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

I thought Annie Bot was excellent too, and hadn't realised I'd got the recommendation on here, so thanks to Úlldemo from me too

Joining late if that is ok?

1. Tombland - C J Samson (loved this)
2. Death in Disguise - Caroline Graham
3. Written in blood - Caroline Graham
4. The Tao of Pooh - Benjamin Hoff
5. Stop Reading the News - Rolf Dobelli
6. 6.20 Man - David Baldacci
7. The Mysterious Affair at Style - Agatha Christie
8. The Diet Starts Monday - Laura Adlington

Absolutely OK 🙂 Any of those you enjoyed and can recommend to us @Pickandmixusername ?

Thankyou ☺

I loved Tombland (bloody love Shardlake) and the Laura Adlington one, but they were honestly all pretty enjoyable. Haven't had any stinkers this year!

22. The Secret Lives Of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw

A short story collection that does what it says on the tin. Another Read What You Own under 200 pages but read over a couple of days.

I mean....it's solid, there were 2 with the same character that I particularly liked. I'm not really a short story reader as such but had heard this absolutely raved about from more than one quarter on BookTube.

It's good. Shrug.

That's it for me for January. Possibly the most on form with reading month I've ever had. Don't think I will continue to put these numbers up going forward.

I've just finished Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros, the third Fourth Wing book. Really more of the same, dragons, shagging (a bit less this time) and whining from the heroine who would really piss me off of she was a friend of mine! Resolves some parts and creates lots more cliff hangers for the next part. Dragon parts are easily the most interesting.

That's interesting to hear. I've been considering Fourth Wing for my next series after finishing ACOTAR but I'm not sure now. I may have a break from fantasy/romantasy for a bit.

Welcome @Pickandmixusername I enjoyed the Shardlake books too.
Glad to see the love spreading for Annie Bot, it doesn’t seem to have had the same hype as a lot of lesser books so nice to seeing it getting some attention here- I think I first heard about it on BookTube- maybe Simon Savidge?
@EineReiseDurchDieZeit I quite liked The Secret Lives of Church Ladies- the good stories were excellent but I agree some were a bit meh.

I’ve just finished
12 Arrangements in Blue by Amy Key
This is a memoir by a poet on living a life without romantic love and the music of Joni Mitchell. I don’t generally like books which are about music/musicians for some reason but a friend of mine asked me to read this. I think some sections of the book worked really well and were moving and insightful but others came across as incredibly self-absorbed. I really did skim the Joni Mitchell bits as it felt like listening to some pretentious idiot rambling on and on in the pub about the backlist of someone he thinks it’s a personality trait to like.

@GameOfJones I think I preferred them to ACOTAR but the heroine is equally OP as my teens would say.

From your user name, I suspect a fondness for dragons, and communicating dragons add a pretty cool dimension. It's fun.

@ÚlldemoShúl

Oh I definitely liked it well enough but was expecting to be blown away which didn't happen

3 North Woods by Daniel Mason
I had this book on my to read pile - I didn't know anything about it. Well, what a read! Unlike anything else I have ever read. It is historical fiction mixed with environmentalism with supernatural goings on mixed in. It takes you through a patch of land in New England over the years. The reviews are amazing. So glad I read it and am interested in reading more of his work.

3. The Fraud by Zadie Smith
I loved this, after about the first 50 pages - couldn't get the hang of it at first, but once I did it was so enjoyable. It's a two-hander told by Eliza Touchet and Andrew Bogle, fictionalised real people associated with the 19th century novelist William Ainsworth and the notorious Victorian case of the Tichborne Claimant. The story literally spans the globe but centres on 19th century London and Jamaica, giving remarkable insight into both in my view. It's acerbic, sardonic, wistful, harsh and warm. (I particularly loved Smith's portrait of Dickens).

A Spy Among Friends by Ben Macintyre

A group of men who become friends at Cambridge are enlisted into the security services and remain friends for many years. After their various successes and strengthening their bond through their clandestine roles, there are murmurings that there may be a double agent in their midst.

This is the true story of an amazing feat of deception within our very own security services that also massively impacted the working relationship with the USA and affected Intelligence services around the globe. The tale of friendship and camaraderie between Philby and Elliott was in itself heartwarming but the levels of hurt described towards the end I felt in every fibre of my bones.

The embarrassment, which would have been felt by all the parties involved, must've been sickening especially given their specialities.

I thoroughly enjoyed this despite at times losing track of dates places and job roles. I would recommend reading this if you are interested in this genre. It was well-written and kept me gripped until the last page.

This is definitely a bold for me. Thank you for the recommendation 50 bookers!

Since I read the Medusa Frequency by Russell Hoburn, I have thought about it every day since. So for that reason, I am going to give it a bold also.

14. Old Filth by Jane Gardam

Much reviewed so I will just add that I loved it. Probably not something I would have picked up if not for the recommendations here.

I'd like to join, albeit I don't think there's a hope that I'll get near 50 books this year, but it'll be good for seeing lots of recommendations! I'm not necessarily looking for works of literary genius but more about the vibes as I'll probably forget 95% of the plot in two weeks.

My list so far...

1. Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros
2. That's Not My Name by Meghan Lally
3. A Thousand Broken Pieces by Tillie Cole
4. Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros

My list so far...
(1) The Nurse by Valerie Keogh
(2) The Wrong Child by Julia Crouch and M. J. Arlidge

The latest book....

(3) The Perfect Parents

The gripping psychological thriller from bestselling author J.A. Baker
Jackson and Lydia Hemsworth are pillars of the community, feted for having the perfect marriage and three wonderful children – Florence, Jessica and Ezra.
But appearances can be deceptive.
Because behind closed doors Jackson Hemsworth rules his family with cruelty and control. His marriage is a sham; his children for years have cowed in fear.
Until the day that Jackson and Lydia throw themselves off Newport Bridge in a joint suicide pact – the final cruel blow by Jackson to control his wife and torture his adult children.
As the Hemsworth siblings return to their family home, they must try to make sense of their parents’ last act. But there are many dark secrets waiting to be unearthed at Armett House.
Like, why are the townsfolk so suddenly hostile towards them? And who are the strangers who arrive at Armett House unannounced? And why has their mother’s body still not been found?
In the aftermath of their parents’ death, it becomes clear that something terrible is about to be exposed about the Hemsworths’ perfect parents.
A secret they may all wish had stayed hidden…
A gripping psychological thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Perfect for fans of Valerie Keogh, Diana Wilkinson and Keri Beevis.

It was okay easy to read....

Onto my fourth!

I didn't read a single book last year - really loving this challenge 😊

A Tomb with a View by Peter Ross
100% bold. I loved this. Thanks so much to whoever first recommended it. It’s a wander through various graveyards of the UK and, as a graveyard wanderer myself, I especially loved reading about graveyards and specific graves that I’ve seen personally. It’s not at all macabre and is as much about life and love as it is about death. Fascinating, funny, sensitive, compassionate. A class act.

I’m always pleased when someone likes A Tomb With A View @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie . It could have been very dull indeed in the wrong hands but it was superb.

My two minor criticisms are that I would have liked more photographs and that I felt the Irish section dragged a little, but he’s a superb writer.

Agree about the photographs, I made a note of most of the tombs so I could look them up later.

Me too!

8 Wool - Hugh Howey

I’ve heard a lot of good things about this and it’s been made into a tv series. DH was engrossed in the tv show and banged on about it to the point I bumped up the book to the top of my TBR.

In a post apocalyptic wasteland where the very air will poison you the remnants of humanity live in a gigantic self sufficient underground silo. It follows several characters through the politics and struggle for survival within and ultimately the secrets that are being kept from them.

I don’t know if I’m being unfair but I expected to be blown away by this. The concept I found fascinating and the general story kept me reading but it was heavy on the mechanical detail and the characterisation was weak to me. I wasn’t rooting for anyone. I have the next two in the series but think will try something else for a bit. Ho hum.

A Tomb With A View was nearly a bold for me too except that he ignored Wales which piqued me at the time for some reason. His Churches book is good too.

I don't have a book buying ban because there is nothing so likely to make me want to buy books as a self imposed ban. Having said that my halo is currently shining because I haven't bought myself any books this year, mainly because between my birthday and Christmas I always received a ton of new books in December and January and so spend every new year reading those I'm most excited about before some time in the spring getting the itch and visiting Waterstones.

No book ban here either, although I'm lucky to live close to a great library. so I can gorge on books without depriving my child of new shoes. In January I've spent a fiver on two books from a charity shop and four quid on two kindle books, so it's been relatively cheap as bacchanalian orgies go.