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

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit I'm so lucky, I have all her others still to read and am pacing myself so I don't binge them all.
What an absolute delight her writing is.

@Frannyisreading @EineReiseDurchDieZeit I’m currently reading (and enjoying) my first Sarah Waters that I’ve had for years- Fingersmith.

Fingersmith is my favourite!

Thanks to @Southeastdwellerfor the new thread!

1. The Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden
2. House of Lilies by Justine Firnhaber-Baker
3. Precipice by Robert Harris
4. This Rough Magic by Mary Stewart
5. Touch not the Cat by Mary Stewart
6. The Moon-Spinners by Mary Stewart
7. Airs above Ground by Mary Stewart
8. Stormy Petrel by Mary Stewart
9. How the Railways will fix the future by Gareth Dennis
10. The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge
11. We’ll prescribe you a cat by Syou Ishida
12. Potholes and Pavements by Laura Laker
13. Your Child is not Broken by Heidi Mavin
14. City of Destruction by Vaseem Khan
15. The Hours Before Dawn by Celia Fremlin
16. The Wreath by Sigrid Undset
17. The Household by Stacey Halls
18. Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld
19. Ben Macintyre - A Spy Among Friends
20. Glorious Rivals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
21. Love off script by Laura Starkey
22. Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith
23. The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith
24. The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith
25. Operation Mincemeat by Ben Macintyre
26. Mary Queen of Scots by John Guy
27. The Ghost Tree by Barbara Erskine
28. The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher
29. The Art of the Lie by Laura Shepherd Robinson

This was a recommendation from the group, which I enjoyed. It’s the story of Hannah, an 18th century confectioner, whose husband has just been murdered and has unexpectedly left her some money (which has drawn the attention of Henry Fielding - the famous author and magistrate). The opening chapters were very engaging, both with the initial mystery and some mouthwatering descriptions of Hannah’s cakes. There were a few flaws that stop it being a bold - firstly there is a big reveal a few chapters in, which I think created quite a challenge for the author in characterisation. There’s a further reveal about another character a bit later and both reveals take away some of the suspense as the reader is told things rather than working them out. This meant that I lost a bit of interest in the middle although I did enjoy the end. Then there is the Henry Fielding problem - the problem with Fielding is that he is a significant historical figure both for his writing and his police work, but he isn’t really read today, so readers don’t meet him in his own words. The book’s portrayal of Fielding is not flattering, which may be justified by his biography but it really doesn’t match the Fielding found in the history of literature with his dislike of the preaching type of novels and sense of fun (I recently listened to In Our Time on Fielding which gave quite a different sense of him). So to end - this wasn’t quite as enjoyable as I thought it might be, but it was an interesting book to unpick.

I've just started reading Fingersmith too weirdly. I'm completely gripped - so much so that I',m going to bed now too get more reading in!

@StowickthevastI stayed up all night til it was finished

81. Bedsit Disco Queen - Tracey Thorn

Everything But The Girl were always one of the quirkier and most interesting bands of the 1980s and 90s, and Tracey Thorn reveals herself to be a talented writer in this memoir (which shouldn’t be a surprise, as she got a First in Eng. Lit., later juggled an MA with her pop career, and considered a PhD). She’s funny and nostalgic on the whole business of more or less blundering into the business, starting the Marine Girls with a few schoolfriends, and thoughtful on questions like, how does an essentially quiet, unshowy person cope with being a 'pop star'? How does a woman who doesn’t buy into the concept of girly femininity cope with finding an image when Madonna is the ideal? And how to deal with crippling stage-fright? These and other questions are dealt with intelligently, entertainingly and always interestingly.

126. Make Me, Lee Child
Reacher turns up at random in a small town to find the locals acting strangely and a private investigator missing. Needs to trace back the clues etc etc. Not one of the strongest in the series - fairly standard set pieces.

127. My Grandmothers and I, Diana Holman-Hunt
Memoir of an early twentieth century childhood spent shuttling between the houses of her two grandmothers, one of whom is the widow of the artist. I thought I would love this, but it found it a bit bleak. The child is cared for, but there's a sense of having very little control over her life, and I didn't find it the cosy read I was expecting.

128. Molly Keane: A Life, Sally Phipps
Really enjoyed this biography of the Anglo-Irish writer. The fact that it's written by her daughter brings a real knowledge and intimacy, and it chronicles a way of life that was disappearing even as she lived it. Very engaging.

@Stowickthevast hope you are enjoying Fingersmith! I found it fabulously written and plotted.

119. The Peepshow by Kate Summerscale

This is a new account of the murders at 10 Rillington Place discovered in 1950s London. It was fascinating for several different reasons: it looks at various aspects of the case including the social and economic deprivation of post war Britain, the misogyny and racism of the time, the ethics of tabloid journalism, the justice system including capital punishment, while also telling the stories of the victims without judgement or prurience.

I enjoy true crime but often feel a bit grubby after reading it. By contrast Kate Summerscale made me feel genuinely enlightened and educated after finishing this. I'll be looking for more of her work.

I think I am too late on this thread to post my list, but I like being able to see at a glance who has similar tastes to me and who has read what.

53. The Secret History by Donna Tartt I mentioned on the last thread I was starting this and someone wished me well _ I can't remember who it was! This is one of those books (and writers) I have been aware of for ages, but have filed under "not for me" - for no apparent reason other than I feel they would be too challenging, too literary or I have just never been in the right mood for them. I went into this cold though, no really knowing what to expect. The story is seen through the eyes of Richard, an unhappy, under-parented young man who gets financial aid to study at a college in New Hampshire. He is drawn to a group of privileged students who study Ancient Greek with an eccentric tutor Jonathan and ends up immersing himself in the Classics and their hedonistic lifestyles, and becomes intertwined with their lives (and deaths). It wasn't quite like anything I have read before, part murder/mystery, part college romp, part social commentary on college life in the 1980s (I think that's when it was- it's not clear, pre mobile phone but post moon landing). I was absolutely hooked for the first 300 pages or so, and by the time there have been two murders I wasn't entirely clear what else there was possibly going to happen, and in some ways it did slow down into a dreamlike abyss of mental health issues, drink and drug taking, but I certainly kept reading. I would say it was definitely a bold for me.

A Sunny Place for Shady People, Mariana Enriquez, trans by Megan McHowell

After I read The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, I deleted it permanently from my Kindle declaring I hated it (scary, uncomfortable). Yet, when I saw that Enriquez had a new short story collection out, I felt compelled to buy it. She (or the translator) are just the epitome of macabre, eerie, uncomfortable reading. I feel sullied, dirty generally uneasy and I will pass this straight on, prob to my book club friend who read the first one with me and swears she isn’t touching this. This collection is a little lighter than the first but still is playing on my mind and I expect it to linger.

I don’t like short stories, and I don’t like all those feelings but honestly I find her working so compelling like a magnet that I cannot resist. Foyles had a whole window display devoted to her books recently so I know I will go back for her graveyard book even though I don’t know what it is actually about.

I think I might be done with my spooky season reading- I don’t think I can face Polidori and his Vamypre and other tales so might save those for next year.

To be clear, against every bone in my body this is a bold.

Trespasses which many of us read a couple of years ago, is Coming Soon to Channel 4

Oh, that’s reminded me for those who were on the Les Liaisons Dangereuse thread, Aiden Turner and Lesley Manville in the 2026 production and the National.

Hello all, and thanks as ever @Southeastdweller for keeping us all organised. List-loathers can look away now:

1.Hitler, Stalin, Mum and Dad by Daniel Finklestein
2.Hotel Du Lac by Anita Brookner
3.The Zone of Interest by Martin Amis
4.A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka
5.Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
6.Butter by Asako Yuzuki
7.The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell
8.Middlemarch by George Eliot.
9.Wellness by Nathan Hill
10.My Friends by Hisham Mater.
11.Rizzio by Denise Minna
12. Staring at the Sun by Julian Barnes
13.Nesting by Roisín O’Donnell
14.Appassionata by Jilly Cooper
15.Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad
16.You Are Here by David Nicholls
17.The Trees by Percival Everett
18.A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel
19.Briefly, A Delicious Life by Nell Stevens
20.The List of Suspicious Things by Jennie Godfrey
21.Dracula by Bram Stoker
22. Case Studies by Grace McRae Burnett
23.Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon
24.Old God's Time by Sebastian Barry
25.How to Eat (and Still Lose Weight) by Dr Andrew Jenkinson
26.Score! by Jilly Cooper
27.Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst
28.The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West
29.The Proof of My Innocence by Jonathan Coe
30.Erasure by Percival Everett
31.Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson
32.Ripeness by Sarah Moss
33.Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
34.Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
35.Sandwich by Catherine Newman
36.Eurotrash by Christian Kracht
37.Pandora by Jilly Cooper.
38.Universality by Natasha Brown
39.A Cold Death in Amsterdam by Anja de Jager
40. Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid
41.The God of The Woods by Liz Moore

I think I lost a review - I can’t seem to find it when I search my posts. In case it did show up, I’ll keep it brief! 42.A Cold Death in Amsterdam - decent noirish police procedural thriller, about a was it or wasn’t it suicide case.

43.The Seaside: England's Love Affair by Madeleine Bunting. An examination of life in England’s (not Britain’s) seaside resorts. The main focus is on social deprivation and economic decline of many seaside towns. I didn’t rate this. I found it quite samey and superficial. I was quite shocked when the author described Blackpool as being so maligned that she has never met someone who has been there voluntarily. Not sure what that says about the staff of The Guardian, where she worked, as going to Blackpool is certainly not unusual in my social circle. I was also surprised that in the chapter on Canvey didn’t consider the pioneer Haredi families and how this new community might affect the local economy.

44. Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick. A depiction of North Korea as told by defectors. This was fascinating. I know very little about North Korea and was shocked to read about the severity of the starvation there in particular. The majority of the book is based around accounts of day to day life from six defectors from the same city, which gives a very human dimension to the nature and level of suffering of the ordinary citizens. It was particularly sad that often they have not settled outside of North Korea, and want nothing more than to return.

45. The True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole. I never finished the Adrian Mole series. This was the last one I read, and so I gave it a quick re-read ahead of reading the subsequent volumes for the first time. Not as good as Secret Diary or Growing Pains, but still diverting. The funniest section is the excerpt from another diary, that of Grantham schoolgirl Margaret Hilda Roberts.

Willie, Willie, Harry, Stee - Charlie Higson

An amusing look at all the kings and queens since William the Conqueror (the title is taken from the rhyme that names them all). Nothing particularly new here but I enjoyed reading it.

The Life She Could Have Lived - Laura Pearson

A cross between One Day and Sliding Doors. Anna is married to Edward. The book then follows every wedding anniversary for the next 20 or so years, but also across two different lives based on whether Anna does or doesn’t agree to have children with Edward. I did find this slightly confusing keeping track of what was going on in each life, but I liked the concept and it wasn’t as predictable as I expected going into it.

Boleyn Traitor by Philippa Gregory

Another retelling of the events of Henry VIII and his wives, this time from the point of view of Jane Boleyn, Lady Rochford (she was married to Anne Boleyn’s brother George). She was at the court for a long time, serving 5 of the queens before coming a cropper alongside Katheryn Howard. Again there’s nothing new to the story here, and it is of course very heavily fictionalised as very little is known of Jane, but interesting to see it from a different point of view.

The Little Book of Miriam - Miriam Margolyes

An A-Z of all things Miriam, I've read about some of the stories, but I don't mind the repetition as she's a good writer and knows how to entertain the reader.

Incidentally, I went to a preview screening the other day of Hamnet. I wasn't that impressed - it was dry and just not engaging enough. The kind of 'worthy' film critics love but audiences tend not to. I've never bothered with the book and will delete it now from my Kindle library. The film is out in the UK on January 9th.

FYI Sarah Moss fans - Ghost Wall is 99p today

Finished Pet by Catherine Chidgey. It has echoes of Miss Brodie ,definitely and has a deft use of unreliable narrator (a 12 year old girl whose mother has died) but a bit silly sometimes especially towards the end. There are quite a lot of books told through the eyes of teenage girls . This doesn't do anything very special to stand out but is a good, quick read.

I like the details of the 1980s schooling which certainly resonated.

I felt like there were bits shoehorned in (an abortion clinic visit) and bits oddly missed out (like how she ends up married to childhood friend, despite moving away.

The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Jewell

I am on holiday and wanted something light and easy to read and sort of got that. The subject matter is not light, but Lisa Jewell makes it so you want to keep reading.

The familys mum is a hoarder and the book unravels why, how and the family falling apart. I found it engrossing, you know what you get here, it's not literary fiction but I do know more about hoarding syndrome and I had a huge amount of sympathy for the characters, awful though most of them were!! I gave it 3.75 out of 5 on good reads.

Oh and I have The Names which I am saving for my journey home, I think I'll need something to keep me interested.

I am near the Appalachian Mountains (and walked a mile section of the AT whilst on a hike!) and have a book of ghost stories from this area which I hope to start on the way home. I most certainly will not start while I am still here!!

Good idea @RazorstormUnicorn - I once climbed a mountain with a friend but wouldn't let her read the novel that inspired me until we were safely down (one of the couple climbing in the book disappears at the summit and there is a mystery about how, and whether his girlfriend was responsible!)

There's always A Walk in the Woods for less scary local tales :>

Goodness, I’ve been away for ages. A wee work trip and I haven’t been reading anything particularly taxing. Just checked my local library and it has a copy of The Red Tent, so I think I’ll pick that up.

Welcome @Irmnern

HHhH is on my physical TBR. I got it in a ‘date with a book’ type thing. Now very much looking forward to reading it.

Thank you @Southeastdweller for our lovely shiny new thread

@MamaNewtNewt – did you watch the Dept Q adaptation? Wondering what you made of the different location

108 Mary-Lou at the Chalet School,
109 A Genius at the Chalet School,
110 A Problem for the Chalet School
111 The New Mistress at the Chalet School
112 Excitements at the Chalet School all by Elinor M Brent-Dyer. As you would imagine.

113 Moriarty – Anthony Horowitz – RWYO – Kindle. Bought this 1 August 2024, so I don’t have too much of a backlog. Horowitz was commissioned by the Conan-Doyle estate to write two new Sherlock Holmes books. This is the second one and I enjoyed it. It’s not a sequel, it’s a stand alone book, with no Holmes, Watson or Moriarty. Very much in the style of ACD, set in 1891 after Holmes and Moriarty are killed off at Reichenbach Falls. Pinkerton Agent Chase meets DI Jones (who features in the ACD world). One of Chase’s agents was murdered by Moriarty’s group, or rather, one of Moriarty’s American crime associates and he is on their trail. There is a fairly big twist at the end, which I did not see coming at all.

Thanks for the new thread @Southeastdweller , here is my up to date list:

1 French Braid – Anne Tyler
2 I Wil Find You – Harlan Coben
3 Friends Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing – Matthew Perry
4 The Crossing – Michael Connelly
5 Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? – Philip K. Dick
6 We Solve Murders – Richard Osman
7 Winter Spirits - Various
8 Funny Story – Emily Henry
9 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
10 Annie Bot – Sierra Greer
11 And Then There Were None – Agatha Christie
12 Crooked Heart – Lissa Evans
13 A Woman of No Importance – Sonia Purnell
14 Deadly Attraction – Diane Hoh
15 The Paying Guests – Sarah Waters
16 The Spiral Path – Greg Weisman
17 Nesting – Roisin O’Donnell
18 At Home – Bill Bryson
19 Glorious Exploits – Ferdia Lennon
20 The Binding – Bridget Collins
21 Dark Fire – C J Sansom
22 The Mystery of Room 913 – Cornell Woolrich
23 Deadly Inheritance – David Belbin
24 Trust – Hernan Diaz
25 Under the Skin – Michel Faber
26 The Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dunas
27 The House of Fortune – Jessie Burton
28 The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe – CS Lewis
29 Nothing to Lose – Lee Child
30 The Year of Reading Dangerously – Andy Miller
31 Little Dorrit – Charles Dickens
32 Americanah – Chimamande Ngozi Adichie
33 Mulholland Dive/Suicide Run/Angle of Investigation – Michael Connelly
34 The Wonderful Wizard of Oz – L. Frank Baum
35 Moving Pictures – Terry Pratchett
36 Welcone to the Hynuam-dong Bookshop – Hwang Bo-Reum
37 The Cliff Houae – Chris Brookmyre
38 The Cheerleader – Caroline B Cooney
39 A Prayer for the Dying – Stewart O’Nan
40 What You Are Looking For Is In The Library – Michiko Aoyama
41 Our Man In Havana – Graham Greene
42 The South – Tash Aw
43 Love Forms – Claire Adam
44 The Land in Winter – Andrew Miller
45 Misinterpretation – Leda Xhoga
46 Twelve Years A Slave – Solomon Northrup
47 The God of the Woods – Liz Moore
48 Universality – Natasha Brown
49 Oh William! – Elizabeth Strout
50 On Earth We’re briefly Gorgeous – Ocean Vuong
51 Audition - Katie Kitamura
52 The Fell - Sarah Moss
53 Think Twice - Harlan Coben
54 Endling - Maria Reva
55 Hallmarked Man - Robert Galbraith
56 Seascraper - Benjamin Wood
57 Our Missing Hearts - Celeste Ng

58 Rest Stop - Nat Cassidy
59 Hitler Stalin Mum and Dad - Daniel Finkelstein
60 State of Wonder - Ann Patchett
61 The Rest Of Our Lives - Ben Markovits
62 Sweet Vidalia - Lisa Sandlin
63 Model Home - Rivers Solomon
64 Turn Of The Screw - Henry James
65 Ootlin - Jenni Fagan
66 Starling House - Alix E. Harrow
67 The Names - Florence Knapp
68 the Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
69 Joyland - Stephen King

Am reading 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff, listening to Frankenstein on audio and falling behind again with Dombey and Son. The year-long read of The Stand also continues, I'm now at about 970 pages in.

@Tarragon123 I did watch the Dept Q adaptation and the change of location actually worked I think and I really enjoyed it. Have you watched it?