Rating: 
Summary: One of my favorite books
Review: This book is a wonderful look at being a child and growing up as well as the things we remeber from being young and the effect childhood events have on us. The great writing makes the reader feel as if they're in the story and the plot, while challenging, is an original and unigue story. With enough of King's usual creepiness to satisfy any King fan this book brings out another side of his writing and shows alot about King himself. Anyone who loves Stephen King has to read this book.
Rating:
Summary: OUCH...KING
Review: This book is hard...and i'll tell you why: it asks the reader to look inwardly--at us, at the human being--and to look at how cruel, how disturbing we can be; and boy do both gloves fit snug. I might have enjoyed The Stand more, but i know that not even that masterpiece was written with as much grace and honesty, and i guess that that is where Hearts shines. It is an American classic in the same class as Roth's American Pastoral, and Melville's Moby Dick, and Kerouack's On the Road, and Gatsby, and the Sun Also Rises, and Huck Finn. Good for you Stephen. This book is divided into 5 loosely related tales that circle in on each other. And they are sad, and they are warm, and they are beautiful; like a child who has just discovered that his first crush is only that...and during that moment that child becomes enlightened, dissapointed, a little bit older than he just was--beautiful. And no-one brings out these humanistic characteristics better than Mr. King. He seems to know us frighteningly well...and it is in his discription of humanity--of its conflict with its natural state--that terrifies us the most, because the monsters dissapear after the book covers are closed, but the human heart is the human heart, no matter the gender and no matter the color of skin. I know this review is general and vague, but i think it will make sence if you read this book...so please, read this book; tell your friends to read this book, and remember it; i think it has much to offer.
Rating: 
Summary: His most thoughtful since Different Seasons
Review: Anyone looking for the classic King scare will not get it here. However, after reading Hearts in Atlantis it will dawn on you why he can hold your interest through 1,000+ pages of "It" and the "Stand". It's not his premise, but how he can breathe life into the characters that he writes and make them relatable to the reader. There is a supernatural element in this but it is not the main focus of the book, which may be off putting to some fans. I found the second part of the book absolutely enthralling and it's about a bunch of college guys playing Hearts. Man, will it take you back, even if you went to college five years ago. I was not expecting to like this one, I got this as a gift and havent been much of a fan after the Dark Half. Different Seasons and the Green Mile are the closest comparisons that I can think as to the tone and mood of this story. Very introspective. My only wish is that the author give his bullies from grade school a rest. He has put them through the ringer and it's time to move on. I highly recommend this book and look forward to reading it again in a few years.
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Summary: Hearts in Atlantis is a great work of fiction
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book. King captures the reader from the first few pages. It is a conglomeration of different interlocking stories. The first story, "Low Men in Yellow Coats" is about an old man, Ted Brautagan, that moves into an apartment above Bobby, an 11-year old boy. Bobby soon discovers that Ted may possess some psychic powers. Ted asks bobby to stay on the look out for "low men in yellow coats", or dangerous looking men who wear mustard trench-coats. They communicate with things such as lost pet posters, drawings on the sidewalk with chalk, or kitetails hanging from telephone wires. Although Bobby does not beleive these men exist, he begins to see the signs. The story ends in an interesting way, and ties into the other stories well. The second story, "Hearts in Atlantis", is probobly the best of the five stories. It tells the tale of a college student who's dorm get hooked on a card game (Hearts), and their grades start falling. This all takes place during the sixties and the Vietnam War, where men not in college were liable to be drafted for the war. The protagonist, Pete, struggles to keep his head above water and his grades up as he falls in love with Bobby's old girlfreind. The third and fourth stories, "Blind Willie" and "Why We're in Vietnam, two kids that grew up with Bobby struggle with their haunted post-Vietnam lives after serving in the war. In the conclusion of the book, "Heavenly Shades of Night Are Falling", Bobby returns to his hometown after being contacted by Ted again to find the love of his life there as well. If you want a good book to read, pick up Hearts in Atlantis. It won't dissapoint - I am a huge fan of fantasy, and rarely read realistic fiction, but this book was a gift from a freind. I read it, and devoured every word.
Rating: 
Summary: 522 pages... 50 make it worthwhile
Review: I agree with many of the critiques below. But "Blind Willie" is a must read. "Heavenly Shades of Night are Falling" sweetly ties it all together for those of us who "fall" for Bobby and Carol, or for the IDEA of Bobby and Carol. "If you swear, I won't walk with you." Far from a perfect work, and "Low Men in Yellow Coats" seemed ridiculous to me... a Dark Tower/Stand fan.
Rating:
Summary: Book is 5* - Audio is 3*
Review: The story is great - one of King's best in fact but the production is terrible. Many of the 60+ minute CDs only have 2 or 3 tracks which means that if you stop or eject the CD you're going to have to FF the CD to the point that you stopped. A major headache if you've stopped the CD 49 minutes into a 50 minute track. Yes, there are tracks that long. Very sloppy.
Every other CD-Book I've listened to has had at least a dozen tracks so you can start and stop easily. For whatever reason, S&S decided that they didn't need to do this for HIA.
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Summary: The movie should have been about the second story...
Review: In this new book by Stephen King, we are presented five stories, each with an omniscent title that we can only wonder what they mean... "Low Men in Yellow Coats" demonstrates the ultimate fact that King may be running out of ideas. The reason being is that if you look into his novels, they can all be tied into the "Drak Tower" series, which is tied into the novel "The Stand" very slightly. All and all, the story is good, but the ending is rediculous. "Hearts in Atlantis" is the second story in the book, and by far the best work that King has ever written. It presents forth a college student and his friends who, if they cannot keep their grades up in college, will be drafted into the Vietnam War. This story portrays the mixed emotions that people felt in the sixties, as well as giving a human side to why students would go risk their lives just for a game... "We Were in Vietnam" and "Blind Willie" were two stories that portrayed what had happened two some of the characters from "Low Men in Yellow Coats," and the give the feel that after the Vietnam War, the lives of some may have gotten better, but they still had to deal with their own personal demons from their past, as well as seeing their own mortailty... "Heavnely Shades of Night Falling" flashes forward about thirty years to show us what has brought Bobby Grafield home. Extremely short, it gives insight into Bobby's life since the end of the first story, as well as reunites him with a lost piece of his past. This story demonstrates that King needed a page filler, and was probably working on a deadline. Overall, by the book for the second story, because it is by far the best and most captivating.
Rating: 
Summary: A collection of incomplete stories
Review: I'm baffled by the reviewers who rated this book highly, it makes me wonder if we read the same book. This book is a collection of stories, that loosely tie together, but not in any overall plot system. In fact, none of the stories particularly has a "plot" as youd typically define it. When I approached the end of the book, I developed a sickening feeling as I realized there were too few pages left for the book to develop anything of interest for the end. The book fizzed out with no climax, but then there had never been any build up of anything TO climax, so that wasn't very surprising. Very disappointing.
Rating:
Summary: King is King!
Review: Yes indeed this is yet another great story by the master Stephen King. The movie was good but, as usual, the book is a hundred times better.
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Summary: Not the same as the movie... there's more!
Review: The title of this one is a metaphor... though in grand King fashion, it isn't readily apparent just what the metaphor is all about until one is all but finished with the book. The metaphor also defies my ability to define here in this forum... one will just have to read the book to fully understand it. I can somewhat relate to the addiction some people have to the card game Hearts. This is one of five games I saw people in the military playing in Desert Storm and at other times and places throughout my military career, such as it was and is. The others are, Spades, Cribbage, Uno, and Chess, for those who are interested. The movie by the same name is based only upon the first short story within the book, Low Men in Yellow Coats, which I found quite interesting. Apparently, this story is related somehow to The Dark Tower series... yet to be finished by Mr. King. The other stories; Hearts in Atlantis, Blind Willie, Why We're in Vietnam, and Heavenly Shades of Night are Falling follow Low Men in Yellow Coats, and are set sequentially in time from the beginning of the 1960's to the end of the 1990's. All of the stories share some characters and are intertwined intriguingly... though when one first begins the new story, it isn't readily apparent just how the twining is done. After finishing the book... actually, some time during the title story, it seemed to me that this was as much a journal of self-discovery and retrospection as it was a work of interrelated fictional accounts of the last forty years. I think, that more than any of King's other works, this book allows the reader into the psyche of the genius that is King. Hardcover editions are now available for under ten dollars these days, which is less than the price of the trade paperback that is still in print as well. That bit of logic, or the lack thereof, is one of the idiosyncrasies of our free market economy. The publisher prints too many copies in an attempt to gauge the market and then ends up warehousing copies that nobody wants. He then lowers the price... at times below the cost of production just to avoid paying for the warehousing. Sometimes I wonder if a warehouse owner has greater literary acumen than the writers... they certainly make more money as a group. Go out and grab a copy of this one if you want to see some of King's best work and get a look inside his twisted gray matter. It might be debated that the original cover price ...was a bit much, but the [price]I paid for my copy was a bargain and money well spent. I will end this review with an excerpt that Mr. King apparently finds rather important, as he reproduces it several times within the text as well as on the back cover: (image of a pierced heart) + (image of a peace sign) = information Make from this what you will. I think it's a secret code... or perhaps another metaphor? Dale A. Raby
Editor/Publisher
The Green Bay Web
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