I can't call a Jane Austen book a stinker but I really disliked Emma and found it incredibly hard work to finish it. 

sarita:

I can't call a Jane Austen book a stinker but I really disliked Emma and found it incredibly hard work to finish it. 

 I do agree. For me it's Emma herself who's the problem. She's such an interfering pain in the posterior that, though it is a long time since I read it, I still wince at the thought of it!

Of course it must be powerful writing to bring such a lasting response! Can't really get on with any of Austen, though.

avidread:

 I'm not sure I'd call it a stinker but I found The Spare Room by Helen Garner very depressing.  It probably didn't help that I had a viral infection at the time so was probably feeling a bit low anyway.

 I loved The Spare Room!

My stinker was

Then we came to the end- Joshua Ferris

  Mine was Folly by Alan Titchmarsh - I couldn't get past the first 30 pages.  Normally I quite like his books but I couldn't get into this one at all.

In Their Footsteps - Tess Gerritsen was my stinker.  I know lots of people who think Tess Gerritsen is a great author, but I just didn't enjoy this book at all.  Formulaic, 1 dimensional characters, badly written with a 'plot twist' that really didn't make any kind of sense whatsoever.  Why she thought that the 'bad guy' would be someone who is hardly mentioned in the book I've no idea, and their reasoning behind their actions was laughable.  Unfortunately she is now an author that I will avoid like the plague.

chibi:

In Their Footsteps - Tess Gerritsen was my stinker. 

I was daft enough to read this all the way through a few years ago. Truly dire

aurora72:

chibi:

In Their Footsteps - Tess Gerritsen was my stinker. 

 

I was daft enough to read this all the way through a few years ago. Truly dire

 

I'm so glad I'm not the only one to think this.  I thought I was missing out on something - obviously not.

chibi:

In Their Footsteps - Tess Gerritsen was my stinker.  I know lots of people who think Tess Gerritsen is a great author, but I just didn't enjoy this book at all.  Formulaic, 1 dimensional characters, badly written with a 'plot twist' that really didn't make any kind of sense whatsoever.  Why she thought that the 'bad guy' would be someone who is hardly mentioned in the book I've no idea, and their reasoning behind their actions was laughable.  Unfortunately she is now an author that I will avoid like the plague.

 I was stupid enough to buy this book and was unable to read beyond page 10. However, I then found this review on Amazon;

"As the publisher of Tess's more recent thrillers, I wanted to advise fans that this was originally published by Mira / Mills & Boon in the 1980s as a romantic suspense novel. Despite Mira's claims that the books they publish were Sunday Times bestsellers, and despite their use of Harlan Coben's quote (both of which Tess and we have asked them not to use), they continue to reissue her novels as thrillers. They are not thrillers, and were never intended to be.

The thrillers featuring Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles are The Surgeon, first published by Transworld in 2002, The Apprentice, The Sinner, Body Double, Vanish and The Mephisto Club.

If you have any further comments / queries, you can talk to Tess direct via her website, www.tessgerritsen.com, or her blog. Or you can see her in person when she comes to the UK in Jan 08 with her new novel, The Bone Garden."

Tess Gerritsen's thrillers are excellent, its a shame that this duff book will put a lot of people off!

tolly18:

sarita:

I can't call a Jane Austen book a stinker but I really disliked Emma and found it incredibly hard work to finish it. 

 

 I do agree. For me it's Emma herself who's the problem. She's such an interfering pain in the posterior that, though it is a long time since I read it, I still wince at the thought of it!

Of course it must be powerful writing to bring such a lasting response! Can't really get on with any of Austen, though.

I struggled with all 3 of Austen's books I read (Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice were the others) but at least I enjoyed the insight in love feelings in the early 19th century.

I didn't have any stinkers this month but I suppose if I had to pick my least fave was the book circle book. I wouldn't have read it normally (which is the whole point I know), good for the frame of mind I'm in at the mo though.

 My stinker is Beach Road by James Patterson. It's one of the worst ones of his I have read. The book was just pointless, the plot jumped forward all of the sudden and I really didn't care for any of the characters

mary nickson the venetian house bored me rigid

 Oh no!!!! I thought the Venetian house was ok.....

 It took me almost two weeks to finish 'Along came a spider' by James Patterson. I just couldn't get into it. I was really disappointed as I have read 12 others of his and finished them within two to three days.

 Stuart - A Life Backwards, started this on 21st and finished this morning, almost gave up so many times. I found it so difficult to get into, several chapters in fact although by two thirds of the way through I slowly began to enjoy it more. Certainly not one that I would recommend.