50 Books Challenge 2025 Part Seven

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the seventh 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 , the fifth thread here and the sixth thread

49. Passing - Nella Larsen

Much reviewed on here, the book is set in 1920s Harlem. Childhood friends Clara and Irene meet unexpectedly - Clara is light-skinned enough to ‘pass’ as white and has married a racist white man; Irene is living a middle-class Black family life with her husband and children. As the story progresses both women are forced to confront their relationship with each other, their families and society as a whole. The novel ramps up the tension to a tragic conclusion. An absorbing page turner.

I can now confirm that the film of The Long Walk is really well done. There’s some blood, for sure, but on the whole it’s sensitively done with a couple of exceptional performances.

50 Pet by Catherine Chidgey
Excellent thriller about a 12 year old girl who is flattered by the attention of her female teacher. Mrs Price’s ‘pets’ get to do little jobs for her in the classroom and her attention glows upon them like a benediction. To fall out of favour is a huge deal, let alone be accused of stealing by the rest of the class. That Mrs Price then chooses to court Justine’s father seems like a further blessing, but it very much isn’t.
Chidgey writes children first person very well, as evidenced in The Book Of Guilt and I enjoyed this book immensely. Shades of Beryl Bainbridge.

I have a copy of The Bachman Books here. Should I?
I have mixed feelings about King. Loved It, hated The Stand.

The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden

Much reviewed on here. I did know about the post war issues with Jewish property across all of Europe, and so for me the 'twist' was obvious from the first chapter. However this was an extremely competent and readable debut novel and I will probably read her next novel.

@Stowickthevast @nowanearlyNicemum @RomanMum interesting. I really struggled with Beloved. I’m not sure I actually finished it?

@Piggywaspushed – belated happy birthday!

Happy belated birthday @Piggywaspushed and @Arran2024 I often get books on my birthday, but only ones I have asked for, or a graphic novel chosen by DH who generally gets it right.

@BestIsWest I bought that Beatles book too when it was 99p I’m a HUGE Beatles fan so I’m of the opinion there can never be too many books about them. I saw Paul McCartney last year and it was genuinely the greatest night of my entire life.

The Long Walk is brilliant and the film looks pretty good too, I can’t wait to see it. I have read Rage and to be honest I thought it was pretty tame compared with some of his other work. I guess it was a decision that was ‘of its time’ when school shootings were rare.

87 The Hallmarked Man by Robert Galbraith

I finally finished the latest Strike book. I found it all pretty confusing, maybe because I listed on audible and I do struggle to take in info that I hear vs what I read. But it felt like there were way too many characters in this one. The Strike and Robin situation was pretty irritating, not one of my favourites.

I agree that Rage isn’t up to much. Roadwork also not much cop. The Long Walk and The Running Man are both excellent.

@MamaNewtNewt oh I am SO envious. I would love to have seen him. I’m re-watching Get Back at the moment and blown away yet again by his genius. They’ve been so much a part of my life since I was tiny.

Get Back was amazing, to see the creative process in that way, I just felt like I was in the room with them. I’ve loved the Beatles since I was young so to see Paul McCartney was just awesome, I’m not an emotional woman but I cried a lot - the first time was when he was singing Blackbird “all your life you were only waiting for this moment to arise” I was like “I was Paul, I really was 😭😭😭”. I could not believe a man in his 80s could put on such a good show. Hopefully he does another tour and you get to see him.

34. Truss at 10 by Anthony Seldon
I thought I’d just got the sample of this but it appeared to be the whole (short) book. Readable account of the absolutely gobsmackingly batshit Truss premiership, which does feel like we collectively dreamt it. Based on a set of ‘rules’ for successful prime ministers, which no doubt correctly he thinks she broke most of. You can tell which are his main sources by him presenting them as super impressive/more connected to reality than Truss (not hard). Difficult to see why the idea of a dash for growth is supposed to be the right policy and only the execution is at fault, when it appears to have crashlanded every time it’s been tried for decades.

Enjoying the McCartney love. I was also raised on The Beatles and have always enjoyed them as background noise, but a few years ago I was at a festival with my Beatles-fanatic husband and got unwillingly dragged along to see Paul McCartney headline. He was AMAZING. Thank god I didn't skip it. Lovely hearing everyone's memories and reactions, and I just grabbed the Stuart McConie (also a lovely man) for 99p.

Catching up with the thread, so:

Happy belated birthday @Arran2024!

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit - Covenant of Water in 3 days? My goodness! I loved it and was waving the flag for it, so I'm glad it ended up being a bold for you. Hope you're feeling OK.

@Piggywaspushed - another belated happy birthday! I'm sorry you didn't receive any books, and am sending a hard Paddington stare to your DH. My people don't buy me books unless they're on my wishlist in case I already have it or have read it, but they know that unwrapping at least one book makes me happy.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie, laughing at "thoroughly gripping and horribly depressing" as a King review, which should definitely appear on the book jacket or film poster.

I imagine that gripping but depressing, plus something around the nobility of friendship, however fleeting, might be what King is aiming for in much of his work.

Not sure if I dare admit it here, but I really don’t like The Beatles. There are only about three songs that I don’t find annoying. Having said that, I bet one of their early gigs would have been incredible.

113 . The Hallmarked Man by Robert Galbraith (Audible)

Rinsed it.

Usual Complaints :

Strikes hurty stump, we know we are 7 books in ✔️
Callbacks to both Charlotte and Matthew no one wanted ever ✔️
Irrelevant Excessive Pretentious Quotations✔️
Doing Shitty Things To Robin ✔️
Something I can’t say due to a spoiler ✔️
Boring And Confusing Investigation ✔️

At one point Strike reflects “this investigation I haven’t enjoyed” or something similar

You and me both Strike

Hated everything about the Kim storyline

The readers are invested in Strike and Robin. The author knows this and is frankly at this point taking the proverbial with it.

Agree with your points @MamaNewtNewt I do now have a Strike shaped hole though

Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene

A vacuum cleaner salesman in Cuba unwittingly joins the British secret service.

This was too much of a farce for me. I didn't find it funny.

I've also always loved the Fab 4 though, having strong Liverpool connections, it was inevitable, really. I cannot WAIT for the next weighty volume to arrive from Mark Lewisohn (not holding my breath however, since the first one took him so long and only gets to 1962. He’s promising a trilogy but I can’t see him living long enough to finish it at this rate).

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie I am
also not a Beatles fan, I can appreciate the hype and interest around them and they were/are clearly talented. For English language music Queen are my band.

@noodlezoodleIt might have been 4, I didnt keep proper note. Yes, it was very good. I’m doing ok, still waiting on a date

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit snorted aloud at the Strike review. I’m looking forward to it very much.

Happy belated birthdays Arran and Piggy, and hope you get a date soon EineReise.

It’s taken forever to finish a book, partly due to holiday (having to speak to people and do things, how annoying! 😄) followed by being very busy at work, also because I’ve had several non-fictions on the go, one of which disappeared from BorrowBox when I was only halfway through 😩 I have at last got to the end of one of them:

51 Her Secret Service - Claire Hubbard-Hall Really dense and slightly bitty history of women in the UK secret services - MI5, MI6, and a whole lot of other organisations which had elements of secrecy and spying. It took me a long time to get through because the style is very dry and it jumps about between lots of different women who had roles of varying interest, but it’s a really fascinating run through the earliest years of organised spying (starting in the late 19th century) up to the end of WW2. Lots of women I had never heard of, doing fascinating and amazing things, as well as interesting things about how the secret services themselves developed - for example, the concept of filing systems in the early 20th century was pretty revolutionary compared to the Victorian system of having Bob Cratchit-style clerks, something I’d never really considered! The earliest period was particularly interesting - women who experienced the Russian revolution, for example. Slightly irritating and laboured references to “the real Miss Moneypenny” but this is nonetheless a bold for me.

I read it 30 years ago and didn't find it funny then either.

159 The Good Liar - Denise Mina

I think this author isn’t for me, despite Rizzio. Found the time jumps and many interwoven relationships in this book very confusing.

The book opens at 1838, on an evening when professor Claudia Atkins o’shiel is due to give a speech (in 20 mins time) telling the truth about two murders that happened exactly a year ago. This will ruin her professional credibility and that of her Co-presenter and boss at a forensic science company, Lord Philip Ardmore. The book flashes back extensively to the night of the murder and the 12 months in between, occasionally flashing forward again as the clock moves to the 7pm start time of Claudia’s speech.

Essentially, she no longer believes in her own blood spatter scale, but to say so publicly will impact a lot of people and convictions. I felt it stretched scientific belief that the work wouldn’t have been refined over the years, and the number of people somehow involved with others in the book (eg Claudia’s sister having had a fling with the lawyer of the accused) was also rather unbelievable.

I bought that Denise Mina, @SheilaFentiman , and I was hoping it would help me find a way back to her - I loved her early books (the Paddy Meehan series and the Garnethill trilogy) but it feels as though she’s never been as good since. Too much tricksiness. I’ll still read it but I’m apprehensive now…!

Ah, sorry to hear that @Terpsichore - the blurb looked so promising!