50 Books Challenge 2026 Part Eight

Glad your DH is on the mend @Arran2024 That must have been really frightening for you both 💐

Swallows sounds interesting. I've added it to my TBR list.

There are better Patrick Ness books @SpunkyKhakiScroller he is lovely, I’ve met him

Very sorry to hear about your DH @Arran2024 I hope he is ok

Glad to hear DH is getting better @Arran2024 . And congratulations on the 50. I am adding it to my TBR. It sounds fascinating.

107. The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness - I enjoy a bit of YA occasionally but this was my first Patrick Ness. Interesting but slightly gimmicky premise in that it's about the other teenagers who live in the town where the chosen ones fight the zombies/vampires/aliens etc. So young people going through the ups and downs of life while other teens are dying, random fires, explosions, and suspicious goings on are happening in which they are only peripherally involved. The characters are very good though and there is a chapter at the therapist that is excellent. Essentially a story questioning what ordinary even is. I raced through it and liked it but it hasn't really left much residue. I doubt I will remember reading it in 6 months time.

Glad to hear DH is on the mend @Arran2024

48… The House on Half Moon Street – Alex Reeve

The second book in a row I’ve read entitled “The House…” and starting off in a brothel. I think it’s a coincidence...

An accidental reread, this is a Victorian murder mystery set in the lower classes of 1880’s London, with an unusual main protagonist. No spoilers, but Leo is a fascinating character, flawed, impetuous, not always likeable, but pulls the story along and I raced along with it.

Wishing you and your DH well @Arran2024

Good news that your DH is recovered, @Arran2024 - worrying times for you both, though 💐

Glad to hear DH is on the mend @Arran2024 that must have been scary.

You’ve got two books listed at number 36 in your list so I think you may have already hit the magic 50 and Swallows was no. 51.

Sorry to hear about DH @Arran2024

Congratulations on reaching 50.

50 Swallows by Natsuo Kirino
My 50th! And it is one of my favourites of this year.

A huge hit in Japan, where it has been made into a TV adaptation, it concerns a young woman, Riki, and her journey as a surrogate mother for a rich couple in their 40s. It covers so much ground - class, gender, tradition, power, family, fertility, inequality.....

Surrogacy is illegal in Japan so, would you believe, the commissioning father has to divorce his wife, marry the surrogate, then divorce the surrogate and remarry the wife!!

I thought it finished a bit too suddenly, though, and I didn't see the ending coming at all. Having explored so many themes relating to surrogacy, I was surprised that the needs/rights of the child weren't covered. It was all about the adults.

Anyway, I would highly recommend it. The reviews are great and thoroughly deserved imo.

Sorry I am late with this. My husband had a stroke (!) and I had to abandon reading for a while (he is better now).

Here is my list so far

1 The Sleepwalkers by Scarlett Thomas
2 Hitler's People by Richard Evans
3 Malice by Keigo Higashino
4 The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits
5 Never A Dull Moment 1971 by David Hepworth
6 Murder at Mount Fuji by Shizuko Natsuki
7 A Beginner's Guide to Breaking and Entering by Andrew Hunter Murray
8 The Party by Tessa Hadley
9 Gabriel's Moon by William Boyd
10 Place Brugman by Alice Austen
11 A Quiet Place by Seicho Matsumoto
12 Tokyo Express by Seicho Matsumoto
13 Murder on Line One by Jeremy Vine
14 The Names by Florence Knapp
15 Point Zero by Seicho Matsumoto
16 Three Days in June by Anne Tyler
17 Imperium by Robert Harris
18 A Schooling in Murder by Andrew Taylor
19 Arthur and George by Julian Barnes
20 Wise by Frank Tallis
21 The Infamous Gilberts by Angela Tomaski
22 Geneva by Richard Armitage
23 The Vipers by Katy Hay
24 The Ending Writes Itself by Evelyn Clarke
25 The Long Shoe by Bob Mortimer
26 The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor
27 By Your Side by Ruth Jones
28 Felicia's Journey by William Trevor
29 The Amateur Marriage by Anne Tyler
30 Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner
31 The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman
32 YesterYear by Caro Claire Burke
33 Death on Gokumon Island by Seishi Yokomiso
34 Universality by Natasha Brown
35 The Cut Throat Trial by the Secret Barrister
36 The Truants by Kate Weinberg
Hitler, Stalking, Mum and Dad by Daniel Finkelstein
37 Inspector Imanishi Investigates by Seicho Matsumoto
38 The Spy and the Traitor by Ben MacIntyre
39 In Sickness and in Health by Fiona Sussman
40 Silent Bones by Val McDermid
41 Fair Play by Louise Hegarty
42 Story of a Murder - the Wives and Mistress and Doctor Crippen by Hallie Rubenfold
43 The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout
44 The Lovers by Paolo Cognetti
45 Chinese Parents Don't Say I Love You by Candice Chung
46 The Blame by Charlotte Langley
47 A Rebel and a Traitor by Rory Carroll
48 Dead Heat by Sabine Durrant
49 Heart The Lover by Lily King

@MaterMoribund I was surprised by how popular How To Kill Your Family became, it felt like it was one of the books of the year a few years back. It's quite silly and definitely not brilliantly written, but I persevered mainly because some of it is set near my house.

109. Country People - Daniel Mason. This is the newest book from the author of North Woods, which I really liked but think was pretty divisive on here. This is about a family who move from California to Vermont. Mother Kate is a professor specialising in Milton and Blake and has been offered a year's teaching post there. Father Miles has been doing a dissertation for 14 years which has moved from Tolstoy to Russian folklore. I think he's meant to be charming but I couldn't help hearing MN shouting "cocklodger"! It's never clear what Kate sees in him as we don't hear her perspective. They also have 2 children, 12 year old Wesley fulfilling the child genius role and 9 year old Olive, oh and an Italian truffle hunting dog Giuseppe. There's not much plot, it's basically about how Miles tries out various country pursuits, meets the quirky locals and eventually gets involved with a group of Hollow Earthers. Although Miles is incredibly annoying, I did quite like this as a bit of whimsical escapism which is gently funny, a bit like the old TV show Northern Exposure, which I loved. But definitely not for anyone seeking plot.

DNFed Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky and How To Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie this week.
I’m not averse to sci fi if it grabs my attention and initially AC did, but by half way I just didn’t care about what was going on, who was doing it or why.
I think CJ Skuse should be cross about this blatant rip off of the Sweet Pea books. It has none of the panache or charm and the sentences are far too long. I ditched it in the middle of the wildly improbable plans to use the Internet Of Things to murder someone.

I’m obviously having a Hard To Please week after the joy that was Gentle Things!

@PermanentTemporary I have been meaning to read a Rosamunde Pilcher (I feel like I read a couple in my teens but none since) and you have talked me into The Day of the Storm

Easily influenced, me :)

The Woodward and Bernstein book, All the President's Men, is 99p today

Book 55, Come and Get It by Kiley Reid. A library loan since I enjoyed Such a Fun Age by Reid.Reading about Gen Z college students in a small, non-descript university in Arkansas was a nice shift away from my previous book of Our Evenings which was heavy, epoic and spanning decades.

A college professor on a transfer year and a group of young women in a dorm come to a head in kind of a fun, delicious way in many tangled relationships and allegiances. I loved the vernacular, and how Reid really gets young people and the subleties of financial priviledge and race without being preachy or downbeat. It was an enjoyable, fun book that I read over 4 days which is generally pretty quick for me. I nearly went to uni in the States instead of UK so it was kind of a fun glimpse into the dorms and sororities. The only thing I didn't like was the book's title; it didn't really link with the stories told.

Thanks for the recommend! The copy I read was a library book, but if my thoughts keep returning to it I might get my own for a reread.

Thanks TimeforaGandT Glad to hear I should enjoy the continuations a bit better!

@ÚlldemoShúl - I read all the Quirke books earlier in the year and can confirm that there are no more trips to Boston!

Thanks @Benvenuto , will look out for those other biographies. I guess there was a reason the Alison Weir one was reduced to 99p on kindle! Still, I’m proud of myself for getting through it 😄

@TheDonsDingleberries that was me 🙂 glad you are mulling it, I have saved it for a reread someday (I often read and donate to manage the stack, so this is unusual for me!)

37 The Day of the Storm by Rosamunde Pilcher
I’m so sorry, I know someone else on this thread read this which is why I bought it, but I can’t find the post. Rebecca, a bookshop assistant, is starting a new life in a tiny Fulham flat on her own, when a letter finally reaches her after a month’s delay. A desperate flight to be in time for a death, and revelations result.
I was convinced I hadn’t read this before but now I’ve read it I might have done. A lovely cosy romance if you can take it being set in ?1975? with attitudes to match (I can).

46) Fair Play by Louise Hegarty - A group of friends rent a house to celebrate the New Year and Benjamin's birthday with a murder mystery party. But in the morning Benjamin is discovered dead. Really actually dead. A famous detective arrives on the scene to solve whodunnit, and everyone is now a suspect. The book alternates focus between the investigation, and the subequent grief of Benjamin's sister, Abigail, as she tries to make sense of his death.

I first heard about this book on an earlier thread. It's an unusual format and, as previously mentioned, difficult to describe without spoilers. I found it quite sad, but definitely an interesting concept. Not sure if it's a bold for me, but that might change as I mull things over.

I read Little House in the Big Woods aged 9 and loved it but didn’t get on so well with Little House on the Prairie. A year later I read The Long Winter and loved that - it is still probably my favourite although I’m still fond of LHITBW with the wolves and bears and I love the story of the building of the town in Little Town on the Prairie & The Happy Golden Years.

I must have read On the Shores of Silver Lake before The Long Winter as I was appalled by what happened to Mary when I first read Silver Lake, but SL is a book I’ve understood much more as an adult as I didn’t really understand the work on the railway as a child.

@DuPainDuVinDuFromage- I thought that I had read the Alison Weir bio of Mary Queen of Scots years, but I had mixed it up with the Antonia Fraser one. The Rest is History mentions the AF one and draws a lot on the John Guy one, which is very readable (and even more entertaining when selectively quoted on TRIH). It’s disappointing that a biography of Mary could be dull as her life was so eventful and includes stuff that you really couldn’t make up (eg a murderous warlock creaking up the castle stairs).

Recent reads:
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf a reread- beautifully written exploration of the passage of time and distance, beauty and family and motherhood. I think this will always be bold for me no matter how many times I reread it. I want to read more Woolf in 2027.

Christine Falls by John Banville
The first of Banville’s crime fiction books set in 1950s Ireland where pathologist Quirke looks into the death of a young woman who seems to have some connection to his adoptive brother. I liked Quirke, the family set up and the central mystery. Part of the book was set in the Irish community in Boston, I found this part less interesting so hope the follow ups (I have all of the series on kindle from various 99p deals) stick to the damp Dublin streets- much more atmospheric!

The Island of Doctor Moreau by HG Wells
Mostly a fun adventure type novel where our narrator is rescued from shipwreck and ends up on an island where Doctor Moreau restricts his access to but what are the strange noises in the night? It does raise a few interesting questions for the time around animal experimentation and the differences if any between us and animals- who is the most savage? I listened on audio- free audible reading- the narrator wasn’t great- that bombastic American voice that usually advertises the movies.

Ghosts by Edith Wharton
A series of short stories all with a haunting involved. Reading them all together was maybe a bit much. But there’s a few corkers in here- Mr Jones was my favourite. And as always Wharton’s prose is divine.

Double Indemnity by James Cain
A wife and an insurance investigator plan the murder of her husband. Quick pacy and clever. Good fun.