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

@bettbburg my husband and I have done a ‘buddy read’ a couple of times, but it’s hard to coordinate as we are rarely finishing up books at the same time to start something together. I t worked really well with Shuggie Bain and we had some great chats.

I’m getting a lot out of the read along here, though I keep falling behind!

Welcome @IceIceBabyBump !

@IceIceBabyBump

Welcome! Glad you made it over!

@BadSpellaSpellaSpella

LOVED The Things They Carried HATED The Twyford Code

@MamaNewtNewt @AlmanbyRoadtrip

Yes there was a strange airbrushed quality to it an artifice like Joan wasn't that important in the grand scheme of things and she definitely didn't come across that well. I'd forgotten all about the stepson - he is mentioned once only.

@Pickandmixusername I agree with bibliomania. I think my daughter was 14/15 when we went to see it. There was a child of about 11 in the audience but no other kids as far as I could see.

Just picked up The Peepshow in the deals. This thread is terrible for my tbr

I feel like when my dad spent my youth warning me about the dangers of peer pressure he never imagined it would come down to my buying more books than can be read in a reasonable lifetime

There’s probably 8 books on the woman’s non-fiction prize I’d like to read but frustratingly my library only has one of them in the catalogue.

The Peacock and the Sparrow - I.S Berry
Added to my list as it was included in lots of best reads of 2024 lists over Xmas. It’s a spy novel but in the style of Le Carre rather than James Bond.

Shane Collins is a 50-something CIA officer stationed in Bahrain and running an agent, Rashid, who is a member of an opposition group who want to fan the flames of the Arab Spring and overthrow the regime. The Bahrain government is concerned about Iranian machinations in the region and want to wipe out opposition groups. The first 50% is very character driven, setting up the people, places and politics that are needed for the denouement in the second 50% which is when the book really comes to life.

I.S Berry is an ex-CIA officer which gives it a flavour of realism - clearly office politics and paperwork exist even in a spy organisation. I wouldn’t quite bold it but it is a cut above the average spy thriller and it drew me into the world that was created.

I officially need help with the book buying- in my defence I got all of these for £23 in the charity bookshops this morning!

Congratulations on such an amazing haul. I’m very envious of your finds.

@ÚlldemoShúl

What happened to RWYO?!

I didn't rate Jack but it is absolutely essential to have read Gilead and Home beforehand if you haven't

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit she owns them now... 😂

True!

lol @SheilaFentiman I love that attitude. @EineReiseDurchDieZeit I have failed with aplomb! I decided that if I read everything I own, then I shan’t be able to afford to buy books in retirement and will have nothing to read so am considering this a pension 😁

Btw I’m only 50 so retirement is a good while away yet but they say you’re never too young to save for retirement

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit I have Gilead but not Home. I shall look out for it in my next charity bookshops trawl. There’s one street a few miles away that has 4 great second hand bookshops and when I’m there, I find it impossible to resist!

Gilead is a bit of an acquired taste but Home is gorgeous and moving but the ends of both give context to Jack

#19 Pride & Prejudice - Jane Austen

Probably does not need much introduction! But it follows the lives of the Bennett family. Mr and Mrs Bennett have five daughters. Mrs Bennett is a bit chaotic but is desperately trying to get them married off. Understandably so, as their home is entailed away from the female line, so they could end up homeless if Mr Bennett dies. Mr Bennett is a bit indifferent and closed off imo. He takes the piss out of the whole thing a lot, which looking back as an adult is so irresponsible of him. I have less respect for him reading it now and a bit more sympathy with Mrs Bennett although she is a bit ridiculous.

I know this book quite well from studying it at GCSE and A level although it was many years ago. My school's English department clearly weren't very imaginative as we did Jane Austen twice 😂

I used to love the BBC adaptation of it too, but the book is so much better imo, as clichéed as that might sound. I like the men in the bbc version, and the smaller parts...but I honestly don't like the casting choices for any of the Bennett women. I think a lot of people would disagree with that though!

I also love how Jane Austen ties up all the loose ends at the end of the book. It's so satisfying and you don't really get that on film I don't think.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie I definitely agree with your views on Scoff - it's making me quite grumpy. She also mis-spells Turnip Townshend's name, which I thought was a pretty bad show (and that it didn't get picked up in editing).

It's a shame, the idea is good, and I'd thought that the problem with Stuffed was just that it was a follow-on and she'd run out of material.

17. The Scarred Woman by Jussi Adler-Olsen

Book 7 in the Department Q series. The set up was a bit silly, are there really that many Danes who would just decide to become a murderer so easily? The resolution was quite satisfying, if reliant on a few too many coincidences, but the people of Dept Q will keep me reading to the end of this series.

38. Family Affairs at the Orchard Cottage Hospital. Lizzie Lane
    Book 2 in the series, the first was my first review of the year.
    Its 1930 and Dr Frances is still running the Orchard Cottage Hospital. People seem to be accepting the lady doctor, although the new Mother and baby unit she wants to set up causes some upset. Mainly because she tells the women about contraception and how to get it.
    And we find out who Frances' biological parents are, she was adopted from the workhouse as a baby. It's exactly the kind of thing you expect from this genre, a nice easy comfort read. Although sexual abuse and incest is mentioned, not explicitly, but it's clear it happened.

39. Matritto/Motherhood. Ameena Tabessum
    This is another book that was let down by the writing. It was translated from the original Bangla, so it could have been a translation issue.
    Lucy is a 15 year old girl living in Woking with her younger sister and Mum. Neither of the Dads are around, Mum is an alcoholic. Just general neglect. Lucy falls in with a gang of Asian men, one of whom tells her she's his GF, grooms her and sends her out shoplifting and so on. She ends up pregnant.

Millie is Lucy's social worker. She's also a single Mum, who despite being a social worker doesn't seem to notice that her own teenager is struggling. Her husband was from an arranged marriage and was abusive, so she left when she was pregnant.

If anyone watched the drama about the girls in Rotherham it was very similar to that.

40. Shadow Runner. K.J. Fieler I think this was set in Victorian London, there were some historical inaccuracies, but it's fantasy so I guess the author can do what they like! Ada is the daughter of a wealthy family. Her mother dies giving birth to her brother who is stillborn and she is then kidnapped by "the shadows". Ada is taught to fight, steal and lie. Eventually she becomes a shadow and is sent to gather information from Londons elite.

I actually really enjoyed this. There was plenty of action, and I was never really sure who to trust. Everyone told Ada different things and it wasn't clear until the end what the truth was. The Shadows can jump through time using special watches which open a kind of portal, but they can't spend too long in the space between portals as it kills them. Being sent there is used as a punishment, which is kind of horrific as the trainees are children. A bit Hunger Games ish!

41. The Promise She Made. Julie Hartley Set in WW2. Ruby and Eliza have been orphaned and live with their Aunt and her abusive husband. Ruby decides that the only way she can keep Eliza safe is by applying to CODA for passage to Canada. They get offered space on the SS Benares which was torpedoed by the Germans with huge loss of life. Eliza slipped out of Ruby's arms and her name was never on the list of survivors. Ruby broke up with her fiancé just before she sailed, and as she now has nothing to live for she joins the SOE and trains to become a wireless operative in France. For various spoiler related reasons I won't say much more. But I enjoyed this a lot. A lot of the history was true. The SS Benares for example. And of course there really were female SOE agents.

This week’s reads:

9 The Medieval World - Dorsey Armstrong
Lecture series spanning history from 500 - 1500, mainly in France and England tbh rather than ‘the world’.

10 I’m Not As Well As I Thought I Was - Ruby Wax
Bit of a jumble as Ruby tells us about her various travel adventures mixed in with episodes from her psychiatric admission in 2022 - interesting and funny though.

11 One for the Money - Janet Evanovich
First in the series about bounty hunter Stephanie Plum, wouldn’t have picked it up normally but it was a book club choice. Stephanie has lost her job as an underwear buyer so starts working for her dodgy cousin as a bounty hunter (as you do), trailing alleged murderer (and definite thief of her virginity aged 16) Joe Morelli. This was page turny nonsense but entertaining and I’ll continue the series as flight/beach reads I think. Generally light hearted but took a dark turn with some very grim sexual violence that I think would be handled differently now (published in 1994).

Definitely not!

@Sadik Sorry you’re not enjoying it. She is very irritating.

You did warn me Remus! I'm ever hopeful. And very appreciative of the copy even so :)

Book 8 finished yesterday.

shift by Hugh Howey. The 2nd of the Silo trilogy. While not as paced and dramatic as wool this was still a very gripping story - so much so that I immediately started book 3.

Shift delves deeper into the concept of the silo and how it started. You often find yourself reading the same story as in book 1 but from a different character perspective which I really enjoyed. There are aspects of it that are sadly more believable than they really should
be given the rather fractured state of the world.

Not a bold and avoid the audible version at all costs. But very good