Svetlana's Reads and Views

Name of Book: The Mystery at Lilac Inn Author: Carolyn Keene ISBN: 9781557091581 Publisher: Grosset and Dunlap Part of a Series: Nancy Drew Mysteries Type of book: Mystery, lilacs, codes, skin diving, 1900s, young adult, children, revised 1960s edition Year it was published: 1930 Summary: Teenage detective Nancy Drew finds herself in danger when she sets out to track a jewel thief. Characters: Nancy still remains herself, and in this book its revealed that she can skin-dive. (What does that mean by the way?) The other characters are flat and aren't very interesting unfortunately. Helen Corning is still engaged to someone and she doesn't play an interesting part. I have to admit that very little of the book seems interesting to me. Theme: Actors tend to be bad people. Plot: This is written in third person narrative from Nancy's point of view. I have to admit that the story wasn't interesting and it didn't grab me. The only plot twists ...

Name of Book: The Bungalow Mystery Author: Carolyn Keene ISBN: 9780448095035 Publisher: Gross and Dunlap Part of a Series: Nancy Drew series Type of book: Mystery, death, guardians, 1900s, bank fraud, young adult, feminism, detective, River Heights Year it was published: 1930 Summary: While trying to help a friend out of a difficulty, Nancy has a perilous experience in and around a deserted bungalow, from which only her bravery and quick thinking save her. Characters: In goodreads reviews, there is a description of Laura being horrified by doing housework. Unfortunately I might have missed this scene in the book. The book is more of tell rather than show and tell variety. Multiple times I am told to hate a character simply because the woman had a terrible experience of having a flat tire and so forth. I actually sympathized with her instead of hating her. There is also a very negative attitude towards actors (oh how times change!) Nancy is very independent and tu...

Name of Book: The Hidden Staircase Author: Carolyn Keene ISBN: 9780448095028 Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap Part of a Series: Nancy Drew Mysteries Type of book: 1900s, hidden staircases, girl detective, ambitious, old houses Year it was published: 1930 Summary: (from wikipedia.org) In the beginning of "Nancy Drew and The Hidden Staircase" Nancy gets a summary call from her friend Helen Corning and is introduced to the Mrs. Flora Turnbull and Mrs. Rosemary Hayes, by Helen, who is the great- grand-daughter of Miss Flora and great niece of Aunt Rosemary. Miss Flora believes that their home, Twin Elms Mansion, is haunted. Nancy agrees to help solve the mystery of Twin Elms when a man named Nathan Gomber tells Nancy that her father, Carson Drew,is in grave danger. Nancy tells her father this and he says that Gomber is just a little rat and trying to throw him off by making him worried about danger and not focusing on the new railroad he is helping to get fini...

Name of Book: The Secret of the Old Clock Author: "Carolyn Keene" ISBN: 1557091552 Publisher: Grosset and Dunlap Part of a Series: Nancy Drew Mysteries Type of book: Mysteries, lost will, young adult, strong feminism Year it was published: 1930 Summary: In this first of the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories, Nancy, unaided, seeks to find a missing will. Her search not only tests her keen mind but also leads her into a thrilling adventure. This volume presents the original, 1930 version of the story. In 1959 the story was rewritten and condensed and this original version went out of print. Characters: The characters all remain the same pretty much. Nancy remains her resourceful forceful self where mysteries are always at a forefront, the villains got punished and the nice people won the day. In other words, no change passes through her personality. Other characters like the villains and heroes and Nancy's father strike me as stock characters than as real p...

Name of Book: East Wind, West Wind Author: Pearl Buck ISBN:  1559210869 Publisher: The World Publishing Company Type of book: 1920s, China, East, West, values, interracial relationship, Asian male/ White female, struggles, duty, obligation Year it was published: 1930 (Version I have January 1944) Summary: East Wind: West Wind is told from the eyes of a traditional Chinese girl, Kwei-lan, married to a Chinese medical doctor, educated abroad. The story follows Kwei-lan as she begins to accept different points of view from the western world, and re-discovers her sense of self through this coming-of-age narrative. Characters: I'm not sure how I could describe the characters, except they all change throughout the novel; Kwei-lan changes into someone who disliked and was unhappy with Western culture into someone who does accept Western traditions and values. She also looks up to her husband all the time, one attitude that she doesn't change at all. Kwei-Lan'...

Name of Book: Jews without money Author: Michael Gold ISBN: 0-7867-1345-3 Publisher: Carrol and Graf Fiction Type of book: Jews, New York, 1890s?-1900s?, poverty, tenement, adult, prostitutes, 1920s? Year it was published: 1930 Summary:  As a writer and political activist in the early 20th century, Michael Gold was an important presence on the American cultural scene fro more than three decades. Beginning in the 1920s his was a powerful journalistic voice for social change and human rights, and Jews Without Money-the author's only novel-is a passionate record of the times. First published in 1930, this fictionalized autobiography offered an unusually candid look at the thieves, gangsters, and ordinary citizens who struggled against brutal odds on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Like Henry Roth's Call It Sleep and Abraham Cahan's The Rise and Fall of David Levinsky, Jews Without Money is a literary landmark of the Jewish experience. Characters: Th...