50 Books Challenge 2025 Part Two

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the second 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.

The first thread of the year is

@AlmanbyRoadtrip

I love a bit of Matt Smith though. I thought it was weird in the best of ways and I also have The Loney to read somewhere in physical form

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit No, I don’t think I’ve read it, but I’ll get the sample now.

I have no rules whatsoever about buying or reading books. I tend to buy fiction almost exclusively on kindle or in charity shops, but I’m happy to pay full price for non-fiction, because I know I’ll always get around to it at some point. Life can be stressful enough without imposing rules about reading imo.

I love a bit of Matt Smith though then you will find him a marvel of handknit-sweater brooding manliness

I'm polishing my halo as have managed to stick to RWYO this month, except for Onyx Storm which was a pre-order from the summer so I'm not counting.

I just haven't looked at the daily deals so as not to be tempted. Also my two book clubs have serendipitously both chosen books I already owned for February (although I would have made an exception). I'm trying to make it to the Woman's Prize announcement but not sure I'll succeed!

#1 The Forgotten Tower, Lulu Taylor
#2 The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
#3 All the Colors of the Dark, Chris Whitaker
#4 Pretty Girls, Karin Slaughter
#5 Strange Sally Diamond, Liz Nugent

#6 Fairy Tale, Stephen King
Only ever read The Green Mile and his short Bachman stories, this is a retelling I guess of Jack and the Beanstalk. I liked the story and the characters but it did drag quite a little bit.

#7 The God of the Woods, Liz Moore
A girl goes missing from her families camp, many years after her younger brother had also gone missing. Felt it was like a poor man's version of All the Colors and whilst a quickish read I was a bit disappointed as it's received rave reviews.

#8 The Grey Wolf, Louise Penny
Book 19 in the Armand Gamache/Three Pines series. For anyone who hasn't heard of them, Gamache is the Head of Homicide in the Surete (Quebec Police) and in the first book travels to a small village called Three Pines to solve a murder. He builds relationships there with the villagers and they all appear in the series. They are my cosy reads as I love the regular characters and I'd love to live there. The best in the series are those that tend to stick in Three Pines, and this one is a little lax in the regular character department for me but still an enjoyable read.

#9 Black Woods, Blue Sky, Eowyn Ivey
Set in Alaska, a young mother moves with her daughter to a cabin in the wilderness to live with a man she meets. I loved the first book I read by her, The Snow Child, but this is not nearly as atmospheric or fairy tale-y. I enjoyed it until half way through and then it didn't turn out as I expected and seemed really rushed in the end.

@cassandre can't fault your logic.

I did sort my library oldest to newest, and read the oldest thing in there. It wasn't great tbh, it was The Belladonna Maze by someone or other.

I'm currently reading the oldest nerdy nutrition book on there, which is my preferred non fiction genre.

So I think that more than makes up for the 20 or so books I've bought on 99p deals.

17 Taken as Red - Anoushka Asthana.

Asthana is a former Guardian journalist and now works with Robert Peston on ITV. This was a story of the rise to power of Keir Starmer and how Labour won a landslide.

It was ok.

Unfortunately, Starmer is just not that interesting, and the book only really came to life in the “how the Tories cocked it up” chapters. The others were full of names of lots of advisers who aren’t familiar (good in the sense that we have heard enough about Cummings and Campbell, bad in following what is going on). The last chapter talked a lot about Sue Gray. Oops.

I have read a fair few political books in my time and I wouldn’t read another by her, I don’t think.

I happily buy 99p kindle books and borrow lots from the library, as well as buying proper books as a treat every time I’m back in the UK and can browse in an English-language bookshop. But I do have a rule of reading my oldest kindle purchases so at least I’m getting through the back catalogue that way! Also just rediscovered two unread physical books after reorganising the bookcases so have put them on my bedside pile.

7 Black Rabbit Hall - Eve Chase I really liked this - not quite a bold, because the ending could have given us more and was a bit too twee, and the wicked stepmother was too one-dimensional, but really enjoyable to read and properly evoked a sense of place (which is always a really important element for me). There are two timelines - teenage Amber in the late 60s, on holiday with her parents, twin brother and much younger siblings at their rambling country house in Cornwall; and Lorna in the present day, searching for the perfect wedding location with her fiancé. The present-day timeline was fine but the 60s one was the real story and I would have been happy just following Amber, going further into her future. Still, really good and I’ll look out for more by this author.

Edited to add: I’ve now started on The Miniaturist having resisted for years because I thought it wouldn’t really be my thing. My BorrowBox version has really weird grammar/formatting - no apostrophes and sometimes missing commas/full stops - it makes it a bit tiring to read as the meaning isn’t always clear and it’s irritating me enough that I’m not sure I’ll keep reading. For those who have read it - is this what the actual book is like, or is it a glitch with the digital copy?

Death At The Sign Of The Rook - Kate Atkinson

Jackson Brodie returns with a cast including a mute faithless vicar, an injured Army veteran, a policewoman sidekick, the Dowager Marchioness of a stately home and a host of others to track down an art thief who seems to have based her crimes on the works of a Golden Age detective novelist.

Oh I enjoyed this SO much. It’s funny and clever and I loved every single character. IMHO Atkinson should immediately give up all the other stuff she writes and concentrate on on writing more crime fiction. I would go back and revisit all the other Brodies if I didn’t have so much unread stuff.

Back to Slow Horses.

@DuPainDuVinDuFromage sounds like a glitch, I don't remember the Miniaturist being like this as I hate books with weird /no punctuation and I loved that one.

Thanks for the review @BestIsWest. I want to have a go at the Jackson Brodie series. For those that have read them should I start at the beginning?

I would start at the beginning, yes. Brodie evolves as a character so much and has several relationships, so it might be difficult to work out which ex is chipping in to his thoughts.

@ShackletonSailingSouth Definitely start at the beginning. There’s so much back story and several of the characters have come from previous books.

Yes, I do think you need to start at the beginning with Jackson Brodie, @ShackletonSailingSouth. There are characters who reappear through more than one book, quite apart from Jackson's own evolving story, so you need to build the full picture, really.

ETA - what Best said, basically!

The Miniaturist really got on my tits, probably because I was heavily pregnant at the time and a bit grumpy (and tbh there was a vast amount of tit for it to get on by that point). But I don’t think it was punctuation-related.

Thanks @ShackletonSailingSouth and @LadybirdDaphne - I did think it wasn’t something I’d come across in reviews! How annoying…I’ll soldier on for a bit and see how I go (maybe it’ll be irritating for different reasons - love the way you worded that Daphne! 😄).

Also interested in Jackson Brodie based on 50-bookers’ comments, and BorrowBox has the first in the series so I’m in!

I don't have a no buying rule, but like @RomanMum I try to read more than I buy over the course of a year so that I end up in deficit. Last year I achieved this

I found The Miniaturist falsely advertised plot wise, very dull and IIRC a very strange ending but it's over a decade since I read it I'd have said so I'm not sure. I'll go with boring.

I must get on to Death At The Sign Of The Rook I keep postponing and I'm not sure why.

10. Swan Song, Edmund Crispin
Some Golden Era crime - unpleasant member of opera company is found dead, but it's impossible for anyone to have done so without being seen. How could it have happened? Eccentric academic amateur detective unravels the mystery. The method of murder was implausible but the revelation of whodunnit was satisfying. This was full of jokes and some amusing characters, overall a fun ride.

11. More Dashing: Further Letters of Patrick Leigh Fermor, ed. Adam Sisman As the editor points out, in the letters you get to enjoy a dose of PLF's zest for life without having to wade through the sometimes overworked prose of his travel books (I do like the books of his that I've read, but they're best in small doses). I don't think I would have shone at one of his beloved social gatherings, but it's nice to experience them vicariously. There's an element of performance to many of the letters and I wonder if a diary would have been less buoyant, but it's a record of a life less ordinary.

@bibliomania, DH is an Edmund Crispin aficionado - our shelves house his complete works. He was an interesting chap who in RL (and under his real name, Bruce Montgomery) was a pal of P Larkin’s at Oxford and wrote music, including the scores for some early Carry On films. Drank himself to death at a young age, sadly. The books are fun.

@Terpsichore I'm working my way slowly through his books and enjoying them. Interesting context!

I remember liking The Moving Toyshop by Edmund Crispin. Very enjoyable.

I haven't imposed a book-buying ban on myself BUT I desperately need to get round to reading some of the many (manyyyyyy) physical books I have on my dressing table, bedside table, dining table, piano, floors, bookshelves and in my car boot, glove compartment, various random shopping bags, gym bag (!), wardrobe, parents' house bookcase that I haven't even started.

Of the 4 books I have bought this year I'm amazed to note that I have read two of them and am currently reading / listening to the other two. (I ploughed on with Miriam and am enjoying it more!)
A little life was a physical book so that frees up loads of room in the bookcase as it left my house pretty sharpish 😂

3 Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake

Non fiction about funghi. I feel like this would have been amazing when it was first released a few years ago because the ideas about mycelial networks carrying nutrients in a wood wide web and symbiotic relationships were not as well known. I learned lots of detail but no new ‘big concepts’. It was a good read though.

I did enjoy reaching ‘peak geek’ when a mycologist was introduced called Paul Stamets and I thought ‘that’s weird, he has the same name as the doctor in Star Trek Discovery’ I joined the dots a few paragraphs before Sheldrake revealed that the character was named after the mycologist. Secretly quite proud of just how geeky that makes me.

4 Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa

A gentle novel about a heartbroken young woman who goes to stay in her uncle’s bookshop to heal after a bad breakup. I had a moment of doubt halfway through when I wondered if I was reading ‘The Little Japanese Bookshop By The Sea’ or some such other book- all the tropes were there. Heartbroken girl moves to the country and works in a relative’s shop. She makes friends and becomes important to the community before conveniently falling in love anew. But it didn’t turn into this because it was more philosophical and thoughtful. Gentle.

5 Annie Bot by Sienna Greer

My first bold of the year. I listened to this and couldn’t wait for my drive home from work to listen to more. Thank you so much to whoever recommended this. Annie is a ‘cuddlybunny’ sex robot whose primary programming is to avoid displeasing her owner Doug. Doug’s controlling and abusive behaviour begins to dawn on Annie but competes with her overwhelming desire to please him. Annie’s inner world was richly described and her emotions and reactions depicted with compelling depth. It was a very good depiction of an abusive relationship with a power imbalance.

I very much enjoyed this and would have happily heard lots more stories of other inhabitants of this near future world.

@elspethmcgillicudddy

RE Annie Bot - bold for me too and initially recommended by @ÚlldemoShúl