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

46. Verity by Colleen Hoover Utterly ludicrous plot of a writer brought in to finish the series of a famous writer who is now in a coma. She is faking the coma and creeping around at night and writing long letters to be found under floorboards. Writer finds a manuscript in office when famous writer confesses to murdering her daughter. Writer shags famous writer's perfect husband. Far too much unneccessary sex, far too many plot holes and in-depth descriptions of blow jobs, and stupid unbelievable reactions to things. It was my first dip into the very popular Colleen Hoover. Doubt I will bother with any more. It might work if you enjoy a silly psycho-thriller, but it's no Rebecca

@WelshBookWitch Verity is definitely her most implausible one (and I’m counting the ghost story one and the time travel one within that, because at least they were “in universe” plausible)

It Ends With Us is the most plausible “real world” of hers that I have read - it’s based in part on her mother.

I love The Secret History and have re-read it several times.

39 Childhood
40 Youth
41 Dependency all by Tove Ditlevsen

Recommended by someone on this thread some years back, this is an autobiographical trilogy by a famous, troubled Danish poet who died by suicide aged only 58. Ditlevsen grew up in poverty but was always fascinated by words. The first volume is in many ways a fairly standard portrait of a working class autodidact, but what sets it apart is Ditlevsen's evocation of her desperation to grow up (she describes childhood as a garment to be cast off, personifying it throughout the book) and also her knowing, ambivalent attitude towards both parents, which I assume is with the benefit of hindsight, but is still striking. Youth takes us into the first and second of her four marriages and the start of her writing career. But the tour de force is Dependency (which in Danish has the much better title of Gift, meaning both marriage and poison), an astoundingly detailed and un-self-pitying account of Ditlevsen's descent into addiction, enabled by her doctor third husband. It ends with a new beginning of sorts, but the fragile hope is tainted by the reader's knowledge that Ditlevsen was never able to free herself from the shadow of addiction.

42 Young Jane Young by Gabrielle Zevin

I really enjoyed this Monica-Lewinsky-esque story about the fallout from a young woman's youthful affair with the congressman for whom she works. Aviva Grossman has everything going for her until her affair is discovered when the congressman is involved in a car crash with her in the passenger seat. Whilst his life carries on pretty much as normal, hers is destroyed and she has to reinvent herself. Throughout the novel, we see her past catching up with her first through the eyes of her mother, then her own, then her daughter's and finally the wife of the congressman. It's not hugely deep and it's a bit twee in places, but it is funny, with likeable characters and hugely easy to read.

I love MoF. I think I’ve enjoyed everything of hers that I’ve read, Hamnet, The Marriage Portrait, This Must Be The Place, I Am, I Am, I Am. Never read anything by Donna Tartt. Maybe need to rectify that once I have made a dent in my TBR pile.

82 The Chalet School Does It Again – Elinor M Brent-Dyer. This has been annoying me by lingering on my current reads tab on Trello, so I decided to finish it once and for all. It’s the Chalet School, you all know what to expect. Weird new girl starts but she ends up just fine and dandy by the end.

83 Atmosphere – Taylor Jenkins Reid. Well, I think I am the only 50 Booker who loved this. I read it on Audible and sobbed for about the last half hour. I’ve only read one of TJR and I loved that too. So I will go through her catalogue next.

84 Kohinoor - William Dalrymple and Anita Anand. I enjoy these two and their podcast Empire. I knew quite a bit of the story from their podcast and this was a more detailed journey. Found an interesting read and its quite short, so managed to finish it quickly.

85 Before We Say Goodbye - Toshikazu Kawaguchi trans Geoffrey Trousselot. RWYO. Final book (for now, I guess) in the popular Before The Coffee Gets Cold series. I’ve now completed my set of four books and feeling quite smug at finishing off some books from my TBR pile. Then I look at said TBR again and don’t feel so smug.

Martyr! Kaveh Akbar

I think I am going to need some time to process this one, particularly the ending. I could set aside the coincidences for the sake of the plot and the stellar writing.

I recall reading reviews before, but this is about Cyrus, who immigrated to the US with his widowed father after his mother died when the US shot down an Iranian passenger aircraft. We see most things from his POV although there are occasional chapters from the POV of others. Cyrus is troubled by his lack of mother figure, his immigrant status, his queerness and his addictions. His father, Ali’s story is really heartbreaking and if I have thought about anything since I finished last night, it was Ali and how he tried to provide for Cyrus and set him up whilst dealing with his own grief and bringing up a child alone. The background of Iran, Persia and the revolution was always in the background and cleverly wound into the narrative. Akbar is a poet and that definitely comes across in the prose which I enjoyed.

My latest reviews:

A Neighbour’s Guide To Murder - Louise Candlish

An older lady living in an exclusive block of flats befriends a younger woman who moves in, and then becomes convinced that the younger woman is in trouble - but is she? I did like this but found the ending a bit confusing which left me a bit unsure of who had really done what.

Right Place, Right Time - Ali McNamara

Time travel romcom, a bit twee but not bad.

The Society of Unknowable Objects - Gareth Brown

Members of the secret society travel the world protecting it from magical objects - but is the society everything it appears to be and can it protect the world from a very unusual magical objects? This isn’t my usual genre so I didn’t love this but I did like it.

The Secrets Of Dragonfly Lodge - Rachel Hore

Dual timeline story about a woman trying to make it as a research scientist in the 1950s, and a present day journalist writing a story about it. I enjoyed this.

The Art Of A Lie - Laura Shepherd-Robinson

Set in the late 1700s, a widow tries to make a success of her confectionary shop (which sells the new sensation of iced cream), while trying to get to the bottom of her husband’s financial arrangements and protecting her money from various nefarious men. I really liked the historical setting of this one.

The Official Reading Companion and History Briefings for the Chronicles of St Mary’s Series - Hazel Cushion

Dies what it says on the tin! I would have liked more about the characters from the books but this gives lots of historical background for the various jumps in the books. One for the fans.

Instructions For A Heatwave - Maggie O’Farrell

Rather timely given the discussions upthread. This is only the second O’Farrell I’ve read (the first was Hamnet which I thought was just OK). I liked this better. Three adult children return home to support their mother when their father goes out one day and doesn’t come back. It’s set in 1976 providing the heatwave of the title. She writes really well about the family dynamics and the 1970s setting is well done.

Mount! - Jilly Cooper

The one where Jilly includes a plot point that most Jilly fans hated. Other than this it’s the usual Jilly concoction of sex and horses. This isn’t one of her best but I still liked it.

Getting Away - Kate Sawyer

This is almost a bold but not quite. It follows a family from the 1930s to the present day through their holidays, which I thought worked really well and again the family dynamics are written really well. My only criticism is that I found it hard to keep track of who was related to who, particularly later on where there’s lots of grandchildren.

The Rush - Beth Lewis

I found this really interesting as it’s a historical setting I don’t know much about, especially from the female perspective. It’s set in the Gold Rush in late 1800s Canada, and follows three women whose stories eventually interact. It started a bit slowly but then I found myself engrossed.

Bookish - Matthew Sweet

This is the novelisation of the TV series that’s been on recently, which I haven’t actually seen yet! It’s set in 1946 and is about a bookshop owner (called Book) who helps the police solve crimes. It clearly doesn’t take itself too seriously, but it lacked characterisation and back story for the characters (perhaps this is clearer in the TV programme).

This Is Not A Game - Kelly Mullen

A woman in her 70s and her computer game designer granddaughter have to solve a series of murders amongst a group of people all trapped in a big house together. It is set up a bit like a game, with them constantly finding secret rooms and passages. Vibes of The Thursday Murder Club.

Albion - Anna Hope

Three adult children return home to the family pile when their father dies and disagree over the future of the estate. As someone said above nobody in this is particularly likeable so I didn’t enjoy this as much as the other family-based books I’ve read recently.

The Sunshine Man - Emma Stonex

A woman goes to track down the man who killed her sister when she hears he’s been released from prison. The story of her failing him is interspersed with all the backstory of their childhoods and the events of the sister’s death. This was fine but I never really got properly engaged with it, not sure why.

Home Before Dark - Eva Björg Ægisdottir

Icelandic translated crime novel. Ten years after her sister’s disappearance as a teenager, Marsí returns home and starts trying to piece together what happened - but is she just putting herself in danger? I liked this.

Innocent Guilt - Remi Kone

A woman walks into a police station covered in blood but is unable to remember what’s happened so they’re not sure if she’s a victim or the assailant. Can the detectives work out what’s going on in time? This was fine but I won’t bother with others in the series (this is the first in what’s clearly going to be a series) - nothing particularly special to distinguish it from other detective series.

A nice set of reviews @ChessieFL, I’ve added The Art of a Lie to my wish list (and Bookish was already on it).

127 The Rest of Our Lives by Benjamin Markovits
Booker longlist. Middle aged middle class man takes a road trip after dropping his daughter off at college. Dissatisfied with his marriage since his wife cheated 10 years before and put on a sabbatical from work he decides to keep driving. Hard to get into at the start but then moved very quickly. Deals with some important themes but it’s nothing new nor particularly interesting- just okay. No idea why it was longlisted. Better than Misinterpretation though.

Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee

I just did a re-read of To Kill A Mockingbird and went straight into the follow up and wish I hadn't.

There's no sense of place anymore, and we are thrust into a racist argument between Scout and Atticus. There is clearly a discussion the author wishes to have and we are having it via dialogue. As it's written quite a long time ago, it turns out actually both sides are racist as they can agree that black people are less intelligent and not capable of holding up the responsibilities part of the social bargain.

I felt a little betrayed, and had to Google to see if I had understood correctly. I had. I am not the only one.

Determined to hold onto my love for To Kill A Mockingbird not least as I am off to see it at the theatre next month...

@RazorstormUnicorn oh dear. I’ve put off reading To Set A Watchman for exactly the reasons you’ve described. I bought it in the monthly sale. Maybe I’ll skip it then.
TKAM is so tied up in my memories of being 14 that I don’t really want to spoil it.

I was very underwhelmed by the Markovits book @ÚlldemoShúl even before it was longlisted.

Book 100 done & dusted for me, far more than I've read either last year or the one before.

A Little Trickerie - Rosanna Pike. Set in 1500, this is the story of Tibb, a young vagrant girl. The book starts with Tibb's mother dying as she gives birth to a baby girl. Tibb tries to look after the baby, taking it to the beach in Norfolk, where she meets Ivo, a young man who has run away from home. The baby dies but Ivo & Tibb bond through various adventures. This was longlisted for the women's prize earlier this year and I seem to remember it was quite divisive. I enjoyed it as a fun story through history.

I don't think Harper Lee wanted Go Set a Watchman published.* *

51 Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan: Set in an alternate 1980s London where humanoid robots are part of everyday life, the story is about Charlie, who buys one of these artificial humans named Adam. Charlie and his girlfriend Miranda develop Adam's personality but then have to confront issues when Adam falls in love with Miranda and develops a differing ethical code to theirs. Features Alan Turing as a character which I rather enjoyed and it was an interesting topic but it was only OK for me.

52 Reading Lessons Carol Atherton
Thanks to those who recommended this. It is an English teacher's reflections on teaching certain A level and GCSE's and how they relate to her life, with each chapter devoted to a particular book. I really enjoyed this.

86 The Cruellest Month – Louise Penny, Three Pines Book 3. This took me quite a while to get into. Some of the language eg “she had put on the pounds with her two children and had given up on losing them” or some such crap in relation to how a police detective looked! A woman, naturally. A fat man is never looked upon with some a critical eye. I’m also really hacked off with the painter’s husband being an absolute dick to her. Anyway, I really love Three Pines and wish I could visit, so I will carry on with the series and watch it episode by episode on Amazon Prime.

Have been somewhat AWOL but reading :)

To join in the Donna Tartt chat, I still can’t believe I haven’t yet got round to The Secret History. I fully agree with @TimeforaGandT who said some parts of The Goldfinch were amazing and some parts really dragged but overall I thought it was great. I read The Little Friend a couple of years afterwards and 100% concur with @EineReiseDurchDieZeit's review - took me forever to read and honestly I don’t think it was worth the effort.

I'm currently reading The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty in paperback, The only plane in the sky on my kindle and I'm listening to Marian Keyes' Grown Ups.

Mouthing Orla Mackey

One of my recent hoards, this is the story of the inhabitants of a small Irish community. It’s told in small vignettes by different, sometimes very/little connected from their POV or they talk about others view of what they are doing. There is a reaL sense of place and community, even without any description, it’s all about the characters. There is some wit running through it even when it’s very bleak. Small, but wonderful.

I know @elkiedee mentioned this is on her TBR and I will look forward to her far more insightful review once she gets to it.

As far as Maggie O'Farrell is concerned I have a ton of her books waiting TBR on my kindle - so maybe I should get stuck into one for RWYO!!
Having only read 2 of her books so far, I'm going to go against the grain by saying I honestly loved Hamnet but was pretty nonplussed by I am, I am, I am which seems to be generally appreciated on here.

44 What The Night Brings by Mark Billingham
Underwhelmed by this. The Tom Thorne snappy repartee with friends, colleagues and enemies is still there but shoved aside for a load of unsubtle Not All Police Are Like That handwringing, to the point that several characters seem to be reading out a press release, not chatting over a takeaway. I appreciate he has tried not to ignore the recent issues with male police officers but it comes across as preachy and insincere. On the other hand, he does attempt to fill out the characters of his female victims, although female partners of police officers are still sidelined into support human roles for the most part.
The plot : someone is killing police officers. Thorne, Tanner and Holland try and find out why, against the clock, natch. You’d think the perp travelling from London to rural County Durham at one point (train? bus? knackered old moped?) would give them a bit more time, but apparently not. This is a mainstream crime novel from an established author, so you’d think a proof reader would have picked up the change of prison name halfway through then back again, but apparently not.
A fast read, with some of the old spark, but oh dear, some plot developments?…..it’s a shame Billingham didn’t find a shark swimming along the coast of those “cliffs of Blackpool” in his Det Miller novels and make Thorne jump it on waterskis, because that would have been more believable. In the end, he does a disservice to the real life victims of VAWG by police officers by sensationalising it for Gasp Value. He seems a decent bloke and I’m sure he didn’t mean to, but putting preachy speeches into established characters’ mouths just doesn’t cut it.

140 Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter? - Nicci French

I have brought a stack of books on holiday with me, so obviously the thing I did was read a cottage-shelf book 🙄

Thirty years ago, Charlotte Salter disappeared on the way to her husband Alec’s 50th birthday party in a barn. Alec doesn’t seem too worried, though her four children (aged 15-21) are distraught. A few days later, there’s another tragedy and the police feel they can wrap things up.

That is the first section of the book. The next is in the present day - the Salter children are moving their father to a care home and their childhood friends also return to the village to make a podcast about the mystery. Another tragedy leads to the police reopening the investigations, and we get the perspective of DI Maud O’Connor.

It has been a long time since I read a book by wife/husband team Nicci French and this one was perfectly serviceable, if all wrapped up a little quickly in the last few pages.

I missed chucking in my twopence worth on Maggie O’Farrell. I absolutely loved Hamnet and I am, I am, I am, liked This Must Be The Place, and thought Instructions For A Heatwave and The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox were just ok. I hadn’t realised I’d read so many of her books and I have her others in TBR mountain.

The only Maggie O’Farrell I didn’t like was Hamnet.
I got Pet by Catherine Chidgey this morning. It doesn’t count, if I used my Waterstones reward points to get a book, does it? . I resisted a lot of books and I think I should be congratulated for my restraint.

I've long been a MO'F fan. I think Heatwave is my favourite (famously, love a heatwave novel)

Getting Away by Kate Sawyer. Family saga from the 30s up to the present day, all told through family holidays. I liked the way it traced the evolution of travel from wartime seaside breaks, Europe opening up, hostelling, then the emergence of package holidays and time shares, backpacking round Asia, and finally the British coast becoming cool again. Like @ChessieFL said, it was a bit hard to keep track of the characters (I could have done with a family tree!) and the structure meant a lot of big family events (births, deaths, marriages) necessarily happened off the page. But overall a great summer read.
*
Dream State by Eric Puncher*. Another big family book, set in the beautiful Montana mountains, about a love triangle over many decades as the three main characters grow up, have their own families, and start ageing. Each section was really well written and moving, again though a lot of big events happened in the gaps. There's a big theme of near future climate change as well which is probably quite accurate but I always find distressing to read about! Also warning for some very long and technical skiing scenes.

Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis. Much read already, a kind of satire about a young woman running deradicalisation programme for ISIS brides. She becomes very attached to a British teenager she meets in the refugee camp and starts bending rules to get her out. I thought this was sharp and funny and I really enjoyed hearing the young, female Muslim voices.

Ripeness by Sarah Moss. Much anticipated, by me! This is a book told in two parts. In the present day, Edith is living a slow but happy life in Ireland, supporting her friend as her long lost brother emerges after being adopted as a baby. In the 60s, teenage Edith travels to Italy to look after her ballet dancer sister while she has a baby. This was a strange one - very different to her more recent books. I thought the historic/italy section was brilliant but was less compelled by the contemporary storyline, and the two didn't seem to tie together very well.

Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy. A very strange but compelling book. A woman is washed up on the shore of a remote island, almost dead, and taken in by the mysterious family who live there, running some kind of seed bank to preserve plant life after future disasters. All the other staff have left and the communications equipment are all broken. Both the family and the woman start to uneasily trust each other, but all are hiding secrets about the island. It all got a bit melodramatic but a strong thriller and some stunning descriptions of the natural world.

Sunstruck by William Rayfet Hunter

A young man (you never find out his name) gets drawn into the lives of the rich, glamorous Blake family, particularly their son Felix. I really liked the first part of this, set in the family’s South of France house, but the second half back in London was less engaging. It also felt like it was trying to shoehorn in too many current issues. A good read overall though.

One Greek Sunrise by Mandy Baggot

Undemanding holiday reading. An ordinary woman goes on holiday and ends up in a relationship with a Hollywood megastar (as you do). Just what I needed for a plane journey after getting up at 2.30 am.

82. Moment of Truth by Shari Low

Lainey, Milly and Tash run an agency creating memorable wedding proposals. Their own love lives are at different stages. Lainey is happily married to Cam, Milly is waiting for a proposal from the slightly feckless Leo, and Tash has a neighbour with benefits, casual encounters and no intention of ever having a relationship. A new client is looking to propose to her boyfriend, who just happens to have the exact same name as Lainey’s husband, and pretty much the whole book revolves around the question of whether they are one and the same.

And that’s the major problem with this book, it’s just pages and pages of is he / isn’t he a cheating scumbag. Lainey becomes more determined to go ahead with the proposal, rather than just asking her husband like a normal person, Milly becomes ever more sickly sweet and cutesy, and Tash makes constant threats of violence (we get it, she’s the tough one with a heart of gold). By the time of the reveal I just wanted it to end and to get away from these one note characters. It’s a shame because if there had been more time spent on the other characters, and a bit more humour, it would have been a much better read. I listened to this on audible which maybe didn’t help with the pacing.

87 Close Knit – Jenny Colgan (Mure series 7) Kindle RWYO. I’m cross with calling this part of the Mure series, because its not and neither is The Summer Skies, which I read last year and is billed as book 6. The first 5 books are set on Mure and have the same characters. The Summer Skies is set on the mainland as is Close Knit and has a completely different cast. I skimmed through The Summer Skies earlier this month, after having read the first 5 books, to see if I had misremembered, but Mure itself is only mentioned once in the passing. Same with Close Knit. I was also completely bamboozled in that Jenny Colgan seems to forget where she has situated the fictional town of Carso as it is at both times on the very Northern coast of Scotland, like say Thurso, but also in Argyll. She also seems to have decided to shoe horn in Fife and has her characters only having holidayed in Fife, from either the very North of Scotland or Arygll. Bonkers.

Anyway, now that I’ve got that off my chest, onto the review. Did not like. Gertie, the main character, is a total drip. Mooches about in a dream world. Morag the pilot from the previous book and her Grandad are in it and another couple of characters too. Better, but not enough to redeem this book. Probably wont bother with any more ‘Mure’ books, unless they are actually set on Mure.

For me they are not at all the same series @Tarragon123 When I bought The Summer Skies it wasn't being billed as part of the Mure series at all. Big mistake if they've decided to market it like that - I can understand your frustration!