50 Books Challenge 2026 Part Three

@BestIsWest I know what you mean - this is why I’m tackling the Peter Sellers in sections with other books in between. @Stowickthevast I quite like going down those rabbit holes but it does hold up reading the book.

@Arran2024 I also loved Arthur and George.

Sorry was meant to quote @Stowickthevast there! Am still half asleep here

I've got Paradiso 17 sitting as a suspended hold on Libby. I'm holding out to see if it makes the WP shortlist but I think I may just give it a miss completely

Like @ChessieFL I’ve also finished A Tale Of Two Cities well ahead of the Readalong deadline.
Not sure why it’s taken me quite so many decades to get round to reading it, but it’s a rollicking adventure, memorable characters, very fast paced - particularly in the final third - and quite different to other Dickens I have read. Looking forward to the end of month discussion and the new BBC adaptation. I hope they do it justice.
Now back to Naples for the fourth book in the Neopolitan Quartet!

@bibliomania that would have been more atmospheric but probably a lot less comfortable!

There was a book on my wishlist today in the deals Good People. I think this was one of the Observer's debut books of the year, and one quite a few book tubers picked as a possible Woman's Prize book.

I've just finished Paradiso 17 by Hannah Lilith Assadi. Reviwed up thread by @ÚlldemoShúl, this follows a Palestinian man Sofian from being forced to leave his home aged 5 in Palestine in the Nabka, through his life in the middle East, Italy and New York. I liked this at first, the language was lyrical and thought it was an interesting premise but as the book progresses, Sofian becomes more self destructive and unlikeable. No women have any real character in this book and are generally treated terribly. Apparently the author based it on her father, which makes me feel quite bad for her. Not one for me.

I got

The Complete Novels of Jane Austen: Emma, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park, Persuasion, and Lady Susan (The Heirloom Collection)

for my kindle today - amazon 99p

@ChessieFL , I totally pictured that "long coach journey" as you jouncing along in a stagecoach.

The Adventures of Portly The Otter: Untold Tales from The Wind in the Willows - M G Leonard

This is a children’s book, but it’s beautifully illustrated so it was a joy to read. Portly is a minor character mentioned in TWITW and here he’s given a whole book and several different adventures which feature Ratty, Mole, Badger and Mr Toad. Lovely.

The Bookstore Diaries - Susan Mallery

The blurb makes this sound as if it will be an interesting story about a town all finding out each others’ secrets and dealing with the fallout. It’s not about that at all. The diaries are a very minor subplot and only one person reads some of the diaries. This is actually just about the love life of the bookshop owner and her sister. Apart from the stupid names (who names a child Gentry?!) it was an ok read. And there was a parrot.

Not Quite Dead Yet - Holly Jackson

Jackson usually writes YA and this is her first adult book. It still felt quite YA though, just with lots of swearing. Jet is hit over the head one night, and ends up with an aneurysm that’s going to burst and kill her in a week, so during that time she tries to solve her own murder. If you can suspend disbelief (would someone in that condition be allowed to leave hospital? And even if they are I don’t think they would be capable of some of the things Jet gets up to!) it’s an entertaining enough read.

A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

From the ridiculous to the sublime - a long coach journey yesterday helped me finish off this readalong book. I’ll save comments for that thread in due course but will just say here that I loved it.

Despite only finishing one book (or maybe two?) since the first of the month, I just picked up some more deals 🤣

Ann Patchett - State of Wonder & Commonwealth £1.99 each
Susan Choi - Flashlight 99p

Flashlight is long listed for a prize, and it was the one I couldn't justify buying in Waterstones with my vouchers but the hand written note by a staff member made me think I'd want to read it. I forgot to add it to my list, but it's popped up today somehow!

16) I'm a Fan by Sheena Patel. A chaotic unnamed narrator writes about her 'situationship' with a married philanderer, and her obsession with one of his other affair partners.

The woman she's obsessed with is everything the narrator is not; a privileged, white, nepo-baby and professional lifestyle influencer/author. The man she wants to be with is also successful and charismatic. And a habitual cheat who seems to delight in pitting our narrator against the woman she's obsessed with.

This book was a bit of a fever dream. Our narrator acknowledges that the man she wants to be with is toxic in the extreme, and flits between infatuation and hatred for him in the blink of an eye. A walking contradiction, she's simultaneously self aware of her delusions and indulgent of them. To add to this she physically abuses her unwitting boyfriend, and admits that she's sometimes unpleasant for her friends to be around. In short, she's bloody awful and nothing really gets resolved. Yet somehow I kept coming back and thinking about this book.

I'm not sure exactly what to make of this one, so I'll give it a solid 2.5 of of 5.

26 . The Savage Noble Death Of Babs Dionne by Ron Currie

Babs Dionne is a teenager when she murders a cop who has raped her. Many years later she is the matriarch of the rundown seedy town in which she lives, controlling the supply of OxyContin; when a Man appears from nowhere with questions and threats.

I don’t know how this ended up on my Wish List I don’t remember putting it there but it came up for 99p.

I was half in and half out of this, I didn’t like the overall tone and found it dialogue heavy but the plot interested me well enough.

However it was only ok to my mind, there was evidence to show that the writer was capable of better and wasn’t being consistent and there was only one character Lori, well drawn enough to care about.

Not for me.

Even better, thanks @SheilaFentiman !

70. Memorial Days - Geraldine Brooks

This was a wonderful book. Much better (IMO) than A Year of Magical Thinking, which it references.

Written by the author of Horse and March, this alternates between the sudden death of her husband Tony in May 2019, and the trip that Brooks took post-pandemic to an isolated shack on Flinders Island off the coast of Tasmania to revisit and properly live through her grief, which was clouded at the time by both the admin of death and the impact of the pandemic just as she and her sons were coming through the first wave.

Short, sparse, beautiful.

@bibliomania all four Brodie books are on KUL (refreshing, as often there's only the first in a series to tempt you!) so I have downloaded.

@SheilaFentiman The Hanging Shed sounds like my kind of thing. I've signed up for a 30 day free trial of KU to read that plus the new Eva St John time travel book set in Norwich.

41. 12 Birds to Save your Life, Charlie Corbett
I've suddenly started listening to birds this year, after fifty years of vaguely registering them squawking in the background. Downloaded a bird id app and I feel as if a whole new dimension has opened up to me. This book describes the author doing much the same thing, although in his case it's to cope with grieving over his mother's terminal illness. He writes very well - I particularly enjoyed the chapter about his eccentric relatives living on the Isle of Mull. Worth a read if you have even a passing interest in the birdies.

42. Claire Clairmont and the Shelleys, Robert Gittings and Jo Manton
This book has been sitting on my shelf for eight years, so I am extremely pleased to have finally read it. And it was well worth waiting for. What a life - running away to the Continent with Shelley and her stepsister at 16, setting her cap at Byron aged 19 and bearing him a child, then after Shelley's death off to St Petersburg and Moscow as a governess. Living as a Romantic who survived in a the much staider Victorian era, her final days inspired Henry James' The Aspern Papers, although she was a much livelier character than James portrayed. Flawed, intensely human, and definitely worthy of her own biography. Loved this.

43. Killing me Softly, Christie Watson
I loved her nursing memoir, The Language of Kindness. This is a fictional account of three nurses in a hellish London ER. Is a nurse deliberately killing people? How can you even tell in the chaos? It doesn't sit very neatly in the conventions of crime fiction, but it certainly evokes the overwhelming environment. I was interested although not entirely satisfied.

Slow Horses: Mick Herron.

Slough House #1. A short review as the series is well known. Slough House is where former M15 agents go to while away the time after they screw up their careers. They are given mundane tasks, they hate their jobs and they can't stand each other. However, when a young man is abducted and his kidnappers threaten to broadcast his beheading live on the internet, the 'Slow Horses' seize the chance to redeem themselves.

I liked this very much. It was a good pacey read with lots of twists and turns and interesting characters, particularly Jackson Lamb who is a complete nut job.

Typo

1. The Hanging Shed - Gordon Ferris

A KUL bold; first in a series.

Set in 1946, our investigator is Douglas Brodie, former policeman turned army captain, now aspiring reporter. His plans for the rest of his life are put on hold when he is called back to Glasgow to help an old school friend/love rival, Hugh, formerly presumed dead in an air battle. But Hugh is in jail, shortly to hang for the brutal murder of several adolescent boys, unless Brodie can help his lawyer win on appeal.

I liked Brodie and his derring-do, and will be happy to read more.

I also recently acquired (RWYO fail) a book called Our Diairies, Ourselves which looks similarly intriguing

I do like the sound of that, @noodlezoodle!

Terpsichore this sounds absolutely up my alley, thank you for posting.

I also recently acquired (RWYO fail) a book called Our Diairies, Ourselves which looks similarly intriguing.

@Tarahumara - I agree about Project Hail Mary, I laughed a lot.

@CornishLizard, I didn't like James at all either. I'm glad it's not representative of Percival's work overall.

@Arran2024 , I loved Arthur And George. It's unexpected and fun.

I couldn't get on with Ferrante either. Everyone told me I'd love her but I just didn't click with it at all.

There should be a prize called the Nooker. Best book for devouring in one sitting, curled up in a cosy nook with tea and scones!

28 After the Fire by Jane Casey

I have been very good, keeping this til mid-month! Number 6 in the Maeve Kerrigan series and not my favourite, although others seem to have liked it. It started off really well, with the disparate stories of different families in a tower block which, shortly afterwards, goes up in flames. I liked the initial delving into their stories, but one of them assumed prominence only to be left frustratingly unresolved (although it had Derwent sniffing around, so maybe it'll return later). There was also a return for a previous storyline, which I was glad to see reach a resolution, but I didn't much like the way it was resolved. Casey's writing remains sharp, engaging and pulled me along despite it not being my favourite set of plotlines. Next one in May!

Personally, I feel that Wuthering Heights is already told from shit-stirrer Nelly Dean’s POV @desdemonasHandkerchief

I didn’t get on with Elena Ferrante, but I am convinced it was a time and place thing and will go back.

@MonOcle Trust was one of best reads last year. I was totally oblivious to what it was going to be and found the story compelling, but the telling even more so.

I think I might be emerging from my slump as I have finally finished Palace Walk and will finally get back to Les Mis.

Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont Elizabeth Taylor

I know many are Taylor fans on the thread, and I think I am too.This is the story of widowed, Mrs Palfrey, who moves into the Claremont where other older, widowed or otherwise alone patrons live. Mrs Palfrey’s family are rather distant, but she makes friends with a young man, Ludo, who brings her some joy.

This was lovely, sad and wonderful. She reminds me of Barbara Pym, but less funny, though she is witty, but this particular book was shortlisted for the Booker, no less.

Palace Walk Nagoub Mahfouz

This has taken months and I think it is a victim wrong time and place. My head has been all over the show, and I have just not been very focussed. When I could sit down and give this time I did enjoy it, for example I read the last 15 chapters today and was totally captivated.

This is set in Cairo in 1919, when the British were in occupation and revolution and independence were calling. Set within a claustrophobic family, where the women of the house are not allowed out except on special occasions and then only when chaperoned. The patriarach is almighty and leads a double lfe, carousing and indulging in sex, dance halls, singing and alcohol.

I don’t know if I will get to the other’s in the series, but I did like this.

Oops Booker!!