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.

Thanks @elkiedee I've also bought Cats Eye and really liked The Heather Blazing. If you've read his latest, the same seaside town appears in both. There's an image from The Heather Blazing of a man sitting in his semi-eroded house that I still remember despite reading it yesterday ago.

If someone can post a link to the deals, I'd be most grateful as I can never find them.

Sorry for your loss @Arran2024

@ÚlldemoShúl
I'm pretty sure it was me who recommended the Jonah Sheens books, I've recommended them a few times on these threads over the years. Glad you've enjoyed them so far

Woman in White is on my tbr so good to see so many fans on here!

13. Three Act Tragedy by Agatha Christie March's read christie challenge book which I finished just in time yesterday. Poirot is invited to a dinner party in Cornwall where someone dies unexpectedly (of course!). The death is ruled to be natural causes although the host has his doubts. Many months later some, but not all, of the original guests meet for another dinner party where once again a death occurs, leading some of the guests from the original dinner party to investigate the first death. This was quite a weak offering from Christie in my opinion. Poirot doesn't make any real appearance until about two thirds into the book and I guessed whodunnit very early on. At the risk of spoilers, it's very similar to another Poirot book which is famous for it's unexpected twist and I was disappointed to find Christie employing the same device again

I bought:
Promising Young Women: Caroline O'Donoghue
The Hunter: Tana French
Famous Last Words: Gillian McAllister

I got the Jan Carson, thanks @elkiedee
I already had a lot of the decent offers today but picked up A Brief History of Seven Killings, The Templars, The Heather Blazing and Wind and Truth.

Thanks @satelliteheart for the recommendation 😊

I’m almost finished Dream Hotel but only part way through Dream Count on my Women’s Prize reads so will do my predictions after work (without the three I haven’t had time to read (Amma, Nesting, Tell me Everything)

And I’ve finished 42 Private Revolutions by Yuan Yang on audio. (From the NF shortlist) The premise of this is interesting (young women trying to make a success of their lives after Deng Xiaoping’s reforms in China) but it didn’t fulfil its potential for a few reasons. Firstly, the structure of the book makes it very repetitive as it goes through childhood, then coming of age etc for each woman, and unsurprisingly they have things in common. Secondly, it lacks any historical analysis or commentary- it really is just narrating the interviews the author had with each woman and thirdly the women’s voices and stories are not different enough to make them individuals. Disappointing.

@Arran2024 hoping books will provide some solace or distraction.

@elkiedee Cat's Eye is one of my favourite Atwoods too, though I haven't read it in years - suspect its portrait of teenage girldom only gets more horrifying with age, though!

@Stowickthevast Does this link work?

I got things :

Pearl by Sian Hughes
Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
Shy Creatures by Clare Chambers
The Dictionary Of Lost Words by Pip Williams
Promising Young Women by Caroline O’Donoghue
Ordinary Time by Cathy Retzenbrink
The Moons A Balloon by David Niven
Love Letters To A Serial Killer by Tasha Coryell
We Begin At The End by Chris Whitaker
The Shepherd’s Life by James Redbanks
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

Quite the haul. Still doing RWYO but deals are the exception and I hope just one of these gives me my mojo back

ooh, thanks, @EineReiseDurchDieZeit I hadn't spotted 'when Breath Becomes Air'

Thanks @inaptonym it did

I also picked up a Penelope Lively Family Album

51 . When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

A neurosurgeon is diagnosed with terminal cancer and reflects on his life.

Short, only 150 pages, but packs a punch. Ended my drought definitely

Sorry for your loss @Arran2024 I hope Monday goes as well as these things ever do.

I might have accidentally adopted these babies from the National Trust second hand book store earlier. My house is much warmer and less draughty so I'm sure they'll be happy here.

30 Web by John Wyndham

Continuing my journey through the works of John Wyndham, most of which are free on audible. A group of people move to an uninhabited remote island in a bid to find a new way of living. They soon find out that they are not quite as alone as they thought. The big bad in this books was a surprise to me, despite the title of the book, and I really enjoyed the background of the island. Not a bold, but a return to form after a couple of duds from the author.

Does anyone have any Women's Prize predictions before the shortlist announcement tomorrow morning?

Nesting is the only one I've read - I've got The Safe Keep on my wishlist too. The others just haven't really drawn me in yet. Last year, I felt like I wanted to read loads of the longlisted titles. I have some kind of version to All Fours even though it might be the kind of thing I'd like. So, my only strong view is that Nesting should be shortlisted!

Sorry to hear your sad news @Arran2024

22 The Once and Future Sex - Eleanor Janega
A history of medieval women - focused largely on men’s writings of the period rather than reading against the grain (or exploring other types of evidence like archaeology) to delve into women’s lived experience. I found this very frustrating. I don’t think Margery Kempe even got a look in - you know, an actual medieval woman who wrote her own book about her own medieval life

23 Witches, Midwives, and Nurses: A History of Women Healers - Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English
Brief 1970s monograph focusing on the suppression of women healers in two periods - the European witch trials and the rise of conventional medicine in 19th and 20th century America. A bit credulous on the witches (women accused of witchcraft probably weren’t healers following a remnant pagan religion while leading a peasant rebellion on the side) but an interesting thesis that female-led medicine has been the people’s medicine, and its suppression was as much a class conflict as a gendered one.

@IKnowAPlace I'm not following the WP but have read 5 so far because I'm basic through happenstance and am currently midway through 6: Dream Count, which is shaping up to be my favourite/winner so far - despite feeling a bit miffed that one whole section is a slight rewrite of a short story I'd read previously ('Zikora').

Otherwise would rank them:
The Ministry of Time 4
Fundamentally 3.5
The Artist 3.5
Amma 3
The Safekeep 3
DNF: A Little Trickerie

I sampled most of the others this weekend (in a big bookshop with WP displays) and based on a first-chapter snap judgement would be disappointed if The Persians, Birding or Somewhere Else made the shortlist - all were hard passes for me. YMMV though, I really didn't rate last year's list!

I've had better luck with the NF list this year, currently also reading a 6th from that (Embers of the Hands, excellent). Favourite so far: The Story of a Heart

@IKnowAPlace and anyone else interested in the WP for Fiction. I’ve just finished my 12th book from the longlist
43 Dream Hotel- Laila Lalami
Sara is stopped from re entering the US from a work conference overseas and detained (or retained) due to a ‘too high risk value’. It’s the near future and crime prevention is based on an algorithm which looks at all available data including your dreams to calculate a risk score and Sara has had violent dreams. The book tells the story of her experience as a ‘retainee’ in a facility for people who are likely to commit crimes. This is excellent. Propulsive, engaging and thought-provoking. It explores themes like isolation, AI and the US justice and prison system. Everything that the appalling Chain Gang All Stars tried and failed to be. A bold from me.

My personal choices for the short list (from a subpar year overall I would say) are
Dream Hotel (my choice for winner from what I’ve read so far)
The Artist
The Safe Keep
Good Girl
and two spaces for the remaining 3- Dream Count (which I’ve started and am enjoying- one character story more than the other so far) Nesting and Amma (both of which are getting universal good reviews.) I also still have to read Tell Me Everything but don’t think it should be short listed as fifth in a series despite my own liking for Strout books.

But for the Women’s Prize prediction I would guess
All Fours
A Little Trickerie (I hated both of these)
Nesting
Dream Hotel
Dream Count
Crooked Seeds

@Stowickthevast @FortunaMajor and @cassandre are usually big Women’s Prize readers- much better reviewers than me. Hopefully some of them have predictions too.

haha at your separate picks vs predictions @ÚlldemoShúl and I share your DISDAIN for the madly overhyped CGAS
I'd call Tell Me Everything Stroutverse #10 though :P Definitely one I won't get to before they announce the winner, since I'm only up to MNiLB in my big reread.

What WP years have been your favourites? I was struck by how 'literary' the 90s/00s lists used to be but maybe that's anemoia-tinted glasses? Since going backwards / more elitist seems politically unlikely, in future I wish they'd widen the remit to fiction (like the Carol Shields prize), so we'd get some poetry and short story collections instead of quite so much commercial fiction filler.

@inaptonym so glad to find another Chain Gang hater- what an overrated piece of hype!

I’ve only been avidly reading the longlist for the last 4 years I think and my favourite of those was 2023. I’ve read lots of the backlist over the years and agree that the 90s were more literary. In the 2000s I got caught up in reading only crime and fantasy because I didn’t have the same amount of time to read. Now I still love crime and fantasy but have also expanded back out to literary and even to classics in the last few years which I hadn’t read since school.
I want to go back and read all the winners at some stage- maybe even all the shortlists too! Are there any past years lists you’d highly recommend?
Re Carol Shields- I would love to see short stories on the list but have to admit I struggle with a lot of poetry. I like how the WP is open to a mix of genres- it makes it a prize for all readers. The Booker is a bit more literary and I enjoy it too for the most part. I’ve just borrowed a couple of international Booker nominees from the library- it’s not a prize I’ve looked into in the past so looking forward to that.

@inaptonym I also hated CGAS I DNFd, such a waste of a great concept. I will go and put Dream Hotel on my Wish List

Another CGAS hater here! I was almost put off the Dream Hotel by someone comparing it so glad to hear it's better.

I haven't read as many as @inaptonym but am 9 in.
My choices for the shortlist would be:
Nesting - this feels like the one to beat
The Safe Keep
The Artist
Tell Me Everything
Dream Hotel (which I haven't read but had great reviews)
And either All Fours or Dream Count as the judges seem to be liking a bit of controversy!

2023 was a great year - though I had somehow blanked the dolphin rape book. I also really liked 2022 but would have preferred a different winner. Of the ones, I haven't read, the only one that appeals is Fundamentally this year.

Hello!!! I lost you for over half a thread.

i started Death at the Sign of the Rook. I was EXCITED as a love Kate Atkinson. Two weeks later I have read 50% and care very little about that 50%. I am extremely irritated that it doesn’t have Whispersync and I am not interested enough to bother manually syncing between commute listening and bedtime reading. So I am in a rut.

I have no idea what to do now. Do I wait until Easter hols and presume I will
find the attention span to push through? Do I start something else and come back to it? As for what to go for I simply don’t know. My kindle is full of books unread but nothing is leaping out. All of my favourites recently have been dystopian and fairly traumatic to be honest.

oh wise 50 bookers, help me please!

@passmethecrispsI’m also 50% through Death At The Sign Of The Rook at the moment

UlldemoShul I can’t tag you and I don’t understand why not !!

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit I think it’s because of the fada (the accents)

@Passmethecrisps welcome back- Dream Hotel is a pretty good near future dystopia if that floats your boat.

I went back a couple of pages and immediately bought Dream Hotel so thank you @ÚlldemoShúl My sister and I were reminiscing over how much we loved Prophet Song earlier today and it made me a bit fed up.

weird @EineReiseDurchDieZeit I so want to like it but I just don’t care.

this is a very busy work time for me and home life is hard so I am trying not to be too bothered - reading is for fun, not a job. But also I am annoying myself after a better start this year

Flying in with last minute shortlist predictions.

I haven't managed to read Amma or Birding yet, due to timeframe / library waitlists / life. Based on other reviewers here whom I trust, I don't think I'm missing much.

My shortlist

Nesting
Dream Hotel
Dream Count
Tell Me Everything
The Safekeep
Fundamentally

I don't think I came back to review The Artist. I liked it a lot, but I'm not convinced it's prize worthy.

What I think they will shortlist

Dream Count
All Fours
Good Girl
A Little Trickerie
Tell Me Everything
Amma

I'm still plugging away at the NF list too. I'm 25% into What the Wild Sea Can Be and so far I don't feel the love. The start feels like a boring history lesson.

I assume it will be another morning announcement, so back tomorrow early doors to dissect / wonder what they were thinking.