Another Lazy Summer Day

I'm trying to get back into the swing of things, but it's such a sluggish day today I'm having a very hard time feeling motivated. so for fun I decided to post some of the books I have on hold at the library.

Holds
	Title	Author	Availability
	Confessions of a Serial Kisser	Van Draanen, Wendelin	Your position in the holds queue: 7
	Brisingr	Paolini, Christopher	Your position in the holds queue: 40
	Breathe My Name	Nelson, R. A.	Your position in the holds queue: 3
	Almost Alice	Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds	Your position in the holds queue: 4
	Breaking Dawn	Meyer, Stephenie	Your position in the holds queue: 59
	Ink exchange	Marr, Melissa.	Your position in the holds queue: 14
	How to be bad	Lockhart, E.	Your position in the holds queue: 6
	My most excellent year : a novel of love, Mary Poppins, & Fenway Park	Kluger, Steve.	Your position in the holds queue: 5
	Suite Scarlett	Johnson, Maureen	Your position in the holds queue: 9
	Ivy	Hearn, Julie	Your position in the holds queue: 5
	Confessions of a Triple Shot Betty	Gehrman, Jody	Your position in the holds queue: 6
	Bewitching Season	Doyle, Marissa.	Your position in the holds queue: 1
	Footfree and Fancyloose	Craft, Elizabeth	Your position in the holds queue: 4
	Airhead	Cabot, Meg.	Your position in the holds queue: 27
	Audrey, wait!	Benway, Robin.	Your position in the holds queue: 3
	The host : a novel	Meyer, Stephenie, 1973-	Your position in the holds queue: 38
	Queen of babble gets hitched	Cabot, Meg.	Your position in the holds queue: 23
	The sweet far thing [sound recording]	Bray, Libba.	Your position in the holds queue: 7

Kate Brian & Kieran Scott

While checking out the Private book series on Wikipedia and I read something very interesting:

Kieran Scott (born March 11, 1974), better known by her pen name Kate Brian, is an American author, best known for her work in the young-adult genre. Among her most popular books are Megan Meade's Guide to the McGowan Boys, Sweet 16, Fake Boyfriend, and the prolific Private series. Brian is from New Jersey, was raised in Bergen County and educated at Rutgers University. She lives with her husband in New Jersey.

They said her name was Kieran Scott, author of I Was a Non-Blonde Chereleader series and Geek Magnet. At first I was very skeptical (you know what they say about Wikipedia not being a reliable source of information) so I checked out both their MySpaces (Kieran Scott and Kate Brian) and they say the same thing:

Female
34 years old
NEW JERSEY
United States

I guess I brought this up because I'm curious about why she's operating under two names for the same genre. I've heard of authors who have two separate names: one for Adult fiction and one for YA fiction, but this....this is interesting to me. Why is she using two names for the same genre of books? Is it because she started out with one and decided to stick with it after beginning to use the other name? Or is it because she's working with two different publishing companies and she wants to keep her work separate?

I guess I'll have to ask. But, wouldn't that be a bit rude and intrusive?

Private: Legacy by Kate Brian

Cheyenne Martin's suicide has sent her house mates into shock. After all, in just a year, she's the second student to die at Easton. But, according to her friends, Cheyenne would have wanted everyone to get on with their lives, and get ready for the Legacy - the social event of the season that anybody who's anybody will be attending. But, oddly enough, the legacies at Easton haven't been invited this year. And as the newly elected Billings President, Reed has the task of finding out who is keeping the Easton legacies (especially the Billings Girls) away from the Legacy. But with an old friend back in the picture, and the intoxicating taste of Billings power; Reed can't help but revel in her new found position, forgetting why she was chosen as Billings President in the first place.

Private: Legacy is an answer to my prayers. I've always wanted Reed to take over the Billings house and one of the previous girls from the first four books to return. You'd guess that after all my dreams came true I'd be disappointed. No, I wasn't! Nothing turned out exactly as I thought it would which was refreshing. But Reed's actions and choices left a bitter taste in my mouth; and I have to say I'm very worried about how and when the consequences of her actions will start to blow up in her face and I'm really scared for her. With all this happening there was only one thing running through my mind, "This is one awesome book".

Taggy, Tag, Tagged

I was tagged a week and a day ago by Bookworm.

Here are the rules:
Link to the person that tagged you, post the rules somewhere in your blog, answer the questions, and tag four people in your post. Don't forget to let the tagees know they were tagged, so leave a comment on their blog! And remember to let your tagger know that your entry is posted!

1. Who's your favorite all-time author, and why?

Eek!! This is a really tough question. I do not have a favorite author because I love and admire so many that I could never choose.

2. Who was your first favorite author, and why?
Ah, this is easier. Back in simpler times I was absolutely in love with Enid Blyton, author of many tales such as Mallory Towers, The Galliwags, Mr. Pinkwhistle and many, many others. Her perfect blend of the mystical and mythical was what I was into back then and some of today's authors such as J.K. Rowling credit their way of writing to her.

3. Who's the most recent edition to your list of favorite authors, and why?

Neil Gaiman. His story Anansi Boys was unbelievable. He has a way of mixing old folk tales and modern life effortlessly and his happy endings are very realistic. His work is just....absolutely awesome. If I could, I would celebrate the day I chose to read his stories.

4. If someone asked you who your favorite authors were right now, what would pop out of your mouth?
Too numerous to mention.

My Favorite Fairy Tales

All this talk of fairy tales makes me want to share my childhood favorites with you.

Felicia and the Pot of Pinks

Rumpelstiltzkin

Snow-White and Rose-Red

The Goose-Girl
Little Wildrose

The Golden Mermaid

The Enchanted Wreath

The Twelve Dancing Princesses

The Princess Mayblossom

Fairer-than-a-Fairy

The Flower Queen's Daughter - This story reminds me especially of Melissa Marr's Wicked Lovely

Dorani

There are others, of course, but those are trapped in the depths of my memories until the day comes to find them. These, on the other hand, I was very lucky to find. I had a set of 6 books with these fairy tales plus more. The sixth one was Aesop's Fables. These books were my prized possessions as a child and I was devastated when I lost them. I'm currently looking for those books but have yet to find them. In the mean time I have these stories to remind me of what I once had.

The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale

The life a Princess isn't always glamorous; at least in Crown Princess Anidori-Kiladra Talianna Isilee of Kildenree's case. Barely days after her father's death Princess Ani finds out that she is to travel to a far away to marry. But during the journey she is ambushed by half of her traveling company and is forced to run for her life.

Days later she finds herself at the palace working as a goose girl, Her attempts to contact the king thwarted, and her ex lady in waiting and best friend Seilia parading around as Ani. Realizing how much danger she is in with the enemy so close to her, she decides to lay low. She watches her former allies as they enjoy their lives of highly ranked court officials. But what they do not know is that Ani has a special power brewing inside her. All she has to do is find a way to use it to save herself.

The Goose Girl was one of my absolute favorite fairy tales when I was growing up. So when I saw this book at my library I tried reading it but I couldn't get past the first page. I was seriously disappointed. Now two years later I came across the audio book and decided to give the story another try. Needless to say I got through this one and was very happy that I gave it another go. I found that Shannon Hale's version of The Goose Girl was more of an extension of the original story rather than an alteration. I liked the whole concept of Animal Speak, People Speak and Element Speak (i think), it was all very magical to me. This made the story very appealing in my case. Shannon Hale rewrites a very beautiful fairy tale and has manage to make it her own. I hope to read another very soon.

Magic Study by Maria V. Snyder

After helping to save the Commander and the kingdom of Ixia from a hostile take over and revealing her forbidden magical abilities to everyone, Yelena is returning home, escorted by her new friend and future teacher, Irys, Fourth Magician of Sitia. But what should be a happy reunion however, is shadowed by feelings of unease and confusion. It turns out not all of Yelena's family and fellow magicians are happy to see her and are determined to prove she is a northern spy. Also, Yelena Zaltana, which is her actual name, has no memory of her past family life.

As Yelena is adjusting to her new life and preparing to begin her magical training, danger makes an appearance once more. There is an Ixian prince who has sought refuge in Sitia and has plans to build an army to once again claim his rightful throne. All he wants is Yelena to provide information on the Commander and his army. As if That's not enough, a magical stalker is on the loose, brutally abusing and murdering young girls with magical gifts. The killer, obsessed with power, will do whatever it takes to become the strongest magician in all of Sitia. And Yelena is his next target. Now with all the danger Yelena has to face, she can't help but wonder if she were better off as the Commander's food taster.

Magic Study was just as great Poison Study. It was awesome that Yelena found her family. But I have to say that I wasn't surprised that some of her family members wasn't as accepting as the others. I also wasn't surprised by the reason behind the feelings of loathing. Watching Lifetme Movies makes you very aware of underlying conflicts in a story. The book was just as dark (probably even more so) as the first. I liked how Yelena has grown as a person in this book not only emotionally and mentally but also magically. It was great finding out her power. So far the Study series hasn't disappointed me. I'm really excited to read the third and possibly last book to this series, Fire Study, which sounds very interesting just by the title alone.