50 Books Challenge 2025 Part Nine

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the ninth and final thread of the 50 Books Challenge for this year.

The challenge was 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 , the seventh thread here and the eighth thread

Happy New Year, 50 bookers! Just letting you all know that The Hallmarked Man and the latest Slough House book, Clown Town are in the Kindle daily deals today.

There’s also The Land In Winter, The Safekeep and a load of Elly Griffiths books. Good deals for those looking to stock up, less good for those trying not to spend money!

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/what_were_reading/5468432-50-books-challenge-2026-part-one

I just about finished The Years of the Wizard by Rachel Morris before the clock struck 12. It was an interesting account of what the heck Renaissance magicians such as John Dee thought they were up to, but I always have to slog through non fiction and make myself finish it, not sure why. I never learn and have several NF books on my TBR pile so I hope I get better at focusing during 2026. Total 138 for the year.

@Midnightstar76 I'd dearly love to know what books you found with kangaroo in the title. But I think they mean books that have a kangaroo word in the title like CONTAINER or ACTION or HISTORY or ALONE
Hoping that should make your challenge a little easier ;)

Happy New Year!
I finished Rainforest by Michelle Paver last night. Unpleasant creepy man tries to escape consequences of his actions by hunting mantids in South America. Unwisely brews his own hallucinogenic, loftily judges the failures and perverts he is exploring with, dabbles in casual 1970s racism. Might get his comeuppance at the end, I suppose, depending on how much you dislike him.
Author repeats words and phrases far too much. - I spent quite a lot of time rewriting descriptions in my head. A decent book about modern civilization destroying the ancient rainforests was hiding deep in the undergrowth, but neither the main character or the author seemed up to the task of hacking their way through the overgrown verbiage to uncover it.

HNY readers, many thanks for another lovely year of book chat!

@nowanearlyNicemum 😁thank you yes so so much easier lol. I just found this out too five minutes ago looking on the challenge website lol 😂 I did find lots of children’s books with the word Kangaroo 🦘 but none were calling me. Scurrying off now to see if my current books fit that category 😊

Happy new year all! 😂 at the kangaroo confusion (I’ve just googled kangaroo words, first thing I’ve learned this year! 😄)

Same @DuPainDuVinDuFromage 😊 you learn something everyday!

@MamaNewtNewt @DuPainDuVinDuFromage 😁 was just about to say the same every day a learning day so they say 😉

@midnightstar76 I really enjoyed reading my kids books from the Blue Kangaroo series by Emma Chichester-Clark. And a poem Hopaloo Kangaroo by John Agard - a poet from British Guiana but who now lives in Sussex with his also poet wife Grace Nichols. At one point we had a bedtime ritual of the kids bouncing up and down while I read it. I think I've seen a novel for grown ups called Kangaroo but I remember nothing more - I don't know whether there's anything about kangaroo courts.* *

Adding my final book of 2025:

85. The Forsyte Saga (Book 3 - To Let)

This book focuses on the next generation of Forsytes - Fleur and Jon - who are second cousins. The world is evolving and modernising. However, their story and lives are impacted by the secrets and actions of the previous generation.

Really glad I have read this saga (although it took me a while with Christmas and no commuting time) and finished it in time for the next play. Quite tempted now to see if I can find the 1960s television adaptation.

A good number to end on - although previous two years have been 88.

I had also never heard of a kangaroo word!

My list so far...
(1) The Nurse by Valerie Keogh
(2) The Wrong Child by Julia Crouch and M. J. Arlidge
(3) The Perfect Parents By J.A. Baker
(4) Darkest Fear, written by Harlen Coben
(5) Old Filth by Jane Gardam
(6) The Man in the Wooden Hat by Jane Gardam
(7) Last Friends by Jane Gardam
(8) American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins -
(9) The Housemaid by Frieda McFadden
(10) The Coworker by Frieda McFadden
(11) Maid by Stephanie Land (Audio Book)
(12) The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
(13) The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
(14) Class: A Memoir of Motherhood, Hunger, and Higher Education
Book by Stephanie Land
(15) Verity by Colleen Hoover
(16) Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah
(17) Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah
(18) Home Front by Kristin Hannah
(19) The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
(20) Fly Away by Kristin Hannah
(21) Night Road by Kristin Hannah
(22) Between Sisters by Kristin Hannah
(23) True Colours by Kristin Hannah
(24) Promise me by Harlan Coben
(25) Long Lost by Harlan Coben
(26) Live Wire by Harlan Coben
(27) The Women by Kristin Hannah - audio book
(28) The French for Love by Fiona Valpy
(29) Wild by Kristin Hannah
(30) The Couple at No.9 By Claire Douglas
(31) Holes by Louis Sachar

Final Book of 2025.....

(32) The Greek House by Dinah Jeffries

Review as usual taken from Amazon...

Can one house hold a lifetime of secrets?
Corfu, 1930
The moment Thirza Caruthers sets foot on Corfu, memories flood back: the scent of jasmine, the green shutters of her family’s home ― and her brother Billy’s tragic disappearance years before.
Returning to the Greek house, high above clear blue waters, Thirza tries to escape by immersing herself in painting ― and a passionate affair.
But as webs of love, envy, and betrayal tighten around the family, buried secrets surface.
Is it finally time to uncover the truth about Billy’s vanishing?

A very enjoyable book - I loved every page!

I have absolutely loved this challenge - I slipped a bit in the latter part of the year but I still managed to read 32 books - which is 32 more than I did the previous year!!
I cannot wait to keep reading and finding new stories and authors in 2026!!!

Happy reading everyone :)

My last two books of 2025:

153. Eleanor, Alice Loxton
Non-fiction. The author walks 200 miles to London along the route of the Eleanor crosses, built in the thirteenth century to commemorate a dead queen. I like this sort of thing, but did not warm to the author. She's very conscious of being Gen Z, with a large social media following, and she (a) informed me that the queen in question was an "executive CEO"; (b) conducted an imaginary and deeply banal interview with said queen; (c) referred to the crosses as "thicc" and "Instragrammable"; (d) illustrated the book with many, many, many photos of herself. It would be overly dramatic to say that I fear for the future of history, but I fear for the future of history.

154. Nature Cure, Richard Mabey
Non-fiction. The author describes his recovery from a mental breakdown and reconnects with his love of nature. I tend not to like nature writing as much as I want to, as it just gets so detailed - you're stuck with three paragraphs on the variegated pigmentation of leaves, or some such thing - but I liked his account of his personal life and the centuries-old house he was living in.

@bibliomania your Eleanor review made me 😂 (but also despair with you).

Last call for the 2025 roundup! it’s Thursday today, I will be doing the summary on Monday, so if you haven’t contributed your favourite reads to the roundup thread and would like to, please do so over the weekend.(I’ll also post this in the 2026 new thread). Thank you!

@bibliomania I read Alice Loxton's book Eighteen and it absolutely irritated me. She kept surmising what this or that historical character "must" have thought, or done, at a certain moment in their life... All made up stuff. If you want to go that route, write a novelisation, not non-fiction!

@RomanMum , I've never felt so middle-aged in my life.

@Frannyisreading , yes, made-up stuff in this one too, including some improbable scenes with the royal couple discussing politics in bed.

@bibliomania- loved the review but can’t help thinking that in the case of Queen Eleanor “executive CEO” is a euphemism for “avaricious landlord”. It also reminded me of Sharon Penman’s books, which I find deeply cringey in places, but at least they were novels and made me cry over the Fall of Wales!

I’m another one who has been learning about kangaroo words (thanks to everyone who mentioned the 52 books challenge - I’ve not tried it before but have added it to my book goals for this year).

Also thanks to the recommendations for the deals - I spotted another book by Laura Shepherd-Robinson (Art of the Lie) called Blood & Sugar.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie- sorry for not being clearer. I think you wrote a verse recently for a review and I wondered if you had used the Dylan Thomas poem as a model as the line length looked similar (it’s not important- I was just curious as I had assumed it was a limerick).

Happy New Year all! And apologies for this final overly long set of reviews. I'm such a procrastinator when it comes to reviewing what I read. Now I can move on and start the new year with a clean slate.

81. The Book of Guilt, Catherine Chidgey 4/5
    Well-written and quite chilling.

82. I See You, Clare MacIntosh 3/5
    Book group read. A thriller written by a former police officer. The descriptions of women being stalked in the tube were suitably scary, but the ending (which was actually a double ending!) was too implausible for me.

83. Cher connard [Dear Dickhead], Virginie Despentes 5/5
    I loved this. It’s a modern-day epistolary novel that focuses on fame, the Me Too movement in France, the cruelty of social media pile-ons, and addiction and recovery. I found the depictions of NA meetings particularly moving. I remember @inaptonym mentioning this book to me much earlier in the year – thank you inaptonym if you’re still around (I miss your reviews)! More recently, @SheilaFentiman , I think you read this novel and heartily disliked it! Despentes is definitely a marmite author, but her version of feminism is one that resonates with me.

84. L’enfant fou de l’arbre creux [The Mad Child of the Hollow Tree], Boualem Sansal 4/5
    Sansal is a famous French-Algerian writer who was arrested and imprisoned last year at age 81, supposedly for his criticism of the Algerian government. In a grim intersection of life and art, this novel (which he published in 2000) is the account of two men on death row in an Algerian prison. It wasn’t an easy read, linguistically or thematically, though there was a fair bit of dark humour. The male protagonists weren’t always sympathetic, especially when it came to their treatment of women, but the depiction of post-colonial Algeria was gripping. After finishing the novel, I discovered that Sansal was freed from prison in November and is now safely back in France: great news.

85. The Anna Karenina Fix: Life Lessons from Russian Literature, Viv Groskop 5/5
    It was @elkiedee who passed this book on to me at our London meet up – thank you, elkiedee. I had already read and enjoyed Groskop’s quick tour of the French literary canon (Au Revoir, Tristesse), but this whirlwind introduction to the classics of Russian literature is even better. Very funny and insightful.

86. SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome, Mary Beard 4/5
    If I were on the Read What You Own thread, this would be a good candidate for it, since a receipt indicates that I bought this book in 2017. It’s a remarkable book, but a bit dense in places, and I’ve been reading it off and on for much of the year. Some chapters I loved (eg the opening chapter on Cicero and Catiline), but others were harder to follow. There is so much demystifying of myths about Roman history that I sometimes lost sight of the big picture. I remember the classic From the Gracchi to Nero, which I read as an undergraduate, as tracing a far more memorable trajectory (but it was certainly a much more simplistic, less nuanced account than Beard’s). Beard’s passion for the ancient world comes through strongly, and she offers a lot of food for thought.

87. L’Occupation [The Possession], Annie Ernaux 3/5
    I’m a big Ernaux fan and have read about a dozen of her novels by now, but this very short work doesn’t rank among my favourites, though it’s interesting. It’s a typically clear-sighted, forensically precise account of the jealousy that possesses her after she ends a love affair and her ex-lover begins a new relationship. Incidentally, I discovered online that the lover in question is Philippe Vilain (whom she also writes about in Le jeune homme, which I haven’t read). Vilain has just published an autofictional work of his own, Mauvais élève, in which he apparently discusses Ernaux. I learned that at the time he was in a relationship with Ernaux (about 25 years ago, when he was in his 20s and she was already famous and in her 50s), he was writing a PhD on her work. The title of his PhD thesis was ‘Le sexe et la mort dans l’œuvre d’Annie Ernaux.’ I find this rather mind-boggling. The fact that her young ex-lover was actually writing his PhD on sex in her oeuvre is not something that Ernaux mentions in L’Occupation, ha. It’s a reminder that autobiography/autofiction can be very intimate, but also very selective in terms of which facts it chooses to reveal.

88. Dombey and Son, Charles Dickens 5/5
    The year’s reading ended on a high note with this marvellous Dickens novel, which is definitely underrated. It’s primarily about parent/child relationships, and about the failings of capitalism and patriarchy. Great characters, lots of humour and lots of pathos.

@bibliomania thank you for reading the Alice Loxton book so the rest of us don't have to! 😂

Tbf, @Benvenuto , she does mention the avaricious landlord aspect, although she then dismisses it along the lines of "They would say that, wouldn't they?"

@cassandre , I'm glad my sacrifice has been acknowledged!

Speaking of acknowledgement, I admire you and the other 50-bookers who read in other languages. I could probably give it a go in French, if I chose something fairly simple, but there are always so many books I'm longing to get on with in English. But kudos to those of you who do it.

101. Hunted by Abir Mukherjee

Pedestrian thriller with an interesting premise that created a set up that ultimately failed to deliver. Two parents are brought together from opposite sides of the globe as they discover their children have become involved in terrorist plots and try to stop them before it is too late. A great initial idea but unfortunately this didn’t know whether it was an FBI procedural, a thriller or a political conspiracy novel. The hybrid result didn’t really work as the focus was pulled in too many directions.

102. Stranded by Sarah Goodwin

Reality TV show gone wrong. A group of people are taken to a remote Scottish island to live out a year of survival. Obviously it all goes wrong. Very readable.

103. The Way of the Hermit by Ken Smith

Ken Smith has lived in a small cabin on the shores of Loch Trieg in Scotland for the last 40 years. He tells his story of how he has survived and his life on the margins of society, surviving in the elements. This was interesting because he hasn’t completely turned his back on society. He realised that in order to live a peaceful life he needed to seek permission to build his cabin and also pay his dues by doing occasional work on the estate on which he lives. I’m glad I read this. I also learned that you can make wine from almost anything (which he does. A lot.)

104. Swept Away by Beth O’Leary Utterly daft premise but she’s a good enough writer to get away with it. Two people engage in a one night stand on a narrowboat but in the morning it has drifted away from the mooring and they are stuck at sea together. Naturally they grow as people and fall in love but not without a few hiccups along the way. Escapism.

And that’s my lot for the year. It’s been a great year of reading. I’ve done more reading as a general pastime than since I was probably a teenager. I’ve slowed down a little towards the end of the year (partly because I listen to a lot of sporting podcasts at this time of year so have listened to barely any audiobooks, partly because I have gone back to more doom scrolling). I’m going to try hard to keep up the enjoyment and use reading as my go to activity when there is nothing else happening.