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

Eva Ibbotson - The Morning Gift

Ruth has grown up as the cherished daughter of intellectuals in Vienna where she leads a life full of music and excitement. She is wildly in love with her ‘cousin’, concert pianist Heini.
When the Nazis invade Austria her family are forced to flee to England but she somehow gets left behind. English professor Quin, an old friend of the family, offers her a marriage of convenience to allow her to escape to London.
The joy for me in this book is not so much the central story of Ruth and Quin (in fact there was a very irritating misunderstanding in the final quarter which annoyed me and really the book could have ended earlier) but all the supporting characters and amusing anecdotes about them of which there are many. Very funny in parts. A good 4/5.

113. A Fair Maiden - Joyce Carol Oates
     I didn't enjoy this. It was very bleak. 16 year old Katya is working as a summer nanny. She has had a neglectful childhood and so is suspectible to wealthy 68 year old Marcus, who befriends her and then pressures her for more.

114. Young Elizabeth - Nicola Tallis (NF)
     I loved this, a bold for me. Focussed on QE1's life until she became Queen at 25, her interactions with her stepmothers, her siblings, her gentlewomen and the conspirators who wanted her on the throne.

Great review @FuzzyCaoraDhubh. It’s going on my wish list. I’m definitely #teamgecko 😊

Excellent RomanMum! Thank you :)
Also #teamgecko 😄 * *

34 The Transgender Issue by Shon Faye

Read for a work book club. Probably no-one needs enlightening further on the topic! Faye is a trans woman, who transitioned in adulthood and says she wrote this book because there are many conversations about trans people but they are the wrong conversations, and "they're leaving us out of it". The book is not a confessional, although parts of it do deal with Fay's own experience, but more a consideration of several topics relevant to the book's (sarcastic) title. I found it a bit of a mixed bag. I felt Faye's own position on defining what it means to be trans was muddled and difficult to follow (although perhaps that is partly down to the difficulty I have in putting myself in her shoes). The part of the book I found most compelling was the section on trans sex workers, which is Faye's most effective argument for shifting our focus to the practical ways in which we can support vulnerable and marginalised groups. Elsewhere, I felt the book perhaps raised more questions than it answered. But a useful perspective and I'm glad I read it.

115 Girls of Brackenhill - Kate Moretti

This was one of a batch of murder mystery books I bought in 2020 in the pandemic. Except it turned out to be more of a ghost story!

Hannah is back at Brackenhill castle following the death of her aunt in a car crash. She hasn’t been there since she was a teenager when her older sister Julia disappeared at 17 at the end of another idyllic summer away from their abusive stepfather. But what had Julia found out that caused her to run away?

Passed the time grippingly enough, not going to set the world on fire!

I've been wading my way through two book club books this week (and failing to do RWYO). Finally finished them both today so excited to have a few weeks to read what I want!

81. The Emperor Of Gladness - Ocean Vuong. People rave about Vuong's writing but he doesn't really do it for me. This is about Hai (who we met as a child in his last book) who has dropped out of college and been to rehab somewhat unsuccessfully. During the book, he moves in with an old Lithuanian lady with dementia and looks after her while working in a fast food restaurant with various quirky characters. Not much really happens, he references Kurt Vonnegut and I can see his influence but it doesn't really work for me. Think this has been on lots of Booker prediction lists so let's see.

82. Homework - Geof Dyer. This is a memoir about a boy growing up in the 60s and 70s in working class, Gloucestershire. It's light-hearted and an amusing bit of nostalgia. It did strike me how similar his childhood in the 60s was to mine in the 80s, but how vastly different it would be to my children's in the 2010s. Not a bold but I liked it more than Ocean!

@Stowickthevast I really like the sound of the Geoff Dyer book - I've only read one of his books though I have a few on Kindle - I think The Colour of Memory is a novel set in early 80s London but it reads as a memoir (I don't know whether that is the case) and I don't remember much plot, just a portrait of how some people lived in that place and time. I really enjoyed it but think I read it in 1996 (based on where I was living when I read it in 1996, a year or so after I moved to London).

@FuzzyCaoraDhubh so delighted you liked the Agualusa, I really think Hahn is a very talented translator. I’m looking forward to your next review. I enjoyed The Living and the Rest this year and have thought about it a lot. A General Theory of Oblivion remains by favourite - just. I also managed to find one more on the shelves of Foyles but haven’t got to it yet. @RomanMum delighted Fuzzy’s great review has convinced you too.

@bibliomania I'm a Sayers fan, but when I read Five Red Herrings many years ago I could barely get through it. I think I just skim-read at the end. I'm glad to know it wasn't just me.

I love Atkinson but I agree she's uneven. Life After Life, A God in Ruins, and the early Jackson Brodies are my favourites.

Thanks @FuzzyCaoraDhubh for the review of Book of Chameleons; I must add it to my TBR list as well.

And thanks @Welshwabbit for the interesting review of The Transgender Issue.

I've just reread Shy Creatures by Clare Chambers for my book group and possibly enjoyed it even more than I did the first time. The novel is just very well-crafted, with its two storylines: one moving forward in time and the other moving ever further back into the past. It has a feel-good ending but it's understated enough not to be cloying. I predict that everyone in my book group will love it. 😀

Three recent reads that are not quite bolds for me but all very good nonetheless:

43. Westwood, Stella Gibbons 4/5
    I became intrigued by this book after seeing it reviewed by MNers who had read it for the ‘Rather Dated’ thread, although I didn’t manage to read it in time to participate in the thread. Gibbons’ depiction of wartime London is very evocative, and so are her characters. I loved the plotline about Gerard Challis, a self-important playwright who takes himself very seriously, but turns out to have feet of clay. The heroine Margaret longs for culture and emotional depth in her life, and I liked the way her character develops throughout the novel. The novel’s subtitle is The Gentle Powers, and by the end, she can be said to be more aware of her own gentle powers.

44. Gwen John: Art and Life in London and Paris, Alicia Foster 4/5
    I saw some paintings by Gwen John in the Manchester Art Gallery when I was there for the 50-Bookers meet up last year, and became keen to find out more about her. This book is full of beautiful reproductions of her work. The chapters are enjoyably short, and they do bring together her life and her art very insightfully. She was clearly an extraordinary person: someone who knew her own mind and who had all sorts of interesting relationships with other artists, poets and art collectors. She studied at the Slade, like the artist Gwen Raverat, whose memoir Period Piece: A Cambridge Childhood I read earlier this year. Foster adopts a strong feminist perspective, but doesn’t idealise John or portray her as a saint. The one thing that irked me was that there are a lot of French quotations in the book, and they’re full of minor errors and misspellings. I couldn’t tell whether some of the errors were made by Raverat herself, writing in slightly imperfect French, or by the author, but some were clearly made by the author (eg she refers to Bergson’s famous book as Le Rire as La Rire, cringe). A shame that such an excellent book wasn’t proofread by a French speaker. Yes, I’m a pedant.

45. In a Lonely Place, Dorothy Hughes 4/5
    Again, I read this due to recommendations on this thread; apologies as I don’t remember now who recommended it! Very enjoyable and very different from the other novels I’ve been reading. The idea of a woman novelist writing hardboiled noir detective fiction, and telling the story from the male killer’s point of view, is in itself a fascinating one. The killer’s objectification of women is so convincing that I kept wondering about the author’s perspective – had she internalised some of these unsettling views? But by the end, I saw the book as an indictment of toxic masculinity. I loved the ending. I read a few reviews that compared this book to Patricia Highsmith’s Ripley books, so I think I will reread those (I read them many years ago and don’t remember them well at all).

@cassandre I think I reviewed In a Lonely Place and also thought it was very good. Really glad you enjoyed it! I also think Patricia Highsmith is excellent and have a few I haven't read lurking on my Kindle which I will dig out for RWYO.

46. A General Theory of Oblivion: José Eduardo Agualusa (trans. Daniel Hahn).

This is a fictionalised account of the true story of a Portuguese woman, Ludovico Fernandes Mano (Ludo) who barricades herself into her apartment on the eve of Angolan independence when violence errupts in the city and she is left on her own in fear. She has limited supplies but she manages to survive for twenty-eight years by eating everything and anything and also going hungry, burning everything for fuel, basically ransacking her apartment to stay in survival mode.

Ludo observes life from her balcony. There are occasional radio announcements until the radio stops working and she hears voices from a neighbouring apartment which provide a tenuous connection to the world. Her eyesight is failing and it's almost like she is wearing a blindfold as she is so closed off from the world. She writes down her thoughts on the walls of the apartment. This half life is drawing to a close when one day a curious little boy scales up the balcony and helps bring her back into the world and back to life.

Ludo's story is very compelling. We only find out why she suffered from agoraphobia towards the close of the book and it all makes sense at that point. While the subject matter is very dark, Agualusa writes with a light touch; his prose has a luminous quality which draws the reader in. Like the previous book, this one has a hypnotic quality and you want to read on. It isn't a long book although it requires patience to work things out.

I will admit to reading it a second time to work out who the other characters are because I found it confusing not having remembered names and there's one guy who seems to be both good and bad! There is a close connection between people and the thread begins with an action by Ludo that spins out and draws people back to her at the end.

I thought the political back-drop was interesting, albeit hazy, as it's viewed from Ludo's perspective. I liked the inclusion of Ludo's writings on the wall that provided an insight into her internal point of view and the ending was lovely, if sad. The note at the back says that Agualusa wrote it first as a screenplay for a film, then he rewrote it as a novel. Additional fact; the gecko makes another cameo appearance as God-on-the-ceiling!

I enjoyed this very much. Thank you @AgualusasLover for the recommendation and your comments on my review of the last one! I agree that Daniel Hahn did an excellent translation.

@cassandre Margaret Forster wrote a fictional account of the life of a Gwen John painting - Keeping The World Away - enjoyed it very much.

We’re getting a major exhibition of her work in Cardiff next year in the NMGAW which I’m I’m excited about.

94 . My Next Breath by Jeremy Renner (Spotify)

I had a few hours left on my Spotify audiobook availability so I chose this because it was short, I doubt I would have read this if it hadn’t just popped up in front of me and I’m glad I did.

On New Years Day 2023, the actor Jeremy Renner was accidentally crushed by his own snow plough whilst clearing snow in his neighbourhood. His injuries were catastrophic but he miraculously survived and this is a memoir mainly of this incident with a smattering of autobiography.

It’s very self helpy/American gung ho positivity but at the same time you really feel the seriousness of the situation, the 911 call is featured in full and Renner’s voice on the recording frequently breaks when he has to talk about his family and what they suffered

A surprise unlooked for hit, that basically came from me just spotting it and giving it a go.

Thank you @Welshwabbit it was indeed you who put me on to In A Lonely Place!

@BestIsWest I hadn't heard of the novel based on a Gwen John painting, that sounds great. Another title to add to the TBR list! Lucky you with the Cardiff exhibition. I don't often become smitten by artists, but I'm really smitten with her work. She does portraits of women so well.

Oh @FuzzyCaoraDhubh I am just so happy that you’ve read A General Theory of Oblivion. I know what you mean about the characters and I do think if I’d picked it up another time I might not have loved it as I did. I really just sat dumbfounded when I finished and then bought everything Waterstones had within 45 mins - only Chameleon and The Living and the Rest - this one is a brilliant evocation of the Island of Mozambique.

Thank you @AgualusasLover I was a bit worried writing a review of these books knowing how much you love the writer! I can see why you like Agualusa. He is a very intelligent author. The plot of 'A General Theory of Oblivion' is so intricate. I would say I could read it a third time and pick up something new. Everyone has a connection to each other and to Ludo.

I thought that there was a resonance between this book and the other one, 'The Book of Chameleons' in that the idea of reinvention comes across again here. In that kind of unstable society one, as one of the characters says to the other, you can wake up tomorrow and do something completely different, change jobs, whatever, who's to know.

Ludo's story is so sad and she is memorable as the central character. Fortunately it didn't drag on too long in that when the small fellow appeared on the scene, you knew things were going to look up for her. Speaking of which (scene), did you also think of a play towards the end when everyone seemed to turn up at once?!

I might read 'The Book of Chameleons' again before I return it to the library and I think the library also has a copy of 'The Living and the Rest'. If not, I'll track it down!

I picked up 'The Living and the Rest' on Kindle as it was very reasonable @AgualusasLover

I've just noticed that the main character of this one, Daniel Benchimol, is also in 'A General Theory of Oblivion' (the detective) and furthermore he is also in 'The Society of Reluctant Dreamers' and his wife Moira is in both books. Curious, isn't it? Did you know that?

Ah, I hadn’t noticed these things. I do think he will be worth a reread and I don’t normally do that, especially with things I really love, I like to keep them on my pedestal.

My other love, Louis de Bernieres is well disliked by many, so I won’t be offended if people don’t like Agualusa. I just think it’s wonderful when people do find writers they love, especially if they are as yet unknown to them. Oblivion was given to me as a set of 3 books for a birthday by a colleague (she had got them via a Mr Bs sub that we had got for her so came full circle) along with Betty by Tiffany McDaniel, which I think I need to move to my 5 star list because I spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about it over a year later. the third as Cleo and Frankenstein which the more I think about the more I disliked it.

116 Duplicity - Sibel Hodge

Another from my batch of 2020 crime novels, this is a convoluted story about Alissa and Max Burbeck. When Max is stabbed to death a couple of months after their wedding, suspicion falls on Alissa’s ex, but DS Carter thinks there is more to it than that.

A good read but pretty implausible!

I had never heard of him until a very interesting Guardian article recently. He’s extremely lucky to be alive.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie Yes! The Guardian article came up on my feed as I was listening to the book, at one point his eye was so dislocated his other eye could see it, how he escaped not just with his life but without significant disability is crazy. If you’d never heard of him before you should watch Arrival it’s often around on streaming and is a cracking film. 🍿

Trying desperately to block my ears to the interesting sounding books. I’ll think about them in September at the earliest!
10 books into RWYO now- holidays leaving plenty of time to read and I’ve read a few shorties to give me momentum.
108 Time after Time by Chris Atkins (audio)
This follow up to his prison memoir focuses on why and how people reoffend. As in the previous book, Atkins highlights some important issues that make rehabilitation almost impossible for some released convicts and looks at a few case studies. This one had less of a personal element so I didn’t enjoy it as much but it was a worthwhile listen.

I finished A Case of Mice and Murder by Sally Smith whilst over here in Philadelphia waiting for everyone else to get out of bed.

I thought I'd enjoy it as I read comparisons with Rumpole. There will be a series ( book 2 already out) which features a KC sleuth, Gabriel Ward. But I found the plot thin with a very early guessable culprit and too many male legal characters and female servants who were indistinguishable. Given this is a female author the female characters were stereotyped. The one that wasn't might as well have worn a placard that said 'should have been born 50 years later' and the plot around a female writer, or maybe not, was tediously laughable in its characterisation. I could have done without the laboured dialogue used to explain the Temple and the legal system, too. Oh well. It's sold well and been well received, so it might just be me.