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

@BestIsWest – yes! Summer Skies is Book 6. I have Close Knit on Kindle to read, but I suspect I will end up skim reading Summer Skies first. Disappointing that the characters we have got to know well aren’t really featured? And yet, the knitters do get mentioned in all the previous books, even if it is just a passing mention.

75 Christmas at the Island Hotel - Jenny Colgan, Isle of Mure 4. Back with Flora who is trying to get the hotel ready to open, one year after the previous book. This is set mostly within the hotel, so there are some new characters and new to the island characters including a spoilt rich boy who has been sent to work in the hotel as punishment. I cant really say much more or I’d give away huge spoilers. I will nip down to the library tomorrow to pick up book 5 so that I can get this series done and dusted this week.

Its my birthday tomorrow and DD popped in with my present. Given the weather warnings for tomorrow, she decided against travelling to see me after work. Good plan I think. She always buys me a new book for birthdays and Christmas, usually an author that I haven’t read and this year is no difference. So I have Famous Last Words by Gillian McAllister. A friend also sent me The Zen Monkey and The Lotus Flower: 52 Stories that will change your life by Tenpa Yeshe. I don’t think I could have got two more different books lol. As our weather is due to be utterly dreadful, I am happy that I can spend the day reading and eating some lovely dairy free chocolate (I am lactose intolerant and find it tricky and expensive to get decent chocolate)

@Stowickthevast One Boat is one of bought randomly in Waterstones one day when I was in for a mooch but hadn’t got around to reading it so I’ll probably take it on holidays too. Endling is one of the ones that appeals to me most so I think I might save it for near the end so I have something to look forward to.
Next up for me is Flashlight though I’m reading it with The Grapes of Wrath and Missoula by Jon Krakauer so it may be a while before I finish.
I’ve just DNFed Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata. This classic is about Shimimura who has fallen in love with a geisha and has some beautiful writing. However Shimimura is an abusive, self-obsessed asshole (who is cheating on his wife) and whose behaviour towards the geisha he supposedly loves is almost as abusive as the horrific real life frat boys Krakauer is writing about in Missoula and I just can’t stomach reading from his point of view.

Thanks @Cherrypi for the interesting review of Ripeness. I'm reading it right now and liking it a lot. Ha about the overuse of 'kinesphere'; I hadn't noticed that!

46. The Talented Mr Ripley, Patricia Highsmith 4/5
    A reread after many years. Enjoyable and chilling. I had forgotten about the homoerotic subtext, the occasionally vicious misogyny displayed by Tom’s character, and the vividly described Italian backdrop. The twists of plot were a bit dizzying at times; I wasn’t always sure why Tom was doing what he was doing, but I didn’t worry about that too much. It’s clever the way Highsmith makes him mostly unlikeable but also relatably vulnerable at the same time. I half wanted him to succeed and escape unscathed, half wanted him to face justice.

47. Perfection, Vincenzo Latronico, trans. Sophie Hughes 4/5
    A beautifully crafted novella, apparently inspired by Georges Perec’s famous novel Les Choses, which I’d also like to read (I’ve read some other works by Perec and he’s a genius). A young Italian couple lead a self-consciously trendy life in Berlin, chronicling their lives on social media, yet long-term contentment seems to elude them. The satire is all the more effective for being gentle; despite their privilege, the couple are not unsympathetic.

48. Coming of Age: How Adolescence Shapes Us, Lucy Foulkes 5/5
    A very readable, insightful account of the identities we form in adolescence, and how they affect the rest of our lives. I especially liked Foulkes’ emphasis on storytelling and narrative, and how important it is for us to be able to look back and form a narrative of our own about our teenage years. Foulkes makes interesting observations about popularity, for example (‘perceived’ popularity versus ‘sociometric’ popularity); about why teenagers are risk-takers in some ways, conservative in others; and about sensible parental attitudes towards teenage sex. There might have been more discussion of social media and the way that screen use has transformed life for this generation of teens, but I found this book illuminating regardless, both in terms of thinking about my own teenage DC and in terms of better understanding my own messy adolescence.

49. Universality, Natasha Brown 3/5
    I agree with @Stowickthevast's excellent review above. This short satirical novel is well-written, but very heavy-handed in terms of its message. The book is populated by self-centred, deeply unlikable white characters who are at best oblivious to white privilege, at worst actively racist. One of the main characters, a woman journalist called Lenny, seems to be inspired by real-life right-wing commentators, like Melanie Phillips, or Lionel Shriver with her xenophobic views and hatred of ‘wokeness’: commentators I wouldn’t give the time of day to anyway. I thought Brown’s first novel Assembly was stronger than this.

50. A Killing in November, Simon Mason 4/5
    The first of a series of detective novels set in Oxford, this was fast-paced and intelligent. The duo of inspectors has been described as an updated version of Morse and Lewis: one is a posh Black man with a degree from Balliol, and the other (the novel’s main focus) is a sweary working-class white man with anger issues, who grew up in a dodgy part of Oxford. However, the latter is also a single dad with a heart of gold. I have a weakness for books set in Oxford, and the local knowledge displayed in this one is mostly impressively spot on. In the opening scenes, however, when a Middle Eastern billionaire is being courted in hopes that he will make an enormous donation to an Oxford college, it did occur to me that potential donors in real life would never be dining in college with just the Provost and a few dons. ‘Development’ (aka fundraising) is a huge enterprise for universities now; with a potential gift of that size, the college head of development would definitely be at the dinner, carefully orchestrating everything, and someone high up in the university development office would probably be there as well, ha. More significantly, I liked the way the novel brings out the contrast between rich and poor Oxford neighbourhoods; the economically deprived areas of Oxford generally receive little attention in novels. That said, I suspect Mason overegged the pudding a bit by having full-on riots break out in Blackbird Leys. There are plenty of ordinary families in Blackbird Leys just getting on with their lives; it’s not just a riot zone!

Djinns Fatma Aydemir, trans by Jon Cho-Polozzi

I picked this up at the meet up, largely because I recognised a Turkish name and cannot resist, but it’s also about migration which was the subject of my own research.

It centres around a Kurdish-Turkish family in Germany in the 1980s and 1990s. Huseyin, the father works ceaselessly and finally saves enough money to buy a flat for retirement in Istanbul. The novel opens with him having a heart attack and dying. Each chapter is told from the point of view of his wife or children. It’s a sad story, written beautifully, albeit sparingly. There were bits that I remember from growing up when I wasn’t allowed to go on a school trip to Berlin because Turkish households were being subjecting to horrific arson attacks. It’s a really interesting mediation on migration, race, ethnicity not just in Germany and Europe but also in Turkey as the family negotiate between being Kurdish in a place that will only allow you to be Turkish. The ending was perfect and another thing that I had direct experience of and didn’t not expect. It’s not a twist but so many little things really put the book in context.

Not a bold, but I do think I will still be considering this book at the end of the year.

It is published by Peireine Press who specialise in translated fiction and I am considering signing up to their subscription as I also enjoyed the Georgian The Pear Field a while ago.

@cassandre Maybe kinesphere stuck out as it was a new word for me. Well done on hitting 50. I'm quite tempted by the Mason after your review. May fill the Endeavour (TV show) shaped hole.

@cassandre I've been enjoying the Simon Mason books. Good to hear that the Oxford setting is realistic, from one who knows. I think the series gets better as it goes on.

Happy birthday @Tarragon123 hope you have a lovely day.

Any Man’s Death - Hazel Holt

Accidental death at a local riding school causes Mrs Malory to ponder how likely an accident it really was. This is the last but one of this series and probably was a bit too long.

@cassandrethanks for that review, I’ve got a Killing In November on TBR, I’ll bump it up.

42. The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon This is the story of Martha Ballard in 18th century Maine, apparently based on a true story. Martha is a mother of nine children, six living, and a midwife for the local community, a small town near a river. The narrative is mostly set over a winter while the river is frozen, with all the limitations and difficulties that brings to the community, with some flashbacks to 30 year or so ago when Martha was much younger. It has a lot going on, stories of births and families in a rural area, insights into legal processes in a young United States, the struggles of women to keep homes going against the odds, the unfairness of the treatment of women and a bit of a murder mystery going on. It's well written, I don't know enough about the history to know how true and realistic it is, but I would say the shocking treatment of women is probably accurate. A good read though.

Oh Perfection is my next book club read so glad it's a good one.

Also interested in the Simon Mason so thanks for the review @cassandre

@Cherrypi I also loved Ripeness. A couple of Book tubers were wondering if this might be the year of the Sarah's for the Booker - Sarah Hall who wrote the excellent Burntcoat also has a new book out - but sadly it wasn't to be.

92. Flesh - David Szalzy. I was expecting to hate this as it was described as a certain type of man's novel but actually quite liked it, although would also understand those who didn't. It's about Istvàn, a man of little emotions or at least none that we hear of. It starts off when he is 15 and his older neighbour begins an affair with him. Something happens which then affects the rest of his life. Each chapter moves the action to a different time of his life, but Istvàn is always passive, letting things happen to him. I guess it's called Flesh because he is not particularly concerned about emotions, just bodily activities. I read a review which said it used the weird "Okay" 340 times, normally Istvàn in response to anyone asking him anything about his life or what he thinks. Nonetheless, I found this quite compelling and wanted to know where it was going. I do wonder whether I'd have liked it if I read it rather than listened to it. Not a bold, but not terrible.

76 Tombland - CJ Sansom – Shardlake book 7. The final book in the Shardlake series. I didn’t enjoy this one as much as previous ones and I cant decide if it was because I didn’t enjoy the story as much or if it was because I felt it needed a lot of pruning. Its 800 pages plus an additional 50 pages of author’s notes about the Kett Rebellion.

Summer 1549, Henry VIII is dead, Catherine Parr is dead, Thomas Seymour is dead, Edward VI is on the throne, with Protector Somerset (Edward Seymour) in charge and making an absolute pig’s ear of things.

Shardlake is working for the Lady Elizabeth and is sent to Norwich to investigate whether a distance family member is guilty of murder. While he is in Norwich, Kett’s Rebellion starts. Its not a subject that I had any knowledge of and I was surprised to learn that Norwich was the second largest during the period. Just, too much rebellion and not enough murder mystery for me.

Nuclear War A Scenario is in the kindle daily deals today, I am thinking about it but am worried I am moving to scare myself silly. Has anyone read it

40 The Book Of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey
I thought this was excellent, a bold, with the teensiest criticism that the pacing towards the end was a bit off. Nothing major, though.
As review upthread, this will inevitably draw comparisons to another book, which seems a bit unfair. I have never read the Other Book, because it garnered lots of praise and attention while blatantly ripping off an earlier book by one of my favourite authors. So, imo, the Other Book is just another book on the same subject and there’s room for multiple books on a subject or we wouldn’t have lots of books about, say…,robots, or jaded detectives or monks. Some of which are brilliant and some are rubbish.
Anyway <ahem>
Vincent, William and Lawrence are growing up in a Sycamore Home in 1979. Three ‘Mothers’ take care of them and tutor them from a very old set of children’s encyclopedias. They have lessons on Ethics and their dreams are written down, as are any misdemeanors (in the Book Of Guilt). There’s a jaunty, almost Blytonesque tone to the early part of the novel. The boys know they are somehow different to the world outside the Home, but look forward to the occasional trip to the village when they are trusted to run errands and to visits from the avuncular Dr Roach. They are given various medicines to stave off The Bug and when cured they look forward to a bright future living in Margate’s Dreamland.We have sections narrated by Vincent and also by Nancy, a girl whose parents never let her leave the house, but love her dearly, and The Minister For Loneliness, uneasy at having initial contact with the boys but tasked with persuading a reluctant public to open their homes and hearts as adopters.
The slightly alternative history is exquisitely done. Hitler was assassinated, so the course of European history subtly changed, but we still have a female PM who is recognisably Thatcher.
So difficult to say more, without spoilers, but I was gripped. It’s an incredibly grim story arc, but not without a sly humour in places. I intend to lend it to as many people as possible so I can talk about the plot in more depth.

@minsmum it is absolutely terrifying. Not for the weak, and definitely not one to read if you're feeling despairing about the state of the world. It haunts me, and I think about it most days, still.

I'm back after what feels like a long time. No one needs 24 reviews of half-remembered books so I will post the list of what I've read since I last was on the thread, and say that Paris Hilton is much smarter and funnier that you think, Never Understand makes the Gallagher brothers look like the Brady Bunch, The Wedding People is hands down my favourite summer holiday read of the summer so far, Apeirogon will haunt me forever, and I can't believe it took me so long to get round to A Gentleman in Moscow and The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.

I'm back from holiday, washing on and listening to the rain on the roof, so am going to run a bath and catch up on the thread.

42 Tiny Experiments by Anne-Laure Le Cunff

43 Paris by Paris Hilton
44 The Perfect Scent by Chandler Burr
45 The Examined Life by Stephen Grosz
46 Original Sin by Jake Tapper
47 Into Thin Air by John Krakauer
48 Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee
49 Table for One by Emma Gannon
50 Perfume by Patrick Suskind
51 A Different Kind of Power by Jacinda Ardern
52 Never Understand by Jim and William Reid
53 The Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell
54 The Past by Tessa Hadley
55 Uncommon People by Miranda Sawyer
56 Apeirogon by Colum McCann
57 Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley
58 The Wedding People by Alison Espach
59 Wives Like Us by Plum Sykes
60 Born A Crime by Trevor Noah
61 Show Don’t Tell by Curtis Sittenfeld
62 How Not To Be A Political Wife by Sarah Gove
63 The Sleepwalkers by Scarlett Thomas
64 The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King
65 A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
66 Wilding by Isabella Tree

Happy birthday @Tarragon123

@AlmanbyRoadtrip The Book of Guilt sounds really interesting. Added to my wish list.

@PepeLePew thank you, I will buy it and save for when I am happy

103 . Audition by Katie Kitamura (Spotify)

A woman and a man meet in a restaurant. But who are they to each other?

Part I sets up a really interesting premise and I was keen to see where it would go.

Suddenly Part II starts and bins off the entirety of Part I replacing it with something less interesting and quite pedestrian. It’s bizarre, it’s a choice that as a reader doesn’t really compute as if it’s two different drafts of the same manuscript that don’t fit together

I fail to see why this was Booker prize nominated which means it’ll probably win! LOL

Absolutely bemused by it. Baffled in fact @elspethmcgillicudddy

I want to read the book it told me it was going to be, I’m listening now and still have about 30 minutes left and I’m just willing it to end!

Happy Birthday @Tarragon123

The Art Thief sounds good, thanks @elspethmcgillicudddy- added to my list.

I’ve just moved house - again - and have finally been able to unpack my boxes of books, that have been unopened for six months. On the one hand it’s lovely to see all these old friends again. On the other hand, my TBR pile is actually terrifying. Although we won’t have WiFi for two weeks, so maybe I’ll make some headway.

Peeved that I missed The Stand for 99p!

Currently reading and enjoying Wool, of the Silo trilogy.

Not long after finishing Audition I only had 60 pages left on something else so :

104 . Bat Eater by Kylie Lee Baker

This book is about a lot of things, but mainly focuses on Anti-Asian hatred in America during the pandemic. Cora’s sister is brutally murdered at the start and then what follows is her joining a crew of Chinese American cleaners who work on bloody crime scenes. The trio begin to suspect that a serial killer of Asians is in play, particularly when bats are found at multiple scenes.

It also covers the Chinese tradition of the Hungry Ghost. Hungry Ghosts are believed to be spirits of the deceased who are restless and hungry, often due to improper burial or a lack of descendants to honor them. These ghosts are particularly active during the seventh month of the lunar calendar, known as Ghost Month, with the peak of their activity on the 15th day, which is the Hungry Ghost Festival.

Described as Sharp, Witty and Gory, I only really agree with the gory description. It was meandering and morose and I either didn’t understand the end or it wasn’t wrapped up properly, particularly the identity of the ghost.

But there’s a lot of interesting ideas going on here and it deserves props for originality, it just rather sagged in the middle

@Tarragon123 - the final Shardlake definitely needed a better editor (rather like JK Rowling and Strike).

Eine Audition was definitely improved by discussing it at book club. Think this year's judges said they want books that people are going to talk about, which maybe translates to books where no-one including the author knows what the hell they're on about!

93. The Queen's Gambit - Walter Teves. A quick read which stays very close to the TV show although in fact is vice versa and this was written in 1983. Enjoyable but not sure how I'd have got on with all the chess without seeing the series first.

@StowickthevastI’m not even sure why it’s called Audition to be honest!

I haven't updated for ages. I am going to keep reviews short! <gives hollow laugh>

47. Death in the Clouds: Agatha Christie.

A woman is killed by a poisoned dart on board a flight from Paris to London. From seat no. 9, Poirot was in a position to see everything, but unfortunately his estomac was playing havoc with his observation skills and his little grey cells only began working again once they were all on solid ground. An enjoyable Poirot book. I particularly liked the character of the lively little crime writer and also enjoyed discovering what a 'flapjack' was listed in the inventory of the ladies' luggage (apparently not a snack made from oats and covered in chocolate!)

48: Dalla parte di lei: Alba de Céspedes.

'Her Side of the Story'. This is the story of Alessandra Corteggiani in three parts; her early life with her father and mother where she witnessed her mother's frustrated desires to become a concert pianist. Then, the years she spent with her father's family in the countyside in Abruzzo before the outbreak of ww2. Her grandmother sets out Alessandra's future for her, but she rejects it. The third part describes her married life in Rome with her professor husband, an ardent anti-fascist.

This book was a very memorable reading experience for me. I loved the description of the relationships between the women in Alessandra's world between mother, daughter, grandmother, friends. The women are in the inner circle, the men are outside. The political backdrop to the story was interesting but it is not given much consideration; it serves Alessandra's story which is always the focal point. The book is essentially a powerful feminist statement. The ending took me by surprise, but it made sense. The writing is beautiful; there are so many brilliant passages. I'm looking forward to reading more of de Céspedes's books.

Yep!