Fruitcake Reads: The Next Queen of Heaven and a couple others

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Keary got me this book for Christmas because he knows how much I love Gregory Maguire's books.  Wicked is one of my my all-time favorite books, and Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister ranks pretty highly too.  So, even though I had not heard of The Next Queen of Heaven, I was excited to read it.

The previous books of Maguire's that I have read were fantasy-based.  The Next Queen of Heaven was based in reality and centers around several people living in a small town in New York who don't really fit in and are anticipating Y2K and changes in their lives.  This was a good book, but I think I prefer his fantasy books.  The characters and plot just felt a little lacking: the characters were normal, regular people like you and me, and the plot and actions seemed that way too.  Some people may love a story like that, but I prefer to escape the regular and normal when I read.

Would I recommend it?  If you are a fan of Maguire's, sure, just be prepared that it isn't fantasy based.  If you   read the back cover and are intrigued, do read.  It delivers just what the back cover indicates it will.  

I've read four more books over the past couple months.  The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins was fantastic and I can't even come up with fitting enough words for a review.  I went into reading them not thinking I would like it, but since it was so highly recommended, I wanted to try it.  Oh my!  Loved it!  The writing style wasn't my favorite not was the subject matter, but it all fit so well together and worked out.  Read them.

Another highly recommended book was The Book Thief.  I wanted to like it, but I couldn't get into it.  I read about half of it, but reading started feeling like a chore and I stopped.  Maybe I will come back to it in a few months, maybe it just wasn't for me. 

Quarterly Top 5

I decided to participate in the Quarterly 5 at Naptimemomtog, meaning I picked out my 5 most favorite pictures I've taken since January, through March.  I've actually already posted all but one of these previously.

I posted this one for another photo challenge at I heart faces.  I love the intensity of Maggie's stare coupled with the wild movement of her hair.

I rarely am able to get a picture of Gwendolyn without her posing or making a fake smile.  You would think we watched lots of America's Next Top Model given the way she acts n front of the camera sometimes (we don't).  But I thought this was a sweet capture of her taken at Spring Break.

We had cupcakes at the library for Dr. Seuss's birthday!

Slice of Life shot and it was our first time to ever fly a kite.

Maggie and Gwendolyn swing and play outside every day the weather allows.  I love how they are both smiling and laughing and playing together, and I love that I was able to capture it because I know they might not always play so well together.

I heart faces: A Wild One

The photo challenge this week at I Heart Faces is "People's Choice" and we were just supposed to pick our favorite picture from the month of March.

I went through my pictures a dozen times, but kept coming back to this one.  It isn't entirely in focus and I cut off her chin, but I love the intensity of her stare and the wild movement of her hair.

Posing Giraffes

I have spent 15 minutes sitting here, looking at the screen, trying to find my words.  I considered posting about a book I just read, but I like to have more personal entries for Fridays when I link up with Rachel Anne and the Company Girls.  Then I considered a post about my frustration with rarely getting time to myself, and I'd just rather put a pin in that and look for better perspective.  The most obvious choice would be just posting about my  Thursday which is into the day of the week that guarantees all hell breaks loose, but I am still processing all of it. We are all okay, it is just mentally draining.

So I started looking through my pictures from earlier this week at the zoo.  I took 100+ pictures, but I kept coming back to the pictures I took of the giraffes.  I've always had a thing for giraffes: they are so beautiful and manage to appear simultaneously awkward and graceful.  My Grandy got me a signed print with personal regards from the artist of this Frace print for my high school graduation.  The string of pictures I took are by no means perfect, but it made me so happy to capture them.

I was snapping away, watching the giraffes.  When I walked up, they were all actually standing at the wall watching the zookeepers next door talk and clean. But I was snap, snap, snapping (pictures, not my fingers- that would be rude). Then suddenly, two of the giraffes took notice of me.

(Like I said the pictures aren't perfect.  The giraffes aren't in focus well, and the baby giraffe kissed his lips at me as I shot, making his head more blurry.)  Just the capture makes me smile though.

Then they started walking toward me.

And she (he?) came and stood right in front of me and posed.  Ha!  Seriously made my day.





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