The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon

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Summary: Is this Stephen King?
Review: If you have read the other books by King, then you don't find his ability to create a 'cosy, creepy' athmosphere in this book. Also there are no characters he has elaborated (not even the girl). Disappointing.

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Summary: What a hoot!! (All puns intended).
Review: This was quite a ride ~ enjoyable from start to finish, and I am not even a baseball fan. It read like poetry. The images were rich and extremely detailed and well developed. I felt as though I were right there with the heroine in the forest and in her head. Great imagery and who hasn't wondered about the boundaries of reality? Bravo and many thanks to Mr. King.

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Summary: Who says he has to be scary to be good?
Review: Awesome, as always, couldn't put it down, as always. He doesn't have to be scary to succeed at being the alltime best author of our generation

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Summary: A reminder of how fragile our "ordinary reality" is
Review: I would rank this with the finest Stephen King works (my other iconoclastic favorites being The Library Policeman and The Green Mile). In addition to showing King's deepening and maturing spirituality (no gentle, nurturing, Santa Claus God for him), it profoundly illustrates just how fragile is our everyday, normal, taken-for-granted reality--the one we inhabit without a second thought until something goes wrong and the underlying chaos of things is revealed.

Rating:
Summary: It was Stephen King?
Review: I finished to read this book yesterday... 2 days after I bought it... I found it like a tale for teen-agers! There was the King's style but... not like his old great titles!

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Summary: Not as Good as I thought he was
Review: This was the first Stephen King book I read. I had heard about his other books and how scary they were, but frankly I was more frightened with the airplane ride I was on while I was reading it! Good book but shouldn't be labeled as 'scary'.

Rating:
Summary: undeniably disapointing
Review: As most of King's latest novels (excluding The Green Mile) this book sounded promising but just didn't deliver. I wasn't the least bit frightened. As a matter of fact I kept reading in hopes of at least feeling a slight chill in the air...nothing.

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Summary: Lost in the woods
Review: This is the only book of Stephen King's that I could not finish which is amazing since it is such a sliver of a little book. I remember a time when Mr. King made fun of such slim volumes, in particular his ridicule of Vox vs. A Simple Plan. I would say that it could be cut to a short story but even then it isn't that interesting. It reads more like a Reader's Digest true life story. The saddest thing is that the book starts out so well and then goes downhill quickly. Mr. King obviously didn't spend much time with a girl of the age of the protagonist in 1999. She constantly makes cultural references that are much more fitting for someone of Mr. King's age. When Mr. King found religion in Desperation I hoped that this would be a passing phase. I don't read horror for its inspirational character. Bag of Bones was so good my fears were allayed but now with this book I'm not sure where he is coming from. Apparently his next book consists of four connecting novellas centering around Vietnam and is supposed to be a return to the brilliance of Bag of Bones and The Green Mile. Almost losing Mr. King in his accident was terrible. He is truly a national cultural treasure. I wish him luck during his painful rehabilitation and I wish I could say better things about this book but unfortunately I can't.

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Summary: The spiritual life of children
Review: I read all of the reviews of this book to help me teach a Sunday School lesson about Jacob and his dream and his wrestling in the wilderness. I think King shows an awareness here of the importance of the spiritual development in children, even ones without formal training. I was reminded of the insights of Bruno Betelheim incorporated into Soundheim's musical "Into the Woods." This is actually an important book, something King does not usually write, but which he is beginning to write. I hope his audience grows with him, in more ways than one.

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Summary: Yea Baby!! Stephen King has done it again.
Review: This book was a real page turner. If you had time to do anything but read this book until you finished it I would be surprised. I haven't done much in the last day and a half but read this book. While reading this book I felt as if I were Trisha. I found myself feeling as if I needed to swat bugs away. I could almost feel the cold mud on my face that she used to relieve the bite and sting of insects. Stephen King really captured the feelings of isolation, pain, and hunger in this story. It was amazing that he could capture all that through the eyes of a nine-year-old girl. I liked his use of imagery when describing 'The Special Thing'. The 'Special Thing' respresents our most basic and primal fears when we are most vunerable and powerless. Don't we all have a 'Special Thing' that stalks us when we are alone and feeling vunerable? I know I have felt a presense when camping in the Maine woods. This story was very captivating. It was amazing that a nine-year-old girl could go through so much and 'Save the Game'. My vision of the game of Baseball and the Boston Red Sox is forever changed.