Machel Shull's Blog - Posts Tagged "stephen-king"

I found this marvelous site last a few years ago and I remember thinking that I found something fun and exciting. I was right. I had. This is my favorite on-line social networking site. Mainly because of all that it offers as in terms of books, their beautiful covers, the reviews and suggestions of finding other books to read. While some may love reading their other updates, I love to check out this feed here. I love to discover new stories and I value other reviews as well. So, thanks for dropping in. If you are here, you are just like me. You are a book lover. So welcome! I look forward to hearing your thoughts, connecting and discovering more incredible stories to read just like you are looking to do right now.
Here are a few contemporary authors I would suggest reading if you haven't yet discovered them:

Kate Kerrigan
Joanna Crispi
Mary E. Coen
Luanne Rice (MY FAV!)
Marla Martenson
Joseph Monninger
Sophie Kinsella
Alice Hoffman
Sue Monk Kidd
Lolly Winston
Susan Minot
Elizabeth Gilbert
Michiko Rolek

I am sure you know some of these by heart. But in case you haven't read one of their books, I am sure you will love them, too.

My favorite classic authors:

John Steinbeck
Charlotte Bronte
Jane Austin
Truman Capote
Charles Dickens

And my very favorite book of all time? It is surprising to me still that I love this book so much. But what makes a great book? For me it's the characters. The images and those indelible memories that stay with you like you actually experienced it for yourself in person.
CANNERY ROW by John Steinbeck is my favorite.
I hate to say that Jane Eyre got demoted but, alas, some crazy characters down by the water's edge living in hobbled make-shift like homes stole my heart. And that is just what a great book will do when you are not expecting it to do.

I just recently started reading the genius of a writer, Stephen King. I know. I am late in the game. But you know what they say...
And luckily for me, I have five lined up to read.
Happy reading to all.
Machel Shull

The Shining by Stephen King

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


My eleventh SK book. Maybe the best yet...I always think that about all of his book that I am reading....except maybe INSOMNIA. (No offense Ralph!)

Okay, so I'm late the party. I had never read the Shining until this week. I just spent my entire birthday gobbling up the pages with much delight. Turning 43 and reading THE SHINING for the first time is realizing you have faced your childhood fears and you are no longer afraid.
His writing ranks up there (if not better and is because I love all of his books and in this case the reference of the book I loved, I never loved another book by this author) with Barbara Kingsolver, Amy Tan, Those Man Booker prize folks and who knows a Pulitzer.
I always thought that his books were more just scary novels...I never they were -postpone all birthday plans! Clear the deck! I must finish THE SHINING!
I will be forever eternally grateful for reading THE JOURNAL KEEPER by Phyllis Theroux. In her book she suggests to read ON WRITING by SK so I did. And after that? How could I not start to unearth his books??
One by one, I am.
I tried to speak candidly with the guy behind Barnes and Noble (a nice older gentlemen) about my love for Stephen King. I tried to tell him from what I had read (I had gone back to buy DOCTOR SLEEP) that the book truly was far more riveting than Krubrick's film interpretation of the book. (Which has lead to all of these bizarre theories, another alley I won't go down right now.) Any how, the man behind the counter completely disagreed with me and said, "It's one of the best adaptations ever of a film made."
That's when I realized, Ahhh...you are not a true SK fan... (a secret thought of mine, not literally spoken.)
I'm going on. I am going on because I am still quite jazzed up about a book I stumbled upon mid-life due to my fear of THE movie Salem's Lot.
That movie shattered my nights as a child and I vowed to never get involved with the scary SK guy by reading his books...
So glad I grew up and faced my fears to realize I had been missing out on one the greatest writers of our time. Forget HORROR.
How about clear your life for 2 DAYS EXCEPT FOR COFFEE because you have SK in the house!! Yippee:)
After reading 11, I have a good almost 40 or so to go, I can space those out over few years (if I can hold myself back) so I can enjoy a new SK books...well for quite awhile. Maybe some things are worth savoring later in life like a good tequila.

Those snobs out there that haven't cracked up one of his books or someone like me that was just to damned afraid are missing out on going to another planet...albeit temporarily. So:
Get over your snobbery!
Get over your fear!
And discover why reading a book is still more fun that checking a FB or Twitter of a site or an audio book or a movie. THE SHINING WAS PUBLISHED six years after I was born. The fact that it is more fun than an amusement park or even lunch with my girlfriends is only a testament to the superb craft at writing and story telling. His character development makes me believe in writing again, in stories, in books. So don't be a snob! Don't be afraid. Walk over to the other side and become a....what?
A CONSTANT READER!



View all my reviews

Doctor Sleep by Stephen King

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Yippee! Just finished THE SHINING and going in for the kill with DOCTOR SLEEP. I'M A GROWN UP NOW. Yep:)

Well. Well. Well. What can I say? I have become a CONSTANT READER OF SK. I am back in the groove of reading a few of his books in a row and it has been so entertaining!

I loved the SHINING. The book, which the movie was based on but did not stay true to, showed a more human said to John Torrance, Danny's dad. His mom wasn't just pushed around by him either. No. You understood that this was a person battling the good and evil and he ultimately lost. You never saw that in the movie. If I had to guess why SK wasn't thrilled with the movie, I would say because it lost the 'goodness' in Jack that tried so desperately to beat alcoholism. I also loved the scrapbook stuff where he was obsessed with it and went down to the basement constantly to piece together the past. That was lost, too.
I know this is Dr. Sleep, here but now thinking of how THE SHINING really did lead well into Dr. Sleep. I read them back to back. I fell in love with Danny as a child and believe it or not, Jack, his father. He tried so hard to finally get it right. So when it went wrong you had more sympathy for his character verses the ax maniac Jack in the movie version. I also missed the animals made out of hedges in front of the hotel. They would come alive and chase the characters. And that was way more menacing than just a maze. (Although, the maze worked in the film version.)
So onto DR. SLEEP! ONTO the book that rocked the house, too. I actually cried at the end when Dan told his story about 'canny' and 'Deanie' in the past and how that was his bottom with drinking. I was more involved in this story than the Abra story, but eventually, I became hooked with Abra, too, as she hit her teenage years.
After I finished Dr. Sleep, I told my husband, "Those that don't read SK have it wrong. They think he just writes horror stories or something scary and dark."
But what I have discovered the thread I see through the 12 books I have read is SK weaves in the humanity of his characters, their struggles, their weaknesses and you as a reader can really relate to them as 'REAL PEOPLE.'
There is evil in this world. Dark and scary things do happen. And to read about that can teach us the power of the light, too. The light is what ultimately conquers in both books. I think that as a reader it's important to switch up genres. To learn about both sides. To see life in the darkness of the worst struggle and what happens to a character when life seems bleak, awful and...will they prevail?
We all have our own struggles. Life is a constant battle. And sometimes in most of SK's books that I have read, a thread of light can shine through and the monsters of this world can be beaten.



View all my reviews