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.

IMO that is her best one.

please please do not let Emma Corrin be Lizzie. Please

Alas……

@Welshwabbit yes, Katherine Langford was Sally Bowles

I saw Callum Scott Howells in Cabaret. He was terrific.

I detest Olivia C and think she would be absolutely horrific at Mrs B. Alison Steadman was dreadful but I actually think OC could be worse.

I’ve seen it twice, with two different casts. Brilliant both times. Next time I plan to go in a sequin dress and have a table at the front - need a small win on the lottery first though.

I find OC utterly over rated but she seems to be heading for JudicDench / Maggie Smith territory in being universally loved and first up for any role of older woman. She only ever plays Olivia Coleman imo. The X debate claimed that Mrs Bennett is in her 30s or early 40s and should be played by a much younger actress.

Yes to her only playing OC. So tedious.

Why do we need another remake of P&P?

They say that every generation needs its own version. I guess the older ones look dated to young people, who only watch new releases.

Considering that the Netflix remake of Persuasion was utterly panned you wonder what’s provoking them to do it.

If you are in the North and you love P&P, I would thoroughly recommend visiting National Trust Lyme Park in Stockport. They used it for the exterior of Pemberley for the '95 BBC series. There is a Regency Dressing Room where you can borrow outfits to wear during your visit. There are outfits to fit adults and children of both sexes in a range of sizes. I may or may not have flounced round the house in a frock and bonnet very recently. My friend and I had a marvellous time.

Yes I’ve been, I took the train and wasn’t left with much time but to sit in the gardens and read once I got there

21 Gone Fishing - Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse

I fancied a light listen in between a couple of chunky books (The Fatal Shore which I’m rereading, and an overlong audiobook about the mutiny on the Bounty which I’m plodding through in between Audible credits). Anyway this was just the ticket - a funny and likeable listen which covers fishing, friendship and life in general. Recommended for fans of the show.

I’m not an Agatha fan either. I’ve given her three chances and wasn’t particularly impressed with any of them - and apparently the three I read were the best ones so I dread to think what some of the others are like!

Adds flouncing around in a bonnet near Stockport to my list. Stockport also has a hat museum, which I’d like to visit.

Lyme Park sounds wonderful!

The Black Count by Tom Reiss Thanks Janina for flagging this book about French revolutionary General Alex Dumas, father of the author of Count of Monte Cristo. He was born in the Caribbean plantation colony Saint-Domingue, the mixed race son of a free woman of African descent and a ne’er do well French aristocrat. His father sold him and his siblings into slavery to pay his own passage home, but came back for Alex, who for some time lived the same high life in Paris, financed on credit, as his father, but then abruptly changed his name to take his mother’s, and joined the army, where his rise was meteoric. The book is really interesting about the Revolutionary period as well as the grim history of the Caribbean plantations and slavery. The Revolution was initially grounded in anti-slavery principles, and Dumas’ career thrived, but later this wasn’t the case, and his former peer Napoleon did nothing to intercede when Dumas was imprisoned.

I enjoyed this in large part for the sake of the links with the CoMC novel - it’s clear that Dumas senior was a huge inspiration for the Count of MC, and there’s even an Abbé Faria character too. The author’s love and awe for his father (who sadly died when the author was only 4) was really evident. I must admit I found the middle third rather a slog - it was mainly military history territory which is very much not my bag - but overall I found it fascinating, and I’m very much #TeamCount on the readalong.

30. Appointment in Arezzo - Alan Taylor

A slim, affectionate memoir of the author’s friendship with Muriel Spark during her later years. She and her companion, Penelope Jardine, lived in Tuscany, and Alan Taylor - a fellow-Scot who was writing an article about her at the time - became a close and valued friend. He brings her vividly and amusingly to life here.

31. The Greengage Summer - Rumer Godden

Latest for the Rather Dated Book Club. A re-read for me and much enjoyed. A mother takes her family of 5 children to France but when she falls seriously ill they’re stranded at a hotel run by the soignée Mademoiselle Zizi, with no-one to look after them. Described some time later by one of the 4 girls, Cecil, this is the story of their 'greengage summer', as Zizi's English lover Eliot takes pity on their light, becomes something of a protector and casts them under his spell. But disturbing undercurrents are at work and the children’s innocence isn’t destined to be preserved as events spiral to an alarming conclusion. Satisfyingly plotted and the characterisation and writing are excellent.

@ShackletonSailingSouth I felt the same about Happy All The Time - baffled as to why it's always raved about as a perfect New York rom com! I couldn't get a grip on what any of the characters felt about each other.

Controversially - I'm open to the new P+P adaptation. But I don't have a very strong attachment to any of the previous ones, and I like Dolly Alderton's writing. I'm interested to see what she does with it.

Amazing Grace Adams by Fran Littlewood. A few years old but an interesting counterpoint to All Fours actually, in that it's about a woman in menopause, facing her relationship breaking down and a complicated family set up. The book starts with Grace abandoning her car in a traffic jam and setting off to walk across north London to her daughter's 16th birthday party, it's clear she is separated from her husband and her daughter isn't speaking to her, and we find out why through multiple flashbacks. I found it very readable and well put together. There was a big reveal about three quarters of the way through though about a family tragedy which affected all the characters, which I felt was a bit manipulative and unnecessary. There was enough going on already without dialling up the sadness.

Controversially, the only P&P I like is the Keira Knightly one.

Lyme Park is great. Good walks, a cafe for tea and scones, and a second-hand bookshop too, for after the flouncing. What more do you need!

I haven't been to the Hat Museum in Stockport since it's had a facelift but did do a hat-making course there a few years ago. We were told that we would learn to make felt, shape it, add a brim and trim a hat. What they didn't say was that it would be half the size of a normal one. I now have a cute little 20s cloche which I can balance on my head but not actually wear.

I'm a Jennifer Ehle fan, and also love Lady Catherine de Bourgh and Mr Collins in the 1995 version. Agree Alison Steadman was exhausting though.

I actually enjoy new adaptations, so I’m not against a new one - more that I find Emma Corrin a bit pleased with herself and I just find myself turning away from the screen when she is on. She was in a play I saw recently (for some reason I didn’t know) and I audibly sighed when she came on.

I don’t love Keira Knightley, but I did like that adaptation.

I will watch the new adaptation. I have never heard of Emma Corrin before so have no opinion on her. I agree that Olivia Colman is too old for Mrs B. I don’t really see any need for a new P&P adaptation though - would prefer a new version of some of Austen’s other books before seeing P&P again.

@ChessieFL Emma Corrin played Princess Diana in the Crown

Never seen The Crown!