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.

Much sympathy from me too, @VikingNorthUtsire ! I'm very glad you're still with us 💐

@Terpsichore the Mary Kelly books sound great. I have a toppling TBR pile at the moment but will make a note about them!

Echoing everyone else @VikingNorthUtsire I hope you are being well looked after.

Pleased that it was the right book at the right time for you, @VikingNorthUtsire. It sounds like Jenn Ashworth had a really good outcome, so hoping that things will go every bit as well for you.

Wishing you all the best @VikingNorthUtsire

for you @VikingNorthUtsire and wishing you all the best. The book sounds excellent, I will add it to my wishlist.

Sending you my very best wishes too @VikingNorthUtsire 💐

Wishing you all the best @VikingNorthUtsire. A friend's son is going through similar so have had a bit of insight into how stressful and precarious it all can be.

@StrangewaysHereWeCome interested to hear about the Hanif Kureshi book - I remember reading some of his accounts on Twitter when the accident happened.

I didn't really like The Rest of Our Lives. I think the main character annoyed me with his passivity and the basketball just bored me. Was very surprised it was on the Booker shortlist!
5 The Manningtree Witches - A.K. Blakemore. This is set in the 1640s when the puritans are setting the agenda, inspired by events in America. It's based on a true story of the witchfinder Matthew Hopkins and trials in Manningtree of a group of women. It's narrated mainly by a young woman Rebecca who lives in poverty with her drunken mother but is trying to better herself by learning how to read and write. Some of the writing is great, the author was a poet and her descriptions are very vivid. it shows the impossibility of the women's situation and how those on the edge of society were targeted. But it didn't quite draw me in as much as I would have liked. It was a book club read and wouldn't have been one I would have chosen.

Can I include DNF?

• Orbital - Samantha Harvey

Booker prize winner about the fragility, beauty and strangeness of life on the space station. I liked this very much: the pacing (of each orbit of the ISS), the beautiful descriptions and the building up of glimpses into each astronaut’s life and history.

Always interested to hear about a DNF.

4 Expeditionary Force 2 SpecOps. Craig Alanson. As expected, an entertaining non challenging sci-fi, nice holiday read.
5 Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime and other Stories. Oscar Wilde. Some great little stories here. Drew me in quickly with each of the stories. My favourite book of the year so far. But not quite a bold!
Just about to start 'The Women' Kristin Hannah and very much looking forward to it.

So sorry to hear that @VikingNorthUtsire I hope you are doing as well as you can be. Sending best wishes to you.

11 Stolen In The Night by Patricia MacDonald

Should have been a DNF, but for some reason I carried on. You know a book is bad when you intensely dislike the entire family of a murdered girl. Terrible writing, boring, obvious story, mandatory terrible twist. To be avoided at all costs.

Shocked to hear your news @VikingNorthUtsire - wishing you all the best. The book sounds great, I have added it to the list.

Every good wish to you @VikingNorthUtsire

@VikingNorthUtsire it sounds like you've had a very difficult couple of years. 💐I'm glad you found this book and it has given you some comfort. When I was going through breast cancer treatment I read a book called Ticking off Breast Cancer by Sara Liyanage. It was really helpful to read about someone else's experience.

So sorry to hear your news @VikingNorthUtsire . Hoping for the best possible outcome for you x

@VikingNorthUtsire so sorry to hear that

"I didn't really like The Rest of Our Lives. I think the main character annoyed me with his passivity and the basketball just bored me. Was very surprised it was on the Booker shortlist!"

I liked hearing about the empty nest from the point of view of a man for a change. Usually it's the woman - it made me think of 'Sandwich', which I read last year (and disliked).

I had few expectations of it - i hadn't heard of it and didnt know it was Booker short listed.

6. Bleeding Heart Square - Andrew Taylor

With thanks to elkiedee who brought this along to last year's London meet up. Set in the 1930s and focused on a lodging house and the lodgers in Bleeding Heart Square with forays to Essex. The central premise is a missing lady, the former owner of the house. However, I wasn't that riveted by that element of the story but did enjoy the 1930s setting against the backdrop of the blackshirts etc and the personal stories of Lydia and Rory who both end up lodging separately in Bleeding Heart Square. The final denouement regarding the missing lady was unexpected (and not credible from my perspective).

Sorry to hear about your illness @VikingNorthUtsire, wishing all the very best.

I finished my fourth book last night - The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes. This won the Booker Prize in 2011 so I'm sure many of you have already read it.

A retired man looks back on his life after receiving a mysterious inheritance from a former girlfriend's mother when she dies. He's also left his friend's - who took his own life after university - diary. This prompts him to contact his old girlfriend and reevaluate their relationship and his behaviour afterwards.

This is a relatively short book but reveals itself magnificently, building steadily to the twist at the end. Definitely another bold - I'm doing well so far this year!

@VikingNorthUtsire - sorry to hear you are having such a tough time. Sending you lots of good wishes.

It’s Not A Cult by Joey Batey
Neither as good as expected or as dire as it could have been.
A nameless band sing long, linked songs about folk beings from the North East called Solkats. Their drummer has to look at life through a camera. A small, benign group of fans begins to grow and become increasingly unhinged and violent.
It has good observations about social media, fandom and neurodiversity but it’s all a bit of a higgledy piggledy mess. The female singer is intensely annoying and I skipped her stupid litanies of insult from quite early on - I think she’s supposed to be a feisty Joolz Denby type but she was just irritating. The different Solkats are ingeniously named but the problem with referencing non existent music albums and themes is that I just didn’t care and every time a Solkat showed itself it never really got going.
I found myself breaking off halfway to start a book of folk horror short stories by working class writers and tbh most of those stories were an improvement on this book (especially the one about an ill fated rock band).
It’s no Ironopolis and don’t think Batey should ditch the acting career just yet.

I hope the outlook is more positive now@VikingNorthUtsire, glad you found a book that articulated your feelings and provided some comfort.

2 Revenge Wears Prada: The Devil Returns - Laura Weisberger
This fell into my lap and as I'm really looking forward to seeing the film when it comes out later this year I thought I'd read the book.
Should have just stuck with the film I think!