Around the Year in 52 Books discussion
Book Discussion and Reviews
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Your worst reads from last year
Good thread! Why didn't you like your picks? I've only read Angela's Ashes but I remember thinking it was good. Hideously depressing, but good.I really disliked Chronicles: Volume One by Bob Dylan. Because although I've read a whole book about him, I don't feel I know Bob Dylan any better than when I started reading. Plus, there are a lot of plagiarism accusations flying about...
I also didn't like How Should a Person Be? by Sheila Heti. It was just a bit soulless, the author looking for problems where there are none in an attempt to seem more artistic and intellectual.
This thread seems buggy - I had to post it twice, and now it bugged out trying to edit my first comment with my reasons. 😩Ok, my second attempt worked.
My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry was low on my list in 2019 as well. I felt like there were too many background conflicts/personalities to keep track of and I also found the protagonist annoying.I didn't like Brooklyn; there was just no engaging plot. This 2 star review sums it up well to me: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements was a book I had high hopes for. I thought it'd be interesting stories of "weird" things with the elements. But it was too scientific focusing on their discoveries and such. As a non-scientific person, my eyes glazed over so much.
I rated Today Will Be Different low, and I don't remember why. It was just that unmemorable.
The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You was my worst read of the year. I would have DNF'd it, but a friend lent it to me so I felt obligated to finish. I just found it very redundant and speculative.
Of the books that I finished my least favorite were:Verity. I didn’t find it engaging and then the twist turned it from an “ok” book to one I was just done with! I can suspend reality with the best of them but I want the world the author creates to be consistent. And if you are creating a book in the real world then your twist needs to be consistent with the real world. It may have irritated me more because I work with the patient population that was being created and the twist is just not possible. HATED IT!
Woman In The Window. This is another book that was inconsistent in its story. I’m sorry but you don’t have a woman who is as Intellegent and accomplished as this one was supposed to be doing the dumb stuff she had to do to make the story work. I wouldn’t have finished it if it wasn’t the second book of 2 connected prompts and I didn’t want to have to start over.
I DNFd about 10% of the books I started but the ones I DNFd for reasons other than I just didn’t like them were:
Gorge: My Journey Up Kilimanjaro at 300 Pounds. This was supposed to be a personal growth story but the author didn’t strike the right balance between self deprecating humor and self abusive language. Once I realized that I looked at some of the reviews and jumped towards the end of the book to see if that changed (I mean it was a story about self growth) and it didn’t. I wasn’t interested in that so I stopped.
Mod
Sorry to hear you didn’t like My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry. I just finished Britt-Marie Was Here and may read grandmother later on in the year, even if it’s technically out of order.
My worst book of the year (and possibly ever!) was Pancakes and Corpses by Agatha Frost. It was just dire. I literally can’t think of a single redeeming thing to say about it. The author (who uses a pseudonym) claims to be a woman who lives in a quaint village in the UK, but the writing shows such a lack of understanding of either that it’s hard to believe they’ve so much as spoken to a woman or set foot in a village. The plot was so predictable there wasn’t a hint of suspense, there wasn’t even a vague attempt at character development and the dialogue was so bad it was almost funny. I picked it up as I wanted to try a new mystery series and it was free on Kindle Unlimited, but safe to say I will not be giving the series a second chance!
I only didn't enjoy 3 books last year:The Silent Patient I know many other people liked it, but I was disappointed. There was nothing new or special about this book, and while I read many books that are not new or special, it really annoyed me about this one for some reason.
Number One Chinese Restaurant I was really looking forward to a book about a family run restaurant, I usually like that. But this book was just such a downer, and not one likable person in the whole book.
The worst book of the year honor goes to:
Cape May Completely distasteful and a poor imitation of The Great Gatsby, which I am no particular fan of. The characters are awful and do despicable things on their honeymoon. And why are they constantly swimming at the Jersey shore in October? That really bothered me.
Jody wrote: "Ok, as a counterpoint to the other thread, and also because I kinda love talking about the books I hated just as much as the books I loved ... maybe even a little bit more ... tell me your worst re..."
Ahhh, I loved 14 and it's sequel, The Fold.
My two least favorite reads last year were The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker, which I gave 1 star, and then The Shape of Water, which was 2 stars for me.
Ahhh, I loved 14 and it's sequel, The Fold.
My two least favorite reads last year were The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker, which I gave 1 star, and then The Shape of Water, which was 2 stars for me.
Milena wrote: "I only didn't enjoy 3 books last year:The Silent Patient I know many other people liked it, but I was disappointed. There was nothing new or special about this book, and while I r..."
Oh I forgot Number One Chinese Restaurant. Yes. Downer and no redeemable characters.
And as a Jersey resident, lol at the swimming in October idea. Labor Day is my cutoff.
Thankfully, I only ran into a handful of clunkers last year. Maybe my visceral loathing of Vanity Fair is still too recent to make me strongly dislike anything else.See What I Have Done - I was pumped to read a retelling of the Lizzie Borden story, but I don't feel this added anything to the discussion.
Bloodroot - Unlikeable characters making incomprehensible decisions. No thanks.
The Perfect Nanny - I don't understand why this book was written. What is with this new trend of making literally every character in a novel deeply unpleasant?
Mod
I DNF'd these books last year:
Emma - wrong time, wrong place. But I also doubt I'll ever come back to it.
I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer - I realllllly wanted to like this one, but it needed some SERIOUS editing. Too all over the place for me.
There There - To be fair, I only made it like three chapters in to this one, but it was way too bleak for reading in May.
How to Walk Away - I made it through like 60% of the audiobook and still DNF'd it because it was so awful. The whole thing made me cringe.
Once Upon a River - This one was by and far the most hated book of our book club this year. I made it about a third of the way in before quitting it.
A Court of Thorns and Roses - I may end up revisiting this one as a physical book because I think the narrator just made me hate it more than I normally would have.
I also listened to all of Opposite of Always, despite reallllllly hating it and resenting it the entire time I was listening. Should have just DNF'd it.
Last year's reading year was not spectacular, but I'm getting much better about quitting books I hate.
Emily wrote: "Jody, I kind of hate you for starting this thread, if only because it raises my hackles when people hate a book I really enjoyed (ahem, like Spinning Silver). But I'll forgive you because I, too, H..."Oh no, Once upon a river was my favorite book of the year! I loved every minute of it. The online book club I participated in all really loved it as well! But everybody has different tastes. There There was also a good read for me but only at the end. The first half I wasn't sure but I'm glad I stuck it out.
My absolute worst book of the year was The Last Trail, I hate westerns and I stuck this one out reading a chapter a day on audiobook to finish another challenge. It was awful, terrible writing, sexist, crappy characters. Ugh. I also hated Rage. I understand that Stephen King has actually asked that this not be sold anymore. I understand why, the content is pretty disturbing but I can read a disturbing book. The entire book really just isn't good and if you are going to write a book about a kid shooting up a school, I need more character development to understand why.
The Conception of Terror: Tales Inspired by M. R. James - Volume 1 This is why I don't do the free audible originals. I usually don't like them but I had a long drive and it was free. Short stories that were like ghost stories written by elementary aged children.
White Fang Umm, Why do people like this book? I enjoyed call of the wild. I thought this was trying to hard to be similar because the other one did well.
Julie of the Wolves I needed a book that started with J, this came highly recommended. It was a big let down, would have DNF'd but I didn't have time to read Jane Eyre at the time and books starting with J are harder to find than one would think.
Escaping Exodus This disaster of Ya Sci-fi, had potential. It's an interesting concept. A space colony, after earth is no longer inhabitable full of lesbian families where men have basically no rights. The world building made no sense and actually contradicted itself several times. One of the main characters I wanted to punch in the face. Just bad, still not sure why I finished this one.
I have vowed to DNF more books this year
ooh yes i love talking about things i don't likeThe History of Bees - totally dull and underwhelming. Had 0 interest in any of the characters, and some I couldn't stand at all.
The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle - could be a case of bad narrator but ugh. unwilling to try again.
The Gilded Wolves - completely nonsensical and confusing writing style, underdeveloped magic system and characters. basically a cheap rip off of six of crows.
Unwind - bad. just bad.
Frankly in Love - SO OVERHYPED!! the writing is so cheesy and it's so clearly written by someone who's never met a teenager in his life. the plot basically ends halfway through the book and the rest is just meandering. He has 2 love interests and neither of them are believable to me.
Two From the Heart this book had to he the worst!! Such a drag, but im in a book club with 7 women all over 65 im the youngers at 31 and they chose it... Thankfully they thought it sucked too!!
I tried the POPSugar challenge last year and ended up reading a few duds trying to fulfill prompts. The Night Circus - I was so excited about this book, everyone seemed to love it, and even though it was a short book and technically an easy read, I felt like it was a slog and it took me forever to get through it. I didn't feel like it was a cohesive story and I never could get into it.
New York 2140 - This sounded so interesting, and then, it wasn't. It was such a long book full of information I did not find interesting. I honestly wish I hadn't wasted my time reading this one.
Fahrenheit 451 - I know it's a classic, but I hated it so much.
There was one I DNF because it was just so bad.
The Friday Night Knitting Club - I even bought this one because I wanted to read it and couldn't find it on loan anywhere. So disappointing.
Ladies Who Punch: The Explosive Inside Story of "The View" -
I ask myself constantly when I see it in my book shelve: "why did I buy this book"
I ask myself constantly when I see it in my book shelve: "why did I buy this book"
Amber wrote: "I tried the POPSugar challenge last year and ended up reading a few duds trying to fulfill prompts. The Night Circus - I was so excited about this book, everyone seemed to love it,..."
I didn't think The Night Circus was worth the hype it got either when I read it a few years ago.
Last year I DNF'd two books: Oryx and Crake and Lincoln in the Bardo. I couldn't stand the writing style in either.
I didn't really read any books I didn't enjoy last year because I tried to focus on books I was interested in and enjoyed.
Lol Emily!! I hated I’ll Be Gone in the Dark too. I honestly think it only got the attention it did because of the author’s death (I realise this makes me sound like a horrible person, which to be fair, I am). I thought it was really badly written, all over the place chronologically, and all of the parts about herself and her childhood were just weirdly unnecessary. Peter, I wasn’t a fan of Lincoln in the Bardo either. Admittedly I do prefer a straight narrative, so it isn’t really my style anyway but I really just didn’t get it, or the hype.
The Night Circus was a weird one for me, I didn’t like the characters, the story was meh, I hated the narrator, yet somehow still really enjoyed the book. I still don’t understand how.
Steve wrote: "My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry was low on my list in 2019 as well. I felt like there were too many background conflicts/personalities to keep track of and I also fo..."I also did not like My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry but enjoyed A Man Called Ove and Britt-Marie Was Here.
I like the audio version of The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements but I had also just finished doing a chemistry unit with my kids.
Here are 2 star books for 2019:Twisted Threads/Lea Wait
The Clockmaker's Daughter/Kate Morton
When the Lights Go Out/Mary Kubica
Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life/Hector Garcia Puigcerver
What Dreams May Come/Richard Matheson
French Pastry Murder/Leslie Meier
I also did not love the The Night Circus. It was just okay.
Emily wrote: "Jody, I kind of hate you for starting this thread, if only because it raises my hackles when people hate a book I really enjoyed (ahem, like Spinning Silver). But I'll forgive you because I, too, H..."I know this is a very popular series but I did not like A Court of Thorns and Roses and have no interest to read any more books by Sarah J. Maas. I always find it crazy that it is so popular.
My Worst Five
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson
Trust Exercise by Susan Choi
Five Children and It by E. Nesbit
The Jane Austen Project by Kathleen A. Flynn
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
Oh no! Someone hide this thread before Emily sees people saying negative things about Night Circus, too! :) Dalex, I'm waiting on my hold on Where the Crawdads Sing to finally come through in a few weeks. Hopefully it doesn't disappoint considering how long I've waited! Trust Exercise is one I'm really on the fence about reading: how can a book that wound up on so many best of lists for the year receive such low ratings and reviews from the "commoners" of Goodreads (as opposed to the literary review committees)??
I had a few 3-star books that I can't really consider the worst, since I went into them not expecting much (ie. a picture book written by Madonna), but these are a few of the books I was least impressed with:- Hearts Unbroken - I have a really, really hard time finding books about Native American characters that interest me in the first place, for some reason, but I was hoping to love this one since the synopsis sounded great. The writing was weirdly choppy and disjointed so a lot of sections felt like they started or ended too suddenly, and the most interesting part of the storyline didn't get the amount of focus I thought it would.
- P.S. I Still Love You - I mostly blame the audiobook for this one because I really hated the narrator's attempts to voice Peter. It made his lines come across too sarcastically or something that just didn't quite seem to fit, and made him feel out of character. It just didn't really feel like a sequel was all that necessary either.
- Hidden Bodies - I think if I read You now, I probably would give it 5 stars but I gave it a 4 at the time. I'd heard a lot of people complain that this sequel wasn't as good but thought it couldn't be nearly as bad as people said. I didn't hate it, but it felt a bit directionless and losing the second person narration didn't really help.
- Textrovert - I think if I had to pick an actual least favourite book of the year, at least out of ones that I expected to like, it would be this one. I love stories centered on social media, but that aspect of the plot was abandoned pretty quickly. The two main characters were bland and I was not invested in their relationship at all.
Ooh I DNF’d Night Circus a few years ago. I thought it was just me!Last year I read and hated The Kiss Quotient.
I’m a science teacher so it sounds like I might like The Disappearing Spoon. Thanks for the recommendation 🤣
Steve wrote: "Dalex, I'm waiting on my hold on Where the Crawdads Sing to finally come through in a few weeks. Hopefully it doesn't disappoint considering how long I've waited! Trust Exercise is one I'm really on the fence about reading: how can a book that wound up on so many best of lists for the year receive such low ratings and reviews from the "commoners" of Goodreads (as opposed to the literary review committees)??"I suspect you will like Crawdads more than I did. I am very much in the minority with my opinion. There was just something clunky and amateurish about it that didn't work for me.
Trust Exercise does a clever twisty thing that I think prize judges and literary reviewers adore. It really didn't impress me much. And there is a ton of gratuitous sex, which I loathe.
Mod
To be fair, I agree with Jody... the plot was everywhere, the characters were weird, but the setting and writing just hooked me in. If you didn't like The Night Circus, FOR SURE skip The Starless Sea because it was even more of a "wtf did I just read and why did I actually enjoy it?"
Emily wrote: "If you didn't like The Night Circus, FOR SURE skip The Starless Sea because it was even more of a "wtf did I just read and why did I actually enjoy it?"..."Hah, I was a bit meh on Night Circus but I really enjoyed Starless Sea! I was like "it's just like a video game!" and therefore I could accept all the weird bits and random notes that gave up a bit of extra story or clue....because that's how games work.
dalex wrote: "Steve wrote: "Dalex, I'm waiting on my hold on Where the Crawdads Sing to finally come through in a few weeks. Hopefully it doesn't disappoint considering how long I've waited! Trust Exercise is on..."That's sort of how I felt about Normal People. Well praised by all the critics and full of gratuitous sex. Who know the literary critics desired that?!
I was also disappointed with the Night Circus. It's saving grace for me was the absolutely gorgeous writing. Descriptions of the circus itself were my favorite parts. The mark of a great setting for me is that it either really makes me want to go there, or I really want to stay as far away as possible.. and I definitely wanted to go to the Night Circus! For that reason, I'm definitely willing to give The Starless Sea a shot, I just will definitely be using my library for it
My least favorite reads of last year were Mother Love. Now I remember why I dislike poetry so much, and My Lady's Choosing: An Interactive Romance NovelSome others include
The Dog Stars
To Best the Boys
Red Rising
My definite worst one last year was Love in the Time of Cholera. Just ugh. Worst part was that I have been intimidated by it for for as long as I can remember, should have just trusted my gut feeling. (It was beautifully written though, I'll give it that).
I wasn’t a fan of that one either, Hilde! It was just ... icky. I can’t think of a more literary word to describe it!
Johanna wrote: "My least favorite reads of last year were Mother Love. Now I remember why I dislike poetry so much, and My Lady's Choosing: An Interactive Romance NovelSome others i..."
Johanna, Red Rising is so popular, I have never heard anyone else not like it. How interesting.
Mod
Among the things I actually finished this year that I just hated:
Cozy Minimalist Home: More Style, Less StuffNo Beast So Fierce: The Terrifying True Story of the Champawat Tiger, the Deadliest Man-Eater in History
Death by Dog Show
The House That Pinterest Built
And the Ocean Was Our Sky
Fictitious Dishes: An Album of Literature's Most Memorable Meals
Milena wrote: "Johanna wrote: "My least favorite reads of last year were Mother Love. Now I remember why I dislike poetry so much, and [book:My Lady's Choosing: An Interactive Romance Novel|36054958..."I didn't like it either! I didn't think it was original and was bored while reading it.
I don't DNF books, so I read a fair few rubbish books last year. I've only ever DNF'd one book - The Pickwick Papers - and it still bugs me that I didn't finish it, so I'll probably end up trying it as an audiobook later this year.The books I disliked were:
The Bling Ring: How a Gang of Fame-Obsessed Teens Ripped Off Hollywood and Shocked the World - By far my worst book of the year, and probably ever. A bunch of rich, spoilt LA teenagers break into the houses of and steal from a bunch of rich, spoilt LA-based "celebrities" - Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan etc. I really could not have cared less, I just needed a book that was available from the library about a book of non-violent true crime.
The Birchbark House - Probably my fault for not realising this was a children's book, so it just didn't meet my expectations. Might be unfair to include it on this list.
Eligible : A Modern Retelling of Pride & Prejudice - A very poor, contemporary retelling of Pride and Prejudice. Pride and Prejudice is one of my favourite books ever, and this retelling made me hate all of the characters. I gave it 2 stars, but it really should have been 1. I can't think of anything good about this book except I don't have to read it ever again!
Oryx and Crake - Last year I tried to read a few books in genre out of my comfort zone. This book helped to confirm I don't like sci-fi / dystopian books.
The Finkler Question - Really slow and pretentious. Booker Prize winner. How?
Commonwealth - Nothing really seemed to happen.
Midnight's Children and One Hundred Years of Solitude - Magical realism was another genre I tried last year. I just really don't think it's for me.
Ficciones - I started reading this in Spanish, and assumed I didn't understand what was going on because I was reading it in Spanish. I then switched to reading it in English - and exactly the same thing. I would read pages three times and still have no idea what Jorge Luis Borges was getting at.
The only way I was able to get through this book was listening to it in Spanish at one story a day. Although some of the stories were ok, overall I just had no idea.
The Caucasian Chalk Circle - I was supposed to read this when I was at university but I just read a summary on the internet and went to the pub instead. Reading it this year confirmed that the pub was the better choice.
The Gathering - A very disturbing book. If I had known what this was about rather than just reading it because it had won the Booker prize, I probably wouldn't have bothered. This book annoyed, disgusted, bored and even made me angry at times, mainly with the narrator.
Leibhaftig - I was bored throughout this. Very slow, not much happened. Set in the 1980s in the DDR, the book drifts between memories and real life, and the first and third person.
A Crowning Mercy and Fallen Angels - I normally quite like Bernard Cornwell, so I read quite a bit of his backlist last year. These two books, however, were completely different from what he usually writes. Historical romance, implausible plot, historically inaccurate with a brainless heroine who was abused, tortured and put on trial as a witch who changed names depending on who she was speaking to. The characters were either good or evil. The first book didn't seem to really have an ending, so I needed to actually read the second book to find out what happened.
I really didn’t like Rosencrantz and Guilderstern are Dead. I don’t know what the point of it was.
Warning! Unpopular opinions ahead...Fortunately there weren't many books I read last year that I didn't enjoy...the standouts are:
The Wife by Meg Wolitzer was the most disappointing book of 2019. Fortunately, it wasn't very long but it was predictable and overly descriptive.
The Alice Network by Kate Quinn was another disappointment. Everyone was raving about how good the story was - and yes, half of it was. The other half was boring and annoying. I understand the need for both story lines but Charlie could have been a little more tolerable (the math equations got old REAL fast).
Hannah wrote: "I don't DNF books, so I read a fair few rubbish books last year. I've only ever DNF'd one book - The Pickwick Papers - and it still bugs me that I didn't finish it, so I'll probably e..."I love dystopian fiction and I still didn’t like Oryx and Crake. I think it was the writing style. I tried a couple of her books last year and DNF’d all of them.
Jody wrote: "Ok, as a counterpoint to the other thread, and also because I kinda love talking about the books I hated just as much as the books I loved ... maybe even a little bit more ... tell me your worst re..."Less by Sean Andrew Greer - this was SUCH a disappointment for me and from some of the other reviews, it seemed the same for other people. I really wanted this to be a good book, but the character didn't change much throughout so it fell a bit flat for me but it had so much potential.
My review here.
Haha, I DNF Tell your Grandmother, the only Backman I haven't liked. Moriarty is another author I usually like but Nine Perfect Strangers was a disappoointment.I agree with all the problems re The Night Circus, and also can't explain why I love it so much. Can't wait to read Starless Sea
Steve, I also put down Normal People. ugh
I have Bloodroot sitting on my bench right now and wondering if I should rethink it.
Perri wrote: "Haha, I DNF Tell your Grandmother, the only Backman I haven't liked. Moriarty is another author I usually like but Nine Perfect Strangers was a disappoointment.I agree with all the problems re Th..."
I made it through Normal People because it was an audiobook and only took me a couple of days of commuting/driving around on errands to finish it. It wasn't a bad book for me... just not what I was anticipating based on all the "hype" surrounding it. It made it onto Obama's favorite books of 2019 so I feel weird knowing he enjoyed that book!
Perri wrote: "Haha, I DNF Tell your Grandmother, the only Backman I haven't liked. Moriarty is another author I usually like but Nine Perfect Strangers was a disappoointment.I agree with all the problems re Th..."
I just finished Nine Perfect Strangers. I ended up liking it, although if I had read the book instead of listening to the audiobook, I think I wouldn’t have liked it as much. I think Caroline Lee is my favourite audiobook narrator. She brings all of the characters to life and expresses the right emotions at the right time.
Sophie wrote: "Perri wrote: "Haha, I DNF Tell your Grandmother, the only Backman I haven't liked. Moriarty is another author I usually like but Nine Perfect Strangers was a disappoointment.I agree with all the ..."
Sometimes a great narrator makes all the difference. Can you search Caroline Lee to find books she narrates?
Perri wrote: "Sophie wrote: "Perri wrote: "Haha, I DNF Tell your Grandmother, the only Backman I haven't liked. Moriarty is another author I usually like but Nine Perfect Strangers was a disappoointment.I agre..."
Yes, she’s done most of Moriarty’s books and Kate Morton’s (although our library only has the Moriarty audiobooks)
https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
I really liked her in Husbands’s Secret, truly madly guilty, and Big little lies too
Sophie wrote: "Perri wrote: "Sophie wrote: "Perri wrote: "Haha, I DNF Tell your Grandmother, the only Backman I haven't liked. Moriarty is another author I usually like but Nine Perfect Strangers was a disappooin..."I gave BLL and Husband's Secret 5 stars, but haven't read Truly, Madly, Guilty yet, so I have that to look forward to. Surprisingly, I really liked the Big Little Lies series adaptation.
Perri wrote: "Sophie wrote: "Perri wrote: "Sophie wrote: "Perri wrote: "Haha, I DNF Tell your Grandmother, the only Backman I haven't liked. Moriarty is another author I usually like but Nine Perfect Strangers w..."It will likely be our next tv series to try, as soon as we finish the Crown.
Around the Year in 52 Books
Books mentioned in this topic
The Queen of Hearts (other topics)Once Upon a River (other topics)
The Queen of Hearts (other topics)
The Pickwick Papers (other topics)
The Wife (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Kimmery Martin (other topics)Kimmery Martin (other topics)
Kate Quinn (other topics)
Meg Wolitzer (other topics)
Jorge Luis Borges (other topics)
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Mine were, in order of reading:
Ready Player One - partially a victim to its own hype, it was totally flat for me, and felt more like a vehicle for the author to flex his pop-culture knowledge.
12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos - colossal douchbag.
Three Men in a Boat - I generally love Classics, and British humour, but this one left me scratching my head.
14 - interesting premise but absolutely nothing redeemable about this book. Terrible characters, terrible writing, terrible everything.
After Dead: What Came Next in the World of Sookie Stackhouse - I mean the series had declined into crap after the first four or five books, but this was easily the worst book I read in 2019. A completely pointless post-script.
A Life in Parts - I know memoirs are by definition self-centred, but holy crap this guy's ego is on another level entirely.
Sarah's Key - another one where I didn't find anything redeemable in it.
Angela's Ashes - nothing more than poverty porn, and felt a little disingenuous (I've since dug a little and it's been called into question).
My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry - a huge disappointment after loving Ove, everything about this annoyed me, most of all the little shit of a protagonist.
A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World - it was just bad, but it was a library book that I borrowed on a whim, so at least it was free.
Spinning Silver - unengaging, with a terrible narrator - her faux Russian accent drove me bonkers. (Sorry Emily! I know you loved it!)