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.

Another one from me, I’ve been reading a book a day since NYE but unfortunately normal service resumes tomorrow, I might fit another in tonight though. Continuing the theme of reading stuff everyone else read last year and I didn’t get round to, it’s :

7 . Love Forms by Claire Adam

Longlisted for the Booker. Dawn is recently divorced and her sons have flown the nest. Having given away a baby girl for adoption at 16 she ups her search on internet forums for her long lost daughter.

Large parts of this are set in Trinidad and Tobago and I thought the author evoked a wonderful sense of place. I really enjoyed the prose, and at >300 pages was a quick read. But it felt anti-climactical and unfinished to me. It could have stood to add another 100 pages and a better resolution.

3 Different Class - Joanne Harris

This was a RWYO for me, which had been on my kindle since 2018.

Split timeline twisty thriller, set in a boy’s grammar school. It follows Latin master Roy Straitley, and in the ‘present day’ (2005) we see Straitley clashing against the new, modernising regime at the school spearheaded by the new head teacher - a former pupil Straitley had always disliked and been suspicious off (a mutual feeling it seems). The novel moves between this timeline and 1981, from which we get some very dark diary entries and also Straitley’s recollections of that time, and a terrible scandal that occurred.

Honestly I found this a little hard to get into at first, it just didn’t quite grab me. Then there’s a rather clever twist/ piece of misdirection that made me sit up and take notice and from then on I was rushing to finish and find out what happened. Maybe that rush/ staying up late to get it finished is why the ending felt a little messy to me - not 100% satisfying but I did enjoy it overall.

As it was a RWYO which had been languishing on my kindle for years, and picked almost at random, I failed to realise it was the second in a trilogy (and I have the first on my kindle too probably purchased at the same time). There was a previous incident/ case referred to throughout and I suppose that should have been my clue but I was assuming it would all become clear, and at the end was a bit like ‘well what was the point of that bit?’ So it’s annoying as I might have found it a more satisfying/ compelling read had I read in order - not sure I’m motivated enough to go back and do the first one now.

3 The Feud in the Chalet School – Elinor M Brent-Dyer (book 48/58). This was better and less formulaic than the previous ones. I’m onto the next one already and should get that one finished quite quickly. I’m juggling HHhH and Jane Eyre and I also need to start The Stand and a library book! Phew!

Finished my first book which was All The Colours of the Dark .

I was a bit disappointed after the amazing We Begin at the End by the same author. I felt it dragged in the middle and there were too many names to remember, but that may have been because it didn't hold my attention much.

My next read is my book group book which is The Fraud by Zadie Smith

@Frannyisreading
I’ve just finished The Lark by E Nesbit and it was PERFECT. Thank you so much for the recommendation. I don’t keep a list so will no doubt have forgotten about it soon, but it would definitely be a bold if I happened to be a listing kind of gal.

Highly recommended to anybody who likes Georgette Heyer, Jane Austen, classic children’s literature, general romps, or, indeed, larks.

It will be very hard to follow. Loved it.

I've also just bought Factfulness - thanks for that recommendation.

I tried and tried to like We Begin at the End but it was a DNF for me. Should I try again? I feel I should like it. Maybe I will have a go at All The Colours of the Dark.

I have knocked off #4

4. The Glass Maker by Tracey Chevalier I was really looking forward to this as I have thoroughly enjoyed the other two Tracey Chevailer books I have read “The Girl in the Pearl Earring” and “A Single Thread”. Orsola Rosso comes from a glass making family in Venice and as she grows up it is clear she is becoming a talented glass maker, even though it is not traditional for women to work glass. As the family fortunes rise and fall over the years, the story follows Orsola as she repeatedly adapts to help her family survive. I did kind of enjoy it, this kind of story is usually right up my street, but for me the weird immortality of Orsola and her family members didn’t work. I understand the author was trying to portray the Murano glassmakers as a kind of world removed, unaffected by time, but I feel it would have worked as well to simply follow the family through the generations, rather than have the family not age. It just seemed jarring to have the same characters living through the Black Death, World War 1 and the Covid pandemic. I understand what she was trying to do (I think) but it didn’t make sense to me, the way some characters aged and some didn't and I found it an irritating distraction to the story.

@HagCymraeg

I didn’t love We Begin at the End (though as I did love The Glassmaker, that may not be much help to you!)

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie I'm so glad you liked The Lark. I found it joyful too and until I saw it recommended myself I had no idea Nesbit had written adult fiction. I'm a huge fan of her children's work so I'm not sure how I missed this.

Last year I bought it and Glorious Exploits for a friend's birthday and my nerdy brain was pleased to realise the two titles were basically synonyms. I also love the word "lark" in general: "What larks, Pip."

Crikey this thread moves fast. No WiFi for a couple of days and I’m knee deep in posts.

Belated happy birthday to @MamaNewtNewt
That looks like a beautiful version of Les Miserables.

2 Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall. Reviewed by a few people already up thread. Gripping family saga set in Dorset. Very pacy and great farming writing. A little shmaltzy. But I shed a few tears and ultimately enjoyed it.

And as I catch up with the thread, get better soon @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie I imagine any gentle reads I could recommend you've already read. But off the top of my head A Month in the Country & The Offing fit the bill.

Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck

This is a sequel to Cannery Row, which was a bold for me a few years ago. This catches up with the residents of Cannery Row in Monterey, California, after the war. I didn’t enjoy this quite as much as the original but still really liked it - I just love Steinbeck’s writing and the scenes and characters he creates.

4 The Slicks: On Sylvia Plath and Taylor Swift - Maggie Nelson

This is such a tiny book - about the size of those Penguin Mini Classics which are so appealing. However, it cost £9.99! I can't complain as I willingly bought it for myself to put in my stocking. And I enjoyed the essay inside a lot. Nelson looks at some of the ways Plath and Swift are demonised for their ambition and prolific output. Emily Dickinson gets a look in too. I am both a Plath and Swift fangirl and have heard so much misogynistic criticism of the two that this was really cathartic to read.

It also gave me a bit of dopamine to finish another quick read, as I'm slightly bogged down with my main read, Dear Dickhead. It's epistolary and sometimes feels a bit 'wall of text' as both characters have a lot of opinions.

@elkiedee- thank you & I will look out for the rest of them. I finished the second one today (review below) & have borrowed the third from BorrowBox.

5 The Fire Court by Andrew Taylor - this is the sequel to the Ashes of London that I reviewed yesterday and is another enjoyable mystery set in the aftermath of the Great Fire of London. It begins when the father of the main character finds a body of a young woman - but the old man’s mind has been disturbed as a result of being imprisoned and can his story be trusted? This is another series with a pair of detectives, but the author has managed to stave off any will they / won’t they tedium at least until the next book as the pair barely met in the first book and any romance has been scuppered by injuries in this one.

@Frannyisreading I didn’t enjoy Dear Dickhead much last year!

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie A Tree Grows In Brooklyn? I know I’ve recommended it to you before and you’d probably hate it but it’s one of my comfort reads, though it’s sad in parts and probably too sentimental. Ah, you’d hate it!

Whirlwind by James Clavell. First book of the year, it starts on the day that Ayotollah Khomeini arrived from France back to Iran leading to the downfall of the Shah and the Islamic revolution. It focuses on a group of pilots and engineers who work for a Scottish helicopter company contracted to Iran oil servicing the oil platforms and them trying to get themselves, their dependants and the helicopters out of Iran safely.
Great literature it isn't but he writes a great page turner.I remember this at the time and the Americans captured by the Iranians, Jimmy Carter sending special forces to get them out and the disaster that was. I would recommend this

I appear to be THAT poster that puts people off by going too fast at the start. This will be shortlived, honest guv. I barely read at all in November and December just gone, sometimes I read excessively and others hardly at all. So I’ve read another book that people read last year and I didn’t.

8 . Patricia Brent, Spinster by Herbert George Jenkins

When Patricia, who lives in a hotel, hears two fellow residents slagging her off and speculating about her love life, she invents a fiancee, a farce ensues.

See, I’m going to risk the wrath of @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie by saying this was, you know, alright, but just alright. I enjoyed it, it was good but it didn’t set my world alight by any means. 😝

Getting lots of lovely ideas for books from this thread 😊 I’m also wary of putting people off by reading too fast but life is quite hard for me at the moment and reading is my one escapism. And it’s nice to be part of something.

Today I finished Bitter Sweet by Hattie Williams
which follows a 25 year old PR assistant in a publishing firm in London, who embarks on a wildly ill advised affair with a much older, famous married author. Her poor judgement throughout had me wanting to chuck the book at the wall, but overall I did find myself rooting for her, and hoping for an anvil to drop on his head.

1 The Secret Hours by Mick Herron
HNY all, here to keep the average numbers down… thank you southeast once again.

A standalone thriller by the Slow Horses author. This has a terrific start, though I feel as if its enormous debt to Rogue Male should have been acknowledged. After that, the structure was a bit frustrating for me. I often struggle with spy novels, all the labyrinthine layers and codenames are hard. Still, it has the trademark Mick Herron voice, and if you like that, you’ll like this.

Gosh, don’t make excuses for reading. If people feel intimidated, that’s their problem not yours. One of the very many lovely things about this bit of the internet is it really, really isn’t a competition and anybody who sticks around beyond January would surely see that.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit You liked it. That’s enough.

Thanks @BestIsWest
I’ve tried A Tree a couple of times, but found the structure of the beginning with all the little snippets of action and dialogue quite annoying. At the very least, I’ll try the full sample on kindle.

I’ve started Witchcraft for Wayward Girls which I think somebody recommended on here last year and has been sitting in my wish list ever since.

Remus, Witchcraft for Wayward Girls was my third book last year and I raved about it. I think someone else on here also read it but was perhaps less enamoured.

I hope you like it! If it's not working for you, I always think I Capture the Castle is the ultimate comfort read.

2: Timequake
by Kurt Vonnegut

I always like to read a Vonnegut when the world feels particularly crazy. This is his chief subject!

Timequake is his last novel, written after a decade of struggle with writer’s block that is mirrored in the plot - a mash up of memories, stories and observations mixed with fragments of his failed novel, in which the universe contracts with self-doubt in 2001 and sends everybody back ten years to repeat the decade exactly as they did before - ‘betting on the wrong horse again, marrying the wrong person again, getting the clap again. You name it!’

I find whatever the plot is supposed to be, he writes the same way in every book. The reader is invited into a conversation he’s really having with himself, with his alter ego Kilgore Trout (who in order to tune out that ‘life is a crock of shit’ writes non stop stories in a yellow legal pad - a depressed Humanist, Vonnegut has a strong belief in the power of artistic expression to save humanity).

He rambles, he repeats stories and jokes you will have read in his other books, he’s very funny, he’s bleak but full of hope. He explores the human capability for destruction and creation. It can be hard to live in this world but ultimately: ‘We are here to help each other get through this thing, whatever it is’

Taking down one of his books from the shelf is like meeting with an old friend.

@HagCymraeg very interested to read your review of The Glassmaker, I will be reading that next! I have not read anything by Tracy Chevalier before.