Books Stephen King Recommends discussion

Check out my bookshelf called "sai-king-recommends" at sai-king-recommends bookshelf and let's start reading and discussing them!

At this time, I will NOT be adding these books to the group's bookshelf until we read or nominate them, as they can all be easily viewed on my bookshelf along with any of King's and my reviews, which I will continue to update. I hope this works for everyone.

Love the book list, plan on reading them all :) Thanks so much for sharing. Just starting on Goodreads so not sure what is the best idea about the list but I do think the group will grow.

If you read any Stephen King blurbs on books you are reading, or you read new reviews/recommendations, please let know so I can add the books/authors to my bookshelf.

As previously mentioned, all books open for discussion are listed on my (Debra T) still-growing bookshelf titled "sai-king-recommends" located in my public profile at: sai-king-recommends bookshelf
When available, I've added all reviews and blurbs by Stephen King to my personal review of each book (even though I've clearly not read them all). I've accumulated these books from Entertainment Weekly, book blurbs, the internet, and Stephen King's non-fiction books Danse Macabre, On Writing, and Secret Windows.

I've just realized you may not know how to read the reviews I've added for each book on my "sai-king-recommends" bookshelf. When you open the bookshelf you will see a list of books. To the far right of each listed book, after the last column titled "date added," you will see the word "view." Just click on "view" to see my review. There will always be something there, even if it is as simple as the words "Stephen King recommended." In other cases you will see any comments made by Stephen King that I've been able to locate.

OR, you can add me as a friend, and my reviews will show up with all your friends reviews for the book you are viewing.

Let me know if you have any questions.
Debra

Debra wrote: "Check out my bookshelf called "sai-king-recommends" at http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/... and let's start reading and discussing them!

I will NOT be a..."

Is there a way to go to the sai king recommends website directly, or, to get the postings directly?

Miriam wrote: "Debra wrote: "Check out my bookshelf called "sai-king-recommends" at http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/... and let's start reading and discussing them!

I w..."

Hi Miriam:

It's not really a web-site, just a bookshelf I have in my profile here on Goodreads. You can just click on the following link to view it. Let me know if you have any problems, and thanks for asking.

sai-king-recommends bookshelf
Debra

What a great list, Debra! I hope as a group we get through a good chunk of these! :)

Jess wrote: "What a great list, Debra! I hope as a group we get through a good chunk of these! :)"

Thanks Jess. I have the same hope!

Will you please tell me how to access your profile so I can check the sai king recommendations? Thank you very much and thank you for your good work.

Hi Miriam:

The easiest way for you to access my "sai-king-recommends" bookshelf is to place your mouse pointer on the following link and just click:

sai-king-recommends bookshelf

If you'd prefer, you can click on my picture right under my name next to this comment, and that will take you to my profile. Right under the stuff you see written about me, you will see "Debra's sai-king-recommends shelf" with pictures of some of the books shown underneath. You can place your mouse cursor right on the words "Debra's sai-king-recommends shelf" and click.

A little further down in my profile, you will see columns of ALL my bookshelves under "Debra's Bookshelves." You can place your mouse cursor on the one titled "sai-king-recommends" in the first column and click.

Those are 3 ways you can find the bookshelf. I hope that helps.

Debra

Thank you.

As noted in message 4 above, you can view any of King's reviews/comments/blubs I've accumulated by reading my review of any book on my
sai-king-recommends bookshelf.

In some cases, all I've typed in my review are words like: "Stephen King recommended book." This is because I didn't find anything specific King said about the book other than evidence that he recommended it. (Many of these books were mentioned in King's non-fiction books as recommended reading, but King didn't say anything "quotable" about them.)

In other cases, there will be one or more quotes from Stephen King typed in my review of a book. (Many of these came from his Entertainment Weekly "Pop of King" columns, interviews, introductions, book blurbs, etc.)

In addition, if I'VE read the book AND reviewed it, I will have added my personal review text BELOW the Stephen King information.

(NOTE: I am slowly going back through all my listings and adding source material for EVERY book I have on my sai-king-recommends bookshelf, just so there is no doubt my list is up-to-date and accurate. Yes, I'm crazy like that!)

Anyway, having said all THAT, you may be wondering: "HOW DO I READ YOUR REVIEW, DEBRA? CAUSE I'M JUST DYING TO KNOW WHAT THE KING HIMSELF HAD TO SAY ABOUT SOME OF THOSE BOOKS!"

Ask and you shall receive, Oh Constant Reader! Here ya go:

1. Click here:
sai-king-recommends bookshelf

2. A list of books will appear with the following column headings:

#: (the position number GoodReads assigned to the book when I added it to my bookshelf)

cover: (picture of the book's cover)

title: (title of book)

author: (primary author of book, last name first - as listed in GoodReads book detail information)

ave rating: (the average rating given to the book by ALL people on GoodReads who have rated it from 1-5 stars)

rating: (this is Debra T's - that's ME - rating of the book, if I've read it and rated it)

my rating: (this is YOUR rating of the book, if you read it and rated it)

date read: (date I marked the book as read, IF I read it AND added the date I read it)

date added: (the date I added the book to my bookshelves)

NOTE: As of this writing (10/2/11), there are 721 books on my sai-king-recommends bookshelf. Number 721 is: "The Narrows (Harry Bosch, #10)" by Michael Connelly. It has an average rating of 3.87 (right now) and I've not read it or rated it yet. I added it 9/7/11. With me so far?

3. Here comes the moment you've been waiting for! Haha! To the right of the column "date added" (and next to the listed book), is an important little word: view. Click on "view" to view MY review of any book on the bookshelf.

Voila!!

(NOTE: You can do this for anybody's books on anybody's bookshelves, as long as they have their profile listed as public or you are their friend.)

Now, to belabor the point further...

For the example given above: # 721, "The Narrows (Harry Bosch, #10)" by Michael Connelly, you will see the following when you click on "view:"

---------------
Stephen King recommended book. In EW, 5/21/04, It's Alive! Alive!, Pop of King, he says: "There's little romantic in ''The Narrows,'' by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown, $25.95), but one does not enter the dark world of ex -- LAPD detective Harry Bosch expecting hearts and flowers. Connelly doesn't always write about Bosch; I've always thought his best book was the gruesome (and excruciatingly suspenseful) ''The Poet,'' published in the mid-'90s. Although the climax of ''The Poet'' was satisfying enough, it was open-ended; one could not be completely sure the serial killer had gotten his just deserts."

"Turns out he didn't. ''The Narrows'' is a sequel to ''Poet,'' and if you save this for hot weather, forget the air conditioner; the chills come built in. The story is told in slightly dislocated fashion -- first-person-narrative chapters from the Bosch point of view interwoven with third-person chapters from the point of view of FBI agent Rachel Walling -- but the clarity of Connelly's writing and the steadily building pace of his narrative more than compensate for the slightly uncomfortable feel of that back-and-forth. This is scarifying in a big way -- a Thomas Harris kind of scary, which is high praise indeed."
------------------------------

One last thing... I promise. You can sort a bookshelf by most of columns. So, if you want to see the list sorted by title, click on "title." If you want to see the list sorted by author, click on "author."

WHEW! I think that just about covers it! I'll post this in the "How Do I Do That?" thread, too.

Go to it, guys! Let's get reading AND discussing!

Debra

P.S. If you like, you can add me as a friend and my reviews will show up with all your friends reviews when you are viewing one of the books that is on my sai-king-recommends bookshelf.

what does the "sai" stand for? it has me curious.

Stephen King uses the term as a honorific in his Dark Tower series. Almost like us saying "Sir" but not quite.

I added several new books to my sai-king-recommends bookshelf today and we will be adding Tana French as a favorite author. Here are my finds:

The Good Son
The Road Out: A Teacher's Odyssey in Poor America
Some Kind Of Fairy Tale
The Caller
The White Devil
Crossers
Talk Talk
Skippy Dies

If you want to read what SK said about any of the books on my bookshelf, just add me as a friend so you can easily find my reviews. All SK comments, if found, are in my reviews.

Great job Debra! I just love this group!!!

I'm thrilled to hear that he is adding Tana French to his list of favorite authors! I love her books.

Thanks Tara, it's great having your enthusiasm here!

Janice, I know what you mean about Tana French. I've read all her books and can't wait for more! There were some truly hair-raising, spine-tingling moments in In the Woods.

I've read In The Woods and Faithful Place. I have yet to read the middle book.

One of the things about In the Woods is that (view spoiler)[it doesn't have resolution in the end. For me, that enhanced the spine-tingling moments. (hide spoiler)]

I know what you mean, Janice.

“The Troop scared the hell out of me, and I couldn’t put it down. This is old-school horror at its best.” —Stephen King
The Troop - looks good!

Got that one added recently, Ann. Thanks for the update.

Ann wrote: "“The Troop scared the hell out of me, and I couldn’t put it down. This is old-school horror at its best.” —Stephen King
The Troop - looks good!"

I still have chills after reading that one.

Oooooh, chills. This book is waiting at the library for me to pick up. Can't wait!

I picked up a Michael Kimball book at the library yesterday, "Mouth to Mouth" and on the back there was a blurb by Stephen King saying "Michael Kimball lives in Maine and is the bestselling author of Undone; 'The sort of book you think about during the day and can't wait to settle back into at night. It's sly, sexy, suspenseful and very, very moving'.

I'm not sure whether he's talking about Undone or Mouth to Mouth to be honest! Anyway I couldn't find either book on your SK list, does this qualify to add?

I did a search and found that the blurb you have is for Mouth to Mouth. I'm adding it to the sai-king-recommends shelf now.

Thanks for catching that, Sharon!

Thanks, Manda. It took a LONG time, but I had a lot of resources. I still get the occasional few to add as Stephen King posts more books he's enjoyed.

Do you have Elementals by Michael McDowell in the list? It made a list of top 10 horror books and SK did a blurb.
"The finest writer of paperback originals in America." - Stephen King

On twitter King just saidcCity on Fire by Garth Risk Hallberg Dickensian, massively entertaining, as close to a great American novel as this century has produced.



Or did you already have it

Missy wrote: "Do you have Elementals by Michael McDowell in the list? It made a list of top 10 horror books and SK did a blurb.
"The finest writer of paperback originals in America." - Stephen King"

Yep, got that one. Have McDowell as a SK recommended author. I've read most of his stuff and loved it, especially the Blackwater series.

Travis of NNY wrote: "On twitter King just saidcCity on Fire by Garth Risk Hallberg Dickensian, massively entertaining, as close to a great American novel as this century has produced.

Or did you already have it
..."

Nope didn't have that one. Thanks, Travis!

On twitter Stephen recommended Final Girls to look out for in 2017. Final Girls . Can't find the tweet now but it was in the last week I think.

Michelle wrote: "On twitter Stephen recommended Final Girls to look out for in 2017. Final Girls . Can't find the tweet now but it was in the last week I think."

Found it, Michelle. Will add the book. Thanks!

Just finished Behind Her Eyes which King recommended. I have to agree, what a great read! "Spent most of the day reading the second half of BEHIND HER EYES, by Sarah Pinborough. What the Brits call "a thumping good read." Bravo!" Stephen King on Twitter.

Thanks for the update, Missy!

Stephen King recently tweeted a recommendation for "We Are Not Ourselves" by Matthew Thomas.

Here's the tweet: Check out @StephenKing’s Tweet: https://twitter.com/StephenKing/statu...

I'm going to have to check that book out

Already got it on my Kindle!!

I just checked and my library has it!