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.

My reading has slowed right down, partly due to a change in routine after GCSEs. No longer being taxi service means I can’t sit and read in the car. I don’t think I appreciated how much time was spent waiting… Anyway, before it goes back to the library:

.31. Grounded - James Canton

An exploration of what the landscape meant to those who came before us. With the backdrop of the Covid lockdowns James Canton metaphorically (and physically) journeys across his local area of Suffolk/Essex seeking stone circles, barrows, churches, sacred spaces and prehistoric art/religious artefacts. He speaks to friends, family and experts to learn about the connection with the land that has been lost over time, though which is being slowly rediscovered through the lockdowns and climate crisis. It was an interesting blend of archaeology, folklore and nature writing, and the accompanying black and white illustrations were beautiful. Ultimately there didn’t seem to be a conclusion, though maybe that’s the point.

I've read about four or five of the Detective's Daughter books, would be interested in your thoughts on them

@Rolypolycustard - thank you for your list and the Andrew Tweeddale recommendations. I love Castle Drogo so have bought the first book as interested to find out more.

Oh wow @Arran2024 I've only just finished reading Her Side of the Story by Alba de Cespedes! She's an amazing writer isn't she? I read Forbidden Notebook earlier this year and was hooked, then read There's No Turning Back and loved that one as well. Her Side of the Story is also very good, but a little darker than the other two. I also think the other two are more innovative in terms of narrative form (one is a diary, one is the interlinking narrative of eight different women characters). It's interesting what you say about the author's own life and how she married and had a child young (and also divorced young, I believe). That would certainly explain part of the cynicism in her novels about marriage and romantic love. Anyway, I love the focus on women in her novels, and the strong sense of time and place.

I think those three novels are the only English translations of her work currently in print, which makes me sad because I'd like to read more. I assume more translations will be forthcoming though; she seems to be enjoying a renaissance in the English-speaking world following the Elena Ferrante craze.

A fourth novel by her, Between Then and Now, was translated into English in 1960 (I think) and it's actually available in my uni library, but the library it's in is non-circulating. So am I desperate/impatient enough actually to go sit at a desk in the library and read a novel for pleasure? I'm not sure, ha. I may go for it later this summer though.

I enjoy looking for out-of-print books but the only copies of Between Then and Now that the web is throwing up are priced at £100 or so!

I also suspect that more of her novels have been translated into French than English, and I read French, so I may try to track down some of those. It's tricky though because the titles given to the translations vary. Her Side of the Story is translated into French as Elles (plural!) which is interesting. A reference to both the narrator Alessandra and her mother maybe?

In case you can't tell I've become a bit obsessed with this author 😂

I really like the sound of Alba de Cespedes Aran and cassandre.
I will look her up. I would definitely be tempted to take a day off and sit and read at a library desk, so long as I had access to coffee :)

I have started Naufrage @cassandre .
It's brilliant. I had been thinking* *of reading it. Thanks for the recommendation.

@cassandre seems you and I are very alike when we discover an author we love 🤣.

Thanks to @cassandre and @Arran2024 I will add her to my list to peruse at my next book shop visit.

I have really slowed down this month. Struggling to get through A Spell of Good Things. Not sure why. Everyone else seemed to love it. I find it quite a difficult read, with the culture being so unknown to me, I’m just not picking up on the nuances of the different names, eg once a woman has a child. Anyway, I’m more than half way through, so will continue.

Ooooh @ChessieFL – for some reason, I thought Vianne was a September release! That said, I want to go back and read from the beginning. I picked up Books 1-3 at a street stall back in May, so I'll look at reserving from the library.

58 Bad Actors – Mike Heron (Slough House 8). Back to my much loved Slough House gang. I don’t want to say to much, as I don’t want to give spoilers for those who aren’t as far on. I loved it and cant wait for Book 9 to come out in September. At least, I think its September. There is a very good chance that I am confusing it with the next Apple TV release which is also around the same time lol.

I know very little about Bernini, other than he was an Italian artist and sculptor . Therefore, I knew nothing of the story of Costanza, his married lover. I won't say more about her tale as it constitutes plot points that happen more than half way through Rachel Blackmore's debut novel named after this fallen woman (immortalised by Bernini in sculpture). Blackmore has meticulously researched but also, of course fictionalised elements, adding characters and plot dimensions .

At first, her style of capturing Renaissance language and mores can be a little draining and the shifts of perspective inconsistent but the book picks up in pace and does genuinely become one of those books you have to keep picking up to 'just read the next chapter'. I enjoyed the book and its themes and descriptions. It does lack subtlety in its feminism at times.

Se was so excited by her story she has both an afterword and an 'author's note'. These make for really interesting reading and her furious motivations for writing the novel are abundantly clear in this section.

Of all recent female focused historical novels I have read recently this is the best. Not Mantel good but better than a lot of others in a fairly crowded market. I'll definitely keep an eye out for her next book.

To add to my post, having now read Bernini's Wiki entry (which does , as Blackmore notes, only very briefly deal with Costanza) I now note that Bernini is Baroque rather than Renaissance. Apologies to Italian art buffs.

Glad to find another fan! It made me wonder how much great literature we are missing out on because it doesn't get translated. Hope you get to read the book in the library.

I've only read the first one so far. I enjoyed it but will let you know how I get on with the others.

83 . This Immaculate Body by Emma Van Straaten

A young cleaner in contemporary London becomes obsessed with one of her clients, to the point of delusional, believing he will be hers any day. This is the “unhinged woman” trope and it’s fairly well done, because she’s unreliable you’re never quite certain what’s just happened. It’s dreamlike at times. It reminded me of I’m A Fan by Sheena Patel for those of you who read that. It’s not a bold, but I really appreciated it

@Tarragon123 I preferred Stay With Me to A Spell Of Good Things, I found the different strands didn’t really come together on the latter.

By Your Side - Ruth Jones

Linda works for the council dealing with the estates of people who have no relatives. She travels to a Scottish island to wrap up the affairs of Levi. While there Linda considers her own future and we also get Levi’s back story.

I was looking forward to this as I’m interested in stories about people who do this job. Unfortunately I was left a bit disappointed by it. The writing style felt different to Ruth’s previous books - I felt her voice was
missing from this one (possibly because this is set in Scotland whereas her others have all been set in her native Wales?). The story was fine but I never really connected with any of the characters.

41 Slough House - Mick Herron. Book 7 in the Slow Horses series. No spoilers other than I did not see that coming! A definite bold from me and onto number 8, Bad Actors

No, me neither! It was so good! I found it so difficult to review Bad Actors as I didnt want to mention who is in it. Have you watched the Apple TV series?

Thanks for not mentioning any names, I just finished the audiobook of Slough House while prepping Sunday lunch and nearly dropped my potatoes! I haven't seen the TV series, I'm waiting until I've finished the books then getting Apple TV on a free offer and binge the lot.

Good plan!

59 A Spell of Good Things – Ayobami Adebayo. Disappointed by this. I found it very disjointed. It was also quite violent in places, and upsetting which I was not expecting.

42 Body in the Dales - J.R. Ellis. The first in a new series for me which I've started due to recommendations here and also on the back of a week away in the Dales. I do enjoy a good police procedural and this was a bold for me. Several of the series are available for a pound atm for kindle so it was too good an offer to miss.

I also much preferred Stay With Me over A Spell of Good Things, which I only stuck with out of stubbornness!

The Colorado Kid by Stephen King

This is a really short one by King. I liked the slightly different method of telling the story, which is two old newspaper men telling a young intern the most odd story of their career. However it wasn't that odd really and it certainly wasn't creepy which I kept expecting given it's written by King!

I gave it 3 out of 5 which sounds harsh but (I think) it's the first one of his I have read since finishing The Dark Tower series so I'm not surprised it felt like a bit of a let down.

52. The Perfect Summer - Juliet Nicolson

Similar in style to Nicolson’s Millions Like Us - an assemblage of multiple historical viewpoints to paint a broader picture - this is an account of the baking-hot summer of 1911, when England sweltered in record temperatures, aristocracy and royalty amused themselves on country-house visits, Rupert Brooke and his circle bathed naked by moonlight, and the celebrated Lady Diana Manners won £250 as first prize for her costume in a fancy dress ball, a sum that would have kept a labourer’s family fed for several years.

Nicolson focuses mostly on the upper reaches of society, but a dock-strike simmers in the background and desperate poverty is ever-present, with ominous intimations of possible conflict with Germany picked up by a few prescient onlookers. Not as long or detailed as Millions Like Us but this kept me engaged with its pacy mixture of the frivolous and serious.

That sounds really interesting Terpsichore. That book Round About a Pound a Day acknowledged the peak in child mortality in 1911 due to the heat.

Maud Pember Reeves does get a mention, Permanent - although it’s quite centred on the upper echelons, I think it’s cleverly leavened with grim facts about slum conditions and the terrible poverty so many people lived in.

24 Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson

I thought I was buying the latest Jackson Brodie novel, but instead it’s one of the middle ones. I haven’t read it before so I don’t know what I was thinking. Anyway, I’m glad I read this one because Death at the Sign of the Rook has had rather mixed reviews on here and this one was bloody good. I got quite muddled with it all and haven’t quite understood the final revelation, but with Atkinson I feel ok about that, the journey was gripping and vivid and I just feel a sense of mixed sadness and fulfilment. Plus also I was least into the Jackson Brodie bits (is she slowly losing interest in him?) and most into the pieces about the wonderful Tracy Waterhouse. I can’t help hoping she pops up again in a future book though given the plot it seems unlikely. Also very oddly I am meeting someone in a week or two with the same unusual name as a supplementary character, which is slightly freaking me out.

@Terpsichore That sounds very much my sort of thing, but I'm still on a self-imposed buying of non-fiction ban, as I have at least five still waiting to be read.

I'm currently dragging my way through Red Love and really, really disliking it. My hopes were strong and have been very much dashed. I hope to finish the bastard thing tonight.