topic Re: THE WORST BOOKS OF 2021 in Book Club

THE WORST BOOKS OF 2021

SWEET — Mon, 20 Dec 2021 15:20:44 GMT

Here are my top 5 in no order:

1. Wild Women And The Blues - Denny S. Bryce

2. Of Women and Salt - Gabriela Garcia

3. The Sound of Wings - Suzanne Simonetti

4. The Music of Bees - Eileen Garvin

5. Return To Palm Court - Stephanie Edwards

Re: THE WORST BOOKS OF 2021

phoenixbrd — Mon, 20 Dec 2021 12:20:28 GMT

I'm wondering what your top 5 best books were?

Re: THE WORST BOOKS OF 2021

SWEET — Mon, 20 Dec 2021 12:43:17 GMT

@phoenixbrd wrote:
I'm wondering what your top 5 best books were?

@phoenixbrd

Someone started a thread about that one and I commented there.

Re: THE WORST BOOKS OF 2021

BirkiLady — Mon, 20 Dec 2021 18:53:32 GMT

@phoenixbrd I absolutely LOVED "Yellow Wife". Well-written, yet difficult to read in places. Strength of people who have goals and beliefs is beyond anything most of us can imagine, yet would hope we would also be able to bear and endure for better conditions for ourselves and children. "Yellow Wife" is a true historical novel, which must be read so American's never forget our darkest history. We cannot ever let that type of history repeat itself again! Highly recommend!! (Warning: graphic, but necessary, sections to explain the truth of our history.)

Re: THE WORST BOOKS OF 2021

SWEET — Mon, 20 Dec 2021 20:21:35 GMT

@BirkiLady wrote:
@phoenixbrd I absolutely LOVED "Yellow Wife". Well-written, yet difficult to read in places. Strength of people who have goals and beliefs is beyond anything most of us can imagine, yet would hope we would also be able to bear and endure for better conditions for ourselves and children. "Yellow Wife" is a true historical novel, which must be read so American's never forget our darkest history. We cannot ever let that type of history repeat itself again! Highly recommend!! (Warning: graphic, but necessary, sections to explain the truth of our history.)

@BirkiLady

Yellow Wife was not my usual type of book to read. Though it was diffcult to read in some places, I really liked it and I was surprised.

Re: THE WORST BOOKS OF 2021

BirkiLady — Mon, 20 Dec 2021 22:20:56 GMT

@SWEET Me, too!! Totally different, but I loved it. And it has stuck with me like more books do not. I learned so much from that read! Always knew I could never ever live south of the Mason Dixie Line. That book reinforced my life-long commitment to living in the North. LOL

Although I travel south to visit my sister and her family in Tampa and a cousin in Ft. Worth frequently. I still get the uncomfortable feeling when driving through the states out of Nebraska into MO to FL or TX.

Also a couple of college friends in NM and AZ, but I don't consider those two states as "old south" since they were native american territory.

Re: THE WORST BOOKS OF 2021

icezeus — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 02:50:59 GMT

The Guest List by Lucy Foley. I hated everyone in this darn book. I would have drowned them all if I had a choice. I wrote a withering review, and I cannot believe that it's rated almost 4/5 stars on Goodreads.

Re: THE WORST BOOKS OF 2021

sandy53 — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 03:16:23 GMT

I did not like Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy (published in 2020). Another one that didn't work for me was Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty.

Re: THE WORST BOOKS OF 2021

Sooner — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 03:28:39 GMT

Katie Couric: Going There

I couldn't read it.

Re: THE WORST BOOKS OF 2021

insomniac2 — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 10:02:09 GMT

The Guest List (by Lucy Foley) is the very worst book I have ever read in my life.

Re: THE WORST BOOKS OF 2021

BornToShop — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 14:59:56 GMT

Hands-down, this is my worst book choice for 2021.

Re: THE WORST BOOKS OF 2021

Sooner — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 15:43:02 GMT

@insomniac2 wrote:
The Guest List (by Lucy Foley) is the very worst book I have ever read in my life.

@insomniac2 OH I will agree with you on that! It was horrible. I read one of her books (can't remember which) started to read this one (or the other one) and said "Wait, I've already read this awful book. They are basically the same so I gave up on the second one in a hurry!

Horrible, poorly written, dumb plot, unlikeable characters, and then there's MORE!

Re: THE WORST BOOKS OF 2021

FindingMyJoy — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 15:54:57 GMT

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. I had this book on hold for months. Due to there were tons of glowing reviews on Goodreads about this book, I had high expectations for it. I got it right after Goodreads named this book their choice winner for science fiction so I was super excited to finally get the book and read it. This book really dragged for me, the science explanations were to be honest mostly over my head so maybe that's why I didn't enjoy it. It's supposed to be made into a movie, I will not be going to see it.

Re: THE WORST BOOKS OF 2021

BirkiLady — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 15:58:52 GMT

@Sooner wrote:
Katie Couric: Going There

I couldn't read it.

@Sooner Agree with you!

This was a trashy story of her life, her many loves are named (tacky), years as a neglectful single parent in which she moved a boy-toy in without telling her 15-year old daughter and more antics.

There were the various job changes, always with excuses and blame placed on others for Katie's failures. And her failure to notice Jay Monahan's serious health issues even though he had been eating Tums to survive. The worst IMO was making fun of Jay's love of history and his passion for reinacting Civil War battles and collecting artifacts from that era. Would that marriage have lasted? I doubt it. Her insensitivy was palpalble.

Ashtonishly, Katie failed to notice similar symptoms with her then boyfriend (now husband) had the same signs of cancer as Jay Monahan had exhibited years earlier. She did not notice his weight loss, his pallor, his fatigue as long as he took care of her.

She isn't the cute, sweet girl - she's the self-centered girl with an agenda to get married and, while looking for Mr. Right, she throws everyone under the bus.

Katie Couric laughs thoughout the book, but she is a mean girl who never should have written this book. It should have remained as her dairy.

Re: THE WORST BOOKS OF 2021

Sooner — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 16:25:49 GMT

@BirkiLady wrote:
@Sooner wrote:
Katie Couric: Going There

I couldn't read it.
@Sooner Agree with you!

This was a trashy story of her life, her many loves are named (tacky), years as a neglectful single parent in which she moved a boy-toy in without telling her 15-year old daughter and more antics.

There were the various job changes, always with excuses and blame placed on others for Katie's failures. And her failure to notice Jay Monahan's serious health issues even though he had been eating Tums to survive. The worst IMO was making fun of Jay's love of history and his passion for reinacting Civil War battles and collecting artifacts from that era. Would that marriage have lasted? I doubt it. Her insensitivy was palpalble.

Ashtonishly, Katie failed to notice similar symptoms with her then boyfriend (now husband) had the same signs of cancer as Jay Monahan had exhibited years earlier. She did not notice his weight loss, his pallor, his fatigue as long as he took care of her.

She isn't the cute, sweet girl - she's the self-centered girl with an agenda to get married and, while looking for Mr. Right, she throws everyone under the bus.

Katie Couric laughs thoughout the book, but she is a mean girl who never should have written this book. It should have remained as her dairy.

Yep! That's what I was getting since I didn't read all of it. Or most of it! I was actually shocked that it didn't seem that way to her ear. Mean and privileged girl I would say.

An example: The description of a humorous costume party when they all dressed as people who had died in tragedies that year. What a hoot? NOT? Oh it was terrible but they were journalists and had a twisted sense of humor, she says.

Says it all to me . . . .rude and crude person.

Re: THE WORST BOOKS OF 2021

teganslaw — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 16:30:07 GMT

"Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine." didn't finish it. Annoying dislikeable character who did questionable things. She was not fine at all, and I lost interest.

"The Neighbors" by Joseph Souza. Badly written, annoying, clueless characters, and unbelievable plot. Only read half the book. I have no idea how this got published.

Re: THE WORST BOOKS OF 2021

icezeus — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 01:07:49 GMT

@insomniac2 wrote:
The Guest List (by Lucy Foley) is the very worst book I have ever read in my life.

@insomniac2

I see we both listed the same book. It was awful.

Re: THE WORST BOOKS OF 2021

Free2be — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 04:27:37 GMT

I didn't ready any books in the OP's list but I did enjoy Katie Couric's book. I guess her honesty in all of it's warts was a better read for me than the sugar coating that usually happens in this kind of book.

Re: THE WORST BOOKS OF 2021

gardenman — Fri, 24 Dec 2021 13:16:50 GMT

@Sooner wrote:
@insomniac2 wrote:
The Guest List (by Lucy Foley) is the very worst book I have ever read in my life.
@insomniac2 OH I will agree with you on that! It was horrible. I read one of her books (can't remember which) started to read this one (or the other one) and said "Wait, I've already read this awful book. They are basically the same so I gave up on the second one in a hurry!

Horrible, poorly written, dumb plot, unlikeable characters, and then there's MORE!

This happens a lot with traditionally published authors. They'll pretty much just write the same book time after time. Their agent and editor will insist they not "break the mold." They'll be told, "We know this works, why change it?" It becomes their "formula" and they just change a few names and locations but write the same book time after time. I would go insane. (Well, more insane. Sanity has never been my strong suit.) Unless the author is willing to buck the system, and most aren't, they get stuck in that formula and can't get out. They'll be told, "The readers expect this from your books. You don't want to let them down." Writers should just be free to tell whatever story they feel like telling in whatever manner they feel like telling it.

Re: THE WORST BOOKS OF 2021

Sooner — Tue, 28 Dec 2021 22:48:26 GMT

@BirkiLady After reading your review, I checked out the voice version and listened to the rest. I am stunned! I must say she is a far more narcissistic and mean person than I had even imagined. And she can't see it. She blames everyone else for her failures--for not listening to her.

She threw most people she ever worked with under the bus. Especially the women--several of whom she was apparently instrumental in getting booted out.

It shows a really seamy, biased and self-serving system that masquerades as news too. WOW.