26ish books 2026

What did you think of The Silence of the Girls @Everintroverte ? It's on my intend to read list but we had a stressful year as a family last year and it looks to have quite traumatic content. Not sure I have the mental energy for it. I loved her Ghost Road trilogy, read those in the 90s and still remember them well.

Completely agree, I was so disappointed with this as I’ve loved everything else she has written. I wanted to know more about backstory of the character who escaped as well (can’t remember any names as read it in hardback when it came out - what a waste of a good book token!!)

Can I join please, late to the party but so far this year I have read:

1. The Silence of the Girls - Pat Barker
2. By any other name - Jodi Picoult
3. We live here now - Sarah Pinborough

All very good books, just finished we live here now which had a great twist. Next book is Lone Wolf by Josi Picoult. She used to be my favourite author before having children, only just started back reading and realised that she had loads of books out that I have missed so she will feature heavily this year. Keen to join and keep motivated.

I have finished
Book 6, The Girl With The Louding Voice by Abi Daré.

Book 7, Don't Let Him In by Lisa Jewell

I'm moving on to book 8, The Art of a Lie by Laura Shepherd-Robinson.

I finished book 8, The Names by Florence Knapp, like pp. Before joining this thread, I had no idea it was so popular. My DH read it on his kobo and really enjoyed it, so I picked up the hardback version from a charity shop.

Some scenes were hard to read but overall, I enjoyed it and kept wanting to know what happened

I got a load of books for my birthday so I'm going to have to get reading - have only read one of my Christmas books!
Has anyone read the Margaret Atwood autobiography? My mum gave it to me, she likes Atwood, I'm quite selective in which of hers I like and I haven't read The Handmaid's Tale deliberately. Not sure if I'll like it.

OK so I didn't do very well in finding something a bit different to my usual twisty thriller!
Book 8 Ruth Ware The Lying Game.

Book 4 is "Precious Bane" by Mary Webb. I've been intending to read this for years and I can see why it's a minor classic. The protagonist Prue Sarn is a wonderful character. It's written in Shropshire dialect from 200 years ago so I had to concentrate 😀

Books 11 and 12
The Murder of Miranda by Margaret Millar. Really funny mystery - feels like a Golden Age detective novel but actually written in the 70s.
We'll prescribe you a cat by Syou Ishida. Cute but just on the interesting side. Mild magical realism, and a very quick read.

Book 4 finished just now. I actually started it as my 3rd but read Then she was gone in 2 days while ill.

1.The September House - interesting concept. Skipped through much of the ending.
2. Our Endless numbered days.

1. Then she was gone

4 The Names - Florence Knapp

following the alternative lives of a family upon making one single decision and how that can change the course completely.

I wasn’t expecting the heartbreaking story in this book at all. The first few chapters were an extremely hard read for me. That said it was fantastically done and so powerful.

I did struggle a little bit with the back and forth and found myself a little confused by all the different characters but I enjoyed it. I gave it 3.5 stars (but upped to 4 on GR which is unlike me as I usually round down on a half) I felt it deserved more than a 3 but not as good as the 4s I’ve read recently.

book club tomorrow so my next read is a complete surprise

Finished book 7 Local Girl Missing by Claire Douglas. It was ok, read it pretty quickly.
Looking for something a bit different now.

I am listening to (but not counting in my books) The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Jewell.

I’ve just finished book 5: The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell - I didn’t want to put it down, great book, good rounded characters with lots of twists and really well written

2026 books so far:
then she was gone
beautiful ugly
the intruder
the shadows

I have that on my TBR pile too - must get to it!

@Clairedebear101286 that's my all time favourite book too - despite the anguish at reading it. It has stayed with me.

No 7 - Lord of the Flies by William Golding. My first time reading this book and I wanted to read it before watching the TV dramatization. I can't believe it's passed me by. Such a well written and frankly believable book about a group of boys stranded on an island and how they quickly turned to savages. Great characters in the story.

Afternoon👋 Finished book five....
(1) The French for Christmas by Fiona Valpy
(2) The Outside Boy by Jeannie Cummins
(3) Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
(4) All the Broken Places by John Boyne
(5) A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

Description taken from Amazon:

Mariam is only fifteen when she is sent to Kabul to marry Rasheed. Nearly two decades later, a friendship grows between Mariam and a local teenager, Laila, as strong as the ties between mother and daughter. When the Taliban take over, life becomes a desperate struggle against starvation, brutality and fear. Yet love can move a person to act in unexpected ways, and lead them to overcome the most daunting obstacles with a startling heroism.

Such a brilliant book which had a profound effect on me - so sad and scary to think that the horrible events which take place in the book are taking place again due to the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan and the the whole world is sitting back and allowing it to happen.

A book that everyone has to read!

Onto the next...

Happy reading everyone :)

I read about 40 per year too.

8 North Woods - Daniel Mason. A re-read from last year as it was chosen for book club, didn’t love it the second time around either. Too many stories that move on too quickly and quite a few annoyed or bored me. Solid 2.5/5

9 The Life Impossible - Matt Haig. Needed an easy to listen to audiobook while sick last week and it’s narrated mainly by Joanna Lumley, who I adore particularly doing audio drama. She was fab and well suited but the book itself was too fluffy and repetitive for me

re number of books, when I first started on this thread I think I managed 12 books that year and it’s steadily increased so now I average around 40, but the pace suits me here and people on the 50 book thread read more like 100!! I can’t keep up at all so I miss recommendations whereas I get a lot on this thread and I especially love it when there’s a flurry like a few years ago quite a lot of us did some Daphne du Maurier re-reads which I loved!

@PinkOrangeRed The Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds version is my favourite of all the JA adaptations.

7. Persuasion - Jane Austen
A re-read after having watched the dire but well acted film version on Netflix (modern slang, breaking the 4th wall!). Such long sentences though.
I've just seen that the 1990's Amanda Root/Ciaran Hinds BBC version is available on iPlayer so will watch as a comparison.

Finished Beautiful Ugly already. Quite liked it, found the end a bit annoying though.
Number 7: Local Girl Missing by Claire Douglas
I'm looking for some recommendations for something a bit different after this though. I've read a few thriller with a twist types recently.
Recommendations I've seen on mumsnet before that I read and loved but would never normally have chosen, were Fingersmith, American Dirt, Lessons in Chemistry. If anyone can give me some titles of non twisty thrillers I should try then I would be grateful!

I always read more in winter than summer, so it averages out to around 26

I read about 5 of them in the Christmas holidays.

All you guys on book 10/11 are you on the right thread? Surely the 50 a year will more apt seeing as you’re over a 3rd off 26 by mid Feb.