11/22/63

In my youth I was a huge Stephen King fan. Then I had babies and no longer enjoyed horror — imagining horrific things happening to my own children was more than I could bear. My all-time favorite King book is The Stand, which is more dystopian thriller than horror. I even liked the made-for-tv movie adaptation.

Here is a short timeline of some of the Stephen King books I have read, listed from favorite to least fav:

The Stand —  'Salem's Lot — The Shining — Pet Cemetery — Firestarter — The Running Man — Cujo   — Christine — It — Misery

That said, I was intrigued when 11/22/63 was published in 2011. I bought it on ibooks for $3.99 in 2012. I started reading it and stopped after about three chapters. Basically the plot involves a character's ability through time travel to return to 1963 to prevent the assassination of President Kennedy. I had a hard time getting into the story despite the descriptive writing and intricate character development, and I think I was a little intimidated by the length.

Recently I returned to the book and have been devouring it since school let out this summer. It is looooong and repetitive, but I like it. Sometimes the characters are too schmaltzy, but overall I can tolerate them. And, of course the historical context of JFK's death is compelling and thought-provoking. Right now, the end is in sight (2556 of 3332 pages on my phone), and I'm still curious about how Kennedy fares. If he lives, I'd like to read a sequel that explores the impact that would have had on the future / present.

What She Left Behind

Why am I obsessed with abandoned state mental hospitals? Probably because I spent a lot of time in them in my previous lives.

The setting in What She Left Behind by Ellen Marie Wiseman is Willard Asylum in New York. The author was inspired to write the book after learning about the 2004 New York State Museum exhibition "Lost Cases, Recovered Lives: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic."

This is a great premise for a book that brings together the lives of two characters: one a patient at the hospital in the 1930s and the other a modern day teenager grappling with her own past while assisting on a museum project similar to Lost Cases. Unfortunately I agree with many online reviewers who found the characters flat and the dialogue clichéd. Hardly "illuminating and provocative" as described on Amazon, and I can bearly remember the "unexpected, heartrending ending"mentioned by RT Book Review. The good news is that I was able to finish reading the book and enjoyed the historical elements embedded in the plot.