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.

I’ve never read the Other Bennett Sister but the Mary Bennett book Hilary Mantel was apparently working on before she died is the book I’d most have liked to read.

Have been occupied with moving and consequent anti-book feelings - bastards constantly conspiring with gravity to ATTACK 😭

I've enjoyed catching up with the discussion around popular books. Nothing to add but it's made me reflect on similar shorthand I've used on here before: commercial vs literary, Dan Brown-y, wanky, swirly pastel covers etc. I hope in this context (of bookish people chatting books) they would be read as descriptive rather than judgemental - 'this is this kind of book, for this kind of mood' rather than 'this kind of book sucks and so do you if you like it'. Apologies if my comments have made anyone feel shamed or belittled. I wish MN allowed us to pin our lists to profiles so anyone could see at a click that I read all sorts! Will try to do better in future anyway.

List

1. Eleanor Farjeon - Miss Granby’s Secret: or, The Bastard of Pinsk
2. Joe Abercrombie - The Trouble With Peace A
3. Carys Davies - Clear
4. Sara Lodge - The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective
5. Norah Lofts - Lady Living Alone
6. Lucy Easthope - When the Dust Settles
7. Jane Casey - The Reckoning
8. Rachel Kushner - The Mars Room
9. Uketsu - Strange Pictures (tr. Jim Rion)
10. C.J. Skuse - Sweetpea A
11. Philip Larkin - Jill
12. Stories for Winter and Nights by the Fire (ed. Simon Thomas)
13. Hiromi Kawakami - Under the Eye of the Big Bird (tr. Asa Yoneda)
14. Friða Ísberg - The Mark (tr. Larissa Kyzer)
15. Han Suyin - Winter Love
16. Virginie Despentes - Dear Dickhead (tr. Frank Wynne)
17. Layla Martínez - Woodworm (tr. Sophie Hughes, Annie McDermott)
18. Robert Harris - Conclave
19. Noel Streatfeild - Judith
20. Kim Ryeo-ryeong - The Trunk (tr. The KoLab)
21. Han Kang - We Do Not Part (tr. e. yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris)
22. Barbara Pym - Some Tame Gazelle R
23. Mary Fitt - The Banquet Ceases
24. Claudia Piñeiro - Time of the Flies (tr. Frances Riddle)
25. Jonathan Smith - Wilfred and Eileen

More of these might get upgraded to a bold later; I've had a really good run so far and am being quite miserly.

Currently:
The Wisdom of Crowds - Joe Abercrombie (audio): 10th and final book of a brilliantly entertaining political fantasy series. Fellow genre readers: what could follow it?!

Linden Rise - Richmal Crompton: maid's eye view of a dysfunctional genteel family from 1890s onwards. Written for adults and much more serious than the Just William books but v involving despite (or because of?) being quite tropey.

She Played and Sang - Gillian Dooley: nonfic about Austen and music. Super nerdy, ofc, has added a number of Regency bangers to my shower repertoire. Current fave (mine, not DP's) 'Nobody coming to marry meeee nobody coming to woooooo'

and Agent Zo - Clare Mulley: ok so far, some fascinating things but all a bit breathless. I'm only 1/4 in but it seems unlikely to knock A Woman of No Importance off its perch.

Anyone else reading the WP NF list? I'd already read 2 (called Private Revolutions last year!) and own 4 others, so have fallen into it despite the Intl Booker list coming out next week 😅

My List,

1. Marking Time by Elizabeth Jane Howard
2. Doreen by Barbara Noble
3. The things they carried by Tim O’Brien
4. Jill by Philip Larkin
5. The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett

I enjoyed Creation Lake quite a lot but I think that’s because I listened to the audio book so it was easier to get the tone and the humour.

Little Red Death by A K Benedict

This was …strange. Not at all what I expected. I’ve never read this author before, and from the blurb I was expecting a fairly standard thriller/police procedural about a detective investigating a run of fairytale themed murders. It did start off that way, but then took a very odd turn and went a bit meta, with stories within stories, and it wasn’t at all clear after that what was meant to be ‘real’ and what wasn’t. I’m still not really any the wiser after finishing it. I think if you’re into the paranormal genre and know that’s what you’re going to get (and possibly if you’re cleverer than me to understand what the author is trying to achieve) then you might enjoy this more than I did, but if you are looking for a standard thriller this is not it.

@RazorstormUnicorn I think Denis Mukwege is an inspiring man with important things to say. Great review.

Bit late with my list -

1 None of This is True - Lisa Jewell
2 Daisy and the Six - Taylor Jenkins Read
3 The Vegetarian Han Kang trans Deborah Smith
4 And Then She Fell - Alicia Elliot
5 The Queen of Spades - Alexander Pushkin trans by Rosemary Edwards
6 Ali & Nino - Kurban Said trans unknown
7 The Venice Secret - Anita Chapman
8 Walking the Blue Fields - Claire Keegan
9 A Terrible Kindness - Jo Browning Roe
10 Rooftoppers - Katherine Rundell
11 Summerwater - Sarah Moss
12 A Gentleman in Moscow - Amor Townes

Currently listening to The Hike on audio but being indecisive about what to read next. Need to catch up with the Monte Cristo readalong first !

@ÚlldemoShúl which Iliad are you planning to read next month?
@bibliomania Mantel "overshot the reality" in her rehabilitation of Cromwell - that was exactly my feeling but you put it very well!

Thanks for the review of the Congo book - I really want to read this but fear it might be too distressing @RazorstormUnicorn

@bibliomania yep Mantel was in full-on RA RA REVISIONISTY STAN mode. I love WH but Cromwell does feel so modern - if it were't so brilliantly written that would have really annoyed me.

@FuzzyCaoraDhubh Creation Lake was a bold for me but I was into the voice immediately. Not sure I'd have had the stamina to go on if I hadn't been, but I probably DNF more readily than most people. I've since read her earlier novel The Mars Room which has made me more sympathetic to people who didn't rate CL - the pieces really didn't come together in that one for me, ended up less than the sum of its parts.

Thank you @inaptonym very interesting.
I'll give it more time. If I like the humour, it will help a lot. It probably doesn't help that it's a four hundred page hardback :)

@ShackletonSailingSouth Ive read the Rieu and Fagles translations before. This time I’m going to go for the Emily Wilson- it’s a two month buddy read but I’m doing at the same time as a book club read of Middlemarch so I’ll be doing well to keep going with both! I have the audio for both too so may flip between that and text.

ÚlldemoShúl, the Enchanted Islands book I read was very enthusiastic about the Emily Wilson translation of The Odyssey, and included quotations that made it sound very approachable.

Oh that’s great biblio thanks! I love The Iliad much more than The Odyssey but if I like the translation, I’ll definitely give the latter translation a go too.

And this sounds like my worst nightmare, especially if in present tense with that irritating pronoun thing that she does in Wolf Hall.

She is dull as. She buys a dress. She plays the piano. She’s still dull. Etc.

Like Fanny Price, Mary would benefit from some jigs around the parquet with Henry Crawford.

20 The Other Times of Caroline Tangent by Ivan D Wainwright

I picked this up as the protagonists Caz and Jon did one of the things DH and I would do if we ever got hold of a Time Machine - attending classic concerts / gigs of history. Then things take a turn and Caz gets stranded in 1970s New York. This was an easy read, which was just what I was looking for, nothing earth shattering. It was free on kindle unlimited.

Inside Out - Demi Moore. A re-read of her memoir, this was as absorbing to read as it was the first time, but at 272 pages it's too short so I would have liked her to go into more depth on some of her past experiences, mainly when she was filming some of her biggest films.

@bibliomania @ÚlldemoShúl
I really enjoy Emily Wilson's translation of the Odyssey, i haven't read her Iliad though. I think the latter is in prose unlike her Odyssey. If anyone's interested, she was interviewed for the August 2024 Hay Book club and the recording of the event is still available - recommend.

www.hayfestival.com/book-club

Thanks @ShackletonSailingSouth (love the name!)

Thanks @ShackletonSailingSouth I think I’ll be lost in that link for some time- so many interesting talks on there!

The Lonely Londoners Sam Sevlon

Written in 1956, this is the story of Moses and an array of men who arrived in Britain from the West Indies (there is a wonderful Nigerian character too, Cap). It’s written in gentle patois and reads like Moses (as an omnipresent narrator) regaling us with the highs and lows of those he knows. It’s a wonderful, short read. I’m going to the theatre to see a staged version later this month so wanted to read it first.

28 The Midnight Hour - Elly Griffiths

Bought this by accident in a charity shop haul last year and didn’t realise at that time that it wasn’t a Ruth Galloway. Instead, I have rocked up on something like the third Brighton mystery. I therefore found the cast of characters rather confusing!

Bert Billington, a former theatre producer, dies suddenly after lunch - when rat poison is found in his system, his wife Verity falls under suspicion and engages Emma Holmes and Sam(antha) Collins to investigate from their private detective agency.

Rather awkwardly, the police are also investigating, as Emma is married to “the Super” Edgar Stephens.

Lots of theatrical bods about, and everyone is either currently or has in the past, worked together, shagged each other, sometimes both!

WDC Meg was a nice character and ended up teaming up with Emma a few times, but the resolution was a bit rushed and this won’t go down as one of my faves of hers.

21 The Whisper Man by Alex North

Twenty years ago a serial killer killed 5 children before he was caught. Now another child is abducted in a similar way. Is is a copycat, or is the wrong man in jail? This had some supernatural elements that were more interesting than the murder mystery, but unfortunately weren’t fully explored. Overall this was just a bit confusing, not very good, and the juxtaposition of the two father / son relationships was very clumsy.

re Rachel Kushner - I found The Mars Room more engaging than Creation Lake, though I'm still aiming to try to review the latter book.

I thought that the first part of The Other Bennett Girl was far too long and slow - eventually the pace picked up a bit, and I enjoyed it more, but if I ever gave up on books I don't think I would have got so far.

@SheilaFentiman The Midnight Hour is actually about #6 in the series, although at the beginning Emma was a supporting character. I really like these books and the shift in focus from Edgar and Max to Emma and the young working class woman Meg, but this isn't the best place to start.

Going back up the thread a bit, @ShackletonSailingSouth ,@bibliomania and @úlldemoshúl you’ve inspired me to read Emily Wilson’s Odyssey which a good friend gave me a few years ago and has been on the shelf ever since - I’m not very good at reading poetry but it’s a beautiful book and I really should read it. I’ll try to do a bit each day, starting after the Monte Cristo readalong finishes.

@elkiedee well prepared to believe it was me, not Elly Griffiths, who was at fault here 😀

I also read it (as a physical book) interleaved with the Ben McIntyre on Kindle which probably had more of my attention. I may well start from the beginning of the Brighton Mysteries one day, when I am not trying to do RWYO.

Found you all. Wondered why no one was posting on the old thread, realised you were all over here having a fascinating discussion about why people do or don't read. I have nothing to add apart from to thank you for reminding me of Barthes' distinction which I find very helpful. I read for pleasure and to challenge myself so balance is important to me and I try for a balance of readerly and writerly books as I go.

Reading so far this year has been a little chaotic. I have about five books on the go and can't seem to finish any of them. I am waiting for a hospital referral for some mildly concerning test results and as a consequence focus is definitely an issue. I'm contemplating designating Saturday as a "reading day" where I do nothing but read or listen to audiobooks. It takes some planning but I find it very restorative - requirements are a good set of options to choose from and a large pot of tea.