Books I've Given Up On Part 5

Marked in Flesh by Anne Bishop - I'd enjoyed the first three while I read straight through them but the wait for this fourth one, apparently, dampened my interest.  I tried it and after a couple of chapters I found I just didn't care that much anymore.  I'm kind of bummed about that.

You were Here by Cori McCarthy - this just didn't ever hit the spot.  When I was 1/3 through and realized it was due at the library, I didn't care enough to renew it and I felt like that was reason enough to just be done.  Maybe the characters just didn't strike me as likable, at all or maybe in some ways the tragedy at the heart of the story just feels too real.  Either way, time to try something different.

The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston - I picked this up at the thrift store because I thought it was a memoir of growing up the daughter of Chinese immigrants.  It was that, for about the first chapter (and I really liked it) but the rest was imaginative stories based on Chinese folklore and legend and I wasn't in the mood for that at all.

Ludwika: A Polish Woman's Struggle To Survive In Nazi Germany by Christoph Fischer - oh man.  I tend to try any story about World War 2 but I only made it through the first half of the first chapter because EDITING.  It was making me twitch with the errors and plot holes.  I'm sure it's a good story under there but if you love your story PLEASE PAY THE MONEY AND HAVE AN EDITOR EDIT IT.  The end.

50 Children: One Ordinary American Couple's Extraordinary Rescue Mission into the Heart of Nazi Germany by Steven Pressman - again, World War 2.  This time there was just too much back story about all the different family members right at the beginning and I couldn't keep it straight and, rude, I know, I just didn't care that much.  Clearly I'm in the mood for a good, plot driven book.  I'm going to try something different now.

(all three of those last books I gave up on happened in a two day period. That's a problem!)


The Moonlit Garden by Corina Bowmann - I rarely give up on a book when I am so far into it but IT WAS DRIVING ME CRAZY.  Not just the anachronisms (did they REALLY say the word "guy" back in 1902 Sumatra?) but it was going so slow and the romance was too cheesy. I decided I would just skim the last two chapters and the epilogue and skip the 200 more pages and I totally did the right thing.

The Coral Thief: A Novel by Rebecca Stott: I wanted it to be about archeology instead of a weird mystery.  The writing wasn't horrible, it just bored me.

House of Royals by Keary Taylor - Well, on the second page the main character told me that she "doesn't know anything about Mississippi at all except that the river was named after it."  Shut. It. Down. Now.  Are you kidding me?

The House on Tradd Street by Karen White - After one chapter I realized I couldn't care less about any of it.  Not when our main character says, "I hated old houses.  Which was odd, really, since they were my speciality in the realty business."  You specialize in something you hate?  Anyway.  Just not my cup of tea.

A Darkly Beating Heart by Lindsay Smith - got this from the newly purchased list at the library because it's Japan and ancient Japan and a girl with serious anger issues but after 50 pages I was so tired of her relentless rage that she exhausted me.  Maybe if I read it when I didn't have a sixteen year old daugheter?

Snow Summer by Kit Peel - Summers have essentially disappeared and it's winter almost all the time but again, angsty characters and too slow action just meant it couldn't keep my attention.