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.

@IKnowAPlace I absolutely loved Lincoln in the Bardo too, but I remember it took me a couple of goes to get into it.

Well I will still be reading Nesting based on the reviews on here and ignoring the views of the WP judges.

I am with Eine on Lianne Moriarty - having read Apples Never Fall I am not inclined to read anything else she has written.

Slow reading continues (still blaming work):

18. Three Act Tragedy - Agatha Christie

Ably summarised by satellite a page or so ago and read as March's Christie challenge book. I had read it before so could remember the murderer but didn't solve it the first time I read it (so am clearly less observant/astute than satellite). It was quite interesting to read it knowing the murderer and watching out for the hints/clues. Whilst Poirot's appearance was minimal and it didn't tick my usual Christie boxes (large country house and dysfunctional family), I found it surprisingly enjoyable.

Now reading Paper Cup and getting to grips with Scottish colloquialisms.

I loved The Lesser Bohemians a few years ago and am reading the new one, which takes up Stephen and Eilidh's story 18 months or so later. I've not read Strange Hotel though.

Like Eilidh, the author trained as an actor and was saying on the radio that she tries to apply what she learned there in her writing.

The Story of a Heart - Rachel Clarke

The story of a heart transplant between two young children, Keira and Max, this is so well written with great empathy, never losing sight of the human impact. It is the story not only of their families but of the people who looked after them.
It is also a history of the surgical innovations that have taken place over the years to allow this miraculous procedure to happen.
It is emotional and I cried frequently but it is done very sensitively.
A definite bold from me.

19 The Lost City Of Z - David Grann

Another cracking true-life story from Grann, this one tracing the journey of Victorian explorer Percy Fawcett who vanished in the Amazonian forest in 1925 while hunting for the mythical lost city. Strong vibes of Charles Muntz from Up.

Thanks @Stowickthevast - I think I remember your review of Private Rites and thinking it looked good based on that.

My list so far...
(1) The Nurse by Valerie Keogh
(2) The Wrong Child by Julia Crouch and M. J. Arlidge
(3) The Perfect Parents By J.A. Baker
(4) Darkest Fear, written by Harlen Coben
(5) Old Filth by Jane Gardam
(6) The Man in the Wooden Hat by Jane Gardam
(7) Last Friends by Jane Gardam
(8) American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins -
(9) The Housemaid by Frieda McFadden (Description taken from Amazon)
Latest book...
(10) The Coworker by Frieda McFadden
(11) Maid by Stephanie Land (Audio Book)
(12) The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
Latest two books....
(13) The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
(14) Class: A Memoir of Motherhood, Hunger, and Higher Education
Book by Stephanie Land

Latest Book...

(15) Verity by Colleen Hoover - RUBBISH!!! Onto the next

Happy reading everyone :)

@Clairedebear101286

Totally agree with you on Verity , it was a dnf for me .

Not been here for a while, will read back a few pages, but just finished Love in the Time of CHolera for Book club

24. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez This one was not for me - I can see the merit in the writing, it is certainly evocative of the time and from a literary point of view there is a lot to talk about, but even applying standards of the time, Florentino Ariza is a big manchild who won't take no for an answer and then stalks the object of his desire for 50 years while waiting for her husband to die, while simultaneously shagging his way through the female population. There was also way too much about bodily functions. Too many enemas. It's portrayed as an amazing love story, and while I recognise it's literary merits and there is a lot to talk about- love and passion, the contrast with her steady, respectable husband, the Cholera epidemic etc etc, it just rambled on and on and not in a good way. Weirdly, I enjoyed the last couple of chapters when they are on the river. Possibly because I knew I was on the home straight.

I've just devoured 54. Annie Bot by Sierra Greer. I think it's been discussed in this group a fair bit. It wasn't really my thing but it did 1) entertain me during a long train journey and 2) make me feel even more wary of men, as if that's something I needed!

I'm reading it now! I'm about half way through. It's a riveting read and very chilling.

Nesting - Roisin O’Donnell

Much reviewed on here recently. I have to see I found this distinctly average and I can see why it wasn’t shortlisted for the women’s prize. I didn’t really connect with any of the characters, I thought they were very thinly drawn. Disliked the Diego storyline and the story, very goes very slowly, mainly seemed to focus on describing the weather/nature and lists of Ciara travelling around places which if you don’t know Dublin means very little. Glad I only paid 99p for it.

16. Why can't I just enjoy things? A comedian's guide to Autism by Pierre Novellie A comedian talks about his late diagnosis with autism. This was a really good listen and I definitely recommend the audiobook. If you liked Fern Brady's book this is a good accompaniment.

The Way of all Flesh by Ambrose Parry

Historical crime thing set in Edinburgh. This had lots of attractions for me - the period, the setting, the focus on medical developments - and I liked the two central characters. I will definitely read the second.

However, I found it over long and under edited and I guessed the baddie ridiculously quickly. The writer was also obsessed with the words efficacy and efficacious, which got a bit wearying.

I’m hoping that the second one might be a bit tidier and more streamlined and maybe wear its research a bit less heavily.

9. Here One Moment, by Liane Moriarty. Like others I'm lukewarm on Liane Moriarty, but this was excellent. I can't improve on Sheila's summary so won't try! The stories are beautifully interwoven, and I can only imagine she had one of those theory boards joined up with red string to manage the intricacies of the plotting. I couldn't see how she would possibly be able to wrap things up satisfactorily but boy did she ever - and in a way that made me feel quite emotional. Recommended even if you've sworn off Moriarty after Apples Never Fall!

10. Careless People, by Sarah Wynn-Williams. An account of the author's time at Facebook, this is the book that Meta tried to ban. I bought it solely because of this and the ensuing Streisand effect, but it was actually very well done - delightfully snarky and very revealing.

11. The Great Alone, by Kristin Hannah. I think this has been much enjoyed on the thread recently. Leni's father was a POW in the Vietnam War and returns deeply damaged. The family moves to Alaska to live in the wilds, and despite it being very clear about the bleakness and danger of Alaska, it also includes some wonderful passages of nature writing that were so evocative I wanted to move there immediately. (I wouldn't last five minutes). The landscape and community are described so vividly I can picture it perfectly. Wonderful. My first Kristin Hannah, probably not my last.

17 The Wrong Hands by Mark Billingham
Reading this was largely a triumph of hope over experience. I hated the first in the series, but needed to complete a half price offer in Waterstones and this sequel was the best option.
It’s slightly better than the first one, I’ll give it that, but it wasn’t a particularly high bar.
Declan Miller is a Detective Sergeant in Blackpool. Another gangland murder seems linked to the murder of his wife. In between irritating the teams he works with he ballroom dances and shares a ludicrous amount of detail about current cases with the other dancers. There’s some snappy dialogue and almost believable villains, although the way the denouement comes to pass stretches credulity until it creaks.
This criticism is probably a bit picky, but what the heck, I’m going for it. If you’re going to set a crime novel in Blackpool and surrounding areas SET IT IN BLOODY BLACKPOOL AND SURROUNDING AREAS. I hate guessing where the outlying places are meant to be. Either call Blackpool something else or stick with the correct names for the entire area. Also, do a bit more research. There’s no such thing as Lancashire Parks Dept (especially in a unitary authority), no such place as ‘Ribble’ that you drive through (there’s South Ribble, which isn’t on that route as described, and the river Ribble). Just a couple of examples that made me twitch, but not as bad as describing the Cliffs Of Blackpool in the last book, I suppose.

Anyway, a new Tom Thorne is out in summer. MB has one more chance and then that’s it. Honestly, guv.

Online event - Judi Dench talking about Shakespeare

https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/visit/whats-on/playing-shakespeares-women/

At risk of being dismissed from these threads forever - I can’t stand Dame J.

Not a fan either !

Phew! 😂

Schism! 😀

Nor me.

Thanks @noodlezoodle you’ve vindicated my library hold on Here One Moment after SheliaFentiman’s glowing review - despite The Husband’s Secret and Apples Never Fall I’m Going In (or at least will be when the long line of people before me have finished with it!)

26. Writing on the Wall - Madeleine Pelling

Memo to self: must stop borrowing books from the library just because they stand out as vaguely interesting amidst the sea of misery memoirs, ghosted showbiz autobiogs and bodice-rippers. This study of graffiti in the18th century was interesting, I’m not saying it wasn’t, but there weren’t enough illustrations and it somehow never quite grabbed me, so the 500-odd pages took an age to crawl through. Sorry, Madeleine Pelling, who actually writes with great elan, it wasn’t you - it was me.

54 Still Midnight - Denise Mina

This is the first in a series about DS Alex Morrow, who is spiky and grumpy and all the usual lone wolf detective things. We find out a bit more about why she is like this - a recent personal tragedy plus turns out she is the half sister of a slippery gangster character.

I bought this mostly because it was written by the author of Rizzio and also I like me some detective fiction. But… nnngh… I wasn’t that bothered about Alex as a character. And the crime itself (kidnap of an elderly shopkeeper for ransom by some slightly bungling criminals, complete with highly improbable love story) was rather too convoluted.