Three books I couldn't read

I had intended not to mention these books, but maybe you will come across them and my comments will be helpful.

Errands by Judith Guest.

Editors gushed over this one, which is why I picked it up. "Guest deals with the death of a loved one in a very real way" kind of garbage. I guess I was in the mood for an emotional, thoughtful book. How does a family deal with the death of a loved one? In this one, the author writes in an exploitative, sensational way where the characters reveal all their sins. I could see that the characters were destined to each lose their minds after the death of the one character. There was no humanity, IMO. It was just a story that dealt with the worst of humanity, swimming in the muck where there is little hope. I couldn't get passed the third chapter.

Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall.

In this story a man wakes up with absolutely no memory of his past. He finds a note that tells him to call a Dr. Randall immediately who explains this is not the first time this has happened to him. I have to admit I liked this story. I liked the quality of the writing. It was intriguing, albeit derivative of other stories. Even so, it had potential. I was getting into it until I hit the chapter in which the character describes his girlfriend. I couldn't get passed the objectification of women in that one chapter. The book slammed shut and went back to the library.


The Truth Machine by James L. Halperin

I never did figure out what the truth machine is exactly. The first chapter is an explanation of how the story is told by a machine, emotionless and factual. It begins by discussing a Dr. Carter, a psychologist, and one of his cases working with a violent criminal. This criminal describes being raped as a child. The book immediately slammed shut there. I don't like reading details of such a crime.

The book has lots of praise on Amazon - equating it to 1984 and Atlas Shrugged with its political commentary and positions. Wasn't worth wading through the muck to get to it.