McGuyver's First 104 review

Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis
I'm a big Red Hot Chili Pepper's fan and before reading this I had read numerous accounts of the excessive lifestyle this band has led and it's all here in Scar Tissue . Sadly the book wasn't as great as I was hoping as Kiedis' life is a tad repetitive. Sure that might seem like a dumb thing to say, but when reading it on paper, we're presented with the same cycle of meeting girls, doing drugs, getting clean, meeting girls and doing drugs again. I read with shock and awe at the start but by about three quarters in, I had lost interest in his own tale. What was much more engaging was the stories of Kiedis' childhood and the dynamics of the band. Also the stories behind the conceiving of their classic songs and details of their various line-ups make this a great book for any fan.



The Time-Travellers Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
I was sucked into this story after the first few pages. I had been very excited to read this as the concept is wonderful, but what surprised me is how well it's pulled off. There were only rare occassions where this book left me confused as to what point in the timeline we were meant to be following. For the rest, the book flowed with ease and I was caught up in this highly original romance. There were some problems however such as the fact that the book had a slightly slow middle half which could have been easily trimmed (and hopefully will for the film adaptation). Also the time travelling Henry is not the most inspiring male specimen, in fact he's a bit of a jerk and it's occassionally hard to see why Clare would devote her life to him besides his rather interesting gimmick of being able to visit her as a child (which thankfully never becomes as creepy as in theory it might become)