26ish books 2025

[Tinkhasflown]

A shiny new thread for 2025.

All welcome and note 26 is just a number. Everyone can set their own target and you are welcome here even if you only read 2 books a year.

I personally count the larger novel style books I read to my children and audio books I listen to. Others don't and there are no rules.

I look forward to all your suggestions again this year.

@TinyMouseTheatre
Hope he's good! I heard his and Shappi Korsandi's obituaries for each other on Kathy Burke's 'Where there's a will there's a wake' podcast and they were wonderful! Both episodes are really good. I didn't know he was on tour, might look up if he's near me soon, thanks!

So I am not moving very fast on queenie so I think I am moving it down to #5.

Started listening to my new #4 Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norell

Enjoying it so far, but it is 37 hours long! Might not update my readings for a while!

I have an audible credit that I do not know what to get.

Has anyone read/listened "the sea" or "Tom Lake"?

Hope he's near to you and you manage to get tickets

I need to catch up on people's progress (and get some book shelf inspiration!). I'm finding that needing to be a functioning adult is really getting in the way of reading time! Part of new and improved self care strategy is to make time for me, rather than "finding" time, which invariably never happens.

2025 progress - Goal 20 books
1 - An Unwanted Guest - Shari Lapena
An easy read, kept me guessing 3.5/5
2 - The Vegetarian - Han Kang
Despite finishing this, I'm still not 100% sure what it was about or what the "message" was. Maybe Nobel prize winning literature is a bit too deep for me 😆 3/5
3 - The Outsider - Stephen King
Can you ever go wrong with the King? I absolutely do not entertain any kind of fantasy/other worldly stuff...with the exception of SK. This one had me double checking the doors were locked last night. 4/5

I need to pick up the pace a bit!

Next read The Psychopath Next Door - Mark Edwards A standalone Novel, but also #4 in the Magpies series. Looking forward to this one...

@Lua I'm in the same boat, I have 2 free audible credits and not sure what to pick. I find non-fiction easier to follow than fiction but I've got all of the His Dark Materials in both formats so I might get The Book of Dust and Secret Commonwealth to complete the set and listen back to before the third one comes out.

Then I'm going to cancel Audible as the library has enough audiobooks to keep me going.

I'm currently reading the bee sting. Finding it long and struggling with the lack of punctuation

Also currently reading it, and also struggling with it. It's a library loan too so need to decide if I'm going to renew or return it.

Finished book 7 a few days ago - The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton. Enjoyed it - amusing to find most of it set near me in Somerset/Devon. Would have preferred to have read it before the sequel, but didn't realise when I got the sequel last year.
Started book 8 two days ago - Realm Breaker by Victoria Aveyard.

1.	Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
2.	Moon over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch 
3.	Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
4.	Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
5.	Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros
6.	Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros 
7.	The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton 
8.	Realm Breaker by Victoria Aveyard

@PigInADuvet you are not alone.... DD and I are still not quite sure about the vegetarian either....
DD later read "drive your plow over the bones of the dead", and said it is what the vegetarian should have been.... Funnily enough it has also won a nobel prize, if you want a second go at it :-)

Funny you should say that - it's on my shelf! I asked the guy in my local book shop what his favourite book was and I'd buy it on his recommendation and that's what he gave me. I started it but put it on pause as it wasn't what I needed at the time - if just finished something really heavy going and needed a bit of a palate cleanser easy read. Maybe I should go back to it.

Yesterday I had 2 child free hours and have blitzed through half of the book I started yesterday which is not my usual reading speed!

I really loved The Vegetarian! Drive Your Plow was on my list but went to the bottom after I had a difficult time working on the author’s next book, maybe I’ll escalate it

i went a bit mad entering all the prize draws in Waterstones thinking any books I don’t want that you have to get to be entered I’ll just take back and get a gift card so preemptively buying books!!

@MargotMoon his tour details are here

@TinyMouseTheatre Thank you!

I didn't dislike it, I just don't think I really "got" it! Really not my usual read but as a vegan the blrub made me chuckle so I bought it

Ha same here!

1. Wintering by Katherine May

Not quite what I expected but a lovely read all the same. I get the whole 'wintering' concept and can definitely relate. Written as a memoir, it had some lovely insights into the authors life as well as some sections on history, geography and nature.
3 stars out of 5.

Well that's the quickest I've read a book in about 20 years! Now to decide what's next...

8: Rivers of London, Ben Aaronovitch

It has been read by a few of you I think and was available on BorrowBox. Loved the narrator, he's so so good. Not normally the sort of book I'd reach for but I enjoyed it and will probably listen to the rest of the series

5 - The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard.

Very unique book with time travel elements. Loved it

6. The girl with the louding voice. Ali Dare.

Very heart wrenching but a big eye opener about lives of women in Nigeria. But a wonderful book, beautifully written and hard to put down.

7. The Eye In The Door by Pat Barker. Second book in the Regeneration trilogy and easier to read. Same tonally - psychology and psychiatry, graphic descriptions of war, some difficult to like characters and a lot of social history and real news events woven in. I found the dialogue and way the characters related to one another rang very true. I found it both complex and over written in places and rather simplistic - a funny mix. I would recommend this and will read the third book but I suspect there will be those who dislike it, find the descriptions too detailed or the psychiatrist's insights a bit indulgent. The central character is interesting because he's such a calculating git but his takes on human nature had merit and his values and backstory gave him depth.

9, The Storm We Made - Vanessa Chan

Fall out from a Malaysian woman's decision to pass intelligence to a Japanese man during British occupation of Malaya that helped expediate the Japanese invasion during WW2, moving along the timeline of what happened as she did so and 10 years later the enduring repurcussions on herself and her children.

No holds barred and pretty brutal but well written and it was easy to follow the multiple narratives, particularly "enjoyed" (maybe appreciated is a better word considering the content) the final few chapters where the pace ratchets up and the different POVs all come together

Def a 4/5

@MargotMoon I did go to see Ballet Shoes at the NT, a couple of weeks ago before it closed, it was fabulous and they have now announced another run in the autumn.

3: Death at the Sign of the Rook - Kate Atkinson. I was a bit disappointed with this, having loved all the other Jackson Brodie books. It was OK till the last few chapters when it completely lost me. Even before that I didn't really care who did it. I would have liked the story of Jackson, Reggie and Louise to be more central.

1. The pumpkin spice cafe - an easy read, read mostly in one day today while waiting for a relative in hospital. Didn't love it but not sure I could have concentrated on anything more taxing.