50 Books Challenge 2025 Part Four

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the fourth 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, the second thread here and the third thread here.

Good plan.

I'd definitely be up for a northern meet. Manchester would be most convenient for me, but we did speak about touring last year and I'd be up for travelling further afield.

I can meet up in London

I also both want to and don’t - anxiety is a bastard

Same here. Plus cost is always a factor for me.

@highlandcoo I’ve PMd you about next week…

I’ve just set up a chat for those interested in a northern or southern meet up. Even if you are not sure you’ll be able to make it, but would like to, come along to the chat anyway. If you can make it nearer the time then brilliant, if not then no judgment at all, especially as is sounds like quite a few of us are dealing with anxiety.

So late to this thread! But here's my list so far

1. Polo; Jilly Cooper

2. Five Little Pigs; Agatha Christie

3. Gallows Walk; Giles Ekins

4. Distance; Luna Mason

5. The Drowning Game; Barbara Nickless

6. Detonate; Luna Mason

7. The Thirteen Problems; Agatha Christie

8. The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous; Jilly Cooper

9. The Sinner; Shantel Tessier

10. The Estate; Denzil Meyrick

11. Appassionata by Jilly Cooper
    The next in my Rutshire re-read, this is Marcus Campbell-Black's story. This brings back a lot of favourites from the previous book, most notably Rannaldini and Flora Seymour and introduces Abbey Rosen. This time Jilly's become an expert in symphony orchestras. The same silly escapism of all these books and this one is less offensive than previous ones, maybe just because it was written more recently. Rupert's wholehearted acceptance of Marcus's homosexuality is very refreshing and I suspect this would have been written differently if she'd written this back when she first wrote Riders. I've been aiming to read one of these a month but I think I'm going to have to drop down to every other month as they're getting so long (this one over 800 pages!) I don't get a chance to read anything else

Oh god, first time posting in the new app - what is with that spacing?! Also do * not make text bold anymore?!

Your formatting looks fine on the website :)

We could potentially have a pact with @MamaNewtNewt and take the plunge together!

@MamaNewtNewt@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie It’s actually really location dependent for me

London would almost be easier than some north locations due to availability of trains!

London would be fine for me, depending on days/dates.

We could potentially be a triumvirate of the timid.

Latest reads:

17 Oranges are Not the Only Fruit - Jeanette Winterson
Re-read for a book club. I loved this the first time round, but I think maybe it’s a younger person’s book, with its themes of coming of age and struggle with an authoritarian parent. Still a very clever (and funny) novel exploring the use storytelling to process your past.

18 A Life of Meaning - James Hollis
Psychological reflections from a Jungian analyst. Right book at the right time for me - a clear message that even if you’re middle aged, you can still tell a new story and find the right path in life.

19 Welsh Witchcraft - Mhara Starling
Starling has built a traditional(ish) witchcraft practice based on Welsh lore and legend. Recommended for anyone witchy-inclined and/or Welsh-leaning.

20 Orfeia - Joanne Harris
A modern fairytale novella, drawing on fairy lore and the myths of Demeter and Orpheus. A mother seeks her lost daughter, journeying from London through Faery to the kingdom of Death itself. Very clever - Fay is moving through a world built on story and the sands of reality seem to be constantly shifting beneath her feet.

21 Martin Chuzzlewit - Charles Dickens
A family of selfish wrong’uns meet their just deserts - with some saved through the influence of unrelated good eggs. It was not the best of Dickens, it was not the worst of Dickens.

24. When Women Ran Fifth Avenue - Julie Satow

I didn’t intend to jump on this immediately after the very New York-based Laurie Colwin novel that was my previous read, but I've been having a bit of a no-idea-what-to-read crisis and this just happened to swim to the top of the tbr pile. Anyway, it was good fun, and perfect for slaking my thirst for shop-based books, as it's a history of NYC's big, glamorous department stores in their heyday, and the women in charge.

There's plenty to enjoy here - Hortense Odlum at Bonwit Teller, Dorothy Shaver at Lord & Taylor and Geraldine Stutz at Henri Bendel presided over the golden age of shopping, when the customer was always right and their stores were the epitome of elegance and style. It was sad to read about the decline of these great temples of merchandising in the 80s and 90s (Bonwit Teller fell prey to none other than D. Trump, who tore down the building to put up the vulgar Trump Tower in its place, and casually destroyed the store's valuable stone reliefs that had been promised to a museum). But Satow tells a lively story with lots of entertaining stuff along the way.

@Terpsichore I share your department store niche interest, so am off to google that immediately.

Casual destruction and Trump, eh? What a pity nobody saw that as clear evidence of who the man is and decided he should never be in a position where he could destroy anything else.

Enjoying LadyBirdDaphne's review of Martin Chuzzlewit. 👏👏

You’re in luck, it’s still 99p on Kindle 😊

I've already bought it - will start it in the bath tonight! Got to be better than the codswallop I just read.

Agreed, stellar review, @LadybirdDaphne.

50 Reading Lessons - Carol Atherton (NF)

I hit the 50!

This is a bold for me and thanks to PPs for recommending. Written by an English teacher who is aged around 50, it’s both a love letter to various set texts she has taught at gcse and A level (with other books mentioned too) and interesting social commentary on what it means to teach teenagers to make sense of their developing worlds.

Some similarities in tone with the Judi Dench Shakespeare book - each chapter focussing on a text - and inspiring me to look up several books I know of but have never read. Excellent stuff.

I've finished The Testaments by Margaret Atwood - I liked it but I think that was partly driven by the TV show, not just the book itself. I loved the different POVs.

That's me at 50 now! Will I get kicked out??

I'm in Scotland but in London fairly regularly so might be able to coordinate a meet up with other commitments.

Annoyingly, it won’t open on my kindle. I just keep getting a message saying something went wrong. It opens on my phone but I hate reading on it.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie@EineReiseDurchDieZeit triumvirate of the timid made me chuckle! Maybe those of us who struggle with anxiety, for whatever reason make a pact to try our best to make it. No judgement if we decide nearer the time that we just can’t do it.