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

134. Dirty Looks: Desire and Decay in Fashion - edited by Godtsenhoven and Astbury

This is a companion guide to the exhibition at the Barbican about fashion that incorporates dirt and decay as a design feature. The exhibition is fascinating and the book is a collection of essays and interviews connected with it. There are a lot of excellent photos which are wonderful to pore over. The essays were a mixed bag, some informative and thought provoking, others a bit academic for me. The book itself is a lovely tactile object which has deliberate rough edges. I'd love to see more books designed in a creative way to reflect the contents!

135. Hamnet - Maggie O'Farrell

This is possibly the best book I've read this year. What a gem. Almost 400 pages of quietly and beautifully written grief, loss, and love, inspired by the life and death of Shakespeare's son. I loved it.

I think so Sheila. I did get on better with the Wolf Hall trilogy, though the last one was a slog, but I have rusty A level tudor history.

The Helen Ashton sounds great, Terpsichore

@CornishLizard I love this:
"I have sometimes felt that other fiction isn’t Hilary Mantel-enough; sadly I think I need to accept that Hilary Mantel is too Hilary Mantel for me."

I really liked the afterword in Hamnet which said "I took the liberty of changing it [a name] because the doubling up of names, while common in parish records of the time, can be confusing for readers of a novel."

I'm sure this wasn't aimed directly at the eleven Thomases of Wolf Hall, but I chose to take it as a dig 😆

The Big Sleep is in today's deals, I have somehow never read it, so I got it!

@Owlbookend some of my recommendations for teens:

Dumplin’ trilogy by Julie Murphy. This was turned into a Netflix film.

Ink trilogy by Alice Broadway.

The Dark Gifts Trilogy by Vic James.

Dorothy must Die series by Danielle Page.

The Fire Sermon Trilogy by Frances Haigh

@noodlezoodle @Benvenuto I haven't read Hell Bent but I definitely thought of the Ninth House as I was reading it.

Just finished All My Mothers. I absolutely loved it. I am going to buy it for DD for Christmas.

First of my Christmas reads this year - the reasonably diverting novella by Richard Coles, Murder Under The Mistletoe. I haven't read any of his others so may have been less disengaged with all the Church stuff and the considerable cast of people. He isn't very clear about when the book is set and that kept puzzling me. At the end, the late 1980s was mentioned.

It had a reasonably satisfying ending , although I thought some of those details anachronistic. What is frustrating though -SLIGHT SPOILER AHEAD- the book is only 140 pages long and the 'murder' occurs on about page 120!

It’s great.

My Friday was lovely, thank you. We’ve got a busy but nice weekend planned, so I’m unlikely to have much time for reading, comfort or otherwise.

Thanks for the recs @Letsgetthiswrongagain DD and I watched the Dumplin netflix adaption together.

I have .... read (well listened to) ... another book. 🍾

#17 Queenie Candice Carty Williams
I really enjoyed this story of the titular, 20 something Queenie navigating London life. When I doom scroll random threads on mumsnet, I am often internally shouting 'he is horrible, he is unkind why the hell are you saying you love him he treats you like shit'. Queenie opens like one of these threads as she trys to cling on to the odious racist apologist Tom. Gradually the story peels back why Queenie fears being alone so much and is desperate not to let Tom go. In the process, it reminded me not to be such a judgemental old bat and that the traumas in our pasts echo into our futures. This makes it sound 'worthy' or misery lit - it definetely isnt. I loved the dry, dark humour and laughed out loud more than once. The warmth of female friendships is lovingly captured. Im not normally a fan of audio books, but it worked really well here. It brought text exchanges (that are sometimes a bit clunky on the page) to life, and all the characters had clear distinctive voices. The narrator was great.

@Owlbookend Moxie is a good one for teen DDs on Netflix if you haven't seen it it’s underknown

Thanks @EineReiseDurchDieZeit will take a look.

@CornishLizard@FrannyisreadingI like A Place of Greater Safety very much, but I think its major flaw is its structure - whereas in Wolf Hall the reader’s focus is tied to Cromwell, in A Place the reader sees things from the viewpoints of the 3 main characters and to a lesser extent from their various female relatives. If that had happened in Wolf Hall, the story would have been told from the perspectives of Cromwell, Henry VIII and Sir Thomas More, with Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour and Princess Mary chipping in along the way. I’m not surprised A Place is flawed, as that’s a really difficult plot to write successfully and it probably explains my view of the text, which was that I liked reading about Desmoulins and Danton, but lost interest once the narration switched to Robespierre.

What I found odd about A Place Of Greater Safety was the way it ended. It ended with more to say and stories unfinished I thought. I really rated it otherwise though.

It's not you @CornishLizard- it's a very confusing period. I did the French Revolution for A level (admittedly a very long time ago) so had a reasonably good grasp of events and people before I read it but even so found I had to really concentrate on A Place of Greater Safety to keep track. Part of the problem was the ever changing names of political parties/groups/bodies and the rapidity of change during those years. I found it much easier to keep track of everyone in the Wolf Hall trilogy.

A belated thank you @RomanMum, I was just wondering about the books of the year on here. I’m not sure the candidates are quite as clear this time round but will be interested to be proved wrong.
Am battling a very readable history of the Spanish Civil War but it’s taking me ages. A serious risk of not hitting my 50 this year.

Thank you @RomanMum, looking forward to the stats, my reading is always so far behind others that the books I read rarely make it.

On the teen reading note, I was reminded by The Call of the Wild discussion that as a teen (and as an adult), I have read Black Beauty many many times. My mum comes from a large (double digit) family and very poor, very little education etc and when she was 10 her older brother brought her large print editions (she has bad eyesight) of Black Beauty and Hans Christian Andersen and I just remember her always being so happy she owned something of her own. It had a wonderful illustration on the front and the pages felt huge and I felt so accomplished.

The Cross Sigrid Undset
I have shared my views on the readalong thread. I suspect I enjoyed this or will remember this more than I think. Glad I read it and pleased I read it in company.

The History Gossip Katie Kennedy
365 little snippets from history. This was a silly book, but it was 99p. She is a tik tok person I think and that shows. Some interesting nuggets but they are very very short and often she (tries/succeeds) makes them funny by adding slang etc.

I got given a copy of Black Beauty when I was about 9. I read it then turned to the beginning and read it again over 20 times. I was pony mad though.

I’ve never read Black Beauty though I remember the tv show and in particular it’s amazing theme tune with fondness!

183 Elena Knows by Claudia Piniero
Told from the POV of Elena, a middle aged woman with Parkinson’s, whose daughter has taken her own life though Elena is convinced it’s murder. She cannot get anyone to believe her so sets out on a journey to try and prove it herself. This sounds like a mystery but it’s really not. It explores mother/ daughter relationships, having a chronic illness, and being a carer. It’s a very difficult read emotionally despite being just over 150 pages but it was thought provoking and moving without being sentimental. A bold for me but don’t even consider it if you’re not feeling very robust.

184 My Antonia by Willa Cather
This classic was beautifully written and tells a little bit about life for immigrants on the prairie, particularly women. I believe Catherine was advised by the publisher to write from the POV of a boy/man Jim Burden whose family were already established in the area for generations. This puts the women’s and immigrants voices at a remove which lessened the experience for me. It was just okay.
Don’t think I’ll make it to the round number of 200 this year but that’s no bad thing. Sometimes I think I read too much.

@ÚlldemoShúl
By strange coincidence, I'm about to start reading Elena Knows some time this weekend. I have a library copy and have decided I'd better read it before someone wants it back. Someone has reserved it but there are two other copies available within the service.

I am in awe of @elkiedee because MN allows her to quote @ÚlldemoShúl properly

lol I think I’m quotable just not @able!

Ha, that’s what I meant, you are right :-)

A Place of Greater Safety was my favourite book this year so much so that I have asked my DH for.The French Revolution, A political history.