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

I must confess I DIDN’T enjoy Ghost Wall but I think I’m alone on the thread there.

I think Ghost Wall was my favourite Sarah Moss so far. I find some of her books quite stressful.

I’ve only read two. Have decided she’s not for me

After finding nothing in the Kindle Daily Deals, I checked my very long wishlist again, and was rewarded by finding Val McDermid's latest novel, and new Karen Pirie book, Silent Bones, quite newly published in October 2025, on offer for 99p. I still have the previous book in the series TBR.

I had 2 new two books delivered yesterday and one preordered for April , and another two books arriving today .
I probably have at least 20 unread titles of books at home ( not including this haul and books I received as Christmas gifts )
I also have books on order at the library .
Starting the new year I will curb my book buying ( kindle deals , kindle unlimited not included ) and get through my stash .
I also have many , many kindle books that I will try to get through .
That is my promise to me .
There I've said it to all of you so it must be true !

Just finished Little Women, not sure why as I rarely reread. Perhaps a comfort read, or maybe motivated by teaching the Gerwig film. That does make the book more interesting. I had forgotten all the God stuff. Also forgot - SPOILER AHEAD - that Beth doesn't die in LW.

Now only have two books on TBR pile. Horror !

You’re not alone Eine, I didn’t like Ghost Wall either.

@ChessieFL👍 so short and yet it dragged!

@Zireael I have 4 books by Sarah Moss, have now read 2. I doubt I will buy any more but will read the other two at some point.

I was considering Sarah Moss as a candidate for reading all of an author's work next year as I've read three and own four. Though she has written more non fiction than I realised.

I’ve also read Summerwater, which was OK, and Night Waking which I did like. I’m not fussed about reading any more by her.

I liked Ghost Wall.

65. A Waiter in Paris – Edward Chisholm

Edward Chisholm moved from England to Paris in 2012 and this memoir tells the story of his life as a waiter in one of the busy bistros in the heart of the city. While the author was doing the job essentially as a stopgap with the aim of being a writer, though still struggling to make ends meet, he acknowledges that for some this is their life, and a hard one at that with very long hours, stress, poor pay and office politics to contend with, in subhuman working conditions. A fascinating, if depressing, look at the underbelly of the restaurant trade in Paris, and no doubt similar to many other cities. Edward Chisholm should get together with Ben Aiken and compare notes.

This is the thread least likely to help you keep your vow, @WinterBerry40 .

Didn't like Ghost Wall although it should have been entirely up my street.

50) The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

A very highly rated book in the US - I'm not sure it will be quite so popular here but I enjoyed it well enough. It reminded me of Carole Shields on the way the author captures old age.

It is written in the form of correspondence - letters, emails - from a retired, divorced women called Sybil, who was devoted to her job as clerk to a judge. She is semi-estranged from her two adult children, and has few friends or hobbies so she writes letters. She was also adopted as an infant and has an adopted, but not related, brother.

She gets into some ancestry testing, some dalliances with admirers, ongoing correspondence with an old friend.

It's all perfectly pleasant and the reviews are outstanding. I raced through it and thoroughly enjoyed it, but I did expect more from all the hype.

196 Buckeye by Patrick Ryan
This tells the story of two connected families in small town America from the Second World War through to the 70s. There were parts of this I really liked- the themes of time passing and identity, the characters Felix and Everett, and I can see how it’s been so highly regarded both on the thread and in external reviews. It has one aspect which is a fairly major turn off for me in a book (reviewing for this thread over the last few years has helped me to recognise this) - the narration is too stylised which takes me out of the story as it reminds me that it is ‘just’ a story. It’s the same reason why I didn’t gel with The Heart’s Invisible Furies (though I’m about to go back to see if I can finish that before the year is out)

Re Sarah Moss I’ve liked everything I’ve read by her so far (Ripeness was in my top 10 of the year) but haven’t read Ghost Wall yet, though I do own it. Must move it up the TBR to give it a go.

I don't think I've read anything by Sarah Moss.

@Benvenuto Jane Eyre is one of my very favourites. I love that it finally clicked for you.

@Benvenuto – thank you, although to be honest, the scones are the least of my worries. I really miss cheese. Vegan substitutes are just not the same thing. However, I can tolerate goats cheese and sheeps cheese. Seems to be cows milk that’s the problem. Funnily enough, I have also downloaded a copy of Jane Eyre, along with The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. However, I’ve never read either. Now looking forward to it.

130 The Kamogawa Food Detectives - Hisashi Kashiwai trans Jesse Kirkwood. Charming Japanese story in the same genre as Before The Coffee Gets Cold. Father and Daughter run a specialist restaurant in Kyoto where they provide a general catering service, but also supply a service for those looking to track down food memories. As usual, I bought book number 2 in the set before realising that there was more than one book. Looking forward to the next book.

Ordinary Time by Cathy Reztzenbrink
Not my sort of thing, although I did like the sibling relationship. I found Ann deeply irritating and I didn’t find the male characters very believable.

Thanks for the new thread southeast.

Loved seeing the Christmas book hauls!

Thank you Welshwabbit for recommending The Thirteen Clocks which I really enjoyed reading to the dc . The story and the rhythm of the language were was great to read aloud. We had an ancient library copy with decades of issue stamps which added to the magic.

I consider myself a Sarah Moss fan on the strength of Summerwater, The Fell and Names for the Sea, enjoyed Ghost Wall and others of her novels I’ve read, and My Good Bright Wolf, less. Came on to post a review of her Ripeness - mixed feelings about this. Alternates between 1960s Italy and present day Ireland, with the same narrator, Edith, as a teenager and in her 70s. I enjoyed the sparkle of the writing, the locations, and how the 2 storylines resonated with each other, but I think I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn’t previously read her memoir Good Bright Wolf. Both the privilege and the privilege checking that irritated me in the memoir are here (though less so, thankfully), and Edith’s worldview and preoccupations are so very close to Sarah Moss’s that Edith hardly counts as an invented inner life, as opposed to the writer transposing herself to other circumstances. Finding myself hoping she’ll write a Brexiter next time.

Sarah Moss gives the same sort of gut reaction as Sally Rooney to me. I was bored before I even began.

I'm in a rut. I've got Jamaica Inn or Queer Georgians or the Cold War book which dp gave me, but not feeling any of them right now. Happy to buy something, but I have no idea what.

Moon Tiger much reviewed on here is 99p today

@Benvenuto great to see the Brontë love. DC1 and I went to the Haworth Parsonage today and it was wonderfully atmospheric, although the main takeaway was what a chump Branwell was. I've not yet read Agnes Grey but feel quite inspired to now, and I loved Tenant when I read it last year.

I rate Sarah Moss, Ghost Wall, Summerwater, and The Tidal Zone being my favourites. But nice lyric drop nonetheless, @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie .

I've only read a couple of Sarah Moss but also put Ripeness as one of my top 10.

I think I'll do RWYO for a few weeks at the start of this year @WinterBerry40. Last year I did it until the Woman's prize longlist was announced at the start of March. I allowed myself to buy book club books but nothing else.

@ÚlldemoShúl was running thread which may continue next year?

@StrangewaysHereWeCome I knew you'd get it!