50 Books Challenge 2026 Part Two

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the second thread of the 50 Books 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.

The previous thread is

That's interesting @countrygirl99 !

I really admired her bravery at speaking out on a tough and largely taboo subject. She is paving the way for better care in the future.

I didn’t bold it either @MamaNewtNewt

6. Escape Room by Christopher Edge

This is one that I’ve been reading with DC2.
Ami’s on an escape room adventure with a group of four other players.

It becomes clear almost immediately that this is no ordinary escape room, and Ami’s teammates start getting killed off.

I thought that the final revelation was very predictable.

DC2 enjoyed it far more than I did. So I’d only really recommend it to someone who’s around 12 years old and likes game themed adventure books.

@carefullythere I re-read many of my Maeve Binchey's last year.
I read the early ones in the 1980s but the later ones more recently. They don't seem to date too much and I love a wallow in all that Irishness.

@SheilaFentiman I haven't read the Tunnel 29 book but listened to a BBC 4 series by Helena Merriman- still on BBC Sounds if anyone is interested- it was fascinating, would highly recommend it. Such a mad period of history.

I enjoyed Tunnel 29.

Thank you I will look for it on bbc sounds as it was very good

Finished 16 Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
The writing in this is terrific reflecting the setting mood and narrator and sucking you in fast to Antoinette’s story. As I’m sure everyone knows, this is the story of the ‘madwoman’ in the attic from Jane Eyre and his has themes of colonialism. I can’t say too much without spoilers, but there are parallels between Antoinette’s young life and Jane’s. I’m wavering as to whether this is bold for me or not. The only thing stopping me is that the motivations of the second POV character were not always clear but maybe the atmosphere outweighs that. Feck it, I’ll go with bold for now.

8.Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Mr Lockwood visits his new landlord Heathcliff at the remote farmhouse Wuthering Heights. On being trapped there by inclement weather, Lockwood finds the diary of the late Catherine Earnshaw, who used to live at the farmhouse, and dreams of Catherine’s ghost visiting him. He finds out from the Wuthering Heights housekeeper that Heathcliff was found starving on the streets of Liverpool as a boy by Mr Earnshaw, who took him home and raised him alongside his own children Hindley and Catherine. When Catherine married another, Heathcliff was poisoned by jealousy and sought revenge on Catherine’s family.

A re-read, as I know my H and DC2 want to see the new film, and I’ll end up going along against my better judgement. This was every bit as weird, moody and violent as I remembered from reading it as a teen. I still disliked the ending, which feels quite rushed, like there’s a desperate need to find a bit of redemption after so much bleakness. However the nature writing is amazing and transported me beautifully through the passing seasons of the moorlands.

Percival Everett's James is Radio 4's Book at Bedtime for the next 2 weeks with effect from Monday 9 February. I'll be listening in via the app. Well past my bedtime.

4 A Mind Of My Own - Kathy Burke

Started off with a fascinating account of her childhood in working-class Islington but sadly 1/3 of the way through morphed into the typical actor’s biographical litany of names of lovely directors/thesps/make-up artists worked with, without really revealing much about her adult life. Disappointing.

@PermanentTemporary just catching up on the thread, so sorry for your loss 💐

Is a River Alive? - Robert Macfarlane

This is a non fiction book about people around the world who are fighting to have rivers recognised as entities with their own personhood and legal rights of protection. The author travels to some beautiful and wild places, meets an interesting cast of characters, and the writing is often poetic and impassioned. He also covers a lot of nature other than rivers, and undergoes personal challenges.

At times it gets a little mystical and occasionally mawkish and I think there's always a discomfort with white men travelling the globe to write about the beliefs of indigenous peoples. I did enjoy it though and it was an eye opener to think about rivers in different ways.

@StrangewaysHereWeCome I've just stared Wuthering Heights, I've never read it before. It seems to fit the current weather quite well, although Lockwood says he's neck-deep in snow, which I'm pretty sure hasn't happened in the UK for quite a long time!

10. The City of Last Chances - Adrian Tchaikovsky. RWYO. I used to read a lot more genre fiction and really like Tchaikovsky's work. This reminded me a bit of China Mieville or Patrick Rothfuss. It's kind of fantasy but the magic is rather gritty, demons working in factories and the odd curse rather than showy magicians. The city Ilmar has been occupied by the Pallaseen who make everyone speak their rather dull language and crush the excesses of magic. Their main SS style ministry is the department of Correct Speech. Against them are various uncoordinated factions - the university, old families, the factory workers, magicians from another city, the mysterious wood - and various other characters like the one remaining priest of his religion with his rather annoying God. There are probably a few too many characters especially at the start, but I really enjoyed the world and how it all develops. It's dark & funny.

Five. Gabriel's moon by William Boyd
A travel writer is recruited by MI6 to be a spy. He is haunted by losing his mum in a fire as a child and has a distant relationship with his brother.

I read this for book club and quite enjoyed it. I wouldn't normally pick up a spy novel but William Boyd's writing elevates it. There were a couple of things that made me feel it wasn't secure in it's 60s settings. We're they really talking about carbohydrates in the 60s? Bunny is my next book club read. Is being a member of four book clubs too many?

A Reluctant Assassin by John Pilkington
Pilkington is serving me well at the moment and I liked this one, which is the first of three. Revill, an ex army captain, is forced to become an assassin to protect the queen, but all may not be quite what he’s been told and the job is even more difficult when he discovers that he likes his target. Can he hold on to his self respect, keep his sister safe and survive an impossible task? Well there’s two sequels, so at least one of those is correct.

If you like CJ Sansom but think his later books were too long, I think these would be worth a try.

The Killing Stones - Ann Cleeves

The return of Jimmy Perez who has relocated to Orkney from Shetland with his partner. A close friend is murdered on an archaeological site with one of a pair of ancient stones inscribed with Viking runes.

This was excellent, thoroughly enjoyable. Lots of interesting characters and twisty turns and red herrings.

@cherrypi on the 1960s carbs, I have my DMs co-op card (the card given out to pregnant women with their maternity records) from the early 1960s and they were concerned about her gaining weight. ‘No bread, no potatoes’ is written on it.

@Cherrypi I feel like they used to call it starch in the UK at least? I don't know about the 1960s but I think I remember in the 80s nutrition advice would often reference "starches" or "starchy food".

Sorry I went down a rabbit hole with this.
I found a useful page which states "Cutting down on carbohydrates was repeated in all of Woman’s Own weight-loss articles published during rationing."
https://library.fabresearch.org/viewItem.php?id=11432
I'm surprised too!

4 North Woods - Daniel Mason
Colonial America, a couple flees the judgement and scrutiny of their colony and build a house in the woods. North Woods is the story of that house and its inhabitants over the next few centuries, with the extensions and alterations added over the years while the surrounding forest suffers and diminishes.

I enjoyed this, the author employs a good variety of writing styles to evoke the different inhabitants in different eras with wildly varying experiences and values. The forest changes as apple orchards and sheep pastures affect its character along with the progressive extinction of species both flora and fauna.

8. The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennet

Set in a town called Mallard, where all the negroes are light skinned. A pair of 16 year old twins run away, one passes herself off as white, one returns 12 years later.

I was slightly disappointed after reading so many good things about this.

Ah ok. My apologies to Mr Boyd. I can't find the quote now but the man was talking about wanting to eat something with lots of carbohydrates for lunch.

I'm reading it atm. Did you know it's the first of a trilogy? The second came out last year and the third is due sometime this year.

Speaking of spy novels:

• Call for the Dead - John Le Carré

The first Smiley book. Described as more of a whodunnit than a spy story, which is fair. It sets the Ann of later books into context

Smiley interviews Fennay, a foreign office worker, following a tip off that he was a communist at uni. Less than 24h later, Fennay is dead, with his suicide note blaming the Service for its lack of trust in him. Smiley is baffled, as the interview was friendly and he wasn’t concerned. But as he tries to find out what went wrong, he runs into danger himself.

A quick read and a good intro to Smiley and the gang