Bestsellers that don't live up to expectations

I enjoy The Thursday Murder Club series but couldn't take to Osman's We Solve Murders.

I'm sorry, but I really love the Thursday Murder Club books. I love the way Richard's mind works. I enjoyed Where The Crawdads Sing, and loved the Wolf Hall trilogy and Captain Corelli's Mandolin. I haven't read The Time Traveller's Wife, but I read another book by the same author, which I hated. It was one of the most unpleasant books I've ever read. Robert Harris's books are always work reading, although I've never been able to get into his Roman ones.

I’ve given up on before the end or been disappointed by quite a few of the books already mentioned and also by Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine.

If only good writers and good stories went together! I have suffered many bad authors because the story was worth reading but find if more difficult to read good authors when the story is boring.

Proof readers seem to have disappeared

The wrong terminology puts me off.
I started a book last it is the story of James V1 marriage to Anne of Denmark.
He used the wrong terminology when describing the rigg on the boat bringing her over to Scotland.
The terminology was irrelevant but my mind goes to ^how much else have you got wrong 🤷‍♀️

eezybee I do so agree with you. As a writer myself I know the way things work. Publicity is key and if you are not a well known name or can afford an agent, you are on your own.
I went to an author talk some time ago. She had written and self published her own work. It was never going to win the Booker prize but the story was clever and interesting. She said she absolutely struggled to sell it. It was such a shame, .

petra

The wrong terminology puts me off.
I started a book last it is the story of James V1 marriage to Anne of Denmark.
He used the wrong terminology when describing the rigg on the boat bringing her over to Scotland.
The terminology was irrelevant but my mind goes to ^how much else have you got wrong 🤷‍♀️

It can just be little things. Magpies in Wick is my latest annoyance - don't get them this far north.

I haven’t read the Thursday Murder books and I’m not inclined to.

I got to the end of Lovely Bones but didn’t really like it.

I LOVED Time Travellers Wife and We need to talk about Kevin, thought they were cleverly written unusual books

Love Hilary Mantel such a brilliant writer.

I never buy books just because they are best sellers

I have never, ever been disappointed in any of of Catherine Cookson's books. A truly brilliant author.
They are not silly romantic drivel as some daft, ignorant people suggest. She could certainty teach many of the newbies how to tell a fully-rounded tale without all the fluff & fanfare. 😶

Anything by Agatha Christie.
Greatly over-rated IMO

I was in my 60s before I read Agatha Christie. My mother had always told me she was an awful writer. I was amazed to find how enjoyable her books were, and how funny she could be. I'd never imagined her with a sense of humour.

Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel. People rave about her books but I just can't get into them. I don't like her style of writing at all. I much prefer Phillipa Gregory.

Didn't like The Thursday Murder Club nor any books by Rev Richard Coles. They just don't touch for me the parts to keep me turning the pages. I have come across an author called Karen Swan and just love the twists and turns of her novels, each with its own unique location and plot.

I prefer Phillipa Gregory as well mum2three also Barbara Erskine and Diana Gabaldon.
One of my top favourite authors has to be C J Sansom, he researched so well and his books are among the few I can re read.

Phillipa Gregory and C J Sansom are proper authors, read all their books

i don't bother with best sellers, years ago i read random hearts and watched the film with harrison ford, they changed the ending in the film and i found it so annoying, so now it is only the books and not the tv series or film.

TizLiz what do you mean by ‘proper authors’ ?

People who don't trade on their celebrity status to sell books, or get a ghost writer.

I didn’t like How to Kill Your Family and neither did my book club and 2 other book clubs that I know of. However we did have a very active discussion! Maybe it was written for a younger age group?

Tizliz

Phillipa Gregory and C J Sansom are proper authors, read all their books

Yes, yes to Phillipa Gregory!
I feel as though I know her characters, they are so vibrant & alive! I have never been disappointed by any of her works.
Thrilling, sexy, intriguing, masterful, stuff. 💕

Thank youTizLiz I do agree with you and I have every Phillipa Gregory. It is the struggling, mostly unknown authors that worry me. They , as I have said, have no hope against celebs and ghost writers.

Rev Richard Coles' Murder Before Evensong - I took it on holiday and found it extremely tedious. I much preferred Thursday Murder Club.

The Light Years by Elizabeth Jane Howard. I had heard so many good things about this book and the rest in the series. Queen Camilla's desert island book apparently. I tried to read it over the Summer but 90 pages in and nothing had happened so I gave up. If you like Downton Abbey, you might like it but I just found it boring.

I absolutely loved Where the Crawdads Sing.

I struggled to get into Captain Corelli’s Mandolin in book form but listened to it on car journeys and really enjoyed it. I really didn’t enjoy The Twyford Code and have never progressed beyond the introduction of Lord of the Rings. I have accepted that little elves and their doings are not for me. As for Fifty Shades of Grey - I didn’t read it as l knew the plot, such as it was, was not my idea of any book I wanted to read. As an adjunct, I was in a charity shop when I bumped into someone l knew by the Mills and Boon gondola. I knew she had always enjoyed Mills and Boon and made a comment to this effect. She replied that she had stopped reading them as she had noticed that they were all the same. I replied that perhaps she needed something with a bit more depth. She went on to say that she had read Fifty Shades of Grey….

I enjoyed theThursday Murder Club.Liked the second one but subsequent ones were only read as a consequence of enjoying the previous ones. Really felt the last one especially could do with a list of characters as I was beginning to lose exactly who was who and their relationships.
Really enjoyed the Goldfinch but agree it could have benefitted from a good editor as unnecessarily too long. Love Couldn’t stand The Time Travellers Wifeand Life After Life.Didnt enjoy Real People but enjoyed the Crawdads. Love Robert Harris especially the Cicero books and An
Officer and a Spy.