50 Books Challenge 2025 Part One

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the first thread of the 50 Book Challenge for this year.

The challenge is to read fifty books (or more!) in 2025, though reading fifty isn't mandatory. Any type of book can count, and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.

If possible, please can you embolden your titles and maybe authors as well of books you've read or going to read? It makes it much easier to keep track, especially when the threads move quickly at this time of the year.

Who's in for this year?

It's the Womens Prize winner - they said
It's about Shakespeare -they said

I was going to say I thought it was a rewrite of David Copperfield, but realised I was talking about Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver!!! 😂

And then I remembered that I didn't want to read Hamnet because the premise looked dull. I'm glad I didn't bother.

I have if on TBR because it will have been 99p at some stage !

I’ve only read three Maggie O’Farrell’s but I’d like to read more.
My favourite (and in my top 10 from last year) is The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox read beautifully by Daniela Nardini (Anna from This Life for those old enough to remember). I also really enjoyed The Marriage Portrait. Hamnet is bottom of the list so far. I have a few more MIL gave me and must try to get to at least one more this year.

I preferred Hamnet to the Marriage Portrait, which I didn't think had enough plot to sustain the book. I think I liked Instructions for A Heatwave but can't remember anything about it.

Thing is, I read it in 2022 and remember like, absolutely nothing about it, does this happen much to other people or is it because I read to excess?

utterly happens to me too, though some say I read to excess 😀

I LOVED Hamnet! I’ve loved everything by Maggie O’Farrell that I’ve read. She’s one of my favourite authors. I’ve got The Marriage Portrait to read on Kindle. I think I’ll read that next 😁

I got bored with Hamnet so DNF’d it, but I’ll see the film adaptation that’s out later this year that stars Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal. It’s from the director of Nomadland so I think it should be a worthwhile experience, aesthetically at least. She’s also co-written the screenplay with O’Farrell.

I’d watch Jessie Buckley watching paint dry, so I’m in for the film.

Interesting re the comments on Hamnet - it did take me two attempts lol. I was obviously in the right mindframe for it this time.

I loved the Shardlake books as a series, but admit the later ones dragged a bit and could easily have had 200 pages cut.

Me too @AlmanbyRoadtrip I was lucky enough to see her in 'Cabaret' in the West End and loved her in the War & Peace adaptation so will definitely watch her in Hamnet, despite being one of the few who didn't like the book much.
Loved I Am, I Am, I Am and The Disappearing Act ... by Maggie O'F though.

@DesdamonasHandkerchief

Cabaret in the West End is so AMAZING I only went recently

7. The Salt Path by Raynor Winn

I remember this getting reviewed a lot a few years ago but I've only just got round to it after seeing there is to be a film with Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs

Raynor and Moth Winn lost their farm following a bad investment and this was followed by Moth getting diagnosed with a severe neurological condition. Randomly they decide to walk the South West Coast path, homeless and with insufficient funds.

This has a very similar premise to Cheryl Strayed's Wild which I really enjoyed a couple of years ago; I'm sorry to say I didn't feel the same way about The Salt Path. I thought it was dull as fuck and possibly only of interest to people who either know them personally or know the areas they covered very well.

Possibly controversial of me as I can't remember the number of yays or nays of threads past.

I didn’t like Hamnet, stylistically it drove me up the wall. Once I noticed that every thing/action was described with a string of three adjectives/adverbs, that’s all I could see. Generally I like Maggie O’Farrell though and enjoyed The Marriage Portrait.

I read the first two Shardlakes but wasn’t particularly enthralled and never went back to them.

1 Notes for Neuro Navigators - Jolene Stockman
And I’m off! Guide for neurotypicals supporting autistic people, focusing on adjusting the environment to make it better for all. I liked that it was by an NZ writer and featured a Māori perspective, as most resources are from overseas. (DD is autistic with Māori ancestry via DP.)

Read:

1. Make your bed by Admiral William H McRaven

Next is Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Me too!

8 Alpha Beta Gamma. Malabika Ray

I really struggled with this, if it want For the fact I was reading it for a review, and started too late to let them know it was a DNF, I would not have finished it.

The premise of the book was really good. A physics students professor is murdered, seemingly poisoned, but the motives as to why are unclear. There were some links to the KGB, and some honour killings but to be honest I lost track of what and why. Student Sri is some kind of amateur sleuth, who amazingly cracks the case. This is the first in a series, but I don't think I'll bother with the rest.

IIRC Sri wasn't British born, so her is phrasing and lack of fluent English made sense. Unfortunately, the other, English born characters also suffered the same. I suspect that the author doesn't have English as a first language, so it feels wrong to pick up on language issues. But the muddled tenses and wooden speech really put me off.

6 The Lost Notebook - Louise Douglas

I gave the second in this series (The Summer of Lies) a bold last year but I did not enjoy this as much.

Mila is looking after Ani in a French seaside town. Ani is the DD of her stepsister Sophie, who drowned with her DH Charlie in a boating accident nearly a year before. Mila is working at the investigations Agency run by her stepmother Ceci and exchanging occasional messages with her policeman boyfriend Luke, back in Bristol.

The notebook in question belongs to an elderly Eastern European woman called Gosla, who dies early in the book. After her death, the notebook is missing from the van she lives in, as is her mobile. Mila does some informal investigation and finds a link between Gosla and Professor Perry, who is running a local archaeological dig. However, the Agency’s new employee (Carter, an ex-flame of Sophie’s) has been asked by Mrs Perry to follow the professor, and some semi compromising photos soon follow, with dire consequences.

The mystery’s resolution was rather squeezed into the last section and was a bit too convoluted for that to work.

Sorry @Southeastdweller I need to figure out how to bold the book name and author! And I will post my thoughts next time too in spirit of the thread.

Agree with not starting at the start. Colour of Magic maybe isn't the best introduction to Discworld, IIRC it really got going from Equal Rites. I was a bit underwhelmed with the first couple but persevered and glad I did.

I’ve only read The Marriage Potrtrait and I thought it was pretty weak, overwritten and generally not very good, so I haven’t read Hamnet, which sounds more my thing and although not Shakespeare I am drawn to Shakespeare related things. I had vowed to ignore it, but now you’ve shared that Jessie Buckley will be in an adaptation I will have no choice but to read it.

Toast on the other hand - hard no. I just find him so annoying. My parents did go to River Cottage and had a lovely time.

I LOVED Hamnet but The Marriage Portrait bored me to tears. I'm generally a Maggie fan.

Anyone toying with more Shardlake, I'd definitely give book 2 a go. The first wasn't the best. The last one was hard work though.

Nothing to report book wise. I am so slow off the blocks this year. I'm usually in double figures by now, but I'm taking a bit of break. Someone slap me if I'm in a flap in November about meeting an arbitrary target.

After You'd Gone by Maggie O' Farrell is one of my most favourite books ever. I also loved Instructions for a Heatwave, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox and I Am, I Am, I Am ( which is about all the ways she has nearly died). I didn't fancy Hammett as it sounds too sad so never attempted it.

Finished book 2! Go me!

I finished Hogfather by Terry Pratchett

This is 20th book in the Discworld series of books and this one has the main character of Death.

The Disappearance of the Hogfather leaves a role to be filled on Hogswatch night. That role gets filled by Death while his Granddaughter, the unflappable Susan, investigates the sudden appearance and disappearance of various deities and fairies, ably assisted by Bilious, the “Oh-God” of Hangovers.

I really, really wanted to adore this in the same way I adore Small Gods but I didn’t. Having finished it I can look back and I absolutely know I will read it ever Christmas however. The underlying themes of belief, imagination and what even is being naughty or nice are, as always with TP
delivered in a way which is both hilarious and often deeply moving.

Death is my favourite character in the Discworld and this particular story gives a lovely character arc and touches on what it really means to be human

ok- off to catch up. I can see some Maggie O’Farrell chat so I am keen to follow

I loved all the Shardlake books even the last one just sad there aren't going to be anymore