Rating: Summary: S.K. has done it again Review: For S.K. fans, this one is right up there with Gerald's Game and Wizard and Glass. "Hearts" goes beyond anything S.K. has ever done. It grabs your emotions in the first chapter and doesn't let them go until well after you've finished the book. With slight tie-ins with the Gunslinger series, "Hearts" makes you think even deeper as to what might become of our four gunslingers, as well as take you on a journey through the lives of two very special, very real kids. I personally think Bobby and Carol would make an excellent pair of gunslingers.
Rating: Summary: Like Fine Wine..... Review: Steven just keeps getting better with age. Easy flowing page turner that has slight tie-ins with the Gunslinger series. "Hearts" is truely one of Steven's finest works of literature. This is one of those rare books that keeps you emotionally attached well after you finish reading it.
Rating: Summary: A GOOD BOOK Review: I thought this was a very good book, one that brought back numerous memories for me of the time I was growing up. If you want to read a book that goes straight to your heart, read Stolen Moments by Barbara Jeanne Fisher. . .It is a beautiful story of unrequited love. . .for certain the love story of the nineties. I intended to give the book a quick read, but I got so caught up in the story that I couldn't put the book down. From the very beginning, I was fully caught up in the heart-wrenching account of Julie Hunter's battle with lupus and her growing love for Don Lipton. This love, in the face of Julie's impending death, makes for a story that covers the range of human emotions. The touches of humor are great, too, they add some nice contrast and lighten things a bit when emotions are running high. I've never read a book more deserving of being published. It has rare depth. Julie's story will remind your readers that life and love are precious and not to be taken for granted. It has had an impact on me, and for that I'm grateful. Stolen Moments is written with so much sensitivity that it made me want to cry. It is a spellbinder. What terrific writing. Barbara does have an exceptional gift! This book was edited by Lupus specialist Dr. Matt Morrow too, and has the latest information on that disease. ..A perfect gift for someone who started college late in life, fell in love too late in life, is living with any illness, or trying to understand a loved one who is. . .A gift to be cherished forever.
Rating: Summary: Definately a page turner Review: I really liked the way in which each short story weaved its way into the next. It kept me reading.
Rating: Summary: Not Your Usual King fare Review: Hearts is a collection of short stories, only the first has the particular brand of King writing that can have your hair standing on end. The other stories still exhibit King's unique way of painting images with words...they are alive, and vibrant...unsettling in their own rights, warm in others. The stories twine over the turbulent 60's down to the 90's...with the Vietnam era the central post that they wrap around. Not his best for riveting reading, but an enjoyable read for sittting by the beach in the sun....
Rating: Summary: A Magickal, Engaging Book Review: For those of you who think King can only write outright horror novels, think again. This wonderful collection of novellas shows King's strength as an author of emotional tales. There are elements of fantasy woven throughout, but this one concentrates more on character development. Very highly recommended.
Rating: Summary: Hearts in Atlantis Review: Stephen King is a fine, talented author, but Hearts in Atlantis was not my favorite. A few of the segments were good reading, but I found myself skipping over pages...the book held little interest for me. Bag of Bones was excellent; one of his best.
Rating: Summary: ONE OF THE MOST UNDERRATED WRITERS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Review: I am a twenty-year-old English major who has read every work Stephen King has ever written. While I consider many of his recent books to be large disappointments, I view HEARTS IN ATLANTIS as hugely successful, a brilliant novel and by far his best since MISERY (which remains my favorite of all his works). It is passionately written and conveys bold, momentous messages, everything from the questionable purpose(s) of war to the difficulties of growing up, of becoming an adult while clinging to the sweet memories of childhood and adolescence. It is a rich, beautiful story, expertly crafted and perhaps the most overwhelmingly poignant of all Mr. King's works. It is, in short, a jewel of a book, a monumental achievement, and a piece of literature which I truly believe shall one day be considered as much a classic as Salinger's CATCHER IN THE RYE, Steinbeck's TRAVELS WITH CHARLEY IN SEARCH OF AMERICA, Kerouac's ON THE ROAD, and Kesey's ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST. (At least, it DESERVES to be regarded as such.) And I fervently hope that HEARTS IN ATLANTIS at last convinces all the skeptics out there that King is quite capable of producing more than "horror garbage," that he is, in fact, one of America's most talented and moving story-tellers, one who can not only transcend his chosen genre but surpass in deftness many of the best writers of those genres into which he only sporadically ventures; such, I believe, is clearly the case with HEARTS IN ATLANTIS. I unreservedly and whole-heartedly recommend this masterful piece of fiction not only to King fans but to all those who love good writing and good stories. HEARTS, I assure you, offers both.
Rating: Summary: William Hurt and Stephen King Tell One Marvelous Tale Review: Along with the Poisonwood Bible and Perfume, this is right up there in the pantheon of great unabridged books on tape. See my review under the hardcover version, but by all means listen to this story. It's a rare listener who will not be completely swept up in King's great story and Hurt's sensational narration. King also reads portions and is dandy, but Hurt is a wonder! If they give Oscars for this kind of performance, Hurt should definitely get the trophy. Hurt is even better than Frank Muller, reader of, among many other things, King's endless Dark Tower series of tapes. And that's high praise indeed.
Rating: Summary: A virtuoso literary performace, but still true King! Review: Stephen King is an inspiration; a professional who became known as a pop genre novelist, albiet a wonderful one -- The Stand and The Shining are still throbbing, living things -- and struggled mightily with his own talent and his public's expectations to continue to grow his voice and expression. Hearts in Atlantis, King's latest, could only have been written by him, but it is, at once, a far more complex, ambitious and high-minded work than he has yet produced and still a true Stephen King opus, with all the trademark dread and ickypoo thrown unselfconciously into the mix. Frankly, I tend to think that reviewers give away too much detail, and so I am not going to review the story. Suffice to say that open-minded Stephen King fans, those who like Delores Claiborne and The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, are really going to get caught up in this one. And Dark Tower series readers will learn a little more about the tower while waiting for the recuperating Mr. King to finish the last two installments in this series.One small criticism, only, on this otherwise very fine, audatious novel, which in a curious way reminds of Don DeLillo's terrific Underworld. A central story based at the University of Maine and focusing upon obsession and the use of time is twice as long as needs be and is riddled with redundance. One must conclude that Mr. King is deep into his own memorabilia here, because he exercises little of his usual economy. But, no great harm done, because the rest of the book is letter perfect. Ted Brautigan will become your friend. The Men in the Yellow Coats will enter your dreams. You may develop an irrational fear that a grand piano will fall from the sky and squash you like a bug. And you will never ever again hear the oldie "Twilight Time" without thinking of Hearts In Atlantis.
|