Books that you found overrated

[Anonymous]

All these threads of book recommendations have me wondering if any of you have been disappointed in any acclaimed books. I saw on the thread about life changing books that a lot of people loved The Happiness Project. I didn't but my comments are mostly about overrated fiction. It seems like every year there is a celebrated book that comes out that is either just OK or downright awful. Fates and Furies comes to mind.

[Anonymous]

I hated Fates and Furies too!

[Anonymous]

The Chosen by Chaim Potok.

Read it recently for a book club. It was a snooze. Have no idea why it was a best seller, other than perhaps every Jewish person in American felt compelled to buy a copy.

[Anonymous]

Zadie Smith's White Teeth
Nora Ephron's books (all of them)
Paula Hawkins Girl on a Train (a page turner, but flat characters)

I could go on. I think I have a longer list of over rated books than genius ones, sadly.

[Anonymous]

LOL The Happiness Project was such BS! Gretchen Rubin had tons of free time and money to devote to what made her happy, OF COURSE she was able to up her happiness. Such a joke.

I seriously loathed Hillbilly Elegy and will never understand how it got so much play. It actually has a great premise except JD Vance is a hack who couldn't manage a meaningful deep dive into his thesis statement, and it kind of fell apart when he admitted he personally had been raised in middle class Ohio with a nurse mom who made 80k in the early 90s. A more capable writer could have made it something worthwhile but Vance isn't that writer.

I really dislike most ~plot twist~ chick lit. Liane Moriarty, Paula Hawkins, etc.

Celeste Ng is incredibly overrated as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:LOL The Happiness Project was such BS! Gretchen Rubin had tons of free time and money to devote to what made her happy, OF COURSE she was able to up her happiness. Such a joke.

I seriously loathed Hillbilly Elegy and will never understand how it got so much play. It actually has a great premise except JD Vance is a hack who couldn't manage a meaningful deep dive into his thesis statement, and it kind of fell apart when he admitted he personally had been raised in middle class Ohio with a nurse mom who made 80k in the early 90s. A more capable writer could have made it something worthwhile but Vance isn't that writer.

I really dislike most ~plot twist~ chick lit. Liane Moriarty, Paula Hawkins, etc.

Celeste Ng is incredibly overrated as well.

Me again- I did love Fates and Furies though, don't hate me

[Anonymous]

Hillbilly Elegy
In the Woods

[Anonymous]

Lincoln in the Bardo

[Anonymous]

White Oleander

[Anonymous]

anything Jonathan Franz. Fortunately lots of people agreed with me on here last time it came up. But he still gets recommended a lot. Won't fall for it again!

[Anonymous]

50 shades
Anything Tom Clancy is like nail on a chalk board to read

[Anonymous]

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I found it so tedious to get through that I never even started the other two books in the series.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lincoln in the Bardo

I am about to start this one for a discussion group I belong to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I found it so tedious to get through that I never even started the other two books in the series.

I loved these books, but agree that it was brutal to differentiate the names at the beginning. That's a common complaint. The books made me want to drink coffee all the time, too. I just love Lisbeth Salander.

[Anonymous]

Just Kids, and I love Mapplethorpe and Patti Smith