Authors:
Mitch Albom
As someone who had a family member who suffered from A.L.S. Mitch Albom's Tuesdays with Morrie has a soft spot in my heart. However, The Five People You Meet in Heaven was just non-sense.
Isabel Allende
Loved Daughter of Fortune. Skip The Japanese Lover. Boring
Ethan Hawke
I loved his first book The Hottest State and waited in anticipation for his second book. However, Ash Wednesday was a huge disappointment. Pass.
Ernest Hemingway
I enjoyed Farewell to Arms, A Moveable Feast, and Old Man and the Sea but For Whom the Bell Tolls was painfully slow. Skip it. Didn't love the short story collection In Our Time.
Ha Jin
His book Waiting was not a page turner but I gave him a second chance with reading War Trash and was utterly flawed. That book taught me so much about the Second Sino-Japenese War that I never knew about. The Crazed was horrible
Fredrik Backman
I adored "A Man Named Ove" but it seems to be a one hit wonder for him. "My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry" was absolute rubbish. "Britt-Marie was Here" wasn't too swell either. "Anxious People" was another terrible story. I'm done with him.
Suzanne Collins
The Hunger Games was a pretty decent book and a better movie, but I definitely think she had pressure to write the sequel Catching Fire because it was dreadful. Stopped there.
Roddy Doyle
I love most books he wrote. However, here are some to skip. His book of short stories The Deportees was brutal to read. snooze fest. Also, his sequel to "A Star Called Henry" titled "Oh, Play That Thing" was written in such a different style it was too distracting to even comprehend. It was like a different man wrote it all together. Read his book Love, nothing to love there. The meaningless conversation drags from pub to pub. Only when they shut up and go to visit his dying father does the book have purpose but 5 pages of that didn't make it worth reading. Sorry, Laddie.
Janet Finch
White Oleander was a very memorable book but I couldn't get through a chapter of her second novel Paint it Black.
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Suzanne Collins
The Hunger Games was a pretty decent book and a better movie, but I definitely think she had pressure to write the sequel Catching Fire because it was dreadful. Stopped there.
Roddy Doyle
I love most books he wrote. However, here are some to skip. His book of short stories The Deportees was brutal to read. snooze fest. Also, his sequel to "A Star Called Henry" titled "Oh, Play That Thing" was written in such a different style it was too distracting to even comprehend. It was like a different man wrote it all together. Read his book Love, nothing to love there. The meaningless conversation drags from pub to pub. Only when they shut up and go to visit his dying father does the book have purpose but 5 pages of that didn't make it worth reading. Sorry, Laddie.
Janet Finch
White Oleander was a very memorable book but I couldn't get through a chapter of her second novel Paint it Black.
F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby is a fabulous classic, but This Side of Paradise was dreadful, pretentious rubbish.
Kaye Gibbons
Oh my, one of my most favorite writers. I adored Ellen Foster . Charms For the Easy Life is one of my favorite books ever. However, The Life All Around Me which was supposed to be a sequel to Ellen Foster and was written many years later, in 2005, was just horrid. It also is her last book ever written. Shame. A VirtuousWoman and Diving Women were both pointless and boring.
Oh my, one of my most favorite writers. I adored Ellen Foster . Charms For the Easy Life is one of my favorite books ever. However, The Life All Around Me which was supposed to be a sequel to Ellen Foster and was written many years later, in 2005, was just horrid. It also is her last book ever written. Shame. A VirtuousWoman and Diving Women were both pointless and boring.
Ethan Hawke
I loved his first book The Hottest State and waited in anticipation for his second book. However, Ash Wednesday was a huge disappointment. Pass.
Ernest Hemingway
I enjoyed Farewell to Arms, A Moveable Feast, and Old Man and the Sea but For Whom the Bell Tolls was painfully slow. Skip it. Didn't love the short story collection In Our Time.
Ha Jin
His book Waiting was not a page turner but I gave him a second chance with reading War Trash and was utterly flawed. That book taught me so much about the Second Sino-Japenese War that I never knew about. The Crazed was horrible
Mindy Kaling
Her first book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? was funny and charming but a few years in the limelight did not do her well. She has completely loss touch with reality in her second book Why Not Me? She suggests really expensive spa treatments, plastic surgery and getting a personal tailor. Those ideas are not going to touch base with her fanbase.
Barbara Kingsolver
"The Poisonwood Bible" was a masterpiece. Skip "The Bean Trees".
Jhumpa Lahiri
Her first book of short stories Interrupter of Maladies was amazing. However, her second short stories book Unaccustomed Earth was not on the same level.
Wally Lamb
I enjoyed every book by him except The Hour I First Believed. The main female character was intolerable. I'll Take You There was not so good either.
Ron McLarty
I loved The Memory of Running. Traveler was really quite bad. Slow.
Tim O'Brien
His book The Things They Carried was one of the best books I ever read but every other book I have read by him has been a let down. Pass on In the Lake of the Woods, Tomcat in Love, and July, July.
Stewart O'Nan
Loved Snow Angels and Last Night at the Lobster . Skip The Good Wife and especially Songs For the Missing, The Odds. West of Sunset was so horribly boring. And it was about F. Scoot Fitzgerald to Zelda, what could possibly be more dramatic than that topic and he made it boring?? epic fail.
Ann Patchett
Her memoir Truth and Beauty on her friendship with fellow author Lucy Grealy was very deep. However, Bel Canto and Run could not keep my attention.
J.K. Rowling
The first three books in the Harry Potter series were my favorite then I felt the books got repetitive. However, her adult book The Casual Vacancy was dreadful and her other books under Pen Name Robert Galbraith are horrible.
J.D. Salinger
The Catcher in the Rye is worth all the fanfare but that about does it for Salinger, avoid Nine Stories.
Diane Setterfield
Absolutely loved "The Thirteenth Tale". just fabulous. Skip "Once Upon a River" very loose storyline that goes no where. Not even down river.
John Steinbeck
Some of my absolute favorite books are East of Eden, The Pearl, and Of Mice and Men. His stories can be spectacular but some of Steinbeck's books have left me feeling discouraged. Pass on The Moon is Down, The Grapes of Wrath, Cannery Row and The Winter of Our Discontent. Very boring.
Amy Tan
I highly recommend The Kitchen God's Wife but pass on her One Hundred Secret Senses.
updated 11/2023
Jhumpa Lahiri
Her first book of short stories Interrupter of Maladies was amazing. However, her second short stories book Unaccustomed Earth was not on the same level.
Wally Lamb
I enjoyed every book by him except The Hour I First Believed. The main female character was intolerable. I'll Take You There was not so good either.
Ron McLarty
I loved The Memory of Running. Traveler was really quite bad. Slow.
Tim O'Brien
His book The Things They Carried was one of the best books I ever read but every other book I have read by him has been a let down. Pass on In the Lake of the Woods, Tomcat in Love, and July, July.
Stewart O'Nan
Loved Snow Angels and Last Night at the Lobster . Skip The Good Wife and especially Songs For the Missing, The Odds. West of Sunset was so horribly boring. And it was about F. Scoot Fitzgerald to Zelda, what could possibly be more dramatic than that topic and he made it boring?? epic fail.
Her memoir Truth and Beauty on her friendship with fellow author Lucy Grealy was very deep. However, Bel Canto and Run could not keep my attention.
J.K. Rowling
The first three books in the Harry Potter series were my favorite then I felt the books got repetitive. However, her adult book The Casual Vacancy was dreadful and her other books under Pen Name Robert Galbraith are horrible.
J.D. Salinger
The Catcher in the Rye is worth all the fanfare but that about does it for Salinger, avoid Nine Stories.
Diane Setterfield
Absolutely loved "The Thirteenth Tale". just fabulous. Skip "Once Upon a River" very loose storyline that goes no where. Not even down river.
John Steinbeck
Some of my absolute favorite books are East of Eden, The Pearl, and Of Mice and Men. His stories can be spectacular but some of Steinbeck's books have left me feeling discouraged. Pass on The Moon is Down, The Grapes of Wrath, Cannery Row and The Winter of Our Discontent. Very boring.
Amy Tan
I highly recommend The Kitchen God's Wife but pass on her One Hundred Secret Senses.
updated 11/2023
