50 Books Challenge 2026 Part Five

@Stowickthevast & @EineReiseDurchDieZeit Notes on an Execution had been languishing on my Kindle for about three years before I started it as well. Not sure why. Probably just not in the right mood.

Hope you enjoy it @Tarahumara !

ETA I'm going to start The Story of a Nobody by Anton Checkhov for my next read.

Like @Stowickthevast I’ve had Notes On An Execution for a couple of years now not sure why I can’t get going with it, I must give it another bash

Thanks @TheDonsDingleberries!

Notes on an Execution is currently 99p on kindle so I've just bought it.

Yes! @Stowickthevast

@TheDonsDingleberries I've had Notes on An Execution on my Kindle for years. I've started a couple of times but always been put off by is but being a crime book as such. Maybe I need to revisit it.

@FuzzyCaoraDhubh I'm halfway through Land - Bran ♥️♥️♥️

Hermit by Chris McQueer
Trainee incel, ineffectual single mother and absent violent father. Token Fierce Granny.
I didn’t DNF this but I did skip big chunks of it. I see (and admire) what it’s trying to do but it reminded me of many earnest safeguarding/ACE/trauma informed practice course scenarios I’ve sat through. Maybe it would have been better entirely from Jamie’s pov, as I found the female parts too lightly written and stereotypical. In contrast to Rat Race recently I also thought the dialect was hard going.

55. Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree - A middle aged female orc warrior decides to retire and open a coffee shop. It is exactly as twee as it sounds and is all about found family, friendship, and finding yourself. But after battling through Fundamentally, I was in the mood for something warm and fuzzy, so I quite enjoyed it. I have realised I like books that achieve what they set out to do. This book has modest ambitions and it executes them well. Will happily read the sequels as palate cleansers

26) Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka. This is about the last 12 hours of a man who is due to be executed for multiple murders. The chapters ossillate between the man's point of view (in 1st person) and the perspectives of 3 women, Lavender, Saffy, and Hazel, who have a connection to him (all in 3rd person). It also goes back and forth in time to tell the story of his life and the events which brought everyone to this point.

I think I might need some time to sit with this one and mull it over before I do a full review. It definitely caused some cognitive dissonance between my beliefs and my feelings. For that reason alone, I'm giving it a bold. I suspect I'll be having random thoughts about this book years down the line!

Thank you for all your kind words, much appreciated. I’m so much better after a couple of days at home.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie – I might investigate Charles Paris. Its vaguely ringing bells. Was it maybe adapted for Radio 4 with Bill Nighy playing the title part?

@MaterMoribund – thank you. I’d really like that.

3 not great books from me:

66 The Madness of Crowds – Louise Penny – Three Pines 17. We are back in the village of Three Pines and it is now post pandemic. A statistician has suggested that Canada’s euthanasia laws are extended and that old people and the disabled are exterminated. I cant actually believe that she leads with this as a plot line. Completely put me off. I know I’ll get round to finishing the series, but right now, I’m putting it to one side.

67 Watching You – Helen Fields. Psychological thriller. I only got this as these books are set in Edinburgh. I don’t think I’ll bother with any more. The ending was ridiculous, completely unbelievable.

68 The Hoarder – Jess Kidd. Author of the Nora Breem series. I thought I’d see what else she has written. This was…bizarre. The accompanying blurb said something along the lines of Care Worker Maude, who possess psychic abilities is sent to help clear the mansion of an elderly hoarder (while he is still living there). She is helped along the way by a variety of Saints. Well, sounds right up my street. But the Saints were too…I don’t know. Pointless? They just float about, not really contributing anything. Saint Valentine just picking his teeth. Saint George glowering and putting his visor up and down. Its also an odd assortment of Saints. There’s also Saint Dymphna and another couple who I’ve forgotten. Anyway, there are secrets, missing girls and women and yet another unsatisfactory ending. Meh.

Get well soon @Tarragon123 , hospital is no fun, no sleep and no privacy.

Hope you're fully recovered soon @Tarragon123 - hospitals are grim!
Hi @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie , nice to see you!

Books 38 and 39
River of Stars by Georgina Moore - neat and easy-reading romance about several generations of women in a family living on an island in the river Thames. Enjoyable enough, but not one that will linger in the mind for long.

Almost Life by Kiran Millwood Hargrave - Erica and Laure meet in Paris when Erica is spending the summer there before university. They fall in love and spend a happy summer together before Erica has to return to the UK and 'real life'. We then follow both of their lives, including several times when their paths (in some cases fairly improbably!) cross again. I thought it was very good - properly melancholic on the paths you take and the paths you could have taken; strong, complex, 'difficult' female leads; very good on growing up and how the young person you were folds into the adult you become. And Paris is gorgeous in it.

East of Eden by John Steinbeck

This has been languishing on my kindle for sometime and then we discussed on here a TV show is coming so I thought I'd better jump on it quick.

What an astounding book. It's basically a family saga as we see three generations of the Trask family. The narration slows for detail at certain points of their lives and then skips ahead in other times. There is plenty of dialogue and it's pacey without feeling rushed.

It's an interesting look at how much of ourselves is governed by our inherited characteristics and how much we can make our own way. There are also moments of comedy and some darkness.

Some throwaway casual racism that wouldn't make it through at edit today, but also the Chinese servant Lee is probably the most interesting character, so I think it's a reflection of the language of the time.

I much preferred this to both Grapes of Wrath and Cannery Row.

Before I read this I would have told you my favourite Steinbeck was travels with Charley, but I think now it's East of Eden. A 5 star bold for me.

Get well soon @Tarragon123 and hello @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie

Couple of reviews to add after catching up on the thread

36 Violets by Kyung-Sook Shin

Shelterbox pick about a young Korean woman, San, who has suffered trauma and loss as a child and as a consequence keeps herself to herself. Her world broadens out when she takes a job in a florist's shop and becomes friends with her ebullient co-worker. Experiencing emotional connection for the first time in many years, San starts to respond - but things don't quite connect for her. This is a thoughtful, melancholy novel that moves very slowly - a bit too slowly for me. And it's very sad. Parts of it were thought provoking and the ending quietly devastating, but it just took a little too long to get there fully to hold my interest.

37 She's Not There by Jennifer Finney Boylan

Boylan is an American English professor and author who transitioned from male to female. This is a memoir about her experiences of transition and its effect on those around her. Boylan is an engaging and funny writer, and I enjoyed reading this. It would be interesting to read a parallel narrative from her wife as, whilst Boylan gives us her account of what her wife expressed to her at the time, that's perhaps different from understanding how she felt. The most interesting part for me was the reaction of Boylan's best (male) friend, as she includes a number of searingly honest letters from him about the difficulty he had accepting Boylan's transition. There were some really interesting points about how (even if we don't think we are doing this) we respond to people along tramlines dictated in part by their sex.

Thinking of you @Tarragon123

All good wishes @Tarragon123

Get well soon @Tarragon123

Hospital stays are always unpleasant, coupled with the sleep deprivation. Get better soon @Tarragon123

@Stowickthevast, I think if you were going to read Mothers Milk as a stand alone you’d probably need to read summaries of the first 3 novels before you embarked on it.
The first half of the novel is told from Patrick’s son’s perspective and you see people and events through his eyes, then it switches to Patrick’s POV.
You probably need to have a basic knowledge of the characters and events that have led them to where they are as, from memory, Aubyn doesn’t do the handy recapping thing to let you know what’s gone on before. There are characters that resurface from time to time (hence it reminding me of Dance to the Music of Time, well that and the upper class-ness of it all!) and I found myself having to go back to remind myself of who was who even when reading them in quick succession.

Hope you recover quickly @Tarragon123. It's always a good time to reread Anne in my opinion.

54. Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis - finished this today and am still unsure what it was I read. I really didn't enjoy the Gen Z/London voice though I can see how other people would find it 'wickedly funny' as the blurb says. It reminded me a lot of Ministry of Time, which was another debut novel with 4-5 books worth of ideas in it, none of which are explored in a satisfactory manner. I did enjoy the satire about aid agencies and aid workers. And I appreciated the questions it raised about what it means to be a British Muslim and the different ways it is possible to be a good Muslim. I wish we could have seen those questions explored more thoroughly and clearly and not right at the end. I would probably have enjoyed the mother-daughter angle in a different novel but it struggled to be seen in the hodge podge. Overall, a very meh experience for me interspersed by a couple of hmm, that's interesting moments. It engaged my brain somewhat but not a single character engaged my heart. In fact I found it confusing initially that the epilogue told us how all the characters were getting on after the main events. Then I realised - oh, it's because the author thinks I actually care about the characters!

Hope all is ok @Tarragon123

I, too, have just finished Mother Mary Comes to Me . I am a huge fan of God of Small Things and Roy in general and loved this. I really liked to bit about Berger and his elephant ears. I concur with everyone that this is a beautiful book.

Sorry to hear of your health issues @Tarragon123. There is indeed an altar to St Margaret in Durham Cathedral, with a portrait by Paula Rego I will pause a little longer by it than usual next weekend when we go up to Durham and send a thought for your recovery.

Hope you get better soon @Tarragon123

Interesting @DesdamonasHandkerchief I have Mother's Milk somewhere in the TBR pile but have put it off until I had the other books. Do you think it would work as a stand alone? Not sure if I have the will for the whole series.

@Terpsichore Bloomsbury house sounds perfect!

@Tarragon123 Sorry you’ve had such a tough time and hope you feel better soon. I’d definitely recommend the Charles Paris series, if you want some fairly comforting, but not twee, crime.