11/22/63 by Stephen King

Al Templeton, owner of the local diner in Lisbon Falls, Maine, has accidentally found a porthole to the past in his storage room.  Every trip through the porthole takes him to Lisbon Falls, Maine on September 9, 1958 at 11:58 AM.  And every time he comes back, no matter how long he stays, it's always two minutes later in the future.  Al makes many trips through the porthole and devises a plan to go back and prevent the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas.  Unfortunately, Al develops lung cancer and cannot continue on with his plan so he recruits the help of a local high school English teacher, Jake Epping.  Jake is of course skeptical at first but once he makes his first trip through 'the rabbit hole' under the alias of George Amberson and helps to save the lives of a friend's family he becomes a believer and agrees to make the journey through the porthole and on to 1963 where he would attempt stop Lee Harvey Oswald from killing JFK.  But the past is obdurate.  It doesn't want to be changed and there are many many, sometimes dangerous, obstacles in his way.

I don't want to give away too much about the story but Jake or George, whichever you prefer does fall in love, makes many friends, and also helps to save the lives of others on the way.  You must remember there is a butterfly effect going on and every single life he touches changes the future.  The ending is totally unexpected but I wouldn't say a cliffhanger, thankfully.

At first I was intimidated by the book's size(849p.) and it sat on my shelf for many months.  But once I got started with it, I was quickly hooked and finished the whole thing within a week.  I think Stephen King fans will love this tale of 'natural meets supernatural'.  Classic Stephen King.  I have to say the last several books I read by King were, to me,  not of his nature and left me slightly disappointed.  But I'm glad to say he is BACK!!  Go get it!

Published in 2011 by Scribner.

Shelly