50 Books Challenge 2025 Part Three

I'm another who thinks "books are books". My approach tends to be pretty personal, beforehand does a book intrigue me, and afterwards did I enjoy it. I genuinely don't care who reads what, and although I have a preference for certain types of books (stick time travel in it and I'm in), or other types that tend not to appeal, this is definitely not a hard and fast rule.

One of the things this thread has taught me is that it's often worth trying something that you aren't instinctively drawn to, I've found some fantastic reads that way. I honestly can't see the problem with people reading books recommended as "must reads" by celeb book clubs etc. firstly some of them are good books, but secondly that might be the book that ignites someone's love for reading. As long as people are reading who cares what it is? I think saying whether you like or don't like a book is fine, dismissing certain types of books, or the people who read them, is not.

I went away for a day and missed the new thread entirely 🤦‍♀️ Thanks, South.

My list so far:

1. Hidden Figures - Margot Lee Shetterly
2. A Game of Hide and Seek - Elizabeth Taylor
3. The Peepshow - Kate Summerscale
4. Midnight and Blue - Ian Rankin
5. Perfect English Townhouse - Ros Byam Shaw
6. The Undoing of Violet Claybourne - Emily Critchley
7. There and Back: Diaries 1999 - 2009 - Michael Palin
8. Jill - Philip Larkin
9. Rural Hours - Harriet Baker
10. The Waiting - Michael Connelly
11. The Rising Down - Alexandra Harris
12. The Children’s Bach - Helen Garner
13. The Perfect Stranger - PJ Kavanagh

and 14. A Penknife in my Heart - Nicholas Blake

This was, in a way, like The Perfect Stranger, another offshoot from reading Rural Hours. Nicholas Blake was the crime-writing pseudonym of C. Day Lewis, who had a long and intense affair with Rosamond Lehmann - she moved to the country so they had a place to meet and be together. So there’s something more than a little personal, I felt, about this tale of a man stuck in an unhappy marriage, who’s having an affair and doesn’t see a way out. He chances to meet the cocky, conniving Charles Hammer, who speedily assesses the situation and comes up with the suggestion that they do each other a favour - he wants to dispose of his elderly uncle, who owns the family business and won’t agree to various changes Hammer wants to make. They agree that each of them will murder the other's inconvenient people, thereby leaving no clues to trace back to their own involvement. But, predictably, things go wrong.

If you’re thinking this all sounds remarkably like Patricia Highsmith's Strangers on a Train - it is, and Blake/Lewis somehow managed to write his entire book and get it to press without anyone noticing that her novel (and the film!) had been out for several years. It must have been severely embarrassing, but he added a preface with an apology saying Highsmith been 'charming' about it (hmmm). Sadly his book isn’t terribly good, after all that, but the bits about Ned's philandering do sound entirely authentic (Lewis himself not only had a wife and Lehmann as his lover but ultimately stunned them by leaving them both to marry someone else whose existence they knew nothing about).

My list so far...
(1) The Nurse by Valerie Keogh
(2) The Wrong Child by Julia Crouch and M. J. Arlidge
(3) The Perfect Parents By J.A. Baker
(4) Darkest Fear, written by Harlen Coben
(5) Old Filth by Jane Gardam

Latest book.....

(6) The Man in the Wooden Hat by Jane Gardam

(Stolen from Google)
Filth (Failed In London, Try Hong Kong) is a successful lawyer when he marries Elisabeth in Hong Kong soon after the War. Reserved, immaculate and courteous, Filth finds it hard to demonstrate his emotions. But Elisabeth is different - a free spirit. She was brought up in the Japanese Internment Camps, which killed both her parents but left her with a lust for survival and an affinity with the Far East. No wonder she is attracted to Filth's hated rival at the Bar - the brash, forceful Veneering. Veneering has a Chinese wife and an adored son - and no difficulty whatsoever in demonstrating his emotions . . .
How Elisabeth turns into Betty and whether she remains loyal to stolid Filth or is swept up by caddish Veneering, makes for a page-turning plot in a perfect novel which is full of surprises and revelations, as well as the humour and eccentricities for which Jane Gardam's writing is famous.

I absolutely loved this book - made me understand first book more.

Onto the next!

3 The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

Well, I've scuppered my chances of reading 50 books this year by choosing this brick! It took me five weeks to read. But I enjoyed it. I felt a real sense of being transported back to 12th century England. The epic saga revolves around the building of a cathedral so there are some interesting architectural references, if that's something you're interested in. TW, Includes some violence towards women and girls.

Thank you for the new thread - I am still here, still following the thread and still buying books on 99p deals!

I'm 60% through The Republic of Thieves (Scott Lynch, Gentleman Bastards #3), I'm enjoying it but it seems to be taking me ages to get through it!

I read Elinor Oliphant and it was ok, didn't love it.

I've never read CCM, for a really stupid reason - I remember seeing it absolutely everywhere, but I hated the front cover. When I looked it up on Amazon, I saw it and thought "oh it's THAT one!" But maybe I'll be a grown up and give it a go. It won't matter on Kindle anyway.

Thanks for the new thread

Here's my list

1. Polo; Jilly Cooper

2. Five Little Pigs; Agatha Christie

3. Gallows Walk; Giles Ekins

4. Distance; Luna Mason

5. The Drowning Game; Barbara Nickless

6. Detonate; Luna Mason

7. The Thirteen Problems by Agatha Christie
   This month's read christie challenge. Effectively 13 short stories solved by Miss Marple. I don't normally love short stories but I do love Miss Marple and I enjoyed the format of this. However I did find the "scene changes" not handled at all well. We're with one with group of people for several chapters and then we're suddenly at a different time and a different group with no warning or explanation

Sorry for typos - my phone is just terrible

For me, I don't care if people read or not. If they do, I hope they are free to read what they like and not have something they don't really want shoved down their throats by slebs, who, let's face it are getting some.sort of financial compensationfor doing so. But if readers truly enjoy those recommendations and get something out of them, even if it's just a bit of entertainment, that is also fine. But I won't partake myself if I can help it.

“Books for people who don’t read” is nonsensical. Books are books. I’d rather people read, even if they’re reading things I think are shit, than not read at all. And we all read things that other people might think are shit.

Having said that, there seems to be rather more thread policing on here this year than before, and I can’t say I like it much.

I think "just READ"ing is absolutely great. I read some utter trash as I'm sure you'll see from my list. I don't care.

What mightily pisses me off about some books Elinor Oliphant and Lessons in Chemistry for example, is the way they are marketed and plugged like they are "must reads". No, they are not "must reads" for me. They are "must avoids".

I'm glad I've realised this as I'll now run like the wind (metaphorically as I am not very fit) from anything marketed as the next big thing anything heartily recommended by Reese Witherspoon too.

Not to start ranting again, but Lessons in Chemistry was marketed as feminist but read as if it was written by a teenaged boy. Just my opinion and you are free to love it and consider it very feminist indeed though

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig really pissed me off. I do like conceptual fiction but I really thought this was ridiculous. How many people would have the option to be an Olympian, rock star or highly respected academic.. etc.

I think sometimes it’s quite hard to find books that have a great plot that are also well written. I do enjoy character driven literary fiction as well, although not always and recently found Internezzo to be a bit of a drag for example. One I loved last year that ticked all the boxes for me was The Other Valley.

Thanks for the new thread @Southeastdweller

For what it's worth, I am not a fan of the recent judgemental attitude and the misnomer "books for people who don't read". It simply does not sit well in a group where I have read a hundred versions of - it doesn't matter a jot WHAT you read, just read! We all come down hard on a book from time to time. That's part of the raison d'être of this thread. A blanket dismissal of a 'type of reader' feels a step too far for me. I have always encouraged my DDs who are both dyslexic and have been very reluctant readers growing up to 'just read'. These days it's quite surprising (and refreshing!) to see what they reach for in terms of reading matter.

Anyway, here's my list.

• An Island Wedding – Jenny Colgan
• Red Sauce, Brown Sauce – Felicity Cloake
• The Christmas Bookhunt – Jenny Colgan
• When the dust settles – Lucy Easthope
• The answer is no – Fredrik Backman
• A little life – Hanya Yanagihara
• This much is true – Miriam Margoyles

Currently reading My friends by Hisham Matar (too early to comment), One good turn by Kate Atkinson (loving this) and listening to Waterlog by Roger Deakin (also thoroughly enjoying). And on that note I'm off for a cold-water dip this morning!

I'm a bit dismayed by the turn in the discussion. I have no problem with everyone saying whether or not they enjoyed a book and if so, why or why not, if they want to. But I don't believe in this idea of bestsellers for people who don't read and/or don't buy books. Because quite simply there are a lot of people who don't read or buy many books, and they're not likely to make a book a bestseller. Also, I find it really snobbish and dismissive.

I enjoyed Lessons in Chemistry and Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. In the case of LIC, I can see lots of improbabilities but still thought it was quite a good read. I liked When the Crawdads Sing while I was reading it but have since been put off the author by something I read or heard (I can't really remember what). I've enjoyed the Thursday Murder Club books and We Solve Murders too.

I haven't read Captain Corelli's Mandolin though I do have a Kindle copy, probably bought as a deal at some point - not sure I'll ever get to it. I'm a bit put off by my perception of the politics of the novel and its author. Give me the eccentric feminist fantasy of LIC any day, or even EO. However, that's my personal reason for not wanting to read it.

On Matt Haig, I did read How to Stop Time and The Midnight Library - I am quite interested in the conceptions of time or alternate lives - I liked HTST better. The books were ok and I've bought some of his other novels, but I'm not quite sure so much commercial fiction by men gets talked about it as if it's more than it is, compared to similar books by women. I also don't like some of the things he's posted on social media or said in interviews. There was a period when a lot of writers and people with a high profile in mainstream and social media made lots of claims about their ideas on kindness and struggles with mental health, except when it came to people they disagreed with (politically) when it suddenly became ok to accuse others of prejudice while using some really obnoxious language including mental health tropes and different types of racism.

Placemarking but also wanted to say I was so annoyed by the ending of CCM that I have never read another book by LdB!

I bumped it up based on a recommendation and wasn't disappointed so I'd say yes.

Good GRIEF! I have refreshed a few times today and thought I had renewed my previous title of killer of MN threads. I am VERY pleased to see you.

Quick update of my modest list thus far:

2025 book list

1. Odyssey- Stephen Fry
2. The Hogfather - Terry Pratchett
3. Walk The Blue Fields - Clare Keegan
4. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince - JK Rowling
5. Journey to the Centre of the Earth - Jules Verne
6. The House of Fortune - Jesse Burton
7. Wool - Hugh Howey
8. Shift - Hugh Howey

some interesting recommendations on the thread which I am keen to check out. I feel I might have burst out my rut of last year

Interesting @bettbburg I have Islands Of Abandonment on my TBR, worth bumping up then?

This is on my TBR, I'm quite looking forward to reading it.

my list so far:

1. the teacher by Frieda McFadden
2. family doctor by J.M. Dalgeish
3. 101 who made the UK by Christopher Townley
4. A borrowed path by Imogen Clark
5. The further north you go by Tom Morton
6. The girl in the midnight maze by Cathy Heywood
7. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
8. Every move you make by C L Taylor
9. The answer is no by Fredrik Backman
10. Tell me how this ends by Jo Leevers
11. The wrong daughter by Dandy Smith
12. Not from round here: memoirs of a southerner up north by Bradley Chermside
13. *Islands of Abandonment* by Cal Flyn
14. The bookshop ladies by Faith Hogan
15. This one life by Amanda Prowse
16. *The marriage code* by Brooke Burroughs
17. Lonely planet guide to a region near me
18. Get the yak out by Christian Celind
19. The sea house by Louise Douglas
20. The name curse by Brooke Burroughs
21. The Scottish Isles by Mary Jane Walker
22. *Happyish* by Jeanette Escudero
23. Sheltering Rain by Jojo Moyes
24. *The last past of Billy McQueen* by Neil Alexander

Book 3 Ammonites and Leaping Fish by Penelope Lively
Really enjoyed this book. The back cover says it's "not quite a memoir. Rather, it is the view from old age". Penelope Lively is my favourite author but I'd overlooked/ not got round to this one. It's really several lengthy essays that explore aging, memory and the social changes of the twentieth century. She's written on this subject before but she writes so well I was happy to revisit. Not quite as good as another of her non fiction books A House Unlocked but still a lovely read.
Hurrah for half term and wet days that prevent me from doing necessary gardening 😀

Thanks @Southeastdweller

1. A Study in Scarlett, Arthur Conan Doyle (mostly Audio)
2. Kurt Seyt and Shura Nermin Bezman, trans by Feyza Howell
3. Mansfield Park, Jane Austen
4. The Notebooks of Don Rigoberto, Mario Vargas Llosa, trans by Edith Grossman
5. The Nose by Nikolai Gogol
6. Red Sauce, Brown Sauce: A Breakfast Odyssey
7. Rivers of London Ben Aaronovitch (audio)

Thank you @Southeastdweller , just marking my place on the new thread. Am reading Close To Home at the moment. It’s ok, I sort of care about the main characters, but I want to tell Sean to brush the humongous chip off his shoulder and feck off back to Uni

1 Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel (audio, Ben Miles)
2 Stoner, John Williams
3 The Ministry of Time, Kaliane Bradley
4 Royal Assassin, Robin Hobb

new:
5 Annie Bot, Sierra Greer
6 Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir

Was motivated to pick up Annie Bot after seeing the positive reviews on the last thread. It wasn’t a bold for me but I would also recommend as an interesting, fast paced read. Loved to hate Doug!

I mentioned in previous posts that I was struggling to get into the universally beloved audiobook of Project Hail Mary (WTF is wrong with me, I kept thinking). The MC struck me as a man-child and I honestly wasn’t sure I could cope with 16 hours of him. Well, at some point he became less annoying, the thrust of the story had been established and I finally got into it. Phew. I loved Rocky and thought their portrayal was excellently done. I would recommend for sure.

1. The Great Alone - Kristin Hannah
2. The Fifth Risk - Michael Lewis (NF)
3. Deadly Cross - James Patterson
4. The Silent Wife - Karin Slaughter
5. Apples Never Fall - Liane Moriarty
6. The Lost Notebook - Louise Douglas
7. The Sky Beneath Us - Fiona Valpy
8. The Sea House - Louise Douglas
9. Giraffe & Flamingo - Curtis Sittenfield (short story)
10. Red Sauce, Brown Sauce - Felicity Cloake (NF)
11. Elizabeth of York: The Last White Rose - Alison Weir
12. This Is Why We Lied - Karin Slaughter
13. Drowning Rose - Marika Cobbold
14. The Long Call - Ann Cleeves
15. The Glassmaker - Tracy Chevalier
16. Hex - Jennie Fagan
17. Taken as Red - Anoushka Asthana
18. Human Remains - Elizabeth Haynes
19. Never Never - Colleen Hoover and Tarryn Fisher
20. The Stranger Diaries - Elly Griffiths
21. Velocity - Dean Koontz
22. Bone and Cane - David Belbin
23. The Keeper of Stories - Sally Page
24. Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent - Judi Dench (NF)
25. The Postscript Murders - Elly Griffiths
26. Layla - Colleen Hoover

Currently reading The Spy and The Traitor which is very good.

I thought it was unusual that there hadn't been new comments on this thread for a while and OMG, we have a new thread.

I'm just going to place mark with my current read and then I will return with my full list another time.

15. Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil

This book was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2012. So far I'm enjoying this. It is another book in a genre I haven't read before. This is the telling of drug use in India which is intertwined with crime and prostitution. The author has introduced the topic of Eunuchs with the character Dimples. Currently, Dimple's story highlights their fear of a particular client and seemingly the consequences of their surgery resulting in the need for increased drug use to combat physical pain.

Through further reading into the subject finds that Eunuchs are a result of the mass sterilisation/castration program of young boys to reduce reproduction, initiated by the Indian government after pressure from America. The pressure from the USA was based on ignorance of the Indian culture and ultimately racism. Studies at the time felt the program was not as successful as they had hoped so directed their attention to the women.

As I am only 60 - ish pages in I can only imagine the rest of the story but I doubt I'll regret this read. Today I have learnt about a topic that I couldn't have imagined was still so prevalent today. A great on-the-spot pick!