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?

I discovered Isabel Allende about 18 months ago and am doing the same, reading them slowly over time. I'd highly recommend Violeta as your next one.

@Southeastdweller – thank you for the new thread. Welcome to all the newbies and returners

@yoshiblue – The Storied Life is on my Kindle. I’ll look forward to your review. I did not enjoy Tomorrow x 3. Seems to be very much a marmite book.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit – I had no idea that Silo was based on Wool etc. I enjoyed the first series of Silo, but feel that series two is getting a bit samey. I might give Wool a go.

@SheilaFentiman – is that your first Kirsten Hannah? I cant remember. She is an author I want to read more of this year. I haven’t read any of hers, but I keep hearing good things.

@That70sHouse – my plan for 2024 was to read more non fiction. It didn’t work. I only read 9 out of 120! I don’t think I’ll ever read more that 20 in a year.

@RazorstormUnicorn – I’ll be surprised if When the Dust Settles isnt the 50 bookers fav non fiction for 2024. I’ve bought it as a gift a couple of times.

Being Scottish, I had a houseful yesterday and spent today cleaning up. So no finished books for me to report. However, I am going on holiday on Tuesday, so I intend to do a lot of reading then. I do have two library books that I plan on finishing first, as well as reading my kindle every day and listening to Audible. Current Kindle book is Queen MacBeth and it is interesting so far, but then I usually do enjoy Val McDermid, with the exception of 1989!

@BlueFairyBugsBooks I'm laughing my head off at you! No, never had a facecloth, er offered. And I think I'd be cross if that ever happened because my faceclothes are for my face! Not my bits.

And Stumbling Stones sounds incredible. I didnt know thats what they were called, but I did come across three in a small German town in the very west of the country, near the border with the Netherlands.

Thanks for telling us about stumbling stones, @BlueFairyBugsBooks - I didn’t know that.

@Tarragon123 it was my first by her - picked it up in an airport on the strength of the cover and the blurb. I will happily read more by her once the TBR is down a bit 😀

@Tarragon123 glad I made you laugh. Also glad I could tell you and @SheilaFentiman about the Stumbling Stones. I wasn't sure how well known they are.

Here's a photo of the one in London which I dragged my poor family around to find.

@BlueFairyBugsBooks I'd also never heard of the stumbling stones either. It's a lovely idea to commemorate the last place that they had agency over their lives, as opposed to a focus just on their deaths.

Oooh this looks fun - can I join in?

Ive finished Dawn Study by Maria v Snyder this afternoon. It’s the last of the Chronicles of Ixia series and the whole series is one of my comfort reads and I go back to it frequently.

As I’m between reads I think I’m going to move onto another comfort read tonight, and go for Hercule Poirots Christmas as I didn’t manage to read it this festive season like I usually do.

Happy 2025 reads all!

1 The Girl of Ink and Stars - Kiran Millwood Hargrave My first book of the year is a children’s book, which I’ve read after DD1 (aged 12) who really liked it, and will pass it on to DD2 (aged 10) next. It’s a magical adventure story set on an island where something is destroying the plants and making the wildlife flee; Isabella (a cartographer’s daughter) sets out to rescue her friend and save the island. (I’ve seen lots of goodreads reviews comparing it to Moana, which is a fair point if you just look at the bare bones of the plot, but it’s actually nothing like Moana in most ways and not at all Disney-ish). There is a combination of human and fantastical adversaries and the plot moves quickly with a very readable style of writing. A good choice for children around the age of my DDs, and a nice read for adults too, albeit with relatively limited detail and character development as you would expect from a book aimed at younger readers.

HNY!
I hesitated to join in before, but having managed 42 books last year I'd love to join in this year.
Just finished Women In White Coats by Olivia Campbell
'How the first women doctors changed the world of medicine'
Very readable, I didn't realise women tried to become doctors quite so early, 1860s, I'd have thought late 19th century,
Now going to get going on the new Kate Atkinson Jackson Brodie which Santa brought me 😀

Absolutely cracking up, are sex flannels the new penis beaker?!

The last thread had limericks, this one has... well, flannels - whatever will the next thread bring us?

Can I comment on the Bee Sting?

I didn't care for any of the characters, which seems to be a common comment.

I got completely perplexed by the girl going into the exam after a few months of partying and not studying - she went blank, and I was convinced that she was going to fail.

But then that plot line disappeared and I simply couldn't understand why the author had set up the plot just to drop it.

I was incensed tbh and never related to any of it after that.

I think sex flannels are the lady version of a penis beaker!

Good choice!

1 A baby’s cry - Cathy Glass
i read a lot of Cathy’s books last year and this one was languishing on my kindle and gave me an easy start to the year.
Cathy is asked to foster baby Harrison straight from the hospital. His mother is giving him up for adoption but doesn’t want to. Turns out she is unwed and from a family that strongly disapproves of this so she felt she had no choice but to give him up.
A typical Cathy Glass book, easy to read and fairly interesting though always a bit sad at the end when the child leaves her care.

1 Endless Night by Agatha Christie

Michael Rogers falls in love with a property for sale in Gypsy's Acres, a place which a local gypsy woman tells him is cursed. Michael doesn't have enough money to buy the property but then happily falls in love with Ellie who turns out to be a very rich young woman.
I was quite bored of this book but persevered. It became more interesting after about 180 pages. The denouement surprised me though so I would recommend this one nevertheless.

That’s why I love these threads! The discussion ranges far beyond books.

I have also never been offered a sex flannel.

Already need a huge catchup on this thread so will wait for the weekend. Back at work now and have realised that yes it would be nice to aim for 50 but in reality I highly likely won’t so taking this pressure off myself and just reading when I can and want to.
Finished my first a listen from BorrowBox.
1.Ordinary Human Failings by Megan Nolen
When looking beyond the headlines everyone has a story to tell. This is about a little girl who has been found dead possibly murdered. The finger points at a reclusive Irish family who have settled and live in London.
I thought this was excellent not a bold but a very good story of the fragility of life. Although I did find it very very sad and will be escaping to my Winter Solstice book for some comfort.

I've just started Lady in Waiting by Anne Glenconner. Saw her on Graham Norton and wanted to read this ever since!

I had read Fourth Wing and Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros by the end of Boxing Day. It was just family this year for Christmas so once the kids were cleaning up after lunch it was time for me to chill by the pool with my Christmas books. I was never into fantasy fiction but got addicted to Sarah J Mass books last year so have been searching for similar ever since. Someone then recommended Elizabeth Jane Howard’s Cazalet Chronicles so I have finished The Light Years and am just finishing Marking Time. I tend to read a physical book and an e-book in tandem so I am also half way through Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld. It is my second attempt and ai am struggling tbh.

@VeronicaBeccabunga Women in White Coats looks interesting - have reserved it in my local library.

Returning home today after staying with family and looking forward to collecting all my reserved library books! 20 on reserve, six of which are ready for collection or in transit. The library is all that stands between me and bankruptcy.

Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey - The Countess of Carnarvon

An enjoyable, but not rivetting read written by the current Countess of Carnarvon in the wake of the hugely successful television series Downton Abbey.

It is not clear to the reader what exactly the author is trying to show in her work and so it feels a little disjointed. Much of the focus is on the fifth Countess, Lady Almina, but only a part of her life and in particular her work creating hospitals during the Great War. There is very little about the day-to-day running of the castle (the 'real' Downton Abbey) and the staff are only really mentioned in the context of the parts they played in the War. Towards the end, we get two chapters about the fifth Earl of Carnarvon's discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun.

I think a good editor could have polished this and given it a much clearer focus.

@Flatandhappy I was thinking of re-reading Fourth Wing and Iron Flame soon in preparation for the next installment Onyx Storm due to be published shortly. I have also read all of the ACOTAR books by Maas, and have started Throne of Glass series. Pure escapist silliness, but thats often what I need from a book!

biblio, I made a special trip into the West End yesterday to pick up my library reservations. I could have waited until I was back in the office next week but the thrill of new library books was too great.

However, I had one in my hand on the tube on the way back as they wouldn't all fit in my bag and attracted the attention of the tedious kind of male who wanted to be "friendly" while really wanting to tell me how much he knew about the subject of the book. It was too noisy to hear most of what he was saying but the bits that I could hear made it easy to say no thank you when he asked if I'd like to go for a drink.

For those reading Isabel Allende, she was the subject of yesterday's This Cultural Life on Radio 4. I'm not an Allende fan - magical realism and I don't get on - but I enjoyed it.

I'm reading the thread backwards so need to try and wrap my head around the sex flannels. I got offered one once when I had sex with a boyfriend during my period but that was necessity rather than a romantic and caring gesture.

I've just moved on to book number 2 The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace Johnson.

I can highly recommend book number 1 (Leonard and Hungry Paul). I would describe it as a lovely, gentle book. Nothing bad happens and there's real character growth throughout the book. It's a palate cleanser for the mind.

There was a lot of controversy about, ‘Stumble stones’ /Stolperstein because some people felt that it was inappropriate to have Jewish people commemorated by literally walking over them. They were (maybe are?) banned in Munich for this reason.

What I think is lovely about them is that locals or families fund them, so a group of neighbours might research their block’s history and then commission some stones.