50 Books Challenge 2025 Part Three

12 Annie Bot by Sierra Greer
This was very well written but it left me cold. Abusive Man Is Abusive, but only to a robot - I just couldn’t see Annie as anything approaching human, so she became a mechanical victim of a very unpleasant male. I found the sex exploitative and the undercurrent of “if Annie was human she’d be childlike” revolting. It was an interesting exploration of how a porn addled society will seek to exploit technological advances. All those advances in AI and men use it to animate sex toys, cloaked in skin grown from human embryos ‘unclaimed’ - yep, that rang true.
Also, what was that ending all about??? It was as if Greer suddenly got bored and wanted to wrap it all up in 3 pages.
I can’t say I enjoyed it, but it had some interesting, if deeply depressing, concepts.

I also came across No Milk Today by Liz Gwinnell, that looks like a good read.

No milk today sounds good, I'll look it up.

I just bought A Bookshop of One’s Own: How a group of women set out to change the world as it's 99p today and has been on my wishlist

22 1066: The Year of Three Battles by Frank McLynn

I was really looking forward to this as it covers my absolute favourite period of history, the run up to the Norman Conquest. Unfortunately this book was a little disappointing. I think the main problem is the balance was just off. We had pages and pages of information on the history and politics of Byzantium, because Harald Hardrada had spent a few years there. Then we get to the first of the three battles of the title, Fulford, and it’s covered in a page or two, with the bare minimum of detail. I’d also have liked a bit more on the aftermath of the battles. Also the author really annoyed me with his constant use of unnecessarily long and poncey words. I like to think I have a pretty good vocabulary but there were a LOT of words I’d never heard of and it just smacked of the author showing off. We get it, you have a thesaurus. A bit less time flicking through that and a bit more time researching the Battle of Fulford and it would have been a much better book.

@Tarragon123 yes of course you're right, and the Ryan Wilkins series is set in Oxford. I should have given him a paragraph to himself. Still recommended though, and similar to my favourite TN authors in its dark humour and sharp dialogue.

Have you read any Christopher Brookmyre (dark and funny) , or Karen Campbell (more straightforward police procedural)? I like them both.

I also enjoyed Ann Cleeves' Shetland novels, and Peter James's Black House trilogy.

I would love to get to Bloody Scotland one day.

I have the Glass Maker on my wish list. I think someone kn here read it. Seems a bit miniaturist maybe?

I am very unsure @EineReiseDurchDieZeit. at the moment my reading seems to be historical drama or future dystopian. I absolutely love Kate Atkinson and wondering if I just go for the Jackson Brodie.

Interesting and upsetting to see how so many fell for Hitler’s propaganda or just didn’t care

@ShelfObsessed I read Coffee with Hitler a couple of years ago, which was about the efforts of UK politicians and grandees trying to foster friendly relations with the Nazis in the (vain) hope of heading off a bad outcome - and we all know how well THAT went - and that was similarly jaw-dropping re the number of supposedly intelligent people saying 'well, maybe that chap Hitler isn't all that bad…' Especially after it became abundantly clear that he was basically a raving maniac even before the war even started, and they were still finding excuses for him.

I enjoyed the Silo trilogy as well @Passmethecrisps but like you thought it good not great. Are you looking for something quite different this time?

Happy Friday!

finished the third of the Silo trilogy, Dust yesterday.

the best of the trilogy was definitely the first but that was an enjoyable read. I really enjoyed how details in the first two books get fleshed out and by the end you get a full and fairly horrific understanding of what is actually happening.

Very glad I read all three - good fun indeed. No idea what to go for next. I shall go back over the thread and get some inspiration.

You’re right about it being terrifying, @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie, and I think that wanted to be hoodwinked was true of many.

There’s another book on my wish list on the same subject, Berlin 1936: Sixteen Days in August by Oliver Hilmes I’d like to read that soon and compare with Berlin Games.

@ShelfObsessed I’ve read that one about the Berlin Olympics. It’s really terrifying how easily Hitler managed to hoodwink everyone. Well, either that or they just wanted to be hoodwinked.

Adding the books that I’ve read recently. Apologies but I’m terrible at reviews.

23. The Bone Woman:Forensic Anthropologist's Search for Truth in the Mass Graves of Rwanda, Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo by Clea Koff This was a very difficult read, incredibly poignant and painful but very worthwhile. I could almost see some of the people she described as they walked out of their door, to their death, often carrying objects to prepare for a future that didn’t exist for them. My one bugbear was that sometimes she complained too much about her colleagues and bosses. I wasn’t really interested in hearing her complaints but it’s still a likely bold for me.

24)Berlin Games: How Hitler Stole The Olympic Dream by Guy Walters
Interesting and upsetting to see how so many fell for Hitler’s propaganda or just didn’t care about the human cost of the Olympics. I learned a lot. Not a bold but worth reading.

25)Geneva by Richard Armitage
I generally avoid books written by celebrities but this was free on Audible and I liked it much more than I expected to. I did think that some aspects weren’t explained sufficiently(Or perhaps it’s my attention span) and part of the ending was a little cliched but it held my attention throughout and I really enjoyed it.

26. No Milk Today: The Vanishing World of The Milk Man by Andrew Ward Another read for Foodie February. A quick easy read about the history of and daily life of milkmen. It really showed what an important part of the community they were and what a dangerous and physical job it could be.

27 ) The Leopard by Giuseppe Di Lampedusa
I wish that I could say that I understood this on some deeper level but that wouldn’t be true. I did like it. It was funnier and darker at points than I expected. I enjoyed the family scenes and reading about a dying way of life. I loved the dog, Benedict, and wished that we’d seen more of him. I may return to this after reading more about the unification of Italy so that I can understand it in greater depth.

The Neanderthal meanderings were actually my favourite part but that probably says more about my current frame of mind than the book…

It was definitely a slog- I don’t think I would have made it until the end of if I hadn’t done it on audio tbh.

Not saying that you don't have patience by the way, Úll. Just that it was a bit of a slog at times.

I think the book required patience @ÚlldemoShúl
One cannot rush Cave Dwellers although 'Sadie' took her own sweet time too being a spy. The book was slooow.

Oh that's very funny 😁

@FuzzyCaoraDhubh what are the chances?! lol. I liked it more at the start but it sounds like you got more out of it!

Ha! Jinx you guys!

23 Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner (audio)
I think this has been much reviewed having been on the Booker shortlist. Sadie is a secret agent infiltrating a group of French eco-terrorists. This is interspersed with emails about Neanderthals from a man living in a cave. I liked the humorous tone of this at the start but it didn’t really evolve into much- I can’t understand why it was longlisted never mind shortlisted but maybe I’m just missing something. I’m in a bit of a slump right now- it’s taking me weeks to get through my other reads right now so I might not be entirely fair to this meh read.

12. Creation Lake: Rachel Kushner.

Creation Lake is a novel about a young American woman of thirty-four years old, 'Sadie Smith'; an undercover agent who has been sent to a remote part of France to observe and infiltrate a community of environmental subversives who have been causing trouble for the authorities. Her contacts, hazy figures in business and/or government, order her to incite provocation at first, but then demand more and push the limits.

'Sadie' has no scruples about using her ability or her good looks to fulfil the brief. She is prepared to manipulate people and to play people off against each other. They are tools in her arsenal. Her life isn't real, so why should others' lives matter?

However, over time her mindset undergoes a change as she reads the email correspondence of Bruno Lacombe to the group. An older man who has lived through the horrors of ww2, Bruno does not support revolt as the means to escape the ailments of modern life. He advocates a return to the ancient past, going back to man's earliest ancestors whose alternative history may have turned out better for humankind if things had gone differently in the great scheme of things.

I got off to a slightly rocky start with this book. I wasn't sure if I was going to like it. 'Sadie' is an unlikeable, brash character who has very few endearing qualities (none), but I liked some of her wry observations. She was incredibly full of herself and her very full figure (mentioned very often). I wasn't sure that I was going to enjoy Bruno's ruminations on Neanderthals either.

However, I did like these sections and I found them interesting and thoughtful. In my opinion they slowed down the pace of the main story and I would argue against the blurb that this is a fast-paced spy novel. I didn't think so. On the whole I liked it and I'm glad I persevered with it. I thought it was clever and well written. The ending was exciting and I liked how it finished for her. Not a bold for me but recommended as an interesting, edgy read.

Thank you @MamaNewtNewt ill check that out as well

4. I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron

A collection of short musings (some were magazine articles) by an author I'd heard of in connection with her films but never read. An easy and light read with some moving and thought provoking moments.

After two non fiction books I'm going to read a novel next 😀

I just found this review on Amazon that made me LOL. Talk about missing the point. Maybe the actually not fictional DH wrote it!

The mother is extremely incompetent and controlling and always having some crisis she blows out of proportion and for some reason blames the husband. She does not seem to let the husband do anything with the child but she blames him for this. The husband oddly enough treats her quite kindly as she rages against him. He could also do more, but maybe the mother doesn’t let him.