175. A book that shall remain nameless

I knew this one would be a gamble--the plot sounded bizarre, with the potential to be either really cool or really bad. I did read the whole thing but was appalled by the shoddy writing (eg "the gaze of which was directed at him") and the consistent stupidity of the characters. The aforementioned stupidity is even more galling because we're told, repeatedly, that these same characters are the most elite fighting/intelligence force in the world, dangerous, to be reckoned with, blah blah. Yet they forget basic things like, say, setting up a guard or sentry when they're investigating a crime scene inside a house. Hey, let's all pile into the basement, where our foe (introduced, I kid you not, as "arch-criminal and nemesis") can easily surprise us!

Perhaps most galling to me is the fact that this author has published several books through a mainstream publishing house with wide distribution. Yet it's clear that no one attempted even cursory editing or copy-editing to fix blatant contradictions, horrible sentences ("he complained about the bad food and complained miserably about how bad the food tasted"), and basic grammar and writing issues.

157-160. Books that shall remain nameless

Unusually, for the "books that shall remain nameless" category, I actually read these in their respective entireties.

Book #1: There's this author I love to hate, and I read his/her work on a semi-regular basis out of sheer masochism or something. I think s/he has intriguing ideas and can occasionally turn an elegant phrase but doesn't manage to deliver cohesive stories, in either novel or short story form. I decided to torture myself with this one in the hope that it would inspire me to write. Not sure that worked.

Book #2: An older work by an author I normally like, but s/he seems to have been at an arrogant point in his/her career, and the book suffers.

Book #3: By a new-to-me author who had received raves from several authors whose work I enjoy. Didn't hate this one, but didn't find any compelling reason to recommend it either.

Book #4: Thought this was going to be a cool horror story about black magic in an isolated place, and it kind of was, but there were a lot of loose ends (probably because it's the first in a series). Writing was overly simplistic, in the way that makes me feel like I'm losing brain cells as I read. But the plot was reasonably compelling.

152. A book that shall not be named

This was a reasonably entertaining book, and I read the whole thing, but it was a tad annoying. It was a detective story published by an evangelical Christian company, and it adhered to the conventions of too much evangelical Christian fiction. By this, I mean that God makes it clear (sometimes through capital letters) how characters are to behave. If the characters do what God tells them, they're blessed; if they don't, then every area of their life starts to fall apart. I heard this formula from many people when I was growing up, and maybe it even works for some of them. But I think creating the expectation that it will work is doing a disservice to God--who after all, as these same evangelical Christians are so eager to tell us, isn't some cosmic fairy godfather--and to the people who read these books and want to believe this. These sorts of narratives, in which everything is neatly wrapped up with a little pink bow by the end, do a disservice to the complexity, ambiguity, and pain of real life.

94. A book that shall not be named

This is a book written by the relative of a missing person whose case has received international publicity. Having read another book by one of this person's relatives, I thought this work would provide an interesting, different perspective on the story. However, I believe it came out too soon after the disappearance, and the author lacked adequate time and distance to process his emotions before writing the book. I certainly can't fault him for wanting to write a book, even if he did it for the money; looking for a missing relative obviously consumed most of his time and money. But I think he would have benefited from a good coauthor or editor to ensure things like consistent verb tenses and strong focus. The book rambles; I'm 50 pages in and have yet to learn anything I didn't already know about the missing person, the case, and the suspects.

78. Another entry in the "life's too short" list

I thought this mystery, set in a region of the United States about which I've read nothing, looked promising. However, 30 pages in, I decided that life is too short to waste on the awkward dialogue, clumsy descriptions, unrealistic aspects (a law enforcement officer goes fishing without a cell phone? Really??), and cliched characters.

17. Another book that shall not be named

This is a true-crime work by an author whose previous bestsellers I'd read and enjoyed (not Ann Rule). The premise seemed intriguing, but the book's organization is severely lacking--from the misleading title, cover copy, and back-cover blurb (over which the author may have had no control) to the text itself, which jumps around chronologically, leaves major gaps, and follows odd and confusing tangents.

Another gripe I have is the CSI-level dialogue, in which, for example, one police officer gives a colleague an explanation that's clearly for the readers' benefit. This occurs repeatedly, and even when it doesn't, the dialogue is awkward and stilted. Most true-crime books explain whether the author improvised dialogue or whether all quotations come from interviews and written sources; this book doesn't, but because it covers 80-year-old cases, I'm pretty sure the author didn't interview or find written records for all the reconstructed dialogue.

I forced myself through the entire 339 pages because I wanted to find out who the killer was (or killers were). The book's stories are intriguing, for various reasons, and the author certainly conducted thorough research and amassed numerous facts. BUT...this is a painful, tedious, difficult read. I'm planning to see if any other authors have handled the same case(s) in a more adept manner.

4. A book that shall not be named

I said I was counting books that I make a good-faith effort to read. In the case of this book that I shall not name, a good-faith effort constituted 12 painful pages before I decided that life's just too short. The dialogue was stilted and awful, the characters absurd (and not intentionally so). In addition, I thought this author would have done well to heed the oft-repeated writing advice, "If you aren't Mark Twain, don't write dialect." This is, however, an author who has made bestseller lists and a tidy fortune not heeding this advice. I'm only glad that I didn't add to the aforementioned fortune by spending my own hard-earned money on this book.