Okay — I read most of these a while ago… take everything with a bit of a grain of salt. Sometimes a bad mood or a bad day can affect how I react to a book.

Open House, Elizabeth Berg (An Oprah book. I was expecting something with a powerful heroine; instead I got a whining divorcee.)

The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown(Let this be a lesson: never, ever read two books by the same author back to back. I enjoyed Angels and Demons better. But then, that’s not saying a whole lot.)

Wuthering Heights, Charlotte Bronte (For me, it was like watching a train wreck. And that is never a pleasant way to spend one’s time.)

The Professor’s House, Willa Cather (I was bored by this.)

Body and Soul, Frank Conroy (A genius pianist comes of age. The beautiful passages about his playing almost saved this book for me. But not quite.)

Think of England, Alice Elliot Dark (I don’t know what I expected from this book. It was trite, while trying to be deep, and often confusing.)

Like Water for Chocolate, Laura Esquivel (Call me uneducated, but I happen to like my magic in fantasy books… I just don’t get “magic realism.” Inner passion setting buildings on fire – not for me! I’m really not all that sophisticated in my literary taste, I admit.)

The Monk Downstairs, Tim Farrington (A Pretentious book about Relationship. Graphic sex – just short of heaving bosoms – didn’t help.)

One Thousand White Women, Jim Fergus (I don’t care for books where the white man needs to be redeemed by the “noble savage”. Sorry.)

Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier (Read it because of the buzz, but didn’t get why this was supposed to be so great.)

Neuromancer, William Gibson (Admittedly, I only read a couple chapters of this. But I didn’t want to finish some 15-year-old computer geek’s wet dream.)

High Fidelity, Nick Hornby (Too much foul language for my taste. I’m a prude.)

Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro (Russell really liked it, though.)

Dragon’s Winter, Elizabeth Lynn (Good idea, lousy execution.)

A Game of Thrones, George RR Martin (Too much sex, too much violence, too much silly story.)

The White Dragon, Anne McCaffrey (After the first two books in the Pern series, which are quite good, I really expected this to be good. It wasn’t.)

The Knocker on Death’s Door, Ellis Peters (A very silly mystery.)

Moo, Jane Smiley (Too many characters, too much plot, not enough caring on my part. I read half and didn’t bother with the rest.)

The Bonesetter’s Daughter, Amy Tan (I like Amy Tan; I just felt she was repeating herself.)

Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton (I liked the movie better.)

The Enchanted April, Elizabeth von Arnim (Ditto.)