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.

Sorry for your loss @Arran2024

I'm very sorry for your loss @Arran2024

@SheilaFentiman I'm a big Tana French fan!

I've had a tiring week as my daughter has been ill and I've been sitting up with her a lot at night, so read lots of easy books.

How to Sleep at Night by Elizabeth Harris. A sort of political novel of manners, focussing on Gabe and Ethan, a couple, one of whom is a democrat and the other who decides to run for congress as a republican. At the same time, Ethan's sister is a political journalist reconnecting with a collage girlfriend (herself now married to a republican). Obviously, the various relationships come under pressure and start to fracture. I thought this was nicely observed albeit predictable.

Confessions by Catherine Airey. Much reviewed already, this opens with Cora, a teenager who loses her father in 9/11, then finds out she has an Irish aunt she has never met. Before ricocheting back and forth between different generations of the family to uncover secrets. I loved this - it absolutely wasn't perfect, I know others have felt it was wrapped up too neatly which was true. There was probably too much going on and it arguably didn't need detours to talk about video game design or Victorian school role play. But, I loved the characters and found the whole thing really powerful.

Wild Things by Laura Kay. Rom com about a group of young people who decide to move out of London and buy a house together in a commuter village, while the main character is secretly in love with her best friend. I didn't find the romance very convincing but was quite charmed by the gang adjusting to countryside life and I enjoyed a sub plot about their house renovation Instagram account which was very believable.

A Game of Scandal by Laura Wood. Third part in this YA series which I adore about a secret women led agency fighting crime in Victorian London. This one followed an young lady desperate to be a mathematician who uses her skills to card count and infiltrate gambling clubs. Wonderful fun.

Greatest of all Time by Alex Allison. This was a really interesting one, a novel about two very young premier league footballers who become friends and form a secret sexual relationship. They're both troubled by what's going on and we only hear from one of their perspectives, so it's never clear quite how much of his affection is returned, and at times their relationship feels quite abusive. It was a thoughtful look at what must be unbearable pressure for gay footballers to live under, and didn't go for an easy ending, leaving lots of complex questions.

Sorry about your loss @Arran2024

Terrible Georgette Heyer crime thing

Can’t Be bothered to check the title - something about a butler.

Can’t be bothered to review it - pretty crap.

The Bloody Burgling Butler, perhaps?

So sorry for your loss @Arran2024

25 The One - John Marrs A groundbreaking scientific discovery has made Match Your DNA a huge financial success, and billions of people are now Matched with their one true soulmate. The story follows several different people who meet their Match, with different consequences for each of them. The premise is a great idea, but unfortunately it was really badly executed - one-dimensional characters which made it impossible to care about the outcome, wasted plot opportunities, and some really nasty serial killer stuff that just wasn’t necessary. I don’t think this is quite bad enough for italics, but it’s close. I’d happily read a different book using the same idea but with a proper story…or alternatively there is apparently a Netflix series - could this be one of those rare instances (like the Godfather) where the film version is better than the book?

Thanks everyone for your kind wishes.

@GrannieMainland I know Alex Allison, he gave a really interesting talk to my book group about the process of writing and why he made certain choices with the book. It’s sitting on my desk signed and waiting to be read.

@DuPainDuVinDuFromageI absolutely despised The One by John Marrs, I did a full rant about it at the time

Brilliant! 😂

It was actually The Bloody Blackmailing Butler, also featuring The Very Villainous Valet.

30 Our Mutual Friend - Charles Dickens.
I'm working my way through his books on Audible. Over 35 hours long but well worth it. Another bold from me.

67 The Frozen People - Elly Griffiths

First in a new series - several of us have read and reviewed already.

Ali Dawson is a DS and a single mother to Finn, a SPAD. Ostensibly, she works on cold cases; actually, she is part of a unit who travels back in time to observe hitherto unsolved crimes.

Finn’s boss, the Minister of Justice, Isaac Templeton, requests Ali for a special case - to go back to 1850 and determine if his ancestor was a murderer. But Ali misses her window to get back, Isaac is murdered and Finn is a suspect.

A good read which sets up the unit and some ongoing mysterious threads well for future books.

35. The Spy Who Came in From the Cold - John le Carré

I've never actually read any le Carré despite having seen various TV and film adaptations of his books, so this was a first. Not entirely sure I loved it, tbh - former Berlin station chief Alec Leamas, weary and cynical after seeing all his agents eliminated by the other side, comes home and asks to give up his spying career. Instead, Control persuades him to undertake one last mission. I won’t say much more so as not to spoil it for anyone who wants to read it, but it’s very much a 'grown-up' novel, taut and well-written, just irredeemably bleak, and quite hard to wrap your head round the many complexities. Though that might, of course, just be the fault of my own obtuseness….

I thought it was brilliantly horrible. I suspect none of his others could live up to it.

It's definitely the sort of book you admire rather than love…and I can see why it was so acclaimed when it was first published. Spy books are ten a penny now but le Carré set a very high bar. There's not a scintilla of sentiment in it.

I'm so sorry, Arran2024.

Recent reads:

45. Walking, Erling Kagge
Translated from the Norwegian, this is a short book by a philosopher reflecting on the joy and value of walking. It opens on his small daughter taking her first steps, and ends with the story of his grandfather walking in front of a Nazi firing squad. After finishing it a few days ago, I'm hazier about the middle - I know it features his long walk in the polar regions - but I did like it.

46. A Voice in the Night, Simon Mason
Fourth in the police procedural series featuring the mismatched DI Ryan Wilkins and DI Ray Wilkins. An elderly academic is found dead - our protagonists must work out whodunnit, how and why, and absorb personal revelations along the way. I'm really enjoying this series - great characters.

47. Living Alone, Stella Benson
This is an odd little number. It was published in 1919 and is set during the Great War. As it opens, a committee of respectable ladies is beginning its meeting, when the door opens and a young woman dashes in. She turns out to be a witch and various strange things happen. There's an air raid which shakes up some nearby tombs, and the occupants join the living in the bomb shelter. There's an aerial battle between our witch and a German witch. Someone goes to work as a land girl amongst the fairy people (not diligent workers, as you may guess). It's strange and whimsical and badly plotted - I read a review which says the author seemed to decide to write a novel without ever having read one. It doesn't really work as a whole, but there are some interesting moments and amusing asides, and overall it's an interesting failure. Not sure I can really recommend it, but it is free on kindle if anyone wants to sample it.

Just finishing 48. In Bloom, C J Skuse. Pregnancy really gets in the way of your hobby, especially when that hobby is serial-killing. This is the sequel to Sweetpea, which I enjoyed - chicklit with added weaponry. A previous poster (apols, can't remember who) said the sequels provided diminishing returns, and I can see that here - not as much happens. Amusing enough to keep me going to the end though.

I'm also tackling The Stripping of the Altars, by Eamon Duffy, about traditional religion as it stood immediately before the Reformation, and then the impact of the Reformation itself. I'm still on the "before" section and I'll admit to doing quite a lot of skimming - I don't need quite so much detail about fifteenth century liturgy. I'm interested in what I imagine to be the massive psychological rupture of the Reformation, so will perservere.

Looking at my list, I do like variety in my reading.

Thanks Eine - I’ll look for your review as I’ll probably enjoy it more than the book 😄

Still loving the reading!

24 Raking the Ashes by Anne Fine

A woman looks back on her relationship with her husband and stepchildren. She is rather dreadful and has a degree of insight into it. It was told in first person and the narrator isn’t quite unreliable as such but she has a lot of bias. I enjoyed this a lot but thought the ending was a bit unnecessary. It was a better story without the final flourish.

25 The Man in the Queue by Josephine Tey

I think I might be slightly in love with Inspector Alan Grant. I like him best when he is fishing in Scotland being clever and dashing going through the heather in his tweeds. Rather dated murder mystery. Good stuff.

@DuPainDuVinDuFromage thank you for your The One review. It was next up on my kindle but I bought it ages and ages ago and had forgotten about it. I think I will give it a miss. I have a feeling a read the first few pages then put it down...

I keep meaning to re-read it, but not sure I can cope!

I didn’t think much of The One either. It’s a few years since I read it now so can’t remember what I didn’t like but I only gave it 2 stars on Goodreads. It was obviously OK enough for me to finish it but I clearly didn’t like it much!

The Spy who Came in from the Cold is my husband's all time favourite book. He sees it as being about a very hard bitten man who ultimately redeems himself with an act of love - which is quite a romantic interpretation but I like it.

@AgualusasLover that's so interesting! The more I think about it the more I like GOAT - as I was reading it I was unsure, it felt a bit insubstantial, but now I feel it was quite complex and open ended.

@elspethmcgillicudddy glad you are still in the zone! I love that feeling 🙂:-) Definitely give The One a miss if you don't want to be stopped in your tracks 😂

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit found your review and absolutely agree - you focused on a major negative that I didn't even mention and I'm sure we could both come up with additional reasons not to read it! As you said in your review, it's only the concept that is any good (and it's only that which stops me marking it down as a total stinker).

On a different note, I loved The Spy who Came in from the Cold when I read it years ago (at uni I think) and wouldn't mind re-reading it now. I had a battered paperback which I think I found in the unused loft of our student house - no idea what happened to it but it doesn't seem to have survived my periodic clear-outs!

I like the Smiley books - Tinker, Tailor & the Karla books are good.