50 Books Challenge 2026 Part Seven

Dead Beat by Leigh Bardugo
The third book in the Ninth House series. Alex Stern is trying to close the gates of Hell but it proves difficult, as “all the devils are here”. Her erstwhile Virgil is an added distraction, having had a demonic glow-up.

For fans and completists only. It constantly refers back to events in the earlier books, has too much Will They/Won’t They? tension between Darlington and Alex. I love the Dark Academia Does Yale theme and there are still a few creepy set pieces, but it doesn’t have a great deal to add to the superbly horrible world building of the previous books. It’s all a bit Buffy and Stranger Things and I hate both of those.

62 My Cousin Rachel - Daphne du Maurier A lot of similarities with Rebecca - mysterious and exotic woman with whom the narrator is obsessed, Cornish setting, and some other aspects too. This time though, the narrator is male and has been brought up in an all-male household by his eccentric but loving older cousin Ambrose. Everything changes when Ambrose meets a (very) distant relative in Italy, marries her and settles down over there, dying before he gets a chance to return to Cornwall. The young narrator thinks the worst of the unknown widow until she arrives in Cornwall to hand over Ambrose’s effects - at which point young Philip starts to fall in love despite his preconceptions. But what really happened in Italy and who is Rachel really?

Like Rebecca, this was very ambiguous in its portrayal of Rachel and lots of questions are deliberately left unanswered. It was intriguing and unsettling; also a bit too slow (I had to make myself go back to it) and I think I read it too soon after reading Rebecca. Good but Rebecca wins!

Latest Reads:
#36. The Wind In The Willows by Kenneth Grahame This was available as an Audiobook via Libby read, rather manically, by the late, great Terry Jones. It’s one of those books I think my father read to me as a child (we certainly had a copy of the book) but I can’t say for sure, and as it often appears on those lists of ‘Must Read’ books I thought I’d definitively tick it off.
There’s some lovely nature writing and the relationship between Ratty and Mole is very touching, but it is the adventures of Toad of Toad Hall that really brings the book to life. If I have any memories of the book itself (or adaptations possibly) they are to do with Toad - his obsession with fast cars and his unlikely prison escape. He’s a great anti-hero for a children's book. Full of pomposity, arrogance, and boastfulness when he’s in the ascendant, even composing little ditties about his brilliance, but when he’s invariably brought down to earth he is full of remorse and self pity - until the next daring escapade at least.
I did wonder how many modern children aged 5 years and up (the recommended reading age) would have the patience and attention span for the lyrical, Victorian era language and descriptions in this book these days, definitely one to be read aloud.

#37. Leaving Home by Mark Haddon. Thanks to Terpsichore & cassandre for recommending this which I thoroughly enjoyed. Initially I thought it was going to cover much the same ground as (the recently read) Geoff Dyer’s autobiography of a middle class 60’s/70’s childhood - and there are the same references to airfix models, radiograms, 60’s foods etc but Haddon’s book is not linear but more stream of consciousness. It gives brief, impressionistic glimpses into his life complete with sketches, illustrations and photographs dotted throughout the text. He had a more difficult upbringing than Dyer with cold, unaffectionate parents and has suffered with mental and physical health over the years which he doesn’t shy away from detailing.
Interestingly (for me at least as I had just read it) Haddon references The Wind In The Willows as one of his favourite books, telling how the book began with Grahame making up bedtime stories for his four year old son Alastair, nicknamed Mouse. Alastair had been born prematurely and was blind in one eye. Determined not to replicate the parenting mistakes of his own father - who had turned to drink and abandoned his children when his wife died of scarlet fever when Kenneth was only five, Grahame indulged Alastair to the point where he ‘created a monster’ and the lovable yet unbearably egotistical character of Toad is based on his beloved Mouse. Sadly Alastair met a sad end, committing suicide aged 20 by stepping in front of a train only a few hundred yards from where Mark Haddon now lives.

#38 The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith. I don’t think this one needs any explanation - another classic ticked off. Enjoyable despite the plot holding no surprises thanks to the film and recent Netflix series Ripley. I did love the deliciously dark character of Tom Ripley who seems completely unburdened by any scrap of conscience as he deals with the aftermath of his nefarious deeds.

I think AI throws a metaphorical dart at a virtual dartboard 😀

I can never work out the 99p algorithm!

@MaterMoribund Does that mean it hasn't made the shortlist and they're maximising sales while they can?

Thanks, I've picked up All Them Dogs though don't know if I really fancy it.

101. Dream State - Eric Puchner. This is set in Montana and starts in 2004 and goes on to an unspecified date but maybe about 2040 in the future. It starts with Cece going to get fiance Charlie's parents holiday home to prepare for their wedding. There she meets Garrett, Charlie's best friend and depressed best man. They have an instant connection and the first part ends at the start of the wedding with us unsure whether it's going ahead or not. The book then jumps forward in time, first 7 years and then various amounts, following the three of them into old age. I really enjoyed the first half of this, the descriptions of nature were great and I got totally immersed in the characters' lives. The second half turned rather depressing and into more of a climate doom novel, probably accurate but sad. I don't know what I wanted but I was expecting more of a family saga. He also does weird time jumps within paragraphs which I found a bit confusing. Still this was a solid 4 for me particularly given how engrossed I was at first.

Terrific. It was on my Wish List for the bargain price of £11.99 👀

All Them Dogs is 99p on Kindle today.

I have only read The Palm House (dull) and John Of John (excellent).

Slightly surprised to find I've actually read one of the Booker longlist!

This is my latest, though:

77. Colditz: Prisoners of the Castle - Ben Macintyre

A reliably thorough history of the castle used as a fortress for POWs (strictly officers only, though their orderlies were also allowed in as their personal servants) during WW2. Escape attempts weren’t mandatory, but many happened, of increasing complexity and indeed barminess - it wasn't until near the end of the war that guards were ordered to shoot at absconding prisoners, and some of the time it almost sounds as though captors and captives were playing a surreal game of elaborate daring to see who could outwit the other. The fact that the senior security officer was an Anglophile ex-teacher who'd visited Cheltenham pre-war and wasn’t even a Nazi only adds to this feeling. But being imprisoned there certainly wasn’t a pleasurable experience and Macintyre conveys the miseries vividly.

I've only read 5 of the Booker longlist so far, listed in order of best to worst for me:

John of John
The Renovation
The Things We Never Say
All Them Dogs
The Palm House

Plus I DNFd Helen of Nowhere.

I should be starting May We Feed The King this coming week and I have The Disappearers to collect from the library soon too, although I may not read that quite yet if it doesn't make the shortlist.

@Stowickthevast yes, I do. It moves along nicely and paints some good character portraits.

There was a one hour programme on iplayer presented by the author which gives an overview (also called Queen James) but there was so much more in the book.

@SheilaFentiman do you think Queen James would be good for a teen? Dd1 has just started history A level and is doing the English Revolution so could be good background. Though whether she'll actually stop socialising long enough to read anything is another question!

@ÚlldemoShúl thanks for your Booker thoughts.
I haven't read Helen of Nowhere, The Shadow of The Object, All Then Dogs, The End of Everything or The Disappears yet, and am currently listening to Switzy. I think out of the ones I haven't read, I only really want to read The Disappearers, although DH has The End of Everything so will probably read that too.

My wins are:
The Renovation
May we Feed The King
John of John
Black Bag
Things We Never Say

Meh:
The Palm House
Switzy (at the moment though lots of my online book club are raving about it)

Just No
The Vivsectors

Predicted shortlist
The Renovation
Black Bag
The Disappearers
Switzy
May We Feed The King
and one out of The Vivisectors/Shadow of the Object or Helen of Nowhere - please not all 3!

86. Fat Loss Habits by Ben Carpenter

Basically what you’d expect from the title.
No advice in here that I hadn’t already heard, but I guess it can be useful to have it all brought together in one place.

Booker shortlist is out on Tuesday so all the Booktubers are posting their predictions which I’m thoroughly enjoying. I’ve read most of the list (Haven’t got to Switzy or The Shadow of the Object yet (not sure I’ll bother with either if they’re not shortlisted) DnFed Helen of Nowhere and am part way through The Disappearers which is brutal and difficult but excellent so far.
They split in three for me-

My favourites
The Renovation/ John of John/ The Disappearers (if the rest is as good as the first third)

Books that are decent reads but either not my favourite or not my cuppa:
The Things we Never Say/ Black Bag/ May we Feed the King/ All Them Dogs (I suspect from the reviews I’ve seen that Switzy would also fit here for me)

Absolute Balls- The End of Everything/ Helen of Nowhere/ The Palm House/ The Vivisectors (and I suspect The Shadow of the Object would sit here for me)

My predicted shortlist is
The Disappearers
May we Feed the King
The Renovation
The Things we Never Say
The End of Everything and
Helen of Nowhere

Queen James - Gareth Russell

Did I already do this one? A bold, and very good about the life, times and loves of James I/VI. Scholarly but absorbing, IMO.

ETA no, I didn’t, but I did send some comments to an interested friend so thought I had 😀

Vinegar Girl - Anne Tyler

One of nine “Shakespeare Retold” novels, this one is based on The Taming of the Shrew, a play with which I am unfamiliar.

Kate Battista is 29 and keeps house for her biologist father and her teenage sister Bunny, along with working at a daycare. Crucial to her father’s work is lab assistant Pyotr, but his visa is about to run out and only Kate can save the day by undertaking a marriage of convenience. Except Pyotr sees it a little differently…

Good, but less “dense” with complex relationships than a typical Tyler novel.

The Artist by Lucy Steeds For book group, and probably I’m being churlish because I did finish it and it was readable enough, though repetitive. In 1920, aspiring art journalist Joseph goes to stay with the great artist Tartuffe in Provence - oh - and his put-upon niece. Lots of tableaux of food and observations about inequalities of access to the art world ensue. Very much of our time rather than of the 1920s - characters consciously wish to be ‘seen’. Real people’s names are taken in vain. Just felt a very unnecessary endeavour.

I loved this too @SpunkyKhakiScrollerand left a glowing review a few months ago, my second favourite of Boynes after The Hearts Invisible Furies so worth giving that a try if you enjoyed ALTTS.

How to Kill a Witch. A Guide for the Patriarchy by Claire Mitchell and Zoe Venditozzi

The authors have been campaigning for several years for a public memorial for the over 1500 people (75 % female) in Scotland who were killed during the Witch Trials in the 16th to 18th century in Scotland and have a podcast called 'The Witches of Scotland' and have comissioned a rather nice tartan to commemorate the women who were killed. This book goes through the history of the Scottish Witch Hunts with chapters on each aspect of a witch hunt, including a gruesome 'how to burn a witch' chapter. There is a lot of distressing information in here but all very important to remember. As it moves towards the current day it widens its scope to cover modern witch trials across the world in the last chapter, sadly there are still women being killed as witches to this day. An important book and campaign.

45 There Are Places in the World Where Rules Are Less Important Than Kindness by Carlo Rovelli. This is a selection of articles on a variety of subjects including science, history and politics. The author comes across as a wonderful person with a wide range of interests, but the problem is that an article is only long enough to give a taste of the subject, which I found rather unsatisfying. The last selection of articles I read was Burning Questions by Margaret Atwood, which worked better for me because most of them were giving her opinions (an article is long enough to express an opinion), whereas Rovelli is trying to explain concepts, which is trickier.

46 The Body by Stephen King. I love the film Stand By Me, so listening to this on audible read by Wil Wheaton was a real nostalgic treat. The ending of the book is a bit darker than the film.

47 Brilliance by Marcus Sakey. Sci-fi thriller. A small percentage of the population (abnorms) have incredible gifts which set them aside from everyone else. This leads to fears and suspicion on both sides. Nick Cooper is gifted, but works for the government department responsible for keeping abnorms under control (which sometimes involves killing them) because he believes this is the best way for both sides to live together in harmony. This was a RWYO - enjoyable and good fun.

78 The Stars are Fire by Anita Shreve

It’s 1947 and Grace’s marriage to Gene isn’t bad, but it’s not good either. You get the impression Grace is sleepwalking through her life, dissatisfied but not sure what she wants and how to change things. When a devastating wildlife leaves Grace and her family with nothing she’s shaken out of her rut and begins to see what she’s made of. It’s the type of book I’ve read before, and I did enjoy it, but it’s nothing spectacular. A RWYO.

95. Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne - a totally unexpected 5 star. I read it for a book club having never read Boyne before and I found it absolutely compelling. Maurice wants to be a great author but though he can write, he has no ideas. So he proceeds to steal them from others via more and more reprehensible behaviour. He is a thoroughly unpleasant, amoral but fascinating character. Boyne shows him to us through the eyes of his victims before letting us into his head so we can see how he rewrites his own story the way he rewrites others. Couldn't put it down. An excellent bold.

Staying Alive - Berlin 1939-1945 using diaries and interviews trying to convey what the lives of people living I Berlin was like.It was interesting and covered a range of views

Another Poe and Tilly fan here! Love them.

Oh I hope you enjoy it @MamaNewtNewt