Mumsnet Talk

For me, the worst was Wolf Hall. The best was The Sisters Brothers.

I have read some awful ones. I agree abotu Wolf Hall - although loads of people seem to love it. I also hated Troubles (won the lost Booker prize) and The Finkler question.
The best one we have done is either A Prayer for Owen Meany or Cloud Atlas

Really? I loved Wolf Hall and it kicked off a phase of reading all about Henry VIII, family history etc. Though nothing I read was as dense or evocative as Wolf Hall.
In the last year, I have really enjoyed The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Let the Great World Spin and re-read The Book Thief.
'Change of heart'....that was a week's worth of reading time lost and gone forever. [sob]

Book clubs are great for making you read stuff you wouldn't normally look at, especially when you are pleasantly surprised. But as with Wolf Hall, I did feel I had wasted so much time and got nothing in return. Ah well, swings and roundabouts I suppose

Best: A Fine Balance and War and Peace. There is no way in hell i would have read either without the stimulus of book club. I know this because I carted W&P around with me for 10 years without ever getting beyond the first page. It really is as good as it's supposed to be - the key is to keep going whatever happens, and to skim the bits that seem unreadable, particularly the first chapter.

Worst: My Little Blue Dress and The Five People You Meet In Heaven.

Best - Lovely Bones/Rebecca/Never Let Me Go
Worst - Incredible Lightness of Being/An Equal Music/Little Stranger

Attempts on Dickens/Gaskell/Austen all unsuccessful

Oh if only my book club had chosen Wolf Hall.

Best was probably The White Tiger. That upset a few of the group and should have warned me off earlier.

Worst was The Memory Keepers Daughter but there were several competing misery books that would rank up there if I could remember them!

I'm another one who loved Wolf Hall. Not a light read, but the atmosphere of political intrigue Hilary Mantel conjured up has stayed with me for months.

Worst were My Sister's Keeper - I think you love or hate Jodi Picoult - and Kalooki Nights .. how do people find Howard Jacobson funny? It was like watching paint dry.

We Need to Talk about Kevin - horrendous. Total exposition, completely contrived, like a teen afternoon movie. Do not get the hype, thought the writing was completely artless.
This was my only book club experience, I dropped out after.

The end of 'Kevin' is very annoyingly contrived to shock. Likewise 'Little Stranger' - rubbish ending. Didn't mind 'My Sister's Keeper' though I can see that ending being annoying, too.

Best Clan of the cave bear
worst the small hand, thank goodness it was a thin book!!!!

I loved, loved, loved 'Wolf Hall' - read it off my own bat, not as a book club choice, though. All the other weirdos people in the group refuse to read anything they think is too long

OTOH, I'm now having to read Philippa Gregory's 'The Other Queen' for book club, and it's turgid in the extreme. In fact I can't even be arsed to finish it, it's so bad...

Best: A Fine Balance - would never have read it otherwise.
Joseph Knight - astonishly good, have gone on to read others by James Robertson.

Worst - Lovely Bones - didn't even bother to finish it. Utter drivel.

Worst - The Wasp Factory
Most turgid - The Childrens Book
Best for bookclub discussion- We need to talk about Kevin (though not liked/enjoyed most)

best - as in I'd never have read them otherwise - Handmaids Tale, Beloved, Oscar and Lucinda
worst - The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, the Kite Runner, Shadow of the Wind, a Jodi Picault - generally anything with a Richard and Judy sticker

just reading Wolf Hall for the 3rd time. The 1st time I just found it confusing, the 2nd time I liked it, the 3rd I'm loving it. Can't wait for the next one.

forgot the absolute worst - I Don't Know how she does it, by Alison Pearrson. But it was a brilliant session, aswe all had such strong feelings about it.

Worst was When God was a Rabbit. Still feel a bit resentful at having wasted some of my life reading that blardy book .

Best is The Sense of an Ending. Would never have touched it otherwise and really enjoyed it. Kept thinking about it for ages afterwards.

Best: Atonement. Worst: something I can't remember by Sandi Toksvig!

Best: The Secret Scripture/Gilead/The Help/The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox (hard to pick between them)
Worst: Sister (shudder to even contemplate it), One Day (shudder again, only this time more convulsively)

oh yes, I'd forgotton Sister, dreadful

So many here that I had forgotten about.
I loved Secret Scripture....am waiting to get my hands on On Canaan's Side.

This Book Will Save Your Life?? What was that about? Still havent really forgiven the book club member who suggested that!

"This Book Will Save Your Life?? What was that about? Still havent really forgiven the book club member who suggested that!"

I read that one too, WannaBe. Like you, I have no idea .