Day 04: Favorite book of your favorite series

This is going to be a tough one. 

Yesterday, I said that my favorite series was Alex Cross and the Hardy Boys Mystery Stories. Let’s start with Alex Cross. This crime, mystery, and thriller series has been running since the 1990s. James Patterson is a genius with the way he lets Cross narrate in first-person while the villain’s POV is told from the third-person. It’s easy to follow along. With 25 books to date in this series, I have to go with Violets Are Blue because I’ve read it twice now and I don’t usually reread books.

The Hardy Boys Mystery is kind of complicated. The first 58 stories were published between 1927 and 1979 and I was in love with the blue glossy flashlight cover format. Somewhere in the late seventies, the paperback was discontinued, the volume number started as 59 and ended at 190 in 2005. And then The Hardy Boys Secret Files were released in 2010 which was rebooted as The Hardy Boys Clue Book series in 2016 as if I didn’t already have enough Hardy Boys in my life! ❤ 

Here’s a nice movie fact: it was 2007 when Ben Stiller and Tom Cruise were “rumored” to be doing a Hardy Men movie and this news was everywhere up until 2010.

Why didn’t this happen? I would’ve LIVED for it! Stiller could’ve been the blond one (Joe) and TC the raven head one (Frank). These sleuthing siblings deserved this movie!

And now we currently have The Hardy Boys Adventures which began in 2013 to present. A new book is coming in April God’s willing and I am excited about it. Oh, right, I’m rambling. My favorite book would have to be the first one because it hooked me right from the beginning. I need to start rereading this series soon.

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Reading Diaries: Why I dislike YA books.

Dear Diary,

I am sick of the shallow writing and the overused tropes in YA. I think most of the writing is lazy and authors should be ashamed to call themselves writers. YA is like pop music: unoriginal, recycled and cliché. But these are my opinions.

Definition of Young Adult (YA) Fiction: Fiction marketed towards readers ages roughly 12-18. Protagonists are often teens doing bad things.

YA books are repetitive. The main protagonists almost always seem to have major problems and bisexuality is a recurring theme because some authors know that this is a selling trend and they abuse it. Ca-ching! If someone isn’t gay, bisexual, or a lesbian, the protagonist is suffering from sexual identity. Or their parents don’t care about them. Or someone is suffering from depression and wants to commit suicide. And these books are supposed to be for young adults! What happened to a good old Hardy Boys mystery?

When authors are not dealing with the sexes, they’re talking about magic, fairies, zombies, witches, and vampires. The protagonists are almost always rude to their parents. Then there are the constant love triangles! It is getting old and boring now. I also dislike perfect endings given that happily ever afters is not guaranteed always. Would it hurt ya to end on a forlorn note? Or a note saying that although things didn’t look too good at the moment, the protagonist was willing to work with what she/he have?

Some of these books are dumbed down with generic plots and overplayed themes with nasty characters. The new trend in YA is feminist empowerment and I honestly can’t with these adults writing books for young adults to indulge in. I feel as if all these YA books are the same stereotypical tropes except for very few. 

That said, I’ve enjoyed a few YA books over the years, but hey, every life has stages.

50 Foods #6: Dates

Origin: The Middle East and North Africa
Date: c. 7000 BP
Type: Fruit of the date palm

Dates.

Known as the food of the desert.

They can be good for our health provided that they’re a great energy booster, can reduce the risk of stroke and provide energy for anemic sufferers amongst many other health benefits.

Dates are a versatile fruit that is used for cooking and baking. Egypt and Iran are two of the top date producing countries in the world.

Would I eat it?: I love dates! I look forward to eating lots of dates this year when it comes into season.

“If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love”