Everything's Eventual
Stephen King
7/18/2008-7/20/2008
LT Rating: 4 stars
LT Review:
I very much enjoyed this collection of short stories by Stephen King. While some of the stories fall clearly within the realm of his reputation as a king of things that go bump in the night, others are more literary, and there are pieces in both categories that really shine.
The best of the bunch: "The Road Virus Heads North" was deeply creepy, and kept me awake and a little antsy for a good bit after I finished it. "The Little Sisters of Eluria" is a great little slice from the life of Roland, of Dark Tower fame, and makes this collection worth picking up for DT series fans. 'Everything's Eventual" is dark, complex, and simply excellent. "Riding the Bullet" is compelling, honest, and somehow finds a balance between feeling driven by a sense of love and feeling driven by a sense of dread.
There really weren't any stories in this collection that I didn't enjoy, although I think that "Luckey Quarter" was the weakest of the set.
Overall, an excellent collection. King says in the introduction that he mourns the short story as a dying art form, (something that he will claim with greater passion in his introduction to The Best American Short Stories: 2007.) With this collection, he laid a powerful reminder in front of me that the genre is a rich a lovely one. I certainly hope that the prognosis is not so bad as it may seem.
Maggie specific thoughts:
My thoughts on my new Stephen King habit are all included in the post for Four Past Midnight. Go find them there
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Four Past Midnight
Four Past Midnight
Stephen King
7/20/2008 - 7/22/2008
LT Review: 3.5 stars
LT Review:
This is a collection of four short novels (although they are short only by King standards, each runs around 200 pages). Overall, it's quite entertaining.
The first, The Langoliers is the best of the bunch. The story of a group of passengers on an LA to Boston fight that manages to travel through time, it's suspenseful, exciting, and driven (as many of King's tales are) by fear of both supernatural and more human evils. It's 250 pages that readers like me will plow through in a single sitting.
Secret Window, Secret Garden is the basis for the recent Johnny Depp movie "Secret Window." And tells the tale of a writer accused by a stranger of stealing a story that he knows he wrote himself. While I suspected the twist ending well before I got there, I expect that at the time this was published (well before a more recent and absurdly popular tale with a similar twist) the thought would have occurred to few readers, and maybe it won't occur to you. Overall, it's good but not great.
The Library Policeman is a gripping read, and enough to make someone currently pretty deep into library fines (like yours truly) more than a little bit nervous. The characters are what makes the story work here, and they are all elegantly flawed. I have trouble when King gets too into the descriptions of his monsters, but perhaps this is because I am not much of a visual reader, but overall, I enjoyed this one very much.
The Sun Dog, the last in the collection is by far the weakest. Centered around a paranormal camera, the events of the story seem a little too random and confusing. While some of the moments and secondary characters have a wonderful textured existence, the story fell flat for me overall, and I found myself not nearly as wrapped up in the action as I was with the other three.
Overall, it's a satisfying bunch of stories, although I see no real reason why it has to be read or considered as a collection at all. All of the novellas stand independent of the others, and there is no real theme particularly connecting them. (Aside from their tendency to keep you up past midnight, by which standard we could combine a large percentage of King's work into a single monstrous volume.)
Unless you are a die hard fan, you can skip The Sun Dog. I would recommend reading The Langoliers and The Library Policeman, and Secret Window, Secret Garden is certainly worth the 150 pages for quick readers, but if plowing through it is going to take you more than an evening, your time could probably be better spent somewhere else.
Maggie Specific thoughts: **Complete with a SPOILER ALERT**
I stole this book from the basement of my house, I have no idea how long ago, but I've been lugging it around unread for quite a while now. The thing that I have finally really admitted to myself is that I very very very much enjoy reading Stephen King. Perhaps the collected works of the master of horror is a strange new pastime to pick up shortly after moving into an apartment all by myself for the first time (sounds like something that might end up in one of his stories) but I'm having fun. Thinking about it, my affection for these stories specifically, and the others that I have read and am reading more generally, goes to the base of what I want as a reader. I like to be told a story. I am reading not as some grand academic exercise (that's what the lab is for) but to be entertained, and while I see value in the literary greats, I also have started to come to terms with the fact that there is nothing wrong with loving an author because he tells stories that I can't help but get wrapped up in. I guess, in the end, I don't want reading to be hard, I want it to be powerful, and moving, and entertaining, but this is not work for me, this is pleasure. That attitude is something that I am just coming to terms with (as a perfectionist, I feel sometimes like perhaps it is a waste of my time to have read the complete works of say Dennis Lehane but not War and Peace, because I want to be "good" at all the things that I do), but if I really think about it, that is the thread that joins all the books and writers that I love most... plan old good story telling.
King is unashamed to admit that storytelling is basically his goal, that he's not trying to work great constructs of language, but rather to tell good tales. He accomplishes that, and I find that I like and respect him more for doing what he does, doing it well, and not trying to be something he's not. Thinking about it I think is helping me to let myself be the kind of reader that I am at my core, and I am having a most wonderful time with it.
I should note here that John Irving, who I also really love (to the point where I get a little excited thinking about all the John Irving books that I haven't read yet, like presents waiting to be opened) says something similar about his own writing in an interview included in my copy of A Widow for One Year. Irving claims that he is trying to persuade the reader emotionally, not intellectually, and that he writes "plot-driven" novels. Both Irving and King seem to think about the story in their work, think of themselves as someone setting out, by writing words on a page, to get their readers emotionally involved in the tale they are weaving. And sure, A Prayer for Owen Meaney is something very different from The Langoliers, but what they have in common is that they are both great stories with wonderful characters. Both stories that, as I read them, involved me so totally that I was most annoyed when anyone wanted me to pay attention to anything else.
So I'm going to read a bunch of Stephen King now, and then maybe some more John Irving, and I am sure a bunch of other things, with some non-fiction thrown in. And if I never get to Finnegan's Wake... well, I'm just not going to feel bad about that anymore.
As an aside, the "more recent and absurdly popular tale" that I am referring to in the review of Secret Window, Secret Garden is, of course, Fight Club. And knowing that should tell you how the whole thing ends. Right.
Stephen King
7/20/2008 - 7/22/2008
LT Review: 3.5 stars
LT Review:
This is a collection of four short novels (although they are short only by King standards, each runs around 200 pages). Overall, it's quite entertaining.
The first, The Langoliers is the best of the bunch. The story of a group of passengers on an LA to Boston fight that manages to travel through time, it's suspenseful, exciting, and driven (as many of King's tales are) by fear of both supernatural and more human evils. It's 250 pages that readers like me will plow through in a single sitting.
Secret Window, Secret Garden is the basis for the recent Johnny Depp movie "Secret Window." And tells the tale of a writer accused by a stranger of stealing a story that he knows he wrote himself. While I suspected the twist ending well before I got there, I expect that at the time this was published (well before a more recent and absurdly popular tale with a similar twist) the thought would have occurred to few readers, and maybe it won't occur to you. Overall, it's good but not great.
The Library Policeman is a gripping read, and enough to make someone currently pretty deep into library fines (like yours truly) more than a little bit nervous. The characters are what makes the story work here, and they are all elegantly flawed. I have trouble when King gets too into the descriptions of his monsters, but perhaps this is because I am not much of a visual reader, but overall, I enjoyed this one very much.
The Sun Dog, the last in the collection is by far the weakest. Centered around a paranormal camera, the events of the story seem a little too random and confusing. While some of the moments and secondary characters have a wonderful textured existence, the story fell flat for me overall, and I found myself not nearly as wrapped up in the action as I was with the other three.
Overall, it's a satisfying bunch of stories, although I see no real reason why it has to be read or considered as a collection at all. All of the novellas stand independent of the others, and there is no real theme particularly connecting them. (Aside from their tendency to keep you up past midnight, by which standard we could combine a large percentage of King's work into a single monstrous volume.)
Unless you are a die hard fan, you can skip The Sun Dog. I would recommend reading The Langoliers and The Library Policeman, and Secret Window, Secret Garden is certainly worth the 150 pages for quick readers, but if plowing through it is going to take you more than an evening, your time could probably be better spent somewhere else.
Maggie Specific thoughts: **Complete with a SPOILER ALERT**
I stole this book from the basement of my house, I have no idea how long ago, but I've been lugging it around unread for quite a while now. The thing that I have finally really admitted to myself is that I very very very much enjoy reading Stephen King. Perhaps the collected works of the master of horror is a strange new pastime to pick up shortly after moving into an apartment all by myself for the first time (sounds like something that might end up in one of his stories) but I'm having fun. Thinking about it, my affection for these stories specifically, and the others that I have read and am reading more generally, goes to the base of what I want as a reader. I like to be told a story. I am reading not as some grand academic exercise (that's what the lab is for) but to be entertained, and while I see value in the literary greats, I also have started to come to terms with the fact that there is nothing wrong with loving an author because he tells stories that I can't help but get wrapped up in. I guess, in the end, I don't want reading to be hard, I want it to be powerful, and moving, and entertaining, but this is not work for me, this is pleasure. That attitude is something that I am just coming to terms with (as a perfectionist, I feel sometimes like perhaps it is a waste of my time to have read the complete works of say Dennis Lehane but not War and Peace, because I want to be "good" at all the things that I do), but if I really think about it, that is the thread that joins all the books and writers that I love most... plan old good story telling.
King is unashamed to admit that storytelling is basically his goal, that he's not trying to work great constructs of language, but rather to tell good tales. He accomplishes that, and I find that I like and respect him more for doing what he does, doing it well, and not trying to be something he's not. Thinking about it I think is helping me to let myself be the kind of reader that I am at my core, and I am having a most wonderful time with it.
I should note here that John Irving, who I also really love (to the point where I get a little excited thinking about all the John Irving books that I haven't read yet, like presents waiting to be opened) says something similar about his own writing in an interview included in my copy of A Widow for One Year. Irving claims that he is trying to persuade the reader emotionally, not intellectually, and that he writes "plot-driven" novels. Both Irving and King seem to think about the story in their work, think of themselves as someone setting out, by writing words on a page, to get their readers emotionally involved in the tale they are weaving. And sure, A Prayer for Owen Meaney is something very different from The Langoliers, but what they have in common is that they are both great stories with wonderful characters. Both stories that, as I read them, involved me so totally that I was most annoyed when anyone wanted me to pay attention to anything else.
So I'm going to read a bunch of Stephen King now, and then maybe some more John Irving, and I am sure a bunch of other things, with some non-fiction thrown in. And if I never get to Finnegan's Wake... well, I'm just not going to feel bad about that anymore.
As an aside, the "more recent and absurdly popular tale" that I am referring to in the review of Secret Window, Secret Garden is, of course, Fight Club. And knowing that should tell you how the whole thing ends. Right.
LibraryThing Wins
So since I got started on Librarything, I have been more obsessed with books than ever. I'm not sure if that is really a good thing. (Does anyone ever really NEED to be more obsessed with books that I have been for as long as I can remember? Probably not.) Either way, I'm enjoying it. It's keeping me reading, but I feel compelled to write about the things that I read (at least a brief review) and keep track of them in my posting for that purpose, so it's keeping me on track with those habits that I was trying to solidify.
That being said, writing those reviews is not really the same as what I do when I blog about books, since the things that I post on the site are seen by users outside the context of "me." Therefore, the things that I post don't always touch on the ways that the things that I am reading hit me personally or connect with the little goings on in my head and my life, or how I ended up with that particular book in my hand or anything like that. I like the reviewing, and I hope that the things I contribute help people out, but it's not the same. I want to do both maybe, both to synthesize my thoughts into something useful for the general non-Maggie knowing reader in terms of a well-thought out opinion of a book and how good or bad it is, and to take the time to organize my thoughts for the Maggie-knowing reader, or perhaps more importantly, for the Maggie herself to better know what I was thinking when I read something, and how it plays out with the other things in my life. I think doing both is important, and I am not sure that I know how to find time for both, but what are you going to do?
Anyway, I guess that I am going to post my reviews here as well, for the three people that might occasionally read this thing, and when a book touches me, or I have thoughts that just don't fit with a review, I'll put them in after the review. We'll see how that works for now. Cool.
That being said, writing those reviews is not really the same as what I do when I blog about books, since the things that I post on the site are seen by users outside the context of "me." Therefore, the things that I post don't always touch on the ways that the things that I am reading hit me personally or connect with the little goings on in my head and my life, or how I ended up with that particular book in my hand or anything like that. I like the reviewing, and I hope that the things I contribute help people out, but it's not the same. I want to do both maybe, both to synthesize my thoughts into something useful for the general non-Maggie knowing reader in terms of a well-thought out opinion of a book and how good or bad it is, and to take the time to organize my thoughts for the Maggie-knowing reader, or perhaps more importantly, for the Maggie herself to better know what I was thinking when I read something, and how it plays out with the other things in my life. I think doing both is important, and I am not sure that I know how to find time for both, but what are you going to do?
Anyway, I guess that I am going to post my reviews here as well, for the three people that might occasionally read this thing, and when a book touches me, or I have thoughts that just don't fit with a review, I'll put them in after the review. We'll see how that works for now. Cool.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
The Time Traveler's Wife
The Time Traveler's Wife
by Audrey Niffenegger
So I have had this book sitting on my shelf ever since I stole it from my mother long long ago on one of my visits home. (I really do just pillage her library...sorry Mom.)
Anyway, I had heard good things about it, but had never gotten around to picking it up, but it was one of the books that jumped out at me as having been on the shelf too long without attention being paid to it when I was making my TBR Challenge 2008 list. Once on the list, it was clear, to me at least, that I would get it read. Today, I realized that I very much needed a break of a little bit from The Wheel of Time (5 volumes and thousands of pages in) so I started this book sitting in Panera this morning...
... and finished it about 10 hours later.
I loved it. I'm not even sure how to explain why I loved it as I did, but I simply could not put it down. I adored the two central characters from the very first page, and felt compelled to know their story, in it's entirety, before I did anything else. (Although I did spend some quality time in Borders this afternoon, because I am a addict, and I needed a book fix.)
This is a love story of the highest caliber. More than that, a story of longing, and the compromises that are part of living and loving with imperfect people. It's a beautiful tale, and I must give Niffenegger credit for her ability to create little phrases just perfect for the moment at hand, five or six words ideally placed together... it's a gift.
I suppose that perhaps part of the reason that I loved this book is how deeply I related to Claire's sense of longing, of missing the one that she loves when he has gone where she can't follow. I feel that way a lot these days, missing Andrew. Time travel and war are perhaps not the same, but the emotion that she describes on the very first page was certainly a part of what pulled me in.
"It's hard to be the one who stays. I keep myself busy. Time goes faster that way. I go to sleep alone, and wake up alone. I take walks. I work until I'm tired... Everything seems simple until you think about it. Why is love so intensified by absence?"
Overall, I can say nothing more than that it is a beautiful book, one that left me feeling transfixed and transported, a story that demanded to be read so strongly that I simply couldn't put it down.
by Audrey Niffenegger
So I have had this book sitting on my shelf ever since I stole it from my mother long long ago on one of my visits home. (I really do just pillage her library...sorry Mom.)
Anyway, I had heard good things about it, but had never gotten around to picking it up, but it was one of the books that jumped out at me as having been on the shelf too long without attention being paid to it when I was making my TBR Challenge 2008 list. Once on the list, it was clear, to me at least, that I would get it read. Today, I realized that I very much needed a break of a little bit from The Wheel of Time (5 volumes and thousands of pages in) so I started this book sitting in Panera this morning...
... and finished it about 10 hours later.
I loved it. I'm not even sure how to explain why I loved it as I did, but I simply could not put it down. I adored the two central characters from the very first page, and felt compelled to know their story, in it's entirety, before I did anything else. (Although I did spend some quality time in Borders this afternoon, because I am a addict, and I needed a book fix.)
This is a love story of the highest caliber. More than that, a story of longing, and the compromises that are part of living and loving with imperfect people. It's a beautiful tale, and I must give Niffenegger credit for her ability to create little phrases just perfect for the moment at hand, five or six words ideally placed together... it's a gift.
I suppose that perhaps part of the reason that I loved this book is how deeply I related to Claire's sense of longing, of missing the one that she loves when he has gone where she can't follow. I feel that way a lot these days, missing Andrew. Time travel and war are perhaps not the same, but the emotion that she describes on the very first page was certainly a part of what pulled me in.
"It's hard to be the one who stays. I keep myself busy. Time goes faster that way. I go to sleep alone, and wake up alone. I take walks. I work until I'm tired... Everything seems simple until you think about it. Why is love so intensified by absence?"
Overall, I can say nothing more than that it is a beautiful book, one that left me feeling transfixed and transported, a story that demanded to be read so strongly that I simply couldn't put it down.
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