Least Favorite Books of 2021

[Laural]

I also just finished House of Gucci, and yeah, it's so well researched, but 70% of it is a tough slog. And I love fashion. It did kind of work well as a companion piece to the Netflix series Halston, making the journey slightly more immersive, I guess. (I did enjoy what Mexican Gothic was, if not the characters. It made me hope that someone writes something about Lovecraftian ildritch horrors in a setting that's not justabuncha white people. What else can we revisit? The Hobbit with noncaucasians? Sure! Bring it all on).

I very nearly DNF'd Hannah Whitten's For the Wolf, first in a new series. I don't recall where I got the recommendation, but my internal five word review of it is Young Adult Cut Porn Gibberish. It's a Little Red Riding Hood retelling that somehow doesn't involve anything at all lycanthopic. I mean the main character's name is Red and her love interest is called The Wolf. So if that sounds good to anyone, give it a try. (I no longer post any reviews on Goodreads because I one-starred a book and said that it was dumber than a Michael Bay movie, and that I was pretty sure the author'd lost a bet that he couldn't cram every action film cliche into one singular book. And then THE AUTHOR RESPONDED TO ME very kindly and said that maybe if I'd tried the first three books in the series I would have had a better idea of what it was supposed to be about. And anyway, I am still mortified about that.)

[Allie]

Laural wrote: "I also just finished House of Gucci, and yeah, it's so well researched, but 70% of it is a tough slog. And I love fashion. It did kind of work well as a companion piece to the Netflix series Halsto..."

Ugh, Laurel I'm so sorry that happened. Authors! Goodreads is for readers! The adage about not reading the comments applies to reviews of your work, which not everyone is going to like!

I'm not a big fan of story re-tellings I've found. Maybe if I didn't like the source material, but re-tellings are, for me, almost never worth it.

[Bonnie G.]

Laural wrote: "I also just finished House of Gucci, and yeah, it's so well researched, but 70% of it is a tough slog. And I love fashion. It did kind of work well as a companion piece to the Netflix series Halsto..."

Oh please don't let one insecure author send you away from commenting, I once got a PM from an author telling me I did not understand his book. I responded that I was an avid reader with a post-graduate degree, and the book was written in English by an American, so we had shared language and cultural cues. If I didn't understand whose fault was that? He never replied. I respect writers so much, and respect the guts to write when you are not even good at it, but just because I respect that you did something, doesn't mean I have to like it. If an author reads comments she should do so for constructive criticism and gird her loins against slings and arrows. Also, she should remember that Michael Bay got very rich making bad movies, so she can only hope the same happens to her.

[Pamela]

Bonnie G. wrote: "You have met Lenny?! Please tell me he is that hot in person. I met Richard Gere in the late 80s and he was gross. so disappointing! For balance I was in a restaurant years ago and Ian Somerhalder ..."

he does not disappoint, even when he's de-rock starred like when we went to the White House to get his uncle's Medal of Honor (Obama did out-charisma him). He's also really really nice which you don't expect. And when sweaty still smells good.

I worked the front desk at several museums- if you ever want to meet celebs, that's the secret! for the Aiden Quinn- yeah, he bought a ticket from me and I could barely breath. My favorite was Gene Wilder- I was at the desk on a quiet day and more focused on my homework so he jumped onto the desk and I just looked up and screamed "it's Willy Wonka!!" The saddest is Liam Neeson- he came to the museum to do a press conference and another celeb who was there (who was my Italian partner in college- she always liked me cause I completely clueless who she was) said she would introduce us, but he swept in, did the press conference, and swept out. He was beautiful, from my place in the hall as he swept by.

eta-- Ohh, a Richard Gere story. Not mine, I have two friends who were standing on a corner in the Village and he pulls up on his motorcycle. One says to the other "omg, that's Richard Gere" and he gave them the finger guns and went "you're right" and pulled off. That always seemed the coolest to me!

[Pamela]

Jennine wrote: "How often do folks here DNF books? I do it very rarely--some OCD compulsion forces me to read most of them to the end, no matter how awful. And I hate it, because then I am just wasting time readin..."

I used to not DNF books but last year I became pretty touch in doing so- life is too short. I even created a Goodreads shelf for DNF.

eta- I am a heavy library user so it might be since I didn't pay for the books anyways...

[Pamela]

Macy wrote: "Pamela wrote: "This has been a horrid year for books!
Rumaan Alam's Leave the World Behind ... was boring with bad writing...."

Spooky to find a fellow sufferer. I'm currently toiling through Ala..."

I think that is his writing style. I can see some people thinking it's genius.

[Pamela]

Bonnie G. wrote: "Yes Macy. tracking abandoned books and memorializing my reasons for abandoning ship really helped me too. I used to always push through when I could bail and read something good. (speaking of which..."

I saw how you do it- I think I need to change cause my DNF shelf doesn't let me write notes why I abandoned it. I need to copy you.

In defense of DNF books, I DNF'ed My Cousin Rachel a few years ago, it just annoyed me. My book group picked it for next month so I just tried it again and while I didn't love it, I didn't hate it as much.

[Bonnie G.]

Tori wrote: "It was slow moving, boring, and at times so confusing. Parts of the middle of the book read like a random sentence generator to me. Like those bots that will generate Office episodes after you have..."

"Random sentence generator." This is one of the most helpful explanations ever. It made me think of several books I read and disliked. Also its funny. It really helps me solidify my decision not to read this, despite the really beautiful cover.

[Bonnie G.]

Pamela wrote: "Bonnie G. wrote: "You have met Lenny?! Please tell me he is that hot in person. I met Richard Gere in the late 80s and he was gross. so disappointing! For balance I was in a restaurant years ago an..."

OMG, smells good when sweaty is a freaking super-power. Also, not for nothing, about 5 years ago Lenny split his pants on stage, and there were many pictures, and I will just say that Lenny has other super powers. That crush is fully locked and loaded. Also, I love the Gene Wilder story!!!!

[Bonnie G.]

I just posted my favorite reads of 2021 in that thread, and then I shuffled over here to talk about the not so good reads. Overall, I read a lot of great books this year, and very few I would consider a waste of time. I am not even going to do a least favorite list for nonfiction, just fiction and romance.

Fiction

Last Summer at the Golden Hotel https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Last Tang Standing https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

How Much of These Hills is Gold https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

A Bad Day for Sunshine https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Harrow https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...


Romance

More than Tempt You https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

A Table for Three https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Misadventures With My Roommate https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

To Sir With Love https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Misadventures on the Night Shift https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Leah]

I rarely finish something that I think is terrible, but I did so twice this year:

Shipped by Angie Hockman

Icebound by Andrea Pitzer

I was also pretty disappointed in this one:
The Vixen by Francine Prose

And I found most of the year's big literary fiction books that I have read just okay (The Matrix, Ghosts, Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch) or outright unsatisfying (Intimacies).

[Bonnie G.]

Shipped was on my 10 worst. I didn't finish it, but what I read was memorably terrible. The Vixen is one that has gone on and off my list. TBH. I do not love Prose's earlier work, but the description of this one sounds so great.

[Leah]

Leah wrote: "I rarely finish something that I think is terrible, but I did so twice this year:

Shipped by Angie Hockman

Icebound by Andrea Pitzer

I was also pretty disappointed in this one:
The Vixen by Fr..."

I think I may have tried to read A Changed Man years ago but this was my first complete attempt at a Francine Prose novel. I think the Vixen is entirely skippable. It has nothing insightful to say and there are way more fun books with Cold War/spy themes, or Jews from Brooklyn trying to make it in a Wasp world themes, or whatever else you might hope to get from this book.

[Bonnie G.]

Leah wrote: "Leah wrote: "I rarely finish something that I think is terrible, but I did so twice this year:

Shipped by Angie Hockman

Icebound by Andrea Pitzer

I was also pretty disappointed in this one:
Th..."

Thanks so much, Leah. I think I am going to run with that and skip it. I read Household Saints and Blue Angel and did not think much of either.

[Bonnie G.]

I have had a pretty great reading year. In part this is because I have given myself permission to ditch books that are not working for me. I am careful, because there are books I have loved that I did not connect with until close to the midpoint, but if the writing quality is not there, its not going to suddenly improve (See, e.g., Girlbomb: A Halfway Homeless Memoir.) If the subject matter simply doesn't connect that also won't change (See, eg, Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood.) So, though I had 3 separate categories with top 5's for "best of" this year (and could easily have had top 10's for each) I am just going to list my 10 worst, all categories included. Mostly this year it falls into the romance bucket, the top 2 are menage romance, but that is a coincidence. They are both horrifically terrible, but the polyamory was, in and of itself, not the problem. Here goes:

Colters' Woman https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

A Table for Three https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Last Summer at the Golden Hotel https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Last Tang Standing https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

How Much of These Hills is Gold https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Misadventures With My Roommate https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

To Sir With Love https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The Dating Playbook https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Dancing at Midnight https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

More than Tempt You https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Laural]

I am evolving, thanks to you guys, in my ability to DNF. I did have one book this year that came very highly recommended sounded like it was right up my alley from the title: Three Martini Afternoons at the Ritz: The Rebellion of Sylvia Plath and Ann Sexton. And I did not enjoy anything about it. I finally gave myself permission to quit by asking myself: if this were a party, would I just leave-? The answer was a resounding yes. So I left that party and I will probably start leaving more literary parties in the future.

Now, you may think, how can a bookwormy feminist raised by a librarian and a poet possibly hate a recounting of those two authors' lives? Well. The writer takes great pains to justify that both of those ladies continued the sexual abuse they had experienced growing up by heaping it upon their own children, postulating that their narcissistic personality disorders could not be helped and were not their fault, and the great art and feminist progress they put forth in the world overshadows that they continued that cycle of abuse. Anyway, I couldn't muster any further interest in the ongoing tongue bath the author was giving these horrible women and I quit. DNF! Resoundingly!

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...

[Bonnie G.]

Laural wrote: "Now, you may think, how can a bookwormy feminist raised by a librarian and a poet"

The book sounds dreadful, but you and your family sound fascinating. Also, the title of this book is amusing, cheeky even, which seems odd for a book that normalizes the sexual abuse of children.

[Allie]

Laural wrote: "if this were a party, would I just leave-? The answer was a resounding yes. So I left that party and I will probably start leaving more literary parties in the future."

I LOVE this! Good for you for figuring out a way to spend more time at literary parties you actually want to be at! :)

[Pamela]

My least favorite book that I finished this year (I'm old enough that life is too short for blah books but sometimes I have faith it'll get better) is a controversial one- Susannah Clark's Piranesi. I detested the voice of the book. When I was done I understood why it was written as it was and don't see how else she could have written the story to avoid spoilers, but I still hated how this idea required the story to be told. If that makes any sense.