Bestsellers that don't live up to expectations

@petra I agree with you on Donna Tart, just couldn’t get into it.

I found “the salt path” not worthy of any of the plaudits, and found it too ridiculous for words!
I enjoyed “the time traveller’s wife enormously” as I like that sort of science fiction.
I have read many books that I didn’t particularly enjoy although others have. It’s a question of taste, some like one book that others hate and vice versa.
“Thursday murder club” is very lightweight, readable and quite silly. A beach read.

I enjoyed The Thursday Cub and a sequel.
Couldn’t stand the Time Travellers Wife.
Loved Captain Corelli’s Mandolin
Enjoyed the Crawdads.
Can’t stand those books where people keep dying and co:ing back in another body.
Enjoyed The Goldfinch.
Couldn’t stand Normal People.

Magenta8

Strange that GNs' are almost unanimous about disliking "The Thursday Murder Club". Lots of people must have liked it, it was a best sellers list for weeks and is still selling well.

I notice that "The Salt Path" has not been mentioned.

Being on the ‘Best Sellers List’ doesn’t mean the book is good though.

People buy it because it’s been hyped up and they are fearful of ‘missing out’.

Only after spending their money do they realise it’s not a great read.

I’ve read all the Thursday Murder books, but have not warmed to the characters or the plots. I haven’t bought them though, just borrowed from the library. I am about 192 on the list for the next one, but don’t mind waiting.

I don’t have Netflix, so won’t be watching the film version.

The last car boot sale I attended had all the TMB on one stall.

The majority of people on GN are retired and many have experience of retirement lives and retirement living - and this book just doesn't make sense.

They are like Geoffrey Archer books. Read by people who know nothing about the world he placed his books in, but not by anyone with any knowledge.

If I read a good book then I never watch the tv or film version. I like to have my own images in my head.

I see quite a few people have given up on various books. I can't do that - I have to finish a book, even if I'm not particularly enjoying it. I don't know why, it's just something I've always done and feel compelled to do. Maybe it's in the hope that it will improve...

Time too precious to keep on reading a book that you don’t enjoy…..

The Goldfinch I agree - I trudged through to the end but didn't really see the point of it.
The Handmaid's Tale I started to watch on Amazon Prime but found it so gruesome I stopped and certainly won't be reading the book(s?)

Where the Crawdads sing didn't grab me either. The end didn't surprise me.

Robert Harris never fails to please but I soon had the twist worked out in Conclave, too- well before the end. If you've read The Wasp Factory it's the same twist!

Maybe by the time you reach our age, it gets harder and harder to please us, and/or we are immune to marketing hype.

Absolutely loved the Thursday Murder Club books - as did everyone in my bookclub. They make me smile - which can only be a good thing.
Hated The Lovely Bones and We Need to talk about Kevin, also hated Guilty By Definition (Susie Dent), and The Poisonwood Bible.
Really enjoyed The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist

The Salt Path and The Thursday Murder Club were both awful.

Poppyred

Time too precious to keep on reading a book that you don’t enjoy…..

You may think so. To me, reading is never a waste of time.

Loved the Hilary Mantel trilogy about Thomas Cromwell. Took a while to get into it but was really worth the effort.

Hated The Road by Cormac Macarthy, was just so depressing and sickening. Read it all because I thought it might be an important if difficult read, but would not recommend it to anyone.

Sorry is Cormac McCarthy.

Just reading GENEVA by Richard Armitage. Full of mistakes. We lived close by and know the territory oh so well, but the book is splattered with errors which makes it laughable IMHO. He's obviously never lived there, and he would seem to have only consulted a map for his research.

I enjoyed the Thursday Murder Club and have read all of them. They are easy, light reading.
I loved Crawdads and enjoyed the film.
I gave up on Captain Corelli's Mandolin, it was boring.
The Lovely Bones was okay.
The Salt Path was okay but the explanation for going on the walk was odd and their casual theft offensive - now we know why.
I love the Wolf Hall trilogy and the dramatisation.
I love the Handmaids Tale, though a lot of Attwood's books are quite heavy going.
The Goldfinch was okay.
I liked The Time Traveller's wife.
I hated I am Pilgrim.
I didn't like the Underground Railroad.

Was given ‘The salt Path’ as a present. Didn’t get far into it before I thought this is rubbish, it has to be written by someone who makes things up. As I watched it climb up the charts and another by same author followed I thought it must be me. But finally my feelings on the tale turned out to be true! The emperors new clothes springs to mind!

One of the worst books, well for me, beloved by MN 'Lincoln in the Bardo' it won the Booker and then if that wasn't bad enough, it also won the best overall Booker ever. I don't think all Booker Prize winning books are awful, although they can be. I hated it, it's not that I can't cope with a book that doesn't have a linear narrative it completely lost me. From what I remember the theme was the dead young son of Abraham Lincoln, with a lot of disembodied voices that emanate from where he was buried. The bardo is a reference to some state of the mind in Buddhism. I can't really remember if that's exact. Anyway suffice to say I was increasingly losing the will to live as the book progressed whilst I simultaneously regressed to wanting something easy like an Enid Blyton anything other than that. Worse than homework

Don't get me started on Richard Osman and his friggin' Mediocre Murder Club rubbish. So many talented authors out there, who get a fraction of his recognition. People pick them up because of he is high profile and the phenomenal amount of publicity surrounding them. Personally I stay well away from celebrity fiction.

Our bookgroup choice was Lessons in Chemistry. I hated it, everyone else liked it.
‘Enjoyed’, if that is the right word, We need to talk about Kevin, excellent writing and would never have chosen it myself.
Normal People was ok, but I have just read Beautiful World by the same author and found it very confusing, but odd gems scattered here and there.
Out bookgroup has now disbanded, so Im back to “I know what I like” authors, many in the nice Persephone editions, Dorothy Whipple etc., rather cosy reading.

One good thing about the bookgroup was that it steered me off my usual path and made me read books I wouldn’t usually consider.

Normal People was one of those rare books where the dramatisation really improved on the novel, outstanding acting. I enjoyed her latest Intermezzo more than NP.

Enjoyed Lessons in Chemistry and Crawdads. Have also read a few Dorothy Whipples as recommended here on GN and really liked the 20s and 30s evoked by a writer who was able to write from the perspective of living through those times.

I gave up on The Salt Path. The story of how they lost their house didn't add up and I objected to her attitude to stealing.

I hated We Need to Talk About Kevin. It didn't seem to ring true to me.

I loved Wolf Hall.

TSP
WNTTAKevin
Hilary Mantel

Sorry, forgot to take out the notes at the end!

The only book I have never finished was Money' by Martin Ames, six expletive ridden chapters in, with still no idea what the plot was or where it was going, I gave up.

I really enjoyed The Time Travellers Wife AND The Midnight Library.

Oh, and The Thursday Murder Club