Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King

Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King

⭐⭐⭐/5

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

Suspenseful, mysterious, and heart-wrenching, Stephen King’s extraordinary novella, populated by a cast of unforgettable characters, tells a powerful tale of crushing despair and liberating hope through the eyes of Ellis “Red” Redding. Red’s a guy who can get you whatever you want here in Maine’s corrupt and hard-edged Shawshank State Penitentiary (for a price, of course), but the one thing he doesn’t count on is an unexpected friendship forged with fellow inmate Andy Dufresne—an inscrutable one-time banker perhaps falsely convicted of brutal, calculated murder who will go on to transform everyone’s lives within these prison walls.

Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King

 Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King-111 pages

⭐⭐⭐⭐

#1 New York Times bestselling author Stephen King’s beloved novella, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption—the basis for the Best Picture Academy Award–nominee The Shawshank Redemption—about an unjustly imprisoned convict who seeks a strangely satisfying revenge, is available as a standalone book.

Suspenseful, mysterious, and heart-wrenching, Stephen King’s extraordinary novella, populated by a cast of unforgettable characters, tells a powerful tale of crushing despair and liberating hope through the eyes of Ellis “Red” Redding. Red’s a guy who can get you whatever you want here in Maine’s corrupt and hard-edged Shawshank State Penitentiary (for a price, of course), but the one thing he doesn’t count on is an unexpected friendship forged with fellow inmate Andy Dufresne—an inscrutable one-time banker perhaps falsely convicted of brutal, calculated murder who will go on to transform everyone’s lives within these prison walls.

Originally published in the 1982 collection Different Seasons, it was adapted into the 1994 film The Shawshank Redemption starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman. Nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, this modern classic has become one of the most beloved films of all time. A mesmerizing work of unjust imprisonment and strangely satisfying revenge, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption remains one of Stephen King’s most beloved and iconic stories.

Thoughts: I've seen this movie many times. Any time it's on TV, I'll usually watch it (at least clips). It's such a well done, good movie. This is our next choice for the Book to Movie Club. There are many differences and some similarities (some almost exact) between the book and the movie. I prefer the movie slightly to the book, though. Without the book/short story, the movie would have never been made, though. 

Holly (Holly Gibney #3) by Stephen King

 Holly (Holly Gibney #3) by Stephen King-449 pages                                           
⭐⭐⭐⭐✰

Holly Gibney gets a voice mail from the mother of a missing daughter and so begins a harrowing case. Bonnie Rae Dahl has been missing for a few weeks and her mother, Penny, doesn't believe that she ran away like the police say. Holly agrees to take on the case and slowly begins to realize that there have been other, possibly connected, disappearances on the same road as Bonnie. Will Holly solve the case and is Bonnie alive or dead? This one is Stephen King at his creepy best. There are some downright creepy scenes in this one. I can think of one in particular that creeped me out the most. I felt some Hannibal Lecter and Criminal Minds (the TV show) vibes while reading it. I enjoy reading horror/thriller books. I would rate this 4 out of 5 stars. I was able to comprehend everything going on without having read the previous books that included Holly Gibney as a character.

11/22/63 by Stephen King

 11/22/63 by Stephen King - 849 pages

Jake Epping is a thirty-five-year-old high school English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine, who makes extra money teaching adults in the GED program. He receives an essay from one of the students—a gruesome, harrowing first person story about the night 50 years ago when Harry Dunning’s father came home and killed his mother, his sister, and his brother with a hammer. Harry escaped with a smashed leg, as evidenced by his crooked walk.

Not much later, Jake’s friend Al, who runs the local diner, divulges a secret: his storeroom is a portal to 1958. He enlists Jake on an insane—and insanely possible—mission to try to prevent the Kennedy assassination. So begins Jake’s new life as George Amberson and his new world of Elvis and JFK, of big American cars and sock hops, of a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and a beautiful high school librarian named Sadie Dunhill, who becomes the love of Jake’s life—a life that transgresses all the normal rules of time. 

This was definitely an interesting book. This isn't the style of book I would usually read, but I had a family member talk me into reading it. I was glad I read it by the end of the book. It was slow around the middle of the book for me, but picked back up and made up for it by the end.