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

I agree Samuel Beckett sounds like he should have been around hundreds of years ago 😄 I got mixed up in the opposite direction playing the French version of Time’s Up - I was convinced Charles Martel was a 1950s French singer…nobody guessed the answer based on my clues and I eventually learned he had ruled France in the 700s 😆

52 Shadow State - Luke Harding This is a detailed explanation of the various strands of corruption which emanated from Russia and affected Western politics over the course of the first part of the 21st century (up to the beginning of 2020 - the book ends before the 2020 US presidential election). I knew a lot of what is covered from following the news over the years, as well as being a long-term lurker on the Trump and Brexit threads on mumsnet, but seeing it all drawn together really brings home the astonishing extent of the corruption and the number of interlinked players, many of whom are very much still in action. Reading it now, five years after the end of the time period it covers, is a weird experience as it’s all still so relevant (and so much worse given everything that has happened since), and it’s a really informative background to the current global political situation. Very much a bold.

I wasn't keen on Universality but agree it'll likely be on the shortlist, along with Sonia and Sunny. I'd love to see Love Forms on there but would be surprised if it made it. Seascraper and Endling seem almost a given!

Just for the sake of completeness, here's another Booker novel I read last night. Again, my review is not very original!

61. The South, Tash Aw 4/5 Booker Prize longlist. Very readable, this story focuses on Malaysian Chinese teenager Jay, who spends a summer working on his family’s farm in south Malaysia and falling in love. It’s also a broader family saga, with the short chapters offering the perspective of different characters, and switching between first-person and third-person narration. The ending is unsatisfying, but apparently this is the first instalment of four volumes.

36 Love and Devotion by Erica James
Harriet reluctantly moves home after the tragic death of her sister to help look after her niece and nephew. She feels out of her depth and out of place and full of grief. How to navigate this unexpected future?

I like Erica James, I guess it’s light romance but there’s a bit of grit to it. Tbh too much for me this time round, it was a bit harrowing and I also found one of the characters really unbelievable - imo people aren’t that good at secrets. I did finish it though

Booker Shortlist is out.

Flesh

The Land in Winter

The Rest of Our Lives

Audition

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny

Flashlight

I'm a bit disappointed that Seascraper didn't make it. I hated Flesh. The Rest of Our Lives is the only released one I hadn't got round to yet and obviously the Kiran Desai.

Unlike most I liked Universality, but can see why others didn't.

Shocked that Seascraper didn’t make it. I didn’t like Endling personally but I know it’s popular so I’m sure people will be surprised at that too. I have Sonya and Sunny arriving on Thursday so glad it’s still on there. My money is on Flesh winning.

A damn shame Seascraper wasn’t shortlisted. A gorgeous audiobook

I have The Land In Winter ready to read after the sublime ‘Helm* which I am savouring every word of at the moment.

Ooh I really want to read Helm @MaterMoribund - I loved Burntcoat.

I didn't like The Rest Of Our Lives and am disappointed by Seascraper but can see why the others are on there. At least One Boat didn't make it.

I've not read Flesh or Rest of Our Lives and not sure if I want to. I'm tempted to read Flashlight and am on the list for Sonia and Sunny when its available from the library. Again, disappointed Seascraper never made the cut.

@ChessieFL I just bought Buckeye yesterday with my unspent birthday book token!

I think I will get Helm too with the rest of it, I've been waiting at the library for a while and I adored Burntcoat and Wolf Border.

Re the Booker, I didn't hugely rate Flashlight (I don't know how it took so long to tell what should have been an incredibly exciting and dramatic story?!) but I have The Land in Winter next and I'll read the Kiran Desai.

Hope you like it Grannie!

My favourite Sarah Hall books are Haweswater and The Carhullan Army, with The Wolf Border a close runner up. Helm is up there with her best imo.

Small but perfectly formed birthday pile 🙂 Really looking forward to both of these!

Happy Birthday @DuPainDuVinDuFromage!!

Lovely haul. Happy birthday @DuPainDuVinDuFromage 💐

Absolutely love In The Woods - enjoy and happy birthday @DuPainDuVinDuFromage

Ooooh I didn’t know Fiona Hill had written a book. I’m a bit of a fan girl of hers, I’ll be interested to hear what you think of it @DuPainDuVinDuFromage and Happy Birthday 🎂

Happy Birthday @DuPainDuVinDuFromage !

Fiona Hill is an amazing woman and her speech to Durham graduands this year was humbling and inspirational.

Here’s hoping Fiona Hill writes as well as she speaks as I just bought a secondhand hardback copy of There Is Nothing For You Here, to add to my ever growing TBR pile.

166 Cecily & 167 The King's Mother - Annie Garthwaite

Historical fiction about Cecily Neville (wife of Richard, Duke of York and mother of Edward IV and Richard III). I read a lot of fiction and history from this time and I enjoyed these books about a character that is usually a 'support part'; especially the first one, which covers the period from her childhood to the accession (after many bloody battles) of Edward IV.

Happy birthday @DuPainDuVinDuFromage

I just started reading Helm (borrowed from the library).

My laptop keyboard stopped working yesterday and onscreen keyboard is soooo slow!

Joyeux anniversaire @DuPainDuVinDuFromage and happy reading!

Re the Booker, like everyone else I'm disappointed not to see Seascraper. But I'm pleased about The Land in Winter and also about Flashlight, which I wasn't expecting to make the shortlist.

Congrats @Stowickthevast on four of your six shortlisted books making it!

I really hope you're wrong about Flesh winning, ÚlldemoShúl. It just feels like a very masculine book. And while it's original to write a novel where the main character seems to have no interiority, I like novels where the characters DO have interiority, dammit.

Am so SO tempted to buy Sonia and Sunny, but I'm very close to the top of the library queue, and I'm trying not to acquire more books, especially not massive hardcover ones. Hmm. I'll see how long I can hold out.

Thanks everyone! 😊 Glad to see the love for both books / authors. I’ve really enjoyed the Tana French books I’ve read, so have had In The Woods on my list for a while. And I think Fiona Hill is great, she’s from close to where I grew up, and I heard a great interview with her on one of the podcasts I listen to a few months back, so I have high hopes for her book!

Happy Birthday!