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.

8 - The familiar (Leigh Bardugo) . I enjoyed it! perhaps were a bit slow in places, but overall I thought it was a well constructed story with a satisfying end. There are some interesting themes about religion, power and women's place in society. I like her sense of humour

Started James by Percival Everett.

35 Fundamentally - Nussaibah Younis. A serious subject but one that made me laugh at times. I was reading another book and it was blocking my reading as I didn't enjoy it so I let it go and started this and was hooked.

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
9. Apt Pupil, Stephen King
10. The Silent Guest, Sally Rigby

26. The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason - I decided to read most of his books after North Woods because it was so good and so well written. I think this was his first book and is now quite old but it was a best seller. It is beautifully written, interesting and accomplished but not as good as his later novels which are amazing. Worth a read.

26 Tresspasses by Louise Kennedy God this put me through the ringer. Set in Belfast in 1970s so bad things are happening on the character's periphery all the time and day to day live has many trials. Then she starts seeing a married man and I just kept willing her to dump him, because all the tension on top of that back drop was filling me with dread of when / what for the next bad thing to pop up. I found it really tense. Some might find it thrilling. It's credit to the author that I was nervy of getting back into it each time because of how stressful I was finding it. It could have slipped into melodrama but she restrained it well.

The end and start dovetail well but to be honest I nearly always forget what's in a prologue until the epilogue seeks to tie in with it. Or that there even is one. That's not the author's fault, it's mine. I liked how she tied it all up but not sure it was necessary.

22 The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell not my favourite book of hers but I still enjoyed it, probably 3.5/5

23 Educated by Tara Westover. I became very absorbed by this book. Very disturbing in many parts but what an amazing woman to have achieved so much after being given very little opportunity and with the odds stacked against her!

24 Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. I loved this. It could have been written as a trilogy with 3 generations and that may have given it more depth as it did cover a wide period from 1930-1989. A real eye opener into Japanese and Korean history and relations. I was quite gobsmacked how badly the Koreans were treated for so long even those born and bought up in Japan. But then this is a region I know very little about so possibly less of a surprise to more informed others.

Loved this book.. they have made it into a tv drama now

21 Clear by Carys Davies

Set on a remote Scottish island in 1843, during the times of the clearances (which I knew nothing about). It's less than 150 pages long but certainly packs a punch. I like the author's writing style and really wanted to know what happened so raced through it... but the ending was a little disappointing. 3 out of 5.

27: The Fires by Sigridur Hagalin Bjornsdottir
This had been on my wishlist for ages and then I saw it in Keflavik airport, so had to buy it. The last quarter of the book made up for the first three quarters being a definite slow burn (no pun intended).

I saw that but I can't cope with books being made into films or TV. Don't know why but I just can't get past it if they aren't what I imagined. Exceptions being Jeeves and Wooster and Brideshead. I was so dissapointed when I saw the trailer for Where The Crawdads Sing.
I try not to look at author photos too in case they alters my feelings about a book, which is really shallow - I know I ABU! Other than Beryl Bainbridge they just never look like I think they should.

27. White Tears / Brown Scars. How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color (sic) by Ruby Hamad. Going to take me a while to digest I think. Well written and argued, a lot I either hadn't put two and two together about or just hadn't thought of that way. My historical knowledge is very poor too which doesn't help me have a well rounded view. I am White, I take what she says on board. A Black woman I know has said more than once that she has never felt she has experienced sexism or misogyny, it's always been about the colour of her skin. I was really thrown because I couldn't tally that with my perception and understanding of the world, but reading this it fell into place and I understand better now. Although it also makes sad. I'm not going to explain it other than clumsily so I'll stop there.

I got this at Filia this year and they have an online bookshop if anyone wants a browse.

28. Surving the White Gaze. A Memoir by Rebecca Carroll. Rebecca is a mixed race woman who was adopted by a White family in America. I read this partly for work but also for interest and would recommend it. She has an unusual level of insight/ oversight because she studied Race, Black History and Literature and similar at Uni and writes in the field too. I appreciate most people who have had trans racial adoptions will not have had those opportunities and avenues in which to explore and connect with their identity, history and culture.

Written beautifully in very short chapters, it's not a heavy going misery memoir at all.

22 My sister, the serial killer by Oyinkin Braithwaite

Absolutely loved this and couldn't put it down! A solid 4 stars out of 5

9 - James. By Percival Everett. Really liked this one, despite being sceptical in the beginning. I feel like I knew where it was going but it took an interesting turn. Recommend it!

Started the girl with the louding voice.

8. Verity by Colleen Hoover.

This wasn't a bad read actually. Much better than some of the other books by this author. A nice twist at the end.

27 A Registry of my passage on the earth - Daniel Mason. This is a collection of short stories. He writes so well anything he writes is good. I only found one or two of the stories had much impact on me and they didn't have a thread which joined them together which I like.

28 The Autumn of the Ace - Louis de Bernieres. This is the last in the Daniel Pitt Trilogy. The second book is interesting and profoundly moving but I found some of the bits about women difficult. It was so moving I took a beak of a few years to get to this one. This is about the run down to the end the characters lives and was unusual. It was well done and I think Louis de Bernieres writes just about anything well and with fluidity. It was a bit depressing at times and I am not entirely sure what I think about it. He can cover some very complex things and a massive historical sweep in a couple of pages which is remarkable. The pages about the empire and war are very well done. Great historical detail and a bit of a social history. It is not his best but worth a read.

14: The Hallmarked Man by Robert Galbraith. The next instalment in the Strike series and another superb case investigation with lots of twists and turns and a great ending.

29. Neon Roses by Rachel Dawson. This was great, I was really keen to get back to it and see what happened next. Set in the 1980s, main character Eluned is obsessed with music and fashion, not long out of school and working in a shoe shop. She lives with her family in a small mining village in Wales and the strikes are well underway. Everyone is skint. Her relationship with her sister is becoming strained as she is dating a policeman. A Lesbian and Gay activist group from London organises fundraising for them and visit to drop the money off, and with their visit Eluned's world gets opened up and turned upside down.

I would say if you enjoyed the film Pride, liked Jonathan Coe's Rotter's Club and used to tape the top 40 off the radio then you'll probably enjoy this. There are some graphic sex scenes (not at all gratuitous though, imo) just mentioning in case anyone was thinking it might be a good gift for someone. Which it definitely would.

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
9. Apt Pupil, Stephen King
10. The Silent Guest, Sally Rigby
11. The Cut Throat Trial, the Secret Barrister

29: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
Another book that I had high hopes for but was disappointed. I was not going through the best time whilst I was reading it which may have influenced it.

23 The Most by Jessica Anthony
'It takes only one day to unravel a lifetime'.
Longlisted for the national book award, this was a short but powerful read.
3 stars out of 5.

29 Plough over the bones of the Dead - Olga Tukarczuk
This was recommended on the Literary Books Recommendations thread. It has Olive Ketteridge vibes of being written from the view point of a slightly strange older women. It is interesting, I liked the parts about the Polish scenary and it has some profound passages but I didn't love it. I do not know if it was the translation but I didn't love the writing. I could guess the end which I do not really mind as I spend most or reading guessing the end. I think it will stay with me but it is not one I would say is amazing. It is less than 300 pages and if it was a long book I do not know that I would have got through it.

30. Middle England by Jonathan Coe. Third in the Rotter's Club series. Same characters and some new ones. Time frame is from the riots after the killing of Mark Duggan to post Brexit. Touches on elections, Olympic opening ceremony, cancel culture, gay marriage. Characters of differing ages/ backgrounds/ politics. It's ok - well plotted, clearly designed to use events as a means to portray views from a range of perspectives on these significant cultural and historical moments, and engaging enough. Some funny parts. Not sure what I would have made of it as a stand alone novel without the backstory. Suspect I would have found it rather laboured, but still enjoyable and quite amusing.

As a social document of that period in time it is very worthwhile. I felt I captured the Brexit divide particularly well.

Murder Most Haunted. Little bit spooky cosy crime. Really funny and an easy read. Cover looks great too!

23 - All the Broken Pieces - John Boyne taken me a long time to get to book 23. Forget how much I love John Boyne - a very sad and interesting novel exploring guilt

24 The Alarming Palsy of James Orr by Tom Lee
James Orr awakes one morning to find himself quite transformed...
A short - and disturbing - read.
I really enjoyed it but it is quite haunting.
3.5 out of 5