Sunday, January 1, 2012

2011 VNRN Awards

Welcome to the second annual Vintage Nurse Romance Novel Awards! Winners are chosen from the VNRNs I have read this year, which for 2011 is 78 different books by 43 different authors. Only the Best Authors category is cumulative, including all the VNRN books I have ever read. May they inspire your own reading in 2012!

BEST BOOKS
1. A Challenge for Nurse Melanie, Isabel Moore, 1963
2. “K,” Mary Roberts Rinehart, 1914
3. City Nurse, Jeanne Judson, 1959
4. Ski Resort Nurse, Jane L. Sears, 1962
5. Aloha Nurse, Ethel Hamill, 1961
6. Nurse at the Fair, Dorothy Cole, 1971
7. Runaway Nurse, Florence Stuart, 1964
8. Graduate Nurse, Lucy Agnes Hancock, 1947
9. Nora Was a Nurse, Peggy Gaddis, 1953
10. Visiting Nurse, Margaret Howe, 1956



WORST BOOKS
1. Conflict for Nurse Elsa, Jeanne Bowman, 1968
2. Door to Door Nurse, Jeanne Bowman, 1967
3. Challenge for Nurse Laurel, Fay Stone, 1970



BEST COVERS
1. Terror Stalks the Night Nurse, Blanche Y. Mosler, cover illustration by Lou Marchetti
2. Ozark Nurse, Fern Shepard
3. Nurse Forrester’s Secret, Jane Converse
4. Las Vegas Nurse, Jane L. Sears
5. Nurse on the Beach, Arlene Hale



BEST QUOTES
1. “With a small sigh she turned in the seat, gazed at the back of Charles [sic] neat neck beneath his chauffeur’s cap, and let her fingers idly trail along the leopard skin upholstery. ‘My gosh!’ she whispered to herself. ‘Wait until Olive hears about this!’ ” Ski Resort Nurse, Jane L. Sears
2. “Go embellish Mother Nature while I pop around the corner. I believe I noticed a haven for weary travelers as I drove up.” Nurse in Hollywood, Jane Converse
3. “ ‘Now when I was a kid, about your age, there was a character known as Popeye who was something of an authority on spinach. Is he around any more?’

“Bobby’s round blue eyes gazed up at her with utter disgust. ‘Oh, to hell with Popeye,’ said Bobby.” Runaway Nurse, Florence Stuart
4. “She wondered where he was and if he was still tortured.” Ski Resort Nurse, Jane L. Sears
5. “As always, Gail longed to take the child in her arms, to give him a big bear hug. But a bear hug could kill Jimmy.” Runaway Nurse, Florence Stuart
6. “He had a strong, distinguished-looking face, even with half of it lacerated and bloodstained.” Arctic Nurse, Rose Dana
7. “Don’t eat that candy! It may be poisoned!” Nurse’s Alibi, Jane Corby
8. “ ‘You’ve got good hands, boy,’ he said. ‘You might have made a good surgeon. Pity you wasted them on the wrong kind of knives.’ ” Marie Warren, Night Nurse, Blanche Y. Mosler
9. “I told you if you went off like that by yourself you’d make a fool of yourself. And now look at you—running around in slacks, for Heaven’s sake, and that awful shirt, and not even tucked into your pants.” Nora Was a Nurse, Peggy Gaddis
10. “Let’s make this last dance really Hawaiian! The rest of you make a circle and undulate!” Surfing Nurse, Diana Douglans

BEST AUTHORS
1. Faith Baldwin (4.0 average, 2 reviews)
2. Margaret Mooers Marshall (3.7 average, 2 reviews)

3. Alan Jackson, writing as Rosie M. Banks (3.5 average, 2 reviews)
4. Jean Francis Webb III, writing as Ethel Hamill (3.5 average, based on 2 reviews)
5. Adelaide Humphries (3.4 average, 3 reviews)
6. Florence Stonebraker, writing as Fern Shepard and Florence Stuart (3.0 average, 10 reviews)
7. Jane L. Sears (3.0 average, 3 reviews)
8. Margaret Howe (2.9 average, 2 reviews)
9. Lucy Agnes Hancock (2.8 average, 3 reviews)
10. Adele Kay Maritano, writing as Jane Converse (2.6 average, 10 reviews)




2 comments:

  1. I love your blog -- keep up the amazing work!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I vote for a joint Best Cover/Worst Book title: Tramp Nurse. It's awesome...awesomely bad.

    ReplyDelete