I wonder how many of us Mr. King has put on the path of reading, that we may otherwise had not found without his writing?
Were you reading Carrie, or It, or The Shining, when you knew if your parents had any idea of what was in that book, they would hit you upside the head with it?
Which book by Stephen King made you decide you absolutely had to be a writer?
And which book have you read over-and-again?
I’m going to spare you the biography on him, as I see there are a lot of posts in honor of Mr. King today. I will say I have read many of his books, but not all of them; yet.
My favorite:
I cannot explain what it is about this book that makes me love it so. It could be the actual story; it may be something that was going on in my life at the time I first read it that it gave me an escape from. There really is no other connection within the characters, plot, or even environment where it takes place that would connect with me. But I absolutely love this book the most!
The time Stephen King made me cry:
Yes, this book made me physically, ugly-sob cry, and I would never have thought he could do that to me, and it came out of no where! Some of his best writing, in my humble opinion. I have not read this one in quite some time, so I am thinking a good reread over the Thanksgiving holiday is due.
My Favorite Series:
Yes; I devoured this series by getting each book the day it was released, and having it read within 24 hours. I am currently experiencing extreme sadness that I have no access to the station showing the television show.
So Stephen King, I sincerely wish you the happiest 70th birthday, and cannot thank you enough for the countless hours of joy you have brought me for the past 33 years since I discovered your writing.
Oh: and for scaring the shit out of me on many occasions where I sat up in bed for the night, with the lights on, and my tv playing loud so I couldn’t hear the noises inside my house. You are truly a master at your art, and for that, I am forever grateful!
Wrote: numerous Kay Scarpetta novels, starting with Postmortem, as well as The Body Farm, Potter’s Field, and numerous others, with the latest being 2014’s Flesh and Blood. She has also written a couple other series, but no where to the extent of the Scarpetta series.
Awards: Too many to list them all, but they include the Edgar Award, Sherlock Award, and British Book Awards.
Personal: Patricia married one of her professors shortly after graduation, and divorced 9 years later. She was in a relationship with a married female FBI agent before meeting and marrying Staci Gruber in 2005.
She suffered with Anorexia Nervosa and depression, as well as bipolar disorder.
Well, the bodies are definitely piling up now. With many more to come, by the looks of it.
Mr. Racist Peter Sudgen and his wife are invited to a housewarming party at their foreign neighbors, and he vows to get rid of them by Christmas. Edwin gets questioned, spits out “I didn’t kill her!” as well as “I have an alibi!” Way to play it cool Ed, way to play it cool.
We find out Peter is doing some shady trading in the market for his clients, and I am wondering how long before he is on the top of someone’s list.
Ed decides Vanhi needs to be taken care of as well, because since she uses the darknet, she could possibly track him down and confess everything if she ever got caught.
Barry wants Ed to take care of Jessica and her new boyfriend, and Ed still needs to get rid of Vanhi’s hit; remember, Mr. Pockmarked-Face? So Barry stabs Mr. Pockmarked-Face (apparently he was Emanuel Richard) to death, and then Ed tells him he has to kill another as well, since Ed is killing 2 for him.
So Barry buys an illegal gun, meets Vanhi and tries to get to know her since he is an utter failure at following her. Edwin decides he needs a rock-solid alibi for when Vanhi is killed, so he gets himself chucked into jail for the night.
Detective Morton is noticing the bodies beginning to pile up. From page 81, “…members of the public were randomly killing each other and not leaving evidence, and without there being any apparent motive.” (Campbell & Campbell, Dead on Demand). I have to say, that actually made me laugh out loud.
There is no way I will get this book finished over the rest of my short weekend. I am only on page 88 of 265. Yes, that much has happened in 88 pages. Honestly, the story is starting to give me a headache, but I really do want to find out how many people end up doing each other in, and if Ed ever gets caught for starting this whole fiasco.
Janet and Dean/Dennis keep working the case together, although she will not cut him a break and stop being angry with him. She just cannot see that he truly does like and care for her; something he had promised himself would never happen again.
The next step to find the missing link? That is with Tom. And who is going to work over Tom to get this much needed information? Right again: Janet. (She is sorry she even asked!) She sees it as much needed punishment for herself though for what she is doing to Lisa. They may have their issues, but she was still her best friend, and likely about to ruin her wedding plans and lock up her fiancé, even though he appears to be as clueless about the situation as Lisa.
Janet calls up Tom to have him meet her at a bar; Dean/Dennis just happens to show up there as well. An earlier deal with the bartender had Tom sloshed beyond belief and Janet and Dean/Dennis sober as a church choir. They get Tom’s drunk self home, and rush back to Janet’s with Tom’s laptop in hand. Dean/Dennis has no trouble getting past the initial password, and finds what he was looking for.
Apparently Tom can handle his liquor better than anyone thought; barely minutes after they hack into his laptop and get what they need, he is ringing Janet’s intercom, asking to come up to her apartment.
Back to Jon in the office. The first lawsuit comes in, as well as a subpoena from the SEC. He knew this was just the tip of the iceberg, and left work for the day. As he never leaves work for anything, his wife knew there was something terribly wrong, and he spilled everything to her. She vowed to stand by him, no matter what, and told him he needed to do the right thing and confess everything, likely for a more lenient sentence.
And now we’re back to Lisa. Sitting in her office, daydreaming about her wedding. Until her paralegal brings in a copy of The New York Post. She plays it off as nothing to worry about, until she is again alone in her office. Then the panic sets in.
Janet meets Dean/Dennis’s boss, and he offers her a job at the Treasury. She is too shocked to answer, but takes the envelope with the details of the offer with her and promises to call. And she still will not forgive Dean/Dennis, whom she also just at that very moment found out his real name was Dennis. Why don’t you add some more fuel to the fire, Dennis?
So how does it end? Hanging. Dennis asks Janet out, and she agrees. And that is it. There is no resolution to what happens to Bostoff Securities, Jon, Paul, or Lisa. Does this bother me? Not at all. It was a good read, easy and fun, and I will definitely be reading the next one in this series, “Catching the Bad Guy”. An except for book 2 lets us know that she did indeed take the job at the Treasury, is working with Dennis, they are strictly friends, and they are also both attracted to each other but refuse to admit it.
As I continue into Real Murders, by Charlaine Harris, Aurora Teagarden seems to be the unluckiest person in the world. The dead bodies are piling up, and the members of the Real Murders Club are getting more and more worried about their own safety; but more-so for the safety of their friends and relatives.
Body #2 – Morrison Pettigrue; running for Mayor, his campaign manager is in the club. The death imitates the Murat case from long ago.
Bodies # 3 & 4 – Mr. and Mrs. Buckley, Parents of Lizzane Buckley, friend of Roe’s and member of the club. Actually, it was her step-mother and her father, and her real name is Elizabeth. Any guesses what famous murder of old this is staged after? Oh. Yeah. They were hacked to death. That should help you figure it out.
I am getting close to the end of this book, and to likely stumbling upon body #5. It isn’t going to end this quietly, and I know something much, much worse is in store for Aurora, and the town of Lawrenceton, Georgia.
So, when I can’t read the books I would like to be reading, I tend to think about those books. (If you are starting to think I have a problem; you are too late).
I have been thinking about the number of books that have been made into movies. And that is a huge number. It seems to be the theme lately for movies. Take the list of best-selling books, and turn them all into movies so we can keep making money. Do I think it is a bad thing? No, I don’t. To a point. Now I have seen some really bad movies that were excellent books. They should have just left it alone. I have never seen a movie that was better than the book. Ever.
Now I absolutely love Harry Potter, and was beyond thrilled when they started making those movies. Yes, I own them all. And Yes, I still re-read the books. I also have all of the Lord of the Ring movies. As well as the 2 Hunger Games movies that are out. And the two Percy Jackson movies that are out. Yes, I will admit I have all 4 of the Twilight movies (I love those too). I have the 3 Narnia movies, anxiously awaiting if they are actually going to make “The Silver Chair” or not. Inkheart? I watch that movie all the time. I wish they would have made Inkspell and Inkdeath into movies as well. I could go on all day like this (I have a slight DVD problem as well).
Inkheart, Inkspell, Inkdeath
As for the classics…. To Kill A Mockingbird was an outstanding movie, and one of my favorite books. I read it about once a year. Of Mice and Men actually has 2 movies out; one from 1939, and one from 1992. Disney has turned more books into movies and amusement park rides than anyone else could possibly even get away with.
Should these books be made into movies though? I think that the current books that have the author writing or editing the screenplay, and being on the movie set is perfectly fine. But what about those books where the author is no longer alive? Maybe their family sold the rights to have a movie made, but do they really, truly know how the author would want the book to be interpreted? Are these relatives instead taking liberties with the author’s words and thoughts, and possibly using them in a way they never intended? Would C.S. Lewis care that his series of Narnia books were made into movies? Maybe only as much as he might care that more often than not they are sold and read out of the order that he intended for them to be read.
Yes, this works in the reverse as well. As soon as a major motion picture is a box office hit, there are books all over the place about it.
As much as I love my movies based on books, sometimes I just really wish Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked like I thought they were supposed to. In “my” version of the stories. I can never again read these stories and see them as anything other than the actors who portrayed them. I honestly can no longer remember what I imagined them to look like. It’s like one of the joys I get from reading has been taken away from me.
This book started pretty much where Unwind left off; and I appreciate the fact that the author does not cover every single detail from the first book.
Conner is now running the Graveyard, and they are down to about 700 teens. The age limit for unwinding also got lowered to the age of 17, which means thousands of 17 year olds at harvest camps had to be released.
There now appears to be a shortage of organs, and tissue, so children are now being kidnapped and sold on the black market. The Juvey Cops (that is what they are called in the story) are well aware of the Graveyard, but have a very good reason for leaving the kids there alone.
Supply and Demand
The powers that be can charge enormous fees for body parts while there is a perceived shortage. They want the AWOL teens to stay in the Graveyard, or they will have to lower their selling costs.
And then there is the advertising campaign. One such ad as in the book:
“When Billy’s behavior became too much for us to bear, and we began to fear for our own safety, we did the only humane thing. We sent him to harvest camp, so he could find fulfillment in a divided state. But now, with an age restriction preventing seventeen-year-olds from being unwound, we wouldn’t have had that choice. Just last week a seventeen-year-old girl in our neighborhood got drunk, crashed her car, and killed two innocent people. Would it still have happened if her parents could have chosen to send her to harvest camp? You tell me.” VOTE YES ON PROP 46! End the Cap-17 law, and lift the ban on late teen unwinding! Paid for by Citizens for a Wholesome Tomorrow. (Shusterman, N. 2012, pg 36).
And I thought all of the political advertising was ridiculous!
As for Risa and Lev, they are both still a huge part of this second book; Risa dealing with feeling abandoned by Conner, and Lev being worshipped by everyone for being the “clapper” that didn’t clap. (Clappers are teens who have their blood mixed with explosives, and basically do a suicide mission by clapping their hands, where detonators are implanted, and killing themselves and everyone in the vicinity).
This book has kept me just as interested as the first story did, and I hope to have this finished by tomorrow.
A difficult read emotionally, but one you can’t put down. I questioned myself as to whether or not I really wanted to read it, once I was told what the story was about. As a parent, it is like reading your most terrible fear come to life.
This has turned into one of those books that book clubs are raving about; there are even versions with the questions in the back that you can use for book clubs. Is that a bad thing? Not at all. I just tend to feel that books that do this are promoting themselves for the wrong reason (this is just my personal opinion).
“The Shack” by William Paul Young
As sad and heartbreaking as this story is, I have read it 4 times now. It is one of those stories that reminds me of what my faith is supposed to do in my life, and how no matter what I am doing every day of the week as far as my religion is concerned, I can still be closer to God.
If you haven’t read or heard about this story, the premise is as follows: a loving family strong in faith suffers the unthinkable when their child is kidnapped, and murdered. A young 6 year old girl, innocent to all the evils in the world, and the fact that bad things really do happen to good people. (As a mother to 4 girls, the youngest who was 6 when I first read this, that was why I hesitated to read it).
The rest of the story deals with a father’s anger, guilt, and faith, and a weekend spent with God, in various forms. As a religious person whom still sometimes struggles with understanding the Triune God, this story presents this in a way that brings it home to me, making it make sense. Does that make sense?
Mack, the father, suffers in a deep depression, while functioning on the outside, for four years. Receiving a note in the mail that is suspicious at best, Mack spends a weekend in the shack where his daughter’s life ended, and comes to terms with not only her murder, but so much more. Nan, his wife, had a strong faith that did not seem to waver as Mack struggled to get through each day. This weekend would also help him understand how Nan kept a strong faith through the most difficult part of their lives.
How would you like having breakfast with Jesus, or growing a garden with His help? Would you even know how to approach him? From the story:
What should you do when you come to the door of a house, or cabin in this case, where God might be? Should you knock? Presumably God already knew that Mack was there. Maybe he ought to simply walk in and introduce himself, but that seemed equally absurd. And how should he address him? Should he call him “Father,” or “Almighty One,” or perhaps “Mr. God,” and would it be best if he fell down and worshipped? Not that he was really in the mood (Young, Wm. Paul, 2007, pg. 84).
How does Mack first see God? As a large, African-American woman, embracing him as someone whom finally sees a long-lost friend after many, many years. Smelling of his mother’s perfume, Mack fights to stop the tears that start to flow in front of this “stranger.” Next a small Asian woman approached him, a collector of tears is what she told Mack she was, and shimmered in a way that made it difficult for him to look at her. The third person to join them in the shack is a man of Middle Eastern descent, an obvious laborer with his tool belt full of tools. Confused, Mack asks all of them, “Are there more of you?”
“No Mackenzie.” The black woman chuckled. “We is all that you get, and believe me, we’re more than enough” (pg. 87).
So Mack has his three companions for the weekend, each with a specific purpose to help him deal with his grief, his faith, and his anger. They break down his walls, the barriers in his heart, and show him that in order to be free from his guilt and grief, he absolutely must forgive his enemy; the man who murdered his child.
This story is full of emotion, sadness, and even hope as Mack goes on this journey to reveal what is truly in his heart, and learns how to be healed of the emotional pain that has consumed his life, and in turn his family’s life, for the past four years.
Whatever your beliefs may be, or not be, this is a story to be read by everyone, whether you have Faith or not. It makes points that seem generic to humankind in general, without trying to force someone else’s beliefs on you. You understand the story, and the lessons it seems to present without ever really trying.
This is definitely a book I will pick up for the 5th time, and likely even more than that.
The Shack. 2007. William Paul Young. Windblown Media: Newbury Park, California.
The latest book I grabbed off from my bookshelf is one I picked up about a year ago from a clearance table at Barnes and Noble. The synopsis on the jacket sounded interesting, and the price was right, so I figured “Why not?”
Very Good Book!
And there it sat. As I pulled out other books and read them, and pulled this one out, looked at it, and put it back on the bookshelf. Time and again. Until it was just about the last book on my shelf I had not even read once. So I started reading it this week. And boy am I ever glad I did. It is a really great story that actually holds my interest, and I am not looking at how many pages I have left to read as I have been with the last couple of books I have read.
It is a political book, which I don’t generally tend to read very many of, about the presidential election and 3 Republican candidates. One is a religious leader, one is a divorced man dating a Hollywood actress, and one is basically a puppet for another man who wants control over the internet, since he already has control over the news stations and journalists. There tends to be a lot of mud-slinging (who would of thought) along with giving the back story on the divorced man who is the central character of the story. Parents who weren’t supportive, a bright military career, current Senator, and living with the guilt of his brothers suicide as well as the loss of his navigator in the Iraq war.
I have to say the story is really less about war and politics and more about the lives of these people, and how they interact and effect each other, both good and bad.
I haven’t finished the story yet, and am forcing myself to not sneak a look at the back of the book to see if Corey Grace, the main character, wins the nomination and future election. So needless to say, I will have what is left of this book finished in short-order, because the suspense is almost too much!
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