The Running Bibliophile

In 1986, a movie called The Worst Witch was aired on television, and as a seven year old child, I absolutely fell in love with it. A few months ago, I thought about how much I loved it and decided to see if it was available on Netflix. It was not available, but it had been made into a television series back in 2017 and that was available. I did watch a few of the episodes and thought they had been done well. It made me research the original movie, and I found out that it was based on a book series from the 1970's. How I did not know this I'll never know, but I decided to buy a used copy from ThriftBooks.com.  When I received the book The Worst Witch (Worst Witch, #1) by Jill Murphy, I couldn't wait to read it and see how closely the original television movie compared to the book. I wasn't disappointed. The 1986 movie did a phenomenal job in adapting the book for television. The Worst Witch (Worst Witch, #1) by Jill Murphy is about twelve year old Mildred...

The Initiation (The Secret Circle, #1) by L.J. Smith tells the story of Cassie Blake on vacation in Cape Cod, Massachusetts and becomes friends with Portia Bainbridge. When Cassie's mother receives a phone call that her mother is in poor health, she makes the decision that Cassie and she will move to New Salem, Massachusetts to take care of her mother. Intimidated by a new school, Cassie is in awe of a group of teenagers who rule the school where even the adults are afraid of this group. The Secret Circle trilogy was my introduction to the author L.J. Smith. I immediately fell in love with The Initiation and couldn't wait to read the other two books in the series. Since it was originally published in 1992, it was turned into a television show, and I was ecstatic about the news. However, when the first trailer came out, I was disappointed because many of the characters were nixed, and they changed some huge parts of the series that vastly changed the story, including ad...

L.J. Smith churned out yet another winner with The Strange Power (Dark Visions, #1) . It was originally published in 1994 by Archway Paperback. Kaitlyn Fairchild is an out cast in her Ohio town because of her drawings that predict the future. That along with her violet rimmed eyes have made the town called her a witch. When she is presented with the opportunity to attend the Zetes Institute with four other psychic teens, Kaitlyn jumps at the chance for a new start. Let me begin by saying that I absolutely loved this book and engrossed from the very first page, even as an adult. I first read The Strange Power (Dark Visions, #1) as a sophomore in high school. It is slightly different from her other trilogies in that it deals with psychics instead of vampires, witches, and/or werewolves. There is a bit of suspense, thriller, mystery, romance, and fantasy throughout. For a young adult book, the characters are very well developed, and the plot moved along very well. There weren't...

Before  Twilight , there was The Vampire Diaries and Night World , both series written by the phenomenal L.J. Smith (a.k.a. Lisa Jane Smith). The first book in the Night World series is entitled Secret Vampire and was published in June 1996.  Sixteen year old Poppy North receives news that she has only months to live. When her best friend, and crush, James Rasmussen visits in the hospital, Poppy sees another side of James when he offers to make her a part of the Night World and leave her loved ones behind. Secret Vampire (Night World, #1) was my first introduction to books on the topic of vampires when I was a teenager. I still have yet to read Dracula or Interview with a Vampire . Although, I have seen the movie of the latter many times. I recently picked up the book for a reread as I hadn't read it since I was a teen and couldn't remember much about it. What I loved about Secret Vampire (Night World, #1) is that it deals with a serious life and death si...

When A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness was published in February 2011, I kept picking it up and putting it back down at the bookstore. I was unsure if I'd like the book or not and didn't want to pay full price on a hardcover book.  Fast forward to the day after Thanksgiving, and my mom and I were doing our ritual Black Friday shopping and stepped into Barnes & Noble. A Discovery of Witches was on sale at 40% off, and I had a membership card that would give me another 10% off. I also had a coupon that would give me yet another 20% off. I finally decided I would buy the book. However, my mom wanted to buy it for me as a Christmas present, so I let her. It wasn't until July 2012 that I actually picked up the book to read, and I instantly fell in love with it. There isn't a way to describe what genre it belongs to because it is a cross over of sorts ... fantasy, paranormal, historical fiction, a bit of science fiction, romance, and a bit of action. ...