50 Books Challenge 2025 Part Three

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the third 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 here and the second thread here.

30. Fall and Rise: The Story of 9/11 - Mitchell Zuckoff (NF)

This was excellent and thanks to the poster who recommended it upthread. It wasn't a RWYO but hey, I had a stressful week and book 29 was a bit crap, so I wanted one I knew would hold my interest.

The author is a journalist on a leading Boston newspaper and covered the day itself as well as writing many follow up articles. This follows the stories of specific people on the planes, on the ground, in the Towers and in the Pentagon, whilst also getting across the facts about the hijackers, the FAA and FBI response, the shortcomings in the NYPD and FDNY comms etc. The initial chapters moved between the planes and the targets pre-strikes, so it was like a timeline of the day itself. Really well done.

The Western Wind by Samantha Harvey A blighted and sodden 1491 Somerset village is reeling from the loss of its leading resident to the swollen river. Narrated by the priest over the 4 day aftermath, day by day backwards, we get to know the community and are party to their confessions as they brace themselves for lent. We come to understand the power the church has over the people as the sinister figure of the rural dean comes looking for a scapegoat. An excellent evocation of time and place and the precariousness of eking out a living, it’s refreshing not to have a Tudor in sight but is an austere read. The ending is interesting and reframes things, but I’m not motivated enough to revisit the book, though I think it will stay with me.

34. The Stone Circle by Elly Griffiths

Ruth Galloway #11

I overdid these last year, but then I got into a terrible slump in the last week or so, and couldn't get anything started, so I thought I'd go for an easy read.

As per, keep returning for the characters not the investigations but this one wasn't so bad. Lots of twists and red herrings.

Just 4 left now

Meant to add above - sorry you're having a tough time Roman.

Also I picked up Red Love from the library after Remus purchased it already having read it - what a high bar for a recommendation. Has anyone else done this for any books (in case any of us need more on our tbr)?

@CornishLizard does it count if you buy it on Kindle to make sure you have it there even if you also own the paperback?

If so, The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah would qualify, for me.

I also own most Dorothy L Sayers on Kindle despite having read my mum's paperback versions many times.

I think you’ve hit the nail exactly on the head with that word 'austere', Cornish. I read it a couple of years ago and struggled to put my finger on why I didn’t love it as much as I anticipated I would - but yes, that’s why.

Funnily enough, I’m one of the few who really enjoyed Orbital, though.

I’ve had a run of four good/excellent books!

Mania by Lionel Shriver

Set in an alternative USA where it’s no longer acceptable to call people stupid, and nobody is allowed to appear cleverer than anyone else. This starts quite benignly but the ‘mental parity’ movement grows until it’s at a point where qualifications are no longer essential for any jobs and the rest of the world will no longer deal with or buy anything from the US because it’s all such poor quality. While this is not happening to us, there are lots of parallels with real life examples of people being cancelled for holding different views and I found it a really interesting read. Shriver’s style isn’t for everyone but I do recommend this for the ideas in it.

Murder on the Marlow Belle by Robert Thorogood

The fourth in the Marlow Murder Club series and probably my favourite so far, featuring amateur dramatics and a murder on a boat. These books aren’t great literature and the writing is sometimes a bit too clunky and expository, but I enjoy the stories and they’re great for a day when you just want to be entertained and don’t want anything taxing.

The Inheritance by Trisha Sakhlecha

The Agarwal family gathers on a remote Scottish island to hear their father’s plans for his multi-million pound petrochemical business, but when the announcement isn’t as expected how will they all react? While this isn’t a particularly original story (I feel like I have read a lot of books recently of groups trapped on remote islands with things going wrong) this is done well and I really liked reading about the dynamics between the various family members and how it’s gradually revealed what’s happened in the past to make them all into the people they are now.

The Sirens by Emilia Hart

I raced through this. It’s partly a modern missing person mystery, part historical mystery/family saga and part supernatural/fairytale. I really enjoyed the story of both time periods and all the characters. Recommended if you like this sort of thing.

12 Experience - Martin Amis

Utterly brilliant autobiography - recommended by several of you lot, for which thank you. Where my last literary memoir (My Good Bright Wolf) buried its revelations under layers of distancing techniques, this cuts straight to the chase in an altogether more human, engaging and often very funny way. Particularly warm and moving on the illness and death of his father Kingsley.

Ooh no. Sorry- I haven’t read it yet! But lots of people said it’s great iirc,

Yes that counts Sheila!

😄Remus

Interested to hear you felt the same about Western Wind, Terpsichore - and I really enjoyed Orbital too, was that that sent me looking for her earlier books.

Thanks for the new thread OP, mindful I'm 18 pages in before finding it!
My reads so far:

1. Lessons in Chemistry - Bonnie Gamus
2. Standing by The Wall - Mick Herron
3. The Secret Hours - Mick Herron
4. A Picture of Dorian Grey - Oscar Wilde
5. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - Agatha Christie
6. Crusaders - Dan Jones
7. Dubliners - James Joyce
8. Man in the Queue - Josephine Tey
9. A Shilling for Candles - Josephine Tey
10. 1984 - George Orwell
11. The Franchise Affair - Josephine Tey
12. The Cracked Mirror - Chris Brookmyre
13. To Love and Be Wise - Josephine Tey
14. Lancaster and York - Alison Weir
15. Daughter of Time - Jospehine Tey
16. The Singing Sands - Josephine Tey

And most recent reads -

17 . Polo - Jilly Cooper - this is the first time I've read anything of Jilly Cooper and my goodness this is LONG and as someone else says it has a LOT of polo. It's of it's time but essentially a convoluted love story. With a bit of raunchiness, I'm not convinced I'll read any more of them.

18 . An Expert in Murder - Nicola Upson - I have @SheilaFentiman to thank for this recommendation based on the reading of the Tey Series. In this book (which is the start of a series I will continue) Josephine Tey is a character rather than the author, she is going to London to watch the final week of a play she has written when her superfan is murdered on a train at Kings Cross, I don't want to give too much away but I really did enjoy this straight after reading all of the Alan Grant books. Thanks Sheila! I'm going to read more!

Hoorah @lifeturnsonadime I am glad you liked it!

@CornishLizard I quite often buy copies to keep of books I've read from the library, generally when they come up as Kindle deals or in charity shops.

35. The Lantern Men by Elly Griffiths

Ruth Galloway #12

As per. More of the same. Not very believable this one

@ChessieFL interested in your review of Mania. I'm not sure how I feel about Lionel Shriver these days, she seems like a bit of an anti-woke warrior. I did like Kevin but really didn't like Big Brother.

@lifeturnsonadime I think Rivals is by far the best the Jilly if you fancy trying another.

18. Grey Wolf - Louise Penny. More of the same from Penny. I feel like these are giving me diminishing returns these days. So many references to past books in this one, especially the one about a monastery that I found a bit dull the first time round. It also feels like every plot is basically a rift on the same one now.

19. Nesting - Roisín O'Donnell. This on the other hand was brilliant, a definite bold. I chose it as it's a debut novel that a lot of people are predicting may be chosen for the Woman's Prize. It's about Ciara, a mother of 2 young children, who leaves her controlling husband. She has no money, friends or a job as he has effectively isolated her and her family is in England. What unfolds is a really tense, traumatic story about how hard it is for Ciara to get away and start again, not helped by Dublin's housing problem. The writing is great especially at showing how hard it is coping with the constant questions and attention that toddlers need, while trying to work out what you need to do, as well as addressing the question of what constitutes abuse. There were several times I had to stop listening as it was so tense. So lots of trigger warnings, but also excellent. I'm hope it does make the Woman's Prize as deserves to be widely read.

12 The Marches: Border Walks with my Father - Rory Stewart This was a slog. I enjoyed the two other books I have read by Rory Stewart but this was very bitty and didn’t really deliver on what I was hoping for (and what I think he was aiming for). There is a lot of reminiscing about his childhood and his relationship with his father, mixed in with Rory walking across the north of England and south of Scotland in a not very coherent manner, talking to lots of people on the way and never getting to the bottom of what the point of it all is. His immense disappointment about the way in which the landscape has changed over the centuries and the fact that people don’t always stay in the village they were born in is very evident and quite weird. He was clearly aiming for a sweeping cultural history with a deep message, but didn’t find it, and decided to write the book anyway. It feels a bit self-indulgent and I was quite disappointed with the book overall. That said, there were some very interesting bits and food for thought - certainly not a bad book, just not what it should have been.

Just catching up with the thread which has resulted in me adding another four books to my wishlist - gah.

5. The Blue Hour, by Paula Hawkins. Not quite a bold for me but I liked it a lot. An island only reachable by causeway, a reclusive artist, a horrible posh family, and a plot that's tricksy to the last. I thought it was a very good thriller and the equally lovely nature writing elevated it for me.

6. Whale Fall, by Elizabeth O'Connor. Absolutely bloody brilliant. It is 1938, and 18 year old Manod lives with her father and sister on a remote island off the Welsh coast. The population is dwindling and two English ethnographers visit the island to document its culture. This was so evocative, I could picture everything perfectly. Manod is an extraordinary character and I didn't want to let go of her. Although they're not at all alike in plot, it reminded me quite a bit of A Month in the Country.

They were amongst my favourites.

Talking of other books, I just picked up Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer for 31p each for the kindle and was delighted to get the audible editions included.

I've also added the Percival book to my list. Thanks for the recommendation

Thanks for explaining it, I was wondering if it was something I should be concerned about but hadn't managed to get sufficiently interested to actually do something.

That looks like a good incentive to read what has languished on my kindle for years and not buy new books.

Nice own goal there Amazon, thank you

@Stowickthevast Mania could definitely be seen as a pop against certain thought movements that are around at the moment so I suppose whether you like it would depend what side of the fence you’re on - in Mania you’re definitely encouraged to be on the side of the main character who is against the mental parity movement. I haven’t read Big Brother so can’t say if it’s similar to that.

Pleased to see your positive review of Nesting as I have that on my TBR pile.

13 Glorious Exploits - Ferdia Lennon
Syracuse, 412 BC, and the remnants of a defeated Athenian invasion force have been left to rot in a disused quarry. Local lads Lampo and Gelon decide to put on a play, using the starving Athenians with their fragments of remembered Euripides as actors. This rolls along, with the Syracusans chatting and drinking away like irreverent Dubliners (Lampo was definitely an In Bruges era Colin Farrell according to my brain’s casting department), and the climatic scene of the plays’ performance is very moving. It does peak a little early with that though and the ending was fairly predictable. It does an admirable job of humanising the suffering caused by war, imprisonment and slavery, but overall was good, not great.

Glad to see some other readers enjoying Glorious Exploits!
@Stowickthevast I also enjoyed your review of Nesting. I have it on hold at the library so hope to be reading it soon.

I’ve finished my first read of the Women’s Prize Non-Fiction list. Last year I read loads of them, but this year I’ve decided to only read those on offer and the winner- I just don’t have the time at the moment and would prefer to focus on the fiction when it’s released.

24 The Peepshow: The Murders at 10 Rillington Place- Kate Summerscale
True crime about the murders of Reg Christie in 1940s and 50s Notting Hill. (This was on offer for £1.99 on kindle). This focuses on the story through the eyes of those who reported on it, particularly Harry Proctor, a Fleet Street tabloid crime reporter. It was just okay. I’m not a big reader of true crime and expected this to focus in more on the women’s lives like everyone says about The Five (which is on my bookshelves but I haven’t reached yet) but really the focus was firmly on Christie- even when it was supposed to be on the reporters. There is lots of interesting social context touched on- illegal abortions/ prostitution/ interracial marriages etc which I would have been much more interested in and I would rather have seen some more exploration of those themes than the journalists or the coronation of the queen. I have no idea why this was longlisted as it seems a pretty standard true crime book to me.

14 Blood and Guts: a history of surgery - Richard Hollingham
TV tie-in based on a Michael Mosley series which I vaguely remember watching. Engaging, fascinating and horrifying by turns. I particularly remembered the poor man who’d been subjected to a lobotomy aged 12 back in the 1960s, just because he didn’t get on with his stepmother. Also features many more positive stories, including the pioneers of facial reconstruction in the world wars.

21. The Case of the Lonely Accountant, Simon Mason
Crime fiction, but not of the thrilling chases and daring escapes variety. A man disappeared years ago, and the narrator is called in to unpick what happened. He interviews an array of witnesses and receives very different impressions of what the lost man was like. It's all a bit downbeat, with an aftertaste of hopeless conversations on drizzly afternoons, and the author uses reported speech more often than direct speech, so it feels a bit muffled and distant. I liked it a lot. I thought it was convincing about how people perceive things very differently, and it showed the narrator thinking his way through to the solution, not just stumbling over it by coincidence and luck. It's apparently reminiscent of Maigret, which I've never read but I do have one of the books on kindle, so I'll bump it up the list.