That moment when the book turns terrible

@PangolinPan @JaneyDC there was another Adele Parks one (think it was the second Connie and Luke book) where one of the other characters inseminated herself using sperm from Luke’s discarded condom, and then got pregnant and everyone was fine with it! That was several steps too far for me.

Just to say, as an author whose books are turned into audiobooks, we are usually given input into the narrator but don't have any further contact with the production of audiobooks. Most authors never even listen to their own books (I listen to mine but that's because my narrator is brilliant and improves the books no end).

Oh no, thanks for the heads up, I love those books bit that sounds awful 😩

@SydneyCarton I'm also having to cope with ''Dime ler'' for Daimler which is cropping up surprisingly regularly...😁
It's v annoying - and yes, I'd have thought your English-born narrator would have managed better!

I am listening to Blackout.....

I've come to the conclusion that Americans should not attempt to write books set in the UK in the Second World War. They never get it right.

What nearly had me flinging my laptop against the wall once wasn't a published book but a website for aspiring authors where members posted chapters of their novels for critique by other members. This particular chapter was set in a pub in London some time during the war. There was an air raid and the Yank who was present started telling everyone what to do.

I didn't offer any critique - I'd probably have got myself banned from the site if I'd said what I was thinking.

Head to Rapallo in Liguria, and walk along to Santa Margherita Ligure and head up this hill and you're there

@celandiney I had the same thing listening to an audiobook of Carola Dunn's Daisy Dalrymple mysteries! They parsed each other in the parsage I also think they may have referred to "the Mater" as "the Matter" I had to stop it after a while. The author has lived in America for years but she is actually English-born and educated so you'd think she would have flagged it, unless it's all contracted away from the original book.

Oh that sounds lovely - I love the idea of going away but don’t want it to end with everyone coupled up, even to horrid men, being the main prize!

maybe I’ll put an ad in the paper!!

I had just had an enchanted holiday of my own in the same place as The Enchanted April so didn't even notice the men, I was so in thrall to the glories of the setting. But in retrospect I can see what you mean

I am listening to Blackout - I can cope with the occasional error from the author but the narrator - american - has taken on board that in the south we say “parse” for pass.We don’t however say parsenger or parsage ( passenger etc…)
Or the “Arp” for the ARP wardens…. And the 2060 Oxford characters all have upper class 1940s accents - even when they are home in 2060. I'm not sure how you throw an Audiobook across the room but I’m heading that way.

I'm trying to work out which things you're talking about!

No, it was Babel which someone else also brought up! My "annoyed moment" was far more innocuous though! It was about a food item the characters comment on which would not have been around then, but might sound very "olde english" to a non-native...

I loved that book,and thought it was so clever! But I had been primed for the general idea by watching a programme about a gorilla which had been brought up as a human as an experiment - either in a home or by a group of researchers, it was on a campus in the US I think.
it was tragic and DS and I still remember. Predicably,he got too big ( and dangerous) and the Uni basically caged him and shipped him off.But - he could sign,was used to talking to people,wandering the campus. He would buy snacks with fake money which he was given.One of his family went to see him in the cage,asked him how he was ( via sign) and he said he was hurt - she asked where? “Feelings” .
Honestly, that might sound banal but it was heartbreaking…

All Clear/Black out by Connie Willis?

I really enjoyed Five by Illona Bannister (?) recently, she's an American author living in Britain, book set in London, and at one point she says that a character would often slip another a hundred-pound note. It drove me mad.

Honestly the end of lessons in chemistry had me throwing it against the wall

butter just seemed like a good idea she didn’t know what to do with

Butter just got worse and worse and just kept repeating itself. Was glad to see the back of it.

Lessons in Chemistry was total fluff with far too many "and then everyone stood up and cheered " moments. It waa fun enough to read, though.

I feel like Butter and Lessons in Chemistry were both disappointing because they fell back onto giving their characters the perfect life at the end

i at least enjoyed reading butter for a time though was disappointed by the end

lessons in chemistry had me continually rolling my eyes and I wish I’d never bothered

19 minutes
the pact
small great things
the storyteller
plain truth
a spark of light
handle with care
Keeping faith
perfect match

were all very good.

i couldn’t get on with songs of the humpback whale either

Birnham Wood has the worst ending.

It's like the author ran out of time and "everybody died". Totally ridiculous and I was so annoyed because I quite enjoyed the rest of the book.

Oh God. My DP bought me this and before I even started reading it, he'd bought me another one by the same author. I've started it now and struggling to be arsed with it, even before anything noteworthily annoying has happened. I'm going to have to express an opinion on it before I have another bloody birthday.

Songs of The Humpbacked Whale has recently been republished. I bought it thinking it would be great but it’s her first ever novel and is excruciatingly bad. I felt conned.

@HoppityBun While I agree that the Sickert book was a pile of crap, I have to say that it was the first bit of Ripper literature I had read until that point that went into any sort of detail about the victims lives. Obviously since then Hallie Rubenhold has written The Five and taken it much further, but I learned things in Patricia Cornwell’s book that none of the other male authors I had read bothered to include. If I remember correctly there were also a few good chapters on Victorian policing and the general background of the East End at the time. Then it all turned into complete bollocks

Just remembered - I once read a book where the heroine was overweight and she ate a bacon sandwich in two bites!