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

Finished off The Fair Botanists, an Edinburgh set historical novel by Sara Sheridan. This one concerns Edinburgh on the late Enlightenment , centring around the preparation of a visit from George IV but also on the growing interest in botany and the formation and transplantation of the Edinburgh Botanic Gardens and the excitement about a flower from the Agave Americana which appears once every 30 years. There is quite an array of characters , the main ones being female as they always are in Sheridan's books. Of the real poeple featured, the most notable is Walter Scott.

The book picks up as it goes along. I found it a little ploddy and slow at first, with too many characters but it did improve. There is a lot of seed theft related intrigue! Can't say that held my attention much. I did like Sheridan's historical note at the end, particularly her admission that she created one male character so that she had someone she could fancy!

I was prompted by @Tarragon123 's post to think "hmmm, I think I have a Shardlake somewhere" and I actually own 6 of the 7! One bought in 2015 and the other 5 on the same day in 2020 (presumably Kindle sale). Yikes!!

110 In Search of Lost Time- Volume 4- Sodom and Gomorrah- Marcel Proust
Past the halfway point now! Wanted to read 2 this year and this is the second. In this one our narrator becomes concerned with gayness, falling in and out of love with Alberti e while treating her like shit and the Verdurin social scene. This one was more fast-paced and parts were very funny especially around the Verdurins. He himself is of course still an obnoxious, obsessive, abusive arse. I’ve given it 5/5 on Storygraph but it’s not bold. They’re not always the same thing for me.

I want the laughing emoji back!!

Out of interest, which one are you missing?

The last one! Which probably wasn’t published when I bought 2-6 at 99p each 😀

Eta this sort of SNAFU on my part is why I am trying to do RWYO!

Finished another today - a near bold for me, it may turn into one.

85. Aerth - Deborah Tompkins. This novella won the Inaugural Weatherglass prize for books of between 20,000-40,000 words. This is a mixture of Sci-fi - not very hard, Cote would not be impressed - and literary dystopia. Magnus is growing up on a planet called Aerth, where he lives on a farm in a forest, that is gradually getting colder. There are no vehicles and the first tenet of life is "Do no Harm". But there is space travel and Magnus dreams of going to Mars. As he is growing up, another planet Urth is discovered which is almost identical to Aerth but is warming up rather than cooling. The book investigates the difference and similarities between them and looks at climate change and our affect on the world. Ali Smith judged the prize and I can see why it would appeal to her, it also reminded me a bit of Ursula Le Guin.

Hi all, been absent because of my degree but I'm now on a summer break and back to reading for pleasure.

The Money Manual - Abigail Foster. OK non-fiction on how to make the most of your money, perhaps best suited to young people. I was amazed that the author, a qualified accountant, got it wrong early on about one aspect of the inheritance tax rule and that did make me question some of her later advice.

You Are Here - David Nicholls. I loved this. The story follows the characters Michael and Marnie as they find themselves completing a cost-to-coast walk in northern England. The story is essentially two character studies of Marnie and Michael and the developing relationship between them, told elegantly and perceptively. His character development is superb and the book is always absorbing.

Happy summer break @Southeastdweller ! Lovely to see another fan of You Are Here, it’s one of my favourites by him.

37 Saltwash by Andrew Michael Hurley
I was offered a review copy of this by the publisher. Perhaps not the best time in my life to read it, concerned as it is with age, regret and death, so I’m going to park a full review of it for a while and revisit it in October when it’s published.

@DesdamonasHandkerchief - I have read Water and Earth in that order so hope I am not disappointed by the other two but Air doesn't sound terribly promising!

I’ll be interested in your view when you get round to it G&T, maybe I OD’ed on them a bit and should have read other things inbetween 🤷‍♀️

And I thought Fire was very gripping.

Time’s Legacy by Barbara Erskine

Well I read up to page 256 before quitting. This is utterly boring. I have read one of this author’s before Lady of Hay and remembered enjoying this when I read this 20 plus years ago but this no. It just felt like it was repeating a cat and mouse game with a younger lady priest, his prodigy centred around Glastonbury. Repetitive nonsense with druids and Jesus appearing as a ghostly apparition’s ….. yawn

I have just read Water - the first of the John Boyne elements series and loved it. Thanks for the recommendation to spread them out a bit.

I read Air earlier this year and enjoyed it - but I haven’t read any of the others in the series yet.

37 Travels With Charley - John Steinbeck
Snuck in a quick reread of this before passing it on at the book swap at Saturday’s meet-up :) It was as thoroughly enjoyable a read as I remembered it.

38 Bleeding Edge - Thomas Pynchon
Revisiting a couple of Pynchons ahead of the release of his new one Shadow Ticket in the autumn. Really want to read Against The Day again but it’s not on Kindle in the UK bizarrely, and a bit chunky to be lugging about! Mind you, at least with my new reading glasses I’d be able to read it!

Heroes of Olympus: The House of Hades by Rick Riordan

Number four in the kids series. No cliffhanger at the end this time thankfully but the poor demigods seem to be suffering PTSD from all the horrible things they've experienced. DS has finished all the Percy Jackson books and is now onto Magnus Chase.

It's going to be a while before I get to Fire and Air as I am doing RWYO and don't currently own them (although think I did make exceptions for buying books in series I am reading.....)

A Schooling in Murder by Andrew Taylor
A very silly whodunnit set in a girls’ boarding school towards the end of World War Two, narrated by the murder victim, a female teacher. If you used to enjoy Mallory Towers and you’re willing to massively suspend disbelief, then it’s both ridiculously stupid and ridiculously readable. Not recommended at all but it filled a plane journey nicely.

My recent reads, all quite "mid" as teen dd says, with one shining exception.

79. The End of Mr Y, Scarlett Thomas
PhD student finds elusive book in second-hand book shop, unlocks secret of mind travel, is pursued by bad guys etc etc. I found this infuriating. It strains for profundity - lots of references to Derrida and Heidegger and quantum theory - but it's all a bit silly and dull and goes on for too long.

80. I Want to Go Home but I'm Already There, Roisin Lanigan
Young woman moves into flat with boyfriend and becomes convinced it's haunted. But is it all in her mind? Part jeremiad about the London rental market, part riff on The Yellow Wallpaper, this is readable but also overstays its welcome, and the ending peters out.

81. The Talisman Ring, Georgette Heyer
This is the shining exception and made me laugh out loud. Eustacie is determined to clear the name of the man she loves, believed to have committed murder, which involves a quest for the talisman ring of the title. There are smugglers, Bow Street Runners, females with romantic notions, pistols being waved, much tapping on panels to uncover hiding places, great dialogue and all sorts of enjoyable nonsense. Frothy escapist fun.

82. All the Other Mothers Hate Me, Sarah Harman
Single mum feels out of place at her son's posh private school. A boy disappears and she and another mother start their own investigation. But is the answer closer to home than she wants to acknowledge? A mash-up of humorous mummy lit and slightly darker crime fiction/thriller, it was reasonably diverting and helped to pass a delayed train journey.

83. The Tell, Amy Griffin
Memoir by Texan woman about coming to terms with childhood abuse. It doesn't feel quite right to judge it by literary standards - she tells us that she finds it cathartic to tell the truth about her life after hiding it for so long, even from herself. Not that it's badly written, and she has some useful points to make about female socialisation. She's wealthy and writes from a place of social privilege, but it's good to show that this doesn't necessarily shield someone.

Currently working my way through North Road, by Rob Cowen. Non-fiction about the historic road that leads from London to Edinburgh. Started well, with the author joining an archaeological dig (always something I enjoy) and then he looks at his family history (probably of more interest to his family than the rest of us) and then he sets off with a friend to walk stretches of the way. This has ingredients I like but doesn't quite hit the mark for me - lots of meandering and a few dull stretches where he tries his hand at a fictionalised account of some historical episode, and overall it would have been more to my taste if it had been half the length. I'll except the section set in the Harrowing of the North, which was vivid and pacy - I'd read that book. If it it were short.

Has anyone else read The Narrow Road to the Deep North? I have but years ago now. I'm watching the TV series . My main memory of the book is the Burma railroad (although I think I am mixing up several books in my head) but also Tasmania. I'm not wrong that loads of the book is actually about Tasmania , am I??

Weirdly the Jane Harper series recently on the telly was set in Tasmania and I hadn't remembered that detail of that book at all!!

@Piggywaspushed I haven’t read it yet (it’s on the never ending TBR) but Richard Flanagan is from Tasmania. I loved watching the show The Survivor recently- we lived in Tassie for a couple of years and it was great seeing some of the familiar places around Hobart and Eaglehawk Neck. It’s a beautiful part of the world.

Not sure Flanagan sells it as well, from memory!

It's odd; I remember the book was a slow burner and that I eventually really liked it but if you had asked me before this week what it was about , I'd say ' a man from Tasmania' not ' WW2' or even a love story/affair.

Funny the different things that people pick up from the same book- maybe the programme makers highlighted some aspects more than he did in the book. Is it worth reading before watching the tv programme?

I genuinely can't remember! I remember it was a tough read. Grim in places.

But I have read otehr POW books so it might not be the one I am recalling. I think it is. I'll know when I get to episode 3 by the sounds of it.

I very recently read Richard Flanagan’s memoir Question 7 which was his memoir about his father being in a prisoner of war camp and how things that seem disparate actually connect. The title comes from a Chekhov mathematic nonsense puzzle. It was really good if random.