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.

So glad you liked Cuddy! It’s quite the experience eating a scone in the cafe when you know that beneath your feet so many Scottish soldiers were shut up and left to die. There’s always something new to discover and a very special experience to see St Cuthbert’s Cross and associated bits and pieces.
I defy any Detectorists fan to walk past the Venerable Bede’s tomb and not mutter “Overrated”
Ben Myers has had some stick today on Instagram as he is staying in a remote cottage and the second photo is of the row of moles hung on a fence in time honoured Moles Catcher fashion. He’s told complainers to have a good think about where their meat and leather comes from and also, have they actually read any of his books? Top marks to the comment “The Gallows Mole”

I’ve read a few of hers now and generally I’ve really loved the earlier ones but found the later ones not so good. I really enjoyed Light A Penny Candle last year as well as loving a reread of Tara Road, but I read Minding Frankie several years ago and remember thinking it was just OK.

I want to read Cuddy now, as well as The Stone Diaries. This is not helping my 'Read What You Own' resolution - perhaps if I get through a couple more I already own I'll treat myself!

@ChessieFL - aw, my mum loved Light A Penny Candle. I've not thought of that in decades.

@Arran2024 , I remember loving Unless by Shields very much as well. She wrote that while she knew she was dying. She was a wonderful writer who could see the the remarkable in the everyday. Anne Tyler is another. And Pat Barker's early novels.

Have you done Glass Lake? I know we had this conversation but I can’t remember! It’s my favourite of hers after Light A Penny Candle

I did read Glass Lake about 20 years ago and remember really enjoying it, and now have it on my kindle for a reread soon.

Excellent, I would like to reread it also but I’m doing RWYO and I don’t have a copy. I’ll buy it if I get in a rut.

The Browne Issue trained part of me files all those titles in alphabetical order iykyk It’s good to see they are still being read in some form.

@ChessieFL you've reminded me how much I loved Circle of Friends when I read it a few years ago, so unexpectedly modern and not twee at all, not what I thought Maeve Binchy was! I think I might start Light a Penny Candle soon.

6 The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
I was 50% convinced I'd already read this, but no. I expect most people know it's about the mysterious and wealthy Gatsby and his glittering parties. I definitely enjoyed it but I think I liked the early sections the best. It veered towards melodrama a little in the end. It wasn't a long story at all and I tried to slow down to enjoy the writing; I found the settings and the mood beautifully evoked.

It gave me a lot of Secret History vibes, I'm guessing it had a big influence on Donna Tartt.

• The Couple at No. 9 - Claire Douglas

Twisty and gripping thriller about newlyweds Saffy and Tom, who are expecting a baby and who move into a rural cottage previously owned by Saffy’s beloved gran Rose, who now has Alzheimer’s.

During building works, two bodies are discovered in the back garden and the whole story of Rose, her DD Lorna and their move to the village is told.

Does what it says on the tin, with competence.

5 The Outcast Dead by Elly Griffiths

The 6th book in the Dr Ruth Galloway series. The focus is on three different crimes. The first, a Victorian baby farmer who was convicted of the murder of baby in her care. Ruth unearth her skeleton on a dig and ends up in a TV programme about her. The second, a baby boy dies and his parents are suspects as they had two other children who died as babies. The third, some babies are abducted by someone calling themself ‘The Childminder’. This was low on archaeology and high on crimes, implausibility, and infidelity. Not one of my favourites.

My 5th RWYO book of the year.

So sad to read that Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's 21-month-old son has died - how awful.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c62wx32re2po

Oh how awful!

Oh my goodness, what horrible news. My thoughts are with her and her family.

Oh how terribly sad.

Oh that’s such terrible sad news.

2 ) North Woods by Daniel Mason. This book follows the inhabitants of a single house nestled in the woods of New England over the span of four centuries.

I wanted to like this book more than I did. The concept seemed great and I'd heard so many people raving about it, but I found the pacing hit and miss. I enjoyed the stories of some of the inhabitants, but found some very slow and a chore to get through.

Whilst the author is undoubtedly a skilled writer, I found the prose a bit pretentious at times. What's worse is that it took me out of the story. It was obvious that the author wanted to sound very clever indeed. Unfortunately when every character in every time period repeatedly uses grandiose language, even in their own private thoughts, they become less distinct and believable. Different characters need different voices, and the book fell short for me here.

Not a bad read, but I think I fell for the hype a bit on this one!

My next read will be Women in Intelligence: The hidden history of two world wars by Helen Fry

Interesting, I didn’t notice that with North Woods it was one of my favourite books last year. I hadn’t really heard anything about it though, so maybe that helped.

Joining in with my first book:

1) Surprised By Joy By C.S. Lewis
A re-read for Advent that I hadn’t quite finished by the New Year. A very partial and incomplete memoir of Lewis’s early life, intellectual development and conversion. I recalled it having quite a bit more about the horrors of boarding school life, but that was in fact fairly brief. I do recommend it but don’t expect anything about the writing of his novels or much about his friendships other than how they influenced him intellectually as a student.

I like the idea of an advent read, @TremendousThirst .

2.The Safekeep - Yael Van Der Wouden

Based in the 1960’s in the Netherlands, the book follows Isabel, who lives in the family home acquired during WW2. Isabel is very orderly and likes routine, but is disrupted by the arrival of Eva, her brother’s girlfriend.

The two women are the opposites of each other and Isabel sees Eva as a threat. Things begin to go missing from the family home and you can feel Isabel’s paranoia building.

Very well written, but the twist was predictable early on. The book has themes of memory, family, home, belonging and LGBT. 4/5

3.Two Brothers - Ben Elton

The book follows a Jewish family in Berlin before and throughout WW2. Later, the brothers Otto and Paulus find out Otto was adopted (from a non Jewish family) so we see how they are treated differently during rise of fascism. 4/5

4.The Bullet That Missed - Richard Osmond

The third book in the Thursday Murder Club series, solving a cold case involving a murder with no body, a KGB colonel and ‘the Viking’. I was looking for an easy read and this did the job. 3/5

Now reading Our Evenings - Alan Hollinghurst

I felt exactly the same way about North Woods @TheDonsDingleberries and it may help to warn you that it is stylistically very much cut from the same cloth as Cuddy and Helm in the way of having an overarching theme but shifting perspectives across time.

Finally finished the first book of the year The Hallmarked Man.
Completely take everyone’s comments about the plot, needing an editor, how irritating when she writes in dialect and the will they/wont they suspense and I still enjoyed it and will no doubt be reserving the next in the series at the library in due course.

11 . Deep Cuts by Holly Brickley (audio)

Finished last night.

Percy, a would be music writer, meets Joe, a singer/songwriter in uni, and helps him craft his sound. As Joe’s star rises, issues in their relationship mean Percy feels increasingly sidelined and angry.

Percy, who despite the name is female, is often pretentious,, obnoxious and self centred but I didn’t care, I really enjoyed listening to it. It took me back a bit as they are in uni at the same time period as when I was in uni and I’m an indie kid like Percy musically.

I’d call it an attempt to do High Fidelity with a female protagonist. It doesn’t always work and the relationship side of things is far too dragged out; but I really really enjoyed listening to it, like, I looked forward to it every night and I don’t know what I will replace it with

Hovering on a bold probably will be