Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Published by Random House Audio

The world is a difficult place in the year 2044. Wade Watts spends most of his time in the OASIS, the virtual world where most of the population goes to escape the harshness and ugliness of the real world. James Halliday, creator of the OASIS, has hidden inside its many thousands of planets a puzzle that holds the ultimate power to whoever can solve its many elements and get to the end. Millions of people have worked towards finding these puzzles, with the knowledge that much of what Halliday based them on was his love of 1980’s pop culture, and Wade is just one of those many people. Since he is just a regular person without any real money or means of super powers inside the OASIS, he is happy learning as much about Halliday as possible while knowing, deep down, that he has no chance of being the winner of Halliday’s prize … until he finds the first puzzle.

What a fun and exciting novel Ready Player One is! Let me tell you that even though everyone recommended this book and said I would love it, I went into it with quite a bit of trepidation. You see, even though I was born in the 80’s (1983), I don’t have a lot of memories from the actual 80’s – I’m more of a 90’s generation kid – so I was nervous that I wouldn’t get a lot of the pop culture references. Fear not, fellow twenty-somethings, the 1980’s references were not lost on me a bit and I enjoyed the book all the more for them!

There was so much I truly enjoyed about this novel. Wade is the kind of character that you love and root for instantly – it’s that underdog thing I think, plus he’s such a truly good and nice person you just want good things to come his way. I loved the way he developed a friendship/romance with Artemis, a relationship that was completely based on their OASIS personas but which grew into something real over the course of the novel. I loved all of the adventures it took to get to the final prize from James Halliday.

And oh my gosh, H! For those of you who have read the book, I have to say, I LOVED what Cline did with Wade’s best friend, H. That is all.

I listened to the audio of Ready Player One which was absolutely the right choice. Wil Wheaton narrates it and he does a fantastic job. He truly brought the action, the characters, this entire adventure, to life. I was truly invested in this story and much of that is thanks to Wheaton’s expert narration. I am not sure I would have liked it quite as much had I chose to read the print version.

I loved Ready Player One! Highly recommended.

Audiobook Week: Mid-week meme

Today’s post is my first foray this week into the discussion topics over at Devourer of Books’ Audiobook Week. Today Jen has an audiobook meme for us, and I thought it would be fun to share my thoughts!

Current/most recent audiobook:

Happy Accidents by Jane Lynch, narrated by Jane Lynch (car audio) and Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion, narrated by Kevin Kennedy (iPod audio).

Impressions:

I’m a huge fan of Jane Lynch (who plays Sue Sylvestor on Glee) so I am loving Happy Accidents. Warm Bodies I’m not too sure about yet, but I do think that Kevin Kennedy is doing an excellent job getting inside the mind of a zombie, and his deep, gravelly voice adds to the creepiness of the story.

Current/most recent favorite audiobook:

Well neither one of these are recent, but I LOVED Columbine by Dave Cullen, narrated by Don Leslie and also I would have to say The Road by Cormac McCarthy, narrated by Rupert Degas. What I remember most vividly about both of these audio experiences is how the narrators truly made me FEEL the story, in the best possible way. Both books would be excellent in print, but the audios pushed them even further into excellence, in my humble opinion.

Favorite narrator you’ve discovered recently:

Wil Wheaton! I thought he was absolutely genius in his narration of Ready Player One (which I’ll be reviewing on Friday). He truly embodied the idea of bringing a character and the story to life for the listener.

One title from your TBL (to be listened) stack, or your audio wishlist:

A Grown Up Kind of Pretty and Backseat Saints, both written and narrated by Joshilyn Jackson. Jackson is a masterful storyteller, and her audio performances are phenomenal. These are the only two books of hers I haven’t read yet, and I’m putting them off because I don’t want to be finished with her work!

Your audio dream team (what book or author would you LOVE to see paired with a certain narrator, can already exist or not):

I have to say that I’m a sucker for a celebrity memoir, and I love it even more when they narrate themselves. For example – Tina Fey, Rob Lowe, and Jane Lynch are three that come to mind that I’ve already listened to and loved. So I guess I’m cheating here when I say that for any celebrity I am interested in who writes a book, my dream would be for that person to narrate him/herself.

Drop Dead Healthy by A.J. Jacobs

Drop Dead Healthy: One Man’s Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection by A.J. Jacobs
Published by Simon and Schuster Audio
Review copy provided by the publicist

After perfecting his brain in The Know-It-All and getting his spirit cleansed in The Year of Living Biblically, A.J. Jacobs decided it’s time to get his health in order. Drop Dead Healthy is Jacobs’ chronicle of the time he spent trying to become the healthiest man in the world. Over the course of two years, Jacobs embarked on many diet and exercise regimes, and other techniques, in the quest to find out how to actually become healthy. Many of the advice he received was contradictory, but he devoted himself to the task of truly becoming healthy and finding out what will actually get him there.

I chose to read Drop Dead Healthy because I quite enjoyed The Year of Living Biblically and was hoping Jacobs would provide me with a similar experience in his newest memoir. I have to say that I got exactly what I was hoping for with this book: a funny, engaging, and actually a bit informative memoir by the very entertaining A.J. Jacobs.

The thing with this book is that it’s not exactly educational … he’s not trying to tell the reader how to be healthy. Rather, he’s on a journey for his own knowledge and takes the reader right along with him. There is some real information in here, though, and I was surprised to learn about some of the interesting techniques the “experts” say are necessary to get healthy. Especially some of the exercise regimes! I found it hilarious and also interesting how many diets there are which are supported by “evidence” – all of these diets contradict each other but each one has many followers.

What makes the novel is Jacobs’ snarkiness throughout the book. He is trying out all these different methods, while poking fun at them and also bringing up real issues with many of the things he tries. His style is funny and keeps the reader entertained throughout the book.

I listened to the audiobook of Drop Dead Healthy and I think it was a good choice. Jacobs narrates the audio himself, and while initially I wasn’t a fan of his voice (it has a nasal quality that annoyed me at first) after the first disc I got used to it and came to appreciate his narration. I tend to like when authors narrate their own books, especially nonfiction, because it makes me feel like they are reading it to me, and that was the case with Drop Dead Healthy as well – once I got used to the voice.

This isn’t a serious memoir by any means, but it was quite enjoyable and entertaining so I would definitely recommend it. The audio wasn’t my favorite production ever, but I liked it and would recommend either the audio or the print version of the book.

The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman

The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman
Published by Simon & Schuster Audio
Review copy provided by the publicist

The Dovekeepers, a work of fiction based in history, follows the Jews that held out for months against the Roman armies on the mountain of Masada nearly two thousand years ago. Hoffman delivers to the reader four very different but equally powerful and inspiring women. Yael carries the burden of her mother’s death, as she died giving birth to Yael and her assassin father has never forgiven her for this crime. Revka, a baker’s wife, lives with her grandsons after watching the Romans kill her daughter and son-in-law. Aziza has been raised to be a warrior, disguises herself as a boy, until the day she meets and falls for a fellow soldier. And Shirah, called a witch by many, has knowledge of ancient magic and medicine, knowledge that serves her well at Masada.

The Dovekeepers is an incredibly difficult book for me to review because I’m having a lot of trouble articulating what I truly thought about the novel and how it made me feel. First, let me get this out of the way – there is no question that this book is expertly researched, incredibly well-written, and beautifully crafted. The research that Hoffman must have done in order to put this thing together had to be a huge undertaking. And the writing in this novel is absolutely gorgeous. Hoffman certainly knows how to put words together, to create passages that one wants to keep rereading and going back to over and over again, and she did that with such expertise in The Dovekeepers.

This book is not, however, an easy read. There are a lot of characters to keep track of (with unfamiliar names), much history to put together, and the events in the novel are complicated and very detailed. I chose to listen to this book and while I thought the audio was brilliantly done, for me personally I’m not sure that was the right choice. When I listen to an audiobook, it is usually short spurts of time so it takes a while to get through one – something that becomes a real problem with an audio of this length (16 discs). I would find myself forgetting characters or key plot points because it took me FOREVER to get through the entire audiobook. And because of the complexity of the story, when I would get off track or forget important details, I would become frustrated and not enjoy the story as much as I could have.

I believe I will reread this book at some point in print. If you can listen to The Dovekeepers for long stretches of time, I think the audio would be a great choice because the four narrators are excellent and the story does lend itself well to audio. For me personally, though, the audio didn’t work for my lifestyle and I will want to read the print to fully appreciate Hoffman’s beautiful writing and this intricate story.

See what I mean about not being able to properly review this one? I’m totally not doing it justice, I know. Yes I would recommend it. Read The Dovekeepers and tell me what you think.

TSS: Back to reality

Good morning everyone and welcome to The Sunday Salon! My vacation was really, really fantastic. It was everything I could have hoped for. Great times with my family, tons of time spent luxuriating poolside and beachside, and I even saw a dolphin while kayaking! Couldn’t have been any better, truly.

And now it’s back to reality … I’m happy to be going back to work, which sounds strange but I do enjoy my job quite a bit. Yes it’s stressful and eats up most of my life but I enjoy being there and I work with wonderful people. Not going to lie though, I’m grateful for this last day of relaxation and errand-running and getting stuff done around the house before the week begins.

Yesterday after getting back from the beach, hubby and I headed over to Universal Studios as Josh Turner was the performer for this week’s summer concert series. I don’t even like country music but hubby loves it, and so I knew a few of Josh Turner’s songs because of him. He was excellent in concert! That man has an incredibly deep, sexy voice and I really enjoyed listening to him. It was a fun night.

So this week is Audiobook Week, hosted by Jen at Devourer of Books and I plan to participate! I am hoping to get three audiobook reviews up this week, plus respond to a few of the daily topics she has planned. Should be a fun time!

What did I read on vacation, you ask? Well, almost nothing. I’m embarrassed to admit that the one book I finished was Fifty Shades of Grey. I’ve been criticizing the darned thing for months now so I figured it was time to actually read it for myself. And let me tell you, the writing is as bad as I was expecting (maybe worse). I will have a full review in about two weeks but for now I can safely say that I would NOT recommend the thing.

Well, that’s about all I’ve got for today. I’m off to get some posts written for this week. What do you have going on today?

Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Insurgent by Veronica Roth
Published by Katherine Tegen Books, an imprint of HarperCollins

This review will contain spoilers for the first book in this series, Divergent.

No summary on this one, folks. If you read Divergent you know how it ended, and I was thrilled to find that Insurgent begins exactly where its predecessor left off. This is now a crazy place, with war and factions divided against one another. I loved that the action started right as the book began, it brought me right back into the story and although some details of the first book were a bit fuzzy, the major plot points were brought back to my mind immediately. I remembered what I loved about Tris and Four and my love affair with these characters continued throughout this novel.

Tris really developed as a character over the course of this novel. After the events at the end of the first novel, she’s feeling incredibly conflicted with her emotions – she feels guilty, depressed at the loss of her parents, confused about where her loyalties should lie, and angry about all of it. She remains just as kick-ass a heroine as she was in Divergent, but her character gains a bit more depth as well as she works through all these emotions and grows up even more.

I was extremely relieved to find that Roth did not introduce a love triangle in this story. SO many YA novels have the main character confused over love, but not here. Tris and Four are strong as ever and even though there are obvious issues between the two of them throughout the novel (mostly because of factors outside of their control, like war) they have a mostly solid relationship and I loved them together.

One of the only quibbles I had with Divergent was that I felt the world-building wasn’t as strong as it could have been. Well, at the end of Insurgent there is a HUGE revelation about the world Tris lives in that explains why the reader was left in the dark for so long about the details of why these five factions came to be. This made me so happy, but so anxious at the same time. I’m at the point now where I need the third book, and I’m sure it’ll be quite a while before that happens.

So, yeah. I loved Insurgent too. This series is awesome, you should read it.

Pilgrims by Elizabeth Gilbert

Pilgrims by Elizabeth Gilbert
Published by Penguin

Originally published in 1997, this collection of short stories was Elizabeth Gilbert’s first foray into published fiction.

I’m one of the people who actually liked Eat, Pray, Love a LOT, so when I noticed that Gilbert has written fiction as well I knew I had to give it a try. I love her somewhat sarcastic sense of humor and her complete openness and honesty in her nonfiction, but unfortunately that same voice didn’t exactly translate in this collection of short stories.

It’s not that I disliked every one of these stories – in fact, there were several that were incredibly compelling and that I wanted more from. But for the most part, this collection felt to me like a bunch of stories about a bunch of boring people doing a whole lot of nothing. They just weren’t all that interesting and not enough happened in most of these stories to make me want to keep reading the rest of them.

Also, I couldn’t hear Gilbert’s voice in these stories. I could not reconcile the Elizabeth Gilbert I knew from Eat, Pray, Love and Committed to the writer of these stories – it felt to me that they were written by someone completely different. One can argue that she wrote this book when she was in a very different place in her life than when she wrote her two nonfiction books, but I suppose since I was hoping to hear her in these stories the fact that I didn’t was a disappointment.

So even though I really do like Elizabeth Gilbert, Pilgrims just wasn’t for me. I did enjoy a few of the stories, but as a whole this collection fell short of my expectations. I would only recommend this book if you are a huge short story person and looking to explore a collection about ordinary people going about their lives.

TSS: Vacation bound!

So last week I was sharing with all of you how stressed out and exhausted I’ve been lately. Well, this weekend I have the opposite news to share: I am officially on vacation! I am on vacation this entire week and tomorrow I’m headed to Indian Rocks Beach, FL to spend five days with my mom, aunt, cousin, grandma, and great-aunt. It’s going to be a relaxing and fun-filled girls week at the beach. And boy do I need it.

This past week flew by (as they do these days) and I barely got any reading done. I did finish Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult (I know, I know, but I can’t resist) and while it was predictable as ever I have to admit that I enjoyed it. I’m still working through A Discovery of Witches and I plan to start reading The Shadow of the Wind today for book club later this month. I am hoping to get some good reading in this week but I’m totally ok if I don’t – I only see my family a few times a year so the time I do get with them is precious to me and I definitely want to take advantage of every moment. Reading will probably happen on the beach but it can take a backseat to family time if necessary. 🙂

Today I’m just trying to get everything ready for the week, packing and laundry and cleaning and all of that fun stuff. I have two posts scheduled for this week but will not have my computer so I’m going to be completely unplugged for five days. It’s a little scary, actually, but I know it’s the right thing to do.

What are you up to this lovely Sunday?

The End of Everything by Megan Abbott

The End of Everything by Megan Abbott
Published by Reagan Arthur Books, an imprint of Hachette

Thirteen-year-old Lizzie is happily nestled in her life in the suburban midwest when her best friend, Evie, disappears. Lizzie takes it upon herself to uncover the truth about who kidnapped Evie and why, in the process spending more time at her best friend’s home, which Lizzie sees as the perfect home and family. Her quest for the truth has the direct result of forcing Lizzie to grow up faster than she thought possible, as she learns things about her friend that force her to question how well she really knew Evie after all.

There is no question that the writing in The End of Everything is excellent. Abbott’s prose is evocative and conjures up a clear picture of suburban life in middle America. Told from the point of view of Lizzie, Abbott truly got into the head of a sad, confused, but determined thirteen-year-old girl and I felt that I understood Lizzie, I sympathized with her, and over the course of the novel she became at true person to me.

While I appreciated the Abbott’s writing in this novel, I have to admit that I don’t know how much I liked the book itself. It definitely has that haunting, things-are-not-what-they-seem vibe throbbing throughout the entire novel, and I liked that eerie feel. At the same time, it was full of so much dark, depressing stuff that I think eventually that got to me. The book’s somber mood invaded my own mood as I was reading it and put me in a sad state. This is actually a huge credit to the author, since she has a remarkable ability to make me feel what the characters are feeling, but at the same time it really made me dread picking up the book after a while and it took me much longer than a book this short normally takes me to finish it.

So I don’t know about this one. I definitely can see what makes The End of Everything a compelling read and a good novel, but it is incredibly dark and that was difficult for me. I could go either way on this, but I would say if you are a fan of these loss of innocence type stories, give this novel a chance.

The Lola Quartet by Emily St. John Mandel

The Lola Quartet by Emily St. John Mandel
Published by Unbridled Books
Review copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley

Gavin Sasaki is enjoying his career as journalist in New York City when he makes a decision that has the direct result in him being fired from his job. With no income and little chance of finding a job in the wake of the economic collapse of 2008, Gavin heads back to his hometown of Sebastian, Florida, where his sister Eilo, a real estate broker specializing in foreclosed properties, offers him a job. There is another reason that Gavin is inspired to go back to Florida – Eilo has shown him a picture of a ten-year-old girl who might be homeless, and who looks exactly like Gavin and has the same last name as his high school girlfriend, Anna. When Gavin arrives in Sebastian, he immediately begins an investigation into what really happened to Anna ten years ago when, after high school, Gavin never heard from her again. He revisits the old friends that made up the Lola Quartet, a jazz quartet that was basically his life in high school, in the hopes of uncovering the mystery that is Anna and this little girl who Gavin is absolutely sure is the daughter he has never met.

The Lola Quartet is an absolutely beautiful, dare I say brilliant, novel that I loved tremendously. I had never read anything by Emily St. John Mandel before but now I see what people have been raving about – her writing is gorgeous, her characters are realistically flawed to perfection, and this story was constructed so tightly, with so many layers, that I couldn’t help constantly turning pages. It is truly a spectacular novel.

Gavin is the kind of character that is difficult to like, but impossible not to sympathize with. He has made such a mess of his life, and is frustratingly naive about so many things. Once the reader begins to really understand the many truths of this story, it is hard to understand how Gavin could NOT have known these things, could not have seen what should have been obvious. But at the same time, the reader can’t help but feel sorry for him as he realizes just how naive he’s been all those years. He had so very many missed opportunities – everything would have been different in his life if he would have just opened his eyes back in high school. This is a difficult thing for me to explain without spoilers, but let me just say that Mandel did a tremendous job creating this character that is both incredibly flawed and yet one that the reader still wants to root for throughout the novel.

There is so much to love about The Lola Quartet. Unfortunately, I don’t know what else to say without spoiling the whole thing. The writing is delicious. The plot is extremely compelling and seriously twisty. These characters will creep into your heart and stay there. Just read the darned thing already.