Warning: May occasionally contain spoilers.
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The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon: Stephen King
Dear Stephen King,
The world had teeth... Truer worlds were never spoken, sir!
I can still feel that creature sneaking up, just behind the bushes, waiting to rip into the flesh off my back!
-Tony H
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A World Out Of Time: Larry Niven
Dear Larry Niven
That Mirelly-Lyra chick reminded me a lot of Cruella Deville. I'm surprised that she didn't try to make coats out of the little girls that held her captive for so long (or at least make coats out of those legless cats). The cats were a nice touch, by the way. I've always thought they were a little sneaky like a snake anyway.
-Tony H
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Neanderthal: John Darnton
Dear John Darnton,
Sci-Fi books written about far-fetched but theoretically possible ideas are so fun. It's the "what-ifs" that really get your mind going. I clung to this story tightly and found an interest in a topic that had never really caught my eye before. Thank you.
-Tony H
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The Cell: Stephen King
Dear Stephen King,
I know you've said, "kill your darlings," but geez Steve, I thought you meant adverbs. I didn't expect that you'd hit Alice in the face with a brick! Damn good book, though.
Rock on!
-Tony H
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The Winter Of Our Discontent: John Steinbeck
Dear John Steinbeck,
Sometimes a character comes along that rings out in your head. He's so identifiable that you almost assume the character was modelled after your own soul. Never mind the fact that the character was created 10 years before you were born, he's you... or maybe you're him. Ethan is my character. I listen to his thoughts, to the ideas in his head and I recognise them as the thoughts I so often find myself working through. His struggles, his emotions and, indeed, his proposed solutions are a facsimile of the very ones I carry with me... not that I'm gonna start robbing banks or anything. Thank you, John, for understanding me.
(See my original notebook post for this book, for more of my thoughts on it.)
-Tony H
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Sphere: Michael Crichton
Dear Michael Crichton,
Can we "will ourselves to forget" that ending? After 360 pages of glorious story, did you suddenly get bored with it? So many better things could have happened than that little paradox thing. It just seemed so cheap and hurried.
-Tony H
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The Time Traveler's Wife: Audrey Niffenegger
Dear Audrey Niffenegger,
You made me cry. Will you do it again, soon? Oh, and Claire is sexy. Can you get me her number? LOL.
-Tony H
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The Dead Zone: Stephen King
Dear Stephen King,
Johnny Smith. You can't get more "normal-guy" than that. And he loved his all-american girl (who, by the way, could really use some Prozac). I often identify with the main characters of the books I read, usually to the point of getting swept away with the story. But I actually found myself wanting to limp away after I turned the last page of this one. That must be the mark of a great writer... to make the reader feel the protagonist's pain... literally.
-Tony H
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Lonesome Dove: Larry McMurty
Dear Larry McMurty,
Thank you. Thank you for father-figures and role-models like Augustus McCrae and Woodrow F. Call. Thank you for self-identifiable characters such as Newt Dobbs. Thank you for my first literary love, Lorena Wood. This book gave so much to a young man who was out in the world, far from home for the first time. I first read this book in 1992 in a barracks in Colorado 1300 miles from my home and family and it taught me another kind of family. It taught me many life lessons that I had ironically missunderstood growing up on the farm in east Tennessee. Jake Spoon taught me that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. I've heard it all my life, but now I understand it. Lorena Wood taught me that you are more than what people say you are. Pea-Eye Parker taught me that loyalty is a noble quality. Captain Call taught me that a stoic man is not an uncaring man and that everyone is human after all. Augustus McCrae understood the simple pleasures in life and he taught me to be content with the sunset every day of my life.
Thank you
-Tony H
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