50 Books Challenge 2026 Part Five

Thanks- it was someone else who said twee vicars as I haven’t read her. I shall have to put my money where my mouth is and give at least one a go soon!

Sorry, didn’t see the replies. Well, Quartet in Autumn is unlike all her other books and quite bleak. Pym had had cancer and a mastectomy, fallen way out of favour and couldn’t get published any more. She didn’t expect QIA to be published either but it found many admirers (Larkin for one) and ended up being nominated for the Booker Prize, but didn’t win.

It's just that it’s not really like her earlier books very much at all. I'd slightly dispute the 'twee vicars' label too….but each to their own!

I’ve managed to finish half a dozen books since the last time I posted so will try to keep things brief:

42. The Future by Naomi Alderman

Set in the near future and featuring characters who are clearly based on certain real life tech billionaires.
The tech billionaires are planning escape routes, bunkers etc for the believed inevitable end of the world in whatever form that takes.
Lai Zhen, an internet famous survivalist, stumbles across their plans following a hook up with Martha, PA to one of the billionaires, and gets tangled up in the whole thing.

It’s very readable, although there’s quite a lot of suspension of disbelief required. Not so much for the whole bunker plan, I can easily imagine the real life billionaires plotting that. More so the actions of the other characters involved. It’d be nice to imagine things working out so positively in real life.

43. Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint Vol 2 by singNsong

Dokja’s journey continues, with more scenarios and boss monsters to be tackled.
Very similar in tone to Vol 1. Entertaining but lots of video game style violence.

44. Talk With Your Kids by Michael Parker

Contains over 100 conversation starters based around ethics and philosophy, slanted towards the sort of ethical dilemmas that would be more relevant to teenagers. One that’s more suited to dipping in and out of.

45. A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee

Felicity has returned to her exclusive boarding school to resit her senior year after the tragic death of her girlfriend the previous year.
The girlfriend’s old room is now occupied by the eccentric and charismatic teenage novelist Ellis, who soon enlists Felicity’s help in researching the witches rumoured to be haunting the school. Witches that Felicity had been obsessed with the previous year.

This all gets quite dark and neither of the main characters were particularly sympathetic. I kept reading because I wanted to know how it would turn out, but I’m struggling to decide whether I liked it. Which is an answer in itself I guess!

46. The Promised Neverland Vol 10 by Kaiu Shirai and Posuka Demizu

In this volume the children are enacting their plan to take on the demons in the hunting ground at Goldy Pond.
It all goes surprisingly well, given how physically outclassed the children are by the demons. This volume ended before the end of this story arc though, so I’ll have to see whether it’s still going so well in the next volume once the library get it in.

47. My Hero Academia Vol 7 by Kohei Horikoshi

The internships are ending, and it’s back to school, where Midoriya and Bakugo have to team up together against All Might for their end of year exam. Lots of action, and hints about a big bad supervillain on the horizon.

Thanks, that sounds like it’s more my thing than the vicars. I’ll give that one a go I think.

I don't know how long for but for anyone who likes social comedy mixed with murder, and with a struggling actor lead, I bought the first 6 (of over 20) crime novels in the Charles Paris series for 99p - had already read up to #5 from the library.. These are dated a bit as written and set in the early 1970s. They've recently all been adapted for radio by Jeremy Front and that is great comfort listening. too

www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0GZWSHRMR

I’m not a fan of Barbara Pym either, but definitely thought I was in a very small minority. This was my review from a couple of years ago.

Excellent Women by Barbara Pym

I think quite a few people read this last year, or the year before. I was really looking forward to it, as on paper it’s exactly like my kind of thing, but unfortunately I just found it a bit dull. It wasn’t bad, it was just inoffensive, and didn’t spark any real interest or emotion for me.

IIRC there isn’t a vicar in Quartet In Autumn and it’s about soon-to-be retirees

So do you agree with Eine that that’s the one to try or should I try Excellent Women?

Ive got to say the twee vicar stuff isn’t selling it to me…

Nooo, don’t be put off Pym, @ÚlldemoShúl Just be aware that Quartet in Autumn is very much an outlier. It's kind of like Samuel Beckett trying to write a Barbara Pym 😂

@ÚlldemoShúl

you could kill 2 birds with one stone by giving one a go and then KNOWING you won’t read both

Having read both I would choose Quartet in Autumn

I love a bit of Pym. There are times in my year I need something light, sometimes silly, and utopian and nostalgic in a way I don’t really understand. All the lunching and vicars is just so fluffy and hits the spot.

In my reading grid, it’s the ‘Twee Vicar’ category.

I’ve had Barbara Pym on my list and own both Excellent Women and Quartet in Autumn because of good reviews on here, but everything you two are saying is putting me off- like a female slightly more modern PG Wodehouse. I’m now moving her right back down my tbr…

Although I am a huge fan of her best friend Hazel Holt who was Pym’s biographer and wrote a series of crime novels set in a fictional town that she and Pym made up based on Weston-Super-Mare. The Mrs Mallory books are great.

My apologies to your wallet, @MaterMoribund 😁

You could be describing Jane and Prudence

Exactly! And that’s the problem with her!

Spinster Of The Parish, More Tea Vicar, Jumble Sale, Are They Catholic Do You Think? Lyon's Cream Tea, Repressed Sexuality, Stilted Conversation Resulting In Embarrassing Misunderstandings AND ABSOLUTELY NOTHING HAPPENS

You could be describing Jane and Prudence here

It’s just that I feel I must be missing out so keep trying. This attempt was triggered by reading that Jilly Cooper loved this book (and wrote the intro which I enjoyed much more than the actual book).

I said this about her in 2023 and you replied and said Thank God I am not the only one
@BestIsWest

Excellent Women by Barbara Pym

I got this when Barbara Pym was discussed on the thread about 3 years ago and she has recently been discussed again on this years thread. So I thought I'd get on with it. I didn't particularly get on with Quartet In Autumn previously though I haven't looked up my review.
Whilst I do love a bit of English Jolly Ho Spiffing Boarding School Wot Wot and am therefore not averse to Britishness in Literature; I think in Excellent Women I've found a book that I can point to and say that is the EXACT type of book I hate
Spinster Of The Parish, More Tea Vicar, Jumble Sale, Are They Catholic Do You Think? Lyon's Cream Tea, Repressed Sexuality, Stilted Conversation Resulting In Embarrassing Misunderstandings AND ABSOLUTELY NOTHING HAPPENS
I actually think that in summary I've made it sound better than the utter borefest it actually is

Glad it’s not just me @EineReiseDurchDieZeit.

Fellow Pym hater @BestIsWest don’t get her at all

Jane and Prudence - Barbara Pym

I must confess I don’t really get the love for Barbara Pym. ‘Nothing much happens’ as someone said. Vicar’s wife Jane moves to a new parish and tries to get her old Oxford pupil Prudence married off to a handsome widowed parishioner. Lots of trips to London for lunch, worthy ladies sorting out clothing for distressed gentlewomen and worrying over what kind of tea and cake to serve at whist drives.
No curates in this one thankfully.
I guess the genius and the humour is in the detail with Pym rather than in the story itself but she doesn’t do much for me.

I agree with you completely @HagCymraeg - this thread is where I get most of my reading recommendations. Reviews here are honest and heartfelt, and I suspect that too many reviewers across all sorts of media have undeclared conflicts of interests, whether writers sharing a publishers, or BookTubers depending on positive reviews to keep the work coming in.

25.The Safekeep by Yael Van Der Wouden. In 1960s Netherlands Isabel lives a very small life in her late mother’s house. Her brother Louis arranges, without Isabel’s say so, to move his bright and outgoing girlfriend Eva into the house, and then promptly goes away for work. Isabel is forces to engage with Eva, but soon their relationship deepens.

Extensively reviewed here already, I thought this was fine, but not earth shattering. Isabel is a deliberately unsympathetic character, but I don’t feel that I ever understood quite why she was so bitter and miserable. The slow and simmering atmosphere became too slow at times, and I was almost ready to bin it off before the plot took off like a rocket when Isabel came across Eva’s diary and discovered Eva’s motivation in her relationship with Louis. The setting in time and place was really interesting, and the writing excellent, so even though I thought this was patchy I’d be keen to see what Van Der Wouden does next.

26.Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. Our narrator Klara is an Artificial Friend awaiting purchase in a store. These solar powered AI creations are bought by parents for their lonely, largely housebound teens. Klara is bought for Josie, a teenager whose life is limited by serious health problems.

This reads very much as a companion piece to Never Let Me Go. I know most posters aren’t fans of that novel (or certain other Ishiguro works !) but I really liked it. This shares not just some of the same themes of identity and the ethical boundaries of medical science, but also the gradual unveiling of some of the key features of the dystopian landscape. This was really effective as we see the world through Klara’s eyes, as she tried to make sense of Josie’s life and experiences. I thought this was very good, but preferred NLMG, and I don’t think there is anything here that would convert the Ishiguro naysayers.

28. Felicia's Journey by William Trevor

A reread, as I wanted to read it after rereading The Story of Lucy Gault last week. It seems to be out of print but I got hold of a second hand copy.

I had forgotten just how sinister it is. There was a fil with Bob Hoskins playing the catering manager, Mr Hilditch. It is a story about people on the periphery and the dangers of trusting people you barely know.

I'm not giving it a bold simply because it made me feel so uneasy, but it's a great book.

Sometimes, books don’t even make it onto my Wish List after a review on 50 Bookers - Hermit is 99p so I just bought it. Incorrigible Me

25) Hermit by Chris McQueer. Nineteen year old NEET, Jamie, has barely left the house since dropping out of school three years ago without any qualifications. He spends his days festering in his room, playing video games with his younger online friend, Lee. Through Lee, Jamie learns about the incel community, and a man Lee's met on a forum who's offering them both a place to stay in London. The two boys decide to run away from their 'nagging' mums, and head to London to start new lives in a like-minded community.

The story is told from the alternating perspectives of Jamie and his mum, Fiona. Fiona is herself reclusive, only really leaving the house to go to work, the shop, and her intimidating mother's house. Since kicking out Jamie's abusive drunk of a father when Jamie was about 6, she's been trying her best as a single parent, but feels at a loss to help her son while barely treading water herself.

This was a bold for me. I felt extremely sorry for Jamie, Fiona, and Lee. Neither of the boys were bad people, but both were lonely, depressed, and extremely naive. I could understand how they were easy to prey on. Although not diagnosed, it seemed obvious that both Jamie and Fiona were neurodiverse, and in Fiona's case still dealing with the trauma of her past abuse. They loved each other, but found it almost impossible to verbalise this. Both were somewhat frustrating characters in their own right, but still sympathetic.

Definitely worth a read.

@cassandre good luck with restraining yourself about library reservations!