June ScaredyKIT - Stephen King and family

Stephen King and the only author (in my opinion) with a claim to the throne, Joe Hill

This month we are celebrating Stephen King and his talented family. Thank you to sturlington for allowing me to take over and host this year. Enjoy the much-deserved break.

This month you may read a book by the master himself - Stephen King or his wife Tabitha King have 3 children, a daughter named Naomi and two sons, authors Owen King and Joe Hill.
I have personally read and can recommend
Sleeping Beauties written by Owen King and Stephen King
Horns, The Fireman, N0S4A2, Strange Weather, and Heart-Shaped Box written by Joe Hill
Candles Burning written by Tabitha King
My current favorite Stephen King reads are The Dark Half. The Eyes of the Dragon, Mr. Mercedes, Dolores Claiborne, and Bag of Bones.

Owen's wife is Kelly Braffet, author of Josie and Jack, The Unwilling, Save Yourself, Last Seen Leaving, and others.
Naomi's wife is Thandeka, author of Learning to Be White: Race and God in America, The Embodied Self, and Love Beyond Belief.
Joe's wife is Gillian Redfearn, deputy publisher of Gollancz. You can choose to read one of their authors like Terry Pratchett, Leigh Bardugo, Ursula K. LeGuin, and Neil Gaiman to name a few. All authors can be found at https://www.gollancz.co.uk/contributors/a/

Enjoy the month and don't forget the wiki .

As I am doing a group Stephen King readalong at the moment, I will have plenty to go with! We are currently up to The Long Walk.

That's one talented family!

Need to comb through my SK pile and choose!

Great pic, and thanks for shaking up the topic a bit. So many writers and literary people in that family.

I will be reading one or both of the next books in the Gwendy series: Gwendy's Magic Feather and Gwendy's Final Task. The first and last books in the series were co-authored by Stephen and Richard Chizmar, while Richard alone wrote the middle book, but I think it still counts.

I read Billy Summers last year and greatly enjoyed it! I think for this one I will read one of the books in King's hard crime series.

>5 sturlington: I wanted to inspire those that don't like Stephen King's horror books to participate by showing them other options.
>6 Tess_W: I have read and enjoyed The Colorado Kid. The TV series Haven was loosely based on it.

I found Cell on the shelf and haven't read that yet. Perfect.

I'm tempted to read something by Neil Gaimain. :-) I do like Stephen King, but I'm not sure I have anything on my tbr. I could do a reread, or I'm sure I could find something I haven't yet read that I'd like.

I'm tentatively planning on reading King's The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, which I've been meaning to get to for ages.

I finished Gwendy's Magic Feather a day early. That's because this book looks a lot longer than it really is, as it has really big type and very short chapters. I'd say it's maybe novella length. And unfortunately, I didn't like it much at all, which was a disappointment because I did like the first Gwendy book. The sequel felt very flat to me, and the plot seemed nonexistent. I have the third book, which was cowritten by King and Chizmar--maybe that will be better, but I'm not very enthusiastic about reading it now.

I re-read 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill in its new edition Black Phone: Stories.

I read Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill.

July theme is posted. https://www.librarything.com/topic/351597. Sorry I am late at getting this done.

Finished Elevation by Stephen King. Not a bad read for a fast escape, and easy and enjoyable, but probably the least horror-y work I've read by King, most comparable to The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon if anything.

I'm just a third of the way through Cell.

The Shining / Stephen King
4 stars

Danny is only 6-years old. His dad, Jack, is out of work, but gets a job at the Outlook Hotel in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado over the winter. It’s a time when the hotel is closed to guests and he will be the caretaker. He, his wife Wendy, and Danny will be the only people there. Unfortunately, Jack is an alcoholic and has – in the past – been abusive toward his wife and son. Little Danny “knows” and hears things – he knows things that will happen, he can hear others like him as they talk to each other in their heads. Dick Halloran, the cook at the Outlook (whom the family meets at the end of the season before the hotel is closed up), is like Danny this way, and calls it “the shining”. Unfortunately, there are ghosts in the Outlook, and the hotel itself has an agenda.

This was a reread. I read it as a teenager in the ‘80s. I have, of course, seen the Jack Nicholson movie, as well as the more recent rendition of the movie. This time, though, I listened to the audio. I really liked it, but I do suspect it would have been creepier (and I would have been less likely to lose focus – though that didn’t happen often, it did happen occasionally) if I’d read the print. But, having already read the print (though it’s been decades!), I wanted to try the audio. And there were still creepy parts, but it’s pretty much impossible to get Jack Nicholson out of my head… or Shelley Duval or the actor who played Danny in the original movie.

Thank you to everyone who participated this month.

Thanks for hosting!

I didn't get to one this month but I should have one next month.

I finished Cell. Not one of my favorites from him. I wouldn't recommend it as the first book for someone who has never read King, but it has its moments.

>21 mstrust: I saw your review on another thread. The topic intrigues me. I am one of the very few people left in the Western world, I think, who doesn't have (nor do I want) a cell phone!

You are a unicorn 🦄
I sometimes have to tell myself to put the damn thing down.

I'm terribly late in updating this thread, but I did finish It earlier, and I loved it. I also enjoyed the 1990 TV adaptation, which I watched for the first time shortly after finishing the book.

Slowly catching up for the end of the year. I read The Pram by Joe Hill. About a very creepy baby.
This is the first in a short story collection called Creature Feature, available on Kindle Unlimited. It includes stories by Grady Hendrix, Paul Tremblay, Josh Malerman and others.

>25 JayneCM: I've not read that story yet. I love Joe Hill and I'm almost finished a reread of N0S4A2. I like all the Stephen King references in it, including a few related to It.