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 about your Dad @noodlezoodle- and the Husbands is on my to read list.

15 The Hours Before Dawn by Celia Fremlin. This was a BorrowBox read and a recommendation from this thread (which I really appreciated as I do find it difficult to find interesting books on BorrowBox by browsing). I enjoyed the setting and the minute detail of family life. I did like the plot of a new mother being so tired that it is hard to tell if strange things were happening, but I wasn’t sufficiently drawn into the book’s world to fully feel the emotional impact of the later chapters.

16 The Wreath by Sigrid Undset - an evocative and eventful story of a girl’s youth in medieval Norway. I’m another one who hadn’t heard of this book before the read along, but it is a bold for me due to the emotional heft of the story and the well-realised characters. I’m very much enjoying discussing the events and analysing the different characters.

17 The Household by Stacey Halls. This is another BorrowBox loan made due to reviews of Stacey Halls’ books - I’d previously read the Foundling (which I quite liked but found a bit contrived) and the Familiars (which I had enjoyed more). The plot fictionalises a scheme that Charles Dickens was involved in to support fallen women (although the author only has a bit part in the novel) and contrasts the experiences of the girls staying in the home with their benefactress, who is the victim of a stalker. The author’s style is very readable and I liked the intriguing plot and the different characters. I really enjoyed the beginning but it isn’t a bold for me as I found the series of bad things that happened to the characters in the second half book a bit too overwhelming.

@AgualusasLoverand @CutFlowers- re Du Maurier, I have The King’s General to reread on my Kindle - I loved the book as a teenager so am interested to see if it stands up to rereading.

Lovely to see the support for @noodlezoodle this really is the best thread. Take care of yourself and you are in my thoughts.

85 Always You and Me by Dani Atkins

Lily and Adam were meant to grow old together, but fate had other plans. The last thing that Lily wants to do after Adam’s death is to fulfil her promise, her last promise to him, to find her ex-best friend Josh, and to forgive him, and to forgive Adam…

Lily and Josh haven’t seen each other for six years, since their blazing row the night before Lily’s wedding. When Lily eventually finds Josh in his remote home he basically tells her to sling her hook, but a blizzard means the two of them are forced to spend some time together, time that Lily vows to use to find out why Adam wanted her to do this and what there is to forgive.

I thought this was a sweet book, if a little neat, and I loved the flashbacks to Lily and Adam falling in love, as well as Lily’s long and complicated friendship with Josh. Well developed characters and I love me an enforced proximity romance.

86 The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths

I first read some of the books in this series years ago, but am doing a full reread now that the series has ended. There’s lots to like in this story of two girls who go missing 10 years apart. Being a bit of a history geek I really liked the history and archaeology aspects, particularly the henges, pagan beliefs, and Iron Age links, and the central mystery was well done with some great red herrings. However, I’m none too keen on Ruth herself. She’s a right judgy pants, and I was sick of hearing just how fat the 12 stone (12 stone!) Ruth is by the end of the book.

I have now finished The Safekeep. In summary I think I would say overall that it is interesting. Quiet. Restrained. Therefore, I guess the sex stuff is deliberately different but I didn't like it ( I'm Not Dutch Repressed but repressed, I guess!)

The second half made sense of the first half (although I'd imagine most readers already twigged?)

Won't say too much because of spoilers but I wasn't aware of this post War part of Dutch (and Jewish) history. That's appalling and why don't I know this? Is it presumably Allied smugness that we were on the Right Side and were the Good Guys, so could never be immoral, unethical, anti Semitic. The moral issues of ownership, property, trauma and memory are the intriguing aspects of the book.

I wasn't aware of it either Piggy.
I agree with your review of 'The Safekeep'.

I have started 'Immaculate Conception' that Eine recommended. It's good so far.
I think I am probably going to agree with your review on it Eine. I'm not too keen on some of the technological aspects of that world, but the relationship between the two friends is intriguing and it drives the story forward. I think that's what you said anyway ;)

103. Malibu Rising, Taylor Jenkins Reid
Surfing poster girl Nina Riva is throwing a party for her siblings and assorted glamorous guests. The night will see revelations and new directions. I'm obviously a latecomer, but I thought it was a nicely warm-hearted book - we get lots of backstory for the individuals, everyone is shown to have their own pains and hopes, and there are some touching portrayals of family love.

104. The Library: a Catalogue of Wonders, Stuart Kells
Essays delighting in bibliomania, so I was bound to warm to this (I'll glide over a passing reference to "one of the more virulent strains of bibliomania"). The focus isn't on modern public libraries, but libraries throughout history, from Alexandria (of course) through the monastic period and the collections of rich tycoons, such as the Folger Library. I particularly enjoyed the chapter on fictional libraries, including those created by Eco and Tolkien. Perhaps not a page-turner - I read it at night in bed and found myself nodding off halfway through paragraphs - but I liked the stories he tells and admired his genuine enthusiasm for the subject.

@FuzzyCaoraDhubh I liked both parts - the friendship and the weird tech stuff, thought it was very Black Mirror

Ah okay, @EineReiseDurchDieZeit fair enough. Thanks for the recommendation! It's a good read so far.

@Piggywaspushed I knew about the situation in The Safekeep from another book possibly The Hare With Amber Eyes. The war atrocity I didn’t know about was the Vel d’Hiv roundup. That was the French Police, not the occupying Germans. Sarah’s Key was a good book about that.

Oh yes, I think I've heard about that.

I've been absent for a long while - no excuses and currently on holiday - but following all recommendations, thank you. Anyway, just wanted to say that the Vel d'Hiv round up is also mentioned in Arthur Koesler's Scum of the Earth, as he was detained there.

Hope to be back to to post next week.

Ripeness is 99p on Kindle today.

I’ve bought th cookery book in the deal, that’s been on my wish list for a while - Boustany

I’ve got that one too @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie looks delish.

I find cookbooks tricky on Kindle. Unfortunate, because it does look good.

I love middle eastern food but I have veg dodging teens so sadly i don't think Boustany will suit us...

35.Sandwich by Catherine Newman. Rocky is on holiday in Cape Cod with her children, who are now young adults, and her parents. They rent the same house each year, which is full of memories from when the children were small.

This is a lesson for me on not choosing what I read based solely on the setting. We had the best family holiday on the Cape a few years back, and I thought this might bring back some lovely memories. It didn't. There's not really a plot to speak of, which I don't usually mind, but the characters were really flat. Much of the attempted humour didn't really hit the mark, and although I'm an old hippie myself I found the attempts to drop in some right on/liberal signifiers were really cringey.

I read Sandwich - the reviews were extremely positive - but I really disliked it.

I completely agree about the dropped in right-on on signifiers - it was so pro abortion it was like having your head banged against a wall until you agree with her. I guess that works in America as a plot device, but I found it so very preachy.

I read it on holiday and didn't even leave it for other holiday makers to suffer!!

Middle Eastern is my favourite too and as a vegetarian I was all over Boustany - already made myself very hungry looking through. I find kindle cookbooks fine but I do use the kindle app on my iPad to view them.

Listening to The Hallmarked Man I do get SO annoyed with the expression “working class accent”

How is that appearing in an audiobook? Is it the narrator's voice ? I don't really do audiobooks but do they say , 'Not today , love' in an apparent working class voice (sic) and the say 'Sheila said in a strong working class accent.'

I must say, Rowling does have form for this in her writing....

The Chemist - A A Dhand

Got this via a subscription - not something I would have chosen otherwise. A pharmacist working in a tough area gets dragged into drug/gang shenanigans. Too dark and gritty for me but I did like the main character.

Judith Kerr’s Creatures - Judith Kerr

This is the author’s life story in her own words (with a final chapter from her son covering her last few years). Kerr wrote The Tiger Who Came To Tea and the Mog books, and she had a really interesting life firstly escaping from Germany in the 1930s and having to cope as a refugee, before working in television in the 1950s and then of course her book career. This book is aimed at children but it’s still a lovely read with lots of examples of her artwork, sketches etc throughout.

The God Of The Woods - Liz Moore

I had high hopes for this based on the reviews on this thread and unfortunately I was a bit disappointed. It’s a good book and I did like it, it just wasn’t as good as I expected based on what others have said. I found all the jumping around in time a bit confusing, as well as having different characters with the same name. I also found the ending a bit of a let down.

So it’s like “he said in his working class accent” and then the narrator will speak in an exaggerated ignorant and ill educated way because there is apparently no distinction between these things. Accent/class/education. It would be far better if she just named the regional accent being used and left “working class” as a signifier for “thick” out of it.

Yup, that sounds as expected.

I too am listening to Strike- get what you mean about the ‘working class accent’ description. This was is more fast-paced than the last couple though. Seems better edited. I’m just over 20% into it.

I have finished
136 Flesh- David Szalay
I didn’t enjoy this book as such but it was compelling. The story of Istvan, who experiences something traumatic in his youth and for the rest of his life is emotionally repressed. We see the ups and downs of his life- some mundane, some shocking- and we skip ahead regularly- sometimes missing out significant events later referred back to. The characters are unlikable, the prose is pared back, the emotions flat. This brings us more and more into Istvan’s reality. Szalay has earned my admiration for how he uses every part of the writing process to illustrate his character. Despite not ‘enjoying’ this book it earned a 4.75/5 from me for the sheer craft of showing us this difficult unreachable man’s life. In my opinion, this should definitely be on the shortlist and it and Seascraper are the stand outs so far. 3 more to go, I’m part way through Endling, need to read Universality and hope to finish both of these this weekend. It’s a pity we have to wait for The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny.

I haven’t read anything bar Strike in days. I have been a bit unwell and awaiting a procedure and I’ve just lost my mojo. I can’t get anything going.