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 looking for recs! @Irmnern

@Irmnern I mostly use this thread for ideas so fire away

Welcome to the thread @Irmnern ! Looking forward to your reviews.* *

Welcome @Irmnern
While lists are welcomed (by some of us anyway!), you're also welcome to just start posting about what you're reading now or responding to others.

@DuPainDuVinDuFromage that was an interesting review of The Other Valley - I've added that to my TBR list, thanks.

Ooh - this sounds good, I’ve added to my wish list. Just started a reread of HHhH (needed something really great to fill my post-Infinite Jest void) so might be a suitable follow-up.

In a slight contrast, my current Audible listen is Peter Capaldi reading Watership Down which is absolutely superb.

Popping in to the nicest corner of the internet. Still havent finished another book 😳.
@bettbburg #teamNLMG here.
Welcome @Irmnern - i love reading recommendations.

39 The Names by Florence Knapp
Slightly randomly bolding this because I gulped it down in a few hours and that’s a rarity these days. A woman takes her daughter and baby son to register his birth. His name is agreed. But what if she chose a different one? And what if we followed three different timelines based on what different names made of him, and all their lives?

I could be more carping about some things but I think I would just be doing that to be awkward. An emotional, gripping and character-led story.

@Irmnern you've also showed up just before the start of a new thread and a lot of us post our YTD lists when new threads start.

@PermanentTemporary I loved The Names

Going to DNF ‘It’s Probably Nothing: Critical Conversations On The Women’s Health Crisis’ by Naga Munchetty as it's quite repetitive and basic.

I finished Broken Threads by Mishal Husain. This is a really well documented and well written family memoir about Husain's great grandparents, grandparents and parents in India (and later into Pakistan) in Empire and after partition. It introduces us to main players first and then moves through historically. She is lucky that her family were largely affluent and well positioned, often at the very centre of events, and many kept written and oral diaries.

I learnt so much in addition to what I (thought I ) already knew and it is fascinating. Particularly interesting was the really rather wonderful pre and post partition British figure of 'the Auk' - Auchinleck, who had a direct link to Mishal's grandfather. I am surprised I don't know more about him because he seems an overlooked figure and very fair, even handed and kind - especially in contrast to the favoured and chaotic Mountbatten. The uprooting of families, the associated trauma and the arbitrary border decisions are moving to read about. Particularly poignant is the precarious position of military personnel and the family saved by the train by the goodwill of a man who offered his plane - we then hear of the 'ghost train' they were meant to travel on and hear how they see the destruction of familiar landscapes from the sky.

One quibble would be too many names, including place names (maps do help!) but all such books can be overwhelming in this way.

Overall, definitely highly recommended and not just a vanity project. Far from it.

Interesting review @bibliomania (I think you’re my non-fiction twin). I’ve read a few of this sort of book recently, the last one being Grounded I believe. Is there anything outstanding or different enough to tempt me to try Upon a White Horse?

@DuPainDuVinDuFromage I like the sound of The Other Valley

@MegBusset I loved HHhH but I remember Cote detesting it!

God, I hated HHhH.

Ha @RomanMum , happy to be your twin! I enjoyed the Peter Ross book but wouldn't say it's unmissable. The bit that sticks with me is his description of bog bodies, interspersed with some of Heaney's poetry on the subject. And the archaeology bits, including his grandparents' self-taught skills. I thought it was worth the read.

I seem to remember Cote basically saying it was crap because it was too French. 😂

That sounds about right. I think it thought it was too clever.

Yes, it's definitely knowingly clever, which would normally irritate me, but I was very interested in the subject matter and just got totally caught up in the ride.

My original review of HHhH
My gosh, this was bloody good. It's about Reinhard Heydrich (the Nazi responsible for the Final Solution) and his assassination in Prague, plus its dreadful repercussions. On top of all that, it also very cleverly plays with ideas around what it is to write a historical novel, and the blurring of fiction and history. Absolutely superb - I can't recommend it highly enough for anybody who is interested in history, or literature, or writing or, indeed, man's inhumanity to man. Please, please can everybody read it and tell me what you think?

Followed by multiple episodes of me telling everybody to read it.

Well you’ve convinced me! Added to wish list.

I won't say hope you like it, because the contents are absolutely not likeable, but by gosh, it's good!

@Southeastdweller please could we have thread 8?

I miss Cote and I’d love to know where Satsuki went too

Me too. :( But I think I thought that Satsuki was here under a different name which I had forgotten. I'm rubbish with name changes though, so might be very wrong.

@Piggywaspushed someone gave me that for my birthday last year and I haven't got round to it yet, but you've inspired me to try.

I thought Satsuki may have name changed too but also don't remember.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie if I remember correctly I bought it on your recommendation and it was very good