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

@SheilaFentiman I have both the Chris Whitaker books on TBR! Less enthused now

Welcome @Benvenuto

77 Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimamamda Ngozi Adichie. I found this a bit of a struggle. Set before, during and just after the Biafran War, it was harrowing. I didn’t really know much about the Biafran War, although I was one of those children in the 70s who was told to eat their dinner, because children were starving in Biafra.

78 An Island Wedding – Jenny Colgan. Mure book 5. Lots of bonkers capers but also the horrendous storyline with Saif and his family. Enjoyable but quite a lot of tears and snotters from me.

I’ve fallen off the thread while I’ve had some family stuff going on and have been crazy busy at work. Just popping on to say “hi” before I catch up on the thread and write some long overdue reviews. I’ve missed you guys!

Yay you’re back I was wondering if you were ok @MamaNewtNewt

106 . Seascraper by Benjamin Wood (Spotify)

Read by the author. My second Booker Prize LL, and possibly my last until my Spotify hours renew.

The novel is set in a remote coastal town in northwest England in the early 1960s and follows the story of Thomas Flett, a teenager working as a shanker—someone who scrapes shrimp from the shoreline using a horse and cart. He leads a tough, isolated life with his mother, bound by the same harsh trade passed down from his grandfather.

I liked this, it was quiet and lyrical and atmospheric with a sympathetic lead. It didn’t feel like the 60s though it felt like a much earlier time. Normally, I hate it when an audiobook breaks into song because it’s cringy but actually this author as well as being a good writer has a lovely voice. I mean, it’s a solid, good read but I am not going to be raving about it. It was nice. Not sure it’s prizeworthy but I would definitely read more by this author.

50 Next In Line - Marion Todd.
I've hit the 50 with the 5th in the series of the DI Clare Mackay books. A bold from me, I really enjoy a good police procedural and this one is on a par with the rest of the series. No spoilers, especially not about Clare's love life!

135 A Troubled Tide - Lynn McEwan

Wee Shona book 5 (which was in the deals this month). A far more gripping read than We Begin at the End. Shona is working the lifeboat at a local triathlon when a police officer (Hayley Cameron) drowns despite her considerable skill. Hayley was a good friend of Shona’s DC Kate, and the case also has implications for a local organised crime family as the post mortem shows drugs played a key part,

A second death of a young woman happens at a festival which Shona’s DD is attending, ahead of going to Glasgow Uni, and Shona has to balance her care for family, team, romantic partner and the lifeboat workers.

I’m getting there thanks @EineReiseDurchDieZeit hope all is well with you.

Heres my reviews. Still working through the thread!

43 The Burning by Jane Casey
44 The Reckoning by Jane Casey
45 The Last Girl by Jane Casey
46 The Stranger You Know by Jane Casey
47 The Kill by Jane Casey
48 After The Fire by Jane Casey
49 Let The Dead Speak by Jane Casey
50 Cruel Acts by Jane Casey
51 The Cutting Place by Jane Casey
52 The Close by Jane Casey
53 A Stranger In The Family by Jane Casey
54 The Secret Room by Jane Casey

I think when I last posted I was halfway through the Maeve Kerrigan series, which I am now up to date with, and which I loved (especially the undercover one). Can’t wait for the next one!

55 The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

This sounded right up my street, but I wasn’t all that keen. The main character managed to be simultaneously nondescript and irritating. I really enjoyed the expats and their adjustments to the current time, but the story wasn’t well rounded, and I don’t think it knew what it wanted to be.

56 Cover Story by Mhairi McFarlane

Not one of her best, I only read this a month or two ago and I couldn’t remember what it was about and who the characters were. Not a good sign.

57 Under Your Spell by Laura Wood

Now this one hit the rom com mark for me. I will check out more by this author.

58 Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovich

I’ve had this for a few years and have tried to read it a few times but just couldn’t get into it. My cousin recommended it to me so I gave it another go. I quite liked the early part with the ghost and the unusual DI, but I lost interest when the rivers turned up. This just wasn’t for me and I’ll give the rest of the series a miss.

59 I’ll Stop The World by Lauren Thoman

The title references a song which I love (I Melt With You by Modern English) and is about time travel, one of my favourite genres. A teenage boy goes back in time and has the opportunity to save his grandparents, who died in a fire, sending his mother into a downward spiral. This was fairly simplistic, and I’m not sure the author fully landed the ending, but I enjoyed it. An undemanding fun read.

60 Poison Study by Maria V Snyder

As I continue my mission to actually get my money’s worth out of kindle unlimited the Random Number Gaenerator picked this from my list. Yelena is in prison for murder, awaiting her death sentence, when she is offered the chance to have her sentence commuted, if she agrees to act as food taster for the Commander of Ixis. Another undemanding YA book which I enjoyed. There was plenty of intrigue, twists and interesting characters

61 Magic Study by Maria V Snyder

Sadly the second in the series wasn’t anywhere near as good, and the limited time with some of the best characters from the first book really impacted it. Plus there was a whole “chosen one” vibe and way too much nonsense for me. I won’t be going any further with the series.

62 Bad Moon by Jodi Taylor

Latest in the Elizabeth Cage series. Not sure why I’m continuing as they aren’t very good and I’m not all that keen on the main character, and the on / off relationship with Michael Jones is just beyond silly. Still I bet I forget and read the next one when it comes out.

63 Her Last Move by John Marss

Another kindle unlimited read. A detective works with a super recogniser colleague who is skilled at remembering faces. Not good.

64 How Soon Is Now?

Another kindle unlimited book. And another time travel book. Luke Seymour travels into his past on a mission after joining a mysterious Nostalgia Club. I quite liked this.

65 The Defence by Steve Cavanagh
67 The Plea by Steve Cavanagh
68 The Liar by Steve Cavanagh
69 Thirteen by Steve Cavanagh
70 Fifty Fifty by Steve Cavanagh
71 The Devil’s Advocate by Steve Cavanagh
72 The Accomplice by Steve Cavanagh
*73 Witness 8 by Steve Cavanagh

I’ve worked my way through the Eddie Flynn series.The books were interesting but undemanding, which is what I needed, albeit with diminishing returns and connection to reality as it progressed. Eddie is a bit annoying, with convenient friends (a top mob boss and a judge as best friends covers a lot of bases), but I like his moral code.

66 An Accidental Death by Pete Grainger

I read an article on the books available on kindle unlimited and this was highly recommended. Lord knows why. Firstly it was very odd. I initially had it pegged as a book set in the 50s due to some very outdated language, but the mention of modern tech put paid to that idea. It was also incredibly dull. I can’t even remotely remember ‘whodunnit’.

74 Horns by Joe Hill

Iggy wakes up one day with horns, and the ability to hear people’s thoughts, which he uses to try to find out who killed the girlfriend that everyone thinks he killed. This wasn’t bad.

75. The Dentist by Tim Sullivan

Det George Cross is autistic, which helps him to solve crimes but makes navigating life with other people difficult. It was interesting, but I felt the autistic angle was overdone somewhat. Also I saw the ending coming from a mile away.

76. The Bat by Jo Nesbo

The first in the Harry Hole series sees the Norwegian detective investigating the death of a compatriot in Australia. I thought it was a bit of an odd choice to start a series with the detective so far from home. This was good enough to get me to start the next one (where he is still not solving crimes in Norway) but it’s nowt special.

77. Femlandia by Christina Dalcher

The world has gone to hell in a hand basket so Miranda and her daughter Emma set out for the female only colony founded by Miranda’s late, and estranged, mother. I kind of half guessed where this was going, but when it got there it went a whole lot further. It was pretty grim in places and I can’t say I liked it all that much.

@MamaNewtNewt Bravo on a mammoth post. I agree with you on Ministry Of Time and wouldn’t read another John Marrs if you paid me!

Shame about Rivers Of London but I found them to be diminishing returns as they went on anyway and I really didn’t like the fourth or fifth one and stopped.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit - similar - I loved the first RoL but stopped after a few

@SheilaFentiman it was the one with the missing girls did for me , I found it distasteful

136 The Problem with Men: When is it International Men's Day? - Richard Herring

A light and amusing look at Richard Herring’s experiences tweeting “November 19th” repeatedly on IWD and some of the issues of the patriarchy that led to such nonsense. This has been on my kindle for a while so glad to have knocked it off.

29 Black and British by David Olusoga

Enjoying finishing off some books I’ve had running for a while. This book accompanied a TV series which I didn’t see, so the structure is of each chapter illustrating an episode of Black British history. A very enjoyable and illuminating read. Anger is kept well controlled but as a result the reader feels it. The most painful chapters are of course about slavery, but the story in the introduction of the Olusoga family being driven out of their home by National Front attacks in the early 80s is a gut punch. There is a lot of really positive and well balanced storytelling here though.

@PermanentTemporary I completed that and watched the documentary this year as well. Glad I did felt important. Looking forward to his stint on Traitors coming soon! A historian is an interesting choice for that game

79 Show Don’t Tell – Curtis Sittenfeld (Audible) Enjoyable collection of short stories. Sittenfeld narrates one of the stories, but I have no idea which one she was. I’ve cancelled my Audible membership. I really want to tackle my TBR pile, which I STILL haven’t got round to logging.

85. The Map of Knowledge, Violet Moller
Non-fiction explore how scientific knowledge from the classical world was transmitted during the centuries until its "rediscovery" in the Renaissance, with a particular focus on Arabic scholars. She focuses on a number of cities - Alexandria, Baghdad, Cordoba, Toledo etc. I'm a sucker for an account of wandering scholars, forgotten manuscripts hidden in crumbling temples, and the polyglot courts of emperors, so I liked a lot of this. It does go into more detail than I really needed - I wouldn't claim to be passionately enthralled by the question of which textual variant proved to be the most influential, for example. Enough enjoyment for me to give it a thumbs up, although not the ever-elusive bold.

86. The Lives and Deaths of the Princesses of Hesse, Frances Welch
An account of four sisters, granddaughters of Queen Victoria. The best-known is the last Tsarina, whose eventual fate (along with one of her sisters) hangs heavily over the story. The author quotes a lot from their letters, which helped to show them as real people and not just historical figures.

87. Water, John Boyne
Woman moves to small island to escape the gossip after her husband goes to prison. I rather liked it although it all felt a bit predictable.

My holiday was spent in the south of England mooching around various National Trust sites, and very nice it was too. This influenced my holiday reading:

88. Annabella, Georgette Heyer.
I only started reading Heyer this year, and I'm enjoying catching up. The young heroine is launched on society, gets off on the wrong foot with the hero, there are various escapades, then all ends happily. I liked the incidental scenes better than the main story - the girls laughing at what their mother wore when she was presented at court in her youth, the hero's grandmother criticising the clothes of modern youth. She's good on families.

89. Sparkling Cyanide, Agatha Christie
Read while visiting Christie's summer home, Greenway. I took the ferry from Dartmouth on a sunny day and it was very pleasurable. The book - well, not one of her best. It features Colonel Race, who thin brown face reveals him as an Empire-builder and whose keen eyes can tell if someone is the wrong sort.

90. Jamaica Inn, Rebecca West
I didn't make it over the Tamar so this was a bit of a cheat. It kept the pages turning but I'm surprised it's considered a classic - it seemed to me that she was taking bits from the Brontes, from Robert Louis Stevenson and from Hardy and stirring them all up into her melodrama. The sexual undertones are more explicit than in the Brontes and RLS, with our heroine being tied up and pawed at and forced to witness terrible things. It was certainly readable but I was expecting something more literary.

91. Puck of Pook's Hill, Rudyard Kipling
Read while visiting Bateman's, also very pleasant. I enjoyed the opening account by Puck of how he watched the Old Things come and go in their time. I was less engaged by the subsequent stories, although I thought they tied up more neatly than I expected, and the last story interested me because it seemed to take some antisemitic tropes and smash them - the Jewish narrator destroys a store of gold so that it can't be given to the King, who is therefore forced to sign the Magna Carta. Compared to the casual antisemitism in many books of this era, this was refreshing.

92. Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Mary Norton
Picked up second-hand. I loved the Borrowers as a child so thought I'd give this a whirl for 50p. It's for younger children and doesn't convey the same gentle melancholy as the Borrower books, but mildly interesting as a curiosity (although the scene with the cannibals hasn't aged well, eighty or so years later).

93. False Colours, Georgette Heyer
Where there are identical twin brothers and one is engaged, the other is going to end up standing in for his brother as some point. One of her later ones and not one of her best - the heroine is lightly sketched and the action is told at second-hand. I still enjoyed some of the minor characters and it kept me sufficiently engaged on the train home.

@bibliomania confused by Jamaica Inn is this a different one from the Du Maurier?

Damnit, you're right @EineReiseDurchDieZeit - it is du Maurier, not West. Will go off and do a suitable penance - volunteer to clean the cellar after a wicked pedlar has been locked inside, perhaps.

@bibliomania I completely agree on Jamaica Inn. Don’t know why there’s so much love for it. Loved Rebecca and My Cousin Rachel

Must try My Cousin Rachel one of these days, @ÚlldemoShúl . But for now I have a few Jack Reachers lined up to offset all this mid-century Englishness.

Oh bother, I bought Jamaica Inn when it was 99p recently, as I thought I ought to read it despite having no real interest in doing so - sad to hear it’s disappointing! I try to read my kindle purchases in order so I’ll probably not get to it until next year…at least I don’t have to deal with it any time soon 😄

Meanwhile, my latest is a bold: 48 The House of Mirrors - Erin Kelly The story starts with Rex and Karen, parents of 20-something Alice, helping her set up her new vintage clothes shop; there are hints of family secrets and a hidden history which had me intrigued straight away. From there it unfolds into a many-layered construction of truth and lies, told from the perspectives of Karen, Alice, and occasionally an unnamed character whose identity becomes clear as the storyline moves forward. I loved this, it was a great story and the gradual drip of information about Karen’s and Rex’s past was perfectly structured. It turns out that this is actually a sequel, so perhaps that gradual story development would have been more obvious if I had read the original; I think it would still have been a bold though. I’ll seek out more books by Kelly (and have already bought the prequel to this book - it’s 99p at the moment).

I read your review @DuPainDuVinDuFromage thinking this rings a bell, I read The Poison Tree years ago that’s why. It was quite good, it really made me think about something personal to me at the time. I will need to pick it up at 99p.

@bibliomania I went to Greenway last week too! I drove there while my husband and kids were at a water slide park, not realising you have to pre-book parking. Luckily I had enough time to drive back to the village, park there and I enjoyed the 30 min walk there and back. In fact I felt it was quite appropriate, given that it is the setting for Dead Man's Folly, which features as a prominent plot point hikers walking up to the house! I enjoyed looking out over the river, which I think was also the inspiration for some of the storyline in Five Little Pigs. I thought it was a beautiful place and am very envious of Agatha and the time she spent there.

Greenway is beautiful, @Welshwabbit . I really enjoyed looking at her books as well. I noticed Miss Mapp by EF Benson, which I love. Also the cookbooks (Cuisine Minceur - because she worried about being too stout - and When the Cook's Away). A lovely couple of hours.