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.

@Purrpurrpurr I loved A Single Thread. I really wanted to love The Glass Maker as well. I didn't hate it, I was just irritated by the immortality, which just made no sense.

4. The Mingham Air - Elizabeth Fair

In the sleepy rural village of Mingham, uber-capable Hester Clifford has come to stay with the Huttons, the family of her godmother Cecily, after the distressing breakdown of her engagement. Father of the family, Bennet, is a fussy semi-invalid with a calculating turn of mind, while both adult children - like Hester, in their twenties - live at home: no-nonsense farm-worker Maggie and charming-but-lazy Derek.

The stage is set for a comedy of manners as Hester, like a benign version of Flora in 'Cold Comfort Farm', sets out to organise the Huttons, and well-meaning Cecily - forever getting hold of the wrong end of the stick - tries to engineer a happy future for Cecily involving local landowner Thomas Seamark. Along the way are nosy neighbours, a temperamental vicar's wife and a disastrous village Fiesta.

I loved this. It’s the last of Elizabeth Fair's six novels, published in 1960 but harking back to a gentler, more idyllic age, and I wish there were a dozen more - apparently she just stopped and never wrote any more, despite living another 40 years. A kindle reviewer likened it to a mixture of Austen and Mapp and Lucia and they’re not far wrong - maybe a dash of Pym too. Nothing about it is great literature but it’s just a comforting, funny, consoling kind of a book for times when you don’t want anything too serious.

I wanted to love Weyward, but then she mentioned hearing something discordant, "like a robin singing in the wrong season," and I lost my suspension of disbelief.

The women are supposed to be so connected with the natural world, then she drops a clunker like that. Robins are birds who sing throughout the seasons, it's something they're known for. You don't have to be David Attenborough, but at least know the basics of what you're writing about.

So I kind of lost faith in the storytelling.

@BeaAndBen Good point 😄
Thank you. That made me laugh.

I hope you're managing okay @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie.

@noodlezoodle I’m half way through. I absolutely loved the first half, but they’ve just started with the spell making mumbo jumbo in the woods and I’m going off it fast. I’m hoping there won’t be much more of the CAPITAL LETTERS IEO VEO OVOVO nonsense.

@HagCymraeg - I loved The Glassmakers and didn't mind the 'living through time' quirk.

1. Arabella, Georgette Heyer. I'm always a bit torn on this novel, I think Beaumaris knowing the truth and leaving poor Arabella to suffer dreadfully for the last week or two extremely cruel. But other than that it's a bit of Regency fun. I might treat myself to Venetia as my next re-read.

1. Women Who Wouldn't Wheest - a collection of essays from Scotland about the fight for women's rights and against self-ID. It's interesting although occasionally a bit (understandably) repetitive as it's different people giving their experience of the same events. I think it's an important and near-contemporaneous record of what will surely be one of the most important turning points in modern feminism.

Wise words! I think I worry unnecessarily sometimes!

1. The Obesity Code by Dr Jason Fung

This was motivated mainly by DH. He’s embarked on a 1000 calorie a day diet to mark the New Year and is very keen for me to join him.
I’m a lot less keen on this, not least because I don’t think I’d be able to keep up with that sort of calorie restriction for more than a week or two, so I have been looking for alternative propositions, hence this book.

There’s a bit of discussion about the obesity epidemic and possible causes. The author is of the firm belief that insulin resistance as a result of excess sugar in the diet is the main culprit, followed by cortisol.

The dietary advice it gives is, for the main part, fairly standard - eat less sugar, more unprocessed food etc. The biggest difference from other diet-type books I’ve read is the authors advice to incorporate fasting into one’s lifestyle. Although I’m not sure how fasting compares to a 1000 calorie / day diet in terms of being able to continue with the diet for any length of time.

Finished. A brilliant first half and lots of great stuff in there, but once the magic started it just wasn’t as interesting. It also needed to lose about 60 pages of waffle.

1. Butter by Asako Yuzuki

Set in Japan, the story follows Rika, a journalist who embarks on securing an interview with a female serial killer. Set against a backdrop of food, feminism and friendship, Rika not only begins to understand the killer but herself as well.

It took me a while to get into, particularly settling into the rhythm of the writing (translation). The descriptions of the food made me genuinely hungry and slow emergence of other characters and relationships had me hooked by halfway through. This was a heavier read for the start of year, but it definitely made me think.

My next read is Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell.

I’m finally getting stuck into Pachinko. Seems really good so far. I also have Butter on my TBR pile @Sobasically so I may go for that one next.

I thought really highly of Pachinko - the TV series was excellent also.

I had quite mixed feelings about Butter. The descriptions of food were great but the rest of the writing felt clunky. I also thought she didn't really know where the plot was going, possibly due to being based on a true story, and the bit where it changes to her friend's pov for one chapter was just odd.

I've finished my first two today:

1. Helm - Sarah Hall. Reviewed up thread by Eine, I liked this book about a wind over the Penines and various interactions with it through time. Among others, there's the stone age near worship, medieval religion, Victorian experimentation and present day meteorologists predicting whether it will disappear. I like the mix of science and spirits with the cheeky Helm blowing throughout. It did remind me of Cuddy too so can see how if you didn't like that, this wouldn't be for you.

1. I'm So Thrilled for You - Holly Bourne. I picked this up on the Audible sale, but it wasn't really for me. It's about 4 friends in their early 30s at a baby shower. One is pregnant, one desperately wants a child, one has a baby and is struggling and one wants to remain childless. The book alternates between their perspectives. It was a bit too obvious for me and the characters were all quite self absorbed, although the audio with 4 different narrators was good.

2 The Wedding People I bought this after it was recommended on here. I finished it in a day and enjoyed it very much.

First two books of the year, both carry overs from last year

1) The Sleepwalkers by Scarlett Thomas
Excellent psychological thriller. The author is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Kent and I think the plotting of the book shows that. I will definitely check out her other work.

A newly married couple go to a strange hotel on a Greek Island on honeymoon. Previously a married couple stsying there had walked into the sea and died - the suspicion was that he was sleepwalking and she tried to save him.

It is a complicated tale which comes together right at the end in an unexpected direction.

2. Hitler's People by Richard J Evans I saw the film Nuremberg and wanted to know more anout the key players in Nazi Germany. This book has a chapter on each of the big names but also features less well known characters and ordinary Germans, 24 individuals in all. I can't say I enjoyed it as such but it is highly informative.

I loved Weyward. Had no idea about the robins, so that went straight over my head.

9 . Black Woods, Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivey

In Alaska, Birdie, an irresponsible single mother, takes her daughter Emaleen to live in a remote cabin with her boyfriend Arthur, who is hiding a dark secret.

That summary made it sound so good, but it’s hiding a multitude of sins.

So, this was positively raved about on YouTube. It was on my Wishlist for ages and I finally saw it for 99p. I had heard it so hyped that I expected amazing things, and those expectations were unequivocally not met.

It’s got some great prose, good nature writing, and yes, it is magical realism/literary fairy tale BUT if you were to write the plot of this book down in a few sentences it would sound absolutely absurd because it is.

One Youtuber bemoaned that this had not been nominated for major book prizes, and it’s like, did we read the same book?! Of course it’s not Booker worthy!

The thing is, it’s not absolutely shit, it does have some merits, it’s a good book for those that like their fiction with a drop of magical realism and I did find the end quite affecting, but Angela Carter it absolutely is not.

It’s left me baffled, to be honest

First DNF Cinder House by Freya Marske a novella I was listening to on BorrowBox. It started off well enough bout a teenager girl Ella who is a ghost trapped in her house. The only people that can see her are her step-mother and step-sisters. She tries to leave the house but at 12 gets pulled back again. She meets a fairy charm seller and this is where I am missing a chunk of the book and fell asleep but picked it up again into the land of weird fantasy and I have just lost the plot with this. Not interested in carrying on. The plot is just nonsense, I have read it is meant to be in the same sort of style as Cinderella but no it’s not. Gave up at 50%

I’ve seen so much praise for this and saw the same for The Snow Child and I just couldn’t get into TSC at all so don’t think I’ll try any others.
I’m struggling to read at the moment. First week back to work has been hectic. My audio is going well (Milkman by Anna Burns) but one of my book club books is very drawn out and slow, though I do like it, I’m not in a hurry to pick it up Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz, and I haven’t really managed to get into the other yet though I suspect I’ll like it once I’ve had a good run at it (The Tenant of Wildfell Hall) Once I’m done with these two I need some fast paced detectives or something to get me out of this funk.

@ÚlldemoShúl Tenant is all time favourite books for me.

That’s a good recommendation Eine. I think I should focus on it for a while and try to get into it. I think I’m just too frazzled. I’ve just spent 15 minutes looking for my keys so I could put them in my handbag in the morning. And they were of course in the handbag already (which I’d looked in twice)

Helen's narrative in Tenant is really good when you get to it. There's a build-up to it, but it's worth the wait.

Hate it when that happens, with me it’s my bank card!

I love Milkman. I bet the audio is great, I could really hear my Co. Down Nan's voice when I was reading it!

Gosh that was quick! When I saw your first update I thought 'uh oh' but I'm glad you enjoyed it minus the waffle and magic. I think the writing about the girls was so striking and shocking for me that it still stands out in my memory, and I don't mind a bit of witchery.