50 Books a Year - The 2025 Challenge

Glad you enjoyed Heatwave Sparklefizz. I recommended it on 9/07.

PL is such a good writer it was a pleasure to read. I enjoy Jane Gardam's novels for the same reason.
At the moment I am dipping into a favourite from my childhood The Country Child by Alison Uttley. The Mowing Time chapter about the harvest at her family farm in the late 1800s is a delight. A
I must read the most recent recommendations and put in an order at the library.

89-A Woman's Promise-Anna Jacobs
3rd of the Birch End trilogy. Another great read.

Book 42
A Mothers Promise - Renee Salt

The true story of Renee Salt, a ninety five year old holocaust survivor. It is co written with The historian Kate Thompson, so it written in the third and first person, Renee’s memories, and Kate filling in the historical facts.

Unimaginably sad, almost impossible to believe, this is a story that needs to be read. The ghettos, the death camps, the slaughter of a race, after our generation, it may just become a moment in history, without survivors like Renee who are willing to tell their stories.

To say I enjoyed it just wouldn’t be true, but it made me cry, and it made me ashamed of all the silly little things I complain about.

26. No and Me by Delphine de Vigan, originally in French
Lou is 13 and a bit of a misfit at school in Paris because of her high IQ.
She becomes friends with a slightly older girl called No who is homeless and this turns out to be much more problematic than Lou had thought.

48. The Wrong Hands, Mark Billingham

I’ve read a lot of Mark Billingham’s books, but not for some time, and I was surprised at how much humour there was in this one, to say it’s about gangland murders and a cop’s determination to find his wife’s killer. I enjoyed it though.

49. Orbital, Samantha Harvey

Last year’s Booker Prize winner. A group of astronauts/cosmonauts ruminate on life, faith and the fragility of our planet as they look down on us from their space station over the course of one day. It’s beautifully written, very short, and certainly gives good for thought.

#72. Run From Evil by Jack Cartwright.

#47 How not to be a Political Wife by Sarah Vine - a memoir.

90-Running Wild-Michael Morpurgo
What a wonderful moving book!
Well known for writing War Horse, MM brings to us the horrors of the tsunami of 2004 and the miracle of how an elephant giving rides on the beach saves the life of a boy, and explains about the hunting of endangered species. something we should all think about. Although this book is written for children it is done in such a sensitive way. I shall pass it on to my teenage grandchildren, but I'm so pleased I read it. Beautifully, written with love and emotion.

59 The God of the Woods Liz Moore Audible

Quite coincidentally whilst I was reading this book, I discovered that I was also watching a really good gritty series on ITVX, Long, Bright River, both written by the same author.

This book is set in up state New York in two time frames, firstly in the early sixties when a young boy Bear Van Laars disappears and more lately in the mid seventies when the same occurs with Bear's sister Barbara, some 14 or 15 years later. How unlucky can one family be? The family in question, the Van Laars, wealthy owners of summer camp in Adriondacks, this is a family with complicated relationships and who harbour dark secrets and the effect that those have in particular on their daughter. The narrative is driven along from various perspectives, a camp counsellor, a police investigator, various camp mates of Barbara. The dysfunctional relationships within several families associated with the camp are part of the story, as is alcoholism, deception and grief. Very good, as is the series, certainly Liz Moore seems to be an exceptionally accomplished American crime writer.

91-One Quiet Woman-Anna Jacobs
This is the first of a set of 4 set in Ellindale.
Another warm and moving story of life in the 1930's.
On reading this I realise that this set should be read before the other 2 trilogies I've just finished, as it's the basis of the family groups that run through all 10 books. I might have to re-read the other ones!
AJ tells her stories in such an easy way that makes you feel what the characters are going through in this time of great depression between the wars. Cannot recommend her enough.

60 The Household Stacey Halls

The setting is London 1847, although fictitious some of the story taken from fact and woven around the main character, philanthropist and daughter from the famous Coutts banking family, Angela Burdett-Coutts who became one of the richest women in England when she inherited £1.8 million from her grandfather. The narrative in this book is built around her collaboration with Dickens no less, both having a social conscious around the dire straits of many of the young women prostitutes languishing in prisons, workhouses. Their efforts were to rehabilitate them for a better life. With that in mind they acquired a house in Shepherd's Bush, an area that was considered quite rural at the time. Anyone who knows London would find that quite amusing given it's very much part of the heaving metropolis today a mere few miles out from the centre of London. So in 1847 Urania Cottage opened its doors to a handful of young women (usually tricked, or trafficked or merely plying their trade to stay alive) to a halfway house somewhere between a refuge and a social experiment teaching them the basics for domestic service, such as housekeeping, cooking as well as filling in any gaps in education and once the governors were happy with their progress they would emigrate to the colonies, not as criminals but as free agents, where they could begin their new lives. The story is built around a number of these girls, the main players being Martha and Josephine and as well as some secondary characters all who have been given this second chance, often with a troubled past which at times stalks them in their present situation. I enjoyed one of the author's previous books, Mrs England, this one less so, nevertheless quite good.

27. A Year at Castle Court by Holly Hepburn
Audiobook, originally 4 e-novellas

I wanted something unchallenging this time and found it in this book which is a story of two best friends who set up a shop selling iced biscuits - Smart Cookies.
It has high and low moments concerning their business and the love lives of the two friends and other shopkeepers of the many food shops in Castle Court.
A relaxing listen.

92-One Kind Man-Anna Jacobs
#2 of the Ellindale series. Fabulous read as always.

#73. A Litter Of Bones by JD Kirk.

Book 44
The Secrets of Pain - Phil Rickman

I love a Merrily Watkins novel. I’m spreading them out , because I really don’t want to get to the end.

To be completely honest, this one wasn’t my favourite, more SAS than deliverance, but still really enjoyable, with all the much loved characters returning.

If anyone wants a good series of mystery books, a touch of deliverance and some very strong characters, all set in the very atmospheric Welsh borders, give these a go.

#48 The Photograph by Penelope Lively - brilliant.
I haven't found a book by PL that I haven't enjoyed.

One day Glyn, a widower, while searching at the back of a cupboard, finds a sealed envelope with the words "Don't Open - Destroy" scrawled on it by his wife, Kath, who has been dead a few years.

He breaks the seal and finds a photograph of Kath holding hands with another man, and suddenly he is consumed by this one act of betrayal that she had hidden for many years. He becomes obsessed in getting to the root of Kath's infidelity and recklessly delves into the past, not caring about stirring up other people's emotions.

Penelope Lively has a wonderful way, in my opinion, of letting us find out about her characters for ourselves by what they say, what they do and what others say about them. Gradually each person becomes better known to us as she writes about grief and loss in relationships, human emotions and the way we can each remember things differently.

Slowly things fall into place for Glyn and make sense for all those affected.

Definitely 10/10.

#51 Fin and Lady by Cathleen Schine.
Set in 1964, 11 year old Fin and his glamorous, worldly, older half sister, Lady, have just been orphaned, and Lady, whom Fin hasn't seen in six years, is now his legal guardian and his only hope. That means Fin is uprooted from a small dairy farm in rural Connecticut, landing in Greenwich Village in the middle of the Swinging Sixties. He soon learns that Lady-giddy, impulsive, and pursued by an ardent and dogged set of suitors-is as much his responsibility as he is hers.
I really enjoyed this, the characters were excellent and Fin’s long-suffering coming of age was enjoyable, with his sharp wit and desire to do the best for Lady. 9/10

#52 Songs Without Words by Ann Packer. Liz and Sarabeth were childhood neighbours and best friends growing up in California. They became as close as sisters when Sarabeth moved in following the suicide of her mother. When Liz’s teenage daughter suffers serious difficulties, it stretches the women’s relationship to breaking point and makes them question everything about the years they have shared.
I didn’t enjoy this book, I found most of the characters undeveloped and lightweight. I previously read another book by this author which I really enjoyed so this was quite a disappointment. 6/10

#49 The Rest of our Lives by Ben Markovits

This book was ok but no more than that. I wouldn't particularly recommend it. 6/10

#74. Dancing With The Virgins by Stephen Booth.

The Figurine by Victoria Hislop

Set in Athens and in England, and touring Greek islands. fairly enjoyable, but not her best book imo. Rather lengthy. I have read others by this author which I enjoyed far more.

Sparklefizz

#47 How not to be a Political Wife by Sarah Vine - a memoir.

I bet that’s a really good read.

Love this thread 😍 am scribbling down so many books and authors.
Just started The Survivors by Jane Harper, have enjoyed all her other books.

I really enjoyed Jane Harper books but I've read them all now.

I've just started reading The Woman With all the Answers by Linda Green.
Alexa knows all about you and your family but who is she?
When Michelle, struggling with juggling a job, family, elderly parents, asks for help from the woman with all the answers, Alexa decides to go rogue and reveal her true identity as Pauline – a sixty-five-year-old former voiceover artist from Halifax – to teach Michelle everything she knows...

Another fan of Jane Harper, The Survivors wasn’t my favourite, but I have just watched a good Netflix adaptation, worth a watch if you enjoyed the book x

93-One Special Village-Anna Jacobs
#3 of the Ellindale series.
Beautifully written, even moving me to tears. How times have changed from 1934, when friends and neighbours all helped in times of need.