11/22/63 by Stephen King

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Absolutely fantastic!!!  Be prepared to be sucked in for a while with this one - it's long and involved, but well-worth the time.

Jake is shown a way to travel to the past and encouraged to do something huge - prevent Kennedy's assassination.  Since he can only travel back to 1958, he spends the time between then and 1963 building a life that has more value to him then the one he left.  But - here's the rub - he will HAVE to travel back to present time once he stops the assassination to make sure everything's ok.  Once he does that, he can't go back.

Stephen King is one of the best wordsmiths there is.  While some of his books are definitely better than others, they are all great, in my opinion.  This one stands at the top of the list though - one of my favorite King books has always been It (and yay! some It characters make a showing in this book!).  11/22/63 comes close to taking over the top spot (and only doesn't because I just LOVE when King gets truly creepy).

I give this one all 5 stars without hesitation.






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Emory's Gift

Emory's Gift by W. Bruce Cameron

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book is such a gem!!  It's heart-warming and thought-provoking.  Charlie is an 8th grade boy who has lost his mother, has trouble relating to his father, and is trying to find his social place at school.  Things are not happy for him, and then he sees a grizzly bear in the wild - and somehow they connect.  The grizzly comes home with him and stays in his barn - and apparently is a reincarnated Civil War soldier with a message.

Like his other book, A Dog's Purpose, Cameron has written a book with an animal as a main character - one who is more than "just" an animal.  Even though this book focuses mostly on Charlie, the magic of an animal being "more" is a big part of the novel, and is what makes both books so magical.





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