The Running Bibliophile

Into the Water by Paula Hawkins opens with single mother Nel Abbott being found dead at the bottom of a river, an apparent suicide that immediately raises questions. Nel had been investigating the deaths of other women who were also found in the same river over the centuries, making her own death feel unsettling from the very start. Her sister, Jules Abbott, is called back to town to identify the body and to take responsibility for Nel’s teenage daughter, Lena. Jules is forced to confront both her strained relationship with Nel and the dark history surrounding the river and the town itself. When I first heard that Paula Hawkins was releasing another novel titled Into the Water , I was genuinely excited. I really enjoyed The Girl on the Train , and because of that, I expected her second novel to be just as gripping, if not better. I intentionally avoided reading reviews for Into the Water because I didn’t want my expectations shaped by other readers’ opinions. Unfortunately, I ke...

Has a book ever impacted you so deeply while growing up that you desperately wanted a sequel? P.S. I Love You (Sweet Dreams, # 1) by Barbara Conklin was one of those books for me. I recently checked out the reviews for P.S. I Love You on Goodreads.com, and much to my surprise, a couple of people mentioned that there was a sequel.  I immediately began searching for Falling In Love Again (Sweet Dreams, #23) by Barbara Conklin on Barnes & Noble and Amazon, my usual go-to sites for used books. Both sites listed the book as temporarily out of stock, which was the second time I’d run into that issue while hunting for a used title. At that point, I was starting to panic because I really wanted to find out what happened next. Then I remembered I’d previously ordered a few used books from ThriftBooks. I searched their site but couldn’t find the book at first. After adjusting my search terms, I finally located three available copies. Unfortunately, all of them were listed in onl...

During a school book fair in middle school, I stumbled upon a teen romance series called Sweet Dreams . Each book in the series is actually a stand alone book. In addition, each book in the series is written by a different author with many of the authors penning several throughout the years.  I believe the first book I picked up was The Golden Girl (Sweet Dreams, # 169)  by Jane Ballard, which was about a teenage girl who wins a contest to become the Trent's Department Store spokesperson. I loved the book and began reading more and more books from the series, which started in 1981. One of the books, The Popularity Plan (Sweet Dreams, # 2)  by Rosemary Vernon was one that I desperately wanted to read but had trouble finding. I finally gave up looking in my college years. Fast forward 15 years . . . buying used books on Amazon.com and BarnesAndNoble.com had become a popular thing, and they were making it easier to find them. ThriftBooks.com was advertising The Popul...

With Crooked House coming out in theaters soon, I knew I had to reread the book before watching the movie, and I was glad that I did. I didn't remember anything about the book going into it, but as I read, bits and pieces started coming back to me. Reader beware ... this mystery is one of Agatha Christie's stand alone books that is not part of any of her popular detective series ... so no Hercule Poirot & his little gray cells, no Miss Marple, and no Tommy & Tuppence. Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot series is my favorite so at first I was a bit disappointed that he wasn't in this particular book. The book begins with the narrator, Charles Hayward, meeting Sophia Leonides in Egypt during the European War, which we know better as World War II. Charles instantly falls in love with Sophia but since it is too soon for him to propose to her, they make plans on meeting in England once the war is over to see if they are both still available and interested in eac...

Looking at the cover of Me Before You by Jojo Moyes, I didn’t have especially high expectations going in since it had a similar look and feel to the covers of Emily Giffin novels. There was also the fact that many of the people I knew who were raving about Me Before You tend to have very different reading tastes than I do. The emotional journey you take with the characters is a difficult one because the story centers around Will Traynor, a man who becomes a quadriplegic after a devastating accident. Struggling to cope with how drastically his life has changed, Will falls into a deep depression and no longer wishes to live. Louisa Clark is hired by Will’s parents to serve as his day-to-day caregiver and companion in the hope that she can help change his mind about assisted suicide. At first, Louisa has no idea about Will’s plans until she overhears his mother discussing it with Will’s sister. Determined to help, Louisa begins researching activities and experiences that might give...

One of the book clubs I belong to decided to read In the Woods  by Tana French .  It's the first book in her Dublin Murder Squad series as well as her debut book. Honestly, I'm not really sure what all the hype surrounding this book is about, and I was especially surprised to learn it won an Edgar Award Winner. To begin with, at least 100 pages could have been cut. I've never read a mystery novel where so little happened over so many pages. On top of that, French spent a lot of time insisting that Detective Adam "Rob" Ryan and Detective Cassie Maddox were best friends, but it felt forced. The friendship came across more like a high school or college friendship than an adult one. Of course, the author had them sleep together, and Rob ended up acting like a complete jerk afterward. He didn't want a relationship with Cassie, yet instead of being honest with her, he basically blew her off. When Cassie tried talking to him about it, he acted immature and sulk...