50 Books a Year - The 2025 Challenge

Indigo8

Maggiemaybe I love Anne Tyler's books too. I also love books by the late Alison Lurie. I think that if you like one you will probably/possibly like the other.

Thank you, Indigo8, I’ll look out for Alison Lurie. The more good authors to read, the better!

They're all great books LadyGaGa my husband's reading Any Human Heart right now, recommended by moi, He's loving it, probably a book he wouldn't have picked up, he tends to go for crime more than anything else.

My first book is The Romantic by William Boyd. I have read Any Human Heart, Restless, Sweet Caress and Love is Blind. I found some more forgettable than others. Any Human Heart was my fave. The Romantic was recommended by TerriBull last year, but only just got round to reading it. Really enjoying it so far. It’s a lovely flowing, lyrical read and just carries you with it. Thanks!

#1 A terrible kindness by Jo Browning-Wroe. Sad book , but covered topics I found interesting. Good read.

#2 just started Odd boy out an autobiography by Gyles Brandreth. Funny , if you like Gyles you will love this.

Just started my first book of the year, and it's for book club -

Good Material by Dolly Alderton.

Not Midnight New, I left off the final s, should read Midnight News

1. The Midnight New - Jo Baker (Audible)

I loved Jo Baker's Longbourn, I've been a while with this one, I'm kind of regretting listening to it rather than reading it, I kept going back and playing whole sections again, it's quite complex and I often felt I'd missed something pivotal, in this fairly multi layered plot. The setting is London, 1940 when enemy planes are pounding the capital. Charlotte Richmond is living in the south London suburbs travelling up to the Ministry of Information where she has a rather boring job. She has a difficult relationship with her fairly moneyed family, her father having committed her to an asylum when she was 17 due to wayward behaviour. Grieving the loss of her beloved brother killed in action in France. At the outset of the book, Charlotte at least has a coterie of friends around her, particularly her closest friend and confidante Elena, Sadly, one by one her support circle fall victim to the Blitz, but they never really leave her they become voices in her head. As the book progresses she feels she is losing her grip on reality, always fearful that she may lose her freedom as well as losing her mind, is she being stalked by a shadowy presence or is that paranoia? During her walks about London she meets a young man feeding the birds, Tom Hawthorne, who is to become an allay and eventual saviour. The book conjures up all the horrors of the war years in the continual pounding of bombs raining down, London's population never knowing whether your loved ones or home would be wiped out in a nano second. A very good book, unusual in its unpredictability, I like that as opposed to books where you just know where the narrative is going to go .

Maggiemaybe I love Anne Tyler's books too. I also love books by the late Alison Lurie. I think that if you like one you will probably/possibly like the other.

One for short story lovers, the brilliant Margaret Atwood's "Dancing Girls".

2. Redhead by the Side of the Road, Anne Tyler

I’ve never yet read an Anne Tyler I didn’t love, and this is no exception. She’s just such a brilliant writer. As is often the case in her books, nothing much happens, but I was still totally involved in the everyday story of Micah, self-employed tech guy, and his small relationships.

Lost For Words - Stephanie Butland.
Just finished the audiobook & enjoyed it.
It's the story of a young woman who had to be taken into care because of a family tragedy and how she is coping now, in her early twenties, with trust issues, living in a bedsit and working in a second-hand bookshop.

DUNSTAN not Dunstable…

Book#1 - Broken Light by Joanne Harris.
On book #2 -Dunstable by Conn Iggulden

Happy New Year to all the readers out there. I’ve added my 2024 review to the thread TerriBull has created for that.

My first book of the year was a good one, Earth by John Boyne. It was a short and quick read, quite unputdownable.
Two well known footballers are in court, charged with sexual assault, a series of vile text messages pointing towards their guilt. As the trial unfolds, Evan reflects on the events in his life that have brought him to this point. He is a gay man in a sport that rejects diversity. 9/10

Now off to decide which of my Christmas gifts to read next, and what to spend my Christmas book token on…

^Quote FlitterMouse Thu 02-Jan-25 10:01:51
Book #1. Kala by Colin Walsh.

I borrowed both the printed book and audio book so I could toggle between the two depending on what I was doing - which was just as well as I found the story so gripping that it was hard to either put the book down or stop listening^

Crikey.
Shows how different we all are. It was our book club read last October. I put it down halfway through. Tried it on Audible for a while but found I had no urge to find out ‘who dunnit to Kala’. 🤷‍♀️

#2. A Line To Kill by Anthony Horowitz.

I've just started "Tea with Hitler" by Dean Palmer. Very interesting and rather alarming to say the least.

Happy New Year everyone!
My first 2025 book: Orbital by Samantha Harvey. Wow! This short book relates the reflections, experiences and hopes for the future of six astronauts during one 24-hour period, as they orbit the Earth 16 times. It’s fiction, but totally believable. I found it uplifting, thought provoking and stunningly beautiful.

Happy New Year, TerriBull and all the readers!

My first book of 2025 is:

1. The List of Suspicious Things, Jennie Godfrey

Set in 1970s West Yorkshire, 12 year old Miv and her best friend Sharon determine to find the Yorkshire Ripper. They make a list of people they find suspicious for various reasons - dark hair, moustache, not from round here - and in the course of investigating them, unearth a lot of secrets in their neighbourhood. I really enjoyed this one - it got my 2025 reading off to a good start.

Happy New Year, Terribull!

No 1. The Gardener by Salley Vickers. It’s a tale of two sisters who buy a dilapidated house and garden together despite their very different lives. It tries to weave in modern day topics but it’s clumsy and very obvious, which is a shame.

#1 Munich by Robert Harris. I’m committed!

Tricia1951 I've just seen 'Between the covers' on tv and they were all raving about Any Human Heart, so I'll be watching for your comments before I order it from the library.

My first book of the year-
1-Gone Fishing-Mortimer and Whitehouse.
Saw this in the swap kiosk and as I find their tv show the most relaxing thing on tv, I thought I'd give this a try.
Yes it is about fishing, but what comes across is the deep affection these two have for one another, and their sense of humour . I've never been fishing in my life, but know people that are hooked on it(please excuse the pun!), and reading this made me understand why they love the peace and beauty of sitting beside the water, relaxing and enjoying the wildlife.

Have just started Any Human Heart by William Boyd - looks promising!

I'm working my way through the Merrily Watkins series by Phil Rickman on my kindle (that's bedtime reading). Just started The Prayer of the Night Shepherd.
Also reading The Cancer Code, by Dr Jason Fung, to get a better understanding of how cancer works (husband has oesophageal cancer).
And Mythos by Stephen Fry in paperback as daytime reading (requires more focus).
Oh, and The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith aka J K Rowling on Audible. That's mostly for the car.
Anyone else reading multiple books?

Book #1. Kala by Colin Walsh.

I borrowed both the printed book and audio book so I could toggle between the two depending on what I was doing - which was just as well as I found the story so gripping that it was hard to either put the book down or stop listening.

Audible summary:

In the seaside town of Kinlough, on Ireland's west coast, three old friends are thrown together for the first time in years. They—Helen, Joe and Mush—were part of an original group of six inseparable teenagers in the summer of 2003, with motherless, reckless Kala Lanann as their group's white-hot center. Soon after that summer's peak, Kala disappeared without a trace.

Now it's fifteen years later: Helen has reluctantly returned to Ireland for her father's wedding; Joe is a world-famous musician, newly back in town; and Mush has never left, too scared to venture beyond the counter of his mother's café. But human remains have been discovered in the woods. Two more girls have gone missing. And as past and present begin to collide, the estranged friends are forced to confront their own complicity in the events that led to Kala's disappearance, and to try to stop Kinlough's violent patterns repeating themselves once again...

Against the backdrop of a town suffocating on its own secrets, in a story that builds from a smoulder to a stunning climax, Kala brilliantly examines the sometimes brutal costs of belonging, as well as the battle in the human heart between vengeance and forgiveness, despair and redemption.

Still in Ireland, I am now listening to #2 Time of the Child by Niall Williams and reading #3 The Coast Road by Alan Murrin which readers of nb.Magazine voted best new book of 2024.