The Running Bibliophile

Karen's Witch (Baby-Sitters Little Sister, #1) by Ann M. Martin is the first book in Baby-Sitters Little Sister , which is a spinoff of The Baby-Sitters Club . Karen Brewer only gets to spend every other weekend with her father and his new family. The biggest rule at her father's house is that she's not allowed to spy on the neighbors, which Karen ignores so she can spy on Mrs. Porter, aka Morbidda Destiny, who is a witch. As a tween, I read a few of the books in the Baby-Sitters Little Sister book series, but because the series was a bit young for me so I didn't read very many of the books in this series. I decided to give the first book a read as an adult since I didn't really remember anything about it. I was pleasantly surprised by the storyline of Karen's Witch . It was an engaging read with quite a bit of realism to it. Kids have such an active imagination and sometimes disregard parent's rules, so I loved that Ann M. Martin wrote a book about these

Leave The World Behind by Rumaan Alam is a fiction book where Amanda and Clay rent a vacation home in a rural area of New York for them to spend some quality time with their two children for a week. Everything is going well until they receive a knock at the door late one night. It's the owners of the house, and they're there because of a blackout in New York City. Without cell phone service and the cable and internet out, Amanda and Clay don't know what to believe and if they can trust the couple on the doorstep of the rental. I bought this on impulse because I liked the cover and the synopsis. However, once I started reading Leave The World Behind , I wasn't too sure if I was going to like it or not. Although the book is very well written, I didn't especially care for the style of writing, and certain scenes in the book seemed very clinical when it shouldn't have been.  Because I don't care for the style of writing, the book seemed much longer than two hun

Modern Love (Video High, #1) by Marilyn Kaye is a young adult book where a high school receives a grant to start a teen television show. The students decide to discuss controversial topics and current events related to them and their peers. This is a book that I first read as a teenager, and I remembered loving it, so I decided to reread it as an adult to see if it held up the test of time. I enjoyed it just as much as I did as a teen even though it was a little juvenile for me as an adult. What I loved about Modern Love (Video High, #1) is that it deals with subject matters that should be important to teenagers and shows two sides to the controversy. In this book, the big controversy is providing condoms for free at high school clinics, which segues into whether or not teens are having sex. The thing I find most interesting is this is a topic that is still relevant for teens and parents today, and there is still a huge divide between the two camps of whether or not teenagers should

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson is a non-fiction book taking a look at the history of the United States of America, specifically racism as a caste system and compares it to other caste systems like those in India and Nazi Germany. Using specific examples from history, Wilkerson takes a hard look at how we got to where we are now. Isabel Wilkerson's Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents is an eye opening book that everyone should read, and it should be required reading in high school. The amount of history included is amazing. There were things that I already knew and some that I didn't. I think what surprised me the most is how much of the history I learned in school was glossed over.  One such example of history being glossed over is when people were hanged for their crime that photographers would be on hand for the crowds so each person or family could have their photo taken with the the guilty person hanging from the tree. Then, they would send a

Midnight Sun (Twilight, #5) by Stephenie Meyer tells Edward Cullen's side of the story of when he and Isabella "Bella" Swan meet . The tale is so much darker when told from Edward's perspective and gives the reader more insight into the original story of Twilight (Twilight, #1) . Hang on to your seats Twihards because you're in for the ride of your life! Who else was ecstatic when they heard that Stephenie Meyer had actually completed writing Midnight Sun and was actually publishing it last year? The news made my 2020 a little bit brighter among the pandemic. And, how apropos was it that Edward's version of the story was released at this time when his backstory directly correlates to what is going on in the world today. If you haven't read the first or second installment of the series Twilight (Twilight, #1) and New Moon (Twilight, #2) , or seen the movies, then I want to forewarn you that there are a couple of spoilers below. As excited as I was about

The Berenstain Bears and the Nerdy Nephew by Stan and Jan Berenstain is about a new student named Ferdy Factual who is a stuck up know it all. He is rude to Brother & Sister no matter how nice they are to him. When other students begin to bully Ferdy, he realizes he actually needs friends like Brother & Sister.  As a child, I loved reading picture books with some of my favorite stories being part of The Berenstain Bears books by Stan and Jan Berenstain. I never knew that Stan & Jan Berenstain had made their famous books into chapter books as well. It wasn't until BookBub.com sent me an email about a bundle of these chapter books being on sale that I knew of them. As a side note, I always thought the books were The Berenstein Bears . Boy was I surprised to learn I was wrong! The Berenstain Bears and the Nerdy Nephew is a great chapter book for younger children just starting out to read . . . I'd recommend it for six to eight year old kids. It was super cute a