50 Books Challenge 2025 Part Three

@IKnowAPlace The HM’s Tale is excellent. You’re in for a treat.

Madam Ataturk Ipek Calislar trans by Feyz Howell

I’m doing quite well on the non-fiction front this year. This is a biography of Latife Hanim, who was married to the first President of Turkey at the founding of the republic. They were only married for two year, when she was,it seems, summarily dismissed and lived a reclusive life until 1975. However, those two years were formative years for the country and she was present and pivotal in shaping the role that women should play in the new society. She was educated, confident and acted as an unofficial aide de camp. This was a good addition to my knowledge of this part of Turkish history, which is ok but the ease with which this can be read makes it very accessible, even for someone who knows nothing. The original in Turkish contains about 150-200 more pages, that the author explained weren’t needed for an English translation. In Turkey she had to qualify her points much more robustly to avoid prosecution for a statements that might have seemed to insult Ataturk, and by association Turkey. She was under investigation for 5 years. The most compelling thing is that this version compelled her to have consulted many more Western newspapers etc which enhance the narrative about Latife, and that Latife Hanim left two safes worth of papers behind, which are in the care of a historical association but sadly still closed - these papers are possibly a bit of a game changer for the story of the early republic. Likely a bold, but I’ll see at the end of the year.

10. How to build a boat - Elaine Feeney I listened to this on audible - I'm a sucker for an Irish accent! Jaimie's Mum died giving birth to him and he's been brought up by his dedicated Dad. He doesn't quite fit in at his new secondary school but is taken under the wing of two different teachers. A bold for me.

Right. Off to catch up on roughly two weeks of thread!!

Finally finished book ten! Double figures at last.

after finishing the Silo trilogy I wasn’t sure what to go for next. For some reason I decided I hadn’t had enough post-apocalyptic stuff so went for Station 11 by Emily St John Mandel.

this is a post-apocalyptic book which spans the years immediately before the deadly Georgia flu and the 30 years after. With a mortality rate of approximately 99% and a time span of 2 days of infection to death the Georgia flu takes the world by complete surprise and reeks absolute devastation. We are introduced to characters at both ends of the timeframe and gradually their worlds contract and diverge.

there is absolutely threat and peril but this isn’t a typical fight for your existence end of the world thriller.

This is a book of nostalgia for the present, loss and the importance of art. The descriptions of dusty, perfectly preserved homes in a world where one day all the lights went out and electricity stopped but the travelling symphony walks from settlement to settlement playing music and Shakespeare.

This was a bold for me. In a very, very busy couple of weeks, the slow start had me regretting me choice. I didn’t pick it up at all for about four days and considered abandoning it as I wasn’t hooked. I am so glad I stuck with it. At points I considered that the post-apocalyptic life was an enviable one. Once the panic and the trauma passes and the reality of “this is it” for the survivors, what is described seemed rather reassuring and peaceful. There were parts I found difficult to read and I was struck by the horror of it. But then by the end I found myself reasoning that as long as I had my kids I would be ok. It was quite a journey. Beautiful, haunting and one that will stay with me

@InTheCludgie I’ll be interested to hear how you get on with Birding. I have t seen many reviews of it yet.

39. The Alternatives by Caoilinn Hughes was a bit like an Irish version of Blue Sisters. I enjoyed it, but there was something missing for me. I didn't love Blue Sisters!

I'm bringing out the big guns and reading 40. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood next. I've seen the TV series so that's what I'm picturing when reading this - not ideal! I rarely read anything if I've seen it on a screen. I'm having the same challenge with my slow read of Wolf Hall.

Wishing you all a fab weekend of reading!

Just finished 11. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, which has been sitting on my kindle for years. Ten strangers are invited to a house on Soldier Island off the Devon coast and one by one they get bumped off by someone who wants to make them pay for their past crimes. I read this in two sittings and it's a definite bold from me.

I've reserved three of the WP longlist from the library, The Artist, Birding and Nesting. Thanks for your earlier review of Birding @ÚlldemoShúl and I'm looking forward to others' reviews of the WP books.

For all the Marian Keyes Walsh fans - there is a TV series coming out soon based on the books 😍

As I said, I'll probably just read the earlier Walsh books in preparation for the sequels when any sequels appear. I've read both Rachel books recently, and I will reread the first Anna book before I read My Favourite Mistake.

I didn't know that The Break was originally intended to be about Claire but when you say it, it does make a lot of sense, they do have stuff in common, though middle aged Claire as Rachel's big sister in Again, Rachel sounds a lot more glamorous than The Break's Amy.

I love Marian Keyes! I think I've read most of hers, but I'd definitely want to read them again. I've read Again Rachel, I'll look up the new one.

Oh man! I'm now looking for the source and I cant find it! I thought it was a Guardian article, but no joy. I'm pretty sure I didnt make it up, but who knows.

@elkiedee maybe hold off just now until we find out if I made that up lol

Has she definitely said she’s going to do a sequel for all 5 sisters? I’ve seen her speak recently and she said she’d never planned to do sequels but had good ideas for Rachel and Anna. She didn’t mention any plans to do sequels for the others though. Interestingly, she has said that The Break was originally meant to be Claire’s sequel but Marian decided she couldn’t break up Claire and Adam so she changed it to completely new characters.

I have wondered if she might do some of the next generation of Walshes - Kate seems like a good place to start!

@Tarragon posted: MK has decided to write follow up books for all five of the Walsh sisters

Eek, that means I'm going to have to reread the first book for each novel - but I think this time, it will be before reading the sequels, and in order of the sequels rather than the originals. Or I'll forget everything again. So I've reread/read the Rachel stories. I have all but one Marian Keyes novel on Kindle, including all the Walsh novels (after discarding paperbacks previously).

31 My Favourite Mistake – Marian Keyes (Audible). Watermelon was the first Marian Keyes that I read. It was a present from a friend just after my husband had left me (although our child was 5, not new born). So the Walsh family have been in my life for around 27 years. 2025 marks 30 years since Watermelon was first published and I find that hard to believe!

MK has decided to write follow up books for all five of the Walsh sisters, Again Rachel, being the first one. This is the second one and its Anna’s story. Anna, daughter number 4, the quiet one who lives in New York. You know where you are with MK, its like slipping on a comfy pair of pjs. I galloped through this. MK reads it herself and I enjoyed it.

My next Audible is When We Were Orphans. I hope not to start another BBB fight 😊

9. Wellness by Nathan Hill. Jack and Elizabeth meet in their early 20s in Chicago. We follow them over the next couple of decades as they build their careers - Jack as an artistic and academic and Elizabeth at an organisation called Wellness - and have a family. Hill also looks back at their childhoods and how these contributed towards their attraction to one another.

This was smart and funny. Hill gently pokes fun at most of the common and less common pleasures and pitfalls of modern middle class life, including pop psychology, over investment in children’s education, the need to prove one’s worth at work, social media conspiracy theories, and alternative medicine. At times it felt a little too glib, but insights from Jack’s childhood in particular were tender and moving. Although for quite a long book the ending felt rushed.

34. Over Sharing - Jane Fallon

Picked this up yesterday morning from the station bookshelf and finished it yesterday too. It's been years since I read a Jane Fallon - they usually have some kind of romantic revenge element and this one did too.

Iris is 44, reluctantly sharing her London flat with a lodger after a divorce from Tom 4 years ago. Just as the couple were going through IVF, Tom cheated on Iris with Maddie and she's never forgiven either of them.

Maddie is now a 'mumfluencer', married to Lee with twins Ruby and Rose, producing family singing videos and with a book coming out on fun family times.

When Iris comes across Maddie on Insta, she is filled with jealousy... and ends up down a rabbit hole of following her... which leads to the discovery that all is not well with Maddie and Lee.

Honestly, all the characters in this are rather bonkers, but it was an entertaining read and rattled along nicely.

@MegBusset I read Fever in the Heartland the week of the US elections...wouldn't recommend that experience but thought it was a really important book.

I’ve finished my first Women’s Prize book and I’m really undecided about it.
29 Birding by Rose Ruane
The book tells two separate stories of two middle-aged women set in the same dilapidated seaside town. Lydia is a middle-aged woman scraping by on the royalties of a couple of hits from when she was in a girl band in the 90s. A man from her past apologises to her in the wake of the ‘me too’ movement and makes her reassess her past. Meanwhile Joyce lives with her mother who is domineering and has a nasty streak. The two dress and act the same. The two characters are a bit off the wall yet their issues were relatable and I cared about them both. The book is very overwritten and stylised and yet it has some great insights into these characters and the issues women in general have to deal with. It’s certainly not a bold but it’s I liked it more than I would have expected from the beginning. I’m going to wait and see how much it sticks with me before I make a full judgement on it.

I have already read The Safekeep and All Fours last year and don’t intend to reread and I’m. Currently listening to Crooked Seed which took a while but I’m getting into it now. Next up for reading is A Little Trickerie

That's true @ChessieFL ! I stopped at Polo though

I am doing a reread of Jilly Cooper’s books and she does love an exclamation mark in her titles!

41. Dylan Goes Electric! by Elijah Wald

The book on which the recent film A Complete Unknown was based.
Basically the story of how he became the darling of the folk scene before causing scenes at Newport Festival with an electric set

As a Dylan fan, I found this unengaging and lacking in life or charm. I picked it up to put it down several times, it was almost a DNF. If anyone has read a good Dylan biography do let me know as this was my first and there are presumably better ones out there.

Second book this year with a ! in the title, weird, I don't think I've ever read one before.

The Bump by Sidney Karger

A gay couple drives from New York to California to be there for the birth of their surrogate child. On the way they visit family members and learn lots about themselves and their relationship. This was fine, found the main characters a bit annoying.

Scarcely English: An A-Z of Assaults on our Language by Simon Heffer

Does what it says on the tin. Perfect for pedants (I am one).

The Bookseller by Tim Sullivan

This is the 7th in a series. I haven’t read the others but I picked this up because it features the murder of a seller of rare books, and is also set in Bristol which I am familiar with. I enjoyed this - there’s quite a lot about the rare/second-hand book industry which I liked but others may find a bit dull. I don’t think it mattered that I hadn’t read others - there was clearly some back story to do with the main detective but it didn’t affect the story. I will look out others in the series in due course.

The Impossible Thing by Belinda Bauer

Who knew a book about egg collecting could be so interesting! I’ve always liked Bauer’s books and enjoyed this one too. This revisits a couple of characters from one of her earlier books but it’s not really a sequel so it doesn’t matter whether you have read the previous one.

Show Don’t Tell by Curtis Sittenfeld

Collection of short stories which unfortunately I was rather disappointed with. Some of the stories just stopped with no resolution. Others just didn’t interest me. The only one I liked was the one that revisited the main character from Prep, which was a book I really liked so I was happy to find out what happened to Lee later in life.

Annie Bot by Sierra Greer

Many have read this. I liked it but didn’t love it - I would have preferred a bit more explanation about how it all worked. Scary to think that AI may make some of this closer to reality.

The Sublet by Greer Hendricks

Amazon freebie short story about a woman who sublets an apartment and odd things happen. Not good - too short for any real character or plot development.

Our Infinite Fates by Laura Steven

I didn’t realise this was YA when I bought it. It’s about a couple who keep falling in love, killing each other and are then reborn in new lives where the same happens again, over and over for hundreds of years. Intriguing premise but I didn’t understand why they would keep falling in love with someone they knew would kill them and the ultimate explanation of why it was happening was unsatisfying. I might give it to teen DD to see if she likes it more than I did.

Pandora by Jilly Cooper

Reread. I like this one a bit less than some of her others because I’m not that interested in the art world and the characters aren’t as memorable, but still a good read.

Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens

Will share more thoughts on the readalong thread in due course, but while I didn’t understand why enjoy this it’s not one of his best.

The Alibi Girl by C K Skuse

I picked this up in the deals after enjoying Sweetpea by the same author but this wasn’t great - too many plot holes and people behaving in unconvincing ways.

Other People’s Houses by Clare Mackintosh

Two crimes which both turn out to have
links to a set of very posh houses. I like the main female detective in this series and enjoyed this latest one.

Yes, it came out last year :) Now going to look at what else the author has done!

That’s a great review @PermanentTemporary ! It’s years since I read it and I think I’m due a revisit. I remember thinking Wow, this is even more out there than One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, that’s for sure.