Kayla's Book Nook

Yesterday, while I had the day off from work, I thought that I would pick up a book by four different authors. Laurell K. Hamilton, Yasmine Galenorn, Marjorie M. Liu, and Sharon Shinn, all come together to write a book with four different stories with the same theme, magic and love. Each story surrounds a princess of some sort, from one time or another, but each also has an element of magic in it. The first story, Can He Bake a Cherry Pie?, by Laurell K. Hamilton is about a princess who would rather take her own destiny in her hands, than be married to someone that she does not want. Instead, she decides to save a prince that was banished from his land, and kept away by a witch, because he did not appreciate women. Although, this is a short story in the book, it's a great one that is filled with a woman who does not fear dieing instead of living a life of hate, distaste, loneliness, and abandonment. The second story, "The Shadow of Mist," by Yasmine Galenorn, is about...

Today, I looked at my loans and all that I have to pay back for an education that I might not even use, a degree that is doing me no good now, and who knows if it might in the future. I pay all this money, put my life in debt, and then I don't even get to use my degree to do what I love, or to pay back those loans. This life, this economy, the way we are set up here in America just makes me want to fight someone sometimes! Tell kids to go to college, and rack up money in loans, and that it'll be okay because they'll have a degree to use. But what they don't tell us is that the economy sucks, unemployment sucks, and that loan people are effing sharks that just want their money no matter what! I am so freaking sick of all this shit, it makes me not want to go to grad school! I just want a job where I can afford to live, to buy food, and to be happy. Is that too much to ask for? Why go to college, when the job I'm doing now doesn't require it?

Over the past few days, I decided to read one of the free books that I downloaded on my nook, to really get a feel of how it is to read on it. One of my free books was Alice's Adventures in Wonderland , and the second book Through the Looking-Glass. I've read the first book a few times, but I haven't read the second one yet, and I was curious to see how these books matched up against the popular Disney movies. I love these books, for the magical, imaginative, and interesting quality that they both possess. There are so many elements that are completely odd, and yet they say something about our society, how we name things, why we say certain phrases, etc. They are so quick and on spot, that I don't think children would understand them at first, but as an adult I picked up on so many of them. I've always loved the movie from Disney, but now after reading the two books, I realize that cartoon movie is a combination of the two books. Which is interesting, but I think ...

Yesterday I started reading this book, Hold Still , by Nina LaCour, because it's a shorter book, and it looked interesting and lonely on my shelf. As a I read the dusk jacket, I realized that this was going to be a sad book, but a revolutionary one as well.  This book is about two teenage girls, that are best friends, and yet one of those friends, Ingrid, commits suicide and leaves Caitlin questioning everything about their lives, friendship, relationships, and so much more. It's about the desperation of a girl left alone, without answers, and then when she finds Ingrid's journal, with answers she's not sure she can hear or understand. Caitlin is drowning in grief, she is confused beyond belief, and yet there were signs and clues along the way, and still she did nothing. It's an issue she deals with in the book, that I think many people deal with in life, and it's one that the author is not afraid to explore and grapple with in the story. I also love how her f...

Lately, I read the second installment of the Millennium Trilogy, The Girl Who Played With Fire, by Stieg Larsson. Again, this is a very long book, which is why it took me so long between the first one and the second one. But, I tried to read it as much as I could, because the book is exciting, and riveting in a way that makes you want to keep reading till you can't keep your eyes open any longer! This book is still about Lisbeth Salander, Blomkvist, and many other key characters from the first book. Although, this one focuses much more on Salander, her background, and why she is the way that she is in the books. I don't want to give too much away to those who have not yet read the books, but this one is as good or even better than the first in the trilogy. I love the more in-depth knowledge that you get about the characters, as well as how interesting the plot, and story line are in this one. It takes you deeper and deeper into these characters lives, actions, stories, and pa...

Just recently, I received a Barnes and Noble gift card from my Mom, and I bought three new books with it. The books that I bought were: The Clockwork Angel, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and The Girl who Played with Fire.  As you might have read, I already read the first book that I recently purchased, and due to reviews, I thought I would immediately read Stieg Larsson's trilogy, starting with the first two books. When I first started this book, I was having a very hard time getting into it, because the beginning is a bit dry, financial, and sometimes confusing. I was starting to rethink buying these books, and reading them after all. I was also dismayed at the lack of background knowledge that I did not have to read these books. A lot of the content is Swedish related, because the author wrote it originally in Swedish, no problem there I just wish I knew what a damn kronor was, besides that it's money. After I got through the beginning, another part of the story starte...