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.

17 The Trial - Rob Rinder
Very enjoyable holiday read, whizzed through it in a couple of days.

Now onto Murder on Lake Garda as that’s where I’m on holiday

25 The Heather Blazing - Colm Tóibín

Colm Tóibín is a new author for me this year but this is the 3rd I have read and I love his style of writing. Its beautifully written and as always evokes a real sense of living in that time. He has a real knack of almost writing about nothing big, as in not a big dramatic storyline that has a big reveal but big things do happen, in fact the huge things, within family relatiknships and a country and politically and its about how that is handled all in life. Highly recommend.

I have another one of his downloaded ready for my holidays. Although, I do try not to just go straight in to the same author as I prefer to mix it up with one or two of someone different in between.

I suppose thats me made the 25 for the year, which feels good but of course I will keep going. I'll say it again, but for anyone who has lost a love of reading or wants to start for the first time, these threads are a perfect way to do it. This is my 3rd year in and I am so grateful for the push to get back in to reading again.

embarassed to be on book 6... but here it goes:

• Bee sting - Was very underwhelmed at the beginning, but got very invested up to the last chapter, when I got very mad! Did not like the ending! But with some reflection it was a very interesting ride.

• Miss Benson's beetle - Nice, good company, but didn't blow my mind.

Started: That are other things, which is quite weird but interesting to me due to the subject being close to my heart.
The Sea, the sea . I have always been curious about Iris murdoch - so here we go!

    Perhaps I should add a Colm Toibin to my to read list...... is another author I have always been curious, and I remeber being really moved by the movie Brooklyn.  Thanks for the tip <span class="mention">@Breathmiller</span>

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin is a great read

20. The Girls by John Bowen. This was one of those books where I never felt driven to go back to it between sittings, but when I did I enjoyed it. Strange feel to it, like a well written B movie. Set in the 1970s, the Girls are a couple who run a gift shop selling things they have made in twee village. One of them does something while the other is away and there's huge fallout. Goes a bit hammer horror / Hot Fuzz at times.

Trying not to give too much away!

A few to catch up on from me though I finished three books yesterday!
15 The Breakaway by Jennifer Weiner, I like her books and this was fun but a bit try hard.
16 Oranges are Not The Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterstone. I had read this before, it was a book group choice. My book group are all about 16 and very #bekind and totally unaware that anyone had any radical thoughts before 2015. I think it was good for them. I actually didn't quite finish before book group which was a couple of weeks ago and then finished it yesterday while I was waiting for DS guitar lesson.
Then DS wanted to play on the computers at the library so I read
17 The Baby is Mine by Oyinkan Braithwaite. It's about 100 pages long but a little glimpse into Lagos during lockdown.
I also got out
18 Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent which was so amazing I read it all yesterday too! The premise is one that seems to be quite common at the moment and I don't usually like this kind of book but it wasn't all about the crime before IYSWIM and there was also some interesting interplay between who is a victim and who is a perpetrator.

18: Yellowface by R F Kuang
I wanted to love this book, but I just didn't. It started really well but I didn't really like any of the characters (maybe that was the point), but it feels a bit meaningless when you are rooting for nobody.

@Lua im only on book 6 too. Life has taken over this year! I also tried been sting and couldn't get on with it at all.

12 Miss Benson's Beetle by Rachel Joyce
A really good read. Had been on my list for a while and was definitely worth the wait :)
4 out of 5

9: My Name is Barbra by Barbra Streisand (audio, narrated by the author). 45 hours! It has taken weeks but I enjoyed it, what an interesting and inspiring life she has had. I knew some of her music and films but knew nothing of her early life or her life as a political activist, human rights and environmental campaigner, a very enjoyable listen (and she has a lovely speaking voice).

26. Berserker - Adrian Edmondson

A funny, insightful and honest book in to the man that is so much more than The Young Ones. I really enjoyed this book and found myself nodding and smiling and almost crying by the end.

@breathmiller I totally agreee using this thread to get back into reading, it did the same for me

On holiday so finally has time to read, finished 11 - Blue Sisters - Coco Mellors enjoyed it a lot.

12 - The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters short but beautifully executed character driven novel. Really enjoyed.

Has anyone read Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton? I'm reading it for book club and finding it very tedious, wondering if it gets any better.

I finished this yesterday and also really enjoyed it. I've shocked myself a bit this year, as that was book 22. Am now starting Blueeyedboy by Joanne Harris, it's a bookclub read and hasn't had great reviews from others in the club that have already started it. Anyone else read it?

1. I haven't been entirely honest with you, Miranda Hart
2. The Cracked Mirror, Chris Brookmyre
3. Fairy Tale, Stephen King
4. Storm Child, Michael Robotham
5. All the other mothers hate me, Sarah Harman
6. There are rivers in the sky, Elif Shafik

13 - Orbital by Samantha Harvey I know this one divides opinion but I really enjoyed it - accepting it for what it is - a beautifully written contemplation rather than a story - helped a lot. It very much hammered home my insignificance in the history of time!

14 - Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde decided to make a start on some classics that I’ve never got round to reading. This was an enjoyable and short start - can see why it’s a GCSE English text !

27. The Boy From the Sea - Garett Carr. An audio read as I was travelling and I can't read a book while in a train. I really enjoyed this. I seem to be drawn to family stories from Ireland. I liked that the narrator of the story was not a main character but talked of "we did this or that in our town"

15 - The Sentence by Christina Dalcher. This was just okay! Easy to read which was what I needed but not an amazing book

6.The midnight feast Lucy Folley. Enjoyed this with plenty of plot twists, although took me a while to get into it initially.

Struggling with finding time to read this year.

1. I haven't been entirely honest with you, Miranda Hart
2. The Cracked Mirror, Chris Brookmyre
3. Fairy Tale, Stephen King
4. Storm Child, Michael Robotham
5. All the other mothers hate me, Sarah Harman
6. There are rivers in the sky, Elif Shafik
7. A Killer's Wife, Victor Methos
8. Guilty, Martina Cole and Jacqui Rose

13 The good, the bad and the little bit stupid by Marina Lewycka

Aw Marina, what happened?! Ive read all her other books (eg. Short history of Ukrainian tractors) which were brilliant and actually got me through some very hard times but this one, I just found to be awful. Don't get me wrong, she's a really good writer but the plot for this was just farcical. So far-fetched and unbelievable, I nearly gave up on it.
1.5 stars out of 5.

16) The Ghost Ship by Kate Mosse. Brilliant! 3rd book in quartet and looking forward to the 4th.

17) The last devil to die by Richard Osman. These are always my summer holiday reads. This was OK, not as funny as the others and quite predictable so my least favourite of them all.

18) The People on Platform 5 by Clare Pooly. Another holiday read, light easy reading. I really enjoyed this, more than I expected to.