South Shore Readers discussion

Since we have that other topic about the favorite books you read in 2011...which books that you read this year did you not enjoy at all (rating 1 or 2 stars)?

Of the 82 books good reads says that I've read so far this year, I've only rated 3 of them 2 stars or less.

These were:

Hungry for Happiness by James Villas -- a pick for this very book club!! I wasn't alone in not enjoying it. The main character just wasn't relatable at all and didn't seem like a real person.

Sweet Stuff: An American History of Sweeteners from Sugar to Sucralose by Deborah Warner - I wanted to like this nonfiction work about the history of sweeteners in America. I typically enjoy food non-fiction/history books, but this one was too dry/academic for my taste. It felt like I was reading my high school US History text book.

Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel -- I LOVED Martel's Life of Pi. But this book, was just weird and I didn't enjoy it. a good portion of the book was a play with two characters Beatrice & Virgil: taxidermied donkey and howler monkey. I also typically like weird books, but this one was a boring weird...

hungry for happiness: james villas (i gag thinking about it), watermelon by marian keyes (which i was really looking forward to
enjoying)

By all rights Cutting for Stone should be one of my all time favorite books but I disliked it from the first chapter.

LOL...I was thinking about starting this but didn't want to be too negative!!

I agree that Hungry for Happiness is up there for me. My other two star ratings were (and I'm sure I'm going to wound a few hearts here but it can't be helped) Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho and Watchmen by Alan Moore.

That's 3 votes for Hungry for Happiness. We really loved that book as a group, huh? ;) I just remember that lead character was so unbelievable. I don't know if it was in part because the male author wasn't very good at writing female characters...but I just didn't get her or her motivations at all.