Of the books you have mentioned:

- Four past midnight --very good nouvelles, here. Not as good as "Different Seasons" IMHO, but worth checking out. I especially liked "The library policeman" --very disturbing in places.

- Cujo. The first King novel I ever read... very fast-paced (has no chapters at all!) and a lot more character-driven that you'd expect from what is supposedly a "killer dog" story. Appropiately nasty ending, too.

- Battle Royale. Quite good, trough the english translation is a bit hard to follow. I'm reading it in paralell to the manga version that Tokyopop is getting out, so right now I'm up to the beggining of part III [The part that opens with Sugimura vs. Mitsuko.] Very nasty, yet very human.

I haven't read any of the others... "Confessions of a Yakuza" sounds quite interesting. The tile alone makes me interested.