Clean Reads discussion

I'm glad I'm not the only one who gets so caught up in the book that all of a sudden you just stop and think holy cow did I really just read all of that I can't believe I didn't put this down how many pages ago!

Two books that I would recommend avoiding: The Doom Brigade and Draconian Measures, both by Don Perrin and Margaret Weis. They have excessive amounts of language in them, and while I like the stories and characters, I cannot recommend them to anyone.

I Have Read Steelheart

Are You Sure We Read The Same Book???

Because Steelheart is Completely * Clean*

If it's by Brandon Sanderson, then yes, it's the same book.

I don't consider the author's comparison, from a hero's point of view, of carving technology to "caressing a beautiful woman the night before the cabertoss" (which is such silly comparison anyway) clean writing.

What really disappoints me is that this author is LDS like me, and he still writes awful stuff like this. I've never finished any of his books because he has inappropriate content, including swearing and overdone violence. I just hope his writing doesn't turn off readers from other good and lesser known LDS fantasy/speculative fiction like The Muirwood Trilogy or The Thorn by Daron D. Fraley.

I haven't read any Brandon Sanderson, and now I know not to. Thanks for the heads up.
I'm not LDS myself, but I've read several books by LDS members with the expectation they would be clean. I guess it would be wise not to assume they are just because they are LDS.

Yeah it's pretty sad. However, I try to provide clean writing in accordance to the LDS standards I grew up with. I can honestly say my books have no explicit swearing or sex, and I try not to overdo the violence.

Put down today. It was a NetGalley read, so I went further than I usually would have...but the language was particularly annoying because the narrator is supposedly a "12.5"-year-old and curses at her little brother. Nah. Just wrong on so many levels. Telling an eight year old "f you" because he's hyperactive and getting yelled at for a mistake and can't gather his thoughts...

I had to stop reading the book Elizabeth is missing. I was at least halfway through the book and there had been no use of profanity and all. then suddenly on one page the F word shows up and then it shows up again and again and again. I stopped after about the second time, but your eyes kind of scan down the page I felt like it was used at least six times on that one page. Book went straight back to the library. Why do authors do that?

Many people think swearing is part of reality. They really don't get it that there are large cultures in America or elsewhere that find swearing disgusting.
Swearing also is a cheap attempt at the 'intense' mood that is so prevalent in today's lit.
Well, swearing is cheap no matter how you slice it.

I have loved all of Brandon Sanderson's books. I think I've read most of them.

Most of his books use other words as exclamations like "colors" in the one I'm reading now. I don't think of that as cursing though, to me it sounds more like when I would say "shoot" when I mess up something. I've never read actual swear words in his books.

I consider his books to be clean, I would let my teenagers read them. My 15 year old loved Mistborn.

Lori wrote: "I have loved all of Brandon Sanderson's books. I think I've read most of them.

Most of his books use other words as exclamations like "colors" in the one I'm reading now. I don't think of that as..."

I haven't tried Mistborn, and my husband has told me good things about it. I may pick it up eventually.

Sanderson likes to use the word "bastard" a lot, and not always in context. If a sensitive word is in context, it doesn't really bother me, although "sh*t" and the f-bomb always bother me even if they're in context.

S.A. wrote: "My two latest: Esther: royal beauty by Angela Hunt, and Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson.

Esther because of poor writing and a poor focus, along with a strange obsession with eunuchs, castration, ..."

Excuse Me???

I've Read Steelheart and It's Completely Clean. NO Swearing Etc

Lori wrote: "I have loved all of Brandon Sanderson's books. I think I've read most of them.

Most of his books use other words as exclamations like "colors" in the one I'm reading now. I don't think of that as..."

Exactly!

I've Read Steelheart and Firefight(Little Scene at Ending) .Way of Kings and Words of Radiance are Really Really Clean

The Most Unclean Book I've Heard of Him Writing Was
Stay Away from This One

Yes, there are a couple issues that I simply can not tolerate in a book- rape and other descriptions of torture are at the top of the list.
A less pressing one is when everyone in the book is miserable and they act like this is normal and that anyone wishing to escape their normality of misery (or the misery of normality) must be deluded.

Isn't that one of the modern dilemmas? A writer who obviously has incredible ability, who drags that skill through the muck and everyone is just supposed to swallow it all, both the pretty and the poison. I have become so sensitive to this over the years. I am much, much more reluctant to accept garbage into my head even if it is dressed up. It's like rotten food served on a silver platter. Yuck.

Mistborn, it talked about a noble taking advantage of young woman and then having them killed so that the nobleman wouldn't get into trouble. I found that to be a bit sick, especially since that sounds uncomfortably like rape.

Crystal Magic, Clearwater Witches #1, didn't have any inappropriate scenes but was a little to stereotypical teenager if you know what I mean. I was invested because I wanted to see the magic. The characters uncontrolled powers were cool but the book started focusing so heavily on the characters crush and going to a school dance that I slowly and painfully lost interest. It also kind of had that rebel air to it which didn't appeal to me. Oddly enough I can't say this book is 100% clean. At one point it mentions the main character sitting beside her crush and his hand just happening to be positioned to brush against her upper leg, a detail I didn't need. It also seemed to make a point of highlighting whenever the two characters touched(Just saying that they were sitting close beside eachother would have been perfectly sufficient.) I also hate love potions charms whatever, which it strongly hinted one of the other characters using. The concept of love magic stuff sounds like forcing someone to love another against their will which could get really creepy really fast. This paragraph is way to long so I'll stop here.

A book about dnd, I forget what it was called. I was looking forward to an adventure but no, first it has to go into way to much detail about things I really would rather not know.

Also Steelheart has no inappropriate scenes but it's not 100% clean, the main character sort of objectifies one of the other characters. He mentions her wearing tight fitting things and her um... physique. One of the other characters mentions him looking down her shirt. So I guess it really depends on how picky you are, I found it to be slightly offensive but not enough to ruin it for me.

Crude sexual talk, and dirty thoughts, plus "F" bombs in The Husband's Secret. [These are the elements that will stop me reading every time, and pervasive profanity and/or explicit sex scenes].


The wife suspected her husband of incest with one of their daughters after another daughter mentioned that "daddy looks at _____(?) another 3rd daughter, funny", since they hadn't had sex in 6 months!

Another book I put down was twilight, I hated the main character and I hated the love interest even more. Unfortunately the total plot seemed to revolve around said love interest. I put down the book after realizing that it was making me depressed.

I've put down most of the same ones already mentioned here, also. The latest book for me though is "So you've been Publicly Shamed" by Jon Ronson. I suspect all his books are this way so I don't plan to read any others. The language was offensive which I was justifying because he was often quoting from social media comments but then his examples were getting more and more about sex and crude abnormal activities. Disgusting. I was reading it for my local library non-fiction bookclub. Very disappointed because I wanted to learn more about this atmosphere of public shaming on social media that is rampant in society right now. I felt like the author was deliberately citing the crudest example he could find. Most definitely not worth any understanding of the subject that might be hidden in the pages.

I wasn't able to start a new thread in this "General" folder, as it was not an option in the drop-down menu, but I would like to get suggestions for~ clean, non-religious Thrillers, Suspense, Mystery
WITHOUT gruesome gore, and gratuitous violence, sex or pervasive profanity!

Don't authors realize there are squeamish readers who enjoy the old-school thrillers like Alistair MacLean and Alfred Hitchock, or without all that trashy garbage?

Guess no author exists today with out a warped mind, or with MacLean's talent!

Im new to this thread. But here are a few:
The Bronze Horseman- sexual content
Looking for Alaska- swearing
Clockwork Orange- violence (this was required reading for high school, I refused)
Me, Earl and the Dying Girl- swearing
works by author Tim Winton- sexual content
Snobs (Julian Fellows author of Downton Abbey)- sexual content

Personally I do not like to read swearing, sexual content, violence or books with spiritism/occult references.

Em wrote: "Im new to this thread. But here are a few:
The Bronze Horseman- sexual content
Looking for Alaska- swearing
Clockwork Orange- violence (this was required reading for high school, I refused)
Me, Ear..."

Wish there was a like button. I agree with you. Certain amounts of Cussing, and violence I can handle. But I generally like to avoid if I can. Daniel Arenson is a writer you will want to avoid. Savage brutality and Rape and sex content. His books evoke Strong negative emotions also; to the point where your adrenaline lvls are HIGH.

Adding to my list:
author Nick Van Der Leek- profanity and belittling the Bible
Crime and Punishment- violence/animal brutality
author Paullina Simons- her books have great story lines but too much sexual content and language

The Husband's Secret

Lots of bad language and sexual content.

C wrote: Guess no author exists today with out a warped mind, or with MacLean's talent!

I'm an author without MacLean's talent, but I do have an unwarped mind and I like it that way :o)

Perhaps you were saying that with tongue in cheek, C. It might draw out a lot of other authors keen to say they're clean!

I follow Clean Reads' threads but without commenting very often but your post brought me out to defend my books! They are definitely clean (reviewers have said so) but in one there is some violence because of the historical setting and the subject matter. Smuggling was a violent operation.

My time travel book doesn't have any violence at all - as far as I can remember!

Threads like this one encourage authors to keep up high standards.

I Never Picked This Book up at All.

BUT I Found Out Through Reviews That This is Erotica/Explicit and It Has F Bombs

It Has Graphic Violence, a Gay Character. and It Gets Smutty Towards The End

Not sure if it's been mentioned or not... but I just threw away The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry after about page 45. The language was trashy and even though I trust the story was great, I couldn't stand to spend any more time with it. Which was a huge disappointment because I had been waiting to read that book for a long time. :( Looking forward to finding a better book to report on.

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

Big Little Lies
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
Had lots of swearing including "F" bombs. I believe there was also some adultery and rape.

In the Land of the Long White Cloud
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
Ongoing themes of adultery, prostitution, homosexuality and rape.

The Time Traveler's Wife
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
Too much sex.

Mystic River
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
I thought it might be more palatable than the movie, but it had lots of swearing, was graphic and overall just had a very dark feeling to it.

The Collectors (Camel Club 2)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
Too much sex and violence.

Room
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7...
Disturbing.

Love in the Time of Cholera
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9...
I thought this was supposed to be a classic, but there was too much lust and sex for me.

The Pillars of the Earth
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...
Language, sex, rape

The Dovekeepers
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
Sex and adultery

I agree on Land of the Long White Cloud and The Pillars of the Earth. I should have checked with Cleanreads first! Does anyone know a good CLEAN historical fiction writer?

C. wrote: "I wasn't able to start a new thread in this "General" folder, as it was not an option in the drop-down menu, but I would like to get suggestions for~ clean, non-religious Thrillers, Suspense, Myste..."

Have you tried Alexander McCall Smith?

Lncropper wrote: "I agree on Land of the Long White Cloud and The Pillars of the Earth. I should have checked with Cleanreads first! Does anyone know a good CLEAN historical fiction writer?"

Have you clicked on this group's promotional thread and looked through the many books there? There should be some and it might keep you going until you find the one.

Lncropper wrote: "I agree on Land of the Long White Cloud and The Pillars of the Earth. I should have checked with Cleanreads first! Does anyone know a good CLEAN historical fiction writer?"

I like Susan Meissner she mixes Contemp. with Historical Fiction but she does a very good job.

Lncropper wrote: "C. wrote: "I wasn't able to start a new thread in this "General" folder, as it was not an option in the drop-down menu, but I would like to get suggestions for~ clean, non-religious Thrillers, Susp..."
Have you tried Alexander McCall Smith?


He's written some very funny books too - I like him.

Lncropper wrote: "C. wrote: "I wasn't able to start a new thread in this "General" folder, as it was not an option in the drop-down menu, but I would like to get suggestions for~ clean, non-religious Thrillers, Susp..."


No because just nothing about his series ~The Number 1 Ladies' Detective Agency sounds in the least bit appealing to me.

C. wrote: "...I would like to get suggestions for~ clean, non-religious Thrillers, Suspense, Mystery WITHOUT gruesome gore, and gratuitous violence, sex or pervasive profanity! Don't authors realize there are squeamish readers who enjoy the old-school thrillers like Alistair MacLean and Alfred Hitchock, or without all that trashy garbage?..."

Lncropper wrote: "Have you tried Alexander McCall Smith?"

C. wrote: "No because just nothing about his series ~The Number 1 Ladies' Detective Agency sounds in the least bit appealing to me. "

I listened to the first book in the series. I thought it was very boring, and I wouldn't have finished it if I hadn't been using it for a challenge. I thought it would be a mystery, but it was just a bunch of unrelated cases that got solved quickly and a lot of uninteresting filler. There was nothing thrilling, suspenseful, or mysterious about that book.

C. wrote: "Lncropper wrote: "C. wrote: "I wasn't able to start a new thread in this "General" folder, as it was not an option in the drop-down menu, but I would like to get suggestions for~ clean, non-religio..."

Smith is a very prolific writer. That is only one of several series he has written. I have to admit my husband loves anything he ever writes. I wouldn't go that far. I did like #1 Ladies Detective Agency, so if you didn't like that, maybe you wouldn't like his other ones either. There was a series of six movies on PBS based on that series, and they were charming on film.

Yes, the TV series was great, I thoroughly enjoyed it - much more so than the CDs.

I just took off my TBR list after a friend's review mentioned the amount of heavy cursing:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Just put down
Thought maybe it would get better, but language was awful, and just kept getting worse in the present day part of the book. Wasn't willing to put up with the relationship in the present day. It was totally bizarre. I have loved his other books, this was definitely not the YA I was used to with his writing. The 'book' story, was actually intriguing, but it again had the language, and wasn't sure where it was heading. So disappointing.

I had to read the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time for school. Couldn't put it down (cause I had to read it for school) but it had LOADS of profanity. My best guess is something like a hundred to a hundred and fifty swears.

Thank you. I really appreciate you letting me know. I had been wondering about it. I will now remove it from me "To Read" list. Thanks.

Tanner wrote: "I had to read the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time for school. Couldn't put it down (cause I had to read it for school) but it had LOADS of profanity. My best guess is something like a..."

Which version did you read since I saw it by four different authors!

by Mark Haddon

by Simon Stephens

by John Dean

by Russell Smith

It Saddens Me To Do This, I've Never Felt So Disappointed in a Author Before.




So, I've Read The First 4 Books of This Series,Which are Clean. The 4th Book Starts Getting *Suggestive* After I Read Book 4,I Felt Like Quitting The Series Because I Had The Feeling That I Should Not Finish The Series. and Recently I Found Out Why, Thanks to The Internet.(Thank You to The Internet! )
The 5th Novel-Empire of Storms Contains Mature Content. Basically The Scenes are Explicit and Erotic. Even Taking a Scene From That Awful Fifty Shades of Gross-Which I Am Also Never Going Near----The Series Started as a Young Adult Series But Is Rapidly Going Into New Adult Stuff. I've Never Been So Disappointed in My Life. I Didn't Even Pr-Order it, I Pre-Ordered Something Else Instead

I agree too. Couldn't read it.

So glad for the heads up about both Gone Girl and Water For Elephants, saved me wasting my time with them!

I put down two this morning from Overdrive. First 'Gemina' by Amie Kaufman - lots of bad language. 2nd 'The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian' by Sherman Alexie - again lots of language but I quit when the 14 yr old character was discussing masturbation in detail.

I recently started and quickly put down "The World Below" by Sue Miller. It had a trashy adultery scene in the early chapters. I threw it in the recycling bin so as not to pass it on to someone else. I've never tossed a book like that before. It felt kind of good.

I was checking out The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver, as it was on Time4Learnings reading list for 10th grade Lit. Won't be using that curriculum. I couldn't make it through the first chapters. I found the constant unnecessary references/comparisons to male anatomy disgusting and offensive. Ick.

Sandy wrote: "I was checking out The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver, as it was on Time4Learnings reading list for 10th grade Lit. Won't be using that curriculum. I couldn't make it through the first chapters. ..."

Good to know, so I can avoid it A friend had once recommended it!

I also read The Poison-wood Bible by the same author and though unsettling/borderline I did manage to make it to the end with that one. Honestly though, I figure that in the future I will not be bothering with this author any more. She seems to be popular but from my experience with these two books her values do not align with mine well enough to risk it.