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

67 Goddess with a Thousand Faces - Jasmine Elmer
Explores 10 Goddesses from across the world, in a very pop-history way, with a first-person mythical retelling for each Goddess followed by analysis of the culture from which they arose. The research seemed pretty solid, the self-help-lite tone of the conclusions less so.

68 My Family - David Baddiel
Very funny warts and all memoir focusing on his relationship with his eccentric parents. The audiobook had me chuckling my way up the hill on my walk home, probably making me look like a lunatic. A lot of it is based on photos and visual jokes so I’ll check out the hard copy too if I see it in the library.

228 Meltdown: Scandal, Sleaze and the Collapse of Credit Suisse - Duncan Mavin

Informative but not gripping. Not a patch on the likes of Andrew Ross Sorkin.

(also, Scandal, Sleaze is more like Mismanagement, Wilful Ignorance)

59. Patricia Brent, Spinster: Herbert Jenkins.

Patricia Brent, an attractive young woman in her twenties, is annoyed when she overhears some of her fellow residents in the guesthouse talking about the lack of male companionship in her life. She tells the nosy ones that she is on her way out to meet her fiancé for dinner. When they turn up to spy on her at the restaurant, Patricia improvises by befriending a young man in uniform asking him to be her fiancé for the evening. She hasn't reckoned that he would like to follow through with their engagement and the fact that she may even like him a little bit.

I loved this book. There were excellent details of life in London during the 1920s and some really great comic moments. Recommended as an easy and entertainmening read. Thank you, Terpsichore!

60. Kristin Lavransdatter: Sigrid Undset (trans. Tina Nullally).

This is the very long story of Kristin, daughter of Lavrans, set in fourteenth century Norway. Kristin is her father's pride and joy. She is devoted to him and he dotes on her. When she meets the dashing Erlend, she goes against her father's wishes and marries this good-looking but fickle man and supports him, managing their estate and looking after their ever-expanding family. Turbulent times ensue when Erlend finds himself on the wrong side of the political divide and Kristin and her children are faced with poverty and isolation.

I have mixed feelings about this book. I liked the first and third books more than the second. I liked the setting and the characters. I had never read anything like it before in terms of the place and time. Sometimes I found it hard to keep track of the minor characters. Also, Kristin's burden of guilt overshadowed much of the story and seemed to drag on and on. However, it was a very good read, even if required patience at times.

Some of my latest reads:

Miss Winter in the Library with a Knife by Martin Edwards

Christmas themed locked room mystery, with a group of people trapped in a snowed-in village when people start dying. However, the people are there to solve a murder mystery puzzle so as well as the real mystery you also get the puzzles to solve that the characters get in the story. Nice idea but didn’t completely work for me.

My Grandfather, The Master Detective - Masateru Konishi

This is really a collection of short stories with the main character telling her grandfather, who has dementia, about various mysteries she comes across in her real life which her grandfather then helps her solve. You need to suspend a bit of disbelief but I found this rather sweet.

The 12 Christmases of You and Me - Jennifer Joyce

Maisie gets to go back and re-experience various Christmases throughout her life, giving her the chance to repair her relationship with her (male) best friend. All rather predictable but I liked the time travel elements.

Keep Laughing - Chris McCausland

Autobiography. There’s a lot about Strictly in here, which was perfect for me. I enjoyed this.

Sherlock Holmes: A Thrilling Casebook of Villainous Crimes - Arthur Conan Doyle

This included The Hound of the Baskervilles and several of the short stories. Classic detective fiction - great stuff.

Spiderweb for Two: A Melendy Maze - Elizabeth Enright

The last in the series of books featuring the Melendy family, growing up in New York State in the 1940s. Here the youngest two are set a year long treasure hunt. This was good but I missed having the older children in it.

Iberia - Julian Sayarer

Non fiction about a man cycling around Spain and Portugal. However he could have been anywhere - this was mainly just his musings on life and very little about anything or anywhere that he saw. There was the odd nugget of lovely writing but mainly this was just all rather pretentious.

Dancing In The Rain - Any Dowden

Amy is a professional dancer on Strictly but this was primarily about how she’s dealt with her various health issues. This was eye opening about the impact of Crohn’s Disease so it was worth reading just for that, as I knew very little about that disease before reading this book. I would have liked a bit more about her Strictly experiences though.

Winter Love - Han Suyin

A lesbian love affair in the 1940s. I really didn’t like this - the characters were boring and unlikeable and nothing much happens in the story. I only finished it because it was so short.

Left At Number 17 - James Crookes

This author has done a Christmassy time travel trilogy which I have really enjoyed - sadly this wasn’t as good. A man decides to designate himself as the parcel station for the whole street (and inexplicably everyone just goes along with this!). High jinks ensue when a parcel goes missing on Christmas Eve and needs to be tracked down. Fine but too many events that just didn’t ring true.

The Story of Mr Sommer - Patrick Süskind

A short story about an elderly man looking back on his childhood, and the strange old man who just spent day after day hiking round the nearby countryside. This had an unexpectedly bleak ending. An odd little story that will stay with me.

Expectation - Anna Hope

This follows three university friends from their mid twenties over the next 10 or so years of their lives. It was fine but I think I might have enjoyed it more if I had been a similar age to the characters.

The Salt Path - Raynor Winn

I read this when it first came out, and I remember at the time thinking that the story about the loss of their house didn’t really ring true, and that they didn’t really come across as very likeable in the book, although I did like the descriptions of the landscapes. I wanted to reread it in light of the recent revelations. Knowing what really happened the holes in the story are even more obvious now.

The Christmas Cupid - Jennifer Joyce

This opens with Zoey having been dumped just a couple of days before Christmas. An accident gives her the chance to re-live December, and if she can match-make 6 couples she will get to live happily ever after. Unfortunately the main character here is annoyingly dim about how hideous her boyfriend is and it’s therefore hard to root for her. It’s very obvious early on what’s going to happen. I did like the toy shop setting though which added to the Christmassy vibe.

Room 706 - Ellie Levenson

Kate is in a hotel with her lover when she realises the hotel has been hostage with terrorists. And…that’s it. We then just get flashbacks of how Kate met her husband and her lover, interspersed with her sending her husband emails about mundane things like shopping and the bins. Not at all the thriller the blurb led me to expect. You might like it if you like books about women musing on their life choices.

61. I Am a Cat: Natsume Sōseki (Nick Bradley).

This is a new translation of this classic of Japanese literature that was written between 1904 and 1906. 'I Am a Cat' satirizes the foolishness of upper and middle class society during the Meiji era. The story is told from the point of view of the cat who sits and watches his owners, commenting on their affairs and making fun of them.

Some of the observations of the cat were funny, but I thought the conversations between the various characters rambled on too much at times. It was good but I wanted to like it more than I did.

62. Because Internet: Understandung the New Rules of Language: Gretchen McCulloch.

This is an interesting and informative book about how the internet has changed the English language with slang, jargon, memes and emojis complementing and/or replacing standard English usage in online communication. I liked this despite not being an avid on-line communicator myself and thought it was written in an engaging and accessible way.

63. Dombey and Son: Charles Dickens.

I hadn't heard of this novel before the readalong and I had no idea what to expect.

The book's main character is the titular Dombey. The story concerns Dombey's preoccupation with his company and his young son who will take over the company in the future. Dombey's singular, blinkered vision has devastating consequences on his personal relationships.

This is a very dark story. There are some sympathetic characters who provide comic relief, but they don't lessen it much. There is so much pain and suffering caused by one man's pride and arrogance. I thought it was really very good. It's not an easy read, but recommended for readers who like Dickens.

Kindle freebie alert. I like crime fiction and some of my favourite crime writers are authors of fiction featuring female private investigators. Many of them are American although there are some good UK ones, sadly not all kept regularly in print - Sara Paretsky and the late Sue Grafton are probably the best known over here.

Janet Dawson's Jeri Howard series is set predominantly in and around Oakland in the East Bay area of California, near San Francisco, with some ventures further afield. The first 9 were published between 1990 and 2000, the first few even came out in the UK editions, and I discovered them in library branches in London.

I've read the first 4 and originally acquired all of the first 9 books in paperback, but some years ago put a lot of boxes of books out in a garden shed which is now in very poor condition, and I'm not assuming that the contents are readable.... I've acquired a few as Kindle bargains and freebies, but spotted today that a set of the first 9 is available FREE. I've downloaded it and it has page numbers (a total of over 3,000 pages or just over 300 pages for each book) and everything.

Thanks for the recommendation @elkiedee

143. So Long, See You Tomorrow - William Maxwell. I think this may have just been re-released as it's on display in my Waterstones. Written in 1989 by a New Yorker editor, this is set in the 20s and starts off with a first person narrator looking back to a period when he was a boy. His mother has died abd father has remarried. While their new house is being built l, he plays in it with another boy called Cletus. Cletus' family is involved in a big scandal, with his mother having an affair with their neighbour who is then murdered. The story then moves to a reimagining of what happened between Cletus' parents and neighbour. But this isn't really an plot based book. it's very short but the writing is amazing. it's more about observations and characters and trying to make sense of things that happened as a child, that didn't affect you directly but nonetheless had an impact on your life and that you find it hard to forget. I think this one will stay with me. Simple but possibly a bold.

230 Small Things Like These - Claire Keegan

A bittersweet, beautiful slice of life from an Irish village in the 1980s, set in the days before Christmas.

137. Helm - Sarah Hall

A standout of the year and one of the rare books I'm instantly tempted to read again as I'm certain it would give up more wonders. A story about the Helm wind in Cumbria, people through history who have been affected by it, and human life and our connection with the natural world in general. The narrative skips between characters, including a personification of the wind itself, which sounds off putting, but (just about) works. It's rich and complex, with some stunning writing, but also very readable.

I kept thinking of Cloud Atlas as I was reading; the structure reminded me of it although it doesn't replicate it. Personally I liked Helm much more and found it more affecting. It's brilliant but never showy.

Would love to hear from others who've read it.

@Frannyisreading Helm sounds interesting. I love Cloud Atlas so will add this to my kindle wish list.

I have been away from the thread so need to catch up but have read the following:

82. The Forsyte Saga (Book 1 - A Man of Property) - John Galsworthy
83. The Forsyte Saga (Book 2 - In Chancery) - John Galsworthy

I have been meaning to read this for years and finally got round to it and well worth it spurred on by having tickets to the RSC production. A large high-achieving upwardly mobile middle class family in Victorian England with lots of family secrets and problems. In some ways it feels surprisingly modern for books written over 100 years ago. Hopefully, I will manage the final book by the end of the year.

I adored Helm @Frannyisreading . I find her books vary but this one was astounding. I will also reread it. I know the area pretty well and to see the settings as backdrops to the characters through the ages was beautifully refreshing.

@Frannyisreading@MaterMoribundI read and bolded Burntcoat by Sarah Hall about 2 years ago. I thought if was very good. I’m definitely interested in Helm

@MaterMoribund I did think how powerful it would be to read if you knew the landscape.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit that's interesting, I was going to ask for recommendations of other Sarah Hall novels. She seems to be very prolific!

I know I’m not Eine but if I may, my favourite Sarah Hall books are The Wolf Border, Haweswater and at the top of the list, The Carhullan Army.

Noted! I’m not an authority I’ve only read Burntcoat!

I didn’t like Burntcoat. I’m afraid, @Frannyisreading , you will just have to read all of them and report back to us

I haven’t read any but I did pick up Helm in a recent kindle deal so am moving it up my tbr.

I loved Burntcoat too, one of those small books with lots going on. I've also got Helm on my TBR.

Slept terribly last night but it did mean I finished another book.

144. The Girls who Grew Big - Leila Motley. I loved her first book Night Crawling. This didn't quite reach those heights but still has an original voice. It's about teenage mothers living in Florida. It follows 3 girls: Simone, the leader of the Girls, who is around 20 and the mother of 5 year old twins with her some time boyfriend Tooth; Amory, a white grade A student who's just had a baby with Simone's brother; and Adela, a pregnant mixed race girl, who's been sent to Florida by her rich parents to hide with her Grandma while she has her baby. It's great on challenging perceptions of pregnant teens, and descriptions of the Florida Coast and general supportive sisterhood. It is slightly unconvincing though, Simone in particular has a lot of unexplained knowledge for a high school dropout. But generally a solid 4 for me.

117 Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Billy Pilgrim is unstuck in time and we pinball through his life with him, from his time in WWII during the Dresden bombing, a plane crash, and his time in a zoo on another planet, and back again. I get that we can read this book in two ways, either Billy is actually time traveling, or he’s completely traumatised and this is his way of dealing with it. But about 25% of the way in I was ready to give up. It was just so tedious and I was feeling the rage from having to read the phrase “so it goes” on every other bloody page. As it’s such a short book I decided to stick with it. And it did improve a bit, but not by enough. This book was very much not for me.

I’m insanely behind with this thread and with reviewing my reading (as usual, work is to blame!). I’m about to catch up on the thread properly, but first, here are a few reviews. These three books are all from the first half of the twentieth century, and they were all bolds for me:

68. Patricia Brent, Spinster, Herbert Jenkins 5/5 [published 1918]
    Huge thanks to @Terpsichore for recommending this! It was pure escapist pleasure and the perfect antidote to work stress. I’m a dinosaur who doesn’t have a kindle or listen to audiobooks, so I purchased a secondhand copy of this novel online for a fiver (actually, it’s out of copyright and can be read for free online, but it’s satisfying to turn the pages of an actual book). Photos of my copy below; there’s no publication date given in this edition, but it boasts of being the ‘thirteenth printing’. The novel itself has been much reviewed on these threads already. I’ll just say that the romance between Patricia and her beau reminded me pleasantly of Harriet and Lord Peter Wimsey. I also liked the depiction of living in a hotel; it made me think of Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont.

69. The Enchanted April, Elizabeth von Arnim 5/5 [published 1922]
    Read for my neighbourhood book group. I was never interested in reading this novel as I had the impression it was quite sugary and twee, about female bonding (I think maybe publicity for the film gave me this idea?). Anyway I was very wrong; I loved it, and the women characters involved were satisfyingly human – they could even be selfish, annoying and acerbic on occasion. When they arrive at their rented villa on the Italian coast, they spend a lot of time worrying that the other women in the group won’t give them enough space, which I found very refreshing (I’m also the kind of person who requires a lot of solitude on group holidays!). As one of my friends remarked, the plot has a lot in common with Shakespearean comedy: the characters move into an ideal green space and there are various misunderstandings, amorous and otherwise, some of which are quite miraculously resolved at the end. There’s a great deal of insight into human character: the women all take risks in different ways, and what they perceive to be fundamental aspects of their identity are gradually abandoned or transformed. Highly recommended.

70. A Game of Hide and Seek, Elizabeth Taylor 5/5 [published 1951]
    This is one of the best Taylor novels I’ve read. Without wanting to be too spoilery, it’s about a woman who is married to a decent man, but is madly in love with someone else (I thought of the plot of the 17th century Princesse de Clèves, and of Madame Bovary, whose husband is also named Charles). The characterisation is brilliantly done; Harriet, Vesey and Charles aren’t entirely sympathetic, but they are human and gripping, as is Harriet’s adolescent daughter. Taylor deploys her technique of sliding seamlessly from one character’s perspective to another with wonderful effect here. The ending is ambiguous, but I liked it all the more for that.

Some very late comments on posts:

@StrangewaysHereWeCome I agree 100 percent with your review of Audition. You said, I am categorising this in Books I Am Not Smart Enough To Get.. I think you should reword this as Books That Are Not as Smart as They Are Trying to Be.

@JaninaDuszejko your summary of Intermezzo by Sally Rooney was spot on and made me laugh:
My name is Sally Rooney. I write about middle class academics in Dublin who have age gap relationships, I think people in their 30s are ancient and lots of women like a bit of physical pain during sex.
I liked the novel more than you did (I agree that Ivan was the best character), but Rooney does have some annoying traits! I found the representation of the disabled woman character in Intermezzo (Silvia) particularly irritating.

Congratulations @AgualusasL0ver on your new job! Fantastic news! You are such a powerhouse.

@Stowickthevast I love So Long, See You Tomorrow, although I haven’t read it in many years. My DH loved it too. Maybe it's time for a reread.

A Woman in the Polar Night by Christine Ritter
i absolutely loved this. Thanks so much for the recommendation and I’m so sorry that I can’t remember who told me to get it. Was it you @noodlezoodle ? I think it’s still a bargain on kindle, if anybody fancies it.

I also love Sarah Hall. I just finished Helm too and liked it a lot, though I thought maybe a couple of the characters could have had a bit more context - I struggled a bit with the medieval knight and the woman locked in her bedroom. But overall, so creative and fascinating. My favourites are Wolf Border and Burntcoat though which I think are both stunning.

I also finished Daddy Issues by Kate Goldbeck - provocative title, nice romance about a young woman falling in love with her older next door neighbour. And In Love With Love by Ella Risbridger, a short and readable book of essays about romantic fiction.