11/22/63 by Stephen King

Whoo boy this one was a doozy, 842 pages, 849 if you count the afterword, of heart-stopping, breath-taking action. I’ve read a lot of Stephen King and I think this is his best novel in years.

The book starts with a school teacher, Jake Epping, who teaches in a small town in Maine. Jake’s marriage has recently fallen apart and he finds himself with more downtime than he previously had. His friend Al, who owns a diner, lets Jake in on a little secret. The pantry in his diner is a portal into the past. A very specific portal, it takes you back to a fine September day two minutes before noon in 1958. The best thing about this portal is that no matter how long you spend in the past, only two minutes will have passed by in the present.

Al has known about this portal for years, and has been using it to buy cheap beef from the butcher in small town Maine, 1958. He hatches a plan to try and save Kennedy from being assassinated, assuming that all the bad that has happened since then can be undone, by stopping this one act. Vietnam, being at the top of the list and all of the millions of deaths that war caused. Al made it four years into the project before he became too sick, he was already pretty old when he started, so he recruits his pal Jake to take over for him.

Al sets Jake up with money and identification, as well as sports figures from 1958-1963, so Jake can easily make more money if he needs it. And Jake sets out to save the world.

As Jake goes along he finds that the past is “obdurate”, the past does not want to be changed, and this obviously causes a lot of problems for Jake when he tries to make such a big change as to prevent JFK’s assassination.

I try to make it a habit to not give away most of the book in my reviews; I think that ruins it for everyone else, so I will leave the synopsis there. This is written like a mystery, but has the elements of suspense and thriller. There were several parts of the book I had to stay up late to finish because there was no way I could put it down at that moment. Not only do we get to hypothesize what would happen to the future if we could change the past, but we also get an in depth look at America in the late 50s and early 60s.

Remember the portal drops Jake in September of 1958 that means he has over 5 years until JFK is assassinated in November of 1963. That’s 5 years of Jake living in the past knowing about things, but unable to tell the friends he’s met along the way, the event that stands out for me is the Cuban Missile Crisis. Jake considers this just a bump in the road, but at the time it was as frightening as 9/11 was to us.

King takes us on a wild journey and even shows us what a world with JFK living would have looked like. This book isn’t as scary as some of his others, (I still have nightmares about The Mist and IT.) But there is an intellectual scariness to it, what would happen to the world if someone went back and altered history?

Date Started: 1/14/12
Date Finished: 1/18/12
Stars: 5 stars
Next Up: The Gate House by Nelson DeMille

Legends of Shannara: The Measure of the Magic by Terry Brooks

I’ve been reading Terry Brooks since I was 12, he writes about the fictional world of Shannara, this is fantasy at its most basic, there is always a struggle of good vs. evil, the main characters are generally children/teenagers and magic is involved in some way. There are 22 books about the world of Shannara, Brooks’ website gives you a handy reading guide for noobs to the world of Shannara as well as those who’ve read the books and want to revisit.

This book is part of the prequel to the Shannara series itself, it follows the characters as their protective valley is about to be invaded by a species of Trolls. The characters find themselves at odds with their respective leaders, the elves because their King was killed and the Queen takes the throne that’s rightfully the Princess’s, the humans because the Seraphic doesn’t want to lose his position as a leader of the people. There is also a demon who finds his way into the valley following the magic he senses. He’s destined to battle the human Panterra Qu, one of the main characters of the novel.

It’s a classic fantasy novel, a good read, but would be confusing if you haven’t read other novels in the Shannara world.


Date Started: 1/10/12
Date Finished: 1/13/12
Stars: 3 stars
Next Up: 11/22/63 by Stephen King

A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin

This is an epic/high fantasy and the fourth book in the Song of Fire and Ice/Game of Thrones series:


Book One: A Game of Thrones
Book Two: A Clash of Kings
Book Three: A Storm of Swords
Book Four: A Feast for Crows
Book Five: A Dance with Dragons
Book Six: The Winds of Winter (forthcoming)
Book Seven: A Dream of Spring (forthcoming)


If you like intricate plots with a whole host of characters, you would like this series. 

I might end up reviewing the first three if I get a chance, but I will review the fourth and fifth (when I get it from the library and get it read).

A Song of Fire and Ice Series Review: 

The series is written in chapters dedicated to just one characters point of view at a time. The characters that start the series don’t always make it through to even the second book, let alone the fourth, the cast is huge and ever changing, but there is never a character’s chapter that comes up that I think “I really don’t want to read about this person.” All of his leading characters are fully fleshed and interesting to read about.

With that said, let me be clear: George RR Martin is ruthless when it comes to his characters; he spends a lot of time and energy to build them up, and make you love and root for them, just to kill them off in surprising and unexpected ways, and sometimes by other characters that you thought you loved. He's killed off some of my favorite characters, and I have set the book down thinking I wouldn't finish. But I always find myself picking it back up the next day because I just have to know what happens.

His storytelling is superb, there are characters that I hated at the beginning of the series, but now I like them and even sympathize with them. There are others that I liked at the beginning, but don’t like what kind of people they’re turning into. He writes a fascinating tale, that’s more than just the standard good vs. evil you see in a lot of fantasy series’. There is of course that good vs. evil element, but thus far, we haven’t seen it too much; it’s hinted at, but not fully revealed. Thus far Martin seems to be focusing on characters and their stories than the good vs. evil fight that seems to be approaching.

A Feast for Crows Review: 

I think this is the best book thus far in the series. Partially because I tend to think the most recent book I’ve read is always the best one, but partially because he focused on just a handful of characters this time, so we got to see more of the characters we love and more of the characters we love to hate. We are introduced to a few new narrators, and a few of our favorites are back, but not all. Martin divided this book and the fifth character-wise, so the characters we read about in book four will not be the same as book five. Not as many of my favorite characters die in this book (which is good, I didn’t think I could keep reading the third book after a few of my faves were knocked off), but Martin still manages to kill a few.

We see a few voyages and journeys and some characters are raised to great heights, just to take a tumble. The war of the 5 kings is mostly over by now, and the main plot is the clean up after the war and the impending winter. Since there isn’t as much fighting in this book, there is less gore than the third book (which at times I had to put down because the amount of gore grossed me out), but for those of you who love to see it, Martin certainly hasn't done away with all of it. The book has an ending, but since it is a series there are character arcs that leave you with cliff-hangers, which sucks when you are getting the books from the library. Just checked my account and the fifth book “A Dance with Dragons” should be arriving in my hands sometime next week. Woo – hoo! Stay tuned for an upcoming review!


Be warned this is a monstrous series, there are 7 books planned, only 5 are out and of those 5 not one of the books is under 600 pages, and some even hit the 1,000 page mark. If you are into high/epic fantasy and are looking for a big series this is the series for you.

I haven’t seen the HBO show, but I hear it stays pretty close to the books, I’m interested to see if this is true or not. If you have read the books and seen the HBO show – let me know! I want to know what you thought, whether you think it matches the books well, or if they leave huge plot points and/or characters out.

As I was fact-checking for this review I ran across a few pretty awesome fan-sites for both the books and the show. Here and here, if you're in to that sort of thing.  


Happy Reading!

Date Started: 1/1/12

Date Finished: 1/9/12

Stars: 4.5
Next Up: The Legends of Shannara: The Measure of Magic by Terry Brooks

Mockingjay by Suzanne Colins

“First book I finished in 2012, I finished it on 1/1/12. It's the last book in the Hunger Games Trilogy. A great read, but it the trilogy needs to be read in order, or it will be confusing. It's about an alternate America and about overthrowing a wasteful and ineffective government.”

That was my Facebook review – I think I can do better than that. Mockingjay is the last book in a trilogy, so in order to review it; I will essentially be reviewing the whole trilogy.

This trilogy is about a very oppressive and controlling government that makes children from all the districts that make up the country of Panem fight against each other in the Hunger Games once a year. Two tributes are chosen from each district, one male and one female. 


The heroine, Katniss Everdeen, doesn’t fight to overthrow the government, she fights to stay alive and keep the people she loves alive, but her actions are interpreted by many as anti-government sentiments. This starts a downward spiral of events and Katniss is stuck in the middle of the government she hates and a new start up government that’s just as controlling and oppressive as the government it’s trying to replace. 

With the Occupy movement and the Arab Spring, this trilogy is relevant to what is happening in the world today. People are upset and feel oppressed that governments have led us to this economic downfall. 


The series is about children warring with each other, it can be gruesome and graphic, but I feel it has a lot to teach us about the effects war has on children as well as what can happen when you give a government too much power. You can make the trilogy as political or non-political as you want, but in the end it’s a good read. 

If you are looking for something relatively quick, this is it. Each book is approximately 300 pages, but it’s not a difficult read, the language is easy and the subject matter engrossing.


I found a few fan sites, if you're into that sort of thing, here and here.


Happy Reading!


Date started: 12/31/11
Date finished: 1/1/12
Stars: 4
Next Up: A Feast of Crows by George R.R. Martin

...and so a blog was born

I often get asked how many books I read in a week, or a month, or a year. And I honestly have no idea, I have never counted, probably because I'm too busy trying to get to the next good book than to count the previous ones.  So this is partially a blog about counting the number of books I've read in 2012, and partially a blog reviewing those books.  If I get through the whole year, and stay pretty consistent, I will probably expand the blog to a total book review.

I have wanted to start a blog for a long time, but could never figure out what to write about; I wanted the blog to have more meaning and meat to it than the daily musings of a 20-something.  I came up with the idea to chronicle all the books I read in a year, for my own curiosity as well as all for all those who have asked over the years.

I decided to chronicle on Facebook and Pinterest, but then found myself writing short reviews, and finally decided I wanted to write longer reviews, and so a blog was born.

I do plan to take suggestions on books I read this year, so if you have them, I want to hear them! Happy reading!