The Running Bibliophile

The Engagement Party by Darby Kane opens with college friends meeting at a luxurious house on a private island in Maine to celebrate an engagement. Tensions arise when Emily's name is brought up and secrets about her death are about to be spilled. Will this friend group stay intact for the weekend? A big thank you goes out to NetGalley for the Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) that I received for free in exchange for my honest opinion. I was excited to read The Engagement Party by Darby Kane as I love "locked room" stories and always enjoy seeing if I can figure out who the culprit or culprits are before they're revealed. Darby Kane did a fantastic job with throwing suspicion across various characters making me second guess myself at times. The characters I suspected are as follows: Ruthie - the fiancé of Will Sierra - the protector, friend, and business partner of Mitch Cassie - attorney and wife of Alex, mother of Zara, friends with Mitch and Will Alex - atto...

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...