Matt

I'm still on a quest for new authors and seem to be in a sci-fi rut for the last couple of weeks. I'm not sure where I found Ready Player One, but it looked interesting and had received decent reviews.
Overall it had a decent storyline, albeit predictable. There was never any doubt as to whether the hero would win in the end, basically your typical “group of like minded people surmount great odds” type of book. The most unique aspect of the book, and why I think it has received good reviews was the nearly unbearable torrent of 80's trivia. I understand that this was central to the story, but many times throughout I went into scanning mode just go get past the useless facts and parse out the relevant bits of story.
I'm also not a fan of the overly descriptive sci-fi writer.

Full review posted at:
http://www.mattsrespite.com/2012/01/dont-waste-your-time-with-ready-player.html

It isn't often that I start a book by a new author and find myself unable to put it down. At the moment I'm about 60% into the Windup Girl (gotta love the new Kindle inspired method of gauging your progress in a book), and find myself even daydreaming about the world portrayed. Since buying the kindle I've been caught off guard quite often by how much I have read when I later check how many pages were in a book.
This is the first book by Paolo Bacigalupi that I've read and I've already decided I'll have to see what else he has written. The pacing is fantastic, the world created is immersive, and the story is tightly written with believable characters. This book really does have everything going for it so far. Hopefully he will be able to continue it until the end, I'd hate to finish this one with that often felt sense of outrage when a writer can't put together a cohesive ending.

Full review posted at:
http://www.mattsrespite.com/2012/01/windup-girl-book-review.html

What if Abe Lincoln freed the slaves to end the scourge of vampirism in the new world? The title of the book, and the audacity of the premise had gotten this book put onto my list sometime last year, but I've only recently gotten around to reading it. The movie version will be coming soon, and despite it not being a great book I think the transition to a movie will do a lot of good for the story.

I'm finding one major issue with having my Kindle is that I can have way too many books stacked up to read. I think at the moment I have 8 books I'm in progress on, and another 20 or 30 I'd like to read this year. Over the last few months I've probably loaded a few hundred books into it, and I have absolutely no idea when I'll have a chance to read thru all of them. Ok I have an idea, but that's for a future post.


Historical fiction is not a genre I read very often, and most books in that genre are pretty forgettable. Although reading about Abe Lincoln as a vampire hunter was a fun read, I doubt in 6 months time I'll have any desire to read it again and will most likely have forgotten most of the specifics. I would recommend this book though if you need something lite to while away the time.

The story follows a generally historical timeline of Abraham Lincolns life, with the addition of Vampires (of course). I'm honestly not too sure how historically accurate the book is, but with Honest Abe hunting vampires I think you should go elsewhere for your history anyway.

This review available on my site - http://www.mattsrrespite.com

Lately I've been on a mission to discover new writers, and this is the first of those books.
Separated into 3 books with one overall story (I would be more inclined to call them 3 parts - perhaps it was originally published as 3 separate books) 1Q84 begins in what appears to be our world, then Aomame transitions to the world she takes to calling 1Q84. My feelings are mixed on this book, the overall story was engrossing but the pacing and writing were chaotic. At times Haruki Murakami was almost poetic in his descriptions, yet at other times he was perfunctory enough that I was shocked out of reading. Because of this it took me almost 3 weeks to read, days would go by where I was just not in the mood to get back into it.

Full review posted at:
http://www.mattsrespite.com/2012/01/1q84-book-review.html

Another fun read for children

Simple and enjoyable for my daughter, with lively drawings to entice her as I try to force her to read. Maybe the drawings are to distracting, or my child is too easily entranced.
We'll probably never know, but we will look for another book in the series