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

Will do, @ÚlldemoShúl

9. My Hero Academia Vol 5 by Kohei Horikoshi

Manga, set in a world where 80% of the population have “quirks”, or superpowers, and many young people (including our main protagonist) aim to become superheroes by studying at the U.A. High School for budding heroes.

This volume covers the final stages of the U.A. High sports festival, which is basically head to head matches between students with a bit of character building in the background.
Very fast paced and action packed.

10) A Quiet Place by Seicho Matsumoto
Another claimant to "Japan's Agatha Christie", this is my favourite of the three Japanese detective novels I have read this year.

It covers a lot of Japanese culture, which I found fascinating.

All three novels have been deceptively simple. There is no big twist, it is somewhat mundane.

You know how there is a crazy atm for those Japanese and Korean somewhat whimsical books about cat cafes and all-knowing librarians, well, the detective novels are equally soothing, but with much more interesting stories.

"A Quiet Place" was written in 1971. It concerns a civil servant who is obsessed with his job and promotion prospects. His marriage isn't fulfilling, but his wife dies unexpectedly and he becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to her, to the point of risking everything.

Strong recommend.

The International Booker longlist has been announced https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/feb/24/ravn-kehlmann-genberg-enard-and-cabezon-camara-longlist-international-booker-prize?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

I think The Director seens to be the one people are talking about it. I tend to have quite mixed experiences with this prize so generally wait until I hear a few reviews before choosing what to read. Also Woman's Prize is up next week which I like to follow.

Thanks @Stowickthevast
The International Booker ended up being my favourite prize list last year but I think that may have been down to the judges- Max Porter in particular (I’ve only read one of his books - though I own another two- so far but having seen interviews I like his attitude to literature and think a lot of the playfulness of the list was down to him)
The list seems quite European centric and war heavy so like you I’ll wait for reviews. I do already have The Director and The Wax Child so will catch those two at some stage. I also have She Who Remains on my wishlist.

Our library's BorrowBox seems to be a lot of dross and a few gems. The print selection is much better when I get a chance to go in.

I'm ashamed to say that I have only just realised that Penelope Lively, writer of the wonderful Moon Tiger which I loved from start to finish, also wrote some of the books I remember from my childhood: A Stitch in Time and The Ghost of Thomas Kempe. Feeling an urge to search the Internet Archive for some of those lovely timeslip books from my childhood.

Updates from me are very dull unfortunately.

14 The Housemaid, Freida McFadden

Read for new book group. Crap.

15 Let's Make a Scene, Laura Wood

Cheesy, super trope-y romcom lent to me by a lovely friend. Wanted to love it, didn't (though I did like the humour).

I do like romance novels but I like my characters quirkier. These two are both ridiculously beautiful and glamorous, and surrounded by figures who are clearly just written in to be "the friend", "the narcissistic mother" etc, and come across as so many paper cut-outs. It didn't work for me.

@Arran2024 I also read A Quiet Place recently and thought it was great. As you say, the depictions of Japanese culture are fascinating.

Thanks @Stowickthevast for the International Booker info. I don't recognise any of the authors apart from Marie NDiaye, whose play Papa doit manger is on the French syllabus at my uni. I've read a number of her plays and novels, and while she is undoubtedly a gifted writer, most of her work is just too bleak for me. I can't believe that her longlisted novel The Witch is from 1996; that's ages ago. It does take a long time for people to get round to translating books sometimes...

I'm in a complete reading slump. Have DNFd five consecutive books including Factfulness and a Linwood Barclay( bit like Harken Coven). I'm a bit under the weather and have no patience or perseverance. I actually quite like the odd Linwood Barclay if I can get past the product placement but I have gone off the psychological jeopardy genre.

So I'm going for a guaranteed comfort read.

@VikingNorthUtsire I like a good romance. I don't care if it's formulaic but it has to be witty with more than one character. Beth Moran is my current favourite and next on my list.

Oh yes, @NotWavingButReading , I should have clarified; "super tropey" is a positive point ☺️ love me a second chance enemies to lovers.

It was just a shame that this one felt so flimsy.

@NotWavingButReading for Romance try Abby Jimenez, I enjoyed a trilogy that started with Part Of Your World I don’t read much in that genre but found they hit a spot. I would also recommend my recent read The Favorites

9 East of Croydon - Sue Perkins
I was craving a bit of travel and adventure and this hit the spot as Perkins blunders through parts of India and South East Asia. This was a mashup of many things, not least a significant part of Perkins' autobiography but I'm a fan so that was fine by me. Read by her, this had me laughing out loud on numerous occasions.
Trigger warning however for the death of a father. That's the second audiobook this year that I've read where all of a sudden the author/narrator is telling us about the last moments they shared with their father. (Cue me, driving with tears running down my face).
She seems like a very lovely person and I was delighted to spend 10 or so hours in her company.

8 Conclave - Robert Harris Short but enjoyable story of the election of a new pope, with plenty of drama and intrigue, plus a ridiculous but pleasing twist. Like staying up late on election night, but with added religion. I enjoyed this and will try to see the film at some point.

Speaking of films, I have no intention of going to see Wuthering Heights but did listen to the first episode of that new podcast - thanks for the recommendation! I enjoyed it a lot and will listen to future episodes, though I can’t listen to episode 2 yet as I haven’t read Never Let Me Go and don’t want to be spoiled! Will have to come back to it one day once I’ve read the book (currently waiting for a kindle discount…)

There definitely are spoilers for NLMG @DuPainDuVinDuFromage I listened to it last night

My beautiful (unread) copy of Wuthering Heights is glaring at me from the living room bookcase.

I have no intention of seeing the film, my youngest daughter went 'so you don't have to, Mum'. She said it was 'pourave'. Pants, in French YA speak.

I literally can't remember the last time I went to the cinema but am delighted to have found Hamnet in English at my local cinema so aforementioned daughter and I are going to see it tomorrow evening. I loved the book and am really looking forward to the film...

Thanks Eine! I’ll skip that episode then!

@nowanearlyNicemum hope you and your daughter enjoy Hamnet! I also loved the book and would like to see the film eventually…probably won’t manage it until it’s on Netflix!

Popping in because I have read a book, which is quite an exciting development. DD ocasionally goes to the council gym & I wait in the attached library for her. Surrounded by books I managed to actually read one over a couple of visits.

1. My Name is Why Lemn Sissay

Born just 10 years before me Lemn's childhood is spent in 'care'.. His mother has no choice but to give him up as a student single mother in the 1960s. She is from Ethopia and her attempts to be reunited with Lemn are thwarted. His primary years are spent with Christian foster parents who abruptly reject him shortly after he starts secondary. He is then passed between a sequence of children's 'homes' before finally securing a flat at the age of 17. Never self pitying his compassion and anger shine through the narrative. The documents from his council file are interspersed in the book. He is now a poet and writer. He rose despite being let down in every way possible. Part of me would like to try his poems, but if I am honest I just dont really 'get' poetry.

I loved My Name is Why. I read it several years ago and still think about it.* *

@nowanearlyNicemum I'd love to hear what you think of the film. I was very puzzled how they would film such an interior book but I think they did an incredible job. I spent half the film thinking 'this is a great adaptation' and the rest of the film just absorbed in it, with all thoughts of the book forgotten. Not that it's better than the book, but it is independently a stunning film.

PS DD has been more sucessful than me at reading. She has finished two of the 50 bookers Xmas suggestions - The Watchtower by Robert Westall and Cuckoo Song by Francis Hardinge. She really enjoyed both so thanks again. She is on to The Chrysalids now.

Has anyone read The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth? I am 52 pages in and struggling. I do read serious literary fiction (amongst other things) but the characters have no interior lives and seem like archetypes rather than people. Does it stay this way? I very rarely DNF but I resolved to use the 100 minus your age formula for DNFing this year and I think this might be the first one. Can anyone tell me it gets better?

8 The Untouchable - John Banville

Mixed feelings about this novel based on the Cambridge spy ring, which I think a few of you have read and recommended. Banville’s prose is exquisite and he has a superb eye for the minor detail that brings his characters to life. However all the characters were unlikeable in the extreme and I just wanted George Smiley to turn up and sort everyone out.

6.Death at the Sanatorium by Ragnar Jonasson

A who done it type of book. In fact the author chats about how he has translated Agatha Christie’s in Icelandic so he really does have a love for this genre. I thought this was okay, not bad but not great either. A nurse is found murdered at the sanatorium and one of the other nurses finds her. A guy doing his dissertation wants to investigate what happened as it all happened in the early 1980’s. We are brought to the present 2012 then go back to the series of events in the 80’s.

@nowanearlyNicemum 😂at your DD calling the Wuthering Heights film 'pourave'!

Another huge fan of Lemn Sissay here.

That’s lovely to hear @Owlbookend !

@MegBusset The Untouchable keeps glaring at me from across the room. I started it but haven't really been drawn in and keep picking up other things. It's probably not bad enough to end up as a DNF, but I'm not drawn back to it either.