Saturday, November 22, 2014

Book Review: 11/22/63 by Stephen King

I read this book about 2 months ago and just hadn't gotten around to doing the review.  Today is the PERFECT day to do this. 

The book starts out with a high school English teacher who is 35 years old name Jake Epping and is in Lisbon Falls Maine. One day the owner of a diner that he frequents asks him to come to the diner after hours because he wanted to show him something.  Jake was perplexed because he had no idea what it could be about.

When he got there the owner of the diner looked years older and was definitely sick and he had just been in the diner the day before.  He showed Jake a back room that would take him back in time to the same town, Lisbon Falls but to the 1950's. When he would come back, no matter how long he was gone, two minutes would have passed. 

Jake also taught a GED class and he had given the assignment of his students writing about a night that change their lives.  One of his students wrote about the day that his father killed his family and this deeply affected the teacher. 

After finding the time traveler room he thought about going back to the area and intercepting  the father from killing the family and what he had to do to get this done.

After he did it he came back through the room to see how this had affected modern day life and the man who wrote the paper. 

Then Jake and the diner owner decided that the world would be better if he would go back and stop Lee Harvey Oswald from killing President Kennedy. 
Along the way he met a woman he fell in love with and he couldn't give out his real identity and had to falsify information and the woman eventually confronted him because she felt he wasn't telling the truth. 

Essentially he had to live two lives down in Texas.  The one where he was a school teacher in a small town and the other watching Lee Harvey Oswald and his family when they moved to Dallas. 

Leading up to the shooting of President Kennedy the book was very exciting with many twists and turns.  It gives a lot of history and food for thought.  It was a very enjoyable book and also it brought up again the thought....Did Lee Harvey Oswald ask along or was it a conspiracy?

After you read it, you will draw your own conclusion. 

Thanks so much for stopping.


 

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Owl

I saw this little guy on the cover of the Birds and Blooms magazine and decided he would be a good subject to draw with graphite pencils.  Many good lights and darks and texture to practice with.
He is a Northern Saw-whet Owl and I copied the description from the great All About Birds website:

A tiny owl with a catlike face, oversized head, and bright yellow eyes, the Northern Saw-whet Owl is practically bursting with attitude. Where mice and other small mammals are concerned this fierce, silent owl is anything but cute. One of the most common owls in forests across northern North America (and across the U.S. in winter), saw-whets are highly nocturnal and seldom seen. Their high-pitched too-too-too call is a common evening sound in evergreen mountain forests from January through May.

It doesn't sounds as if we would be able to get a look at him but if you go to the website there is a spot where you can listen to his call. 

Thanks for stopping by.