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

Always a happy lurker on the 50 books threads, but will admit to not liking the lists (pages of titles with no real context)
I do like the idea of just the bolds though.
…don’t mind me, came looking for recommendations for holiday reads.

I'm so behind on the last thread!

1 Suggested in the Stars by Yoko Tawada. Translated by Margaret Mitsutani
2 Your Wish is my Command by Deena Mohamed
3 The Fraud by Zadie Smith
4 After Midnight by Irmgard Keun. Translated by Anthea Bell.
5 Mrs Granby's Secret or The Bastard of Pinsk by Eleanor Farjeon
6 Mr Loverman by Bernardine Evaristo
7 Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan
8 The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta
9 A Little Luck by Claudia Piñeiro. Translated by Frances Riddle
10 The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. Translated by Robin Buss.
11 The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter
12 Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian by Rick Riordan
13 The Leopard by Guiseppi Tomasi de Lampedusa. Translated by Archibald Colquhoun
14 Heroes of Olympus: The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan
15 Heroes of Olympus: The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan
16 Heroes of Olympus: The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan
17 Child of All Nations by Irmgard Keun. Translated by Michael Hofmann
18 Heroes of Olympus: The House of Hades by Rick Riordan
19 The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng
20 Greek Lessons by Han Kang. Translated by Deborah Smith and E. Yaewon

Currently reading Alberta and Freedom by Cora Sandel. I'm enjoying it but it's very dense so I don't read much each day.

#TeamList!

Thanks as ever @Southeastdweller for the new thread. I've not read much since the last one, with a few false starts. Currently reading Eurotrash by Christian Kracht and listening to Dreamcount by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and enjoying both so far.

1.Hitler, Stalin, Mum and Dad by Daniel Finklestein
2.Hotel Du Lac by Anita Brookner
3.The Zone of Interest by Martin Amis
4.A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka
5.Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
6.Butter by Asako Yuzuki
7.The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell
8.Middlemarch by George Eliot.
9.Wellness by Nathan Hill
10.My Friends by Hisham Mater.
11.Rizzio by Denise Minna
12. Staring at the Sun by Julian Barnes
13.Nesting by Roisín O’Donnell
14.Appassionata by Jilly Cooper
15.Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad
16.You Are Here by David Nicholls
17.The Trees by Percival Everett
18.A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel
19.Briefly, A Delicious Life by Nell Stevens
20.The List of Suspicious Things by Jennie Godfrey
21.Dracula by Bram Stoker
22. Case Studies by Grace McRae Burnett
23.Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon
24.Old God's Time by Sebastian Barry
25.How to Eat (and Still Lose Weight) by Dr Andrew Jenkinson1.Hitler, Stalin, Mum and Dad by Daniel Finklestein
2.Hotel Du Lac by Anita Brookner
3.The Zone of Interest by Martin Amis
4.A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka
5.Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
6.Butter by Asako Yuzuki
7.The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell
8.Middlemarch by George Eliot.
9.Wellness by Nathan Hill
10.My Friends by Hisham Mater.
11.Rizzio by Denise Minna
12. Staring at the Sun by Julian Barnes
13.Nesting by Roisín O’Donnell
14.Appassionata by Jilly Cooper
15.Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad
16.You Are Here by David Nicholls
17.The Trees by Percival Everett
18.A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel
19.Briefly, A Delicious Life by Nell Stevens
20.The List of Suspicious Things by Jennie Godfrey
21.Dracula by Bram Stoker
22. Case Studies by Grace McRae Burnett
23.Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon
24.Old God's Time by Sebastian Barry
25.How to Eat (and Still Lose Weight) by Dr Andrew Jenkinson
26.Score! by Jilly Cooper
27.Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst
28.The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West
29.The Proof of My Innocence by Jonathan Coe
30.Erasure by Percival Everett
31.Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson
32.Ripeness by Sarah Moss
33.Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

I’m not a fan of the lists either, but I thought I was supposed to do one. I quite like the idea of a list just of the bolds though.

I just can’t see the point of the lists. The people who have written the lists know what they have read and have made a list so don’t need a list on the thread other than to prove they’ve read some books, and there’s no context for anybody else to get anything out of reading them. They clutter up pages and pages and make it hard to see any actual content. I really hate them!

Unless people think it’s some sort of competition to produce the longest list? Again, that’s not something I’d want to be part of and is definitely not in the spirit of the threads.

It says in the OP (as it has done in many other previous threads) it's up to you if you want to do a list.

Personally I like seeing the lists. I can't recall what I did in previous years, but now I just can't be bothered to do one myself, but at the end of the year I will post my highlights (in bold) and lowlights (in italics) - just my thing.

Thanks as always to southeast for the new thread

My newest reads:

131. Elly Griffiths - The Frozen People
132. AG Riddle - The Extinction Trials
133. CJ Sansom - Lamentation
134. CL Taylor - The Island
135. T Orr Munro - Slaughter House Farm
136. T Orr Munro - Liars Island
137. Lucy Foley - The Invitation
138. Lawrence Wright - The End of October
139. Julia Chapman - Date with Destiny
140. Georgette Heyer - Footsteps in the Dark
141. Robert Galbraith - The Silkworm
142. Robert Galbraith - Career of Evil
143. Robert Galbraith - Lethal White
144. Robert Galbraith - Troubled Blood
145. Robert Galbraith - The Ink Black Heart
146. Robert Galbraith - The Running Grave

I have pages to catch up on of the last thread, partly because we went on holiday and the promised super fast wifi was non-existent (hello again, 3G) and partly because I was therefore forced to rely on books already downloaded on my Kindle. I'd tried The Cuckoo's Calling a couple of times - could NOT get into it - thought I might as well skip straight to The Silkworm as I've seen all the TV adaptations anyway. Well, my goodness, I was hooked many many hours of reading later and I am waiting on tenterhooks for The Hallmarked Man, although sadly am currently number 70 in the reserves queue at the library...

Also trawling through Five on Finniston Farm with DS1, but it's a bit of a plod (sorry, Enid) - we're halfway through and nothing exciting has yet happened apart from George giving a rude American kid a bit of a scare in the hope of improving his manners. Sure it will improve soon!

Have you been having a Jodi Taylor reread @TimeforaGandT? I get so muddled with all the timelines and everything - I will read and re-read all the books with great enjoyment, but couldn't give you a coherent explanation of what's gone on

I love Mrs Malory @BestIsWest - solving crimes whilst always having time for a nice cup of tea and slice of cake - my sort of detective work

What did you think of Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit @LadybirdDaphne? My DF's family come from the same town Jeanette Winterson was from, but I've never read it or seen the TV adaptation. Actually I'd like to see it as the filming dates are around the same time as most of my memories of the place, might have to invest in the DVD as it doesn't seem to be streaming anywhere!

@ClaraTheImpossibleGirl Oranges are Not The Only Fruit is available to watch on iTunes and Prime.

Sorry, I missed that.

@ClaraTheImpossibleGirl Oranges are not the Only Fruit was a reread of one of my favourite books, but it didn’t have the impact it had on first reading it in my twenties - I think it’s the sort of coming of age narrative that was more relevant to a younger me. (Not that I don’t have any mother issues now, mind you, but this is book chat not therapy.)

@ClaraTheImpossibleGirl Oranges are not the Only Fruit was a reread of one of my favourite books, but it didn’t have the impact it had on first reading it in my twenties - I think it’s the sort of coming of age narrative that was more relevant to a younger me. (Not that I don’t have any mother issues now, mind you, but this is book chat not therapy.)

I’m with you on the lists Remus, I just scroll through them all. I don’t mind the end of year ones (and may well post my own list then) but never bother reading mid year lists. But I don’t mind just scrolling through them as I know everyone else likes them.

I scroll through the lists now but I used them a lot when I first joined to see who liked similar books to me- it was a quick way to see whose recommendations might work for me.

Thanks for the new thread, South.

Fortunately, my list shouldn’t cause too much upset to the naysayers, as it’s quite short, thanks to my reading slump. This is what I’ve read since the start of the last thread (formatting these into a numbered list was, yet again, almost impossible. Also, while I enjoyed several of these, no really outstanding bolds, sadly).

54. Circles and Squares: The Lives and Art of the Hampstead Modernists - Caroline Maclean
55. A Wreath of Roses - Elizabeth Taylor
56. Uncommon Arrangements: 7 Marriages in Literary London 1910 -1939 - Katie Roiphe
57. Domestic Pleasures - Beth Gutcheon
58. Perfect Wives in Ideal Homes - Virginia Nicholson
59. The Fire Engine That Disappeared - Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, transl. Joan Tate
60. The Riddle of the Labyrinth - Margalit Fox
61. The New House - Lettice Cooper
62. The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway
63. Three Days in June - Anne Tyler
64. Nightshade - Michael Connelly
65. At Mrs Lippincote’s - Elizabeth Taylor
66. Murder at the Savoy - Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, transl. Joan Tate

Thanks for the new thread Southeast!

I like the lists, but am also easily influenced so will go with the majority when it comes to posting them 😄 For now, I’ll post what I’ve read since the last thread started:

41 The Heron’s Cry - Ann Cleeves
42 Blue Lightning - Ann Cleeves
43 The Crow Trap - Ann Cleeves
44 The Raging Storm - Ann Cleeves
45 Les Cahiers d’Esther: Histoires de mes 14 ans - Riad Sattouf (Fr)
46 The Peacock and the Sparrow - I S Berry
47 The Figurine - Victoria Hislop
48 The House of Mirrors - Erin Kelly
49 Zero Days - Ruth Ware
50 Fall Out - M N Grenside

@ClaraTheImpossibleGirl - yes, I read the most recent in The Chronicles of St Mary's series earlier in the year for the first time and had no clue who half the characters were or how they came to be at St Mary's so embarked on a re-read which encompassed all the short stories which I hadn't necessarily read before or if I had not at the correct point in the timeline. It was a bit of an overdose but I was reasonably clear at the end (except on how Max is living in a parallel universe which I have never got my head round).

1. Ordinary Human Failings by Megan Nolan
2. Drowning by T.J Newman
3. Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher
4. The Valentine’s Date by H.M Lynn
5. Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent
6. One Puzzling Afternoon by Emily Critchley
7. The Salt Path by Raynor Winn
8. Ozzy by Ozzy Osbourne

@Owlbookend have won for shortness of list so far this year 😁I like the lists to spot the bolds to add to my never ending TBR

No bolds for me this year yet

Maybe just posting bolds would be more purposeful?

Anyway, I’ll try to shut up about them now (even though I really, really, really fucking hate them!!!) 🤣

Placemarking despite knowing I'll be equally useless at contributing again.

I've only got 3 left to go on the Booker Longlist and I've only rated 2 so far. I need to catch up on reading the end of the last thread to catch up with others' thoughts.

Re the lists, I used to like them for my own reference when seeking out certain posts, but this was back when the search function was really rubbish. I think they're very useful at the end of the year to gauge what's worth looking out for.

I've stopped using Goodreads for lists, but still use Storygraph so I've got a quick reference. I do keep a lovely notebook to list what I've read too, as I'm terrible at remembering what I've read.

I’m also not a huge fan of lists, partly because of all the scrolling especially towards the end of the year, and also because I’ll often use the advanced search for book reviews on here and that can turn up multiple lists for each actual review. But each to their own here as always.

Don’t mind the lists though I don’t keep one myself.

Death Is A Word - Hazel Holt

Final book in the Mrs Malory series. Sad to get to the end but as I’ve forgotten everything no doubt I’ll return to the start at one time as they are a very comforting read. Also, I had assumed the books were set in Ilfracombe but it is Minehead, Taviscombe being a place name made up by Hazel Holt and Barbara Pym.
The books are scattered with Pym and other literary references most of which have gone over my head. I’ve never got on with Barbara Pym due to having an aversion to C of E clergy but I’m going to have one more attempt as soon as many people love her.

edited - I do like seeing the end of year lists and I always enjoy the summary thread and the data analysis ably done by @RomanMum last year.

I do like seeing the end of year lists and I always enjoy the summary thread and the data analysis ably done by @RomanMum last year.

Me too. I don't mind the lists, it's useful to see the things that repeatedly get bolds.

@Midnightstar76 it is a tight race between us for the shortest list. We'll have to see who is the ultimate winner at the end if the year.
I quite like the lists & do browse them occasionally, but if they're pissing people off dont mind saving them till the end if year threads.

144 Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir

A bold. Written by the author of The Martian, which was made into a film with Matt Damon, and has some similar themes of science and survival.

The book opens with an astronaut with amnesia, waking up in space from a medical coma and slowly (in flashback) remembering his name and how he got there. His two crew mates didn’t survive the comas, so he’s on his own with the entirety of earth’s knowledge on the ship’s computer, figuring out his mission to save the earth from a major threat, I won’t say too much in case of spoilers, but it was a lovely book.