50 Books Challenge 2026 Part One

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the first thread of the 50 Book Challenge for this year.

The challenge is to read fifty books (or more!) in 2026, though reading fifty isn't mandatory. Any type of book can count, and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.

If possible, please can you embolden your titles and maybe authors as well of books you've read or going to read? It makes it much easier to keep track, especially when the threads move quickly at this time of the year.

Happy birthday @MamaNewtNewt

Happy birthday @MamaNewtNewt

1 Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
I’m probably the last person in the world to read this- the story of Thomas Cromwell during the reign of Henry VIII. The book requires lots of concentration because of the way that it’s written- slow with sometimes excessive description and with ambiguous pronouns at times. However it’s precisely this that pulls you fully into Cromwell’s POV, I felt I was seeing the world through his eyes and felt much more sympathetic towards him than I expected to.
I’ve been reading Tracy Borman’s biography alongside it and will pause it at this point as I don’t want it to give away too much of the detail (of course I know the broad story) and will pick it back up when I start to read the next- I’d like to read the full trilogy this year. This was a bold for me- a great way to start the year.

Excellent Book Haul @MamaNewtNewt Happy Birthday!

I know what you mean about that 10% @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie

I’ve been reading Tracy Borman’s biography alongside it and will pause it at this point as I don’t want it to give away too much of the detail

I did the same @ÚlldemoShúl 🙂

Happy new year all!

Book 1 of the year for me was Modern Lovers by Emma Straub. It follows two middle aged couples in Brooklyn, who in their youth were in a band with one big hit single. As secrets start to come out from their music days, their two respective teenage children start to form a relationship. I would have liked a bit more of the band history and less of the teenage romance! I've read a few Emma Straubs and always think the same thing really - she's undoubtedly a Good Thing for the book world, she runs a great bookshop in NYC and is clearly v supportive of other authors - but I find her novels readable, smart, and ultimately a bit aimless.

Second book was a total failure, I read about 100 pages of The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny then realised it's due back at the library today and can't be renewed, so that is that!

Now on to the Margaret Atwood memoir which I'm excited about.

Someone on here recommended I should do that- probably you!

Hahaha yep, sounds entirely plausible 😀

3. Two Flamboyant Fathers - Nicolette Devas

I'm not consciously doing RWYO but this effectively is because it’s been on my shelves for literally years 😳…The author was a writer, painter, and sister of Caitlin Macnamara, who was later to marry Dylan Thomas, and this evocative memoir is stuffed with tales of the bohemian, artistic circles in which they all moved. Father was Francis Macnamara, son of a wealthy and powerful Irish landed family: writer, thinker, poet, friend of GBS and general force of nature/bullshitter (delete as appropriate). He left his family when Nicolette was five and much of her childhood was spent enmeshed with the clan of painter Augustus John, who she secretly elected to be her second 'flamboyant father'.

This was a pleasurable read, told with plenty of dash and spirit and with much revelling in the unconventional behaviour of the various ménages young Nicolette grew up in. There’s a sequel about her French/Irish Quaker (!) grandmother, with whom she spent a chunk of time as a child, and I’m tempted to seek that out too.

HBD @MamaNewtNewt

@ÚlldemoShúl - fear not, you are not the last - Wolf Hall is on my TBR audible pile...

I’m spending January trying to read books I have on TBR that other people bolded last year.

5 . The Names by Florence Knapp

A woman wrestles with whether to call her son Julian, Gordon or Bear and the consequences of each choice play out over 7 year intervals from 1987 to 2022. I am willing to hold my hand up and say I thought this sounded quite basic, but it’s not at all, I was very wrong. I really, really loved this it made me cry a couple of times and only good books do that. It also really resonated with me because I had a volatile father and a couple of big Sliding Doors type moments in my own childhood.

A great debut. A winner.

1: The House On The Strand
by Daphne du Maurier

This book is about a man who takes an experimental drug that seems to actually send him back to a specific place and period of time - in this case, medieval Cornwall where there is much adultery, murder, dastardly plotting, disease, and monks indulging in all sorts of shenanigans at the local Priory.

Whether these are hallucinations, inherited memories or actual time travel are examined in the story. His vivid experiences while on the drug and his growing obsession with taking ‘trips’ to the past means his real life becomes a shadow existence in comparison.

I feel the plot was shaped by the compulsive pattern of his addiction rather than by drama or conflicts arising from his contact to the past. The rhythm was a bit ‘going through the motions of life until I get my next fix / now I’m having my fix’ on repeat. This meant it lacked the driving pace of some of du Maurier’s other works and I did not feel the sense of danger or tightly wound tension that is a feature of much of her writing.

She didn’t ‘turn the screw’ in the way I expected from her, but I did enjoy this book.

@Purrpurrpurr I have that on TBR, I must get round to it

Nope, you’re not the last! I’ve been meaning to read them every year for at least 5 years but it’s the level of concentration needed that puts me off. Between a demanding job, lack of sleep and sorting teens, I’m always knackered and not sure I’d do it justice.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit I think it was @TimeforaGandT who had also read it and felt similarly, not the writer’s best but still enjoyable!

Happy Birthday 🥳 @MamaNewtNewt great book haul too

First book of the year was The Shipping News by Annie Proulx which a lot of you have probably already read!
This is about a struggling reporter who moves to Newfoundland, where his family came from, with his aunt and two small daughters. I loved the sense of place here, felt I could smell the salt air, and the rhythm of the writing.

That was my thoughts too on The house on the strand enjoyable but not a patch on Rebecca or Frenchman’s Creek.

Yes that’s exactly why I saved it for Christmas holidays (no kids). TBH I’m glad I did because it did take focus but still wasn’t as slow as I expected and actually funny at times. Think I’ll do the next do at Easter and summer.

@TattiePants I can forgive Daphne a lot, it would have to be absolutely terrible to make me stop reading!

@CinnamonSweet73 what a great book to start the year. Suitably cold too!

@MamaNewtNewt – Happy Birthday! What an excellent haul!

2 A Future Chalet School Girl – Elinor M Brent-Dyer. What feels like book 3,201 in the series. The later books are absolutely not a patch on the earlier ones. I feel like this book’s plot has been used about 4 times already. Joey finds another young girl to look after (during the school holidays). Its ridiculous. She has 11 children of her own, plus the 3 that they are legal guardians for and now she adds in another one. Shenanigans ensue. Anyway, there are 58 books in the set. This was no 47. They also seem to be getting shorter, which is a good thing for me! Book 48 which I’ve started is only 137 pages.

Haha yes @Purrpurrpurr seasonally appropriate alright!! And yes a great start to the year!

Enjoyed your review of The House on the Strand which is also on my tbr!

Happy birthday @MamaNewtNewt

I might need some recommendations for easy reads please. Currently in A&E with a broken wrist, unfortunately.