50 Books Challenge 2025 Part Six

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the sixth thread of the 50 Books 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, the fourth thread here and the fifth thread here

I think it was me. I really liked it - I did listen to it on the first hot week of the year while I was pottering about at the ladies pond on Hampstead Heath & hanging out in East London, so may have been influenced by real life. It was just such an accurate description of London nights when I was younger.

Ha, @Piggywaspushed , I think the Magnificent Hunk bit was based on her view rather than mine, as I hadn't seen pictures at that point, but yes to the Martin Kemp resemblance!

I probably had too high expectations due to the hype @Stowickthevast

I was on the fence about TSP, didn’t think it would really be my thing, but had a “fuck it” moment and bought it when it was on 99p t’other day. Then read all the stuff above, and have returned it for a refund. Thanks for the heads up! I’d have been annoyed if I’d read it and loved it, before finding out it was bilge.

I’m exactly 50% through I Hope This Finds You Well. I started out feeling quite depressed because I quite like my job, but there is definitely a generous helping of corporate bullshit there, and at the start the book had me feeling like “she’s right, work is utterly bleak and torturous”. Now we’ve moved on to “why would you do that? That’s insane.” So I’m looking forward to seeing what happens in the remaining 50%!

I loved this one too. I bought a Kindle edition of After Midnight in the deals (I think monthly).

And I spotted another reprint classic edition of a book for 73p today - an NYRB edition of Life With Picasso by Francoise Gilot.

151. Visage of Moros. Tamel Wino I can't actually remember this (it was a month ago that I read it) but according to the review I wrote at the time I enjoyed it.

Its a psychological thriller about a murdered teenager and is told from the pov of her father. Apparently the ending was confusing.

152. Caio. L.S Delorme
     This was really interesting, but was listed as time-travel and there wasn't really a lot of that. Sarah is a current day paralegal, she's in a abusive relationship and has serious MH issues. Then she meets teenager Caio who is alluring and intriguing. Not least because he was chucked into a pit and left for dead. In 1905. It's a good start to a series and I'll definitely get round to book 2, at some point.

153. The Singer Behind the Wire. Shari J Ryan.
     Holocaust fiction. You might have noticed I read a lot of this. So it's what you'd expect. Heartbreaking, not always easy to read. But with glimmers of hope.

Ella is in Auschwitz as a political prisoner, she's fairly certain her Jewish boyfriend is dead. Until she hears him singing one night. The plot was slightly too implausible for me.

154. Expose. Ann-Marie Davis
     I've read the synopsis and my review for this (4* apparently) and yet I remember nothing.

155. The Season of Light. Michael James
     This was Book 2 in a series, I haven't read book 1 and spent a fair bit of time confused about what was happening. Whether these 2 things are connected or not is to be decided.

Leo is a special forces soldier who resigns his commission following the massacre of a village. He goes off into the jungle to live. There was a lot of introspection, questioning of morals and such like.

156. The Wilder Path. Deborah Tomkin
     Rosalie goes for a walk along the Cornish coast and gets caught in a storm and then trapped in a cave. Whilst desperately trying to survive she has to "confront the storms within" which include the death of her son. I thought this was rather a beautiful book, with both grief and the dangers of climate change somehow running alongside each other. And working.

157. Boy With Wings. Mark Mustian.
     Set in the 1930s, fiction about the old circus/freak shows. Johnny Cruel is born with strange appendages on his back. He ends up in the circus as the Boy With Wings. The language reflects that of the time (ie it's racist) but I really enjoyed this.

158. The Daughter She Gave Away. Lisa Timoney
     Meg is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Not only does she now need to tell her 14 year old DD that she is dying, but also that she isn't her birth mum. Her Dad's first wife actually gave birth to her, but didn't want her.

159. Love and Other Cures for the Recently Undead. H.J. Ramsey
     CeCe is one of the undead. But falling in love with the guy who bit her isn't a good idea, is it? This was alright, but definitely for YAs/older teens.

160. 25 Library Terrace. Natalie Fergie
     Bold. 25 Library Terrace, Edinburgh is a house with a history, and this book charts it through a period of just over 100 years. It also had a wonderful feminist theme running throught. From the census protest of 1911 to the covid delayed census of 2022, 25 Library Terrace has seen it all. It was fascinating seeing how attitudes have changed, and I don't think I've ever wanted to live in a fictional home more.

161. Your Heart Will Go On. Mark Stibbe.
     Mark autobiography about living with heart failure. Really fascinating.

162. The Silent House. HM Lynn
     Fast-paced psychological thriller which I can't remember much of! Apparently it was gripping and kept me guessing!

Sometimes I wonder if I should read less and see if I remember more. But I suspect not.

163. Call Her Woman and Bend The Knee. BluPoetres
     A bold.
     Poetry about being black and female. These poems are told in historical order, from pre-Christianity to modern day America. They really celebrate the strength and beauty of being a woman.

164. To Catch A Lord. Emma Orchard
     Bridgertonesque romance.

165. The Widow's Husband. Natasha Boydell
     Maggie is recently widowed, and as her husband was an abusive POS, shes not exactly upset about it. Then she attends a psychic evening at the local pub and strange things happen. Is her husband back from the dead? Is someone playing tricks on her? I thought i had this worked out, then I thought I didn't. Then I thought I did. On and on. I did guess some of the ending. The who, but not the why.

166. Danny Quantum and the Nuclear Detonator. Ron Sarig
     This is a do not recommend. It was a little confused in my opinion. The cover and language made it seem like a children's book. But some of the themes felt more adult. It was written a year before the current Israel/Palestine conflict and unfortunately hasn't aged well in that respect.

167. Mother, Rebel, Misfit, Sleuth. Lisa Nicholas
     Book 2 in the Mila Kiss series. Mila is happily living with her boyfriend Lord Knutsworth, having previously fled from Ukraine and been cleared of murder. She ends up helping Jo, a desperate young woman who has lost her child, seemingly for a crime she claims she didn't commit. I really enjoyed this, but it did make it look a bit like SS are removing children to order. Which I'm 99.9% sure they aren't. But if I'm ever in trouble i want Mila on my side!

168. In the Footsteps of the Holocaust. Ainsle Hepburn
     Another bold. This one is the true story of an ordinary family living through the Holocaust. Henny and Hermann Hartog, and their daughters are Jewish family living in Germany when the Nazis come to power. Realising the danger they are in, they manage to get the daughters sent to England. The Hartogs then escape to Belgium and later France before eventually ending up in Auschwitz where they were murdered. 80 years later their
     grandson and his wife piece together their story using the letters that were sent and visiting the places they lived. Its an incredibly complete story, which seems astounding and almost unfair when so many victims names are unknown.

Thanks @bibliomania, great reviews. I have dreams of tackling the Thames Path or Hadrian’s Wall walk one day. DH can’t do long walks sadly so it might be a solo trip 😊

Packing for our (hideously unprepared) holiday next week. Forget clothes, food, travel money etc., the top priority is reading matter: is 10 books too many? They are all short/medium paperbacks and I intend on donating after finishing. It’s times like this that I regret my decision to not get an E-reader…

Hadrian's Wall Path is fantastic, @RomanMum , but it's fine to skip the first section going through Newcastle. There's a good bus service, so your dh could join you at each day's destination, but solo is great - that's how I did it, over a series of weekends.

And 10 short books is not too many, it's safety. Taking a couple of big books and finding out that you hate them but have nothing else, that's the worst.

I reckon a book a day RomanMum unless they are very long or you are going to be out and about lots. A Kindle does come into its own on holiday.

52 I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue

Thanks to @EineReiseDurchDieZeit for this recommendation. Read this almost in one sitting.
Jolene works in an office and fills her days with silently seething at those around her. She is accidentally granted access to be able to see everyone else’s communications with each other. I enjoyed this very much. It was a bit like Really Good Actually (which I liked)* *but I felt that this had a bit more heart to it. I liked the characters and thought that the chemistry between Jolene and Cliff was well done.

Still 99p!

53 Manhattan Down by Michael Cordy

Thriller about a terrorist attack which sends all of Manhattan to sleep apart from a plucky NY cop who has just come out of a coma plus a woman with a genetic sleep disorder and her daughter. Together they have to save the world. Passable but not brilliant.

54 Undertones of War by Edmund Blunden

Read for a course. This was a struggle. I found this first world war memoir unbearably tedious. I’m pretty certain this makes me a bad person because it was clear they had a really dreadful time. I was just very bored by their very bad time. (I’m definitely a bad person).

Agree with this, a book a day on holiday unless very long.

Really glad you liked it @elspethmcgillicudddy

110 How Soon Is Now? - Paul Carnahan

Time travel story about failed journalist Luke Seymour, who is invited by a mysterious note to join the Nostalgia Club, where he learns he is a Pilot - one who can not just see but influence the past. He is drawn into a hunt for the Club’s founder, Adam, who is in a coma, which the Club want to understand/prevent. We learn a lot about all their pasts. Pretty good if a little timey wimey confusing

103 The Broken River- Chris Hammer
Aussie crime where out of town detectives are brought in to investigate the death of a developer in a small country town. Two timelines and the one in the past drags out and the one in the present is ludicrous. Not sure I’ll bother with any more of these.

Entirely reasonable :)

91 . Pizza Girl by Jean Kyoung Frazier

A young pregnant pizza shop employee becomes obsessed with a woman she makes a specific pizza for.

Just a 200 page job.

Reminded me of Convenience Store Woman by Sakura Murarata

Left me thinking “Say What?!” like it was about a lot of things but it was just strange and a bit unbelievable and she does this crazy thing and there are no real consequences. I think the end is meant to be profound but it isn’t. The whole thing was a bit random really. A shame.

RWYO : 2024

Goodness, I have just finished Rachel Clarke's The Story of a Heart. Spellbinding, compassionate and intricately detailed. I liked the historical details, too, about the history of heart surgery and the moral dimensions introduced to her discussions of the medicine and the pioneers.

Honestly, a wonderful book.

@Piggywaspushed I was sobbing by page 10, it’s such a rollercoaster

@RomanMum Sounds like a good excuse to buy a kindle before your next holiday. It makes things so much easier.

Just finished my re-read of Frederica by Georgette Heyer which, other than a moment early on which I found very uncomfortable, was a delight. She’s a lovely heroine and the relationship between her and the most gorgeous villain/hero feels really genuine and developed, unlike in some of her weaker novels.

Yes, I'm rather glad I wasn't reading it in public!

I once took 20 books for a week in Croatia because I was travelling with my mum and I thought she would be fine with me reading a lot. Tbh I think she wasn’t delighted. I didn’t manage them all but I never felt panicked about running out. I wouldn’t go over 10 these days.

This is where the Kindle comes into its own. I went on a weeks holiday once, had a bit of an accident and ended up coming home a month later after a stay in hospital. I’d only recently bought a Kindle (it was 2011) but boy did it repay its cost.

The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side - Agatha Christie
Probably my favourite Miss Marple. Hollywood actress and director husband buy a manor in St Mary Mead. At a charity garden party thrown by the couple a fan drinks a cocktail meant for the famous actress.

@BlueFairyBugsBooks – I’m intrigued at 25 Library Terrace. I really enjoyed Natalie Fergus’ previous book, The Sewing Machine.

I’m intrigued by both so thank you