Now that the nominations are winding down, I feel as if I can breathe a public sigh of relief that a book I loathed but dreaded might be suggested didn't get nominated. Early this year, I read, that is, abandoned,
The Library Book by Susan Orleans, which heads my list of worst of the year. Shallow, smug, elitist and self-involved, Orleans made a dog's breakfast of a subject I thought was a slam-dunk for me, the fire that destroyed the Los Angeles Public Library. While the book was surprisingly (to me) popular, my short, negative review at Goodreads got a ton of likes, so it's not just me. But it's a book about books, and I was apprehensive.
