Dishonourable Mentions of 2014

bluepiano: My first and last go at Jean Rhys who, judging by this book, couldn't write for toffee.

SylviaC: This was the most impersonal autobiography I've ever read.

Bookmarque: Torpid and repetitive; when finally something actually happened, it landed with a thud and then just lay there. No upshot or resonance.

zjakkelien: Boring! In the end, I was sad that the main character didn't come to a worse end...

aulsmith: I wanted to like this, but it's just too snide

Lexxi: Nasty little story about a woman on a ride along with a cop. Woman trusts cop. Cop rapes her. But it's a-ok because she liked it. eww

_Zoe_: I read this because I really enjoyed another book by a "controversial mother", Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. But where Amy Chua actually had an interesting life experience to relate, the "Princeton Mom" has nothing but unsubstantiated opinion. And yet it only occasionally reached the point of entertainment, like when she advised readers to get any necessary plastic surgery done in high school so that they look their best for attracting a man in college. Mostly it was just cringeworthy, like her oblivious advice to Princeton students not to get pregnant too early, because she'd somehow read a statistic about teen pregnancy while absolutely missing the whole socio-economic dimension. Blech.

bluepiano: Satire is heavy-handed rather than wry or pointed and documentation on various aspects of the newts soon renders the book unreadably tedious.

Bookmarque: The vitriol. The hatred. The racism. Plus everyone talked like a 15 year old who didn't know the real word for anything.

aulsmith: I don't know if it's that the book did a bad job of explaining semiotics, or if semiotics just can't be explained, but, except for some fun pictures, this was a waste of my time and money.

zjakkelien: I found this distasteful. I don't like the way everything is treated like it is covered in shit, from people to relationships to the world. Really not my thing.

Lexxi: Read the first three books in this series years ago. Then read this one this year. Horrible book with detestable characters. Including a police officer who keeps getting so sad about the evil critters who were killing that he kept fainting.

zjakkelien: I was bored. One shouldn't get bored reading about assassinations, you'd think, but I couldn't stand the idea of having to read about another murder, and another... All the same...

Bookmarque: A The da Vinci Code re-tread with far too modern language, cliched characters and villains straight out of a James Bond movie.

aulsmith: I'm not sure why I thought this was clever when I was a child, but re-reading it in my sixties left me scratching my head.

Lexxi: Read two Superman graphic novels back to back. I distinctly recall loving the first and hating the second. I remember the first. I don't really remember this one here.

bluepiano: I've just tried to read this Neil Jordan book. And now I don't think I'll ever try to watch a Neil Jordan movie. Not awful, but rather self-indulgent and pointless and ultimately a huge bore.

zjakkelien: Totally pushed the wrong buttons for me. Disgusting mother who doesn't care about her daughter, stupid daughter who doesn't stand up for herself.

Lexxi: I liked the first book in this series. This second book took everything I disliked from the first, dropped everything I liked, then added more things to dislike.

aulsmith: Anthologies are always uneven, but this one was particularly uneven in terms of its theme. It didn't seem to know what it meant by cyborg.

bluepiano: This isn't the book--I can't list Silbermann's Grovelling and Other Vices because no LT member is idiot enough to own it. I read a fair bit of it because I felt sure that Silbermann must having been doing a Sokal here. But he wasn't. Apparently well-regarded work, but if you enjoy vitrolic reviews here's one: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/books/activating-the-art-of-sucking-up/154999.article

Bookmarque: I hate it when authors have characters make stupid decisions purely as a device to drive the plot. That disingenuous manipulation combined with easily figuring out the villain ruined what could have been a ripping yarn.

Lexxi: Took forever to read with dislikable characters, unbelievable characters.

aulsmith: I thought the longer format might give Derleth more room for character building, but the first part was so devoted to railway timetables, I gave up.