My Wrap Up Post -- 2025 EUROPEAN READING CHALLENGE

THE 2025 EUROPEAN READING CHALLENGE

My Wrap Up Post

This is my wrap up for the 2025 European Reading Challenge. To join the 2026 challenge (and I hope you do), go to the main challenge page, here.

Even though 2025 was the 13th year I hosted the challenge, I haven't been very good about my own participation. In 2024, I even forgot to do a sign up post! I resolved to do better in 2025 and I did, a bit. I read more books set in European countries and I read more books in translation, but I was still no good at reviewing the books I read. Maybe 2026 will be the year I hit my stride.

I didn't pick any particular books for the challenge. Those in the photo were possibilities, but I didn't read any of them. Here are the counties I visited in the books I did pick, in the order I visited them:

• THE UK: Scoop by Evelyn Waugh. As always, I read many, many UK books, but this reread of an old favorite was the first UK book I read in 2025.

• IRELAND: Strange Flowers by Donal Ryan. I also read quite a few books set in Ireland or by Irish authors. This was the first I read in 2025, but it wasn't my favorite. 

• BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA: The Little Red Chairs by Edna O'Brien

• FRANCE: Maigret and the Spinster by Simenon, one of the translated books I read, by a Belgian author who wrote in French.

• RUSSIA: Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, a translated classic.

• NORWAY: How to Winter: Harness Your Mindset to Thrive on Cold, Dark, or Difficult Days by Kari Leibowitz

• UKRAINE: The Lady of the Mine by Sergei Lebedev, another book in translation. 

• HOLLAND: The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis, also in translation. 

• AUSTRIA: The Salzberg Connection by Helen MacInnes

• CZECH REPUBLIC: The Snare of the Hunter by Helen MacInnes

• BULGARIA: A Coffin for Dimitrios by Eric Ambler

• GREECE: Three Summers by Margarita Liberaki, a translated NYRB Classic.

• POLAND: The Ice Saints by Frank Tuohy, 1964 winner of the James Tate Black Memorial Prize and an undercover gem. 

• GERMANY: Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, translated. 

• SWITZERLAND: Above Suspicion by Helen MacInnes. Thank goodness for MacInnes -- she took me to several European countries. 

• DENMARK: The Templar Legacy by Steve Berry

• PORTUGAL: I Like it Here by Kingsley Amis

• ITALY: Thus Was Adonis Murdered by Sarah Caudwell

• FINLAND: The Summer Book by Tove Jansson, author of the Moomin books, in translation. 

• BELGIUM: The British Baking Book: The History of British Baking, Savory and Sweet by Regula Ysewijn. A very British book but by a Belgian author who originally wrote the book in Dutch. 

In all, I visited 20 countries for the 2025 European Reading Challenge and read eight books in translation, both persona bests. Let's see how far I can go in 2026!