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

Sorry to hear you are stuck in the UK longer than anticipated noodlezoodle. I hope your dad gets better soon 💐

All the best to you and your family, @noodlezoodle

Thinking of you all @noodlezoodle

148 Paradox by Jim Al-Khalili

A book about enigmas in physics Reasonable canter through quantum mechanics, relativity and all that jazz, by way of Schrödinger’s cat, the twin paradox and contemplation of time travel. Jim was a popular science presenter on TV (and perhaps still is) and I would have bought this on a whim when we were watching his shows.

Wishing you all the best, @noodlezoodle

Echoing everyone else @noodlezoodle - I do like the sound of The Husbands.

Also sending my warmest wishes to you and your dad, @noodlezoodle !

Very sorry to hear about your father @noodlezoodle. That's tough on you all. The Husbands sounds like ideal escapist reading at a difficult time.

65. The Secret Place - Tana French

My lucky dip from the 50 Bookers meet up. Billed as being similar to The Secret History but so long since I read that, I can't tell you if that’s correct. Set in a girl's convent boarding school in Dublin with two timelines. In the current day, Antoinette and Stephen, investigate an unsolved murder of a schoolboy in the grounds whilst the other timeline follows the close friendship group of Holly, Selina, Julia and Rebecca in the months counting down to the murder. I couldn't put this down! Loved the relationship between "prickly" Antoinette and "trying to play it cool" Stephen as the detectives work together for the first time. Took me a little longer to get into the girls' storyline but it felt like a very realistic portrayal of teenage girls, the claustrophobia of the boarding environment and the interactions with the boys. Thank you, @Terpsichore (it was you who brought it, wasn't it.....)!

66. The Wreath - Sigrid Undset

The first book of Kristin Lavransdatter. I had never heard of this before it was picked for the readalong but very much enjoying it. The descriptive passages of the scenery and day-to-day life are excellent. The characterisation is good with some diverse personalities. Enjoying the commentary on the thread too - safeguarding issues and MN threads galore from all the goings on!

Take care of yourself @noodlezoodle and thanks for that review of The Husbands - the book sounds like my kind of thing.

Sorry to hear about your Dad @noodlezoodle, wishing you both all the best

Sending all good wishes@noodlezoodle - sounds tough at the moment

A very good review of the new Robert Galbraith here. It sounds as if it's better than the last couple. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/sep/02/the-hallmarked-man-by-robert-galbraith-review-a-terrific-tightly-plotted-romp

Thank you all for the well wishes, I really appreciate it.

The Husbands is indeed bonkers but in a good way. She does rather overdo it though - the cover says "You wait ages for The One - then 203 come along at once". As I was reading I thought there was no way she'd be able to pull this off and end in a consistent way, but I think she did a great job.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie I read the same review of The Hallmarked Man and it made me laugh, because I couldn't reconcile "tightly plotted" with "912 pages"

I seem to be in my usual pattern where I spend a month (July) reading loads, keeping up with the thread and then I blink and a month has passed and I have pages of reading and only one book to report...

The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett

I just couldn't get into this which is odd as I actually love Pratchett and have been buying Discworld novels whenever they are 99p to start a full read through.

The first in the series features Rincewind and Twoflower with The Luggage (a favourite character of mine) following along.

I don't think this is formatted well for kindle (and there isn't any footnotes in this one!) as there are no breaks between paragraphs making some of the scene changes bewildering.

I think part of the confusion is that the plot is driven by the gods playing dice, meaning Rincewind is often saved from certain death and flung into the next problem with little feasible explanations (not even magic which I accept on Discworld!).

I have read enough later books to know Pratchett improves his storytelling and that the Wizards aren't my favourite sunset. I really like the Witches.

Its said a lot on here and it's true, if you want to try a Discworld book, don't start with the first one.

Yes, it was me, @TimeforaGandT - glad you enjoyed it as I confess now that I’ve never quite gelled with Tana F!

@TimeforaGandT if you like Antoinette and Stephen, they are back in The Trespasser

@noodlezoodle – that’s tough. I’m sorry to hear about your Dad.

94 Worse Idea Ever – Jane Fallon RWYO. I don’t know why I didn’t pick this up before now, as I always enjoy JF. Georgia, who is a successful children’s author and illustrator, lives in a lovely house with her lovely husband and lovely children. Her best friend Lydia is single, career not going well and is really talented. Georgia creates a fake profile on Twitter with the purpose of cheerleading Lydia. However, it all goes horribly wrong when Lydia discloses a secret to ‘fake’ Georgia. I enjoyed this, although I could see the twist a mile away.

Thanks for tagging me :-)

For Chris Brookmyre fans: Parlabane will be back next year in Quite Ugly One Evening. I regret to say that this is THIRTY YEARS since Quite Ugly One Morning. Yikes.

No. I refuse to believe this!

Are you a fan? I tried to reread QUOM earlier this year, but had to NDF.

I am a fan, but I won't deny that QUOM is thoroughly gruesome!

Also that QUOM is 30 years old! Thrilled to find an email this afternoon from the publisher inviting me to read QUOE via Netgalley. When I started out on Netgalley I got knocked back for a couple of Brookmyres so I am really, really excited to read this one so super early.

66. Room on the Sea by Andre Aciman

Novella about an older man and woman who meet while doing jury duty in New York and embark on an affair. A bit lacklustre.

67. Bring The House Down by Charlotte Runcie
    Nicely summarised upthread. I am an Edinburgh native and spent my formative years working every summer in various Fringe venues. This certainly captured the frenetic nature of the festival. I thought this was well done and enjoyed the characters and their dilemmas.

68. The Woman in Suite 11 by Ruth Ware
    Absolute dog crap. Really disappointing. Tired and boring sequel where almost nothing happened. I usually find Ruth Ware a reliable light thriller writer but this was poor.

69. The Orgeon Trail by Rinker Buck
    This was a delight and a bold. An autobiographical account of a man and his brother trying to complete the Oregon trail with a team of mules and a covered wagon in 2015. Buck has a fascination with history and is uniquely placed to consider such a challenge as his father used to take him and his brothers on long covered wagon journeys in the 50s. Nobody had completed this journey in this way since the early 1910s.

Rinker, his dysfunctional brother and his brother’s stinky dog, Olive Oyl, recruit and train a mule team and travel across the country. I’ll admit there were a few passages that I definitely skimmed about the finer points of different covered wagon manufacturers but other than that this was a joy. The brothers face a number of challenges along the way like the time they accidentally find themselves going up one of the steepest hills on the route and have to go over the top with no way back. They learn to handle the different characters and personalities of the three mules from skittish Beck to reliable Jake. I very much enjoyed this.

70. The Compound by Aisling Rawle
    This was pretty good. In a near future place a group of people make their way to a compound in the desert to compete in a reality TV show. They must all sleep in the same bed as someone from the opposite sex or they will be evicted by morning. Meantime they have to undertake challenges to obtain personal items or things for the villa. It was better than I have made it sound. One of the blurbs said ‘Love island meets Lord of the Flies’ and that pretty much sums it up.

71. Mayday by Holly Craig

Pretty trashy mystery about some rich students on a yacht with a friend going missing. Not brilliant. I couldn’t remember who all the characters were.

72. The Man Made of Smoke by Alex North

Drivel about a serial killer. Don’t bother. Probably the worst book I’ve read this year. I shouldn’t really have wasted my time but I’m not one for a DNF. That being said... my only DNF in a very long time...

DNF Cat Fight by Kit Conway

I got about 50 pages into this. I couldn’t keep track of the characters who were all obnoxious and irritating and I honestly didn’t give a monkey’s what had happened in the central mystery of the book. So I stopped reading.

Now I am enjoying The Hallmarked Man. 16 chapters in and, having greatly enjoyed the ‘will they, won’t they’ in the past, their inability to have a simple conversation is beginning to grate. They central storyline seems interesting though

@noodlezoodle I’m sure there will still be many, many descriptions of carpets at the Ritz etc.