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

Noooooooooooooooooooooo.

The Five does an heroic job in reclaiming the victims of Jack the Ripper from a tradition of overwhelmingly male writers taking an often quite unpleasant glee in the violence, and some of them being pretty nasty about the women victims while they're about it.

For anyone who’s interested, I’d also recommend Hallie Rubenhold's recent Story of a Murder - she does a very similar thing for Belle Elmore, the wife murdered by Dr Crippen. The general narrative has always been that she was a tiresome shrew who drove him to it - Rubenhold absolutely destroys that idea, and gives Elmore proper dignity, with amazing research into her life and what really happened to her. It’s a horrifying story but impeccably done.

I am slowly working my way through Story Of A Murder. Found The Five an incredible feat of research, truly bringing the women to the fore of what should have always been their story.

Loving The Haunted Wood so far. The ‘old stuff’ is essentially what I did my dissertation on, so I enjoyed that. I’m less enamoured with boys’ school stories, but will hopefully be leaving them behind soon.

56 Hons and Rebels - Jessica Mitford Memoir of Decca, the socialist one, covering her childhood and young adulthood up to 1941. Having previously read a biography of the sisters, it was really interesting to get a first-hand perspective, especially from the black (or rather red) sheep of the family. Lots of insights into what was a very strange upbringing, and very funny too, though some horribly sad things happened to her (which she glosses over in a few words - clearly she wanted to write something lighthearted and there are events which must have been too personal and tragic to write about in any detail). I would have liked it to cover a longer time period but I suppose that was the point of the book - the next stage of her life was completely different and it makes sense to have stopped where she did.

41. Larry's Party by Carol Shields

I loved Carol Shields in the 90s and I thought i had read everything, including this one. I picked it up in a second hand bookshop meaning to reread it, only to realise I had never read it at all! It takes us through the life so far of a Canadian guy called Larry - in that respect it reminded me of The Stone Diaries, which takes us through the life of one woman. It's her attempt to shine a light on the life of the average white, middle class, north American male. And she does that through chapters devoted to a different theme eg his clothes, his friends. He is a designer of mazes, so lots of opportunities for metaphors around getting lost and finding yourself. Like all her work it is full of clever, spot on observations, interesting characters, mundane lives turned into statements about life in general. I enjoyed it but didn't take to Larry. I think it's a bit dated, in that issues around masculinity have moved on quite a bit in the last 30 years and this book is stuck in the mid 90s. But glad I read it.

I would have liked it to cover a longer time period

Drop everything and read Letters Between Six Sisters more of Decca there, plus there is a collection of just her letters called Decca

And there’s my annual howl about LBSS

77. The Strange History of Samuel Pepys’s Diary - Kate Loveman

One of my formative reading experiences as a history-mad young teen was dipping into Pepys's diary, which by then had been published in the complete edition by Latham and Matthews - I used to save up and buy volumes one at a time from my long-suffering local bookshop (they were expensive hardbacks so a big investment). I’ve been fascinated by Pepys ever since, and this book is a wonderful analysis of ways the Diary has been interpreted, published and read since its earliest printing in 1825.

Kate Loveman (a Pepys expert) is also able to read the shorthand he wrote in, so there’s a lot of revealing detail about why and how he chose to do this, with a great analysis of the so-called 'naughty bits', which were always known about, but to my amazement prevented complete publication until after the Lady Chatterley trial had safely provided a defence against obscenity.

Even more interestingly, she examines what the diary doesn’t say, such as attitudes to women and people of colour, and Pepys doesn’t come out of this well at all on either count: his compulsive sexual adventuring (often interpreted in a nudge-nudge-wink-wink kind of way) is revealed as much closer to what we might term unacceptable harassment, if not outright assault. This was a truly thought-provoking and genuinely fresh interpretation of a subject I thought I knew quite a lot about.

It’s on my Amazon wishlist and is a strong contender for being one of the lucky few which I buy without waiting for a deal! Maybe for Christmas…

Firstly, @Piggywaspushed , wishing you everything you might need at this time.

@GrannieMainland , congrats.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit , get well soon.

Abrupt ending of new job (by me, but mutual I think), job hunting and feeling under the weather and bored mean my reading mojo has hit rock bottom.

Two DNFs, or at least DNF'd for the moment, I might consider finishing them over Christmas before the new reading year.

The Last Rose of Shanghai, Weina Dai Randel
I am actually 42% through, so should probably just finish it. I have a thing about interwar and Shanghai, but more broadly Chinese ports in the Second World War. it was what led me to read Suzy Wong (in Hong Kong) earlier in the year (largely came to it because of a cocktail bar in London called Lucy Wong, but inspired by this era). This is about a Jewish refugee pianist and Aiyi a wealthy Chinese nightclub owner and their love affair. It's just a bit meh, but on the right weekend I think I could just plough through so will maybe come back, or maybe it is the one to get me out of the slump as it is very basic and doesnt require too much brain power.

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Other Stories, Robert Louis Stevenson
This is an unfair italic really. I am not counting it because I didn't read the whole book, because I only really wanted to read the story of Jekyll and Hyde which was satisfying enough. Obviously, the concept is a well known one, and as a short story it worked well. I was reading how sensational it was on release, which is somewhat ruined by the fact that we all have an understanding of what it means to be a Jekyll and Hyde character so it is not really shocking.

I read one of the other stories The Body Snatcher which is about a couple of medical students engaged in the nefarious Victorian practice with a bit of a twist.

At that point, I just couldn't be bothered with anymore short stories, a form I don't love, and some of the entries in the book are actually essays and I really cannot be motivated to Stevenson's thoughts right now.

This was supposed to be my first 'spooky' season reading, but I just don;t really love eerie/scary or other wordly stuff. I still have the rest of my curated list to get through, but am feeling dispirited.

I did read, and enjoy:

Sky Daddy, Kate Folk
Recommended by @EineReiseDurchDieZeit I think. For those who need a recap, it is about Linda, who is sexually attracted to airplanes and dreams of one day marrying a plane - which means crashing to death. I enjoyed this, it weirdly felt not all that weird that she was attracted to planes because the way it is explained seems totally real, and somewhat rational. It was 99p and worth it I thought. I have actually taken to telling everyone in real life about it.

I am woefully behind with Kristin Lavransdatter and the only thing I am finding engaging is the Louis XIV bio I am still reading, but I am just not picking it up enough.

Also, I have all new devices, and now MN has changed and I can no longer see pages and it is driving me MAD.

Sounds like you're better off out of that job, @AgualusasL0ver .

Speaking of easy reads, I'm eyeing up The Killing Stones the new Ann Cleeves addition the Shetland series, with Perez in Orkney this time round, and also the new Time Police book by Jodi Taylor, Out of Time.

Not me @AgualusasL0verI did buy it though after @Stowickthevastrecommendation. Thanks for the good wishes I am much better. And shame about the job, but an awful job is a mentally exhausting place.

Ah yes, that’s it - thanks to @Stowickthevast then.

Agreed on the job front, I am well out of it.

@DuPainDuVinDuFromage as well as the Decca books recommended by Eine she also wrote a second volume of her autobiography, A Fine Old Conflict. It’s out of print now but easily available second hand.

That’s a shame @AgualusasL0ver , but if a job isn’t right there is no point carrying on if you don’t have to.

I’d like to add a Not DNF But Skim Read. Ghost Story by Elisa Lodato. Saw it in the newly refurbished library in my city and was pleased to see it was 99p on Kindle. It started off so well! Seren is looking for absolute solitude to write her third novel and chooses the bothy on uninhabited Finish Island. Some might say an unwise choice for a woman haunted by the death of her young daughter five years before, but as it turns out she’s hardly alone there anyway. Not only are there some Voices, some Strange Happenings and her Gloomy Thoughts, but a fling-turned-stalker and the handsome Australian boatman who ferries her stuff over and ends up in her bed seemingly every other day leave her very little time to concentrate on her book. A string of wildly improbable real life happenings overshadow any spookiness and I was flicking rapidly through her diary entries by half way, just to see if it improved. It didn’t. Disappointing.

Never mind, I see Michelle Paver has written another spooky story, set in a jungle this time, so that’s gone on the list and I’ll put Seren’s shenanigans firmly out of my mind,

Thanks Chessie - I’ll add that one to the list too!

I'm so very sorry about your mum @Piggywaspushed

I've started reading Polo in tribute to Jilly - hello @ChessieFL !

And some others I've finished:

Buckeye by Patrick Ryan. Follows two couples in a small American town during and after the Second World War, as their lives become entwined. I thought this had some great characters and a sense of place, and parts were very moving. I felt some of the characters didn't get much of an ending though which was a shame.

The Manningtree Witches by AK Blakemore. Historical fiction about the Essex witch trials led by the Witchfinder General himself. I think Rylan of all people is currently fronting a documentary about the topic. It's an important subject but as a book, very bleak, and I found the style quite annoying.

Coming Home - my annual Rosamunde Pilcher epic. This one is about a rich family in Cornwall, and their various friends and hangers on, through the 30s and 40s. The heroine Judith is essentially adopted by them after her family move abroad and falls in love with the older brother. Despite being mainly set during the war, there are huge sections where really nothing happens, one of the things I really like about RP. Interestingly she makes an effort to talk about trauma in this book, both for people in POW camps and also from sexual assault, albeit in quite a dated way. As ever I loved it, and am quite sad I think I've now read all of her long family saga books - this, September, Shell Seekers and Winter Solstice.

@DuPainDuVinDuFromage- I do love Hons & Rebels. I read it a couple of years ago - I knew part of her story from Nancy Mitford’s work & some articles about the family, but there was lots that I didn’t know especially the very sad events.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit- the letters are now on my wish list. @ChessieFL- thanks for the post about A Fine Old Conflict. I knew there was a second volume out of print but I hadn’t thought to track it down.

@AgualusasL0ver- sorry to hear about your job & sending lots of sympathy.

Enjoy Polo @GrannieMainland!

A Fine Old Conflict is the second part of Decca's autobiography. I've not read it and it seems to be out of print.

@GrannieMainland

It’s strange. I read Polo earlier this year and had a total Love/Hate relationship with it

@Benvenuto

The Letters are my favourite non fiction book ever

Sorry to hear about the job @AgualusasL0ver but better to cut your losses than struggle on.

I am currently reading Appassionata in memory of Jilly (and because I started a slow re-read when the TV adaptation of Rivals was announced. Some bits are better than others.

Following Mitford chat as interested to read more about them.

@TimeforaGandT I consider myself a Mitford buff and began with them accidentally when I read the correspondence of Deborah, Duchess of Devonshire with well known writer Patrick Leigh Fermor and thought who IS this? I must know more.

Letters Between Six Sisters has something early on in the context intro that says :

Nancy was so jealous of her sister Diana that she faked an engagement to a homosexual

And I was like : OK I’m SOLD

I could talk about them for days.

They are much better in their own words. A lot of the biography stuff is either badly written, gushing or both.

Thanks @EineReiseDurchDieZeit.

Do you recommend Six Letters as my starting point?

Yes I would - you get all their voices and no one person dominates