The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King (GRADE: A)

I just finished BOOK 2 of the Dark Tower Series, The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King.  I grade it an A.

This is my second reading of this book and I loved it even more the second time.

Stephen King wanted to write his version of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy; he wanted to write an epic tale.  What he came up with is very different from J.R.R Tolkein's masterpiece but it is good none the less.  The big difference is that the Dark Tower series very much follows over the shoulder of one character, Roland, but it does not diminish the scope of the story.

This second book is about how Roland loses parts of himself to gain the Prisoner and the Lady of Shadows.  You'll have to read the book to find out what this means.

It was a fun and interesting read.  I highly recommend it.

The Gunslinger by Stephen King (GRADE: A)

I recently finished The Gunslinger by Stephen King.  Anything that I feel compelled to read more than once automatically gets an A-something grade.  When I had finished Native Speaker by Chang-Rae Lee, I just wanted something fun to read and so I picked this book up again.

It was better the second time through than the first time through.  How many books can boast that?

I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes fantasy/horror/old west/adventure. It was really fun to read.  It may even get a third reading from me in the future...

Native Speaker by Chang-Rae Lee (GRADE B-)

I recently finished Native Speaker by Chang-Rae Lee.

This book is about a Korean American New Yorker who works as a kind of spy for a company that digs up dirt about prominent people in society.  The main character, Henry Park, spies on an up-and-coming korean politician by being a member of his political team.  In the meantime, Henry is estranged from his non-korean american wife.

This book is not plot-driven.  It is more about the character of Henry Park.  If you like Henry's character and care for Henry's character, you will probably like the book but if you do not, you probably will not.  I, unfortunately, did not like Henry as a character; even though I, myself, am a korean american, Henry's character and struggles did not resonate with me.

I don't think that anyone can deny that Chang-Rae Lee is a talented writer; his prose was beautiful.

The pacing of the book was rather slow.  It was too slow for me and I feel that I have a great patience for slow moving stories.  It is probably because I didn't really like the character of Henry Park.

Overall, the writing was excellent but the character and the story was lacking to me.  (But I can see why other people would love love love this book; sadly, I was not one of them.)  I found this book to be a chore to read and get through.  Sorry.  I grade this book a B--.