Already Seeing This

 Yes, it always seems to happen this early. The first two photos are from the TJ Maxx that opened in my hometown last fall. I have not yet bought anything form the store, or any of the other new stores that opened last year as well, including Ross, Boot Barn, Ulta Beauty and Famous Footwear.

And I don't know what I am doing just yet!  But I have already been looking at the Barbie costumes that will be for sale on Spirit Halloween. Though I could easily do one myself I that is what I choose to do.  Someone I know from school went to the Barbie movie last weekend with others. They all wore costumes. She posted a video on Facebook and Instagram. They are standing in front of the movie poster at our local cinema.

I almost want to steal one of these ideas! But that remains to be seen.

Barbie or Oppenheimer?

Which, if either, did you see this weekend? For me it was Barbie. As the release date for the two films neared, photos like these were all over the web:

After seeing the Barbie trailer several months ahead of time, I began to get tempted to see the movie. And as last Friday neared, I got more into the idea of seeing Barbie and began looking up Barbie stuff (more on that to come). A film like Oppenheimer is way out of my league of interest. I'm not going to bother with that one, at least not now. Maybe not at all...

After doing laundry on Saturday afternoon, I went to see Barbie. On a side note, I went to a play in my home town that night. Our local stage company is currently putting on Footloose. It was fun to see and to get out. This was the first play I went to since the one I saw in 2020 just before the pandemic shutdown. (I never saw that movie, BTW). 

And now there are Barbie movie costumes for sale. I now wonder how many, if any, of these I will see this year. I can't imagine Oppenheimer as a costume, though.

Getting Back to My Writing

It's been so long since I attempted writing something new, or even attempting to submit what I have already written. I last submitted about a year ago, with yet another rejection.

A fellow mental health client has recently self-published a book of poetry. As such I now want to consider this path for my memoir, though I'm quite hesitant about doing such. I also realized I had last added to the memoir around 2017 or 2018. With so much having happened since then in both my person life and in the world in general, including the pandemic, I decided to write an afterword to recap such events. I just read it over and am proofreading and adding and subtracting items. 

The aforementioned client self-published his book through Amazon which he pointed out is free. I'm now even more tempted to do it this way. If I do, I will have a book under my belt, one thing I have hoped for. As far as self-publishing my 80s-set book is concerned, that remains to be seen. Right now, I'd like to at least have one. 

And on a side note, I haven't been able to come up with anything new to write. Every time I have a dream I think will be a good source of a novel, I can never remember the dream. I have to wonder how those who have written books based on dreams were able to remember those dreams.

July Bookish Bingo

 The yearly emoji-themed card for July is here.

My Books:

1. Tales From the Arabian Nights--Anonymous (6 squares): Audiobook, Foreign Country, Adventure, Short Stories, Travel/Journey, Snazzy Dresser
2. Calypso, Corpses and Cooking--Raquel V. Reyes (5 squares): E-Book, In a Series, Cake/Pie/Dessert, Shock/Fright/Wit, LOL
3. Big Summer--Jennifer Weiner (8 squares): Library Book, Physical Book, Not in a Series, Book Club Read, Beach Read, Red/White/Blue on the Cover, Free Space, Eye Roll
4. 50 Harbor Street--Debbie Macomber (1 square): A Favorite Author
5. Claws For Alarm--Cate Conte (2 squares): Animal/Pet on the Cover, Shelf Love
6. The Garden of Small Beginnings--Abbi Waxman [re-read] (1 square): Debut Novel
7. The Adventures of Augie March--Saul Bellow (2 squares): Free Book, Award-Winning

25 squares completed on July 27

Mid-Year Reading Progress Post

The weather right now may not make it seem so, but the year is half-over. At this time, I like to make a post on my reading progress thus far.

Of all the year-long challenges I am participating in, I have finished three so far. (I always seem to finish these ones first):

What's in a Name?

Alphabet Soup

Color Coded

My book total as of this post in 122. Erin's Challenge 19.0 starts this Saturday and runs through October.  I have my books picked out for this one, some I have at home, the rest from the library (one is currently on hold).

Summer Humor

 In honor of the first day of summer:

Searching for Vintage Mystery Books for Children

One of the things I brought up during my A to Z blogging in April was mystery books for children. Some time earlier, I had remembered about reading The Bobbsey Twins as a child. During the time, I came across other series produced by the Stratemeyer Syndicate, a publishing company that of different authors (many using the same pseudonyms) that put out series like The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, The Bobbsey Twins, Tom Swift, and The Dana Girls, among others. I also discovered series not produced by the Syndicate, such as Judy Bolton, Trixie Belden, Cherry Ames, Vicki Barr, and Connie Blair.  I came across even more such series on this website.

The first place I looked was on Project Gutenberg, where I found some of the Vicki Barr and Judy Bolton books, but none of the others mentioned above. I have read of the Judy Bolton books on PG.

If only I had  known about these books before the used bookstore nearby had closed down last year! But since I don't have that option now, I chose to go on Amazon. After a lot of searching, and deciding what titles to get, here is what I ordered:

This is the first book in the Dana Girls series, written by the Stratemeyer Syndicate under the same pseudonym used for the Nancy Drew series. I was never big on Nancy Drew or The Hardy Boys, BTW. Those can still be found at the library, because they have proven more popular than this series, which I was not aware of until recently. 

The first book in the Trixie Belden series. Another series I was never aware of until recently.  One of those not from the Syndicate.  This series doesn't seem to have endured much either. 

Again, the first book of the series. Another series that escaped me as a child. It. too must not have been that popular.

I also picked the first book in this series. Yet another I missed in childhood that must not have been very popular.

And just the other day at a local thrift store, I came across this book:

Still another series I did not know about as a child. One not shown on this site. It sounds like one that would have been included. This is the second book of the series.

I have yet to read any of these books, as they have only recently arrived. Has anyone ever read any of these series? If so, what do you think? Any other similar series you would recommend?