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

Thanks for the thread southeast!

1 Notes for Neuro Navigators - Jolene Stockman
2 Years That Changed History: 1215 - Dorsey Armstrong
3 The Darcy Myth - Rachel Feder
4 To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
5 Matrescence - Lucy Jones
6 Strong Foundations - Clare Bourne
7 Alexa, What is There to Know About Love? - Brian Bilston
8 The Voyage Home - Pat Barker
9 The Medieval World - Dorsey Armstrong
10 I’m Not As Well As I Thought I Was - Ruby Wax
11 One for the Money - Janet Evanovich
12 The Golden Mole - Katherine Rundell
13 Glorious Exploits - Ferdia Lennon
14 Blood and Guts: a history of surgery - Richard Hollingham
15 To Calais, In Ordinary Time - James Meek
16 The Power of Women - Dr Denis Mukwege
17 Oranges are not the Only Fruit - Jeanette Winterson
18 A Life of Meaning - James Hollis
19 Welsh Witchcraft - Mhara Starling
20 Orfeia - Joanne Harris
21 Martin Chuzzlewit - Charles Dickens
22 The Once and Future Sex - Eleanor Janega
23 Witches, Midwives, and Nurses: A History of Women Healers - Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English
24 All Fours - Miranda July
25 Welsh Fairies - Mhara Starling
26 Platonic - Marisa G. Franco
27 The Resilience Myth - Soraya Chemaly
28 Mischief Acts - Zoe Gilbert
29 Plagues Upon the Earth - Kyle Harper
30 The Lost Man - Jane Harper
31 Patriarchy Inc - Cordelia Fine
32 Stay with Me - Ayobami Adebayo
33 Briefly, a Delicious Life - Nell Stevens
34 You Only Die Once - Jodi Wellman
35 Wise Women: myths and stories for midlife and beyond - Sharon Blackie and Angharad Wynne
36 Creation Lake - Rachel Kushner

37 The Bonobo and the Atheist - Frans de Waal
Just finished this, which will be a bold. The primatologist traces the origins of human morality via observations of the pro-social behaviours of our closest relatives. He makes the case that being on our best behaviour is an essential part of our evolutionary inheritance, and so reinforces the humanist ideal that human nature is essentially good (and not essentially bad as versions of Christianity have often told it). Lots of chimp and bonobo facts too, which is one of the main things I look for in a book.

Now very much enjoying listening to Watching Neighbours Twice a Day - Josh Widdicombe is only a year younger than me so his references are a pretty close match to mine: “Some scenes in [failed soap] El Dorado were in Danish with no subtitles, which was absolutely no use to anyone apart from language teachers and Peter Schmeichel…”

106 The Voyage Home - Pat Barker

Last in the Trojan War trilogy and a bold.

In this book we see things largely through the eyes of Ritsa, friend of Briseis, and sometimes Clytemnestra and Cassandra.

Ritsa is taken back to Greece as Cassandra’s slave, under the command of Agamemnon, who has “married” Cassandra, despite being still married to Clytemnestra. The book covers the journey, the homecoming and the terrible consequences, with Cassandra predicting her own death on repeat throughout. The sense of menace and grief is built really well and the viewpoints are solidly female, even when men blunder into the story.

Thank you for the new thread!

I’ve just finished #18 Cat’s Eye - Margaret Atwood, which I picked up knowing nothing about it, except that I like MA and thought it was a short story for a quick read, because I’m behind on my 50. It was not a short story, nor a quick read. I don’t know if I enjoyed it really, it was quite slow. Almost DNF but persevered. An odd one.

So now I’m looking for an actual quick read, something a bit more lighthearted and fun, if anyone has any suggestions.

Thanks for the new thread @Southeastdweller

• An Island Wedding – Jenny Colgan
• Red Sauce, Brown Sauce – Felicity Cloake
• The Christmas Bookhunt – Jenny Colgan
• When the dust settles – Lucy Easthope
• The answer is no – Fredrik Backman
• A little life – Hanya Yanagihara
• This much is true – Miriam Margoyles
• One Good Turn – Kate Atkinson
• Waterlog – Roger Deakin
• How to build a boat – Elaine Feeney
• Loosely based on a made-up story – James Blunt
• Tuesdays with Morrie – Mitch Albom
• Anybody out there? – Marian Keyes
• The Summer of the Bear – Bella Pollen
• When will there be good news? - Kate Atkinson
• Between the stops – Sandi Toksvig
• The Hairy Bikers: Blood, Sweat & Tyres – Si King & Dave Myers
• My Friends – Hisham Matar
• What I ate in a year – Stanley Tucci
• The Pursuit of Love – Nancy Mitford
• Moranthology – Caitlin Moran
• Crying in H mart – Michelle Zauner

Just started listening to The man who pays the rent by Judi Dench. Also reading Started early, took my dog by Kate Atkinson and Ali Smith's Summer

25 Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall by Anna Funder. Based on a set of interviews taking place in the late 1990s, the fascinating thing about this is how it covers a range of voices, from ex-members of the Stasi (East German secret police) and informers to dissidents and victims of the regime. Funder is empathetic and tries to understand the motivation of all of them. Recommended.

26 The Golden Couple by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanon. Maverick marriage counsellor Avery is trying to help her latest clients, Marissa and Matthew, with their issues after Marissa had a one night stand, while also dealing with her own problems - she whistle-blew a big corporation that now seems to be out to get her. Pretty good, nothing special.

1 Suggested in the Stars by Yoko Tawada. Translated by Margaret Mitsutani
2 Your Wish is my Command by Deena Mohamed
3 The Fraud by Zadie Smith
4 After Midnight by Irmgard Keun. Translated by Anthea Bell.
5 Mrs Granby's Secret or The Bastard of Pinsk by Eleanor Farjeon
6 Mr Loverman by Bernardine Evaristo
7 Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan
8 The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta
9 A Little Luck by Claudia Piñeiro. Translated by Frances Riddle
10 The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. Translated by Robin Buss.
11 The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter
12 Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian by Rick Riordan
13 The Leopard by Guiseppi Tomasi de Lampedusa. Translated by Archibald Colquhoun
14 Heroes of Olympus: The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan
15 Heroes of Olympus: The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan
16 Heroes of Olympus: The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan

Not all of those bolds will make it to the end of the year but my standout read so far is After Midnight so obviously I am now reading Child of all Nations, also by Irmgard Keun.

85 . Isola by Allegra Goodman

In the 1500s, Marguerite de la Roque faces peril when stuck with an unscrupulous guardian because she is an orphan. Dragged on a voyage then abandoned she must learn to survive

it’s interesting that this is based on a true story, one of those “truth is stranger than fiction” scenarios

I was drawn in to the novel by it’s excellent prose describing Marguerite’s young years, but the middle part was just ok with the end feeling anticlimactic and rushed

It’s not a bold but I would strongly recommend as a good “forgotten women in history” piece. It’s well worth reading

54. Circles and Squares: The Lives and Art of the Hampstead Modernists - Caroline Maclean

I started reading this a year ago at least and for some reason put it down - starting again from the beginning proved a good decision, as I really enjoyed it. Maclean (an art historian by training) charts the extraordinary flowering of artistic talent that gathered in and around Hampstead in the 1920s and 30s, when living was cheap in this picturesque corner of north London, and run-down Georgian houses could be bought for a few hundred pounds (or rented for much less) - this really put me in mind of Stella Gibbons's Westwood.

The nexus became the Lawn Road flats - the Isokon - a modernist block dreamed up by architects Wells Coates and engineer Jack Pritchard (and still there today). Maclean traces the tempestuous history of the building and its tenants, along with the other artists and writers who moved in and out of the area - Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore, WH Auden, Herbert Read, Louis MacNeice and stellar German and Hungarian refugees Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer and László Moholy-Nagy, plus many more. Even Agatha Christie gets a look-in - she spent a few happy years living at Lawn Road during WW2 and wrote 9 books there.

The relationships - both sexual and otherwise - were fluid, much 'free love' was practiced, and many marriages and partnerships split and reformed in this utopian artistic world, though (quelle surprise) a lot of women were left holding the babies. Great fun to read, although Maclean's prose is rather on the plodding side; however, if you're at all interested in this period and the art world it’s well worth seeking out.

Thanks for the new thread! I haven’t been here for a while because I’ve been in the most epic slump, not down to the books I’m choosing to read but just an inability to concentrate due to life stuff! Hoping July is a better month for me.

My latest reads:

Prophet Song, Paul Lynch

This has taken me so long to get through, not because it wasn’t excellent but it was so unrelentingly dark and harrowing I found myself actively avoiding it! It’s a bold. I listened to it on audio and as someone who is very fussy about audio books I would definitely recommend but be in the right headspace! It’s heartbreaking.

Glorious Exploits, Ferdia Lennon

Picked this up due to the hype on here! Thanks for the recommendation, I thought this was great and very original. Also a bold.

I started James a couple of days ago. I loved The Trees so I’m sure this will be great too.

Thank you @Southeastdweller ! I'll skip bringing my list over this time.

@Stowickthevast how brilliant that you heard Michelle de Kretser speak in person. I watched the speech that she gave online after winning the Stella Prize, and it was excellent. She said some powerful things about Gaza. That said, I was slightly distracted as her face looked very Botoxed - was that just me? Ironically that's a gap between my own feminist theory and practice, because in theory I think women should do what makes them happy, including Botox, but in practice I think, oh dear, why have you paralysed your face 😳

Anyway it's her work that matters, not the way she looks.

@FuzzyCaoraDhubh I'm so glad you liked Naufrage / Small Boat. I really want to discuss some ambiguous bits at the end, but I don't know how to ask the questions I want to ask without being spoilery. Anyway I'll try... is one character who previously seems like a 'real' character actually a figment of the heroine's own imagination? And is there death at the end or not? The lack of closure seemed very French to me.

@MonOncle I didn't bold Prophet Song, great though I thought it was, because it was so so difficult to read from a psychological point of view. Honestly the darkest book I had read in a long time.

@cassandre i can totally appreciate that! I actually laughed out loud at the end of the audio when the narrator totally changed tone and in a bright voice said “Bolinda hopes you enjoyed the reading of Prophet Song…”. Enjoyed is not the word!!

Hi @cassandre! I had similar thoughts! I went back to read your review when I was at the two thirds mark to see what you wrote (great review by the way!) because suddenly I wasn't sure any more. It occurred to me that it might have been an imaginary encounter, especially because of the mirror imaging aspect and then I came round to thinking that it happened, but it's ambiguous. I'm not entirely sure and I thought maybe I should read it again (or ask cassandre 😄). I think there was death at the end, yes. It was a great ending. Very French. An excellent book. I got it on Kindle. I might buy the translation in my bookshop. A definite bold.

I also have Prophet Song on my Kindle. I will get round to reading it this year. I feel I need to brace myself for it and line up something nice to read afterwards.

@almanbyroadtrip – I’m so sorry to hear about your Dad

@Southeastdweller – thank you for the shiny new thread

60 The Lost Man of Bombay – Vaseem Khan – Malabar House 4. Both @shackleton (I think) I really like this series. Persis is such an intriguing character. An outsider in every way. I was quite exasperated by Persis and her attitude towards her mentee, but I think that it true to the character.

61 Everything is Tuberculosis – John Green. I found this really interesting. I was rather unwell this time last year and one of the potential culprits was TB. My automatic reply was ‘But I’ve been vaccinated!’ Yes, well, turns out that the BCG is great at inoculating small children, not so much for protecting adults. Anyway, after a negative chest xray, I was cleared of having TB. Lucky for me, I don’t live in a part of the world where TB is still rife.

@Tarragon123 I quite like John Green what does he mean by “everything”?

Thanks for the new thread

I’ve just finished the dictionary of lost words by pip Williams. A great read but have a box of tissues for the end. It’s the first time a book has made me cry.

@cassandre I'm 90% sure that she hasn't, but I can see why it looks like she may have in that video. She's quite a down to earth person, into things like walking that I don't really associate with Botox! She's been using her voice a lot to advocate for Palestine and thought the speech was moving.

55. A Wreath of Roses - Elizabeth Taylor

Adding to @cassandre's recent review. A nuanced, delicate, beautifully-written novel about loneliness and relationships. Lifelong friends Liz and Camilla spend a summer holiday with Liz's old governess, Frances, as they’ve done for many years. But now Liz is married (to pompous clergyman Arthur) with a baby; Frances, growing old now, can’t let anyone else see her total dedication to her art; Camilla is unmarried, a teacher; increasingly aware of being single.

Into this come Richard Elton, a stranger encountered by Camilla in shocking circumstances on her journey to Frances's house, and - later - Mr Beddoes, a film director and admirer of Frances's art. All struggle, in their different ways, to connect with each other and with how they want their lives to be.

As cassandre said, this is often described as Taylor's 'darkest' novel - I didn’t find it overly so compared to her others, as her themes are always about the exploration of human relationships. For me it was stunningly good.

A Better Second Half by Liz Earle

Recommended on a podcast, at 43 I think I am decade younger than she is aiming the book at, but I am also realistic I may be in the second half of my life!

She goes through several aspects of life and explains quite scientifically the bio-hacks she is applying herself.

Much of it, the cold showers, early morning sun, lifting weights in some form I already knew about. She takes a wide range of supplements that my bank account can't keep up with, but I am going to start adding collagen, and once I have done that for 3 months or so I will consider adding something else but I don't want to jump in all at once or how will I know what works!?

Some of her suggestions are strongly worded and I don't agree. I read this a chapter a day, so it was a while ago now but I am sure she said potatoes were not a great food source for some reason, but I've been reading up separately on our need for potassium and completely disagree with her 🤣

One thing that did come through is that we all have different genes and should all experiment a bit with what works best for us. This strikes a chord with me as I learn more ADHD crossovers with hypermobility and into dysautonomia and I consider the possibility I might need significantly more sodium than the average person. It's early days, but I can say I smashed my gym sessions this week, upping weights that I was struggling with only 2 or 3 weeks ago. It's been a long time since I've seen progress like that!

So overall, I recommend if you are interested in that sort of wellness thing.

So sorry to hear about the bereavements. Thinking of you both.

I haven’t posted a list this year I don’t think, so half way seems a good time.

1. A Study in Scarlet, Arthur Conan Doyle (audio)
2. Kurt Seyt and Shura, Nermin Bezmen trans by Feyza Howell
3. Mansfield Park, Jane Austen
4. The Notebooks of Don Rigoberto Mario Vargas Llosa trans by Edith Grossman*
5. The Nose, Nikolai Gogol trans by Ronald Wilks*
6. Red Sauce, Brown Sauce, Felicity Cloake
7. Rivers of London, Ben Aaronovitch
8. The Lonely Londoners, Sam Sevlon
9. From Genghis Khan to Tamerlane, Peter Jackson
10. The Murder at the Vicarage, Agatha Christie
11. Notes of a Crocodile, Qiu Miaojin trans by Bonnie Huie
12. Madam Ataturk, Ipek Calislar trans by Feyza Howell
13. The Living and the Rest, Jose Eduardo Agualusa trans by Daniel Hahn
14. How to Teach Your Dog Classics, Philip Womack
15. Trust, Hernan Diaz
16. The Body in the Library, Agatha Christie
17. The Grand Babylon Hotel, Arnold Bennett
18. Agatha Christie : A Very Elusive Woman, Lucy Worsely
19. The Divorcees,Rowland Beaird
20. Cider with Rosie, Laurie Lee
21. The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Agatha Christie
22. The World of Suzie Wong, Richard Mason
23. Erasure, Percival Everett
24. The Count of Monte Christo, Alexandre Dumas trans by R Buss
25. Fair Rosaline, Natasha Solomons
26. Odessa Stories, Isaac Babel trans by Drayluk
27. The Book of Chameleons, Agualusa trans by Daniel Hahn
28. Enchanted Islands, A Mediterranean Odyssey, Laura Coffey
29. To Sir Philip, with Love, Julia Quinn
30. There are Rivers in the Sky, Elif Shafak

Argh, dropped off the last thread and can't do my list atm as I'm away for the weekend but I'm place marking to come back in a couple of days

In that it is intertwined I think. From the glamourisation of consumption in Victorian times to being the worlds biggest infectious killer. Its everywhere. And it shouldnt be.

DNF 44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith

This was a birthday gift and I know the relative really likes McCall Smith so I persevered to about a third of the way through, but one of the characters has just done something really stupid that you wouldn't do it in real life without talking to someone and I just know the rest of the book will be some of kind of slight farce unravelling this.

Putting it down and moving on.

Nothing to do with books, but I found this dress in a charity shop today and thought my fellow peril at sea lovers would appreciate the print. Coincidentally, I’ve just started the Captain Cook book as well. Pics might take a while.