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

@cassandre very pleasing to hear there’s now another fan of Period Piece! I totally agree, it would have been great to have Gwen’s own reflections on at least part of her later life, but if you’re interested enough to go further, I can recommend the excellent biography of her by Frances Spalding. She did have quite a tough and lonely burden to bear, though, which sometimes makes it a difficult read. Here’s my review from when I read it last year:

This (beautifully-illustrated) whopper of a hardback draws together the multitudinous threads that linked Gwen to the Bloomsbury group (Virginia Woolf was a friend), the 'Neo-Pagans' (led by Rupert Brooke) and many other now-legendary figures and artistic and literary movements of the early 20thc. It’s saddening to read that life took a dark turn for Gwen as her husband, Jacques Raverat, died a hideous death of multiple sclerosis aged 40, leaving her with two small daughters to bring up alone; that she often suffered from depression in later life, and that she hastened her own end after a stroke in her 70s. But this is a meticulously researched and engrossing account of her life and art.

(I wanted to italicise that bit for ease of reading but there’s a funny bug that won’t let you do it in certain modes. Harrumph)

I really enjoyed The Keeper of Stories when I read it last year. I agree you couldn't help but root for the main character.

I've finished #10 The Cruel Prince by Holly Black. It took me a little bit to get into but overall I enjoyed it and am going to start the second book in the trilogy as I'm invested in the characters. It is a fantasy novel based around Jude and her twin sister, Taryn. Their parents are murdered and they are stolen away as children and forced to grow up in a land of faeries. The book focuses around their schooling now they are 17, the different ways they approach trying to find power in a world that is dangerous for them and Jude's part in political manoeuvring for the crown. There were a few twists that I didn't predict and I enjoyed the portrayal of a sisterly relationship that is loving but also fraught.

27. Shakespeare : The Man Who Pays The Rent by Judi Dench and Brendan O'Hea (Audible)

Another finisher here, finished last night. Absolutely outstanding I thought and a definite bold for me as O'Hea takes Judi on a biographical tour of the roles she has played. No it's not Judi on the audio, but it works and doesn't matter. She comes in like a bookend at the beginning and end and the rest is read by Barbara Flynn who does a good approximation.

As a Shakespeare fan this has rekindled my interest after a long break (Shakespeare being far too attached to my feelings for someone past) and I want now to explore some of the plays about which I know nothing, Cymbeline for example.

I'm also hoping now to go and see the RSC at Stratford in the summer!

Many thanks to @MegBusset again for the audiobook recommendation

Finty Williams does a lot of audio book readings and did an amusing interview where she said that her mum (Dame Judi) is not very good at them. So perhaps she has recognised her strengths and weaknesses 😁

Yes! She actually talks about that in the little podcast type interview they do at the end
I've looked Finty up on Audible now

So glad you enjoyed it, @EineReiseDurchDieZeit !

9 A Short Walk In The Hindu Kush - Eric Newby

Described as a classic of travel literature, though I think that may be overselling it a little - the 1950s ‘Englishman abroad’ humour, and the Empire-era attitude to indigenous people, definitely have a dated air. But there is still plenty to enjoy in this narrative of a journey through northern Afghanistan , as a description of a place and way of life that is sadly changed forever by decades of conflict since.

8 Agatha Christie's Poirot: The Greatest Detective in the World by Mark Aldridge

A Christmas present from my husband, this is an exhaustive journey through Poirot's appearances in novels, short stories, on the radio, on stage and on screen. I am a huge Christie fan and knew most of the information about the books already, but many of the accounts of adaptations were new to me. I had no idea that so many Poirot stories had been adapted for the stage. The genesis of the David Suchet TV series was also interesting. This got a little repetitive towards the end (one anecdote was repeated almost verbatim about 200 pages later on), and I skimmed some of the detail about e.g. the making of radio series. But it's an impressive piece of work and I learned a fair bit. Worth a read alongside the Christie challenge, if you are intrigued by Poirot!

Incidentally, I think this is probably the first time I've ever got this far into the year with equal numbers of male and female authors (normally I skew very female).

13 Thus was Adonis Murdered by Sarah Caudwell
I can't remember who recommended this (apologies), but it was a very entertaining read. Julia - brilliant at tax law, deeply incompetent at everyday life - goes on holiday to Venice, and ends up accused of murder. Her friends, including law academic Hilary Tamar and four junior barristers, have to unpick the puzzle, and prove Julia's innocence. I'll definitely read the rest of the series (and I very much hope Julia features in future books, she's a fabulous creation), but I'll space them out a bit given there's only a few.

14 River Kings by Cat Jarman
The author takes a small carnelian bead found in a Viking grave in England as her starting point, and uses it to trace the journeys & trading routes of the early medieval period out from Scandinavia to the east as well as west. Jarman is a bioarchaeologist, & uses forensic techniques to explore where people were born & grew up, & therefore unpick patterns of migration.

I did find this interesting, & I definitely feel better informed about the Vikings. Not a bold for me though, as I found the writing didn't really bring the period to life, & there was a certain amount of repetition.

@Sadik thank you for the Sarah Caudwell reminder! I read the first three of the Hilary Tamar series years ago, and prompted by your post have just discovered there is a fourth. Not available on Kindle like the others, which is probably why I didn't find it previously. I've now ordered a second-hand copy and am very much looking forward to it.

The Party by Tessa Hadley Coming of age novella set in post-war Bristol. Student sisters Moira and Evelyn meet a couple of men from outside their circle who invite them to spend an evening at their home. I know Bristol a bit and enjoyed the evocation of time and place but found it a bit icky especially as I heard the author speak at a bookshop event and the sisters were informed by her mother and aunt. I’d be interested to read others of her books though.

Today, I started #23 Passing by Nella Larsen

@elkiedee – goodness, Elly Griffiths doesn’t look 62! And yes, I remember the how old is Ruth discussion as she is a year older than me (Adrian Mole too lol)

@SheilaFentiman – lol, too funny! Dominica de Rosa jokes about her pseudonym and that people would assume that DeR would be it, rather than Elly Griffiths.

I also really enjoyed The Keeper of Stories. I got The Secrets of Flowers by the same author, probably as a 99p Kindle special

35. Tangles. Kay Smith-Blum This was (just about) a bold for me. It's told as a dual timeline,dual narrator story. Mary in the late 40s/early 50s is a young woman married to an abusive husband. They live in a small town in America, built for the workers of the nuclear reservation workers. Luke narrates the late 1960s part of the story. He's a few years younger than Mary, and lived next door to her before heading off to uni.

When a harpooned whale offers proof the Hanford Nuclear Reservation is endangering all life in the Columbia River Basin, Luke Hinson, a brash young scientist, seizes the chance to avenge his father’s death but a thyroid cancer diagnosis derails Luke’s research. Between treatments, he dives back in, making enemies at every turn. On an overnight trek, Luke discovers evidence that Mary, his former neighbor, embarked on the same treacherous trail, and her disappearance, a decade prior, may be tied to Hanford’s harmful practices mired in government-mandated secrecy.

Sorry, gave up trying to explain it and copied the official blurb instead. There was a bit of romance, mystery and plenty of basis in history. The author obviously researched the subject really well.

36. The Girl who Saved Them. S.E Rutledge
    French sisters Louise and Marie join the resistance and help hide and move allied soldiers from the Nazi's. Marie then signs up to go and work for the Nazi's as she can earn more this way and plans to send the money home to help Louise and the resistance. The work scheme is basically a scam, she ends up working in a mine alongside prisoners and criminals. She's not allowed to send anything home.
    
    Back in Paris Louise eventually gets caught and sent to Raensbruck. There were some fairly brutal descriptions of various punishments, although I've read worse. Obviously not everyone is going to survive. Definitely recommend this one to fans of WW2/Nazi fiction.

37. Aristotle for Novelists. Douglas Vigliotti.
    This is a non-fiction book, and the title is fairly self explanatory. It's a guide to writing fiction, based on Aristotle. It was interesting, I'm not planning on writing a novel but it's made me think about what I like/ don't like in books, and what to put in my reviews.

10 The Poison Pen Letters - Fiona Walker Second in Walker’s “Village Detectives” series, and another cosy crime with slightly dodgy writing and terrible attempted jokes/puns. Plenty of fun though, and better than the first in the series; the main characters are starting to grow on me too.

The plot revolves around 50-something Juno who has moved back to the UK after decades in the US, and rekindled her old friendship with Phoebe, a cool, calm writer who’s struggling with depression and social anxiety after suffering online attacks. Phoebe receives a death threat and then an explosive package filled with poisoned pen nibs - it explodes and kills the postie before he can give it to her, so Phoebe, Juno and their friend the pub landlord get investigating…

Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe (on the oxycontin scandal) is 99p today, if anyone wants it and doesn't have it.

13. The Perfect Stranger - PJ Kavanagh

Kavanagh was primarily a poet but also an occasional actor, a writer for children, a novelist and broadcaster. In this short but exceptionally vivid memoir - which seems to turn up on a lot of 'favourite book' lists, I’ve discovered - he evokes his upbringing as the child of a radio comedy writer (his father scripted the iconic ITMA), his haphazard schooling at various establishments of assorted degrees of competence, and his Army experience, via National Service, in the Korean War - including being wounded in action. He perceived his life as series of failures or false starts until, finally at Oxford, he happened to meet the luminously beautiful and good Sally Philipps, daughter of novelist Rosamond Lehmann and the 'perfect stranger' of the title.

They fell in love, married and began their lives together, moving to Jakarta for Patrick to start a teaching job with the British Council. But one day Sally got a scratch from a spiny plant; it became infected; she contracted polio and in days, she died, aged 24.

I chanced across this short memoir completely by accident as an offshoot of my recent Rural Hours read - something I love most about books, incidentally; the way they take you wandering down unexpected paths. It’s wonderfully written, often very funny, and heartbreaking. Although Kavanagh remarried later and had children, he was buried with Sally when he died in 2015.

PJ Kavanagh That name takes me back to O levels and Ten Contemporary Poets That sounds terribly sad @Terpsichore, I’ve ordered it.

Announcement :

The Hallmarked Man the new Strike novel is out on 2nd September

Still such a long wait 😪

But it's coming!!!

Has anyone got a good reading log notebook they can recommend .
I don't want it to write down all the ins and outs about the book , as ive seen some logs that you can add who recommended it , if it was part of a reading challenge etc just want one for title , maybe five stars to fill in if good. Maybe a few lines for the synopsis and date started finished , that type of thing . Thank you .

I use Goodareads and StoryGraph to log my reads. But they are apps rather than physical notebooks. I'm trying to cut down on physical notebooks!

Yes thanks for that , I do want to write it in actual book , I fancy having a physical book to refer to.

All the ones I've come across involve full spreads for each book, spaces for quotes and thoughts, etc. and like you I don't want all that.

I just bought a nice but normal notebook and ruled a few columns.

@evtheria

Yes I've been looking at nice looking notebooks and thinking that's the solution .