The Running Bibliophile

California Girl (Sweet Dreams # 6) by Janet Quin-Harkin is part of the teen romance book series, Sweet Dreams . The books in this series are written by different authors and rarely have anything to do with any of the other books in the series. The one exception to this that I'm aware of is P.S. I Love You (Sweet Dreams # 1) and Falling In Love Again (Sweet Dreams # 23) , both written by Barbara Conklin. I fell in love with the Sweet Dreams teen romance books in middle school after discovering them at the school book fair. They ended up being very hard to find at the libraries . . . the school library and the public library branches didn't have any of these books to check out. And, I had trouble finding them in local bookstores, so whenever I came across one, I had to buy it.  In California Girl , we meet Jennie, who is an aspiring Olympic swimmer and has just recently moved to Texas. Absolutely miserable with her new swim team and new school, all Jennie wants to

Back in the Fall of 1989, I was a ten year old girl who watched the pilot episode of Doogie Howser, M.D. I fell in love with the television show immediately. When the show went off the air, I was terribly sad about it. Over the years, I wondered if Neil Patrick Harris would ever appear in another television show or even in a movie. Fast forward to the Fall of 2005 . . . I was over at my parent's house after working out at the gym. My parents yelled at me to come into the living room. A new show called How I Met Your Mother was premiering its pilot episode and who else was on it but "Doogie Howser". I rarely was at home when it aired so I never really watched the show, except for reruns, until the last season because I wanted to know the outcome of the show. When it went off the air, I felt like a piece of me was missing. So, when Neil Patrick Harris came out with his autobiography, I was super excited, and I loved the concept that it was a "Choose Your Own Aut

November 22:  On This Day In History . . . On November 22, 1963, American lives were forever changed when President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald on a presidential motorcade route in Dallas, Texas as he was driven past the Texas School Book Depository on Dealey Plaza. He had been shot once in the neck and once in the head before slumping over. JFK was taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital where he was given his last rites by a Catholic priest before being pronounced dead. John Connally, who was the governor of Texas, and his wife Nellie were also in the car with the President and his wife Jackie. John Connally was also shot and severely wounded, but he survived his injuries. Have you ever wondered what would have happened if JFK hadn't been assassinated? Stephen King wondered how the world would have been different if John F. Kennedy hadn't been killed. This led to King writing a novel about a character named Jake Epping who has the ability

In this edition of the Stephanie Plum Between-the-Numbers novel Plum Lovin' , Diesel pops back into Stephanie's life to make a deal with her. He'll help her find Annie Hart, Stephanie's most recent bond enforcement job. The catch? She has to help Diesel play matchmaker for Annie Hart, who is a relationship specialist and is missing, and he knows where she is. Why? Diesel has promised Annie he will work on five of her cases, and he isn't good at relationships. Plum Lovin' by Janet Evanovich is the second between the numbers books and is more of a novella at just under 200 pages. And, I enjoyed it a lot better than the first Between-the-Numbers book, Visions of Sugar Plums because it had less paranormal elements in it. Don't get me wrong, I love paranormal just as much as the next person, but it just doesn't seem to fit in with the Stephanie Plum series. I would be completely fine if all of the paranormal was taken out though because that isn'

A couple months ago, I found out that Barnes & Noble has a book club that actually meets at each of the store locations, so I decided to join and see what it was like. The first meeting I went to was the one where the book Clock Dance by Anne Tyler was the selection. I ordered the book online and picked it up at the Barnes & Noble closest to me. Not sure what to expect of Anne Tyler as I had never heard of this author before, I was surprised to see that the cover of Clock Dance mentioned that she was a Pulitzer Prize winner. The novel she won the Pulitzer Prize for was A Spool of Blue Thread . The concept of the novel intrigued me . . . it follows the defining moments of the main character's life. We first meet Willa Drake at age 11 in 1967 dealing with her mother's disappearance. In 1977, Willa is 21 year old college student who has been proposed to by her college boyfriend. Then, she becomes a widow with two teenage sons in 1997. By the time 2017 rolls aroun

In the days leading up to Halloween, I decided that I wanted to read a spooky book but one that wasn't too long. Perusing my bookshelves at home, I came across one of my favorite YA Authors when I was a tween and teen . . . Richie Tankersley Cusick. How apropos would it be to read her book entitled Trick or Treat ? Regrettably, I didn't finish reading Trick or Treat before Halloween like I wanted to. The reason is simple . . . it creeped me out even though I ended up remembering who "did it" early on. Reading it late at night didn't help either as every little creak or noise in the house made me even more jumpy. Because of this, I kept putting it down after reading a chapter or two a night. I was in awe that a book that I hadn't read in 15 - 20 years and geared towards teens could still spook me like it did. Although, it was written in the late 1980's, the story holds up and is still enjoyable. I think the tweens and teens of today would enjoy Tric