50 Books Challenge 2025 Part Five

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the fifth 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 or / and maybe authors as well of books you've read or going to read? It makes it much easier to keep track. Some of us like to bring over lists to the next thread- again, this is up to you.

The first thread of the year is here, the second thread here , the third thread here and the fourth thread here.

That’s a good call @elkiedee - maybe I’ll pop there at the weekend, I just happened to be the other way in Belsize Park so ended up in the Daunt.

I think David B is a bit of a pillock, but I seem to remember rather a nice tv programme about his dad. Since I hardly ever watch TV, I might have invented this though.

I did a couple of projects with David Baddiel and he was ok, I quite enjoyed our interactions.

Just got back from seeing Percival Everett at the BL, totally inspired to read everything he has ever written, esp a book he said is very difficult to find about Medea.

Enchanted Islands:A Mediterranean Odyssey Laura Coffey

Reviewed by others on this thread, better than I expect I will. I don’t like and actively avoid Covid books, so Coffey’s very loose following the journey of Odysseus whilst grappling with bereavement during covid was just ok for me. There were moments I felt drawn in and I had previously spoken with the author through work so was invested but in the end I don’t think it could decide between a covid memoir, travel writing or focussing on bereavement. I was very taken with the sections about her father and her, she didn’t sugarcoat or make him into a martyr. Just not sure overall what I thought.

I have started The Trees by Percival Everett and really like it so far. His acerbic writing style reminds me of John Connolly and the banter between the two detectives in 'The Trees' reminds me of Angel and Louis in the Charlie Parker series. Must read another one of those soon.

38 One by One - Ruth Ware I think I’ve reached my Ruth Ware limit for now, at least - this was ok but nothing more than that. I liked the gothic creepy books by Ware but this one was more of a survival thriller (like the last one I read) and not a great example of that genre.

Erin and Danny are chalet hosts in the French alps, their new guests are a group of colleagues (and one former colleague) from a wildly successful tech start-up, an avalanche cuts them off from civilisation, and then people start dying. Great premise but the execution was average, and it was pretty clear who was going to turn out to be the killer.

65. No More Normal: Mental Health in an Age of Over-Diagnosis, by Dr Alastair Santhouse
Psychiatrist argues that we shouldn't pathologize the normal range of human emotions and characteristics. As it happens, I agree, but I don't think he made the case very well as to why it is a Bad Thing. I think diagnosis is helpful if it helps people to understand themselves and find effective strategies to manage life well. It's not helpful if it leads people to rule themselves out from learning and growing. This book is less about that and more about why psychiatric diagnosis isn't quite as scientific as it likes to pretend - fairly well-trodden territory.

66. Shy Creatures, Clare Chamber
By coincidence, also set in a psychiatric institution - it's the 1960s, and the main character is an art therapist who wants to help a man who has spent decades as a shut-in, while also dealing with her own relationship challenges. The author is sometimes compared to Barbara Pym, which appeals to me. I almost didn't need so much plot, as I was happy to read about the protagonist's everyday life.

67. Chopping Onions on My Heart, Samantha Ellis
The author is English, of Iraqi Jewish heritage. This is a mixture of family history and pondering on how far it's possible for the second generation to reclaim their heritage, especially language and food. I enjoyed some parts more than others, but it's a timely reminder of all the people who find themselves on the wrong side of national narratives about who belongs and who doesn't, not due to any fault of their own, but because of the political moment they are in.

68. The Corner that Held Them, Sylvia Townsend Warner
Full review in the Reading Challenge thread, as I've owned this for a good decade or so without getting through it. Nuns in the fourteenth century. I wanted to like it more than I did.

69. Dead Head, C J Skuse
Third in the Sweepea series, following the adventurers of a female serial killer now that her identity is out and she is on the run. Has she gone soft - is killing just not fun any more? I was going to say that it's a complete contrast to the last book, but when you've been through the Black Death, what's another body? Still reasonable fun, although I agree with the previous reviewer on here who said that there are diminishing returns as we move through the series.

88 Come with Me- Ronald Malfi (audio)
I’ve heard quite a lot about Ronald Malfi being like early Stephen King and this book definitely has some similarities in writing style. This is more thriller than horror as Aaron Decker searches for a suspected serial killer based on what his late wife has left behind. There is a tiny touch of the supernatural. This won’t set the world on fire but I enjoyed it, especially good on audio and will definitely read more.

89 A Leopard-Skin Hat by Anne Serre
One of only two remaining reads I have of the International Booker shortlist. This one was not for me. It looks at friendship and mental illness. The way the book is set up keeps us very distant from the characters- I think this is part of the point- that we never truly know one another- but it also stopped me from caring much about either character.

@FuzzyCaoraDhubhI loved The Trees. How it manages to be so powerful and so funny at once is quite an achievement. I have Erasure lined up on audio but have some library audio to finish first.

25.How to Eat (and Still Lose Weight) by Dr Andrew Jenkinson. A bariatric surgeon's take on the mechanisms of weight gain and sustainable weight loss, focusing on processed foods and their impact on leptin and insulin.

I picked this up as for the last couple of months I've been on what my 14yo describes as a "cholesterol journey". I hope it would be an inspiring and motivating read, but TBH it was quite the opposite. The overarching message seems to be if you can't cook everything from scratch, and completely avoid sugar, bread and wheat products, and meat that isn't grass-fed then you're a bit screwed. I felt a bit deflated, despite being someone who cooks from scratch (to the level of making pasta/bread at the weekend) probably 6 nights out of 7. No doubt it's my Freudian defence mechanisms kicking in, but I wouldn't recommend this.

I completely agree with you on 'The Trees' @StrangewaysHereWeCome Funny and powerful, exactly.

I also read the Jenkinson book. I had similar thoughts about it, that it is a very worthy book but not achievable for an ordinary mortal (ie one that is too fond of chocolate and other forbidden foods).My cholesterol journey ended with a statin, by the way ;)

Oh my goodness, I knew that I had been following along here without posting for a while, but apparently it's been a whole month! Such is my rubbish excuse for a bit of a review dump - my apologies.

14. The Safekeep, by Yael Van Der Wouden. The boldest bold of the year so far, absolutely spectacular. It's summer 1961, and Isabel is an unwilling host to her brother's girlfriend Eva at the family home in the Dutch countryside. I can't believe this is a first novel, it's absolutely beautiful. Oh, and I read this a couple of months ago and it has now won the Women's Prize; deservedly so in my opinion.

15. The Most, by Jessica Anthony. On an unseasonably warm day in November 1957, weary wife and mother Kathleen Beckett gets into the communal apartment pool, and then refuses to get out. The story is told in alternate chapters by Kathleen and her husband Virgil, and shuttles back and forth over the course of their lives and relationship. It's very cleverly done and I enjoyed all the little motifs, but I didn't feel at all emotionally engaged. Good, but not great - and indeed, a few weeks later, I can't remember much about it, apart from the mood.

16. This is a Love Story, by Jessica Soffer. Artists Abe and Jane have lived near Central Park for 50 years, and it has been integral to their relationship. Jane is dying, and Abe tells her stories and memories about their lives by her bedside. Told from multiple viewpoints, including their son and the park itself, I loved this. Very light on plot, very long on character depth, and absolutely beautiful.

17. Deep Cuts, by Holly Brickland. Musician Joe and writer Percy meet at college in the fall of 2000 and become friends and collaborators. This tells the story of their relationship over the years. Not a bold for me because it's fairly surface level, but it's very evocative and wildly entertaining. Each chapter has a song as the title and theme, and there's a Spotify playlist that goes along with them. I liked having that as a reference because I didn't know all the songs.

18. God of the Woods, by Liz Moore. Much read and I think loved on the thread so I won't recap, but I adored this and it's probably going to be in my top 3 of the year.

19. Wild Dark Shore, by Charlotte McConaghy. Set in the near future amidst a climate crisis, Dominic Salt and his three children are keepers of a seed vault on Shearwater, the closest island to the Antarctic. The sea is rising and in a few weeks they will leave the island for good, but there is a huge storm and an unconscious woman washes onto the shore. This is both an eco-thriller, a meditation about family, sacrifice, love and place, and it broke my heart multiple times. Another contender for top 3.

20. Good Material, by Dolly Alderton. Andy is a stand-up comedian, recently dumped by his girlfriend Jen, and he doesn't understand why. I thought this was a fun, quick read, which felt very realistic and had convincing characters. Andy is deeply annoying so it's to Dolly Alderton's credit that she didn't make me want to DNF as he wanders along feeling sorry for himself. We hear Jen's view of things at the end of the story and I wish we'd heard more from her, but it tied together very well.

21. Obama: An Intimate Portrait, by Pete Souza. Souza was Obama's official White House photographer and was by his side for most of his 8 years as president. Fascinating photos and commentary, including some absolute classics such as the Spiderman battle, 'same hair' and 'the most famous ears in Washington'. Some wonderful family pictures too, particularly of Michelle. I've had this for ages but read it now to comfort and/or torture myself before going on the No Kings protest at the weekend. Sob, we didn't realise how good we had it at the time.

22. Ministry of Time, by Kaliane Bradley. Oh, my heart! Again, much read and reviewed on here although I think not universally loved. I thought it was very good, but I'm not sure it would have been a bold had she not made me fall in love with Commander Gore. But she did, so it is.

23. Things to Look Forward To: 52 Large and Small Joys for Today and Every Day, by Sophie Blackall. Short, beautifully illustrated list of things to look forward to in dire times. No need to guess why this felt necessary while living in the US. Slightly twee in places but a good salve and I will be looking for more of her art work.

50. Edwardian Childhoods - Thea Thompson

A good candidate for the 'read your oldest book' challenge, as I've had this knocking around for a good 20 years. Nine people born in the late 19th century recall their childhoods, and the testimonies are vivid, fresh, often heartbreaking. The poorest (and some were very poor) grew up with neglectful, drunken parents and lived in single rooms with many siblings; the richest enjoyed privileged upbringings with servants but had to carry the (often stifling) weight of societal obligations - especially the girls. My heart went out especially to the mothers of huge families of nine, ten, or even more children, condemned to lifelong poverty, yet still remembered lovingly by their now-very elderly sons and daughters as wonderful parents. The sort of oral history that gives the lie to 'the past is a foreign country'.

51. Providence - Anita Brookner

Quite an early Brookner novel - her second - and she hadn’t quite refined her art, but the elements are there. Kitty Maule, exquisitely-dressed thanks to her French couturier grandmother, lectures on literature in the Romantic Tradition at a provincial university, and unreciprocatedly loves dashing fellow-lecturer Maurice, but he is stubbornly elusive. As Kitty leads her students through a close reading of the arid 18thc French novel Adolphe, its themes of a young man's obsessional preoccupation with an older woman ominously mirror her own predicament.
There's a good deal of sly wit here - surprisingly, in an almost Pym-ish way occasionally - but as it’s Brookner, I didn’t have much doubt as to how it was all going to end up. Still, an enjoyable read.

Audition by Katie Kitamura is in the deals today. I'm not sure whatever I really recommend it, I read it last week and it's a bit frustrating but a quick read so if you're into experimental fiction of the Rachel Cusk ilk, it's worth a try. I think it's been touted as a potential Booker nominee. Not for anyone who likes plots that deliver a final answer!

Meanwhile I've finished 7 & 8 of Maeve Kerrigan as a palate cleanser from literary fiction. Obviously have bought the next 3 but am going to try and pace them better!

You piqued my curiosity with your review @Stowickthevast so I picked it up. Thanks.

I'm really interested to see what you make of it.

25) The Detective's Daughter by Lesley Thomas

I absolutely loved this. A very superior crime novel. Set in Hammersmith, it is the first in a long series of books featuring an amateur sleuth whose dad was a policeman. I had picked up her novel set in Kew Gardens at Kew last year, then discovered it was 5th in the series, so I bought the others. So I have a pile to get through.

The writing and style can be confusing - she jumps about a lot. But it was cleverly plotted, with interesting characters, and a satisfying ending.

I hated the one Rachel Cusk I did read so I’ll avoid Audition

pace them better

Famous Last Words @Stowickthevast

40 A God In Ruins - Kate Atkinson. A strong bold from me although I can see why a lot of people are disappointed by the ending. It's just KA using what she's already done in Life after Life although in a longer format. I don't think it detracts from the story itself. It made me think a lot about the different subjects it touches on within the book and I often had to stop and reflect on things which not many books get you to do. Her notes afterwards were very interesting too.

Heroes of Olympus: The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan

Book 2 in this series. We catch up with Percy who has amnesia and has met some new demigods. DS is now on the last book in this series and is wanting me to keep up but love them as I do I feel like three YA books in a row might be too much, I'm feeling the need for some more ambiguity and nuance, although there are some fun ideas in this one which I can't reveal because spoilers.

@noodlezoodle thank you for marching in the No Kings protests; I'm a California girl transplanted to Britain and I was there with you in spirit!

@StrangewaysHereWeCome thanks for your review of How to Eat; I think I'll be giving that a miss 😂

@bibliomania I enjoyed your reviews of Shy Creatures (which I've read already, but need to reread for my book group) and No More Normal, which I haven't read. You said: I think diagnosis is helpful if it helps people to understand themselves and find effective strategies to manage life well. I totally agree with this.

I'm still reeling a bit because I had coffee with one of my bosses this week (she's also a friend) and when I told her I thought I had ADHD, she was very sceptical. I tried to describe my symptoms to her and she kept saying, 'But that's normal!'

Part of me can see her point. The Robin Ince book I just read on neurodiversity suggests that there's no strict line between neurotypical and neurodiverse. On the other hand, he argues that diagnoses of ADHD and autism and the like aren't so much labels as keys to a 'handbook' or 'user's guide', which makes a lot of sense to me.

Anyway I was tempted to reveal more to my boss but decided not to, because I realised that trying to prove to your boss that you really ARE crazy and dysfunctional and struggling to cope is probably not a desirable course of action 😂I'm happy for her to think I'm neurotypical.

It reminds me a bit of SSRIs and how people used to say they were being overprescribed, especially by doctors in the US. I'm sure they WERE being overprescribed but they were doubtless also prescribed to some people who desperately needed them and who derived huge benefit from them.

It's an interesting debate, @cassandre . My brother got an ADHD diagnosis in his late forties and finds it very vindicating and helpful. He got the diagnosis while training for a new career which suits him much better, and is thriving professionally. I can't say how much is the career change and how much the diagnosis, but I think it has damped down a lot of unnecessary self-criticism.

33 Briefly, a Delicious Life - Nell Stevens
Blanca, the ghost of a 14 year old Mallorcan girl, watches on as Chopin, George Sand and her children come to take up residence for the winter in the monastery she haunts. It was fascinating to learn more about Chopin and Sand, and the framing device of the ghost was an interesting concept - but I felt Blanca was given too many powers for solely narrative reasons (being able to see back and forward through the whole of Sand and Chopin’s lives) and this diluted the focus on Sand and Chopin’s disastrous winter in Mallorca. Beautiful flow to the writing though and would look out for anything else she writes.

34 You Only Die Once - Jodi Wellman
Positive psychology self-help focusing on the motivation that memento mori (‘remember you must die’) can give you. Over long, overly trying-to-be-cool and twee - but it’s definitely got me thinking about how I spend my time and I’ve gone back to yoga classes after a 9 year break after reflecting on things-I-used-to-enjoy-but-stopped-doing. Annoying but inspiring?

35 Wise Women: myths and stories for midlife and beyond - Sharon Blackie and Angharad Wynne
Retellings of folktales from across Europe from Ireland to Siberia, focusing on positive role models for older women, with reflection on their meaning (Blackie is a Jungian psychologist). A lot of the stories were new to me, and the Siberian ones were bizarrely fascinating, although not sure we needed a lengthy Disney-esque version of Sleeping Beauty. The interpretations were often too brief to add anything meaningful, and I got annoyed by the idea that when there is conflict, in our older years we should act as decorous peacemakers, rather than standing up and fighting.

35 Creation Lake - Rachel Kushner
Independent spy/agent ‘Sadie Smith’ has been hired by obscure business and political interests, to frame the members of an anarchist commune in rural Southern France as ecoterrorists. Her alias is no more real than the massive antigravity fake tits she’s inordinately proud of.

Odd but oddly compelling. Sadie is amoral and on the face of it unlikeable, and the story is told in a very ‘factual’, almost unnovelistic way - lots of background info on the activists, lots of ideas and politics, little in the way of description, scene-setting or any glimpses of the ‘real’ (pre spy) background of the first person narrator.

She grows on you though as you begin to see how unhappy she is - using her body to manipulate men harms her too, and she drinks a lot. She’s drawn in by the emails sent to the anarchists by Bruno Lacombe, a former activist who inspires the commune but has withdrawn from the world to live in caves and pontificate on what Neanderthals can teach us about anti-capitalism. At first Sadie is just mining the emails as a source, but is increasingly charmed by the counter-narratives Bruno seems to offer her.

I sped through it. I don’t know what I think. At least it was different.

@AlmanbyRoadtrip – I really enjoyed Finklestein’s book. I think the love for his family shines through. I dont think his politics comes into it. I’m not a fan of David Baddiel.

@StrangewaysHereWeCome – I have highish cholesterol. Infuriatingly because I have lost 5 stone. I don’t cook from scratch all the time, so that would utterly depress me.

Just finished Jon Sopel's Strangeland, a readable insight into how politics, journalism and the UK has changed. That's his claim anyway. I did really like reading it but it is almost entirely focused on England and the US. Really the hook us a Brit returns after years away and finds himself in a strange land. But Sopel is in a media bubble so it is seen through that lens. He savages Farage and Trump but is otherwise pretty even handed. On some debates, I felt where his own sympathies lie and I do think he could have dug more. But I liked his stuff on the BBC and on GB News. Definitely an interesting book to read on the media.

23. Sick to Death by Chris Bridges
Emma is not well. Her family took her in but as the years go by the strains are showing. Meeting someone wonderful isn’t what she expects, but it means she might finally be able to take action and make things better.

A psychological thriller. Not usually my genre but I lapped it up on holiday and would recommend.

Another day, another bookshop - had a walk around Foyles (who also do not have Kristin Lavransdatter but informed me the only place anywhere nearby is Waterstones Piccadilly with FIVE copies). I thought I had The 39 Steps on Kindle but cannot find it so now have a hard copy.

*To Sir Philip, With Love’ Julia Quinn

Number 5 in the Bridgerton series. I do love these. Whilst I think Anthony and Kate in book 2 is my favourite, I really enjoyed this one, it felt a lot more equal than the others. I really like Eloise anyway and was chuckling away to myself when the Bridgerton brothers arrived. More of the same Julia Quinn formula - just what I needed.