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?

2 Autumn - Ali Smith
I don't really know what to make of this. As plot goes it's pretty weak - a young woman (Elisabeth) visits an old man (Daniel) in a nursing home at the end of his life. There are some flashbacks to memorable moments they had together when she was a child and he was her favourite neighbour. There are some references to the Brexit referendum and how it made us feel at the time. There's a sub-plot involving Elisabeth's mother and her current activities and some of Daniel's memories that seem to place him in Germany in the 1930s (I'm assuming he's a holocaust survivor but this isn't made clear). And some stuff about a female pop artist from the 1960s.

I enjoyed reading this for the style of the prose but a bit nonplussed regarding what it's actually about.

4 Jokes Jokes Jokes by Jenny Eclair
Forgot I had the last couple of chapters of this left.
Love Jenny, in all her incarnations (90s Jenny was a bit terrifying ). This is her autobiography and it’s a lot better than the menopause book she wrote a couple of years ago. She grew up a couple of miles from where I did, so her tales of Lytham St Annes often raise a familiar wry smile - particularly underage drinking in The County ahem. I don’t think I’d have dared chant “Brown socks, brown skirt, brown knickers “ at her in her Queen Mary uniform though!
Told with her trademark scattergun delivery, this might annoy you if you’re not a fan, but I liked it. She’s very honest about her own perceived shortcomings as a daughter, sister, mother and wife. Wincingly so, at times. Some juicy insight into the comedy world and especially hilarious when she allows some good old jealousy to come through.
I really rate her novels, so I was pleased to see that there is another one planned (her mother’s death amongst other life events making it not an ideal time to write fiction, so she wrote this instead).
And yes, I am on the side of those whose underwear drawer looks like a Lost And Found Box, rather than carefully curated co-ordinates #oversharingiscontagious

Oh fgs - nonsense. Silly lady!

@ChessieFL

I don't know now whether I had the bonus chapter on the audiobook or not!

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit the original ending finished on Josie’s perspective. The bonus chapter is from her daughter’s perspective. Does that help?! Don’t want to say too much for spoilers!

Here’s the bonus chapter (contains lots of spoilers for those who haven’t read the book!)

www.deadgoodbooks.co.uk/extract-extra-chapter-none-of-this-is-true-by-lisa-jewell/

@ChessieFL

Ok yes it did end that way for me and I did think Possible Sequel

6. Guilty by Jussi Adler-Olsen

4th book in the Dept Q series. This one centred around a series of disappearances in the same week in 1987. The subject matter was a bit difficult, involving sexual assault and enforced sterilisation of women. That said the central mystery was good, with an unexpected (for me) twist. I also enjoyed Carl’s continuing bewilderment as he is constantly outwitted by everyone at work and home.

After a lazy weekend reading I’ve finished a couple more.

5 Held by Anne Michaels
Shortlisted for last year’s Booker, I’m only getting around to this one now. I know this was quite an unpopular Booker pick but I liked it. Written in vignettes, it opens on a French battlefield during the First World War, as John remembers the first time he met his wife Helena. The book dips in and out of their lives and others descended from them or connected to their descendants. It explores themes of memory and connection and the times when others hold us close or hold us up. It was beautifully written but I think I read it too fast so have put it in a pile to re-read to see if I can get the full effect of it.

6 The Women’s Room by Marilyn French
A stand out feminist novel, published in the 70s that I first read in my teens in the 80s. It tells the story of Mira, a 50s housewife of Norm, and mother to two boys who is so ground down by life that she doesn’t even know how much she needs it to be different until it changes. This book meanders a lot- through different groups of friends that Mira makes and just as we get attached to them she moves and starts to befriend a new set, all of which have a story to tell of oppression. This novel was really to illustrate the concerns of second wave feminism and it definitely does that. It’s just a bit too drawn out and fragmented for adult me and I found myself skimming some of the sections where the 4th wall breaking narrator or another character went off on a rant. An important book at the time, but very much of its time.

I liked Held as well. I like your review @ÚlldemoShúl I liked its lyrical quality even though there were times when I didn't manage to join up all the dots!
I didn't quite figure out who everyone was.

The White Darkness by David Grann
I thought I’d stick with peril for a while and this is a peril pinnacle, the story of Henry Worsley who was a modern day polar explorer.

Grann once more tells a tale which is gripping and engaging, although I hadn’t realised how slight this is size-wise compared to The Wager and The Lost City of X.

What he’s doing here is setting Worsley’s travels in the context of Shackleton, his lifelong obsession and inspiration.

I won’t give anything away, in case anyone doesn’t know, but some of you will probably remember seeing news footage of Worsley’s solo expedition.

Other than being a bit disappointed that it wasn’t a hefty tale, this was excellent. I’d really recommend it.

3. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall - Anne Bronte

There's a new neighbour in town with her young son and the maid. This causes a stir in the community which gets tongues wagging. This stranger, Helen, declares she is widowed from her husband and the father of her child Arthur. The tale is told through an exchange of letters between Helan and various characters in the book.

I've changed my routines, so fitting in time to read has been challenging. The beginning of the book was a little slow, but I became more absorbed once I started to delve into how Helen came to be at Wildfell. Being introduced to Mr Huntingdon was an eye-opener. I thought I'd enjoy his character but he was just vile.

I'm pleased to have stuck with it as it was better than I anticipated. Overall I'm glad about the recommendation as it is a book I don't think I would naturally have chosen myself.

@LuckyMauveReader

Glad you liked one of my favourite books!!

Thanks @FuzzyCaoraDhubh , I've added Held to my wishlist.

I step away from the thread for a couple of days and find over 200 posts to catch up on - wild how fast it moves.

Briefly, ….. I love Shardlake but the last one was way too long and the TV adaptation was disappointing.

I have a soft spot for Nancy Mitford having read them all at school and re-visited over the years. The Pursuit of Love is much better than Love in a Cold Climate in my view. But my all time favourite is Don’t Tell Alfred which covers Fanny’s husband, Alfred’s, time as ambassador in Paris. I liked the TV adaptation of this.

I am also a fan of Maggie O’Farrell and have enjoyed everything I have read by her: Hamnet, The Marriage Portrait, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox and Instructions for a Heatwave. I am such a fan I also saw Hamnet at the theatre and visited Shakespeare’s house last year too. Glad to see I wasn’t alone in doing that!

I think I must be pretty easily satisfied given I like all the above. However, I can’t do science fiction at all and Terry Pratchett does not sound like my kind of reading. Also no real desire to read about peril on mountains - I can’t stand the cold!

Finished:

3. Five Little Pigs - Agatha Christie

I read this in 2023 apparently but had no recollection of it from the blurb. It started to come back to me about 10% in and I remembered the murderer. Imagine my surprise when I got to the end and it was someone else! Slightly worried about how I can have so little memory after such a recent read.

Anyway, the plot ticks all my Christie boxes - Hercule Poirot (without sidekicks), large country house, family set up. Amyas, a famous artist, dies the day after announcing he is leaving his wife for the girl he is painting. His wife was heard to utter death threats the day of his murder. Surely, an open and shut case - everyone thinks so….

A good read.

Just to be clear - I liked the TV adaptation of The Pursuit of Love - pretty sure no-one has adapted Don’t Tell Alfred!

Book number 4 finished for me The Library at Mount Char -Scott Hawkins

This was so weird. I honestly don’t think I’d be able to describe it well. Carolyn lives with eleven adopted siblings under the tutelage of ‘Father’ an ancient and godlike being who has created (and written) a library that will teach them all amazing powers.

Not my usual thing at all, I was WTF through most of it but honestly it was really compelling and I enjoyed it!

@TimeforaGandT I also saw Hamnet at the theatre. It was good but I preferred the book and think I might have found it baffling if I hadn’t read the book first.

@SheilaFentiman - I think you’re right that it was one for the readers. I find that’s often the case.

I saw A Little Life at the theatre with someone who hadn’t read the book and ended up having to fill in the gaps for them in the interval.

@TimeforaGandT I did ask DH.who reads about 3 books a year and definitely not Hamnet, whether he was following, but he said he was enjoying it (mostly, I think he likes going to the theatre and getting fancy seats 😀)

Morning fellow Bookers, I need some recommendations. A friend has just had some devastating news and I would like to send her a couple of books which may be of some distraction. Something comforting and no death or triggers ideally, which knocks out the majority of books I read last year.
I was thinking maybe something like I capture the Castle but she may have read that. Also possibly You Are Here by David Nichols or Still Life by Sarah Winman? But welcome thoughts.

@Stowickthevast sorry to hear about your friend. Would Meet Me at the Museum work? Or not because Anders is a widower?

Something by Bill Bryson if laugh out loud would help?

or this is a lovely one about female friendship - The Elegant Gathering of White Snows by Kris Radish

Thanks Sheila, those sound good. Not partner, teenager 💔

Hi Stowick, sorry about your friend. My comfort reads are Diary of a Provincial Lady by EM Delafield and Some Tame Gazelle, by Barbara Pym.