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.

@Tarragon123 thanks for the recommendation, I'll check them out

@Owlbookend I'm reading Girl, Woman, Other at the moment and am enjoying it so far (I'm about 30% in).

Women's Prize has just been announced. Nesting made it but no Elif Shafak which I'm so surprised by
https://womensprize.com/announcing-the-2025-womens-prize-for-fiction-longlist/

I've read 3 of the list, All Fours and The Safekeep along with Nesting. The new Elizabeth Strout is on there and Chimanda Ngozi Adiche, which may be slightly controversial. The Ministry of Time is also there which I think has been a bit divisive on here.

Lots that I don't know anything about though so looking forward to getting stuck in.

Just bought Nesting, and also a kindle book of 50 Masterpieces for £0.49, lots of things I want to read in it:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B08N46X374?psc=1&ref=ppxpoppmobbbasin_title

I adored Six! And Glorious Exploits is my next read but one I think, I'm looking forward to it.

Interesting Women's Prize longlist, it definitely leans towards established writers after a few years of being heavy on debuts.

Delighted to see Elizabeth Strout there, I thought Tell Me Everything was her best yet. And I was v lucky to see Chimamanda Adichie talk about her new book at the Southbank Centre at the weekend, I'm very excited to read that next.

I read The Artist recently and liked but didn't love it - thought it would have been better as a novella really. I thought All Fours was overrated.

Ministry of Time is a strange one, it categorically doesn't work overall, but I still think about the love story often.

The Persians is on my wish list. Not sure about the others.

That's a lot of reading for 49p, @Castlerigg !

I've succumbed and bought Nesting..

Interesting Women’s Prize longlist.
I’ve read 2 (The Safe Keep and All Fours). Loved the first, really didn’t like the second.

I have another 3 on my kindle/ library hold/ bookshelves so I’ll start with 2 of those (the third Tell Me Everything) I’ll wait for until I’ve caught up the other Lucy Barton books.

I have 3 Audible credits and £140 in Waterstones vouchers/ plus points that I’ve been saving up all year so I’ll use some of those up on this list and the Booker.

That's an amazing collection @Castlerigg!

I do like a list. I've read 23 of them (and DNF'd a few more)

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit I watched Prima Facie last night too. Absolutely phenomenal I thought. Jodie Comer must have been wrung out performing that every night. Extraordinary.

Women's Prize for fiction longlist - I haven't read any yet - have bought 4 on Kindle including Nesting (when I spotted it at 99p a few hours ago). I had* already reserved Dream Count and cancelled reservations for Nesting. I have borrowed The Safekeep *as a library ebook but expect I'll have to return it before I get round to reading it, and I think I might join the queue for a dead tree copy.

On the Women's Prize for non fiction, quite a lot of them seem to be available as library ebooks - I've borrowed two to have a look at now - on China and Vikings -but they might be books I'd prefer to read in dead tree format - and added several to wishlists for that time in the (distant) future when I think I've caught up a bit on books I've already borrowed and really have to get on with!

@highlandcoo

I didn't read up on Prima Facie at all beforehand and wished I had because it was quite upsetting

WPFF

I've read Ministry Of Time - awful and Safe Keep - good

And I own All Fours, Nesting (thanks @Castlerigg) and Dream Count which was released today

I won't be reading the Elizabeth Strout because I'm not keen on her, but I think 5 is a good sample of contenders!

Apologies, I have missed all of the book recommendations and chat for several weeks, as I have been absorbed in 8.Middlemarch by George Eliot. In the words of Eliot, a story of provincial life. The inhabitants of the town – among them a financially incontinent bachelor, a headstrong doctor, a newsman and politician, a land owning baronet and a po-faced cleric, and of course lots of marriageable women - weave in and out of each other’s lives. The plot, as you’d expect from such a doorstop of a book, can’t easily be summarised but features thwarted romances, marriages made in haste and repented at leisure, inheritances denied, and the risk of long-buried secrets being exposed.

Jeez, where to start? This was brilliant. Every last character felt rounded. A big theme here seemed to be about compromise, and the difficult choices most people have to make to keep going, which made it feel very real. The social and political landscape feature often, as the characters’ motives reflect influence from elections, the coming of the railway, and cholera outbreaks. Rigid gender roles are implicitly criticised.

The writing is wonderful, and so ridiculously quoteable that I think my H got fed up with me reciting bits back, but then as we know, “husbands are an inferior class of men who require keeping in order”. Plus the version of Will Ladislaw that lives in my head is very shaggable. A big fat bold.

@StrangewaysHereWeCome

Really pleased you enjoyed Middlemarch so much, it's a really great book, it's more than 20 years since I read it, it's overdue a reread.

The thing I most remember from Middlemarch is her very clear-eyed view of how we marry imaginary people - the real person can be very different from the fantasy version we've created.

I'm glad you enjoyed Middlemarch
StrangeWays I also found it very absorbing when I read it last summer.

That is so true Biblio. That stayed with me too.

I’ve never considered reading Middlemarch but it looks great based on your review @StrangewaysHereWeCome ! And it’s free on kindle too! Yet another book added to the TBR 😄

Great review Strangeways - I have been meaning to read it for years.

I'm sure I attempted Middlemarch when I was an impatient teenager and didn't get on with it, but it's in my epic £0.49 bundle so I'll be giving it another go, based on these reviews.

I just bought Nesting so thanks for the suggestion

Quite excited to receive my half price preordered Adichie today, to discover it's a signed copy!

I first read Middlemarch at university, loved it then, and loved it just as much when I rerread it twenty years later. It's just a brilliant book; one of my top ten novels. I should read it again soon.

It wouldn't be difficult to choose Will over Casaubon I agree @StrangewaysHereWeCome

https://www.instagram.com/timeperiodfilm/p/DChXSIyPvU7/?img_index=1

@Eine, yes it was a tough watch and probably an advance warning about content would have been a good idea. I'm sorry to hear you were upset.

Thanks highland

I'm in need of a light read, slightly fluffy, to follow a few demanding reads and a stressful few days. Any recommendations please?

Susan Scarlett? I’m contemplating getting another before trying to move onto some non-fiction- feel like I need to psyche myself up a bit.

I'll have a look, thank you