Mediocre books being popular

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I may be a bit of a weirdo but reading a good book/author review from a legitimate source can entice me to read a book.
Even if those reviews are written on the cover or inside.
Also if a celebrity has enforced it - - I will also take that as a sign the book is a good read (like from Oprah or Reece’s book club.)

Zero logic I know.

This is insanely dumb. Celebs aren't known to be literary critics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am starting The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny and see it's a 3.76 on Goodreads but the waitlist at MCPL is nearly 300 people long. I have seen popular books get not great ratings many times. What causes these books to become popular? Was it because Obama put it on his favorite books list (does he really read these books?)

Why would you assume Obama is lying? I very much doubt orange man reads at all

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just like everything else in life, it's all fake. Everything is an illusion.

Is your post fake, too?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BookTok (the original site that got younger readers reading Colleen Hoover, as an example) type videos are now all over Instagram and even Facebook. A lot of regular readers are driving reading right now.

I've also noticed that a lot of reader promoted books are diversity and/or progressive pushes, more than simply a great reads.

+1M clearly there is an agenda with the books being published these days.

And no obama doesn't read these he endorses whom ever pays him the most to.

I hadn't heard anything about Obama being paid. But he, like many, have an agenda on what he (his team) thinks people should read that furthers their beliefs. And many of the young editors who are buying these days are progressive. As a result, they are buying progressive and/or diverse manuscripts.

Right. Because the world of literature has been dominated by white men for eons. Some balance it way overdue. Sharing voices of women or people who are not white, is hardly progressive. It's just including more people in the story telling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think 3.76 is actually a pretty good rating from good reads. It’s pretty hard to have a universally loved book. And when a book is particularly popular, it gets a lot of ratings which tends to drive the overall score down.

No, it'a not good at all. I never read books with ratings that low, and still have a to-read list of 1,000 books.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have noticed the recent genre of Immigration Trauma Lit. There are so many trauma dumping stories in the American story market. These books are not getting international publishing rights because very few people outside of yhe US is interested in it.
I also would not call them writers. They are very much story-tellers. Good writing has a way with words that transports and lends depth to the narrative. Storytelling is just that - this happened, then that happened....as if writing a screenplay draft.
Amy Tan & Edwidge Danticat are prime examples of well known Immigration Trauma Lit storytellers.

Don't worry, there are lots of books about boring, privileged white women by boring, privileged white women for boring, privileged white women like you to read.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think 3.76 is actually a pretty good rating from good reads. It’s pretty hard to have a universally loved book. And when a book is particularly popular, it gets a lot of ratings which tends to drive the overall score down.

No, it'a not good at all. I never read books with ratings that low, and still have a to-read list of 1,000 books.

Where are all these weird, negative posts coming from? This used to be the one part of the forum my Upper Caucasia neighbors hadn’t found and pooped all over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are you implying The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny is mediocre? I have not read it myself, but I am one of those waiting for a library copy.

I don’t know if it’s mediocre but I consider 3.7 or whatever on Goodreads to be mediocre.

But I actually didn’t have time to read it so I shelved it for later. It’s 670 pages! It’s as thick as my 400 page book so I am reading that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am starting The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny and see it's a 3.76 on Goodreads but the waitlist at MCPL is nearly 300 people long. I have seen popular books get not great ratings many times. What causes these books to become popular? Was it because Obama put it on his favorite books list (does he really read these books?)

Why would you assume Obama is lying? I very much doubt orange man reads at all

Wt?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just like everything else in life, it's all fake. Everything is an illusion.

You got got swindled by business!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BookTok (the original site that got younger readers reading Colleen Hoover, as an example) type videos are now all over Instagram and even Facebook. A lot of regular readers are driving reading right now.

I've also noticed that a lot of reader promoted books are diversity and/or progressive pushes, more than simply a great reads.

+1M clearly there is an agenda with the books being published these days.

And no obama doesn't read these he endorses whom ever pays him the most to.

I hadn't heard anything about Obama being paid. But he, like many, have an agenda on what he (his team) thinks people should read that furthers their beliefs. And many of the young editors who are buying these days are progressive. As a result, they are buying progressive and/or diverse manuscripts.

Right. Because the world of literature has been dominated by white men for eons. Some balance it way overdue. Sharing voices of women or people who are not white, is hardly progressive. It's just including more people in the story telling.

It's been decades since literature was all white men. Even the oldest readers grew up with James Baldwin and Alice Walker in middle school. A women of color with a book is hardly a new thing in 2026. But a crappy book is still a crappy book regardless of the race and gender of the author. Mediocre books shouldn't get a lift because the author fits a box. Bad books are bad books.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BookTok (the original site that got younger readers reading Colleen Hoover, as an example) type videos are now all over Instagram and even Facebook. A lot of regular readers are driving reading right now.

I've also noticed that a lot of reader promoted books are diversity and/or progressive pushes, more than simply a great reads.

+1M clearly there is an agenda with the books being published these days.

And no obama doesn't read these he endorses whom ever pays him the most to.

I hadn't heard anything about Obama being paid. But he, like many, have an agenda on what he (his team) thinks people should read that furthers their beliefs. And many of the young editors who are buying these days are progressive. As a result, they are buying progressive and/or diverse manuscripts.

Right. Because the world of literature has been dominated by white men for eons. Some balance it way overdue. Sharing voices of women or people who are not white, is hardly progressive. It's just including more people in the story telling.

It's been decades since literature was all white men. Even the oldest readers grew up with James Baldwin and Alice Walker in middle school. A women of color with a book is hardly a new thing in 2026. But a crappy book is still a crappy book regardless of the race and gender of the author. Mediocre books shouldn't get a lift because the author fits a box. Bad books are bad books.

DP. 51 y/o here. Most absolutely did not grow up with Alice Walker or James Baldwin in school.

[Anonymous]

I am the anti-Goodreads reader in that the books they love, I hate and the books rated poorly there I love. They were obsessed with Lessons in Chemistry which I LOATHED.

[Anonymous]

I don't think I've read a truly great novel by a creative writing MFA grad. That may just be because the MFA fiction writer is a recent phenomenon though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have noticed the recent genre of Immigration Trauma Lit. There are so many trauma dumping stories in the American story market. These books are not getting international publishing rights because very few people outside of yhe US is interested in it.
I also would not call them writers. They are very much story-tellers. Good writing has a way with words that transports and lends depth to the narrative. Storytelling is just that - this happened, then that happened....as if writing a screenplay draft.
Amy Tan & Edwidge Danticat are prime examples of well known Immigration Trauma Lit storytellers.

Amy Tan isn’t recent. I remember reading her when I was in college in the early 90s.

Naw, she is one of the first popular ones. And unfortunately spawned more.