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?

Some in Hamburg:

And In Berlin - Berlin has so, so many.😢

I’d not heard of the stones before. Thanks for the pictures. Assume this is only in Germany, and not in any other European countries?

Could have been a meet cute leading to the use of flannels, Pepe!

Interesting discussion of the stumble stones.

Not sure, but I’d guess other places too, such as Holland? And @BlueFairyBugsBooks podted a picture of one in London, which I didn’t know about and will now make a point of going to see.

Stayed in bed to avoid the cold this morning which gave me the opportunity to finish book one of 2025, which was Small Island - Andrea Levy

This tells the interlinked stories of Queenie, Gilbert and Hortense in 1948 and before showing how Gilbert and Hortense come to be lodging in Queenie’s house. Chapters alternate between the characters viewpoints. Gilbert is a Jamacian ex-RAF airmen who comes to England on the Windrush in 1948 and all three threads cover themes such as race, empire, belonging, war and identity. The characters all feel very realistic with flaws and all the idiosyncrasies humans have.

Overll I enjoyed it, I found some of the sections dragged but I was invested enough in the characters to persevere through those bits.

Joining for 2025!

Currently carrying over a book from 2024. Moscow X by david mccloskey. I’m not loving it so far.. quite dense and too much about horses! But I’m a third in so feel like I have to continue. Got some new books arriving in the post today which I’m more excited about plus some on my bookshelf I’m determined to get through this year.

Good morning 50Bookers and HNY.
I'm going to join this year, if that's OK, I was here a few years ago with a different user name and recognise some of the old faces.
I used to regularly read 60-70 books a year but have seriously fallen out of the habit since 2020, with parents passing away, divorce, two house moves etc, I just didn't have the headspace and rotted my brain with Netflix, Candy Crush and doomscrolling.
But I've joined a real life Bookclub and will join in here to get back to it. I have just been on my old Goodreads account and looking at the books I have loved before and definitely miss it.
I love a whodunnit (eagerly awaiting the next Strike), and historical fiction.

Looking forward to the book (and sex flannel) chat.
I've knocked off my number 1 for 2025 - working my way through the Seven Sisters series - know I am late to the party on this.

1. The Moon Sister by Lucinda Riley

This follows the story of Tiggy, sister number five, who has been portrayed as empathetic and spiritual in her brief appearances in her various sisters' stories in the series up to now.
She has taken a conservation job on an estate in the Highlands of Scotland, and predictably becomes entwined with the lives of others on the estate. The historical timeline is based in early 20th Century Spain among the Gipsy community around the Alhambra up to the Spanish Civil War and World War II, following Tiggy's ancestor Lucia, a famous flamenco dancer.
It's an easy read - I listen to them on Audible and they are not too taxing and fairly enjoyable. By book 5 in a series, you recognise the formula- each book follows the same routine. Predictable in a comforting kind of way. You know exactly what you are going to get.

Happy New Year everyone, and thanks to southeast for the thread. With apologies not to be reviewing in limerick form, or contributing to the flannel.

My Good Bright Wolf by Sarah Moss - I’ve been a fan of Moss since reading Summerwater, and this memoir brings her own inner life to the page just as Summerwater did her fictional characters’ - no thought completed without another undermining it or questioning her own experience or being hamstrung by guilt for struggling with something when others have it worse. It’s a very moving account of her difficult childhood and parental negligence, and her experience of anorexia, as a teenager and again in middle-age. I found it fascinating on the thought patterns that sustained her anorexia, supported by mainstream dietary advice that presumably doesn’t have any expectation of its own efficacy as it never tells you when to stop. I found the whole book a compelling and brilliant evocation of her experience, but have reservations about the book. Moss relentlessly checks her own privilege in every dimension that has been brought to her attention - there is a section towards the end that virtually descends into self-parody e.g. she finds hiking to the top of mountains problematic because it’s done ‘for ideologically questionable reasons regrettably related to colonialism, imperialism and the need to look down on everything’. A more serious caveat is that she links her anorexia directly to low self worth resulting from childhood trauma. Whilst this is convincing here and not unreasonable for the memoir form, there is no acknowledgment that anorexia might in other people not be directly caused by inadequate parenting, or that low self esteem can take forms other than food - if a group of male cyclists take a break from their Alpine bike ride to enjoy cake without guilt, does this mean they don’t struggle with self worth in other areas of their lives? Any parent with any concerns about their child’s eating should stay well away.

Good morning.

I finished book 1 last night Atomic Habits by James Clear

I had wanted to read this for a couple of years. So, I finally finished it and I wasn't disappointed.

As someone who has difficulty giving up bad habits, hearing the history of how and why instant gratification helps fuel certain behaviours makes me feel more informed and able to make wiser choices.

While I ought this to help combat my bad habits, he explains how to influence those better choices to become 1% better every day. The purpose is to encourage the reader by making small and seemingly insignificant changes, added up they become great changes to a person's life. It was ust what I needed for the start of 2025.

The book is easy to read and follow, making it quite enjoyable.

Happy New Year everyone. I read 55 books last year which I think is the most I've ever read in a year so would like to try for at least 50 again this year.

1. The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller

Started this yesterday so only a few chapters in, I bought it a few months ago. Looking forward to getting through some of the physical books I already, but will also use this tread for recommendations.

@BiscuitsBooks Endless Night left quite an impression on me when I read it as a teenager - it really creeped me out! I don’t think I had read anything quite like it before. I don’t remember too much about it except for a pervading sense of doom, and the ending…

Chapter 12 Mansfield Park.
'...because of her fringe'.
I take it that it's not a reference to her hair falling into her eyes. Perhaps 'fringe' refers to the company around her?

@CornishLizard I recently read My Good Bright Wolf and thought it was a really interesting exploration of her childhood, mental turmoil and anorexia, but I do agree with you that it sometimes felt as if she was unnecessarily shoe-horning in checks to her own self-privilege, particularly with regards race. I had wondered about mentioning it in my review and wasn't quite sure how to phrase it, but you have described the issue perfectly.

3 Deadly Cross - James Patterson

Recently started watching Cross on Prime with DS2, so when I saw this book second hand, I thought I would try it. I also read one or two of the early ones a couple of decades ago.

Dr Alex Cross is a psychologist working in Washington, who works with the Metropolitan Police Department there, as well as doing some work in private practice. He’s also married to the Chief of Detectives and friends with FBI agents and homicide detectives. Basically, a man with a finger in many pies, meaning he can be - slightly implausibly - involved with a number of investigations.

This book concerns a serial rapist and murderer of late-teen girls, someone shooting minor celebs and politicians in the arse. mysteriously altered wills and the murder of the ex-wife of the VP and her headmaster-lover. Unlike Kiss the Girls, which I remember vividly despite the passing decades, the violence in this isn’t graphic. It passed the time as a holiday read pretty well but I won’t be in a rush to get any more. I will watch the series though (which I think is loosely based rather than a replica!)

Yes, I think you are right, the people on her fringe. It is an odd turn of phrase but is the only one that makes sense in the context.

Thank @AgualusasLover 😀

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie I didn't know about the controversy around the stones, but I can see the logic there. I still like them as a commemorative thing, but I'm not Jewish, or any of the other persecuted groups. And I don't have a personal connection to the Holocaust, just an area of special interest to me. I agree about the community researching and funding them. That's similar to the book I read, although in reverse. The descendants found the stone and then researched the family. Anyway here's what I found about Munich,
24 stolpersteine, as of May 2013 – all on private land as the city legislated against the laying of these stones in 2004. After reconsideration, the ban was confirmed in 2015.

If anyone wants to read more the Wikipedia page is here I know it's not always the most accurate resource, but it's accessible.

@AprilLady there are apparently stones in roughly 1000 towns and cities, including the one I posted a picture of in London. The lady that was for was French, studying and working here, and when she heard what was happening she went home to help her family. Only of course she couldnt help and was deported and murdered. full list here

@Arran2024 It was also a bit weird that the PJ plot was dropped and picked up and dropped. I didn't care for the cliffhanger either!

@SheilaFentiman – are you still on hols? Or back to reality? I think I am going to search out some Kristen Hannah at the library.

@BlueFairyBugsBooks – I have added Stumbling Stones to my ‘TBR at some point in the future’ list. Fascinating that there is one in London. I’m also a bit confused. I think the memorials that I saw were more like plaques on a building, so I’m completely wrong. I remember seeing something in Maastrict, but again, I cant remember if they were stones or plaques.

@SomethingBlues – welcome

@VeronicaBeccabunga – I’m sure you’ll hit 50 this year, with encouragement on this thread and finding loads of lovely books to read :)

1. Queen MacBeth – Val McDermid, part of the Darklands tales. I previously enjoyed Rizzio and Hex and I think this book would appeal to readers who liked those too. Everything you think you know about MacBeth and Lady MacBeth is probably wrong. This was a strong start to the year, enjoyed.

Do you have to pay to reserve a book? I pay £1.10 to reserve a book on my county's library system which feels like cheating when it's a brand new hardback that would cost £15-£20! I also get quite competitive about looking for books that haven't been published yet and being one of the first to reserve them. 😄

My aim this year is to only read books that I already own, I can reserve at the library or I can get for 99p on Kindle!

@Tarragon123 we start travelling back tomorrow - my kindle is charged and ready for the long haul flights 😀

@Tarragon123

Wool is definitely worth a read, it's so much clearer what's happening than it is in the show

It's free, @RunSlowTalkFast . Used to be a small charge, but they dropped it and overdue fees to encourage wider use of the library.

I think she’s busy with her needlework, making a fringe for a tablecloth or something like it. Later in the book we’re told she had made “many yards of fringe”