Don’t Read This

Kitchen

2009, Books in Bed, Don't Read This, Fiction, Queer /

Well that was disappointing.

I picked up Kitchen because it was a cute little paperback with an interesting cover, printed on interesting paper, the author’s name is Banana (cool!), and because I’d recently returned from BlogHer Food. I was infected by Foodies.

I picked it up on Saturday (or was it Sunday?) because it was due back soon and because it was short. I needed something short.

Oy. It was indeed short. Extra short since I didn’t read the second story tacked on at the end of the book. It was not really related to Kitchen and I figured suffering through Kitchen was enough.

OK Maybe suffer isn’t the right word. But it surely wasn’t as good as I’d hoped. It was weird and not in a good way. I kept saying “Huh? WT… Huh?” all the way through it.

It had transgendered people in it, for goodness sakes. I should have loved it. But I definitely didn’t love it. I’ll blame it on the translation.

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The Shortest Distance Between Two Women

2009, Books in Bed, Chick Lit, Don't Read This, Fiction, Women /

I think The Shortest Distance Between Two Women is the first Kris Radish book that I didn’t really enjoy.

I liked the Guilford women. I liked the small SC town the story was set in. I even sort of liked the idea behind the book. But it was long and rambling and not in a good way.

It was feel good chick lit that really never felt good.

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The Year We Disappeared

2009, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Don't Read This, Non-Fiction, Young Adult /

The very best thing I can say about The Year We Disappeared is that with this book I finished my Cybil Challenge. Yay me!

I really wish I hadn’t finished with such a dull book. Dull, dull, dull. Disappointing because it’s a true story and a great story.

I’ve always wondered about relocation programs. So this should have been interesting and compelling for me. Did I mention it was dull?

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Skinny Bitch

2009, Books in Bed, Don't Read This, Non-Fiction /

I really could have and probably have sworn that I’d read Skinny Bitch shortly after it was published. But awhile back during a Chatter-fest of book review posts, @elisac led me to realize that I had not read it at all.

I was pretty troubled by this. A popular diet book that I have not read? Impossible.

So, I reserved it.

And now I’ve read it.

I did not enjoy it. In fact, I growled my way through it.

I’m not a vegan. I’m not anti vegan, either. And this book would not ever inspire me to become a vegan, for any reason at all.

There’s some good nutritional info lurking in this book but it’s twisted up in not so good info.

There’s some good food industry and food politics info but it’s twisted up in propaganda.

There are about two lines of information about how making smart food choices will help you be healthier but that’s twisted up in all of the profanity and all of the offensive and stereotypical commentary.

I’m glad I read it but I didn’t enjoy even a second of it.

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Some books that aren’t Cybils

2009, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Don't Read This, Favorites /

Let’s see… I read Yellow Elephant because the Cybil Imaginary Menagerie was so interesting. Yellow Elephant was wonderful. If my daughter ever has a child, she will have to own it. She may need to own it even if she does not have a child.

Then, RJ showed up with a book that she was SURE I would love. And I did, sort of. But not for reasons she thought I would love it. is a sarcastic or maybe humorous take on the puppies and dogs in pop art, from what just happens to be my childhood. I loved flipping through the pages of those dogs that I have known and loved but I did not love the “humor” attached, in most places.

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Finished 2 Cybils that I did not love…

1 Comment / 2009, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Don't Read This, Fiction, Non-Fiction, Poetry /

The problem with having so many easy readers and picture books on a challenge list is that I can read a half dozen in an hour and then figuring out how to properly blog them is difficult. I’m going to give this a shot… group them by how much I liked them, or didn’t like them… as the case may be.

The Cybils finalists that I did not love were America at War (poems) and Abe Lincoln Crosses a Creek (a fiction picture book.) It’s not that they were bad, I just did not LOVE them and I want to love Cybil books. 😉

The poems in America at War were fine. There were some we’d all find familiar and children should definitely be exposed to them. There were some that I’d like us all to find familiar and those were the ones I was happy to see in the book. There were others that… just bored me. And poetry about war should not bore me.

As for Abe and his friend Austin – I liked the premise. I just didn’t like the way the author told the story. While I agree that children should be introduced to the idea that “history” is only a version of what may or may not have happened… I think the whole “back up, have them crawl across the log” was ridiculous. Then the “where’s Austin” page, umm really was that necessary? I don’t know, I just didn’t like the book and when I finished it I was glad I no longer have children who might bring this home and expect me to enjoy reading it to them.

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The Worst Noel

2 Comments / 2009, Books in Bed, Don't Read This, Non-Fiction, short stories /

Sassymonkey was right about Let It Snow but not so much right about The Worst Noel. I was pretty darn bored all the way through it – and TW didn’t even bother to read it all.

The only interesting thing I can say about this one is that I’ve decided I really do not like Anne Patchett which is too bad since I really liked Bel Canto. (Did I read the Magician’s Assistant? Have I read Run? Heck, I dunno anymore.)

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Women in their Beds

1 Comment / 2008, Books in Bed, Don't Read This, From the Stacks Challenge, short stories /

Please! No MORE Short Stories! I cannot take it anymore.

When I started Women in their Beds, TW said “Why are you reading THAT?” Ugh. My heart sunk. She had bought the book, after all. She’d read it, after all. Still, I had hope. We don’t always agree on books.

Ugh.

This is the problem with choosing books for a challenge based on something like “choosing some from every color”, lol. This is also what happens when you buy books simply because you like their titles or like their covers. This is also what happens when you buy a book, hate it and leave it on your shelf anyway.

I think that’s going to be my next “challenge” – get rid of the stuff we both really hated (except for that one book that I want to burn… I don’t want anyone to read it so I’m going to keep it here, hidden in the rainbow of books where I can keep an eye on it and make sure nobody else is harmed by reading it.)

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A Spoonful of Poison

2008, Books in Bed, Don't Read This, Fiction, Library, Mystery /

Before I blog about A Spoonful of Poison I have to blog about the Glenview Public Library because we got this book from the library. Which isn’t all that surprising BUT what is surprising and interesting is that it cost us $1 to “rent” this book from the Glenview Public Library.

When we picked it up off of the shelf, we didn’t notice the word “rental” on the spine. It was only when we got to the counter and the librarian said “this is a rental, can only be held for seven days, cannot be renewed and costs $1” that we noticed it.

I paid the dollar because I was interested to see just what kind of book the Glenview Public Library considers good enough to slap the word “Rental” on – and charge $1 for. Ummm, I should have put it back on the shelf. It just wasn’t that good. Certainly no better than any other cheesy murder mystery series and possibly worse than most cheesy murder mystery series.

I still don’t understand why some books are given “Rental” status and others are simply given the “7 day book status”. I will be watching for the word “rental” on the spine to see if it becomes clearer to me but I somehow doubt I’ll be paying the $1 again any time soon to “rent” a book.

Anyway, about Spoonful of Poison – errr ok, cheesy murder mystery series, I think TW said it was number 19 in the series. Interesting – never heard of the author, (though the book indicates she’s a NY Times Best Seller), never read any of the other books and I’m guessing if we’d read more of the books we would have understood just why people seem to react so negatively toward Agatha Raisin right off the bat. And also why there were so damn many miscellaneous characters.

Ho hum.

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Surrender

1 Comment / 2008, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Don't Read This, Printz Award Challenge, Young Adult /

Aye yi yi Surrender is another one of those books that has been given an award because adults think it’s great writing for kids. I can’t imagine the average teenager enjoying this book or being drawn to reading this book or doing anything except griping about being forced to read this book.

Surely there are better ways to present schizophrenia to teenagers.

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