Disappointing Reads from 2015

I won't be popular for saying this, but All the Light You Cannot See - while prettily written, it just went on and on, and a dreadful ending.

100 yr old man. Read it because I'm interested in Scandi thinking , but very disappointing and also pretentious with its "I was there" historical agenda. And the Sue Townsend had a good title but the story kind of evaporated.

Had forgotten Go Set a Watchman - it was pretty poor wasn't it, imagine if Harper Lee hadn't been sent away to write about the childhood and this was her novel instead!!

Oh yes 'Go Set a Watchman' - so dull. Couldn't get past the first 50 pages.

That really annoying 100 year old man. I wish the window had been on the 19th floor...

Another vote for The Girl on the Train.

Also:

We are all Completely Beside Ourselves
Go Set a Watchman
Labyrinth
Blood on the Altar
All My Puny Sorrows
Life (Keith Richards)
One Night Markovitch
A Brief History of Seven Killings

Didn't get through the first chapter of Girl is a Half Formed thing. Like trying to read a diary from Yoda's grammar-shy brother written while she was stoned.

.Pastoralia by George Saunders - satire; apparently
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs - though I liked the pictures
The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year by Sue Townsend - didn't find it funny got the impression it was ment to be though
Jaws by Peter Benchley - really disappointing
Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin - could have really done with less words. So so SO much waffle.

Mamamary was just going to post that! Awful, grim misery porn written in stream of consciousness style that was revolutionary when Joyce did it 100 years ago but now just tedious and impenetrable.

A girl is a half-formed thing.

Pretentious and superficial.

Hygge, an unexpected event.

I haven't read the latest Sophie Hannah, but you've reminded me that I keep picking them up because of the blurb, then finding they're completely ridiculous and I'm never quite sure if I've followed the unravelling/motive properly. And it probably doesn't help that I read them all out of order, but I get distracted by the bizarre relationship between the coppers who are supposedly a couple. No more!

Wasn't mad keen on The Buried Giant either, and I usually like Kazoo Ishiguro. Not sure what he was aiming for.

Finished, but really disliked The Miniaturist. Soapy storylines, unbelievable as a straight story, not well explained enough for magical realism - aargh! I like historical fiction usually but didn't feel particularly swept away to C17th Amsterdam, just irritated!

'Open City' by Teju Cole. Self indulgent, waffly and just so pretentious. Gave up half way through.

Yes, The Clock Winder is Elizabeth, Footle. I loved her. What were they shocked by?

I refused to read the Poirot book, and I love Poirot. I don't want him ruined by her and her daft plot lines.

Agree about Sophie Hannah,and her "new" Poirot was a big let-down too. She is very over-rated.

The Clock Winder - that's the amazing Elizabeth isn't it ? I've known people read it and get quite a shock.

I find Anne Tyler's books to be very thoughtful, very good at little details and the odd ways of family goings-on. I think she's a wonderful author. My favourite of hers is The Clock Winder.

I just remembered another book I read and hated this year, The Orphan Choir by Sophie Hannah. I really dislike Sophie Hannah's books now, and have decided that this is the last one of hers that I will read. I've seen her new one out in paperback and ignored it. Her plot lines are too far-fetched and bizarre, they spoil what usually sound like a good stories.

The Buried Giant- so disappointed. I struggled to read half way, then gave up.
A Secret History- the last third was just waffle and I couldn't connect with the characters.
Lucky Jim- not in the slightest bit funny.

Hygge and Quog, glad you liked the Tyler too. I love the way she writes and it's rich in details that all add up to astonishingly vivid portrayals of lives. This latest one has a close parallel to an ongoing situation in my life, and it helps me think about that constructively.
But this is off-topic. I'm trying to remember which book I chucked across the room recently. Aha, here are two in the charity bag - Summer at Gaglow by Esther Freud, and Selfish People by Lucy English. Free to good homes.

Beloved - Toni Morrison. So many people I know loved this, but somehow I didn't connect with it

The Comfort of Strangers, and The Cement Garden. Love Ian McEwan, hated both of these. The first was supposedly a thriller but you could see the ending coming a mile off. the second was just gross. Sweet tooth was better though.

The Goldfinch - Could have been great, but the Nevada part really dragged.

Morrissey's autobiography. Just shite

Christopher Isherwood - Goodbye to Berlin. Loved A Single Man, didn't like this one. No real narrative thread.

The Gathering - Anne Enright. Dull. Bit shocked it won the Booker.

I quite liked A Spool of Blue Thread as well. It's not my favourite of hers, and I'm not totally sure what the point of it was, but that seems to be the thing in many of her books, the way life just meanders along, with everything and nothing taking place along the way.

I've loved A Spool of Blue Thread, and think it's among her best. It's a bit sad to see someone deciding not to bother with such a great book because someone else didn't think much of it. Still, that's lit crit.

I gave up on both Elizabeth is Missing and How I lost You..... I thought Helen Lederer's novel (can't remember the name) was utter drivel!

The TAxidermist's Daughter was very labored. Looked like the author had come up with an idea (cruel, misogynistic behavior) then dressed it up in a Victorian gothicky mould ( descriptive taxidermy)to sell well.

It was tedious in the end imv and I wasn't much involved with the lead characters.