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?

Quick asides before moving on to my latest review. I haven't read many Maggie O'Farell books, but loved After you'd gone. Never read any Terry Pratchett, im pretty sure it wouldn't be my type of thing.

1. Guide Me Home Attica Locke

I rarely buy books getting most from borrowbox and when i do buy they are usually 99p kindle deals. This was nearly full price. I treated myself as I have enjoyed the previous books in the 'Highway 59' series and was confident I would enjoy it. This is the third (and final?) installment of the series. Each book follows Darren, a black Texas Ranger, investigating a crime. Alongside, this there are two other story arcs that span the series - the ongoing investigation into Darren's alleged evidence tampering in a previous murder case and his evolving relationships, particularly with his estranged mother. In this third book, Darren investigates the disappearance of a black female student from an all female soriety house. It is set in the final months of the Trump administration and the impact of this on the characters is central to the story. It is not a book without fault. For one, you have to suspend belief a bit. Darren is running around investigating after resigning as a ranger (I think he did something similar in a previous book when suspended). However, for me it is a bold. There was so much about it I liked. Locke's writing is compelling. I wanted to read both to uncover the central mystery, but also for the sense of place and the characters. East Texas is beautifully rendered and comes to life. Joseph Fuller the missing girls father is one of the most thought provoking characters i've read in a while. It is also an angry exposition of what it means to be poor in America and how damaging poverty is. It could be viewed as depressing particularly given the place we are back to in politics, but Locke leaves me wanting to fight not wallow in self pity. The ending resolves the stories that have spanned the series. I do have some thoughts on how this was done, but dont want to reveal any spoilers. Both thought provoking and 'plotty', I'd recommend (but read the first two in the series if you havent already, they definetely feed into this third book).

Thank you @inaptonym 😅

Someone mentioned a book yesterday and I thought "oh I have that on my kindle, I'll take a quick look". It was not on my kindle so I went and checked my Amazon account and it's there in my orders (as a kindle book), but when I click into that book it doesn't show I have previously bought it. The book also isn't in my Amazon digital content. Has anyone come across this before I try to find some way to actually get in touch with Amazon customer service?

Just to say it's not a recent purchase so syncing has not helped.

Did you borrow it on Prime reading or get it on kindle unlimited? Or was it a normal “pay for it” book?

eta my prime reads that I have returned still show up somewhere on Amazon but not on my kindle, which is why I ask

Yeah it was normal pay for it book. I've now found two others that are the same.

@Zireael

None of the books you mention would have inspired my Mitford obsession. Nancy's books are crap. Their story is much more suited to non fiction.

I came upon In Tearing Haste quite accidentally which is letters between Debo and the writer Patrick Leigh Fermor and from there HAD to know more about the absolute character that Debo came off as.

Letters Between Six Sisters which was edited by Diana's daughter in law Charlotte is the definitive Mitfords as themselves I think - beware of sycophantic biographies

It's my favourite ever non fiction. The bits explaining the context of the letters in that section are frequently a hoot!

4. Are You My Halley Hart? by Claire McCauley

Charming story of an American astronomy academic named for her ancestor, Halley who discovered the comet, who met an Oxford history academic in Oxford and their thwarted attempts to meet up following a sweet meet-cute.

Read this for A level and loved it and it's one of my favourites.

@MamaNewtNewt is it possible you permanently deleted? I know I did that last year with a few ancient 99p offers that I read the first few chapters of and thought nah.

Slightly off topic but wondering how many of us share my situation.
I’ve got a ton of, mostly, paperbacks tbr. I’ve also got well over 200 books on my Kindle.
I have stopped buying books in charity shops until I’ve read and passed on the ones I’ve got.
My issue is, I mostly read for an hour or so in bed so the kindle paperwhite is great. I don’t want to put the light on to read a physical book as it’s unfair on dh.
At what point do I ruthlessly cull my paperbacks and recognise I won’t read them.
I do get sucked into series’s of books on Kindle Unlimited.

In a very similar boat @caramac04 loads of paperbacks to be read, never off my Kindle, don't know what the answer is.

Are they getting in your way or making you feel unhappy about clutter? If not, probably not worth worrying about.
But, I had a similar issue and was feeling like I needed to take action. So I sorted into "get rid of, no questions asked" (these went straight to the charity bookshop), "keep under review" and "to read". I am working my way through the "to read" shelf and then either disposing of or keeping depending on how I feel about it. Books move from "to read" to "keep under review" periodically and I go through the "under review" shelves from time to time and cull the ones I'm sick of looking at. I figure I will never run out of things to read and I've not once regretted disposing of a book.

I have books everywhere. They crawl across every space.

Just finished Natalie Haynes' Divine Might. I read all such books and all the fictions but still have a terrible memory for the ins and outs of the stories of mythology. I enjoyed this as she is such a readable, witty writer. But I shall forget almost everything she told me.

I’m the same- books on kindle, on audible and piling up on bookshelves and other sundry surfaces. I comfort myself that I’ll read them all when I’m retired and can’t afford to buy so many new ones.

I've just added 'more consistent reading' to my slightly belated new year's list of resolutions, I'm a bit late to the party!

1 Children Of The Sun by Beth Lewis
Enjoyable read, I liked that the ending wasn't quite what I expected but left the outcome for a key character unresolved.

2 Their Shadows Deep by Peter Golden
One of the free Kindle reads. Not bad, I don't know much about US history so that was quite interesting, but I didn't particularly care about any of the characters.

Edited for irritating formatting errors

I’m glad that I’m not the only one with this problem. I have 939 unread Kindle books and a few hundred physical books to read. I’m much better at buying books than reading them.

I’m feeling much better now. I think I’ll try @PepeLePew’s method. We have too much clutter especially my husband. He’s not the clutter but he has a lot of stuff. I’m trying to lead by example.

I really enjoyed The Pursuit of Love- seems a bit of an unpopular opinion on this thread!

I actually love it, I also enjoyed the recent adaptation that got panned and can watch Linda and Fabrice endlessly.

I have piles and boxes of books everywhere. I refuse to declutter then them.

In terms of reading in bed, I'm single but I suspect getting rid of the DH to read isn't a solution for most people

I liked it! I didn't rate 'Love in a Cold Climate' as highly.

I have about 200 on my shelf and similar on my Kindle. The way I tackle it is;

• I go to bed before DH so can read with the light on
• I make a point to read after dinner. So, we clear away etc and I have a cup of tea and read for 30-60 mins then might joking DH for TV or carry on.
• also if you have any sort of commute or lunch time then I try to read then

This is an absolute shit show of garbled nonsense. Apologies.

This is a series of books called Project 613. I have no idea why, the name has not yet cropped up in the books. They are odd, possibly in the same league as The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas, ie based on real things, but full of fiction that just isn't believable. The whole series is based around the fictional Black Fox network, which is an underground railway smuggling Jews and other "enemies of the state" from Nazi occupied lands. The same characters pop up across the books.

11 Black Fox One. Elyse Hoffman.
At the end of the last book (The Vengence of Samuel Val) we met The Fox Hunter, the Nazis number 1 for tracking down and capturing members of the black fox network. In this book we find out more about him (this seems to be the way these books go). He's hot on the tail of Black Fox One, the top agent. More "shock" revelations about who people really are, I thought it was an obvious "twist". Another Nazi grappling with if he loves Hitler, or someone else more. And another weird ending where someone dies and ends up in some kind of judgment place.

I. honestly don't know what to make of these books. They are strangely compelling and I can't stop reading them. But i don't think I'll be recommending them.

i also find it harder to get through my print books because I tend to read on kindle whilst doing some chores eg cooking pasta - so easier to only have one hand - plus the light issue/disturbing DH.

But the height of my TBR physical pile is prompting me to have a decent go at them this year. I’m not committing on numbers, just a reduction in precarity 😀