11-15 and reading

My most recent 5 layouts:
1. Park Photo Shoot gone bad. See here if you want to know the story of these pictures since you can't read the journaling.
2. Goofball and not afraid to flaunt it. Carter being his silly self and wearing his clothes all backwords. I did some really cool stitching on this one but I don't think you can see it very well here.
3. Family 4. Me and Al. The quote on this one is a favorite of mine: "Once in a while, right in the middle of an ordinary life, Love gives you a Fairy Tale"
5. Welcome Spring. Love and adore the patterned papers on this LO. This was the first trip to the park after the long CT winter last year.

This week I decided I needed a little break from scrapbooking and crafting. I was halfway through three different books and decided this was the week to finish them. And I did. I first finished Princess Acadamey by the fabulous Shannon Hale. I was first introduced to her books through a book club I was in, in CT. I think her books are targeted as young adult fiction but they are fantastic. Shannon has won lots of awards for her writing and Princess Academy is actually a Newberry award winner. I highly recommend her books! Oh, and she is LDS to boot.

Next, I finished Hallelujah by J. Scott Featherstone. I think this must come from a private publisher because it is not on Amazon or Deseret Book. Anyway, I borrowed this book from my mom because she spoke so highly of it. It is a historical fictional account of Handel's writing of the Messiah and the events surrounding his rise and fall and subsequent rise again in 18th century England. I liked it. I LOVE historical fiction so it is right up my alley. However, I didn't really enjoy Featherstone's writing style through much of the book. A little too convoluted for my taste but it was enjoyable and I definitely learned some things about Handel.

Last, I finished Wicked by Gregory Maguire. As you may know, I am a HUGE fan of the musical Wicked which was based very loosely on this book. And when I say loosely, I mean loosely. In fact, the only real things the musical and the book share are the names of the characters. I'm still not sure what I think about the book. It has great literary reviews but most of the readers I know either loved it or hated it. The book is dark, it explores political, social and religious themes. I felt like there was too little character development of the main characters and generally I felt disappointed when I finished it. I did like seeing more of the back story of the main characters. In general, I probably would not recommend this book. I have been looking forward to reading this for a long time and wish I would have loved it.

It was a good little break for me and I feel totally rejuvenated to work on some more of my projects. I still have a stack of books waiting to be read at the side of my bed. Next on my list are: Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory, one of my all time favorite authors (fantastic historical fiction).

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Al just finished it and loved it.

One More Day by the always inspirational Mitch Albom. I got this for Al for Christmas and pretty much everyone in my family read it while they were here.

PS - sorry for the really crummy spacing on this post. I've tried to fix it about 10 times and it doesn't seem to work.