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 have 50 pages to go so will be done by the weekend I should think.

17 Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout
One of my reading goals for this year is to finish the Amgash books. The Olive books and I loved the first of these (My Name is Lucy Barton) were all bolds for me. This second instalment is a set of linked short stories centring around Amgash and the Barton family. This didn’t work as well for me as the same set up in Olive Kitteridge. Some of the stories were excellent- I particularly enjoyed those from Pete’s, Abel’s and Patty’s POVs but others were wide of the mark. Am hoping that the next books improve on this one.

Rivers of London Ben Aaronovitch (audio)
My second successful audio book after (I think) @ÚlldemoShúl recommended the narrator, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith. I was not let down. This isn’t the sort of thing I would normally read, and I don’t really get on that well with audio, and I think I did probably miss some nuance in the mystery in this format as I find it hard concentrate on. That said, I got enough to really enjoy it. The narrator is indeed fabulous. I am very familiar with all the London spaces which made this quite captivating actually.

I am sure I am last to these books, but essentially someone or something is going about murdering and it’s up to Peter, a wizard in training and an ensemble cast find out who and stop them.

@AgualusasLover I think it was me who recommended it - it’s Kobna’s narration that makes it for me. I first listened to them from a recommendation on here so I’m just keeping that circle spinning

@BestisWest Re Elly Griffiths/Domenica de Rosa - indeed I got her age wrong! Sorry about that. I think I must be mixing her up with another writer who was born in December 1962 (not sure who!). DP and two of my cousins were also born in 1963.

10 Master And Commander - Patrick O’Brian

Enjoyable seafaring yarn that sails along at a decent pace, though not sure I was fussed enough to read further in the series - maybe a good holiday read for the future.

@Piggywaspushed I've borrowed The Mischief Makers from the library - I enjoyed a previous book by Elizabeth Gifford and I'm not sure I registered the Du Maurier connection.

6.Butter by Asako Yuzuki Heavily reviewed on the thread already, this is a novel loosely based on a true story. Manako Kajii is a notorious prisoner awaiting trial for her alleged involvement in the deaths of three men, whom she is said to have seduced with her expert cooking. Riko, who works in the back office of a magazine is desperate to get Kajii's story to help get her break in journalism.

This started very well, and I was sucked into the plot. There's lots of food writing, which I rather enjoyed, although I know others found it a bit excessive, and there were interesting reflections on feminism and body image Japan. However it felt quite unevenly paced, almost like Yuzuki couldn't decide if she was writing a psychological thriller or not. I mostly enjoyed it but found the last few chapters a bit of a chore if I'm honest.

Hi! Just thought I had better pass by as it will
be a good few days before I finish my current book. I am reading/listening to Shift the second of the Silo series by Hugh Howey. It is good. Really very good. Really engaging and I like the way aspects of the plot from book one and retold from a different perspective in book 2.

however.

the audible narration is, without question, the absolute worst I have ever heard. I had to take a break for most of last week as I couldn’t bear it. The narrative is generally fine. No issues. But the voices. Good LORD they are absolutely awful. Goofy, any character from the Simpsons or a comedy actor from a 1950s sit com. I have literally no idea why he would choose such a ridiculous set of accents and voices for what is, ultimately, a serious book where some pretty gnarly shit happens. It’s hard to take it all seriously when you are waiting for a “hyuk hyuk” at the end of the sentence.

jt reached a head the other day when there was a dramatic scene. A main character is in grave danger. My genuine first thought was “oh thank god! I won’t need to listen to that voice anymore!” Then, in a scene which should have been very moving. Had I been reading jt, I think I might have been moved to tears in fact. But it is hard to do anything but laugh when Marge Simpson’s twin sisters start singing a lullaby

Anyway. I have made my peace with it and shall power on because the story is worth it

I read this recently and found it really hard going. Not the psychological thriller I was expecting! And also lots of odd dead ends/ tangents. I never really got into and skimmed the last 20% or so.

Hmm, I've recently joined a book club, and Butter is next month's read. I did remember it'd had rather mixed reviews on here.

We've also got The Salt Path and Orbital coming up (though actually I'm quite up for a lack of plot, & I suspect I may like the latter).

I really didn't enjoy either book @Sadik

25 The Postscript Murders - Domenica de Rosa (aka Elly Griffiths)
After one or two enablers 😀on here gave this high praise, I picked it up cheap-ish on Kindle. It’s the second DS Harbinder Kaur book and is set amongst crime writers and those who know them (vs the last book, set amongst English teachers and creative writing enthusiasts!)

An elderly lady, Peggy, is found dead by her carer and a mysterious card identifies her as a Murder Consultant. An unlikely trio of the carer, the neighbour and a coffee-brewing ex monk have their suspicions raised and set out to investigate if it really was natural causes. Along the way, they meet DS Kaur, and some of the crime writers who acknowledged Peggy’s help in their books… but then the writers themselves prove to be in danger.

I enjoyed it. I think I should have read it in fewer sittings (I was reading a chapter or two at a time on a weekend away) but it was well plotted and set in an interesting universe. Plus Harbinder’s personal life has a couple of important developments.

26 Layla - Colleen Hoover

Very good, a bold for me. Lagged slightly in the middle but picked up to a great ending.

Hard to review without spoilers, but it opens to Leeds, a musician, falling in love with Layla, a bridesmaid, at a remote hotel where he is in the band for her sister’s wedding. An idyllic few months ensue, but then their peace is brutally shattered. To recuperate, Leeds takes Layla back to the hotel, which is now up for sale and deserted. Before long, spooky things start happening and Layla is getting more and more stressed whilst Leeds tries to solve the mystery of why things are moving around and why his laptop slammed on his hands when no one was in the room…

Women's Prize Non-fiction Long list is out.

Autocracy, Inc. by Anne Applebaum (Allen Lane)

Embers of the Hands by Eleanor Barraclough (Profile)

The Eagle and the Hart by Helen Castor (Allen Lane)

A Thousand Threads by Neneh Cherry (Vintage)

The Story of A Heart by Rachel Clarke (Abacus)

Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton (Canongate)

Ootlin by Jenni Fagan (Hutchinson Heinemann)

Why Fish Don’t Exist by Lulu Miller (Pushkin)

Agent Zo by Clare Mulley (Weidenfeld)

By the Fire We Carry by Rebecca Nagle (William Collins)

Wild Thing by Sue Prideaux (Faber)

What the Wild Sea Can Be by Helen Scales (Atlantic)

The Peepshow by Kate Summerscale (Bloomsbury)

Sister in Law by Harriet Wistrich (Transworld)

Tracker by Alexis Wright (And Other Stories)

Private Revolutions by Yuan Yang (Bloomsbury)

There’s a few there that catch my attention @FortunaMajor especially Embers of the Hand, The Storybof a Heart, Agent Zo and Private Revolutions.
Another which interests me is The Peepshow which is £1.99 on kindle today if anyone else wants to grab it too.

The Peepshow is the only one I’ve read but tbh I’d be surprised if it could win out against what must be a strong field of 15 others.

Ooh I've just looked these out on Audible and the first one is free!

Added to library.

Thanks!

I hope you like it.

I'm reading a jojo moyes book, the sheltering rain. I haven't read one of hers before but it's the oldest book on my kindle so here goes. It's a prompt from a reading challenge.

I really liked Orbital when I read it last month.

Anybody else struggling to find this thread on the App? It’s fallen off threads I’m watching and threads I’m on and isn’t even coming up when I search for it - it’s all very odd.
I’ve come on the website to find it and I’m posting in the hope it reappears on threads I’m on.

29. Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Kambali and Jaja live in fear in a strict, prescribed, regime where their super religious father controls everything they do and there is a violent undercurrent, will a trip to visit their Aunt undo all their father's efforts?

I thought this was really very good, if a bit slight, and probably a bold. I've now read all Adichie's novels and look forward to her new one later this year.

I read Butter with my book club last year @Sadik but we all found it a bit over-hyped. Some good foodie descriptions but the plot lacked substance, the style (or translation) was a bit clunky, and the ending didn't really work. I think it suffered from being based on a true story and she didn't really know how to tie it all up.

Thanks for posting the Woman's Prize longlist @FortunaMajor . I don't read much NF but was a Neneh Cherry fan back in the day. Well probably wait till some of you tell me which ones are worth it before diving in.

@DesdamonasHandkerchief I don't use the app but it's found a weird thing where threads I'm on takes me to a post on page 5 instead of my latest one - on Chrome android phone.

#18 - Shakespeare, the man who pays the rent - Judi Dench

I saw this mentioned on here a few times already. That's actually why I decided to buy it!

It is a sort of memoir, but focusing on the parts JD has played in Shakespeare productions (film and on stage). I really enjoyed this and all of the anecdotes. I only know the really well known plays, and not even all of those. I enjoyed learning more about the plays I wasn't familiar with (Winter's Tale and King Lear especially). I am not an actor and get stage fright even presenting to a small group at work, so am not likely to become one any time soon! But I still loved learning how actors think about how to play certain characters.

I haven't read any of the reviews on here yet, so will go back and read the ones I can find!

Buddy read? Do any of you like doing them?