50 Books Challenge 2026 Part Eight

The Knife of Never Letting Go is great, although I think the series offers diminishing returns: I really didn't rate the third.

@Arran2024 So glad your dp is okay - that must have been terrifying.

I hadn't heard of The Crane Wife - added to wish list.

A Monster Calls really is lovely.

Me too, and I may get around to rereading the rest of the series eventually. Only 4 books in total which I think was the right choice by the author.

Any Londoners, there's a book swap running at the Royal Festival Hall from 21-31 October as part of the London Literature Festival, which seems to be being run by Dua Lipa!

https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/london-literature-festival-book-swap/

Thank you. Have added The Crane Wife to my list.

@Arran2024 💐 wishing your DH a speedy recovery.

I need a new book (or books) for a train journey.

Novel, rather than non-fiction
Ideally an autumn or winter setting
Something I haven’t read before
Crime good but would consider non-crime proving it’s not too Irish, too religious or too female
If it features a train journey, even better, but not a deal breaker
Something I won’t want to put down!

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie I read the first couple of sentences and was going to suggest Snow by John Banville - read on - scrap that idea 😁

I’ve read it! Quite liked it, but disliked the follow up iirc.

Proving should be providing

There must be an Agatha Christie that ticks those boxes@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie (aside from Orient Express which obviously does).

I was in Hay-on-Wye this week and, thinking of you, took a photo of part the Polar section in Booths.
Bought myself a book on Old Drovers routes in mid-Wales.

Meanwhile, have finished The Summer Everything Changed - Siân O’Gorman, nice romance set in a cliff top hotel in Dublin and have begun the new Matthew Venn from Ann Cleeves.

Ditto

As to your journey. No trains it’s a boat and it’s children’s/ya. I’ve recommended it to you before but I don’t think you’ve picked me up on it The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle

4.50 From Paddington is the other Christie that sprung to mind but am sure you've read it. Death in The Clouds for a plane journey.

Have you tried Ann Cleeves for crime?

I don't know if you read Wild Dark Shore which was on the Women's Prize list? The plot gets a bit silly, but there is kind of a crime and the descriptions of living on an island near the Antarctic are pretty amazing.

And for a classic, which I didn't love but you might, Snow Country which starts wth a train journey in Japan into the snow.

Loving the polar photo. I’m off to Cambridge next week and looking forward to the polar museum.

Thanks for the recs, which I will check out. I’m pretty sure I’ve read all the relevant Agatha C.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie The Yermakov Transfer by Derek Lambert might fit the bill. Thriller set on the Trans Siberian Express. It's very old though.

Have you read The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L Sayers? I love it as a wintry book, and it’s crime. Not Irish, female or religious (apart from a charming bumbling vicar as a minor character)

No trains, though.

I've read The Nine Tailors but disliked it tbh. Not a fan of Ann C. I'll get samples of the other stuff - thank you.

Just remembered I gave up during the sample of Wild Dark Shore previously, as the writing style (present tense, v short snippets) wasn't working for me.

I can't find Charlotte Doyle on Kindle, @EineReiseDurchDieZeit . Maybe that's why I didn't get it before?

The Yermakov Transfer is winning so far but more recs gladly appreciated. I'm reading a terrible Margery Allingham at the moment - keep forgetting who is who because one minute she uses their surname and the next their first name and I can't keep track of who they are and who is married to who (whom????).

@BestIsWest Your photograph reminds me that I have Snow Widows waiting, but it's a big hardback, so won't be joining me on the train!

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie how about Murder in the New Forest by Carol Cole.
Crime fiction, nothing religious or Irish. No trains but interesting setting in the New Forest which I'm not familiar with. Also horses.

Thank you. I read the sample, but it wasn’t grabbing me.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie how about Burial Rites Hannah Kent? Set in 19th century Iceland it centres on a woman condemned to death for murder - it isn't traditional crime though. I found it gripping and atmospheric. Snow features.
I did read another of hers that wasnt half as good (& had a high weirdness factor).

Finished two more* *and DNFed two
The DNFs - The Fury of the Gods by John Gwynne loved the first part of this, second was a disappointment and a couple of hours (audio) into this third instalment I just realised that I didn’t care enough about the characters I’d liked in book 1 to outweigh the hours of POV chapters I’d have to listen to from the annoying characters from book 2 so I quit. I do find it difficult these days to find a fantasy series that lives up to book 1.
Whose Body by Dorothy L Sayers- this was a quick DNF- the kind of comedy writing I know lots of people enjoy, like PG Wodehouse, but sets my teeth on edge

The finished books
Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter
I read this short novella across two sittings. Told from 3 POVs- a bereaved widower, his little sons and a crow which has arrived to help them grieve. There’s lots of Ted Hughes/ crow related allusions here which I didn’t get but as a description of grief it was devastating. Bold. I now want to read some Ted Hughes at some stage and go back to it again afterwards.

The Familiars by Stacy Hall
Set around the Pendle witch trials. Fleetwood Shuttleworth (what a name!) fears she will die in childbirth after several miscarriages and finding a letter in her husband’s possession that suggests she won’t survive another pregnancy. The midwife she chooses is connected to the Pendle witches. This was a page turner. It’s not in any way life changing but it was highly entertaining.