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

Thoughts and prayers @MrsALambert😁

@PermanentTemporary I’m so jealous! I love Pompeii. Obvs. Have a great time.

Talking of old stuff…

1. Dark Earth – Rebecca Stott

A historical fiction set in early Saxon London, where two sisters live on an island on the south bank; Isla, who in contravention of Kin Law is helping her blacksmith father make swords, and Blue, a seer. When their father dies at the start of the novel, the sisters are forced to move to the Ghost City, the ruins of Roman London, and make their lives among the outcasts who lurk there. But trouble pursues them there through their actions and defiance of the accepted roles and behaviour of women at the time.

I liked the world building of the Saxons, the vivid descriptions of the City abandoned by the Romans, and the details of daily life, not a period that I know much about. The author obviously did a lot of research. I also enjoyed the last few pages bringing the story up to date with the archaeological discovery of a Saxon artefact used in the book, a true story which inspired the book itself. However, there were parts which didn’t quite do it for me: not much plot, the characters were not fleshed out enough (despite there being only a few main characters I didn’t feel I got to know them sufficiently) and the denouement included a rip-off of Macbeth that was quite frankly laughable. It was a good, but not a great read.

This was a RWYO – albeit one I bought in December last year 😊. Second book disposed of this year so I’m now only 3 up on 31st December total. Next book club choice is due soon so that may change…

What happened to the numbering?? That was no. 7.

You might also like a book I got out of the library a couple of years ago -
Walls Come Tumbling Down: the Music and Politics of Rock Against Racism, 2 Tone & Red Wedge by Daniel Rachel.

19 Never Never - Colleen Hoover and Tarryn Fisher

I think this will be a bold.

Charlize and Silas are 17 and 18, and they have both lost certain memories. Despite not remembering each other, there is a deep bond between them and they have to try and figure out what happened and what went wrong, before they lose their chance.

This was a romantic and very human story, which built tension well. The resolution wasn’t perfect but I’m very glad I read it (especially as a contrast with my previous gruesome read!)

It's been on my unread pile since it came out in paperback.

I'm interested in people's positive reviews of The Fraud. I read it last year and was very disappointed as I thought it sounded right up my street. I'm pretty much predisposed to like all of her work as she was in the year below me at school and I feel a sense of connection with a lot of her settings and characters. But I thought this was just really boring. It got better towards the end when the Andrew Bogle character and his backstory in the Jamaican plantations came in but by then I was a bit fed up and just wanted to finish it.

I'd be interested to know whether people who enjoyed it had also read many of her previous novels?

A Little Life is one of my all-time favourite novels. I’m typing in my phone so can’t be bothered trying to fiddle round to dig up my review from 2017. But in my view it’s a masterpiece.

Another masterfully done novel is in the Kindle sake - Lolita.

I've read all of them. I liked most of The Fraud. I love White Teeth and was completely unmoved by any of her other books.

I've only read Whire Teeth and The Fraud, plus i have enjoyed some essays - always meant to read more but never did. I was led to read The Fraud because I like reading about those enormous 19th century legal cases - Suspicions of Mr Whicher et al. Once I'd finally read and loved Bleak House (the first Dickens I managed to finish aged about 40), I found that whole setting intriguing. Who was it wrote about the Dreyfus case a few years back?

I thought her handling of the real and the imagined was really impressive.

Who was it wrote about the Dreyfus case a few years back?

Robert Harris in An Officer and a Spy?

I hugely struggled with The Fraud and I'm a big Zadie Smith fan. I really wanted to like it, thought it was a great premise and obviously a fascinating legal case, but I found the style and the detail very difficult to get through.

I didn't really like The Fraud that much IIRC. Or at least was unmoved by it. Not read any others of hers. I enjoyed the British Scandal podcast series about the Tichborne Claimant though.

I read a really fascinating non-fiction about the Tichborne case once, can’t remember what it was called, though. I must see if I can identify it again!

I can't remember the name of the ex Holby (I think...) actor wo wrote a passable novel partly about it.

Oh that was Paterson Joseph and it was about Ignatius Sancho.... but similar times and setting.

Agree Remus, there were one or two things that caught my eye but a quick check of the local library stock showed they were available to borrow so I'm saving my 99p (I know, I'm very disciplined!)
Can anyone recommend a good (auto)biography? Got an audible credit to use

I don't know if it would be everyone's cup of tea, but I really like the matthew perry autobiography on audible. I've listened to it more than once, which I rarely do with audiobooks

@InTheCludgie

Both biography but Andrew Roberts' Churchill which is a doorstop and A Woman Of No Importance by Sonia Purnell which is about a spy named Virginia Hall in the 2nd World War

I also really enjoyed Matthew Perry’s book.

Also excellent is I Remember Nothing by Nora Ephron, which is currently 99p in the Kindle sale.

@Pickandmixusername I listened to the Matthew Perry biography last month and found it very moving. Might give A Woman of No Importance a go @EineReiseDurchDieZeit, thanks for the recommendation

It was a bold for me Cludgie

@PermanentTemporary I loved Mr Whicher. I think I made the mistake of assuming it was going to be like that, so the fault is mine and I appreciate that she has done something very interesting.

@GrannieMainland My thoughts exactly! Thank you.

@InTheCludgie – belated happy birthday!

@Cherrypi i – I’ve just borrowed The Night Hawks from the library 😊

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit – I really enjoyed James by Percival Everett, Weyward by Emilia Hart and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid on Audible.

I've just bought Meditations for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman on daily deal - reviewed by a few people on here.

11 Whale Fall by Elizabeth O'Connor
Set in 1938 on a small island off the coast of Wales where 18 year old Manod lives with her father and younger sister. As rumours of a possible war reach the islanders, two outsiders come to stay, researching island life for a book. They employ Manod - who learnt English at school - as a translator, and the book is told from her perspective as she learns more about them.
I really liked the idea of this book, but it didn't quite hit the spot for me. The island didn't feel fully convincing, & the characters also didn't feel entirely realised. It wasn't helped by some bad mis-spellings in the Welsh used. I'm not a Welsh speaker, but they were pretty glaring. (Ffermer Dafydd for sheep farmer was the most notable - should be ffermwr defaid - particularly random as Dafydd is a very common given name, equivalent to David.)

12 Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
This on the other hand was excellent. Much reviewed on here, & I don't have anything particular to add except that it had a sense of place in spades that Whale Fall lacked. My only gripe was that I wanted to know what was going to happen next when it ended (though I can really see that that wasn't the point, we'd got where we needed to be).
I read this thinking that I'd then like to see the film, but I think now maybe I don't want to & it would spoil things.

6) Nothing Left to Fear From Hell by Alan Warner
Loved this. The author has imagined Bonnie Prince Charlie's escape from Scotland after Culloden. We all know he got away, that he was disguised as a female servant at one point. But what was it actually like for him, trying to escape, being sought by the authorities, with the constant threat of betrayal?

Really different, definitely a must read if you are interested in this period of history.