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

I’m the other wrist surgery person- I’ll get the sample of that book, thanks.

I think my problem with unremittingly bleak novels is that I start to have sympathy fatigue and stop caring as yet more awfulness is visited on people- it can all become a bit cartoonish, even if unintentional. Light and shade is necessary, for me anyway (Shakespeare ‘got’ this and at his best, does it so well).

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie of course, I remember your post now. Hope you're not in too much pain. I am not normally one for the unremittingly bleak either. I can't do Thomas Hardy at all. But for some reason I do like John Steinbeck (also very not cheery) and this. I am wondering about the wisdom of going on to Due to a Death immediately, however!

@VikingNorthUtsire I am planning to read Factfulness myself (need to get another copy); apparently there's a linked website too.

The Glass Hotel - Emily St John Mandel

I really enjoyed the start of this but had got rather confused by the end. It jumps between multiple timelines and viewpoints, opening as Vincent (a woman) falls from a ship into the sea, then going back over the incidents of her life and those of her half brother Paul. When she was 23, both Vincent and Paul were working at a hotel in a remote part of Vancouver Island when Vincent met Jonathan, a much older, widowed man who was a rich financier. She moved to Manhattan with him and built a life, but that life was built on deception (the author credits a couple of books about Madoff in the end).

I enjoyed it but, like I said… confusing!

The Stranger You Know - Jane Casey
Book 4 in the series: Maeve is drafted in to help solve the brutal murders of young women in London, strangled and arranged in ritualistic fashion which harks back to a murder twenty years ago, for which one of the Met team was questioned. A good read.

I’ve finished my number 9 - Step by Step by Simon Reeve

I found it a bit of a slog in parts and I’m not sure why as I do like Simon and it was actually fascinating to learn about his background, start in journalism, I didn’t know about his first book and investigations into al-qaeda for example. The snippets from his journeys - whilst there was some really interesting stuff in there, I wouldn’t say he was the best travel writer and I’d much rather watch the documentaries I think.

17 Paper Cup by Karen Campbell

Much reviewed on the thread over the last year or so, so I will just add that I really enjoyed this one. Most likely will be a bold. Another RWYO.

A Reluctant Traitor by John Pilkington
Will Revill is still not free from the hold over him and once more forced into dirty dodgy dealings for queen and country. I got a bit confused by what the war was about and various double and triple dealings, but Revill is a great protagonist and I enjoyed this. Several twists that I didn’t see coming and plenty of things that might be taken into the third in the series.

Glad to see my read of Howl has provoked so much discussion. If I was going to read another by DWE should I read the sequel next or try one of her others? I'm trying to do RWYO so it may be a while anyway....

A Tale of Time City is also v good

Charmed Life is such a delight imo @TimeforaGandT ! One of my favourites overall

Another vote for Charmed Life as it seems to be generally regarded as her best work (which I think is fair as it is very good and its plot is arguably better balanced). It has a similar tone to Howl and some similar themes.

I’ve just read and loved The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton. It jumps around in time covering the perspectives of several different women. Two of the women are trying to unravel the mystery of why a 4 year old girl was abandoned on a boat to Australia in 1913. I didn’t figure out exactly what was going on until quite close to the end.

Thank you for the DWE recommendations!

A Reluctant Hero by John Pilkington
Third in the Will Revill series and, once again, he’s called upon to serve his country, this time to help seek out a catholic traitor who might make an attempt on Queen Elizabeth’s life. I read this in one sitting and really enjoyed it.

On Diana Wynne Jones, my favourites since childhood are Charmed Life (which is the start of a series, the others I've read are very enjoyable too) and The Ogre Downstairs, but the less well-known The Dark Lord of Derkholm is a lovey story about raising teenagers - disguised as a fantasy novel about griffins.

8 The Names - Florence Knapp

Cora is a victim of domestic violence and on the day she goes to register her newborn son’s name, she makes a decision that alters the future for all of them. This follows the lives of the family in three parallel universes depending on which name she has chosen.

This was a hard read because of the subject matter. Everyone who recommended it said they sobbed while reading it but I didn’t have that sort of reaction. More a need to see Cora’s disgusting husband get his comeuppance. Interesting idea for a book though and I enjoyed it.

@Frannyisreading I'm looking forward to Is a River Alive because although I think RM is often worthy of a place in Pseuds Corner, it's such a fascinating topic. In the last couple of years environmental groups have partnered with indigenous groups and have undammed the Klamath River in Oregon and it's been transformative.

@BauhausOfEliott that is such an eclectic mix which has really tickled me for some reason.

@countrygirl99 I studied the English Civil War for A Level but unfortunately it's so long ago that the only thing I remember is developing a giant crush on Prince Rupert on account of how dashing he was.

Ooh another DWJ i really like is Eight Days of Luke. A quick read and I always find it fun, bonkers and witty, but also eerie/otherworldly in places, which is probably the combination I particularly enjoy about her writing.

7 The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern
Bookclub read that I probably wouldn’t otherwise have picked up. A fantastical travelling circus in the late nineteenth century is powered by real magic. Celia and Marco have been trained as magical practitioners and then launched by their self-serving guardians into a deadly competition - which takes the form of creating ever more elaborate spectacles for the circus. Naturally, they fall in love.

This was very readable, but I didn’t like the lofty authorial viewpoint - you never got very deeply into Celia or Marco’s experiences, making the circus the main character. How much you like this book will depend on how taken you are with a whimsical black and white circus, and fancy clockwork, and inexplicable magic with no real boundaries or constraints.

8 Cultish: the language of fanaticism - Amanda Montell
Intended as an exploration of the use of language as a means of grooming and control in cults, there’s also quite a lot about the cults themselves (including Jonestown and Scientology) which isn’t exactly new material. Interesting to see how the same tricks are used by dangerous cult leaders, MLMs/pyramid schemes and ‘cult’ fitness studios - using language to create ‘in’ and ‘out’ groups, shut down dissent and make followers feel unique and privy to special knowledge. But not one for hardcore linguistics nerds.

9 William Wordsworth - selected by Seamus Heaney
My local library is doing a summer reading challenge which includes reading a volume of poetry. From my recent read of Rhyme and Reason by Mark Forsyth, I fancied a bit of Wordsworth. Hard work and may have fallen asleep at least once, but there is a beautiful sense of the divine in nature running through his work, as well as a melancholic sense of the loss of simple youthful joy in being in the wild outdoors.

I was very taken with the whimsical circumstances circus idea @LadybirdDaphne but hated the writing style and it was a DNF for me.

have just bought the Earthsea series by Ursula le Guin as recommended by my daughter. I’m assuming that I’m very late to the party here?

I really loved The Night Circus but her follow up The Starless Sea was really bad, total and utter letdown, I was gutted !

14. Bookish - Lucy Mangan

This has been a long time coming, despite having been on my wishlist pretty much as soon as it came out, because it’s never been a kindle deal iirc, never appeared on my library’s Borrowbox, and only recently did they wake up and decide to stock print copies (I'm too mean to buy it full price!).

I'm older than LM so some things (eg her Judy Blume/Sweet Valley High obsession) passed me by, but there were lots of moments of wry recognition, including the reckless point in your life when you give yourself up to acquiring books with never a thought to how many you’re piling up. There’s slight relief on my part that I haven’t reached her 10K total, though I do deeply covet her separate library and beautiful hand-built bookcases.

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily J Danforth
Dual timeline gothic horror, what’s not to like? Well, the stupid footnotes and overuse of ‘Readers….’ for a start, but despite those irritations I did keep reading and enjoyed it for the most part.
I liked the female focus and the neat comparisons between Old Hollywood and New Hollywood. The feverish atmosphere of a minor girls’ boarding school was also well caught.
If you’re in the market for a lesbian Lemony Snicket then this is probably the book for you.

Haha @Terpsichore I had a Sweet Valley High obsession! I knew at the time they were total dross but there was so little else in the teen section of my local library I just got on with it. I read all of them and every Point Horror I could get my hands on and then swiftly graduated to the grown up section which I found boring for some years as I didn't understand a lot of it!

I am a total Louis de Bernieres OBSESSIVE. The South American Trilogy @Stowickthevast mentioned above are brilliant, Senor Vivo and the Coco Lord is brillant. I have read everything by him (except his poems) and have liked everything for different reasons.

Lesbian Lemony Snicket is PERFECT!