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50 Books Challenge 2025 Part Nine

405 replies

Southeastdweller · 22/12/2025 10:33

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

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20
elspethmcgillicudddy · 02/01/2026 16:22

Also I'm going to use this thread for something of an apology- I really can't cope with the volume on these threads in Jan/Feb. I'll try to keep up but if I just secretly hibernate and only post my own bits until it gets quieter in the year then I apologise!

JaninaDuszejko · 02/01/2026 18:17

@elspethmcgillicudddy I think last year I only read posts by regulars in January to keep it manageable.

LuckyMauveReader · 03/01/2026 12:48

My round up of reads for 2025 is of 102 books. These were made up of

Female Authors 43
Male Authors 59
Fiction 89
Non - Fiction 13

My bolds for a variety of reasons

Atomic Habits by James Clear
The Medusa Frequency by Russell Hoban
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
Orbital by Samantha Harvey
The Nanny by Melissa Nathan
The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas
Mr Dombey and Sons by Charles Dickens
The Heart of a Dog by Mikhael Bulgakov
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Call of the Wild by Jack London
The Corsican Brothers by Alexander Dumas
The Cloisters by Katy Hays
The Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

Last year, the reading challenge encouraged me to read a lot of books that I would never normally have read and found a few gems. I am normally quite rigid in my reading and stick to the genre I am used to or know. Each of these books, whether through its humour or subject matter, stayed with me long after finishing the books.

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 05/01/2026 19:43

Benvenuto · 01/01/2026 22:27

@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).

Sorry. Only just seen this. No, mine was just a daft limerick - lines 1, 2 and 5 rhyme, and lines 3 and 4 rhyme.

ClaraTheImpossibleGirl · 07/01/2026 22:48

Just recording the final list of my 2025 books here!

205 in total which included lots of Enid Blyton (read with DS1), I must have read all the Famous Five books when young but couldn't remember any of the later ones Blush

  1. Lesley Cookman - Murder Repeated
  2. Katy Watson - A Deadly Night at the Theatre
  3. Tom Mead - The House at Devil's Neck
  4. Lucy Easthope - When the Dust Settles
  5. Jane Lark - The Tainted Love of a Captain
  6. Toshikazu Kawaguchi - Before the Coffee Gets Cold
  7. Aisling Rowle - The Compound
  8. JK Rowling - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
  9. MG Leonard - Hunt for the Golden Scarab
  10. Milli Hill - Ultra Processed Women
  11. Gillian McAllister - Famous Last Words
  12. Deanna Raybourn - A Sinister Revenge
  13. Sian Gilbert - She Started It
  14. Martin Edwards - Miss Winter in the Library with a Knife
  15. Agatha Christie - Country Christie
  16. Peter Swanson - The Christmas Guest
  17. Enid Blyton - Five on Finniston Farm
  18. Enid Blyton - Five Go To Demon's Rocks
  19. Terry Pratchett - Jingo
  20. Alison Goodman - The Ladies Road Guide to Utter Ruin
  21. Alex Pavesi - Ink Ribbon Red
  22. Lana Williams - A Rogue No More
  23. Virginia Heath - The Mysterious Lord Millcroft
  24. Jonathan Stroud - The Screaming Staircase
  25. Jonathan Stroud - The Whispering Skull
  26. Jonathan Stroud - The Hollow Boy
  27. Jonathan Stroud - The Creeping Shadow
  28. Jonathan Stroud - The Empty Grave
  29. Alexandra Vasti - In Which Margo Halifax earns her Shocking Reputation
  30. NJ Barker - The Honesty Index
  31. Robert Galbraith - The Hallmarked Man
  32. Dr Jack Mosley - Food Noise
  33. Natalie Fergie - 25 Library Terrace
  34. Jodi Taylor - A Bachelor Establishment
  35. Nicola Upson - The Christmas Clue
  36. Ada Moncrieff - Murder in Midwinter
  37. Ada Moncrieff - Murder at Maybridge Castle
  38. Ada Moncrieff - Murder at the Theatre Royale
  39. CK McDonnell - Ring the Bells
  40. Emma Mason - Murder Most Haunted
  41. Julie Wassmer - Murder Fest
  42. Steven Moore - The Stuff of History
  43. Michelle Salter - Murder in Trafalgar Square
  44. Sophie Irwin - How to Lose a Lord in Ten Days
  45. JR Ellis - The Otley Murders
  46. Anthony Kavanagh - Pop Scars
  47. Rev Richard Coles - Murder under the Mistletoe
  48. FL Everett - Murder at Mistletoe Manor
  49. Ben Aaronovitch - Stone & Sky
  50. Sally Smith - A Case of Life and Limb
  51. Helen Cox - A Body at the Christmas Book Fair
  52. Philippa Gregory - Boleyn Traitor
  53. Jodi Taylor - Doing Time
  54. Jodi Taylor - Murder at Martingale Manor
  55. Fiona Leitch - The Cornish Castle Murder
  56. Edward Marston - The Railway Detective's Christmas Case
  57. Janice Hallett - The Killer Question
  58. Enid Blyton - Five Have a Mystery to Solve
  59. Enid Blyton - Five are Together Again
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