Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

Original poster

Are there key words on the jacket that puts you OFF a book?

189 replies

sweetnessandlite · 07/09/2014 15:58

Me?

As soon as I read the words 'Cornwall' or 'Painter' or 'tea shop' or 'young mother'
I immediately Put The Book Back.

Why do a lot of female authors set their story in Cornwall? It's so boring and predictable.

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
MarkWrightsLonelyBraincell · 12/09/2014 21:57

Someone on here once made one up "Four Children, One Crisp" it still makes me laugh.

joanofarchitrave · 12/09/2014 18:44

Lol stupid

Bertie I'd look at novels from a while ago. Somerset Maugham? Raymond Chandler? Elizabeth Jane Howard?

Stupidhead · 12/09/2014 12:25

Eek when my eldest was about 4 I'd chase him around the kitchen with a wooden spoon. For fun obviously! In a HUGE queue in Boots one day he said, 'will you beat me with the wooden spoon again when we get home?'

Can you imagine the glares I got???

vladthedisorganised · 12/09/2014 12:16

Someone on here mentioned "Please Mummy Not The Big Stick" which rather sums it up..

Passmethecrisps · 11/09/2014 20:56

And anything at all along the lines of

"No, daddy, stop!"

Or "mummy please don't"

Passmethecrisps · 11/09/2014 20:54

'Side-splittingly funny'

'Daily Mail'

Ohwhatfuckeryisthis · 11/09/2014 20:53

On Kindle-(A something something novel) like "escape from cliche dom" a DS Stereotype novel.
Or never ending series by someone you have never ever heard of. (Usually beating the fantasy genre around it's head until it's stone dead)

BertieBotts · 11/09/2014 19:56

Oh I hate those too but have to admit that my guilty pleasure are the ones told from the POV of the foster carer. Even though they all read exactly like a Take A Break article ( they're always tucking into a sumptuous roast with all the trimmings when the doorbell rings or something like that), the foster carer is unrelentingly perfect and never ever breaks policy and the endings are utterly predictable meaning they're probably totally made up.

Those aside though, how do you find a good book? I find almost everything I read is irritating. It either has ridiculous characters who have stepped straight out of stereotype town or it's horribly pretentious and overcomplicated (like books that keep skipping around in time. Stop it! Tell me the story in order!) has child abuse dumped in the middle of the story for no reason other than dramatic effect or they have the most simpering predictable dross ending.

mmack · 11/09/2014 19:36

The Irish misery lit. book that is no. 1 on the list of books that I plan never to read is 'Ma, He Sold Me For a Few Cigarettes'. It's part of a series of 5 or 6 and one of the sequels is called 'Ma, It’s a Cold Aul Night an I’m Lookin for a Bed'. It actually make me feel a bit queasy to see them on a bookshop shelf.

Original poster
sweetnessandlite · 10/09/2014 15:12

There was a whole section devoted to then in Supermarkets with the same b&w or sepia covers of a sad child. It seems to be 'mom porn' there now.

I really don't see the appeal of that type of book Confused

OP posts:
Stupidhead · 10/09/2014 07:39

I think so! There was a whole section devoted to then in Supermarkets with the same b&w or sepia covers of a sad child. It seems to be 'mom porn' there now.

Original poster
sweetnessandlite · 09/09/2014 17:16

Stupidhead, isn't that type of book called victim lit? (Or misery lit) something like that!

OP posts:
Stupidhead · 09/09/2014 00:16

Yep. The true story books about how they overcome the odds to survive/escape/whatever. Not many cake shops or Agas to be fair.

My friend lent me one about a man who as an Irish alter boy, (I'm sure you can imagine), and how he survived. I was just all 'wah wah wah call me a wahmbulance' after the first few chapters.

RonaldMcDonald · 08/09/2014 23:11

'Betrayed by those who should have offered her care'

CoteDAzur · 08/09/2014 23:09

"Heart-warming"
"Uplifting"
"Life-affirming'
"... will make you laugh and cry"
"Family saga"
"Chick-lit"
"Women's fiction"

Oh and books that:

  • have a pink cover
  • have cover page in cursive handwriting
  • are recommended by tabloids
phonebox · 08/09/2014 18:43

"[Cat/Eliza/Sara] is just your typical, slightly scatty, 30-something career girl...until one day..."

Grrr.

Rivercam · 08/09/2014 18:21

Ironically, there's a book being advertised at the top of Mumsnet that fits these descriptions perfectly!

www.amazon.co.uk/The-One-Plus-Jojo-Moyes/dp/1405909056/?tag=mumsnet

FastWindow · 08/09/2014 18:15

Man Booker Prize.

No thanks. It'll be depressing.

vladthedisorganised · 08/09/2014 18:07

Shopaholic Is Almost Imprisoned for Credit card Fraud but gets off at the last minute because even though she's a materialistic grasper with no redeeming features, she`s just a loveable kook waiting for the right man..

Eat. Fart. Deny: How IBS helped one woman reconnect on her journey through life, love and spirituality

vladthedisorganised · 08/09/2014 17:53

Absolutely! With a tearful but resolute look in her eye.. She probably has a neighbour that says "och!"/ "strike a light, luv!"/ "strike me roan!"/ "begorrah!"/ "why eye lass!" On a near constant basis, depending on whether the tale is set in Scotland/ London/ Australia/ Ireland/ Newcastle..

Original poster
sweetnessandlite · 08/09/2014 17:47

A true family saga!
Saga is bookspeak for Very very Long and Boring.

OP posts:
MarkWrightsLonelyBraincell · 08/09/2014 17:40
vladthedisorganised · 08/09/2014 17:35

Bertha McPhail knew nothing of the world outside her pit village. Her alcoholic father had died when the mine collapsed, but not before her violent mother remarried an even more violent gangmaster, leaving Bertha to endure a life of hardship extracting iron ore with her teeth to feed her family. But when the local ne'er do well leaves her with child after a dramatic hour at the firestation, and Bertha's teeth fall out, she is torn between providing for her family and wanting the best for her unborn child.
Bertha's struggle is A MOTHER'S WOE..

'So true to life!!' People's Friend
'A true family saga' Woman's Realm
Recommended by 8 out of 10 Saga readers in the 'Misery Saga' category

Badvoc123 · 08/09/2014 17:29

Oh and anything by Jeremy clarkson, obv,

Celticlass2 · 08/09/2014 17:23

Anything to do with Cornwall, as in some divorcee going to open a tea shop or some shite like that.
Misery lit.
In fact, I am discovering there is a huge amount of utter drivel out there that for some inexplicable reason managed to get published!

Swipe left for the next trending thread