Play Book Tag discussion

Omnivoracious had a post earlier this week touting the latest best of new releases.

One looked interesting but the accompanying text started with a X meets Y comparison.

The Y was 50 Shades of Grey and my reaction was rather violent. I will not read any book that is compared to that one. I'm disturbed that an editor at Amazon would even use it.



In other peeves that come up regularly thanks to excessive browsing recently added books on Overdrive.
BILLIONAIRES. Clearly also the fault of 50 shades but this is irritating because there aren't that many billionaires in the world to justify the sheer amount of titles. Let alone sexy single ones. Please go back to millionaires? Even Brad Pitt and many other actors that have graced People's 50 most beautiful are somewhere been 100-250 million.
So there's lots of eye rolling from me there.

And the last one. It's a bias I've developed. I don't read bodice rippers anymore though I certainly lived on them for many years. So covers meant to be steamy with half naked people on them? I ignore them. But sometimes it turns out to be a worthy read! So I'm annoyed about publishers being so quick to lump a book in with a very specific type of romance sub genre.



What are yours? What irritates you about the way a book is marketed?

Also add, "The next Gone Girl!" Also names sometimes really bother me. This is almost the only thing I didn't like about Fates and Furies-- Lancelot and Mathilde? Hated those names.

LOL really? There should be no Lancelot unless it's a King Arthur tale, a uber nerdy parent who committed an atrocity on their child, or it's some kind of tongue in cheek nickname.

And agreed... quit calling things the Next whatever. Screws up expectations. I like it better if they say "If you liked Gone Girl, you'll probably love XYZ" or "For fans of Gone Girl"

Those are reasonable statements.

Which btw... it doesn't bother me like the billionaires did but "girl(s)" has become way overused. I find it interesting though that it no longer means an arbitrary age range of a female character but instead... a female character of any age up through probably 50-60s?

Gen Xers refused to grow up.

Ugh! The next Gone Girl. Drives me nuts! Names can really annoy me. The main character from Water Music. His name totally put me off but I've wiped it from my memory.

The next Husband's Secret bugs me too - I hated that book!!!!

Ok, hate is a strong word as I just looked and I have it 3, but it didn't live up to the hype.

I'm so sorry Susie... yet not really... your intense dislike of that book keeps making me laugh.

I liked it until the end. I hate, hate, hated the last chapter. Totally unnecessary and just mean.

So many people loved Gone Girl - I was not one of them! When something is compared to Gone Girl, it would take an act of congress (they don't happen often) to get it on my TBR!

I am guaranteed to pick up any book that is compared to 50 Shades of Grey or is a bodice ripper! Especially these days when I am completely brain dead from studying for finals. Lol!

One readers trash is another reader's treasure ;)

The "girl(s)" trend really bothers me...

Unfortunately, after the few I have read lately, anything with the words "Pulitzer Prize" gets a pass from me. I keep thinking - "This was the best book you could come up with?"

Ellen wrote: "Unfortunately, after the few I have read lately, anything with the words "Pulitzer Prize" gets a pass from me. I keep thinking - "This was the best book you could come up with?""

HA HA ... I remember when my F2F book club read A Confederacy of Dunces - we universally hated it! One choice comment: "THIS won the Pulitzer? Was the committee on drugs?"

I'm happy for anything that gets people reading even if I don't like it myself.

As far as Fates and Furies went, I think there was something very deliberate about the names that I missed. Because there was a Lancelot and a Gwen (Guinevere) - There were a couple others as well.

How many women are on the Pulitzer committee? Especially in the years that the dud books won?

Could very well be a subtle bias towards books that really only speak to men.

That's why when I found out recently what the Orange prize actually was, I thought it was actually a good idea.

I kinda expect that now, books that might lean the other way will get a chance as well.

I failed to write my review for the The Gilded Hour in timely fashion and won't be able to do it justice now but I do remember that it was very well written. A very good story and an important look at history. Women's history.

I'm not much interested in reading books heavy on war actions and brooding male characters. I don't expect that many men will be inclined to read GH.

Ugh i think I've more than made my point. /wittering

Just came here to support the "I'm tired of things being marketed as 'the next gone girl'" point.

Not many women win the fiction Pulitzer that's for sure, which is why I read Goldfinch, which was OK, but I definitely didn't love it. I did love last year's winner (from a male author).

Jennifer wrote: "Not many women win the fiction Pulitzer that's for sure, which is why I read Goldfinch, which was OK, but I definitely didn't love it. I did love last year's winner (from a male author)."

I looked at my list yesterday and counted. It's a lot more than you think. 30/80.

Interesting Elizabeth, thanks for taking the time to count!

Megalion wrote: "Interesting Elizabeth, thanks for taking the time to count!"

What really surprised me what how many of the earliest winners were women: 4 of the first 7.

1918 His Family by Ernest Poole
1919 The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington
1920 NO AWARD GIVEN
1921 The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
1922 Alice Adams by Booth Tarkington
1923 One of Ours by Willa Cather
1924 The Able McLaughlins by Margaret Wilson
1925 So Big by Edna Ferber

I would have expected women to have come much later.

I tend to dislike Pulitzer winners, especially the more recent ones, and I also had negative reactions to some that most people rave about. I tend to use the shelves of people who have similar tastes as recommendations rather than any marketing associated with a book. I guess I don't like to be told what to do! They aren't the boss of me! (Can you tell I spent the day with my granddaughter?)

Marti wrote: "I tend to dislike Pulitzer winners, especially the more recent ones."

Then you should read something else. I don't read all the books that have won the Pulitzer (or the Booker, or Bailey's, or Scotia-Bank Giller), but looking at lists of award winners helps me select what are more likely to be quality reads.

I find it annoying when people put in their reviews "everyone should read this." No book is for everyone.

Marti wrote: "I tend to dislike Pulitzer winners, especially the more recent ones, and I also had negative reactions to some that most people rave about. I tend to use the shelves of people who have similar tast..."

Same here. Once in a while there is an exception, of course.

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "I find it annoying when people put in their reviews "everyone should read this." No book is for everyone."

EXACTLY.

Ok... I'm seriously tempted to make a list of all the forsaken books coming out this year ALONE with "girl(s)" in the title...

Anyone game to help me do so on Listopia?

Megalion wrote: "Ok... I'm seriously tempted to make a list of all the forsaken books coming out this year ALONE with "girl(s)" in the title...

Anyone game to help me do so on Listopia?"

Or wife
or daughter

oh gosh, yes! :p

Should try to date back to Gone Girl, I think and see how many titles since!

Megalion wrote: "How many women are on the Pulitzer committee? Especially in the years that the dud books won?

Could very well be a subtle bias towards books that really only speak to men...."

Your opening comment piqued my curiosity so I searched for information on how the Pulitzer Prize for fiction was chosen. Although not addressing how many women are currently on the selection committee, this article has interesting information on how the criteria for judging has changed over the years. https://followingpulitzer.wordpress.c... (and yes, there was a time when only men could be on the selection committee.)

@Denizen!! Thanks!! Going to read it right now.

@Tien & Elizabeth
I'm down with both additions. Do we date back to date Gone Girl was published or... try to find where it became THE book to read?

I've a challenge called 16x16 in the Crazy Challenge Connection group where you pick 16 categories then try to read 16 for each. Guess what I made one of them? LOL I've not set about to filling it out yet with my recent reads but off the top of my head, I have at least three in recent weeks?

or... maybe it was the Millenium trilogy that started it all... what do you think?

You'd probably have to limit to certain specific genre/shelf maybe? Because there will be a lot of 'girl' in title dated way back when, like The Diary of a Young Girl...

I had my NetGalley approved list page open... had only 20 titles on that page. I KID YOU NOT... SEVEN TITLES IN A ROW contained "girl(s(". Plus an 8th one.

On second thought... I don't have the time! LOL Not when I could be reading...

I think you're right about the Millenium trilogy being the more likely catalyst.