I can't DO it!

I can't do it. I just cannot finish these books. They haven't grabbed me, haven't even looked to be interesting enough to keep trying and I am done.

I received Drinking Problems at the Fountain of Youth by Beth Teitell from the Early Reviewers Program at Library Thing. I have had wonderful books from that program and so was excited to read this one.

I thought it was a novel. Based on the description (which I cannot find now) I thought it was fiction. Kind of a laugh at the reality of aging while telling a story. However, it is not fiction. It is a collection of essays on aging.

Which is one strike against the book as I am not a non-fiction reader. However, I read a Nora Ephron book for LOLAs and told myself I could read it for LT. But it wasn't funny. I think she's trying to be funny. Maybe too much. Strike two. The third strike came as I realized there were just as many references in the text as there were words straight from the author. Maybe footnotes would have been better for me, but that was the last chance. I am done with it.

I did give it to a friend and am waiting to hear what she says. I do know there are other folks out there that liked the book so don't just go on what I say.

I have read many great reviews about Matters of Faith by Kristy Kiernan and was excited to find it in my library already.

Here's the summary from Amazon: In this tense, well-paced novel about belief, Kiernan explores what happens when faith and love test the limits of family fealty. In southwest Florida, college student Marshall Tobias is in search of something to believe in. He thinks he's found God and the woman he's always dreamed of when he falls in love with fundamentalist believer Ada Sparks. But Ada's against medical intervention for illness, and tragedy results when she sets out to help Marshall's 12-year-old sister, Meghan, overcome her life-threatening allergies. Switching points-of-view between Marshall and his mother, Chloe, Kiernan (Catching Genius) movingly portrays a 20-year-old marriage gone flat and torn apart by crisis, a troubled son, a daughter hovering between life and death, and the hard-to-discern boundaries between true faith and unhealthy fanaticism. She handles her difficult material respectfully. Most interesting is her portrayal of the well-meaning traps parents fall into when encouraging open-ended exploration of faith without context, or choosing to remain silent. The thoughtful themes, interesting characters and page-turning drama of this novel will likely make it a book club favorite.

I think what turned me off almost immediately about this book was that this college student just walked in, met the family, and spouted off how they are doing things wrong and need to do it her way. No ifs, ands, or buts. Maybe that's how teens are now and I'll have to figure out how to deal with it in a few years. I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt and keep reading but I just couldn't get past it.

Again, I know there are many folks out there that love this book as I've read multiple review of it, so it's probably just me. And I decided there are too many other books out there that I think I will like so why waste time on ones that I don't now.

I just couldn't do it. Let me know if you can and what you think of them.