The Seasonal Reading Challenge discussion

Okay, let's give folks a heads up about possible books to avoid too. Use this thread to tell us about books that you didn't enjoy.

I'll kick it off with:
Very Valentine by Adriana Trigiani

I've really enjoyed this author in the past but this one felt like it didn't have much heart. At one point at the end of ANOTHER excessively long description about some small insignificant detail I wondered if she were simply writing these descriptions in order to hit a minimum number of words for her book contract.

Not her best effort in my opinion.

I didn't like To Kill a Mockingbird, Dead Until Dark, I Capture the Castle, The Glass Castle.

My only one star read this challenge to date:

Blue Sky July: A True Tale of Love, Light and 'Impossible Odds'

I was not a fan of Money, The God of Small Things, or Heart of Darkness. At least I'm making progress on the 1001 list!

I thought HEart of Darkness was really dull when I read it

I am glad to see I am not the only one who did not appreciate The God of Small Things!

Ugh, Heart of Darkness is made of fail. I had to read it twice: once in high school, once in college. Well, I was supposed to read it again for college...*shifty eyes*

My one-star reads were:
1. Deep and Dark and Dangerous: A Ghost Story because I predicted the "plot twist" from reading the front flap (but a student recommended it to me, so I read it anyway. That's three hours of my life I'll never get back)
2. Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates because a significant portion of the book is completely unnecessary
3. Survivor because it was just...I don't know. I probably would have enjoyed it if I'd read it while drinking

I had a surprising number of 2-star books, too, which is unusual. Oh, well! I had some fives, so they all balance out in the end.

I think What's a Ghoul to Do? by Victoria Laurie (Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages) was meant to be funny. It wasn't.

Wicked Game by Jeri Smith-Ready (Paperback, 384 pages) was meant to be a new twist on all the vampire stories currently being published. Didn't work.

For 15.5 H: Hungary (Mollie's) I picked her 5* The Good Soldier Svejk: and His Fortunes in the World War by Jaroslav Hašek (Paperback, 784 pages). The description sounded like a Hungarian "Catch-22". It wasn't. In fact, it was rather pointless rambling about the activities of several unpleasant young men. I tossed it around page 40.

Came across another one star. This one really surprised me since it was by John Stinbeck. It's his first book. Avoid it! You can see my whole review by using the book link.

Cup of Gold by John Steinbeck

Stupidest Angel

Shouldn't have given it even 1 star! I read it only because I had already read the other 2 Group Read books and as this was my first challenge I was very gung ho to be broad. BIG mistake here.

Under the Tuscan Sun--gave it 2 stars..

I was really excited about this book..and it just fell flat for me. Her descriptions of Italy made me want to go back and just intensified that travel bug in me..but I got bored of talk of plater, stones, pulling weeds, and cooking. It had it's place for sure but I wish it wasn't such a huge part.

I hated Sacagawea! I loved the two McCaffrey books Dragon's Kin and Dragon's Fire. I also loved Connelly's 9 Dragons.

I haven't given a 1 star rating this time around, but I gave only 2 stars to Dead Girls Don't Write Letters. I thought I'd give it a chance because I couldn't find another book at my library to fit a particular challenge and it's a YA book so I figured at least it would be a quick, easy read.
Well, I polished the whole thing off in an hour but I shouldn't have bothered. I thought the whole thing was unbelievable and overwrought, and the author just couldn't leave well enough alone and kept piling on twists at the end until it just got ridiculous.

Barbara wrote: "Stupidest Angel

Shouldn't have given it even 1 star! I read it only because I had already read the other 2 Group Read books and as this was my first challenge I was very gung ho to be broad. BI..."

I was in the same boat, so I trudged through "The Stupidest Angel" too. I would say that was one of my least favorite books along with Crispin: The Cross of Lead.

Tara wrote: "Barbara wrote: "Stupidest Angel

Shouldn't have given it even 1 star! I read it only because I had already read the other 2 Group Read books and as this was my first challenge I was very gung ho ..."

Ditto to both of you - I owned a couple of other of his books that I hadn't read yet & took them to the used book store to sell.

Four books this challenge I wish I had not wasted my time with:

Ghost by Alan Lightman. Yawn.

A Different Kind of Christmas by Alex Haley. If Roots was like this, how did anyone ever get through it? cardboard.

The Rose Labyrinth by Titania Hardie. So inane it made me mad. Full of self-congratulatory yet completely contradictory opinions.

Distant Echoes: Book One in The Aloha Reef Series by Colleen Coble. The kind of weak, platitude-filled book that give Christian fiction a bad name.

Like Melissa I also had four books that I marked with one star:

American Tabloidby James Ellroy. I was sooooo confused just a few pages into it. I didn't know who was who or who was hired by who. A complicated diatribe into 60s american CIA.

The Househunter by Henry Sutton. Dull, boring, badly written.

Gear by Doug TeNapel. I don't think comic books are my thing!

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by junot Diaz. It went on and on and on and on and on...and on. It was the one book of the challenge that I very nearly gave up on! (oh no my second one after american tabloid!)

I only had one star this time around New World Monkeys: A Novel
Usually for me, if a book is one star, I just don't finish it, so they are pretty rare for me.

I found loads of books I just slogged through this winter. In fact, in January I pretty much couldn't find a book I liked.

1. The Shipping News by Annie Proulx. (the worst offender of the bunch)

2. The Gathering by Anne Enright.

3. Snow by Orhan Parmuk.

4. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind.

5. The Secret History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willing. (It was a quick read, though could get painful. A bodice ripper disguised as historical fiction).

Invitation to a Beheading by Vladimir Nabokov

I know Nabokov is supposed to be the greatest writer ever, but I could not get myself to like anything about this book

I'm so glad I can count on True Blood to obliterate the memory of this awful book. Such a bore! And...ugh!

You didn't like "A Touch of Dead"? I loved that book as well as the other books.

Rachel Erin wrote: " Invitation to a Beheading by Vladimir Nabokov

I know Nabokov is supposed to be the greatest writer ever, but I could not ..."

Ah.. that's my favorite book!! But.. I can see how its not for everybody.

No 1-star reads for me yet, but I've had a few 2-star reads:

The Killing of Mindi Quintana--poor, sloppy writing, hardly much of a story at all. I didn't find it very suspenseful, and the characters seemed dull and lifeless.

Bulletproof Mascara: A Novel--utterly forgettable chick lit.

Nanny Returns: A Novel--there never should have been a sequel.