My Picks for the Worst Books of 2010

The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. Oh the boredom, the pointlessness.

Show Me a Hero by Ted Allbeury. So poorly written it made my teeth ache.

The Tale of Cuckoo Brow Wood by Susan Wittig Albert. This is a Beatrix Potter Mystery. I could not get past the first page. I was bludgeoned by twee. Beatrix, as detective, lives in a twee village filled with candied people. I almost fwoed up.

Summer in the City by Robyn Sisman. Extreme chick lit. The characters have no inner life except that which centres on clothes, shoes and sex. I forget the plot 10 seconds after I finished it. A steaming pile of nothing.

Stories by Canada’s Best Women Writers. Only one story had any appeal, the wonderful Retiring by Elsie Levine. The protagonist, Bobby, is a strong character grieving the loss of her life, her work, and her love. The other stories go nowhere.

Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. How did I get talked into reading this? I started to count the clichés but soon realized that I was adding boredom on to boredom.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy. So dreary you lose your will to live.

The Book by Geraldine Brooks. She hangs a series of tales on a conceit. A book restorer has to investigate the history of an ancient Jewish Haggadah. So we troll through the centuries without any central plot to lead us on.

Bangkok 8 by John Burdett. An interesting mystery story that rots out near the end. The author defends prostitution as being good for men and providing financial help to women in the developing countries. Oh, shut up.