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.

@DuPainDuVinDuFromage I enjoyed the book but agree it was very slight and that it’s nowhere near the best polar exploration text. It just seemed such an awful and unnecessary waste of life.

@thedoofus I think people were quite divided about Fundamentally on here but I was firmly in the love camp. Think she did brilliantly to make a goid story from such tricky material. It wasn't perfect, particularly the second half, but was very enjoyable and thought provoking, impressive for a debut.

@NotWavingButReading The Chalet School is like Malory Towers set in Austria with girls forced to speak 3 languages. I adored them as a child but not sure whether how I'd find them without the nostalgia. We did go to the place where they were originally set, and it is stunning though!

7 Work Like Any Other - Virginia Reeves. RWYO. Not sure how long this has been lingering on my Kindle but it was longlisted for the 2016 Booker. Set in 1920s Alabama, it follows Rosco, an electrician who marries Marie, a farmer's daughter. They move back to her farm when her father dies, and Roscoe decides the best way to make it profitable is to electrify it by diverting power from the main lines. This leads a terrible accident, and the main book is divided between Roscoe's time in prison and Marie's inability to forgive him. It was interesting subject matter, but not sure how gripped I was. 3.5 *

@Stowickthevast - I can definitely believe it was divisive. I agree about the second half - it skittered out of control a bit and definitely pushed credibility. Not perfect, but I'm definitely glad I read it.

5 Our Infinite Fates by Laura Steven

This was SO promising. I wish I'd stopped reading at page 302, it would have been a sad and slightly hopeless ending, but then I would have missed the part where the bad guy was basically a female Satan recruiting people to join her pyramid scheme (not even joking; the phrase was used multiple times) and as much as I hate pyramid schemes, I was like... Hang on, was all this build up just to be able to hate on pyramid schemes?

Brilliant first 3/4 of the book, really disappointing ending that felt rushed.

I was the hater @thedoofus@Stowickthevast I thought it was trying too hard and a little overdone.

@Frannyisreading there's an episode of the Backlisted podcast devoted to that book, which I feel like I have listened to, although I haven't read the book. Might be of interest to you if you haven't already listened: https://www.backlisted.fm/episodes/r2thixnpbdzycz4d0g71ekbfq0djgb

8 Plain Bad Heroines, Emily M Danforth

Quite a ride!

In 1902, a series of macabre deaths take place at an isolated girls' school in New England. Over a century later, a film crew arrive from California to make a film about the "Happenings at Brookhaunts". Strange things start to happen, the past seems to be seeping into the present, and it becomes increasingly hard to tell what's real and what's an illusion.

This sounds a little clichéd, however the very original authorial voice utterly saves it imho. This is told with vigour, humour, copious footnotes (some referencing real things, places and people, others referencing things that only exist in the world of the book - it can be very hard to tell), literary and pop culture references. Nearly all of the characters are women, and they all felt properly drawn, and believable within this slightly strange universe. The first 50 pages were slow, but the following 600 (!) zipped by.

@Southeastdweller we have nearly filled the thread and it's not quite the end of Jan!

Slow to the thread, but joining now! Almost finished my 4th of the year so far.

1. Wax Child by Olga Raven. This was an eerie, unusual read. A story told from the viewpoint of a wax doll created by a woman accused of being a witch in seventeenth century Denmark. Heard a member of staff in Foyles raving about it to another customer so had to give it a try. My expectations were high following her remarks - it was a good read but perhaps not as amazing as it had been made out to be.
2. The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante. I found the first of the Neapolitan Quartet hard to get into, but on talking to a fellow book nerd about them who loves the quartet she convinced me to keep at it. And I’m so glad I did! This one took a little while to get going but when the girls go to the island of Ischia for the summer I found it really picked up and I was hooked. So now the 3rd book is waiting at the library for me to pick up this week.
3. James by Percival Everett. Loved this book. Had never read Huckleberry Finn but I found this made it easy to keep focus on Jim and what he experienced without having much interest in what Huckleberry was up to. A hard read at times with its unflinching depictions of slavery and the reality of being a runaway slave but a great story with an ending that really reminded me of Django Unchained.

6. Hamnet, by Maggie O'Farrell
Needs no explanation - tells the story of Shakespeare's family, in particular his wife. Hard to read about her grief for her dead son, but their world is brought to life vividly. I saw the film first and overall it's very faithful to the book. The film expands on the final scene in the playhouse, and I thought that worked well.

7. Patricia Brent, Spinster, by Herbert Jenkins
Popular on here at the end of last year, and I've finally caught up. Published in 1918, it's the story of a young woman who impulsively asks a man to pretend to be her fiance and of course love ensues, with various hurdles along the way. I could purse my lips and tut at the attitudes to class, which are of their time - the upper class are delightfully at ease in all settings, the working class are wonderful provided they are unpretentious, but heaven forfend that anyone should have notions above their station....but that is taking a hammer to froth and I did of course still enjoy it.

@laddersandsnakes16 I read the Neapolitan Quartet last year and absolutely loved it.

@VikingNorthUtsire thank you so much, the podcast looks fascinating. Unfortunately I am in long slow recovery from a brain injury and it's given me weird audio and visual sensitivities. I can use my phone again now in short bursts but I can't watch films / tv / listen to recorded audio. Quite annoying but has exponentially increased the amount of books I read so there's a silver lining.

I really like the sound of the Plain Bad Heroines. This thread is doing dreadful / wonderful things to my books wishlist!

@laddersandsnakes16 I read Huckleberry Finn to give me some background for James and I'd recommend it as worthwhile. It's got a lot of humour and heart in it, despite the problematic elements I thought it was clear its message was well meant.

Also a huge fan of the Neapolitan Quartet astonishing depth of story telling.

@Frannyisreading hugs from one broken-brained reader to another. I hope your recovery goes smoothly - if slowly. I was going to look at podcast transcription apps but tbh you'd probably get more enjoyment reading another book ☺️

I also like the sound of Plain Bad Heroines

Green for Danger by Christianna Brand
Whodunnit set in a hospital during World War 2. This rattled along nicely enough and I didn’t guess the villain.

I’ve bought Plain Bad Heroines because I just can’t help myself and I’m not even sorry

3 Crying at H Mart by Michelle Zauner

Memoir by a Korean-American musician (who I wasn’t familiar with before reading this) of her relationship with her mother through her illness and death from cancer and their shared relationship with food.
This was well done - I’ll read just about any food memoir, but illness memoirs I have to be careful with. I guess when my DD was down with stomach flu was the right time. Some pictures of the Korean dishes she described would have actually been helpful. I also would have been curious to hear more about her music career, but I suppose that would have made it less cohesive.

@FrannyisreadingI am curious about Huckleberry Finn now - it’s never been on my radar at all, I suppose it’s a classic American book that lots of Americans will have read, but as a Brit I’ve only ever heard about it through US tv and film. Might give it a try later on this year.

@SharpPoetgreat to hear. I’m very glad I stuck with it, the 2 main characters have such distinct personalities and how they behave feels so authentic and real. I predict the quartet is going to break my heart by the end of it all.

5. The Woman Who Got Her Spark Back by Fiona Gibson a lovely gentle and uplifting easy read. I will read more of hers I think 😊

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/what_were_reading/5482655-50-books-challenge-2026-part-two

The Giddy Limit: Fifth Anniversary Book by Alex Leonard

Collection of comic strips from The Orcadian weekly newspaper starring Cheemo, his Dad Sandy, Mum Liz, neighbour Davo and local shopkeeper Ivy. All in dialect and excellent fun.

@FruAashild , this thread is almost full and won't accept any more posts after 1000 (your post was 996). So we've moved on to a new thread, link above your post from @Southeastdweller . Don't want to ignore your review.

Happy New Year

Hi @bettbburg - we're on thread 2 now!