Nopers

It's gonna be fun thinking up future post titles of books I take a pass on. I think "Nopers" is my favorite so far. I have three books I could not get into this time, and, as always, there will definitely be more.

Goldberg Variations
Susan Isaacs
Fiction

I think I've ready Susan Isaacs before, but I'm not sure. Obviously she didn't leave an impression on me, but I figured if I had really hated her writing, I would've remembered. Sadly, it turns out, the problem is her writing. She has that talking-to-the-reader style I loathe. Also, despite how interesting the characters should have been, they just weren't. So I tossed Goldberg Variations aside when I got to page 50. Sorry, Susan, better luck next time.

How Should a Person Be? A Novel From Life
Sheila Heti
Fiction

Perhaps I should've paid more attention to the whole a-novel-from-life thing because I found this book tedious and annoying. Way too much introspection and not enough dialogue. Nothing really seemed to happen and no one character stood out for me. Next time, try a novel from your imagination, Sheila, not your life.

Little Century
Anna Keesey
Fiction

I love the cover of this book. Yet another cool cover sucks me in while the crappy plot turns me off. To be fair, the plot was pretty good in this one. Orphaned eighteen-year old with no family left goes to live with her older male cousin in Oregon on his ranch. Lots of drama there, right? In theory, there should be. But the main character Esther is kind of boring. And there's such a huge information dump right at the beginning that I was completely turned off. More action, less descriptions next time, Anna.