Rating: 
Summary: This One Will Stay With You...
Review: I have not read much of King's work, but the more I read, the more I enjoy it. This book drew me in from the first page. I knew very little about the story, only what my boyfriend (who suggested I read it in the first place) had told me about it. It seemed interesting, so I gave it a try. For days, I read it whenever I could. It just captured me.The relationship between Bobby Garfield and Ted Brautigan in the first story is fascinating. The haunting way that Ted interacts with young Bobby, how he introduces Bobby to new books, and the interesting "job" that he gives him are all fabulously written. The first story is nearly half of the book, and for good reason. This book did not go over my head, as I first expected it to. With another of King's book (The Eyes of the Dragon), I would sometimes have to read a page twice to understand it and fully take it in. This book read easily and kept me involved the whole time. If you are already a fan of King's, make sure to pick this one up. And if you are not, I think this would be a great place to start. A journey into one of King's books may change how you look at literature. It has certainly opened my eyes.
Rating:
Summary: The lady in black
Review: This book is a really great Stephen King book. He writes non-horror books as well as he writes horror and fantasy. I have read just as many non-horror king books as I have read horror books, but I am a new King fan. In order I have read The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, The Green Mile, The Shining, Hearts In Atlantis, The Gunslinger, and now I am on The Talisman. Hearts In Atlantis was good because all of the stories mentioned the characters from the first story and showed how they experienced the 60's. My favorite stories are Low Men In Yellow Coats and Hearts In Atlantis. Low Men In Yellow Coats is so good that a lesser author could get by with just that. I gave it only 4 stars because in some places it can get a little slow and some stories aren't all that great. My third favorite story was Blind Willie but I didn't get why Blind Willie did what he did. It was still pretty good though. I can only hope the movie is half as good as the book.
Rating:
Summary: Still wondering....
Review: I was looking forward to seeing the movie and I thought I should read the book first. Now, I am not so sure. I had no idea what the book was about going in and I am still wondering. My advice, realize ahead of time that these are "stand alone" stories. It is true that some of the characters make more than one appearance. However, the tales could have been told without that. I feel that I would have enjoyed the stories more had I realized this wasn't one novel, but a collection of short stories. I kept wondering what the low men were and when they were going to show up again which distracted me througout the rest of the book. I did enjoy the writing and that is why I gave 4 stars. I found the Vietnam stories especially engaging.
Rating: 
Summary: I loved it
Review: I'm just 20, but I must say that this book brought the Vietnam War and the 1960s and 70s into a better light than any other fiction that I've read. You get a feel that King is writing from personal experience most of the time. King is at his best when he identifies totally with the subject of his story, as with novels such as It. This is a great book, and it apparently sheds some light on to the Dark Tower series as well as Insomnia, although not a lot, via the character of Ted. If you are a King fan, give this a read. If not, do it anyway. You won't be disappointed.
Rating: 
Summary: not my favorite but worth a read
Review: Of Stephen King's novels, this is not one of my favorites.. He does well to make you feel you are with him through the stories, but I felt little sympathy for any of the characters but Bobbie & Ted in the "Low Men in Yellow Coats" and would have prefered the story to stick with Bobbie & Ted.. I also felt as if King may have gotten tired of his characters toward the end as the sections kept getting shorter & shorter.. Was there really nothing else left to say at the end or was there a deadline looming on SK's calendar?? What happens next to Bobby and Carol?? My favorites btw, were: The Stand, Needful Things, Four Past Midnight (Library Police)and Dolores Claiborne. The last made a great book & a pretty great film.. I *do* plan to see the movie adaptation of Hearts in Atlantis & look forward to seeing what the amazing Anthony Hopkins does with his portrayl of Ted.. =)
Rating:
Summary: A Long Time 4.5 Stars
Review: With the number of reviews that have been posted about this particular book by Mr. King, it is reasonable to question why anyone would write another. It has probably been two decades since I last read a book by Mr. King; even the title of the book escapes me. "Hearts In Atlantis", is the book that began once again my reading of his work, and I owe this to a movie trailer. Sir Anthony Hopkins has joined a distinguished group of actors and actresses that have participated in other films by Mr. King, and this will continue in this coming film. "The Shawshank Redemption", and, "The Green Mile", were two other films that I had no idea they were Mr. King's until I saw the credits. The main point I wish to make is for readers who may have once read this man's work and stopped, you should absolutely begin once again. And if you have never read his work he is an author that should be experienced. "Hearts In Atlantis", is a wonderful and disturbing read. Even while separated into distinct stories that could each stand alone, when combined they create a major work by an exceptional storyteller. Until the events I mentioned, all of my reading quite some time ago placed this writer's work in the category of horror. The two films I mention, and this book again are about terrible acts that can be committed by people, however they are as far from a horror genre novel as can be. This is a book that deals with the damage that continues well after The Vietnam War is complete. This may sound like a topic that has been written about ad nauseum. The same could be said about a man wrongfully imprisoned, however, "The Shawshank Redemption", is as original as any other writing or film on the topic. I believe it can stand with any other book/film of the genre. The same is true of this work. Mr. King is a prodigious creator of books, and I cannot begin to say I have read even a large fraction of what he has written. I can say it was an error that I ever stopped, and it will take time to catch up on what I have missed. Mr. King has been noted as one of the finer writers of the 20th Century, I never understood why, happily now I do.
Rating:
Summary: Great but begining doesn't connect to end.
Review: I love King's work and have read about six of his books. My favorate was "It". Even though I didn't grow up in the 60's/Vietnam, it was interesting reading about the time. I think think each story on it's own was great but, toward the end I kept waiting for a "full circle" (as Mr. King would say) back to the events in the begining, just insignificant references. There was just too little relationship between how the story began and how it ended. That's why I didn't give 5 stars.
Rating:
Summary: Probably better than the movie will be.
Review: I read all 756 pages in four sittings. I usually am not a fan of Stephen King, but I was impressed by this story. If you have seen the movie that is due out about nine days from this review, you need to realize that focus or point of the story is not Bobby Garfield nor Ted Brautigan, but the Vietnam War.
In reading the first part of the book, I suggest that you keep track of the following characters:Bobby Garfield, Carol Gerber, John Sullivan, William Shearman, and one character that is obsessed with the card game called hearts.
The Atlantis in the title refers to the legendary lost continent. Bobby in the first part explains the reference. In the second part a character named Pete explains the reference, again. I feel that you are better off reading those parts instead of being told what it says. You might consider the card game to be symbolic of the human heart or the hearts of mankind. I will give you that much.
There are five parts to the book. I have heard that the movie has parts 1 and 5 only, which will make it more about something magic-like rather than about war.
I also do not usually like to read about any war in fact or fiction, but something about the storytelling had me mesmerized. I had to know where this was going and how it was getting there.
Rating: 
Summary: Wm. Hurt lives up to his name in what he does to this book.
Review: I would otherwise give the actual book about 4 stars. I read and enjoyed the print version of Hearts in Atlantis. But since this review is of the audio version, the only thing that counts here is the quality of the recorded reading. I'm a big fan of unabridged recordings of SK's books. I've listened to everything that has been produced. I've even come to love SK's own reading of his works. Over the years he's become quite a good reader. I recently got Hearts in Atlantis on CD to listen to. Question: was SK doing William Hurt a favor or something? Hurt is exhausting to listen to. He exudes such an air of tiredness, of zero-energy that he really does live up to his name. I know this isn't merely his attempt to interpret the story since this is how he ALWAYS sounds no matter which movie he's in. Since the book was produced by Recorded Books, which has THE greatest collection of talents of any company that is producing recorded books, I wondered if the selection of Hurt had been for reasons other than talent: Hurt's 'reading' draws too much attention to itself in the way he makes sentences run on, compounding the horror with too narrow a range of pitch, placing emphasis on the wrong words, destroying the rhythm--it's like Ken Nordine on Word Jazz doing the monotone character singing, "My Valentine, my funny Valentine", except in this case it's not funny. George Guidall, Richard Ferrone, or even Frank Muller would have made their parts of the book shine. Instead, it's a dreary trudge through a grey land. You'd be far better off spending your money on the print version and saving the extra expense for Frank Muller's reading of The Gunslinger series (or The Dark Tower series, if you prefer). They're very good.
Rating:
Summary: A pretty good job
Review: This is another great job by Stephen King. Although it is a lot different than everything he's written in the past it is still very good. You should know, however, that this isn't one big novel. It is a collection of 5 short stories. The first story: Low men in yellow coats is probably the best one. It's also the longest one too. It's mainly about a boy who has a new elder friend who lives in the apartment house upstairs. They both share a lot of the same hobbies. This old man however has some problems that arise. I'll just leave it at that. The second story is the title story and it's just about college kids starting to fail classes because they have become obsessed with playing the game hearts. Also the main character has some issues in the story containing a girlfriend. The other stories are pretty dumb but are VERY short. All in all this is a great selection of stories. However, I thought there would be a little more suspense in them. But they were still great reads. I didn't really get anything out of the last three and maybe you won't either but the first two are worth it.
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