This week’s topic–books I’d gladly throw in the ocean has me thinking of the worst books I’ve tried to read. I think I’d prefer to bury them in a toxic landfill thought. No reason to harm coral and aquatic species by dumping them, right?
In first place! Wild by Cheryl Strayed! A book so irritatingly smug and self-aggrandizing that I refuse to even link to it. You are completely free to love it, I loathe it.
The other books in this list are not ranked and do not leave me anywhere near as rankled as the book above.
Novels
Nonfiction
Astronauts Wives Club is my best-rated review on Goodreads. The book stank. It was written in a juvenile-snarky tone and the only research done, apparently, was watching the movie The Right Stuff. This book should never have been published–it was that bad.
Churchill and the King is awful, too. Why? Well for starters the genius editor who approved buying this manuscript and turning it into a book failed to do any research. You, see the relationship between the Prime Minister and the Sovereign is confidential. It is not that nothing gets said about the audiences–some things do get said, of course,. But, other than knowing that at the start of the war George VI preferred Lord Halifax to Winston, not a lot else is known about their true personal feelings. For starters, it hasn’t been long enough yet for everything to be declassified, although most now is out there. For another, the current sovereign, Queen Elizabeth, controls who may see her father’s diaries. There is just tons of speculation in this book. It’s one of those annoying “we can just imagine them putting their heads together” kind of books where they make up possible expressions or speculate on voice tones. I hate this kind of “history” book.
Why not join the fun next week? You can read the rules here.
Honestly, I had the same reaction to Wild. (And I enjoy hiking and the outdoors! But there’s no need to be smug about it. 🙂 )
My post: https://lydiaschoch.com/top-ten-tuesday-books-id-gladly-throw-into-the-ocean/
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Thank you!! I’ve felt like the lone hater in the world against this book! Heroin is not amazing, either–I watched many young people die from it where I live. She was an idiot.
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I wish everyone agreed with me about every book I read, but sadly that doesn’t seem to be happening. I wasn’t wild about Wild like everyone else (except you and me).
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Good! LOL I like many of the books you review!
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This week’s top ten will definitively show that everyone does not like/love/hate the same books. On your list I have read Wild and Normal People. I liked Wild, but didn’t see it as her triumph as much as seeing what it takes to do that kind of hike. Normal People was a very strange read for me. Nice list Lisa.
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I’m glad someone persevered with those!
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I couldn’t muster the mental space to even entertain this week’s topic! I do have a list but it’s so subjective and I feel so conflicted in sharing it! Luckily, I have steered clear of the ones you’ve mentioned!
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I only did it because I track my reading, lol! You may have noticed many of these are old!
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I got inspired to spin the topic later in the day and managed to put together a post!
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Landfill haha! I had no idea about Wild, that’s one I’ll pass.
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You missed nothing! lol
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Thankfully I haven’t read any of these. I am giving myself permission to give up on books lately 🙂 It feels good! Your Astronaut Wife review was great 🙂
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YEAH!! Go, you!!!!!!!! Lol. Life is too short for bad books!
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I’m with you on Wild. I had SO many issues with it — and then I felt like, what am I missing? Because so many people seem to have found it so deep and inspiring.
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So good to hear this!
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I read Normal People and didn’t like it. I couldn’t believe what high ratings it got. I felt generous giving it 2 Stars!
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