50 Books Challenge 2025 Part Eight

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the eighth 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 , the sixth thread here and the seventh thread here

@Terpsichore i do love a proper slasher review 🥰🥰

Sorry about that but the more I think about it, the crosser I get! 😂

I could forgive it a lot if I thought William Cooper was deliberately portraying his protagonist as a humourless arse, but sadly I feel he thought he was just fine and dandy….

Well I didn't buy any deals yet but I am away on a Christmas shopping weekend in Alnwick and not convinced I can resist Barter Books...

The Trading Game by Gary Stevenson

As the saying goes, much reviewed on here. Gary grew up in East London where his childhood is hinted at, I think it wasn't great and he was in border line poverty. However numbers are easy for him so goes to LSE, wins a game and an internship and makes big money for Citibank.

I didn't realise he basically had a breakdown and was not even able to enjoy the money he made. And he doesn't sound like he was a particularly nice person for those years (I guess depression does that to you).

The book is articulately written aside from the occasional "I aren't" which feels thrown in to remind us he is cockney.

It's a bit at odds with the videos that pop up on my Instagram.

I love his outspokenness, his thinking outside the box and his desire for change. We can do better and there is political hope.

I’m late to the discussions, but I loved both The Children of Green Knowe and the Timothy Dalton version of Jane Eyre as a child. I still haven’t read Wide Sargasso Sea, but the reasons why it is taught are interesting as similar issues re diversity are currently playing out in children’s books. It’s a tricky one as the desire for children to see themselves in books is very understandable but the problem is that being worthy isn’t always a guarantee of quality. Coincidentally, The Chimneys of Green Knowe is really interesting from this perspective as it’s an early example of a children’s book dealing with disability and race - and a book I enjoyed both as a child and reading it to my DC.

I have quite a few reviews to catch up with:

37 The Scapegoat by Daphne Du Maurier - the foreword to this compares to Rebecca, but it really isn’t in that league. It’s the story of an English academic (John) who meets his French doppelgänger (conveniently called Jean). Jean then pinches John’s car and identity forcing John to assume the life of a French count. The book is at its most effective when describing how John feels his way through figuring out the people and the responsibilities in his new life and the description of the estate is atmospheric. However some of the behaviour of the supposed sympathetic John is very dodgy (not to mention criminal) by modern standards nor did I have much sympathy why so many characters were content to revolve around the distinctly unpleasant Jean.

38 Patricia Brent, Spinster - much discussed on this thread and which I also enjoyed. I found it really interesting to read after reading Precipice earlier in the year, especially the description of the air raid. I also really liked the boarding house setting.

39 Just one damned thing after another by Jodi Taylor - this was another recommendation from MN about an institute of time-travelling historians. I liked the academic setting (not too dissimilar from a boarding house) and I generally found it entertaining and very funny in places, but unfortunately at times the title was only too accurate and there were times when I lost interest as there was yet another twist.

40 Traitor’s Legacy by SJ Parris - this is a historical crime novel and it’s a bold as I couldn’t put it down. It begins with a bravura set piece - a troop of warlike men determinedly marching through London on a mission. Some spectators watch them sure that they recognise the leader he must be … Romeo?! The troop are so impressive because they are in fact Shakespeare’s company and their mission is to disassemble their playhouse before the landlord catches up with them so that they can rebuild it as the Globe. But after they have left, a street urchin finds the body of a young girl hidden in an outhouse of the old playhouse and a note on the body has the cipher of a former spy - Sophia - who is drawn from her comfortable life to investigate. This was well-written and the setting of late Elizabethan England is interesting but not used as much as earlier Tudor times. I felt the characterisation of real people was generally successful and the main characters were sympathetic. The mystery sufficiently interesting and I would like to read the sequel when it’s published.

41 The Frozen People by Elly Griffiths - this was another recommendation from this thread about a time-travelling detective. Part of my problem with this is that I just don’t enjoy time-travel stories as much as I did when I was younger. I also didn’t warm to the main character although I did like the cold case aspect and the parts about the main character’s son and his work in Parliament. There also wasn’t really enough detecting and a bit too much signalling about what might happen in the future (ie sequels). I would like to try some of the author’s non-time travelling books though.

Just to point out that Wide Sargasso Sea was published in 1966 (but had been written over a long period of time) by a older white Caribbean woman several decades after her other 4 novels - she published a collection of short stories and a memoir. The main character is white, from a family which would have owned slaves. While Britain had abolished slavery in this country early in the 19th century, in many ways our economy and private wealth owned and inherited in it were still very much linked to slavery in the Caribbean and the US, and the trade in commodities grown on slave plantations (for example cotton and sugar)

The racial politics of this are at least rather complicated but I can't see that judging it as a beneficiary of some kind of "political correctness" probably at least 20 years before that very questionable phrase came into common usage is helpful - nor is it about diversity politics.

Only Here Only Now by Tom Newlands
Every so often I take a chance with a book and it pays off, this is one such book. Can’t remember if it was mentioned on here or if Amazon achieved the rare feat of suggesting something I might like that isn’t utter rubbish.
It spans four years in the 90s and is written from the pov of Cora Mowatt, a teenager who lives in a run down Scottish town on the coast, with her Mam. Some ex boyfriends of Mam are mentioned but then a new one arrives on the scene. Gunner takes Cora for long walks, brings her trainers she needs and I must admit at the beginning I was preparing to DNF the book if it was just some miserable grooming and abuse saga (I’m always a bit sceptical that men can write authentically about women, especially young women). It very much isn’t, however, and opens out into quite a glorious exploration of growing up, trust and neurodiversity. Cora has some ‘print outs’ given to her by the school nurse, which she keeps but ignores. She doesn’t want the way she is to be investigated and explained, so her ADHD just ‘is’, bringing a unique and vibrant voice to every page.
Horrible things happen to Cora, some brought about by her own choices in life, but I loved walking with her every step of the way and the descriptions of Muircross, Abbotscraig and Glasgow are superb. Lovely things also happen to her and she deals with those in the same spiky, acerbic way.
Some understated themes of what makes a family, does a diagnosis help, hinder or change things, adult motivations not always what a teenager is equipped to understand. Plus a rare example of a one-eyed shoplifter who grew up in care not being a cardboard cutout Baddie for dramatic effect.
A bold and I’m keen to see what Newlands writes next.

The Poisoned King: Impossible Creatures 2 by Katherine Rundell
Rundell is a wonderful writer and this follow up was very lovely. It’s a story of a boy, a wronged princess, an evil uncle, a tiny dragon, many magical creatures and of love. I thought it was a bit slow to get going, but there’s always lots to like with her and I’d give it a bold overall if I was a bolding kind of gal.

212 How to be a Woman - Caitlin Moran
RWYO An amusing canter through Moran’s life and feminism; written in 2010, some if it is a little dated now (already!) but I enjoy her writing, and the part with the bat made me cry laughing.

176 The Cutting Room by Louise Welsh
RWYO very early Audible buy for me- it and the sequel in the two for 1 sale at the time. Our protagonist is Rilke, a morally grey auctioneer who finds pornographic and possibly snuff photos in a house clearance and begins to investigate. It’s quite graphic at times and the ending is a bit rushed but it was okay. Definitely elevated by a masterful narration by Alan Cumming and for that alone I’ll listen to the next.

177 Our London Lives by Christine Dwyer Hickey
The story across the years of Pip, an alcoholic boxer and Milly a barmaid. Molly’s story moves forward from the 1970s while PiP’s is set in modern day (well 2017) with lots of flashbacks. I liked how it showed the ‘development’ of London even though that’s not a city I’m very familiar with I could see the reflection of it in my own city. I liked Pip’s POV (though slightly irked that Irish man must be alcoholic and a boxer to boot- even by an Irish writer) but I found Milly a bit flat and uninteresting, though I liked the characters around her. I’d say it’s a great read for those enjoying Maeve Binchey books at the moment. Overall I liked it but was a wee bit disappointed as I’d seen so much love for it here.
I’ve also DNFed Such a Young Age by Kiley Reid- thought it would be interesting to read some backlist by the Booker judge but this was just meh. I can see what she’s trying to say, I just didn’t care enough what happened to any of the characters to keep reading.

The Thirty-Nine Steps John Buchan

RWYO, the oldest book on my Kindle, and for some reason I recently bought a slim copy too! This was published in 1915 and tells the story of Richard Hannay. Hannay’s neighbour confides some conspiracies to him and then winds up dead in his flat - Hannay flees to Scotland and around the country with the police and some baddies on his trail.

This book is tiny and it has taken the best part of a week. I couldn’t remember the various characters, I’ve no idea what the overall conspiracy really was, other than bad Germans destabilising Europe.

I should have DNF’d.

I am going to go and find the film now, even though I didn’t enjoy the book.

Dead Ground - M W Craven

Part of the Washington Poe/Tilly Bradshaw series - think this is book 4 but I haven’t read them in order. I really enjoy this series. Here, they’re trying to work out the link between two killings where a small ceramic rat was left at the scene.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone - J K Rowling

I listened to the new full cast version of this on Audible and it was great. The different voices and found effects really add to the story and I liked the narrator.

Patricia Brent, Spinster - Herbert George Jenkins

Loved this, it was great fun.

How To Get Murdered In Devon - Stephanie Austin

Latest in the cosy crime series featuring antiques dealer and amateur detective Juno Browne, here looking into the reason a dead body turned up in the boot of a car she’s just bought. Good fun and undemanding.

Happy Birthday to you, birthday twins!

I've a few to report:

129. Seven Days in the Art World - Sarah Thornton

An insider / fly on the wall look at various aspects of, well, unsurprisingly, the art world. I found some chapters more interesting than others: an auction, the Turner Prize, visiting an artist's studio. By the end I was glad I didn't work in these circles although I am an art fan and am often found in galleries.

130. Milk Fed - Melissa Broder

Rachel, a young woman with mummy issues who is obsessed with restricting her food intake, meets Miriam, who adores to eat in the most indulgent way, but has never had a relationship before. The descriptions of food deprivation and pleasure are really vivid and it's also quite full on with the sex scenes. I really enjoyed the portrayal of a plus size woman as the object of love and desire, and I was interested in the Jewish cultural aspects. It's a quick read but there's plenty of 'food' for thought, heh.

131. Starve Acre - Andrew Michael Hurley

A folk horror set in a rural community where a 5 year old has died. This was clever and unsettling and the writing, especially when dealing with the natural world, was striking. I'd recommend it if you enjoy this genre - it will certainly stay with me.

• @SheilaFentiman I have read Moran's How to be a woman* and enjoyed it. I have NO recollection whatsoever of the bit with the bat. Brain fog be gone!!!

@AgualusasL0ver you'll probably get various film version recommendations for The 39 Steps so let me bang my gavel now and posit that the original Hitchcock one with Robert Donat and the very slinky Madeleine Carroll is, for my money, the best and only one to watch! 😁

Meanwhile…

87. The Mushroom Tapes - Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper & Sarah Krasnostein

Time was when Helen Garner would have been in court scribbling away every day of the recent Erin Patterson mushroom poisoning trial in Australia, with a typically trenchant and thought-provoking book to follow - but she's 83 now and says she’s not up to it anymore. All the same, she couldn’t resist the lure of this extraordinary case, so along with two younger writers, she attended much of the trial and they recorded their conversations around the case as it unfolded. This book is the result.
It's very short - I picked it up from the library yesterday lunchtime and I’ve just finished it. But I liked it: the essential details are all there, but also a rather poetic sense of musing around the possible reasons for Patterson's actions, and the consequences which will ripple through her community and the lives of her family (not least her children) for many years to come. Despite the 1-star stinker of a review on Amazon I'd give this a thumbs up.

That seems to be the most accessible one anyway @Terpsichore.

{mention:Terpsichore},@AgualusasL0ver you'll probably get various film version recommendations for The 39 Steps so let me bang my gavel now and posit that the original Hitchcock one with Robert Donat and the very slinky Madeleine Carroll is, for my money, the best and only one to watch! 😁
Amen to that, he's also great in Goodbye Mr Chips, which is also a comfort read of mine. Known in our house as Robert The Donut!

I love the Robert Donat and Greer Garson version of Goodbye Mr Chips. Best watched eating toast on a winter afternoon in front of a roaring fire.

The remake of Goodbye Mr Chips is my most traumatic cinema moment ever. My mum organised lots of events for young mothers at our local church and she got a coach to take a group to see it in Glasgow on the big screen. And for some reason she took me. I would have been 8. I have hardly any childhood memories but I remember my disbelief and utter dismay at the ending.

115 Life’s Too Short by Abby Jimenez

Vanessa Price, is a travel vlogger who may have inherited a terminal illness and is determined to live life to the full, while juggling her very dysfunctional family. She meets her uptight, controlled neighbour Adrian and they become friends, and then more.

I didn’t enjoy this very much and found the main female character too much, and the tenuous link to characters from previous books was clumsy. The storyline was also a bit too similar to one of her previous books.

213 Samuel Johnson is Indignant - Lydia Davis

A 200 page paperback of short stories. Some of the stories were many pages, others were just a few words, including the title story, which I reproduce in full…

Samuel Johnson is Indignant:
that Scotland has so few trees.

Most stories were well written but this kind of literary experimentation isn’t my preferred way to read!

50.Flesh by David Szalay. This is a rags to riches tale following István from his teenage years in Hungary through his working life, marriage and fatherhood in the UK.

István is a solidly blokely, even thuggish type, which we get to see through his actions. However little of his inner world or motivations is ever shown, with István ultimately a passive and detached viewer of his own life. The dialogue is naturalistic to the point of being a bit boring at times. Lots of the focus is on the humdrum, with many of the significant life events that István experiences - war, incarceration, bereavement - happening off the page. I thought this was a really interesting idea, but István’s reflections on these events are minimal, and so it didn’t work for me in practice. Szalay’s prose is lean and spare which I loved, and there are some biting and funny lines.

Overall I felt this was in the Ian McEwan et al tradition of Manly Books for Men. Having also read and not rated Spring, I think my takeaway is that Szalay is a good writer, but not one who writes books I want to read. I’d rate it using István’s most overused sentence: “It’s okay”.

139. Some Must Watch, Ethel Lina White
Published in 1933, this became a Hitchcock film. A storm is raging and a murderer lurks outside, but our heroine is safe in the big house with lots of people around, isn't she? But somehow the other people become unavailable and could it - could it be - that peril lies within? A bit hokey but it felt like a reasonably atmospheric read on a windy and rainy night.

140. Somewhere, a Boy and a Bear, Giles Brandreth
Biography of the Winnie the Pooh author. As you might expect from this biographer, it was readable but somewhat superficial. The biographer does not lurk in the wings and we hear quite a lot about one Giles Brandreth Esq. There's not a lot of analysis of why so many people respond to the world A A Milne created. There are allusions to the poignancy of fathers and sons being close and then becoming distanced, but it's dealt with at the level of a rousing chorus of "Cat's in the Cradle". I think there are more interesting things to say on this subject but as I say, it was readable and it's sweetened by the quotes from A A Milne's own work.

141. Flint in the Bones, Eva St John
Time travel, in its more recent guise of bringing people from the olden days into now. Norwich has been rendered unstable by magic and quakes bring people and plagues from the past into modern time, resulting in mass death and a wide variety of wardrobe choices. No literary pretensions and would be good fun to read on a trip to Norwich. Nothing special but I'll potentially look out for future books in the series.

whoops - not sure why my earlier post quoted yours @SheilaFentiman ! My mistake

No problem!

I thought it might be because “I think my takeaway is that Szalay is a good writer, but not one who writes books I want to read.” was quite similar to my take on my book 😀

60. The Art of a Lie – Laura Shepherd-Robinson

Thanks to Chessie and all here who recommended this. Set in 1749, the main protagonist is Hannah Cole, a widow struggling to run her confectionary shop in London after the brutal murder of her husband. Hannah learns that she will inherit a large sum of money from her husband, which she knew nothing about. When handsome William Devereux, a friend of her late husband, tells her of their involvement in a secret syndicate and of the new Italian treat of ‘iced cream’, Hannah starts to believe the two might be the saving of her livelihood. But what secrets is William himself keeping? Will magistrate Henry Fielding (author of Tom Jones), under government pressure with his plan to establish a new police force, be able to prove that Hannah’s inheritance was illegally obtained, and find Jonas Cole’s murderer?

It took a few chapters to get into, but as the story progressed I was absolutely gripped, with many twists I didn’t see coming and a new take on an age-old crime. Great world-building and a proper ending too. Potentially a bold.

61. That’ll Teach Her – Maz Evans

Cosy (ish) crime. A hated primary school headmistress drops dead at an event in the school hall. When it becomes clear it was as a result of foul play, a parents WhatsApp group forms to try to solve the crime.

This is similar in style to a Janice Hallett whodunnit in that the chapters from the main suspects’ POV are interspersed with various WhatsApp chats and parent newsletters etc. It made me laugh out loud at times remembering the primary school experience. Having said that there are some adult themes so not as cosy as it might appear, and as with many of this genre, you have to suspend disbelief and just go along for the ride. The cultural references are very 2025, therefore a future reader might struggle, but I raced through the story and enjoyed all the characters, particularly Marcia, the School Manager, whose backstory hints at a life as colourful as Nessa from Gavin and Stacey.