50 Books Challenge 2025 Part Three

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie Yeah, Blood and Guts was a documentary series from 2008: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00d4b70/episodes/guide

Slough House by Mick Heron
I really enjoyed this - until the end, which I didn’t.

I need to see if there’s a number 8 and read it immediately, if yes.

Due to being awake for half the night, I've finished 33. We Don't Know Ourselves by Fintan O'Toole. This is a high level run through Irish history from 1958 to roughly 2020, written by a journalist. He includes some personal history throughout.

The first third felt a bit slow for me but it picked up after that. Each chapter looks at a particular issue or key moment, which makes it a good book to dip in and out of. It's left me with a list of topics to look into further, for sure.

I've read four non fiction books this month - that's unheard of!

Sped up a bit in my reading this month and have just rattled though Anders de la Motte's third seasons book Deeds of Autumn. Easy to read police procedural in two time frames, like his other books. Ploddy and overly long, the middle could do with trimming but a satisfyingly somewhat silly ending.

The International Booker longlist has just been announced https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/features/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-international-booker-prize-2025

I tend to find the prize a bit of a mixed bag so will probably wait for some commentary before deciding what to read. There seems to be a bit of a buzz round Solenoid but it also sounds like something I'd potentially hate.

@SheilaFentiman Glad you liked it. Mary’s bit at the end is such good fun!

I enjoyed Blood and Huts. Didn’t realise it was connected to a TV show.

I forgot to say - I went to see Pride & Prejudice (sort of) the other day and I thought it was excellent!

Poor Mary Bennett 😀

21. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."

Follows the story of the Manettes, a French father and daughter who are reunited after he is released from the Bastille. Based around the time of the French Revolution.

I really enjoyed this. Recommend if you haven't read it and especially if you are interested in this part of history.

I've only read one Jodi Picoult and it was about an Amish girl, I really enjoyed it but have never sought out another

I had a quick google of her other books and, (naughtily) judging by all the covers/titles, I'm not surprised by what you've said! Oh well - at least I've got round to reading one.

@evtheria I would say that if you didn't much like that Picoult, you will probably feel the same about any of them. They are all, broadly - family in tricky legal position on a serious charge, parent/child conflicted over who to believe, ethical dilemma, bit of a twist, the end.

I like 'em... in limited doses 😀

Misplaced the book I was reading, and after frantically searching the house for a week I reluctantly began a new one:

The Pact (Jodi Picoult)

I think this is the first of hers I've read, and while I wasn't bored I didn't find it to be anything remarkable or particularly memorable. Maybe one of those 'reading by the pool' books people buy at the airport flying out. I will say, however, that I was extremely sympathetic towards the young female teen protagonist - the social web she’d been born into, the dilemma she faced… this is likely the ‘best’ aspect of the storyline.
Oh, and about halfway through it my original book turned up, of course!

I’ve just seen that the first DI Ryan Wilkins book is 99p on Amazon, so now I have it lined up too 😄

36. Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon (Audible)

Read by the author, which worked well, can't really improve on what @LadybirdDaphne has already said. Found the concept macabre and think it would have sparked controversy had it been set more recently. Liked Lampo as a character and liked the end But I didn't LOVE it the way I expected to.

I have no idea why this was longlisted as it seems a pretty standard true crime book to me

@ÚlldemoShúl I completely agree re The Peepshow.

@Stowickthevast I've also joined the reservation queues for Nesting.

I've got the first DI Ryan Wilkins book lined up too, @highlandcoo . Satisfying to come across an interesting author with a backlog to explore!

That sounds interesting @bibliomania . I've only just discovered Simon Mason having read the first in the DI Ryan Wilkins series, which I found very entertaining. He's great at character and dialogue I think. Looking forward to reading more of his books.

31 The Man of My Dreams - Curtis Sittenfield

I have split the RWYO front log and am trying to focus on books I bought a number of years ago. I got this one in 2019.

This book is about Hannah and follows her from 14 (in 1991) through to May 2005 when she is finally settled into a profession. The book opens with her living with her aunt Elizabeth, as her emotionally abusive father has thrown Hannah, her mum and her older sister out, and DM and DSis are with a different aunt. It follows her life through teen years, college, early working life - but most importantly, through the three men that she is with, to varying degrees, as she tries to figure out how to find love with the impact of her father’s character and her parents’ separation looming so large.

It was good. I preferred Rodham and Sisterland, but this was definitely worth a read and was an absorbing character study of Hannah.

21. The Case of the Lonely Accountant, Simon Mason
Crime fiction, but not of the thrilling chases and daring escapes variety. A man disappeared years ago, and the narrator is called in to unpick what happened. He interviews an array of witnesses and receives very different impressions of what the lost man was like. It's all a bit downbeat, with an aftertaste of hopeless conversations on drizzly afternoons, and the author uses reported speech more often than direct speech, so it feels a bit muffled and distant. I liked it a lot. I thought it was convincing about how people perceive things very differently, and it showed the narrator thinking his way through to the solution, not just stumbling over it by coincidence and luck. It's apparently reminiscent of Maigret, which I've never read but I do have one of the books on kindle, so I'll bump it up the list.

14 Blood and Guts: a history of surgery - Richard Hollingham
TV tie-in based on a Michael Mosley series which I vaguely remember watching. Engaging, fascinating and horrifying by turns. I particularly remembered the poor man who’d been subjected to a lobotomy aged 12 back in the 1960s, just because he didn’t get on with his stepmother. Also features many more positive stories, including the pioneers of facial reconstruction in the world wars.

Glad to see some other readers enjoying Glorious Exploits!
@Stowickthevast I also enjoyed your review of Nesting. I have it on hold at the library so hope to be reading it soon.

I’ve finished my first read of the Women’s Prize Non-Fiction list. Last year I read loads of them, but this year I’ve decided to only read those on offer and the winner- I just don’t have the time at the moment and would prefer to focus on the fiction when it’s released.

24 The Peepshow: The Murders at 10 Rillington Place- Kate Summerscale
True crime about the murders of Reg Christie in 1940s and 50s Notting Hill. (This was on offer for £1.99 on kindle). This focuses on the story through the eyes of those who reported on it, particularly Harry Proctor, a Fleet Street tabloid crime reporter. It was just okay. I’m not a big reader of true crime and expected this to focus in more on the women’s lives like everyone says about The Five (which is on my bookshelves but I haven’t reached yet) but really the focus was firmly on Christie- even when it was supposed to be on the reporters. There is lots of interesting social context touched on- illegal abortions/ prostitution/ interracial marriages etc which I would have been much more interested in and I would rather have seen some more exploration of those themes than the journalists or the coronation of the queen. I have no idea why this was longlisted as it seems a pretty standard true crime book to me.

13 Glorious Exploits - Ferdia Lennon
Syracuse, 412 BC, and the remnants of a defeated Athenian invasion force have been left to rot in a disused quarry. Local lads Lampo and Gelon decide to put on a play, using the starving Athenians with their fragments of remembered Euripides as actors. This rolls along, with the Syracusans chatting and drinking away like irreverent Dubliners (Lampo was definitely an In Bruges era Colin Farrell according to my brain’s casting department), and the climatic scene of the plays’ performance is very moving. It does peak a little early with that though and the ending was fairly predictable. It does an admirable job of humanising the suffering caused by war, imprisonment and slavery, but overall was good, not great.

@Stowickthevast Mania could definitely be seen as a pop against certain thought movements that are around at the moment so I suppose whether you like it would depend what side of the fence you’re on - in Mania you’re definitely encouraged to be on the side of the main character who is against the mental parity movement. I haven’t read Big Brother so can’t say if it’s similar to that.

Pleased to see your positive review of Nesting as I have that on my TBR pile.

That looks like a good incentive to read what has languished on my kindle for years and not buy new books.

Nice own goal there Amazon, thank you