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

49. Happening: Annie Ernaux (trans. Tanya Leslie).

This is an absolutely brilliant but extremely harrowing read. I think this may be the best book by Ernaux that I have read, but while I'm going to put it on my list of excellent books that I've read this year, it comes with a warning that it's very upsetting, in case anyone thinks of reading it.

Annie Ernaux is twenty-three in 1963; a young girl and single, when she realises that she is pregnant following a relationship with another student. Forty years later, she looks through her diary entries of this turbulent time when abortion in France was still illegal, to narrate the account of her failed, self-administered abortion and the urgent dash to hospital to save her life following a haemorrhage. It's a short book, told in Ernaux's sparse style that nonetheless leaves a lasting impression on the reader.

50. The English Understand Wool: Helen DeWitt.

I was very happy to mark my fiftieth book with this book, the book that I received at the 50-Bookers meet-up and book swap (thank you, Cornish!).

I was bemused by this one at first. It's a slim book, a hard back, with a vintage picture of cakes on the front and a quirky title. However, once seated on a hard chair at the airport before my flight home, I opened it and quickly got stuck in.

The story goes as follows, but only in broad strokes, as there's a very clever twist that must not be revealed. A young girl has been raised by her French mother and English father in Marakech to live the best life possible, to have the best of everything (Irish linen, tweed from the Outer Hebrides but made up in Paris by a Thai seamstress) because otherwise, to make do with less would be unthinkable and would be 'mauvais ton' (in bad taste). However, one day, everything is turned upside down. Will this girl have the wits to fend for herself having lived such a lofty life?
This is short, sharp and good fun. I enjoyed it.

51. The New House: Lettice Cooper.

The book for this month's 'Rather Dated' read.

It's moving day for Rhoda Powell and her family and we observe them over the course of the day when they pack up and leave their rambling manor house for a smaller, more practical gate lodge better suited to their reduced means. Rhoda has to cope with her mother's objections to the move and also has to find the courage to tell her that she wants to leave home and at the age of thirty, start living her own life. The theme of selflessness (and selfishness) was well dealt with in the book.

I really liked this book. Very leisurely in pace, the reader spends a lot of time with different characters and experiences their points of view, all very relatable in one way or other. There are lots of lovely dated details along the way. Looking for the good china for breakfast tea made me smile. We must maintain standards! This is a very enjoyable story with well drawn characters and it provides a fascinating portrait of England in the 1930s with the advent of socialism, the trade union movement and Labour all making their mark on society.

52. Les chevaliers du subjonctif: Erik Orsenna.

'The Knights of the Subjunctive'. This is the follow-up to the first book of Orsenna's that I read previously this summer ('Grammar is a Sweet Song').

We go back to the Island of Words to where Jeanne lives with her brother Thomas. The evil dictator Nécrole has ordered the Island of the Subjunctive to be shut down as he wages a vendetta against imagination, wishes and desire and anyone who wants to engage with the subjunctive is against law and order and against him.

I like the whimsical style of these books and think there is merit in them for learners of French to grasp the nuances of the subjunctive mood which we don't really acknowledge in English ('May we be spared!) as it's a bit of a dose getting used to it in other languages. I liked the concept of the subversive subjunctive knights. I didn't like the oddly sexualised comments about Jeanne. What the actual point was it about. It was odd and distasteful.

53. La Leçon: Eugène Ionesco.

('The Lesson') I picked this up from my bookshelf on a whim because teacher training is on the horizon for me and I'm reading a lot about teaching methodolgy at the moment. This is an utterly absurd play. Very subversive in how it undermines teaching and education. I had forgotten how it went for the poor student. Quelle violence! La pauvre.

All up to date for now!

@Stowickthevast @EineReiseDurchDieZeit I agree that Audition certainly warrants discussion. I do understand the bafflement and sort of share it but equally I enjoyed the subtle differences in the character in the first and second half. She was very much less sympathetic in the second half. I have also been wondering about the significance of the title... It's made me think a bit and I haven't resented that (whereas I don't especially enjoy the type of thinking that Ali Smith makes me do... I just don't particularly care somehow....)

I'm still cooking with gas (metaphorically). I haven't read books this voraciously in many years. Still can't get enough. I love it!

63. To Be Taught If Fortunate by Becky Chambers

This novella is ostensibly a message sent by a manned craft which has been sent to investigate four exoworlds. It tells of the crew’s search for life in each of these places and their slow loss of contact with life back on Earth.

I have enjoyed all of Becky Chambers’ previous books but this was probably the one I enjoyed least. It felt a bit lacking. One of her strengths is the characters she creates and their relationships. There were only four characters so their relationships were a bit limited and those that did exist were not particularly fleshed out. This could have withstood stretching into a proper novel and benefited from deeper exploration of characters and their interactions.

64. Kissing Girls on Shabbat by Sara Glass

This is probably a bold. Autobiography by a New York psychotherapist about her life as an Orthodox Hasidic Jew. She is brought up in strict seclusion to walk behind men, wear modest clothing and doesn’t watch a TV programme until she is 24. She has a deep devotion to her faith and follows the path set out by her family and community as she marries and has children in her late teens. She slowly comes to terms with the fact that she is sexually attracted to women and gradually works her way to freedom.

This was very honest and insightful. It gave a view into an extremely sheltered world where every decision is taken from the women of the community and has to be discussed with a Rabbi (including how and when it is permitted to use birth control). Fascinating.

65. Where the Lost Wander by Amy Harmon

An 1850s Oregon trail book. A young woman and her family are on the wagon trail to California. The journey is gruelling but helped by a half white, half Native American man along the journey. The first half of this was really good. I enjoyed being on the trail with the family despite the hardships. The second half was deeply dubious and felt a bit YA. Unconvinced!

132 Dissolution (Shardlake 1) - CJ Sansom

Enjoyed this book in which Shardlake in a hunchback lawyer who works for Thomas Cromwell. Along with his assistant Mark, he is sent to a monastery on the coast to solve the murder of another Commissioner. Whilst they are there, more deaths occur and Shardlake begins to suspect a connection to the wider politics of the time.

The book is shortly after the death of Jane Seymour and at the start of the dissolution of the larger monasteries. It is very atmospheric in the wintry, marshy setting and the fear and doubt of the monks as they see their ordered lives slipping away.

Not really an ideal holiday read but I have just finished Adam Hochschild's famous exploration of Belgian colonialism, King Leopold's Ghost. This is an extraordinary, meticulous, troubling book. It also restores memories of perhaps lesser known figures and campaigners, particularly ED Morel and the Irishman Sir Roger Casement , along with Black American Presbyterian missionary William Sheppard. It's far too detailed to write much about. Leopard was awful, Stanley enormously complex and troubled and pretty dreadful. It's really distressing in places and sobering. The 2020 afterword adds more contemporary reflections and context which is really interesting.

This is an excellent accompaniment to William Boyd's latest novel.

54. The Spy and the Traitor - Ben MacIntyre

This was part of RWYO and is about the Dreyfus affair. Although I had heard of the Dreyfus affair, I knew absolutely nothing about it. Alfred Dreyfus was a Jewish officer in the French army who was court martialled for passing secrets to the Germans and then exiled to an island in the South Atlantic where he was imprisoned. A new head of military intelligence was appointed shortly after the court martial, Georges Picquart, who soon became aware during the course of his work that the evidence against Dreyfus was not robust. Picquart sets out to investigate and ensure justice is done (at great personal cost to himself). Fascinating read.

55. One, Two, Buckle my Shoe - Agatha Christie

This month's Christie challenge book. Poirot's dentist is shot shortly after Poirot's check up. The police are convinced it's suicide but Poirot thinks otherwise and sets out to investigate. Not one of her best to my mind. Not sure why, maybe because too many disparate characters who (initially at least) are only linked by the dentist.

I can't keep up with my reviews!

Consider Yourself Kissed by Jessica Stanley. I loved this so, so much! It follows Coralie and Adam's relationship from 2012 onwards, through tumultuous elections, Brexit and covid (Adam is a political journalist so this is the background to their lives). Over the book Coralie becomes a stepmother and a mother and struggles with her identity - all very standard I guess, but the book is so warm and funny and full of noisy, loveable characters. The author said she was inspired by the Line of Beauty and the Cazalets, and I can see that in the sprawling, bohemian family and the ordinary lives set against politics. If I had to criticise, it's VERY privileged - which is acknowledged, but it's certainly a strong choice for a book set in Hackney to not address any of the people who are actually affected by eg, austerity cuts or immigration restrictions. But I still liked it a lot. It's also uncannily realistic about what it's like being married to a political journo....

Sea State by Tabitha Lasley. An unconventional memoir where the author sets out to write about men who work on oil rigs - fascinating - and ends up moving to Aberdeen and starting an affair with a married rig worker. It's a hard read as we see her making terrible choice after terrible choice, getting drunk and taking drugs with her subjects, walking home alone with men who admit to having killed someone! I would have liked a bit more about the experience of working on a rig and a little bit less about her doomed affair, but I still found it really interesting.

The Years by Annie Ernaux. More memoir, needs no introduction! Beautifully written and such a clever book charting her life against 20th century French history. I couldn't say I loved the experience of reading it as the speed was sometimes disorientating, and the moving between 'I' and 'we' made it hard to know what had really happened, but clearly a great work of literature.

River of Stars by Georgina Moore. This had a lovely setting, on a fictional island in the Thames with a strong music history, now full of artists studios and house boats. I liked the atmosphere. The action starts with the island's elusive landlord returning, sparking fears he will sell the land to developers, then switches between past and present to explore the island's history. Overall, I'm afraid boring and full of exposition.

Jamaica Road by Lisa Smith. Novel following the relationship between Daphne and Connie, two of a very small number of Jamaican teenagers at a school in Lewisham in the 80s. It's a very political book and powerful about the racism they experience and the wider context like the New Cross fire. It's my bit of London which is always nice to read about. But weirdly paced, very slow and then a wild plot twist and tragedy all crammed into the last 10 pages.

Let's Make a Scene by Laura Wood. Nice romance about two actors who meet on the set of a Regency costume drama, hate each other, then are reunited years later for the sequel. I liked it well enough, but will never stop raving about her first adult novel, Under Your Spell, which I think is a literally perfect rom com.

Sea State sounds interesting @GrannieMainland - I’ve added it to my wish list.

47 The Figurine - Victoria Hislop The figurine of the title is a small Ancient Greek statue, and the book is mostly set in Greece as we follow Helena (half-Greek, half-Scottish) through her childhood visits in the 60s and 70s to her very rich and politically connected grandparents in Athens, to her young adulthood as she gets to know more about Greece and its history. There’s an underlying story of theft and smuggling of ancient artefacts, intertwined with the actions of the people who ruled Greece after the 1967 revolution.

This was a warm hug of a book - a perfect beach read with lots of sun-kissed Greek locations and a world where most people are good, and the baddies are uncomplicatedly bad. Exactly the undemanding escapism I needed, and with some interesting history thrown in. Not a bold but very enjoyable.

@Piggywaspushed I remember reading King leopold's Ghost a few years ago (Probably after a recommendation on here) - it stayed with me certainly.

Thank you for my birthday wishes! I have a cookbook to add to my other books, Bosh! Healthy Vegan by Henry Firth and Ian Theasby

@TimeforaGandT @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie – I wonder, do book editors still actually exist? Is it still a job or is it something that AI is now doing (very badly)? I don’t read the Cormoran Strike books, but it seems that one thing that all 50 bookers are agreed on is that they need a good editor!

I think they still exist, but I imagine that once you've got the oomph of somebody like JKR you can basically say,''Publish it as I've written it or I'll take it elsewhere'.

JKR I understand. But everyone else. Seems odd. Wasnt that June Osbourne's job in The Handmaid's Tale or was that made up for the tv adaptation?

I'm not suggesting that editors have all been done away with and that we are moving to Gilead soon.

Checking back in after a holiday - I've missed far too much of the book chat. Holiday this year was more museums and galleries than sun loungers, so I've not had the usual worries of whether I've brought enough books with me!

31.Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson. The most recent Jackson Brodie instalment is a bit of a riff on a classic county house murder mystery, peppered with clergymen, wealthy dowagers and retired army majors.

I enjoyed the first four Brodie novels but thought Big Sky was very meh. Sadly this one confirmed that the series has definitely jumped the shark. Too much silliness, not enough Brodie.

32.Ripeness by Sarah Moss. Edith is a 70 something Englishwoman of French Jewish heritage now living in Ireland. She reflects on the summer when she 18, spent supporting her sister Lydia, a successful dancer, through an unwanted pregnancy and birth in Italy. The narrative alternates between Edith today and back in that summer.

Moss’s writing is as beautiful as ever, particularly when focusing on food and nature in Italy. The book focuses frequency on the nature and effects of immigration and racism, particularly reflecting on the complex identities of non-religious Jewish heritage in postwar Europe. I did feel that the reflections from current day Edith were sometimes a bit preachy and the sections from the 1960s covered the themes more subtly and successfully.

33.Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. I caught the tail end of a programme about Woolf on the radio the other day. It suggested that if you’ve never felt up to reading Woolf, the best starting point is the audiobook of Mrs Dalloway read by Juliet Stevenson, and I thought I’d give it a go.

Clarissa Dalloway, an upper middle class Londoner in her fifties, is giving a party. We follow her as she moves through London making party preparations, and on to the party itself. Elsewhere in London, Septimus Smith, a young working class man, has returned from war with significant psychological scars, and his wife Lucrezia is struggling to support him.The novel focuses entirely on the interior worlds of Clarissa, Septimus and those whose paths they cross.

I don’t really know how to summarise this. The moment by moment unfolding of thoughts, feelings and ideas as they are experienced creates an amazing sense of perspective and realness for even the most minor of characters. I loved how much of the dialogue was woven between unsaid feelings that were politely dismissed. The passages focusing on psychiatric care typical of the day were heartbreaking, but there are lots of light and playful passages too. I’ll be thinking about this one for a while. A bold.

33. The rest of our lives by Benjamin Markovits

This is the first of my Booker longlist reads. A middle aged man goes on a road trip in the US after dropping his daughter off a college. He contemplates his struggling marriage and the other relationships in his life.

I enjoyed this and would never have picked it up if it wasn't longlisted. It's the kind of book I normally read written by women. It was quite a calm book that was very readable (apart from the basketball bits). It was advertised as funny which I didn't find but the characters felt real and it was an interesting slice of life novel.

I listened to Mrs Dalloway a couple of years ago @StrangewaysHereWeCome while I was working in Westminster. It was really great walking around where it was set. The audiobook brought it to life. I read The Hours afterwards which was a good accompaniment.

I wasn't that keen on The Rest Of Your Lives @Cherrypi . I just found the main character annoyingly passive, and like you I was expecting it to be funny. All the US branding and basketball just added to my dislike!

I have just started listening to Flashlight from the Longlist, and think it is my favourite so far. But I am a bit of a sucker for sprawling family sagas set in Asia!

93. Birdcage Walk - Helen Dunmore. Languishing on my Kindle since 2018, when I think I had a bit of a Helen Dunmore moment. This is definitely not as compulsive as Exposure or The Siege which I think are excellent. It's set in Bristol at the time of the French Revolution, although it starts with the author discovering a grave stone of Julia Fawkes in the modern day. The story is told from Lizzie, Julia's daughter's, perspective. She has just married Diner, a controlling, broody sort who is building a terrace of houses above Clifton gorge. He is the materialistic businessman set against her mother and mother's husband Augustus who write revolutionary pamphlets and are friends with Thomas Paine. Dunmore is excellent in the minutae of domestic life at the time, but the story itself was quite apparent.

@StrangewaysHereWeCome

Lots in common here I also love Mrs Dalloway, I did a Woolf module at uni and read almost all of hers except maybe The Waves and Mrs Dalloway was my only bold.

Also thought DATSOTR was a shocker, though it has divided the thread

Another Mrs Dalloway fan, though I love the audio read by Annette Benning in particular. It’s 100 years old this year so I gave it a reread and loved it just as much. The Great Gatsby is also 100 so I may reread it too later in the year.

Have had a busy and stressy week and haven’t managed to read much more. I have finished one RWYO though
118 Missoula by Jon Krakauer
This was a difficult read- about the epidemic of ‘date’ rapes that happened in Missoula at the University of Montana, mainly by football players. Sadly, I’m sure this is a common occurrence everywhere but in this case the scandal came from the failure to act by some police and the prosecutors office. It makes for upsetting and anger-inducing reading. Trigger warnings galore as Krakauer tells the victims stories in detail and is very much on their side. Not sure I’d recommend- made me cry and made me angry.

@Stowickthevastyes he was very passive which is quite unusual in a protagonist, particularly on a road trip. Think I'm going for Misinterpreted next based on the cover.

Wild - Cheryl Strayed
I think this has been reviewed and liked often on here so I will just say that I thought it was very readable.

133 Virgin Widow - Anne O’Brien

Really enjoyed this - historical fiction about Anne Neville, who married first Edward of Lancaster (son of Henry VI) and later Richard III. The book is a romance and the author notes “admit” freely that there aren’t many known facts about Anne, giving her carte Blanche to assume love between Anne and Richard.

28 Turtle Diary by Russell Hoban
William and Neamh are two Londoners who visit the turtles in London Zoo and find themselves unexpectedly connected.

I personally loved this, and have recommended it to others, though am now worrying that they won’t like it. It’s a book that sounds as if it is going to be plot driven, but isn’t, it’s about the characters and the spare, intimate writing. For those of us who were alive in the 70s, it has a gamey nostalgic quality (especially the rebirthing class and everybody smoking indoors) but it was published in 1975 so it’s not romanticising anything. Quite affecting.

“That trains mostly stay on rails, that the streets are mostly peaceful, that the square continues green and quiet below my window is more than I have any right to expect, and it happens every day”

41 Attack Warning Red by Julie McDowall
I was terrified of nuclear war in my early teens and joined CND as soon as I could. The author of this book is slightly younger than me and was also scared by the tv programs and atmosphere of the 80s. This book is a factual account of how governments and broadcasters attempted to plan for a future where nuclear strikes seemed imminent. Much reviewed on here, so I’ll just say that while ‘enjoy’ doesn’t seem quite the word, I found it fascinating, in an often mildly horrified way.

DNFed Black Mouth recommended upthread. I get the comparisons with Stephen King, but this didn’t hold my interest much and seemed very overwritten. I think thirty years ago I might have liked it, when I read King, Bentley Little, Shaun Hutson and even some Graham Masterton (before he went really weird). The bit about Mia only ever wearing large old vests that had belonged to her Uncle was the last suspension of disbelief I was prepared to put up with.

@AlmanbyRoadtrip oh that’s disappointing about Ronald Malfi- it was me who mentioned him- a booktuber I follow who loves Stephen King really rated him- I listened to one on audio (Come with Me) that was more thriller than horror and wasn’t bad. Maybe it was a one off.

Me Vs Brain by Hayley Morris

This was my secret santa gift (rules were charity shop and under a fiver). I was delighted to get a book.

Hayley is insta famous for sketches/reels where she plays different body parts. It sounds weird but I followed her for a while and she makes me snort with laughter a lot.

Her book is a bit of a memoir about over thinking and how she copes (or doesn't) with anxiety. She over thinks in a completely different way to me which was interesting.

That's about it. It's a quick read. I wouldn't bother with it unless you already know who she is and think she's quite funny and even then it's only ok.

It wasn’t Him, it was probably Me I find King unreadable these days, apart from I suppose the sense of nostalgia I get from picking up Christine or Carrie and find a lot of his writing about women deeply troubling. I doubt Bentley Little would last long, either!
Anyway, you also recommended The Book Of Guilt, for which I am tremendously grateful!