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haven't cared for John Sandford since Davenport got married-to Weather? gag
Sue Grafton's Kinsey and Me. The Kinsey part I enjoyed but the Me part was the same short story venting about her mother. Therapeutic I'm sure but boring.
I have read many of Stephen King's books but certainly not all. He's a neighbor of mine. The ones I didn't care for were "Gerald's Game" which I didn't bother to finish and "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon" which was kind of boring to me. I did like "11/22/63" very much. The first book of his I read was Dead Zone. I have never read Carrie, which was actually the book that got him his start.
I love Stephen King, but his books are hit or miss for me. I really loved, LOVED -- The Stand, The Dead Zone, Firestarter, The Shining, Christine, Pet Semetary, and Tommyknockers. I liked the first half of It, but felt it could have ended at least 300 pages earlier (and I hated the ending). I never read Carry until recently, but couldn't even get through the first few chapters. I think he was still trying to get his writing style down, that lovely thing he does where it goes back and forth between the thoughts and dialog (and sometimes a character reading other people's thoughts).
It irritated me so much that I didn't pick up another book of King's until years later. Luckily it was Tommyknockers, which was great. Then tried another which wasn't so great and didn't read anymore of his books for a few more years. Then, I recently read 11/22/63, and really enjoyed it except the ending.
All and all, the man has an incredible imagination and prolific writing career. I'm not going to like all of his books, but the ones I do like are well worth it. He's still written more great books that just about any modern fiction author.
Lorna Landvik's new one (Mayor of the Universe) was such a departure from her regular style that I just couldn't read it. And I have LOVED all of her books before this one! She's coming to talk at our local library soon. The librarian asked (jokingly) if I would raise my hand and ask her why her new book was so terrible! I never would, of course. But it got me thinking - when authors change genres they probably lose readers.
Carl Hiaasen, "Star Island". The two before that one weren't up to his first six, but Star Island was hackneyed. Thankfully he redeemed himself with "Bad Monkey", his latest.
Elizabeth George. I don't know what happened to her but her Inspector Lindley novels went to hell in a hand basket after she killed off Helen. I struggled through a couple of them and the last one I simply gave up on about 1/3 of the way in.
Checking many reviews (after the fact) I discovered that I am far from the only one who feels this way.
Katherine Neville wrote a great first novel The Eight and many awaited further books from her. It was 20 years before she published a sequel to it and it was not impressive.
I delight in Stephen King books, but that one which came out last spring or summer, "Joyland" or "Joyride", whatever that was-
dreadful, IMHO. I barely made it halfway through & then returned it to the library unfinished. So dull & unengaging.
Fortunately, he was back in good form with "Dr. Sleep", which felt like the author I am used to & enjoy.
I love Ernest Hemingway, but I was very disappointed with "A Farewell To Arms". The dialogue between Frederic Henry and Catherine Barkley was ridiculous. The character development was lacking. Finally, the ending seemed to be too neatly wrapped up.
As a lover of classic fiction, I am a huge fan of Dostoevsky. The Brothers Karamazov is the last book he wrote before his death, and it is very well-known and highly regarded. Although I acknowledge that parts of it are brilliant, as a whole I feel that it has too many characters, and it's too "all over the place." I feel that if it were more concise and streamlined it would have a lot more going for it. Unfortunately, the plethora of characters (particularly secondary characters) seem to clog up the book and make it hard to follow the plot. In fact, the overabundance of plotlines makes it hard to discern what "the" plot actually is! It's very disappointing for me, as I idolize Dostoevsky as one of the greatest writers of all time.
Brothers was the Dostoevsky I liked best. I love Russian writing. I do know what you mean, and I think that is common in Russian lit. Specifically brings to mind Solzhenitsyn's fiction.
There are several books that seemed everyone liked but me. But then, I like a lot of stuff others think is horrid!
The Life of Pi - I enjoyed the first part. The movie was beautiful to look at.
The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society
Peace Like a River
The Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency
Atonement
(& I'm not even gonna bring up Twight)
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