The Running Bibliophile

The small town of Tinker's Cove has a plethora of holiday traditions during the Thanksgiving holiday, including visits to the Brown Farm to see Tom Tom the turkey, attending the annual parade, and watching the annual high school football game. However, the celebrations go awry when Curt Nolan, a Native American activist, is found murdered in Turkey Day Murder (A Lucy Stone Mystery, #7) by Leslie Meier. As usual, I thoroughly enjoyed this edition in the Lucy Stone book series by Leslie Meier. Although I read this particular book in February, it's the perfect book to read in November to get into the holiday spirit. I'm not sure if there really is a Metinnicut Tribe or not, but it definitely makes me want to learn more about the Native American history in the United States because most of what I learned about this was during elementary school. I found that many of the situations were very believable, including how late Toby and his friends arrived and didn't bother calli...

Do you remember the book fairs that came to your elementary and middle school? They were so much fun for me especially when I could find books that were hard to come by. The book fair at my middle school had some teen romance books for sales that were part of the Sweet Dreams book series. In sixth grade, one of the books in the series caught my attention . . . Golden Girl (Sweet Dreams, #169) by Jane Ballard. Golden Girl (Sweet Dreams, #169) by Jane Ballard is about a girl named Claire Montgomery who is dared by her brother Joe to audition for the Trent's Department Store "Golden Girl" spokesperson position. If chosen, she will film television commercials and appear in their print ads for a year. Much to Claire's surprise, she's selected as the spokesperson and will work closely with the executive producer's son, Ben Riley, who is the high school heartthrob. What originally intrigued me to buy Golden Girl (Sweet Dreams, #169) was that it had ...

I first read Charlotte's Web by E.B. White 30 years ago in the spring of 1989 as an almost 10 year old in the fifth grade. It was not a book I chose to read as it was required reading for my class to prepare us for middle school and all the books we would be required to read. Of the two books we were required to read that year, this was the one I actually enjoyed, with the exception of the ending. This was the first book I read that actually made me cry. Charlotte's Web tells the story of a pig named Wilbur and how he is saved from death a couple of times, first by a little girl named Fern and then by a spider named Charlotte who befriended Wilbur when he was lonely because none of the other farm animals would play with him. The story follows the friendship between the pig and spider until Charlotte's death. Charlotte's death is what really got to me as a kid and as an adult rereading the book. What made it even worse was that she died alone, and no one should ...

Reading Ramona the Pest (Ramona Quimby, #2) by Beverly Cleary as an adult for the first time ever was a delight. How did I never read this book as a child? Maybe if this had been recommended to me by a teacher or librarian, I would have enjoyed reading in elementary school a lot earlier than I did. Beverly Cleary did an amazing job of capturing how a five year old acts in kindergarten. I felt like I was back in school again. When I was in kindergarten, there was a morning class and an afternoon class. Unlike the book, we didn't have nap time because there wasn't enough time with such a short day. I enjoyed that the kids were in charge of certain things in the classroom like passing out the art supplies because that sort of thing was a huge deal when I was a kid. I loved the fact that Ramona misunderstood a few things that her teacher said because kids of that age often misinterpret what is said by adults by no fault of their own, and they often do things that they ...