The Running Bibliophile

Book Review: Halloween Party (Fear Street, #8) by R.L. Stine Halloween Party (Fear Street, #8) by R.L. Stine is the eighth book in the Fear Street Book series. Justine Cameron is throwing a Halloween party for nine specially picked students. The kicker is that none of the nine people really know Justine, and they wonder why they were invited. When the lights go off and come back on, there's a body with a knife in it. Is there a murderer amongst them? I'm in the process of rereading my way through my childhood, and I decided to read the Fear Street book series again . . . this time in order. I must not have read Halloween Party because I didn't have the book. I purchased the book through ThriftBooks.com, and I have to say that I didn't remember anything about the storyline, with the exception of the nickname for Niki sounding very familiar.  The Fear Street books are a more mature horror book series than R.L. Stine's Goosebumps book series. I loved reading these ...

The Fear Street Prowler has every one on edge in Shadyside, especially Melissa, who wakes up screaming due to a tapping on her window. Strange things start happening to her like her new car veering into oncoming traffic, her presents being ripped open by an unknown entity, and something or someone trying to push Melissa out her bedroom window. Is it Melissa's imagination or the Fear Street Prowler. Find out in R.L. Stine's Haunted (Fear Street, #7) . The Fear Street book series by R.L. Stine was one of my favorite Young Adult Horror series when I was a tween and teen. I still had most of the books from them, so I decided to reread them, in the order they were published, as an adult to see if they still were as scary to me as they were back then. I didn't have a copy of Haunted , so I ordered a used copy through ThriftBooks.com. As an adult, this was a super easy read and only took a couple hours for me to finish. It was a creepy read that was perfect for a rainy night. Whe...

When The Grownup by Gillian Flynn came out in print, I was super excited about the book. Little did I know that it was actually a short story. Then, life got in the way, and I forgot about the book. I finally ordered the book (short story) from ThriftBooks.com and finished reading it in the wee hours of today. I wasn't entirely sure what the synopsis was when I first began reading it, but it was super intriguing. The Grownup is about a woman who works at a store with psychics. At least, that is what is promoted in the storefront. In the back of the store, there are sex workers who work their way to the front of the store to be an actual "psychic". When a customer named Susan Burke comes in for an aura reading because she thinks her renovated Victorian home is haunted and her stepson is becoming possessed by the house, the psychic comes up with a way to con the woman out of $2,000. This story was not very satisfying when it was all done. None of the loose e...

Not knowing a thing about Chevy Stevens' book That Night , I decided to purchase it from ThriftBooks.com . Within a couple of days of receiving it, I began reading it, and it immediately sucked me in. There were several things I loved about That Night . One of those things was that the chapters alternated from the present day to past years. This kept the book interesting and me engaged. I think that if Chevy Stevens had started from the beginning of the story, it wouldn't have kept my attention quite as well and wouldn't have had the impact it had. Additionally, the relationships in the book were right on target, especially the way teenagers act in high school. The gossip and mean girl syndrome were right on par, and the way adults tended to believe Shauna over Toni was very believable as well. Who hasn't encountered a Shauna at some point in their life? The relationship between Toni and her sister Nicole seemed very believable to me, but being an only child, I do...

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...

Back in October, my local library system, which has 16 libraries throughout the county, had their semi-annual book sale where all proceeds help the library system. I was originally supposed to be in Nashville for the weekend but had to cancel my plans at the last minute, so I decided to go to the library sale instead. Browsing through the books, I came across a book that I loved in middle school called Horseback Summer (Horse Crazy # 1) by Virginia Vail. I didn't even hesitate, I grabbed the book and bought it for old times sake. Now if I can only get my hands on the rest of the series! There was some drama in my neighborhood earlier this week and knowing that there might be some additional drama tonight, I decided I needed to read something that wouldn't be too dramatic or to difficult to read. It was a perfect time to read Horseback Summer (Horse Crazy # 1) . As I began, it was exactly as I remembered and brought back all those fuzzy wuzzy feelings of my childhood. ...

Has a book ever made such an impact on you 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 of this particular book on Goodreads.com, and much to my surprise, a couple of people mentioned that there was a sequel.  I immediately started looking for Falling In Love Again (Sweet Dreams, # 23) by Barbara Conklin on BarnesAndNoble.com and Amazon.com as these are my go to sites for used books. Both sites said that they were temporarily out of stock, which was the second time I had received a message like this when looking for a used book, and I was starting to panic because I really wanted to know what happened.  Then, I remembered I had bought a few used books from ThriftBooks.com . I searched their site, and couldn't find the book at first. I changed my search parameters and three copies were available. All three of their copies were only in ...