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

I’m on a bit of a roll.

Burning the Books: A History of Knowledge Under Attack Richard Ovenden (audio)

Ovenden is the Bodley’s librarian, the head of the Bodleian at Oxford and this is a pretty fascinating run through the destruction of knowledge - in the form of libraries and archives since Ashurburnipal’s library in Mesopotamia all the way up to the creation and destruction of digital archives. Each chapter focusses on a different period of history/incident and he weaves a very compelling narrative from there. I particularly enjoyed his chapter on the ethics of what is kept in an archive and who is actually belongs to, for example, most of Iraq’s modern national archive is held in the US. The geek level of this book is pretty high but I loved hearing about the various ways preserving social media and the World Wide Web has been tackled to date and what the answers might be.

I think your review of Mouthing is pretty insightful - I'd like to write something about this but might never get round to it. I ended up buying a paperback copy of Mouthing - I'd started reading it and I had a lot of overdue library books that I couldn't renew because others wanted them too and there was only one copy available. I went to a book event at the Owl Bookshop and felt guilty about not buying either of the books being launched (hardbacks).... Anyway, I would recommend the book and am glad to own a copy.

I do worry that some readers might expect a more cosy account of Irish village life - there is a dark wit here but this a story about some sad, lonely people, difficult family and other relationships, drink etc, and it gets quite dark. It's set over 50 years or so from the early 1970s.

The book event I went to featured Sofka Zinovieff talking about her new novel Stealing Dad and broadcaster Reeta Chakrabarti talking about her new book Finding Belle.

I've really liked Sofka Zinovieff's previous fiction and non-fiction, so was really pleased to get to read her new novel Stealing Dad via Netgalley. The story includes a heist, a road trip, and meeting long lost family. It's funny and sad and very moving, and . It starts with the main characters learning that their dad, a Greek artist who spent most of his life living in London, has died, but there will be no funeral and his widow (and 7th wife) doesn't even want to discuss it. Apparently the story had some inspiration in real life, and there's an element of fantasy reaction. My family is also a bit complicated and I appreciated reading a warm book about the complexities of love and loss involved.

Finding Belle is in my library TBR and it's inspired by Jane Eyre - hoping to get to it fairly soon (I'm still prioritising other books that I can't renew).

Complicated family relationships also seem to be a theme in quite a few other books I've read or am reading at the moment.

66. Murder at the Savoy - Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, transl. Joan Tate

I'm still working my way through this excellent series of Martin Beck novels, and aiming to finish all ten by the end of the year. There have been a couple of the TV adaptations on BBC4 recently, a useful reminder that they bear little or no resemblance to the books, except for the title character (and even he's barely in it any more).

In the novels, the entire police team is male, other than a couple of peripheral characters, and the relationships between them evolve throughout the series, making it an increasingly satisfying read. It’s also often unexpectedly funny, despite the fact that people are murdered in violent ways (in this one, a wealthy businessman is shot in the head while giving a speech at a dinner). Sjöwall and Wahlöö were much more interested in how the often-frustrating daily grind of police-work happens than in building a suspenseful narrative, so to an extent you know what you’re in for, but that suits me just fine. Only 4 more to go, though!

Travels with Epicurus - Daniel Klein

The author travels to the Greek island of Hydra where he muses on ageing. I liked the bits about the island, the rest was far too philosophical for me. Luckily it was short.

34. The Genius Myth by Helen Lewis
A look into so called geniuses throughout history up to present day Elon Musk and why we worship them. Some interesting stories but there was no clear conclusion and was a bit wide ranging for me.

35. Endling by Maria Reva
Set in Ukraine on the cusp of when the war came into the news again a scientist trys to save endangered snails in her mobile lab and funds this by making up the numbers in romance tours for western men to pay to find a wife.

I was enjoying this and then the book finished suddenly halfway through and the author started talking directly. I don't mind an unreliable narrator but I wasn't comfortable with a unreliable author.

56. The Country Girls Trilogy; parts two and three: Edna O'Brien.

I read the first book a while ago and have been looking forward to catching up with Cait and Baba's story.

Part two is 'The Lonely Girl'. The two girls are living in Dublin, working in low-paid jobs and spending their money on clothes and parties as soon as they earn it. Cait has recovered from her rejection by Mr. Gentleman who had promised her that he would take her to Vienna, but when she meets a similar type of man, Eugene Gaillard, she pursues him and they end up living together in his remote country house. Cracks soon appear in the relationship and he grows cold and distant towards her while she becomes more fraught and anxious. The two girls reunite and move to London where their adventure continues and they take up a carefree lifestyle again.

Part three is 'Girls in Their Married Bliss', an ironic title if there ever was one. Cait and Baba's married lives are very different but equally unhappy. They stay friends for a long time but ultimately drift apart, sadly. The epilogue is particularly sad. This book is much darker in tone than the previous ones and it took me by surprise. I was expecting the girls to get through their adversities and eventually be happy as they were always resilient and able to face up to life's challenges.

Overall, I liked the first book very much, I quite liked the second one (although the relationship dynamics began to annoy me!) and I really didn't like the third for various reasons. I will admit that it left an impression on me. There are occasional changes of narrator. Baba, the irreverent feisty one, gives vent to O'Brien's opinions on marriage and the church and this is effective. However depressing, I still found the book a compelling read and I through these books quite quickly. She tells a good story. I may read more of her books at some stage.

@nowanearlyNicemum – funny you should say that. I bought The Summer Skies for 99p last year and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t marketed as the Mure series then. However, when I looked it up as I was about to start reading it, it was.

@AgualusasLover – oh dear, another one for me to add to my list!

88 I’m Glad My Mom Died – Jennette McCurdy. Kinda RWYO as it belongs to DD and was in the TBR pile. DD has been nagging me about reading it and I finally did. And it’s a bold for me. I don’t know JMc, I never watched iCarly or Sam and Cat, although DD did. I think she’s a year older than my DD. I just wanted to scoop her up and cuddle her. Her mother was a narcissist who abused her physically, emotionally and sexually. Jennette was the only daughter, she has three older brothers and her mother focuses her attention on her. Her mother ‘helps’ her to restrict calories to delay puberty and so sets in motion Jennette’s eating disorders. Jennette has moved on. She has had a lot of therapy and has moved away from acting, something that she never actually wanted to do. That was her mother’s dream. Nickelodeon need to take some responsibility and her various agents, managers, lawyers etc. Everyone knew that she was anorexic, but everyone was happy to make dollar from a damaged child/teenager.

Just finished Kate Summerscale's Peepshow. I found this not so interesting on the crimes of Reginald Christie as that is a wellworn path but more on the pretty sordid role of journalism in the investigation , reporting and trying of crimes. It's also intriguing to read of the high levels of 'titillation' in post war society and to read about sociological studies of prostitution. The running thread of openly held racist views and beliefs is troubling. This social history element of a society in post war class and race upheaval is the best aspect . I find her style a bit too straightforward and brusque at times - a lot of short , factual sentences. I know why she does it but it can make the reading less pleasurable , for want of a better word.

I find her unreadable @Piggywaspushed , having tried several of her books, which is a shame, because she I like intelligent True Crime written by women that isn’t sensational.

@Piggywaspushed I found Peepshow a bit overdone at least 25% too long

@Tarragon123Having been forced to watch iCarly in my time I knew who she was, it really put into perspective that the world of child acting is a very dark place

It’s my birthday today! So I’m going to break RWYO

what one book should I treat myself to ?

Ideas welcome!

The Book Of Guilt @EineReiseDurchDieZeit , if you haven’t already read it.

Yes, that's true. The bits with the author, Fryn, didn't always add much.

@AlmanbyRoadtrip I definitely have this on my wishlist, so it’s a contender!

Happy birthday Eine!

141 It Starts With Us - Colleen Hoover

A sequel to It Ends With Us: the further adventures of Lily, Atlas, Ryle et al. Much lighter than the first book and somewhat Love Conquers All.

Thanks Cludgie

very much couldn’t be bothered to read the sequel @SheilaFentiman was it in any way worth it?

Happy birthday 🥳 @EineReiseDurchDieZeit
I’ll second The Book of Guilt or A Fever in the Heartland if you’re in the mood for some non-fiction or My Brilliant Friend if you’ve never read the Neopolitan Quartet.

Braving your disapproval @ÚlldemoShúl to say Brilliant Friend got soft DNFd. I do mean to go back though

I think it’s a marmite book tbh.

I wouldn’t go out of your way for it, even as a 99p bargain 😀

Happy Birthday @EineReiseDurchDieZeit

Cheers @TattiePantshow are you getting on these days?

That's me at number 50! Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong. I gave this a go on audio and found it worked really well. It's about an American-Vietnanese man 'talking' to his mother in the form of a letter, where he speaks to her about family, love and loss. This had very poetic prose and it was quite moving.