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

@SheilaFentiman- sending lots of sympathy & I hope things get better soon.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie- the googly eyes did make me laugh! I’ve enjoyed the WH discussion but I’m not going to see the film as I’m really bored of directors making “shocking” versions of books & claiming this merits lots of attention.

@StrangewaysHereWeCome- according to Maggie O’Farrell, Agnes & Anne are different forms of the same name! I really enjoyed Agnes Grey when I read it last year. It did feel a Jane Austenish world - but seen through a much more critical lens as it was written from a servant’s perspective. I found it really striking that not one of Agnes’ pupils in her governess time was remotely sympathetic.

Glad the googly eyes have caused some smiles.

The Names is in the daily deals today. I’ve been reading it since about 7.30 and am very impressed so far.

I hope things feel easier soon on both fronts @SheilaFentiman 💐

20. A Particularly Nasty Case, Adam Kay
When the well runs dry for memoirs, where do you turn? To crime fiction, it seems, viz Richard Coles and now Adam Kay. We're in familiar Adam Kay territory with a young doctor with a chaotic life as his central character. He then starts to wonder whether a senior doctor was murdered and launches his own blundering investigation. I thought this was very well done. There are some good jokes, sympathetic characters, and an extra dimension is added by the fact that the central character has a bipolar diagnosis, and neither he nor anyone else is completely sure they can trust his version of events. A strong fictional debut.

4.The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins
I listen to Mel Robbins podcast sometimes when it’s not overly long so was intrigued to read this. However I was disappointed. I think I was expecting to read that lightbulb moment but personally I didn’t get much from the book. It is a let them be thing and a let me and was about how to use this in your relationships. I get where she is coming from but the book kept promising to Let Them,Let Me and as I say I was waiting for it and waiting and then I finished it. Will still listen to her podcasts from time to time though.
Anyway really pleased that some of my wish list books are actually on borrow box now so going to read Light Perpetual by Francis Spufford which was definitely recommended on here at some point in the last few years.

I've just seen on BBC that there is a TV series sort of amalgamation of Marian Keyes books about the Walsh sisters.

I am nervously excited for it. I completely and utterly love the books and each of the Walsh sisters. But what if it's not good?? I'd be so irritated!

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie I purchased the Names from Vinted the other day have heard good reviews. Not started it yet though

Hope things are improving @SheilaFentiman

8 Due to a Death by Mary Kelly

I obviously can't remember who recommended this (was it @Terpsichore?) but I am grateful to them as I thought it was great. The book starts with a man and a woman in a car in mysterious circumstances. Something bad has clearly happened, but what? Things don't get much clearer for some time as we flash back to earlier in the year and follow Agnes (the woman), her husband and his friends and Hedley (the man) through months in the claustrophobic, bleak town of Gunfleet, where everyone knows everyone else's business, but no-one is quite what they seem. The sense of place is remarkable. The bleakness gets a bit much at times, but Agnes is an intriguing character, whose life runs out of control partly because of the actions of others, but also because she cannot cope with being a traditional wife, with no purpose. The death of the title is at once important and not-really-important to what Kelly is trying to say.

I see that Hedley appears in some of Kelly's other novels, which is interesting because he doesn't really feel like a strong protagonist. I will, however, look out for them, as this was a strange little gem leaving an unsettling impression after I'd finished reading.

9 The Reckoning by Jane Casey
10 The Last Girl by Jane Casey

I wasn't grabbed by the first Maeve Kerrigan book (The Burning) but after numbers 2 and 3 I am now properly hooked. Good plotting, but more importantly, great characters. Totally invested in Maeve and Rob but also in the more minor characters, which for me is the hallmark of a great crime series. DI Derwent in particular is a fantastic creation. And Casey is very funny (both in writing and in person; I saw her speak at the Chiltern Kills crime writing festival last year). I will no doubt tear through these in short order after buying them all on the recent 99p deal, but I am trying to read other things in between!

Thanks to all on this thread for encouraging me to persevere after the first book.

Thank you for your good wishes, everyone ❤️

@Welshwabbit it ‘s good you like Derwent, he continues to feature! One of the non-Maeve books by Jane Casey has been adapted for Netflix so I have added that to my TBW list 🙂

I had a feeling that might be the case, @SheilaFentiman !

@RazorstormUnicorn it’s already been shown in Ireland, I hope it’s good. I think I’ve read them all bar the most recent one

@SheilaFentiman The Killing Kind ? It’s been on ITV for ages

On ITV, huh?

Then I am a sucker for advertising, as Amazon is now recommending the book with its "as seen on Netflix" cover to me, after my Maeve binge buy.

@SheilaFentimanNetflix has a habit of marketing stuff they didn’t make as if it’s theirs

Well I said I’d wait, but after all the discussion I couldn’t, so I dragged my sister along to the cinema yesterday to see ”Wuthering Heights”, and have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it. Forewarned is forearmed, I knew what to expect and on its own terms I thought it was a sexed up, fan fiction triumph.
Also Jacob Elordi was the best looking Heathcliff I’ve ever seen in an adaptation, and I didn’t find the fact that Margot Robbie was blonde and far too old for the part as distracting as I expected.
I did find the sub plot of Isabelle Linton being complicit in her abuse at the hands of Heathcliff a little ‘off’ but all in all an enjoyable afternoon was had by all.

Your view of 'WH' aligns with my own, Desdamona.

Edited to ask what your sister thought of it? :)

She enjoyed it too, maybe not as much as me. She hasn’t read the book or seen any other screen versions so had no preconceptions going in. We went home and immediately dug out a 1978 adaptation on BBC iPlayer (with sets of Crossroads standard and a Heathcliff who looks like Lurch) so she could compare and contrast a more faithful adaptation with the ‘fever dream’ version we’d just watched. She perferred Emerald Ferrell’s take. (Unsurprisingly as the BBC series is definitely showing its age)

Oooh @MaterMoribund – that sounds good! I love an alternative history!

@SheilaFentiman – hugs xx

@RazorstormUnicorn – Saturday 21 February, 9.15pm BBC1 The Walsh Sisters, 6 episodes of 50 minutes. Stefanie Preissner, who plays Maggie has done the adaptation from Rachel’s Holiday and Anybody Out There, according to the Radio Times.

I might have to check out The Walsh Sisters. DH is travelling so this sounds like a good glass of wine and remote to myself option 🙂

The Names by Florence Napp
Gobbled this up in just a few hours and surprised myself by thinking it outstanding. The main idea is that a woman who is in an abusive relationship goes to register the birth of her second child, who will either be called Gordon (after her husband and her husband’s father), Julian (the woman’s choice) or Bear (the baby’s sister’s choice).

What follows are three alternate histories, entwined and moving together through time. It’s very cleverly done indeed. The abusive husband is a bit of a cartoon villain and we never fully understand what prompted his behaviour, but he’s also scarily believable (and I say this even as I know I’m totally contradicting myself).

It’s on the whole very intelligent, thought provoking, gentle and moving. Not at all the sort of thing I’d usually go for, but I’m glad I did. A bold, if I was a bolder.

Florence Knapp

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie one of my bolds this year loved it

So, Russell Jones, he of the engaging books about the Tory party decided to write a thriller genre novel. It is self published which probably speaks volumes. I have no idea why he chose to write as an American woman in her 30s. It's not great. Moves at a pace is the compliment I can pay it.

Thanks for the heads up @EineReiseDurchDieZeit, I very much enjoyed this and will be listening to the series.

Also as an aside for lovers of Classics and their adaptations, I was reminded by a trailer at the cinema that Netflix have a 6 part adaptation of Pride & Prejudice coming in the autumn. With Jack Lowden as Mr Darcy. I’m sure he’ll be excellent as he’s a great actor, but I see him more as a Bingley with James Norton as Darcy because he has that sneery, haughty thing down pat.

Great review @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie very much looking forward to reading it now too

And Rufus Sewell as Mr Bennet. I’ve always had a soft spot for Mr Bennet but wouldn’t have expected him to be quite so, er, hot.