18 April 2013

Nancy-Drew Yellow





In Italian, a mystery/thriller is called a giallo—'yellow'—something I only just remembered as I was giving this post a title. (The name references a well-known series of mysteries with yellow covers that originated in 1929.) I am not really a fan of mysteries (or at least not the grown up page-turners filled with intrigue that cause spines to chill & blood to curdle), but I do have a fondness for the Nancy Drew Mysteries of my childhood. When my family was back in the US on home leave from Brazil (where we lived between 1974 & 1979), my sister and I would always invest some of our Christmas money in continuing to build our library of Nancy Drew books. Somehow they have traveled with me this far, and now my daughter is rereading them one last time before we retire them to a cupboard or box (or buy a new bookcase)...at least until her little cousins learns how to read.

How fortuitous that they are still scattered around the house though. My 'YELLOW' post has grown rather unwieldy as I've gathered yellow-themed photos for April's ROY G BIV photo challenge(*), so this will simply be my first installation of yellow things. I must admit that 'Nancy-Drew Yellow' is not my favorite shade of this sunny color. Golden yellows, often coming about courtesy of the sun—like that of Palazzo Pitti's stone in the last of the afternoon light, or the ocher-colored buildings reflected on the Arno—are more my style. But one way for me to learn to appreciate something is to study it through the camera lens, and I will say that I enjoyed the rhythm & repetition of the yellow spines. Below are a few of the shots.



And now I can return The Moonstone Castle Mystery to my daughter so she can finish it in peace...



* The ROY G BIV photo challenge was started by artists Jennifer Coyne Qudeen & Julie Booth last year. Each month is devoted to a different color of the rainbow—red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo & violet. This is the second year, and all are welcome to join in; guidelines are here. And in the sidebar, under 'Inspiring places to visit', you will see an extraordinary amount of yellow from those who have participated this month (at least until their next post).
*

So, more 'YELLOW' in the next couple of days, but in the meanwhile here's a little hint of what's to come. This is on my top-five list of favorite U2 songs. I've linked to a 'video' with only the music/lyrics (I find the videos often distract me from the melody & lyrics!).







4 comments:

  1. Lisa- Love this post! Amazed at your collection of Nancy Drews and all the memories..Thanks for sharing and participating.

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    1. Thanks, Julie...those books sure bring back some memories - Nancy's zippy little roadster & pert wardrobe, her best friends, scaredy-cat Bess & up-for-anything George, her handsome college boyfriend, Ned. And of course Hannah, the motherly housekeeper who turned out wonderful things in the kitchen and kept her eyes open for clues, and her sensible lawyer father, always ready with quiet words of wisdom. I loved the evocative titles: The Mystery at Lilac Lane, The Quest of the Missing Map, The Clue in the Old Album, The Secret of the Forgotten City...
      - Lisa

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  2. Funny, despite being of an era, I missed Nancy Drew - headed or Enid Blyton more I think. Maybe our links to the Empire! Laugh. Great yellows and smiles throughout...

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    1. Hello Fiona - oh, I loved Enid Blyton too - what fun it was to follow the Famous Five & the Secret Seven (I think that's what they were called - it's bee a while!) on their adventures - and their feasts on the moors (often washed down with gingerbeer, as I recall). And the Mallory Towers series inspired my very first ever 'book' at the age of 11 - it was heavily influenced by the characters (& their pranks)!
      Since writing this post, I have done a little research on the Nancy Drew series and was interested to read about its evolution & the 'updating' that has occurred since it was first conceived in 1930...apparently Nancy was originally a much stronger/bolder character than she became after subsequent revisions. Very interesting to be able to look back on the publishing history of a series over time...
      In any case, it's wonderful to have plenty of childhood books to look back on with fondness, and remind us of those periods of our lives!
      - Lisa

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