Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

50 Books Challenge 2025 Part Seven

1000 replies

Southeastdweller · 25/08/2025 22:09

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

OP posts:
Thread gallery
6
EineReiseDurchDieZeit · 27/08/2025 12:00

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 26/08/2025 23:01

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.

I deliberately didn’t bother this thread and only listed my bolds because I felt like a list of 109 books with only 15 bolds was timewasting/showing off/boring on. I think going ahead with just bolds might be a plan. Why list books you don’t recommend?!

EineReiseDurchDieZeit · 27/08/2025 12:01

SheilaFentiman · 27/08/2025 10:31

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.

A brilliant book. No one I know of who has read it hasn’t liked it.

Southeastdweller · 27/08/2025 12:15

EineReiseDurchDieZeit · 27/08/2025 12:00

I deliberately didn’t bother this thread and only listed my bolds because I felt like a list of 109 books with only 15 bolds was timewasting/showing off/boring on. I think going ahead with just bolds might be a plan. Why list books you don’t recommend?!

I remember now that when I used to list all my books it was a way of keeping my list active, so I could easily copy and paste that list onto the new thread with my recent books. Perhaps others have the same thinking. Additionally I like seeing the books people haven’t enjoyed.

OP posts:
TimeforaGandT · 27/08/2025 12:18

64 Syndicate - Felix Francis

Latest racing thriller. Chester Newton puts together syndicates of owners and buys horses for them and the manages the horses with the trainers. Life is good until his daughter is abducted from a family party and he starts receiving anonymous messages and calls telling him how to run his horses. This was fine, it kept me turning the pages but not one of the best and the women were all one-dimensional. He needs to work on that as Dick Francis wrote women better (or, as many believe, his wife wrote them better for him!)

StrangewaysHereWeCome · 27/08/2025 12:41

Yes, I agree with you @Southeastdweller that for me it's equally useful seeing what has been read a lot but not bolded, particularly by posters whose reading tastes most frequently chime with mine.

EineReiseDurchDieZeit · 27/08/2025 13:40

To clarify a bit, I do like the lists for myself but I always assume people are thinking “Oh Bore Off, Eine” when I’m posting a list that is really long!!

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 27/08/2025 14:18

EineReiseDurchDieZeit · 27/08/2025 12:00

I deliberately didn’t bother this thread and only listed my bolds because I felt like a list of 109 books with only 15 bolds was timewasting/showing off/boring on. I think going ahead with just bolds might be a plan. Why list books you don’t recommend?!

Exactly!

TimeforaGandT · 27/08/2025 14:47

I like the lists not only to see what is bolded but to see who has similar reading tastes to me and for seeing what is much read but not necessarily being bolded.

I would still recommend some of the books I don’t bold -it's just I didn't love them....

Castlerigg · 27/08/2025 17:52

Thank you @EineReiseDurchDieZeit and @SheilaFentiman - I have added Project Hail Mary to my kindle wish list.

RomanMum · 27/08/2025 17:54

<wakes up at sound of year end summary klaxon>

I do like a list, though usually use my mobile and can’t get my head around the technicalities of posting through the year, but I post one at year end. I like to see reading patterns and I can get an idea of certain posters’ reading tastes, so they are more likely to recommend books I should be adding to my voluminous wish list. Also it’s useful to see the italicised books to know what to avoid (or nod in recognition of reading that load of fetid dingoes kidneys).

EineReiseDurchDieZeit · 27/08/2025 18:00

Castlerigg · 27/08/2025 17:52

Thank you @EineReiseDurchDieZeit and @SheilaFentiman - I have added Project Hail Mary to my kindle wish list.

It makes for a brilliant audiobook if you “do” those?

On that subject can anyone recommend me a stonkingly good audiobook? I’m really struggling to get anything going these days

Fiction or Non Fiction interested in either

Tarragon123 · 27/08/2025 22:17

EineReiseDurchDieZeit · 27/08/2025 18:00

It makes for a brilliant audiobook if you “do” those?

On that subject can anyone recommend me a stonkingly good audiobook? I’m really struggling to get anything going these days

Fiction or Non Fiction interested in either

Another huge fan of PHM on Audible. My Audible picks:

I really enjoyed Precipice by Robert Harris, James by Percival Everett, The Dog of the North by Elizabeth McKenzie and Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green

I also loved Atmosphere by TJR and Murder at Gulls Nest by Jess Kidd although I think both been a bit marmitey and people have had strong opposite opinions to me.

MamaNewtNewt · 27/08/2025 22:50

I was really enjoying Project Hail Mary up until the rendezvous, when I really struggled, but after hearing the rave reviews on here I bought the audiobook.

Re the lists I’m easy either way, although I do think there is some value in seeing what has been read, but not bolded, but when my list gets to a certain length I do feel a bit silly posting the whole thing.

Stowickthevast · 27/08/2025 23:52

I quite liked Flesh as an audible Eine, probably more than if I'd read it. I've also liked The City Changes Its Face - but better if you've read The Lesser Bohemians first and quite experimental - and Ripeness by Sarah Moss.

I tend to post my list from each thread just to remind myself of what sort of period it's been and how I've felt about what I've read, but happy to not do it or switch to bolds/end of year.

I do find my bolds change through the year though, and also I have a lot of 4 reads but 5 are very rare.

AgualusasLover · 27/08/2025 23:58

#TeamList here - I really like them for many of the reasons stated already. That said, once we get 3-4 pages in if I have missed posting then I wait for the next one.

I am just place marking. Almost finished a Sherlock Holmes, the first Kristin Lavransdatter and have a history audio on the go and another history book in hard copy. I’ve got two new bookclubs to read for in September so finishing stuff off.

I’ve got to 38 and for the first time in quite a few years I see the possibility of me hitting 50 - though I’m just entering a peak period at work so who knows.

MegBusset · 28/08/2025 11:44

Thanks for the new thread @Southeastdweller

I am a non list fan, I find it makes it much harder to find the actual reviews or book chat, which are the interesting bits of the thread, as I’m just scrolling past them.

43 Careless People: A Story Of Where I Used To Work - Sarah Wynn Williams

V compelling, warts and all account of the author’s seven years spent working in Facebook’s policy team. Full of gobsmacking (and sometimes skin-crawling) details of what sounds like their seriously unhinged company culture. A definite bold for me!

Also enjoying Entitled (trashy but unputdownable) and at the other end of the literary spectrum, Infinite Jest (first reread since my teen years).

EineReiseDurchDieZeit · 28/08/2025 12:12

@Stowickthevast@Tarragon123 Thanks for the recs! I didn’t like Atmosphere or Murder At Gulls Rest I’ve read James and have Precipice on TBR Kindle but I will check the others out. I found something from my Wishlist on Spotify last night so I went with that!

GrannieMainland · 28/08/2025 12:29

I'm another one who can't work out how to format lists so I just don't take part!

Atmosphere by TJR. Absolutely dire. When her next one comes out, and I get caught up in the social media excitement and immediately reserve it at the library, can someone remind me that I haven't actually liked any of them?!

Blood, Bones and Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton. Very readable food memoir by the owner of Prune restaurant in New York (now closed but still much loved). All about her bohemian childhood, travels in France and Greece, the experience of opening a restaurant with very limited experience, and her marriage to an Italian man with summers spent with his extended family in Puglia. It's clearly heavily dramatised (she admits to moving events round to suit the narrative) but very funny and sensual writing about food and eating.

Tarragon123 · 28/08/2025 12:35

Was I the ONLY one who loved Atmosphere? 😂😫

BestIsWest · 28/08/2025 13:23

Tarragon123 · 28/08/2025 12:35

Was I the ONLY one who loved Atmosphere? 😂😫

My DD loved it. I am waiting for her to pass it on to me.

AgualusasLover · 28/08/2025 13:38

The Sign of Four Arthur Conan Doyle

Holmes and Watson endeavour to engage in a mental investigation into murder and treasure in the British Raj and the streets of London. Honestly, this made me really appreciate Agatha Christie and her clue puzzles so that you can work it out too. There were weird things like characters named Mahomet Singh - so a Muslim prophets name but a Sikh which (whilst I haven’t actually looked into it) seems a weird thing and more of a lump the brown (though referred to here as black and certain Indians are crazed cannibals). It’s obviously of it’s time here and usually I am very tolerant of historic material but it jarred a lot!

I will continue on with my reading of them all just from a pop culture perspective, but might revert back to audio.

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 28/08/2025 14:34

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
I thought this was going to be a horror but it's more of a thriller, I think. DD recommended it, I was desperate for something and it was only £2.99 on Kindle. I ended up staying up late and reading it in one sitting.

It's set in a summer camp in America and veers between different characters. A teenage girl from a rich family goes missing from the summer camp. Her eight year old brother also went missing before she was born. Meanwhile, a murderer has escaped from prison and is heading towards the camp.

The above makes it sound awful, but I enjoyed the multiple perspectives, the criticisms of privileged people who expect the world to dance to their tune, the sensitive portrayal of shy, awkward or unconventional teenagers and the fact that their were some interesting female characters. It didn't go at all in the way that it seems to suggest it might go, and on the whole it was an easy but enjoyable read.

EineReiseDurchDieZeit · 28/08/2025 14:43

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie I really enjoyed God Of The Woods I did it as audio and it worked really well. It’s 1 of my 15 bolds!

Welshwabbit · 28/08/2025 14:47

I like the lists, so here's mine (although we are already on page 3...). I find it a useful way of keeping track for myself and it's also good to see what others who have similar tastes have enjoyed.

In terms of formatting, if it helps anyone, I keep a Word list with no dot/point after the number which seems to mean the formatting stays the same (we'll see when this posts!). It also keeps the bolds.

1 Winter Swimming - Dr Susanna Søberg
2 The Story of Art Without Men – Katy Hessel
3 Mr Loverman – Bernadine Evaristo
4 We Solve Murders – Richard Osman
5 City of Destruction – Vaseem Khan
6 Girl A – Abigail Dean
7 The Slap – Christos Tsiolkas
8 Agatha Christie’s Poirot: The Greatest Detective in the World – Mark Aldridge
9 Black Butterflies – Priscilla Morris
10 Portrait of a Marriage – Nigel Nicolson
11 The Sibyl in her Grave – Sarah Caudwell
12 The Dispossessed – Ursula Le Guin
13 Dark Wives – Ann Cleeves
14 The House of Doors - Tan Twan Eng
15 A Mouth full of Salt – Reem Gaafar
16 One of the Good Guys – Araminta Hall
17 Ghost Wall – Sarah Moss
18 Goodbye to Berlin – Christopher Isherwood
19 Why we Swim – Bonnie Tsui
20 Such a Fun Age – Kiley Reid
21 Happiness – Aminatta Forna
22 Shakespeare: The Man who Pays the Rent – Judi Dench and Brendan O’Hea
23 Queen Macbeth – Val McDermid
24 Mad Honey – Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan
25 In a Lonely Place – Dorothy B. Hughes
26 The Anxious Generation – Jonathan Haidt
27 The In-Between – Christos Tsiolkas
28 When the Dust Settles – Lucy Easthope
29 The Safekeep – Yael van der Wouden
30 Excellent Women – Barbara Pym
31 The Death of Us – Abigail Dean
32 Rural Hours: the Country Lives of Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Townsend Warner and Rosamond Lehmann – Harriet Baker
33 Lolly Willowes – Sylvia Townsend Warner
34 The Transgender Issue – Shon Faye
35 White Tears/Brown Scars – Ruby Hamad
36 Latitudes of Longing – Shubhangi Swarup
37 Abundance – Amit Majmudar
38 The Thirteen Clocks – James Thurber
39 Childhood – Tove Ditlevsen
40 Youth – Tove Ditlevsen
41 Dependence – Tove Ditlevsen
42 Young Jane Young – Gabrielle Zevin

And my latest reads:

43 On Looking by Alexandra Horowitz

Non-fiction account of twelve city walks Horowitz took with people with particular specialisms (geology, insects, typefaces, an artist), of different ages (her toddler) and sensory experiences (a blind woman, a sound engineer) - and finally, with her dog. The idea was to see what different people notice when they walk in the same environment. I love walking in cities; my particular favourite pastime is spotting unsung or abandoned public art, and this was right up my street. Horowitz is endlessly enthusiastic about her subject and shoehorns an enormous amount of information about very different things into her book in a way that remains pleasurable to read. Recommended.

44 Ru by Kim Thuy

My annual read in French, this book comprises over 100 short vignettes which interlock to tell the author's story of her journey to Canada from Vietnam (via a Malaysian refugee camp) as part of the first wave of "boat people" - but also looks back to her childhood and forward to her adult life. I am not an advanced French reader (did A-level French many years ago, and visit France for a couple of weeks every summer where I struggle to maintain some of my knowledge!) but I was able to understand most of this without a dictionary. I no doubt missed out on many of the subtleties of the language, but I did enjoy reading the parts I could understand and I liked the way the different vignettes slotted together, like a jigsaw or mosaic, gradually building up a full picture. I also really liked the last line of the book (I hate books with bad last lines!):

"Et aussi, où une main tendue n’est plus un geste, mais un moment d’amour, prolongé jusqu-au sommeil, jusqu’au réveil, jusqu’au quotidien."

Welshwabbit · 28/08/2025 14:58

Apologies for mis-typed French in the last post - Dependence should also be Dependency! And also wanted to add that I have picked up a Ruth Ware in French in a second hand bookshop here, to try to prolong the holiday experience. I am interested to see whether I can follow a detective novel in French, and I think novels translated from English are often easier, at least to start with.

Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.

This thread is not accepting new messages.