Under My Tree This Year: Doctor Sleep

Christmas has always meant getting a good book or two as gifts from my family. Luckily, this year was no exception. I have fallen into the habit of buying myself a few books, wrapping them and popping them under the tree, so that on Christmas morning, I am never disappointed. In my opinion, it's better to take matters into your own hands if there is ever the chance that you might be disappointed in Santa.

This year, our family pulled names from a hat, and my dad ended up being my secret Santa.  As it turned out, not so secret though, because he just picked up the phone to see which book I wanted. Having just finished listening to the CBC interview of Stephen King and his son Owen King, I thought it would be nice to try Stephen King's most recent work, Doctor Sleep.

(Random thought--would it be intimidating to be a fledgling author with your father "Stephen King" watching on? Talk about a huge shadow under which to live. Mind you, I bet you'd have a little in with one or two publishers. Not sure. Owen King sounded pretty confident and grounded regardless. Maybe I should give his work a go.)

Now, I'm not a King fan per se, but as you may recall from my previous blog post in August 2012, I really enjoyed his historically based fictional account of the assassination of JFK in 11/22/63. It was my first kick at King, and I found it well written and very entertaining. When I listened to the interview on CBC, I learned that King had written The Shining. Doctor Sleep, as Stephen King explained in the interview, is the followup novel that presents Danny Torrence as an adult, and shows how the little boy in the movie has grown up. Now, I have never made it through the entire movie--it's just too scary. I sheepishly admit that I didn't know the movie was based on King's novel.

Having finished Doctor Sleep over the holidays, and I am going to suggest that it wasn't as good as 11/22/63. I know it's a totally different genre, and it's probably not fair to compare them two, but I was a little disappointed in Doctor Sleep. I've never read any of King's scary stuff and I wanted to be terrified, horrified, and disturbed. Sorry to say that I wasn't any of those things. In the end though, I did find it entertaining, and I would pick up another one of his novels for light entertainment.

I'm open to suggestions on which one I should read next.  I want it to be really scary. No half measures...I want to lose sleep...not be put to sleep.

I found this really funny interview with King speaking to a room of english university students. Thought I would include it, as an insight into King's mind.

The Perfect Crime...A Perfect Thriller!

During my weekly trip to my local library, I make a point to check out the "de-circulated" book shelf...It's like the library book graveyard, where books that haven't been signed out a lot, get the chop (for no good reason other than shelf space for crap--see my last blog post and you'll understand). Our local sells these slow movers for a mere 25 cents (paperbacks) while hard covers run a buck each (Criminal isn't it, and no wonder writers are starving). 

After a little looking, I uncovered a novel called A Perfect Crime by Peter Abrahams. I bought this novel because on the front dust cover, Stephen King is quoted as citing Abrahams as the best American suspense author of our times. NOW THAT'S HUGE PRAISE. I bought it for a buck and boy, was that a dollar well spent.

The Perfect Crime is the story of the affair between Francie and Ned who are both married to other people. Everything gets more and more complicated as their lives become entwined. Deception, jealousy, madness and murder...this one has it all!!

I read it in a couple of days...and I have to admit that the second half of the novel was much more entertaining than the first half.  Francie's husband Roger, is an arrogant prick who might drive Mother Theresa to adultery. Anne, Ned's gentle and ever kind wife is a lovely woman...maybe a bit too soft but alas, wonderful. This story gets the reader hooked in the first few pages and takes him on quite a good ride. 

Of interest is that Peter Abrahams has written 27 novels...How is that possible, and why haven't I discovered him before now? Am I that OTL?...

Here's a bit about Abrahams courtesy of Wikepedia:

Peter Abrahams (born 28 June 1947) is an American writer of crime thrillers. His works include Oblivion, The Tutor, The Fury of Rachel Monette, Hard Rain, The Fan, Crying Wolf, Last of the Dixie Heroes, the Echo Falls Mysteries, and Lights Out, the last of which was nominated for an Edgar Award for best novel. His literary influences are Vladimir Nabokov, Graham Greene and Ross Macdonald. Stephen King has referred to him as "my favorite American suspense novelist". Born in Boston, Abrahams previously lived in Ottawa and worked as a CBC television producer. He is currently living in Falmouth, Massachusetts on Cape Cod with his wife and children.

This is a great site for more info about this talented and prolific writer: 

http://www.peterabrahams.com/index.html

This novel is entertaining, and makes for riveting reading. I recommend it and have already lent it to my friend Mary! And by the way, I'll buy his next novel...I want to support his talent!

King's 11/22/63: A Great Trip Back in Time

OMG, it's been too long. I have been reading but I lost my thought process. I didn't blog the last book that I read because I didn't finish it (that being Fifty Shades of Grey...ugh...Maybe I'll finish it, but I won't promise that!).

So here we go...Stephen King's 11/22/63 is a whopping 1900 pages.  It took me nearly a month of steady bedtime reading to polish this one off, but I found myself wanting to turn in early, just to catch up with the story. This is a very entertaining read, and I found myself thinking about the book during the day.

Here's a synopsis:  Jake Epping is a thirty-five-year-old high school English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine, who makes extra money teaching adults in the GED program. He receives an essay from one of the students—a gruesome, harrowing first person story about the night 50 years ago when Harry Dunning’s father came home and killed his mother, his sister, and his brother with a hammer. Harry escaped with a smashed leg, as evidenced by his crooked walk.

Not much later, Jake’s friend Al, who runs the local diner, divulges a secret: his storeroom is a portal to 1958. He enlists Jake on an insane—and insanely possible—mission to try to prevent the Kennedy assassination. So begins Jake’s new life as George Amberson and his new world of Elvis and JFK, of big American cars and sock hops, of a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and a beautiful high school librarian named Sadie Dunhill, who becomes the love of Jake’s life—a life that transgresses all the normal rules of time.

This is my first King novel andI have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised. I wasn't expecting such cleaver writing, but I can't fault it at all. In fact, I look forward to reading more of his creative work.