Kayla's Book Nook

Genre: Fiction/Fantasy Publication Dates: 2015, 2016, 2017 Author: Victoria Aveyard Synopsis: In this novel, the world is divided into two types of people. People with red blood and people with silver blood. The Silvers have supernatural powers that come from their silver blood. Silvers can be super strong, bend and reflect light, manipulate fire, control people's minds, have super speed, etc. Red blooded people are completely normal, and are the working class citizens. Blood creates a divide based on jobs, money, status, knowledge, and power. The main character is Mare Barrow, a 17 year old girl from a very poor red family. She finds herself working in the palace for the King and Queen silvers. During a surprising event, Mare discovers that although she is a red she has the power to manipulate lightning and electricity. This is supposed to be impossible, so the King decides to hide this power, and claim that she is a long lost princess and betroths her to his se...

Genre: Mystery/Suspense Publication Date: 2016 Synoposis: Zoe is a young girl that is striving for perfection. She is a prodigy musician that strives for excellence. She and her mother, Maria, have spent the last three years striving to be the perfect mother and daughter and creating the perfect life. They have also spent this time hiding a terrible tragedy that left Zoe damaged, Maria without a husband, and a blemish on their otherwise perfect lives. This novel explores what happens when Zoe's past comes back to haunt her future. Then, tragedy strikes again, and Zoe and her family must uncover the truth about a death and move on from these dark events. Review: This book was a very interesting and quick read that contained a lot of suspense and mystery due to the different perspectives. The characters are a little hard to dig into, due to Zoe being pretty boring while trying to be perfect and mundane for so long. One of the more interesting characters is killed off in the be...

Genre: Mystery/Suspense Publication Date: 2015 Synopsis: One day a mother, Rachel Jenner, and her son, Ben are walking in the park. Rachel lets her son walk ahead to the swings on the path, and when she gets to the path her son is gone. Rachel spends the book obsessing over her missing son, trying to piece together enough clues with the police to find him. Review: This book has a lot of good suspense and mystery elements throughout it. It's a very realistic case of a missing boy. Rachel is a believable and well written character that depicts the average mother. She of course blames herself for letting Ben run ahead, and spends half of the book blaming herself, and the other half of the book trying to find anything to help the police find her son. The other main character is the police officer assigned to the case. He takes this case very personally as well, and tries to work to find Ben. I thought this was a good book. It was difficult to read at times due to my personal co...

Recently, I broke my own rule. I had decided that while I was coaching, that I wouldn't read any books. I usually get a little obsessed with reading, and therefore tend to jerk my responsibilities. But, I was bored over the weekend, and so I read a book. I decided to read Milkweed  by Jerry Spinelli. This book is told from the point of view of an uneducated orphan, who is alone and living on the streets during the Holocaust in Warsaw, Poland. This boy, who is later named Misha, is alone in a world that at first seems easy for him. He is small, and fast, and so he steals food from those who are slower than him. Then he meets another boy, and that boy tries to teach him about the world, but Misha is not socialized and he loses a lot of what the other boy tries to teach him. Their world of easy eating, stealing, and getting by is quickly pulled out from underneath him. Soon soldiers come and change the way that life is being lead in Warsaw. Food is scarce, a curfew is employed, a...

When my husband and I were planning our wedding, we had a hard time figuring out where to go on our honeymooon. As recent college graduates with little money, we were on a budget and yet we wanted to do something new, different, fun, exciting, and adventurous. This led me to find our destination, Maine. It offered an adventure pack, which allowed us to go on an animal sightseeing tour and kayaking. We had never been to Maine, and since we had been vacationing at the beach in Delaware for about eight years now, we decided to do something daring and different. The Monday after we were married, we packed up the car, and drove the 10 hours to Moosehead Lake in Maine. It was a long and tiring trip, but we made it in one piece. We settled in to our hotel, and went to look around the town. We found that this town was very unlike the tourist towns down at the beach. Moosehead Lake is all local, there are no restaurant chains, no hotel chains, and no store chains. It was amazing to be st...

Now that I finally have my dream job, I have little time to do much else. I am even finding it hard to find time to read outside of the reading I am assigning in class. It hurts to say that, but I now have summers off, so I'll be able to read then as well. Although, I'll never stop buying books, even though I'll probably never find the time to read them all until I am retired! Finally, to get to my point, the annual book sale in Binghamton, NY is here! I'll be adding the days and times here for any readers that would like to or can go to the sale. Stock up on books at the Penguin Group (USA) Warehouse Book Sale! NEW YORK STATE LOCATION This highly anticipated sale will be held on the following days: Saturday, November 12  —  1-8PM Monday, November 14  —  5-8PM Tuesday, November 15  —  5-8PM Wednesday, November 16  —  5-8PM Thursday, November 17  —  5-8PM Friday, November 18  —  5-8PM Saturday, N...

Finally, after all my hard work, worrying, frustration, anger, and sadness, I have achieved what feels like the impossible these days: I got a teaching job! I applied and interviewed for a position, and was unfortunately turned down. Yet again another rejection, but the teacher they originally hired for the position gained another job at another school. The school then asked me if I would like to take that position, and of course I said yes! This job is perfect for me, it's in a great location, it's near my family, it's teaching English, and it's with a great group of kids. I am finally happy, and working very hard at my new job. Of course I am overwhelmed, and frustrated on a daily basis, but it is definitely worth it. I am thankful that I never let myself give up in the face of so much rejection. In the end, things worked out perfectly for my husband and I, and even though we are extremely busy these days, we are also very happy. For all of you out there that...