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

Excellent @bettbberg, I did too 🙂

@RomanMum I have just finished The Crossing Places and was about to come and write a review but I can't top yours!
I quite liked Ruth though and will give the second one a go sometime. I spotted the murderer (which is unusual for me) and I liked that the plot was not too convulted (I like a detective/Police Procedural for easy reading)

@MonOncle I listened to The Bee Sting on Audible and couldn't get on with it at all. I held on until the bitter end because I kind of wanted to know what happened, but I will never forgive the ending. I have since heard there is no punctuation (is that right?) - so it is firmly shelved under "Time I Won't Get back"

I am now listening to Dreamcount by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie for my bookclub. It's quite meandering and I am struggling a bit with the Nigerian names (my issue), but enjoying it.

197. The State We're In - Adele Parks

Jo is flying, Eddie is dying, Dean is crying, Clara and Tim are lying.

RWYO. Jo is headed to Chicago to interrupt the wedding of her former fiance, Martin, because she's been so inspired by the marriage of her parents, Clara and Tim, that she's convinced herself Martin is the one who got away. She ends up sitting next to Dean, who is on his way back from London following a summons to the hospital bedside of his (very) estranged and (very) deadbeat father Eddie.

Only Clara has also received word from Eddie, who she had an affair with after the birth of her two DDs, and that has caused her to finally walk out on Tim who is, inconveniently for marital bliss, gay.

True love ensues, not to mention a bit of tragedy. It's an Adele Parks book!

@MaterMoribund I thought Zone of Interest was an absolutely extraordinary work of fiction. (And the film too, though they’re very different.)

44. Shattered by Hanif Kureishi

Kureishi is in his 70s now. He is best known for writing The Buddha of Suburbia and My Beautiful Laundrette.

Anyway, on Boxing Day 2022 he fell, head first onto the floor while staying with his girlfriend in Rome, and instantly became paraplegic.

He dictated pieces to his family and friends while in various hospitals both here and in Italy, and this is a compilation of them.

It reminded me of the Diving Bell and the Butterfly, which I read years ago (dictated by a man with locked in syndrome), but of course Kureishi is no amateur writer.

He is incredibly honest - maybe a bit too honest. He takes drugs with his sons (pre accident), tells us how he started out writing porn for magazines.

The book has fantastic reviews ( "wildly inspiring" z The Guardian) and I'm glad I read it but I can't say I hugely enjoyed it as his predicament is so awful and of course it could happen to any of us.

@WelshBookWitch if I remember right the Imelda sections lacked punctuation but the rest of it was fine. I thought it worked quite well and was able to get into the style pretty quickly (but of course not through the section because it was so f-ing long!).

59 The Familar - Leigh Bardugo
In the world of Inquisition-ridden 16th century Spain, scullion Luzia is in trouble - because she has real magical powers, and hidden Jewish ancestry. The family she serves, and then more powerful nobles, attempt to manipulate her skills for their own gain - and she falls into the orbit of white-haired immortal love interest Santangel, who may or may not have her best interests at heart… I found this a page-turner with great world-building and historical research, and the ending tied everything together in a very satisfying way. Lots of Bardugo fans say it’s not as good as her others though, so I’ll definitely look out for them.

60 Against the Machine - Paul Kingsnorth
Kingsnorth is a former Green activist and editor of The Ecologist, who has now retreated to the west of Ireland - to get away from the ‘machine’ and brew his own idiosyncratic worldview. Here he rails against the modern west, shaped in his mind by the ‘machine’ - the ultra-rationalist rejection of tradition and the pursuit of profit, and the collapse of the Christian moral system.

No one sane is going to agree with everything he says. He has recently converted to Orthodox Christianity, and seems to think that medieval feudalism was some sort of high point for humanity, and that emerging super-intelligent AIs might literally be the Antichrist. As in, really truly actually.

But… he is a very good writer and this had a deliciously-voiced Audible narrator, making it lovely to listen to on the sentence level. And a lot of his historical account of the rise of the Machine was thought-provoking - the way we have progressively lost the home-based skills of self-sufficiency from the Industrial Revolution onwards, making us completely dependent on the Machine. He’s also strong on the trajectory of the rejection of the real material basis of existence - as represented by trends towards artificial food production, the modification of healthy human bodies, and ultimately tranhumanism and the blurring of the line between human and machine. I’m left wanting to follow up on a lot of the ideas and authors he refers to.

There’s also a level where this is just a straight white middle-aged male ranting about the loss of a world that was made to suit his type.

@LadybirdDaphne
Thank you for your review of Against the Machine. It inspired me to watch a video of the author talking about his book. I will definitely be reading this one.

@WellWish I wouldn’t recommend it as such - but it did set my mind wondering down lots of interesting pathways, even if I’m unlikely to reach many of the same conclusions as Kingsnorth.

Anyone familiar with Joseph Roth’s novels? I’ve not read any, but picked up his journalism collection What I Saw second hand and it’s terrific. So would like to give his fiction a go, but not sure where is a good place to start.

There’s also a level where this is just a straight white middle-aged male ranting about the loss of a world that was made to suit his type.

Love this. I DNF'd Less because I felt similarly about its author!

@LadybirdDaphne- I ended up with quite a haul from the Deals last month, but I had to triangulate this thread, the Deals and BorrowBox to work out what was worth buying. It took some time, but I did end up with some interesting books that I might not have read otherwise. Thanks for the review of The Familiar - that’s one of my haul that I haven’t read yet. I’ve previously read Shadow & Bone by the same author that I thought was quite good and Ninth House that I liked very much even though it’s not my usual genre. Shortly after reading Ninth House, I then read Act of Oblivion by Robert Harris (about the men who signed Charles I’s death warrant) & both books surprisingly complemented each other as they are both about Yale.

Ben Macintyre readers might be interested in Agent Zigzag being in today’s deals (& coincidentally it’s one of my books for this post).

32 Cover Story by Mhairi McFarlane - this was a BorrowBox loan, but in which an undercover reporter is forced to work with the mature newspaper intern. They despise each other, so what could possibly happen next... I’ve read a few books by this author before and some I find are better than others. I do like that she sets her stories in provincial cities (here Manchester) and she can be very astute about office life and frienships. Unfortunately, this wasn’t one of her best as I didn’t find the plot very credible and the 2 main characters had quite an excessive amount of not terribly interesting baggage from past relationships. There was also a lot of the literary equivalent of product placement (name dropping of different companies etc.), although I was amused to spot a reference to Operation Mincemeat the Musical.

33 Agent Zigzag by Ben Macintyre - this is another book about World War 2 spying, which also has a fairly incredible plot (an a cameo appearance by one of the subjects of Operation Mincemeat) - except this time it’s completely true. It starts with some verve when a criminal takes his girlfriend on holiday to Jersey, only to end up in gaol and then for the island to be occupied by the Germans. This eventually results in him becoming a German spy, and then a double agent for the British. I enjoyed the first part of the book very much, with its descriptions of the pre-War criminal underworld, occupied Jersey and how the state subject became a spy. It’s not a bold mainly because I found the ending quite confusing.

34 Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros - this was a Kindle Deal that I mainly bought to see what the fuss is about. It’s the story of how a frail, bookish girl is thwarted in her desire to spend the rest of her life in the library and is forced to go to the military school Instead. It’s another enemies to lovers with baggage story, but as it’s Romantasy the baggage is of the feuding families type (which was rather more fun) and there be dragons and lots of violence. This was generally enjoyable, although if I was to be picky, I felt that the language was a bit formulaic in places.

I also bought Agent ZigZag in the deals today (to note, Colditz by BenMcIntyre is in the November deals as well!)

198 Wakenhyrst - Michelle Paver

I enjoyed this. It opens (and closes) with a framing story from 1966, but then jumps back 60 years to tell the full story of Maud, growing up in an isolated house on the Suffolk Fen near the village of Wakenhurst, We follow her for around 4 years from 12 to 16, her beloved French mother, awful father (with his academic interests in demons and possession and insistence on nightly conjugal rights) and a number of servants. A very creepy atmosphere as Maud gets drawn into her father’s researches and no one is quite sure what is real.

121. The Ornithologist's Field Guide to Love - India Holton

This was a gift and not necessarily something I would have picked, but I did definitely enjoy it. It's a romance set in a magical version of the Victorian era, based around two academics who are rivals in a contest about magical birds. It's very silly but had me smiling at the knowing humour and the good-natured adventure story holding the romance plot together.

122. The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins

I was pleasantly surprised how good this is! I thought it was a very solidly conceived and written young adult fantasy. I'd imagine most people know it's set in a dystopian world where teens are forced to fight for survival, as entertainment. I was expecting lots of grim fights to the death but there was only one scene which I found too grisly, and there's a lot of good stuff in there about loyalty, sacrifice, resilience etc.

123. Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead - Emily Austin

This had a very intriguing premise about a young lesbian who answers an ad for free therapy and is mistakenly given a job as the church receptionist. All kinds of shenanigans ensue. It's full of dark humour but deals with some weighty themes such as mortality and mental health. I whizzed through this and really enjoyed the contemporary setting and the distinctive voice of the protagonist.

I wondered what makes a book eligible for bolding in a list? Is it one you personally enjoyed, one that's especially well written, or one you'd recommend to others?

I think I'd rate my last two as 'bold', having enjoyed them a lot, but just checking the significance!

Any of the above @Frannyisreading a bold is in some way a standout for you

Probably everyone knows this already, but Charles Spencer’s A Very Private School is 99p on Kindle today. I’ve thrown everything else to one side to read it.

@Frannyisreading I love a bit of India Holton. I’m sure she wrote a book I read last year about women pirates and flying houses. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I just went to add Zone of Interest to my wish list and it's already 99p, hurrah! Love it when that happens!

(Possibly this was already mentioned and I didn't pay attention....)

@Frannyisreading I bold books that I loved and/or found fascinating.

199 Difficult Women - Helen Lewis

Interesting history of the last 150 years or so of feminism, in 11 “fights” (sex, love, vote, time etc) focusing on particular personalities (some known to me eg Pizzey, Pankhurst) and some not (early female medical students, the first lesbian MP etc)

40 A Very Private School by Charles Spencer
I’m bogged down in my main read, so it was good to race through this horrific account of a gilded cage, the prep school that Charles Spencer attended from the age of 8 where he was physically and sexually abused. Having quite a lot of men who boarded young in my life, I have never found it even slightly comprehensible as a practice - a bit different once the child reaches 13, though still unimaginable for me personally as a parent. He has a slightly formal writing style which I think has been well edited but leaves a slightly odd impression.

114 The Coming of Age of the Chalet School
115 The Chalet School and Richenda
116 Trials for the Chalet School
117 Theodora and the Chalet School all by Elinor M Brent-Dyer. Some kind soul on the What We’re Reading Board shared all 58 books and I am now addicted to getting through them asap. I’m on book 43 and they are all less than 200 pages, so I’m galloping through them.

@Arran2024 – I am about a third of the way through Connective Tissue and I have been sobbing. Such a great book. Thank you for the recommendation.

I’m also about a third of the way through The Wolf Den, but I’m finding it a bit of a struggle tbh. Its very grim. I know that the point, but its relentless.

@SheilaFentiman – as I consider you my ‘reading twin’ you may wish to know that I absolutely loved Rodham. I haven’t read the rest on your list.

Like Sheila, I’m finding that adding books to my list is making me content. I did buy The Bookbinder of Jericho and Black and British for 99p each, both well recommended on here. I also got Emma and Pride and Prejudice (freebies). DD was asking me about Jane Austen and given that it is the 250th anniversary of her birth in December, I’m going to read/reread.

I think it might have been a Monthly Deal, but it was on my WishList.
I’m still ruminating on parts of it, which is unusual for me.

Thin Air by Michelle Paver
Another re-read. Another ghost story. On the whole, I think that this one, set in the Himalayas on a mountaineering expedition, is a better book than Dark Matter because the character interactions are more interesting and because it’s got a bit more heft to it.

Whilst I struggled to not giggle at the descriptions of a terrifying, haunted rucksack, the human element was more defined and sustained than in Dark Matter and the historical story that provoked the haunting was, for me, more moving and engaging. I do feel that the diary form limits it rather, as in DM, but I mostly gobbled it up with a few pauses to laugh at the terrifying, moving rucksack.

200 Henry VIII and the Men Who Made Him - Tracy Borman

Book 200!

This was good - I liked but didn’t love it. Borman is a good writer and parts of this were interesting, but at times it got a bit like a list of names. I have read a lot of history/histfic of the period so I knew most of the main players (Cardinal Wolsey, Cromwell, Cranmer, Brandon etc) anyway.