, but the series is all over the place.  It cannot be compared to any of the older Nancy Drew books.  The set is inconsistent.  Quality control is needed, although recent books have been a great improvement.