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

For the first time in ages I've bought loads in the Kindle sale. I'm not even attempting to only read the books I already own. Any recommendations of what to read first?

The Covenant of Water
Les Parisiennes
The Great Believers
The Hour I First Believed
Vaxxers
Letter to my Daughter
Band of Brothers
The Close (Maeve Kerrigan)
Annie Bot
No Name in the Street
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
French Braid
Wench

Plus also bought Tipping the Velvet and In Memoriam that I have in print but I never seem to pick up a print book theses days.

Hey @TattiePants

I would say Annie Bot and I would also say don't read the Maeve Kerrigan books out of order because the personal relationships that evolve over the course of time are a huge part of what makes it good

Many thanks @Tarragon123 but I've read all those!

#11 Wintering - Katherine May

This was recommended to me years ago and I bought it, stuck it on my book shelf and never got round to reading it.

I think that if I'd read it when I first bought it, I'd have found it a bit more interesting. It has some beautiful parts and the odd bit of humour (eg when she goes to the sauna and ends up overheating - it sounds really mean that I found that humorous, but I mean the writing of course!). But the pickling, gingerbread and sour dough, cold water swimming in the sea, home schooling etc... I don't know if it has as much relevance today as it would have a few years ago... I don't know if that's just specific to me or just the state of the world in general.

But I did enjoy it. I'll admit that I skimmed the last chapter though.

@Pickandmixusername I bought Wintering a couple of months ago as it sounded lovely, but when I started reading it I just wasn't feeling it, so that's in the TBR pile.

Thank you to whoever mentioned that Annie Bot was in the sale - I've bought it, and it might jump the queue.

I saw that The Year of The Flood by Margaret Atwood was also in the sale - it's the second in the trilogy, which I've read before but was fancying re-reading, so I've added the other two to my list, in the hope that they also will be available for 99p soon.

At the moment I'm reading Gentleman Bastards #3 - Republic of Thieves which I am thoroughly enjoying.

I think I had a couple of false starts with it too @Castlerigg, but I think you need to be in the mood for it. Parts of it are lovely and it's fairly short. I did start to find the author quite out of touch by the end, but that is possibly a little unfair as it is not a new book

I hadn't realised it wasn't new @Pickandmixusername. I suspect it might be an Autumn read. Might not have the same effect heading into Spring.

I'd also say Annie Bot @TattiePants

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit did you want non fiction or fiction on audio? If non fiction, & you like pop science, Marcus du Sautoy reads his own books very well. I also thought Doppelganger worked well on audio.

Fiction, I enjoyed Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky on audio last year, again very well read (which made the book for me, I don't think I'd have enjoyed it on paper).

Happy Sunday 50Bookers

9. The Women by Kristin Hannah I know Kristin Hannah is much reviewed but the only other book by her I have read was The Great Alone which I enjoyed a few years ago. This was the story of Frankie McGrath a young woman in the 1960s who completed her nurse training and promptly volunteered for Vietnam, in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to make it onto her father's "heroes' wall" where all the male military achievements are memorialised. Her parents are appalled at the idea, and before she leaves for Vietnam, they get news that her brother has been killed in action. It is a book of two halves, the first half set in Vietnam itself and the two mobile military hospitals she served in, the friends she made there and harrowing descriptions of the casualties she encountered and the toll the war was having on the Vietnamese people she encountered. The second half follows Frankie after she returns home, in addition to her brother, she has lost two men she loved, and the American public see Vietnam vets as baby murderers and many, including veterans themselves refuse to acknowledge there were any women serving in Vietnam. The relationship with her parents breaks down and she struggles with addiction and depression. I thought it was a good read, but about half way through the second part I began to think this was beginning to get a bit misery-lit, when more and more troubles were piled onto Frankie, and she just couldn't get a break. (not on the level of A Little Life but still. More uplifting towards the end, when she began to find her way, and overall a good read. I've had The Nightingale on my TBR pile for a while, so might move that up the list.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit When I had conjunctivitis, I enjoyed a free audiobook of Treasure Island. Not something I would have read otherwise, but the pirate voices were entertaining.
4. The Voices of Morebath: Reformation & Rebellion in an English Village - Eamon Duffy
Sir Christopher Trychay was the priest in a small Devon village from the 1520s to the 1570s, and kept unusually detailed parish accounts. Duffy uses them to full effect to unfold the history of the Reformation in microcosm, particularly highlighting the consequences for communal life and the sheer cost of it all.
5. Pictures and Stories from Forgotten Children’s Books - Arnold Arnold
Found in the charity bookshop where I volunteer. The author’s selection of extracts from his own collection of British/American children’s books 1750 to 1850, thematically arranged. Fascinating. DD(16) was particularly impressed by the poem claiming that those who disrespect their parents will end up with ravens and eagles picking out their eyes.
Now reading the classic Elizabethan time-slip novel A Traveller in Time.

@Sadik

Alas! I listened to Doppelganger last year. I will take a look at the others you mention thank you !

@WelshBookWitch

Totally agree about The Women the way loss and misery was just piled on Frankie was far too much and I got worn down by it, that and that she was far Too Perfect before all that happened

@ChannelLightVessel

Thank ye me hearty ahoy!

#12 1984 - George Orwell

I tried listening to the adaptation of this on audible as it was free and has an amazing cast, plus a musical score from Mark Bellamy of Muse fame. I found it hard to listen to tbh - too panicky/scary, but also the sex scenes were a bit...unsexy (deliberate I'm sure, but still not easy to listen to)! Editing to add that I gave up on the adaptation.

Anyway, I decided to shell out for the unabridged version instead and got Orwell's complete works. So I have just listened to 1984 and will try to listen to the other works over the year.

I've never read 1984 before, so it was all new to me.

Written in the 1940s and partly inspired by the third reich in germany and also Stalinist Russia. The main protagonist is Winston Smith who lives in a time around 1984, but nobody knows the exact date. It is written from his perspective.

Winston works in the Ministry of Truth in a dystopian "future" London, where he has to correct news articles retrospectively to make sure they align with the Party's current truth. The Party is led by Big Brother, who is never seen in person, but who party members are supposed to love completely. Party members (the sort of middle class) have telescreens in their homes which they cannot turn off, which show a never ending reel of news. The UK is now part of a super power called Oceania which makes up the UK, America, Australia and parts of Africa. It isn't called england/britain/the UK anymore.

Oceania is always at war with one or other of the other superpowers. People are hanged in public and others frequently just disappear and become non persons. Winston knows it's horribly wrong and he thinks one of his colleagues might think the same as him, which gives him hope.

So, so much to say about this book, but I won't go on. It's a classic for a reason I guess! Can't say I enjoyed it per se as it was pretty brutal, but if you like dystopia novels, this seems to be one of the OGs.

It was cool to find out where words and phrases like doublethink, newspeak, Room 101 and Big Brother came from.

I also thought I recognised some themes from Game of thrones weirdly as I don't even like GoT! But stuff about "the brotherhood" and also a way they get information out of people about the brotherhood. I won't specify in case it's a spoiler for either 1984 or GoT.

Some racist language and (imo) misogyny, but I can't tell if that is Winston talking, or Orwell, or maybe both.

@Tattiepants as I have said rather too often on here, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is my favourite book. It's marmite, though, and plenty here don't like it! It is short and it's definitely a "mood" so I recommend sitting down and reading it in a gulp if you can, letting it wash over you like a fever dream.

I like it too!

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit I'm currently listening to Cryptonomicon on Audible and loving it (if you want an absolute doorstop!).

7. What I Ate in One Year (and related thoughts) by Stanley Tucci

One to dip into. Made me very hungry! He seems like a lovely man. But he eats a heck of a lot of carbs!!

Thank you to all those of you who recommended:

8.Strange Sally Diamond - Liz Nugent

I started it yesterday and finished it this morning. A great book which I couldn’t put down. I thought Sally was a fabulous character and was really rooting for her throughout. I don’t want to say any more and spoil it for anyone who hasn’t read it.

Checking in to this thread! I’m still working my way through Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb. There wasn’t a great deal of plot in the first half and an awful lot of set up and character building. Whilst beautifully done, I find that quite hard going when it’s such a big book but it’s now picked up the pace and I’m loving it.

I’m also on the Count of Monte Cristo thread and loving that.

And then today I started Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir on audio from the library. I’ve prioritised this as the waiting list for it is so long but… I’m not loving it. It’s giving me Dark Matter vibes which was my most hated read last year 😅. Has anyone read it? Do I push through? Maybe scifi just isn’t for me.

Promptly ordered that from the library, thank you!

@MonOncle

So...Project Hail Mary on audio was probably my best read of 2024!

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit this is the thing! It’s so incredibly popular and I’ve only seen people rave about it. I’ll keep on with it.

@WelshBookWitch
I read The Nightingale a few years back - I think it’s the only Kristin Hannah I’ve read - and loved it. Tissues were required.

@Welshwabbit
I couldn’t say that The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie was my favourite book but I do absolutely love it!!

@Arran2024
I have the Tucci on my TBR pile. I’m a big fan!!

Currently really enjoying One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson.

I am going to be the resident grump of the thread and say I wasn’t a fan of either The Women or The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.