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Showing posts from April, 2013

The Thread

So let’s get back to Stephen! (I gave you a break now onward) I’ve read a lot of different authors over a number of years. When it’s an author that I enjoy I will definitely read more novels they’ve written. I have never seen anything like what Stephen King has done with his body of work. I can only describe it as threads in a blanket: the blanket being the complete body of work and the threads being the individual works. Almost everything ties into each other. That does not necessarily include the Bachman books but everything that King put his name on is OBVIOUSLY King. It’s the Stephen King Thread. It’s the DNA that runs through his novels. He mentioned with writing the Dark Tower Series that all of his books come from the same place. It’s true and reflective in all of his novels. I do though take issue with the fact that his books are largely categorized as horror books. He is not (I repeat is not) a horror writer. Yes, some of his novels are extremely terrifying but many of th

From Years Past: What The Dead Know

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What The Dead Know by Laura Lippman Laura Lippman is an author that you know is going to deliver, whose story is going to be interesting and best of all she is going to have an amazing twist at the end. What The Dead Know is the second novel by Laura Lippman that I have had the pleasure of reading. It is about the appearance of one of the Bethany girls, sisters who disappeared almost 30 years previously and were never seen again. Now one of them has returned and she has a story to tell but is reluctant to tell it, afraid of losing her current identity and being exposed to the media. But not everyone understands her logic. She claims her sister is dead, so why doesn’t she want justice? She was released by her captor decades ago, so why is she choosing now to come forward? Why did she wait so long to return home, if not to tell her story? What is the truth and is she even really a Bethany girl?           A lot of questions were asked and more things were

From Years Past: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

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Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford             Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet examines the lives of a Chinese boy, Henry and a Japanese girl, Keiko and the friendship that ensues between the two during World War II. Henry and Keiko’s friendship is a result of both of them being outsiders in their schools and very much so in their town. The all white school that they both attends looks at both of them as the enemy, even when Henry wears a nametag stating “I am American” people laugh and throw insults his way, it does though keep him from being labeled the true enemy which in his day and age was the Japanese. Keiko doesn’t apologize for her nationality nor does she accept responsibility for the actions of those who attacked Pearl Harbor . The unlikely pair’s friendship brings out both of their strengths and helps them both keep faith that one day things will change.            This book was written in both past and present tense, through the

Oh Jodi

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(Yes, it’s not a Stephen King Post!)                 So I wanted to take a second to introduce everyone to another author that I absolutely adore, Jodi Picoult. I’ve been obsessed with her since college. I needed a book to read on a flight home to Los Angeles and stumbled across My Sister’s Keeper, the story of a young girl suing her parents for the rights to her own body. Yep, you read that right. Medical emancipation. It was great. One of those books you immediately start raving to your friends about. It was the book that made me a fan.             Since then I have read quite a few of her books and have never been disappointed. With every single book I’ve read by her so far I have been able to ask myself one simple question: What would I do if I were in their shoes? What would I do if my daughter wanted to be medically emancipated from me? How would I react if my son was on trial for shooting students at his school? What would I do if my daughter had been raped? Her