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

I’m in a fiction slump. Started Phantom Limb about a beleaguered vicar who finds a bizarrely animated severed hand on Church land but it suffers from an excess of Tell rather than Show so it’s going to be a DNF.
Then I started We Live Here Now by Sarah Pinborough. I was in a remote cottage in the middle of nowhere with the wind howling round the windows and I still didn’t find it frightening. I jumped to the end to see if it improved but it hadn’t, so that’s a DNF too. Couple aren’t getting on, move to a big old house the woman has only seen once before she ‘mysteriously’ fell down a cliff and was in a coma. Cliched yawnfest.
Fever Dreams anthology ed. Mark Morris. A collection of Meh.
Don’t know what to start next.

I’m in such a slump. Everything I start doesn’t take off for me

@MaterMoribund I agree that Purcell’s other books haven’t lived up to The Silent Companions, but House of Splinters did feel like a return to form. The Whispering Muse definitely her weakest.

I have about 5 books on the go at the moment, which is a sure sign that I am not properly focussed on any of them!

The killer question - Janice Hallett

Sue and Mal Eastwood are new pub landlords at The Case is Altered and set up a weekly pub quiz to improve trade and create a community. There’s a murder and a new quiz team appears that wipes the floor with the regulars as the story unfolds through current and flashback WhatsApp chats, texts, emails, police interviews and undercover recordings as the truth emerges.

I like Janice Hallett’s books but this one I felt was too long, it slowed down in the middle and became a bit of a drag until it picked up in the last third as all of the strands begin to come together. I definitely think The Appeal and The Examiner are the strongest of her books

Picked up Zone Of Interest and Harlem Shuffle in the kindle deals today (from wishlist). Hope I can stick with at least one of them!

Oooo I’d forgotten it was Deals Day thanks @MaterMoribund

I’ve bought Jamaica Inn and one about a woman going missing on the Appalachian Trail which was on my wish list, although I can’t remember why.

I’ve bought The House of the Spirits, Run, The Paris Express and the latest Rivers of London.

The House Of The Spirits I thought was excellent about 20 years ago @TattiePants

I read Fingersmith last year and I loved it! Big fan of Sarah Waters. I also purchased The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, I was so intrigued by your reviews @AgualusasL0ver !

25 The Bee Sting, Paul Murray

Set in Ireland, this is the story of the dysfunctional Barnes family, who are put under immense pressure as their car dealership business struggles following the 2008 financial crisis. This is a huge character driven book so hard to sum up without a massively lengthy description! I liked this, particularly in its style and structure, with each family member’s story told one at a time and then coming together with a big shift in pace and swift changes of pov, building a sense of dread to reach its conclusion. Unfortunately it did drag at times and I’ve read other reviews which say the same thing, so I probably would have enjoyed it more had it been shorter.

26 La Belle Sauvage, Philip Pullman

First in the Book of Dust trilogy and prequel to the Northern Lights, this is the story of how Lyra came to be in the care of Jordan College in Oxford.

I love this world and I was charmed by Malcolm and his life at The Trout pub. Michael Sheen is excellent as the audio book reader.

Going to try God of the Woods next.

I bought : The Lamb, The City And Its Uncertain Walls, Ghost Wall The Accidental Soldier, Heart Wood and 10 min 38 seconds in this strange world

Oh and The Book Of Witching

I’ve owned the physical book for years but never got round to reading it despite loving lots of her other books. Might make it my next read.

I’ll be interested in your thoughts on The Lamb @EineReiseDurchDieZeit

I bought 2666 and The Streets of Laredo

I bought:
Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence
Storm Pegs: A Life I Shetland
My Battle of Hastings: Chronicle of a Year by the Sea
Cypria: A Journey to the Heart of the Mediterranean.

I'm clearly a sucker for a subtitle. All non-fiction.

Why italics not bold? Nothing negative intended.

So would I. I thought it was grim, bleak and beautiful, in a grotesque sort of way.

How are you finding the monthly deals? I’m just getting pages of Kindle Unlimited shit.

To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
Re-read of the classic. Still unsure whether I want to read the sequel.

I literally just click on Kindle Book Deals !

The Women of Troy by Pat Barker

Second in her feminist trilogy based on the Greek myths about the Trojan Wars. The first cover the events of the Iliad, this one starts with the Trojan Horse and covers the period until the Greeks left for home. Briseis narrates again, she is pregnant with Achilles' child and has been married to Achilles' companion Alcimus. We see how the women of Troy survive in the Greek camps after the men and boys of Troy have been destroyed. Loved this.

I’m afraid I thought it began well and then was crap.

@JaninaDuszejko Women of Troy is on my TBR shelf. I loved the first one.

I've been tempted by The Lamb but "grotesque" is one of my strong dislikes so these reviews help, thank you!

Do Admit: The Mitford Sisters And Me by Mimi Pond

This is a graphic biography of the sisters interspersed with bits about the author’s own life and how she became obsessed with the Mitfords. I am also slightly obsessed with them and it was interesting to read about them in a different way, and this is a very good looking book (I recommend reading it in physical copy as I can’t imagine it would come across well on kindle).

However, I did have some quibbles. Firstly, it can be hard to read in places due to the font and where writing is sideways or it’s not clear what order things should be read in. It’s also a slightly misleading title because it’s mainly about Decca, with some bits about Diana, Unity and Nancy. Pam is hardly mentioned and Debo just gets a few pages at the end. The author is clearly a massive fan of Decca (and Decca’s surviving children are credited in the acknowledgments so it’s unsurprising that there’s such a focus on her).

The author is American and the book is presumably aimed at the American market so there’s lots of footnotes explaining British things (I was amused to see that Americans apparently need to be told what/where Calais is!) which I found a bit annoying after a while.

The book also jumps around in time a bit which makes it hard to keep track. I think it might be tricky to follow if you don’t know anything about them.

I do recommend this for Mitford fans though - as I said it’s a lovely book and the pictures are great. Just don’t expect it to tell you anything you don’t already know, especially about the sisters that aren’t Decca!