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

@StrangewaysHereWeCome yeah if it had been longer it would have been a DNF I think.

@VikingNorthUtsire I also didn’t love Let’s Make a Scene but I’m a real fan of Laura Wood in general. She writes very charming vintagey YA which feels a bit like Eva Ibbotson or Noel Streatfield and her first adult novel Under Your Spell has similar vibes - all bohemian sisters and homemade dresses and big houses by the sea. You might enjoy that one more.

I really liked Lets Make a Scene and the one in the series before that with Clementine (I forget what it’s called). I also recommend Abby Jimenez (who I read thanks to Eine’s recommendation).

21 The Convenient Marriage by Georgette Heyer

A regency romance where Horry Winwood marries the Earl of Rule, in place of her sister (who loves another), to save her family from debt. I enjoyed the comic pairing of Pom and Pel, and found Horry and her journey charming overall. The Earl of Rule reminded me a little of Sir Percy Blakeney from The Scarlet Pimpernel and I quite fancy a reread of that as it’s a firm favourite of mine. One thing was that I found the age gap here a bit much, but aside from that this was a delight. This is my first Georgette Heyer but won’t be my last. And another RWYO.

I came new to Georgette Heyer last year, @MamaNewtNewt and have been really enjoying her books. I have The Convenient Marriage on my bookshelf so will get to it soonish.

@nowanearlyNicemum I adored There are Rivers in the Sky. In my opinion Elif Shafak has just got better and better. I am still trying to find an afternoon to pop over to the British library Mesopotamia exhibits. The ideas of this book really stayed with me.

On cinema and film adaptations, I am taking myself to see Riz Ahmed's Hamlet on Saturday morning. Really looking forward to it. I might do "Wuthering Heights" the following week - against my better judgement but to say I have and then have an informed opinion.

@stowickthevast I feel vindicated that I didn't go and see Elektra - Brie Larsson just leaves me a bit cold. But I was torn for a bit. (I do LOVE Antigone though).

Oh no @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie I missed The Names - I keep longingly looking at it in bookshops but it is still hardback and I just cannot decide whether to invest or not.

@BestIsWest, Hahah at your soft spot for Mr Bennett, I am about to develop that via my penchant for Rufus Sewell. Agree with Remus though, cannot bear Olivia Colman, but for P&P and Rufus I will take one for the team.

@Southeastdweller Enjoy The Lonely Londoners, I think that is an exceptional read, there was a great adaptation at The Kiln theatre in Kilburn last year or the year before too that was wonderful.

I was this many days old when I discovered via Remus referring to Francis Spufford as 'he' that Spufford was a man - and I know multiple women called Frances so I know Francis is the male spelling, but I still assumed Spufford was a woman.

@FuzzyCaoraDhubh Fenny sounds great.

No reviews or updates from me because I am still in a slump, busy with work and bingeing a new Turkish series (nearly 2h per episode) so impeding my reading somewhat.

I’m quite behind on my reviews and struggling to find anything very engaging to be honest…

On Swift Horses by Shannon Pufahl. About a young married couple who move to California around the 50s. The wife Muriel secretly wins a lot of money gambling on horses, and forms a bond with her brother in law Julius, who travels around playing cards and is gay, exposing him to a lot of danger. The book follows Muriel and Julius but I found Julius’ story a lot more interesting. The overall book was well written and quite dream like, but seemed slow and inconclusive.

The Hiding Game by Naomi Wood. Another one I’m going to complain was a bit slow! This followed a group of young artists at the Bauhaus school during the 20s and 30s as fascism was on the rise and the institute was in increasing danger. One of the friends betrays the others with major consequences later on, though it took a long time to explain how. I really liked the historical setting though and learning more about the Bauhaus and the artists who worked and studied there.

You Belong With Me by Mhairi McFarlane. Sequel to one of her earlier books, the one where Edie falls in love with a TV star whose book she is ghost writing. Not one of her best I’m afraid - the story just constantly looped round the same situation (newspaper prints something about the couple, they wonder if it’s all worth it) and some of the zippy dialogue was so convoluted I couldn’t really work out what anyone was saying.

The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley. Extremely silly but highly readable murder mystery set at a luxury hotel resort in Devon, with, naturally, many dark secrets to be revealed.

8 The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
I’m a bit late to the 50 Bookers party with this prize-garlanded novel of the post WWII Netherlands, but it has gripped me in the middle of having about 5 books unsuccessfully on the go.

Isabel’s brother Louis brings his new girlfriend Eva to dinner. She is too bleached, too badly dressed, insincere and Isabel dislikes her on sight. But she has no answer when Louis deposits Eva at her home with a request to let her stay until he gets back from a trip. A bold, with one caveat; I’m sure (am I?) that this book has been professionally edited. So the repeated use of certain words must be a choice. But it’s annoying. Small is one of them. Puff/puffy/puffed is another. Unfortunately the latter is probably the word I hate most in English, so that soured it slightly for me.

@RazorstormUnicorn – I think its inconceivable that a current Prime Minister would write letters in the way that Mrs Thatcher did. I suppose John Major did as well. Not sure about Tony Blair, but I know that Gordon Brown did, because it was a handwritten one and the recipient complained about his handwriting. Lots to criticise GB about, but I really don’t think that his handwriting is one of them!

@Welshwabbit – I feel like that about Louise Penny’s books lol

My goodness! I’ve just checked BorrowBox and I can borrow 4 eBooks and 10 audiobooks! This is a revelation to me.

31 The Full Moon Coffee Shop – Mai Mochizuki trans Jesse Kirkwood. So this was an odd one. I do like a quirky, charming Japanese book such as Before The Coffee Gets Cold. This was quirky, but…a bit weird. Full Moons, full sized talking cats, horoscopes. It did all come together in the end and some people must love it as book number two is currently selling for £9.99 with book three on preorder also for £9.99. Will I bother reading them? Yes, if I can get them for 99p or from the library.

Especially as Brown is visually impaired in one eye @Tarragon123 !

Thanks @GrannieMainland for the Laura Wood recommendation. I did like the wit in her writing so I will keep an eye out for the book you mentioned as it sounds potentially more my thing.

I've also added The Hiding Game to my wishlist.

27 Mother Mary Comes To Me- Arundhati Roy
A beautiful account of a very fraught mother daughter relationship- Roy’s mother was an extremely difficult person, cold and domineering focused on her arguments and career and reputation. As the daughter of someone very similar , I really identified with Roy and found the mix of love and conflict very familiar and moving. The writing was also beautiful and I listened on audio read by Roy herself which also added something I think. It’s not quite bold for me despite all this because a swerve in the last fifth of the book into Roy’s activism didn’t fit in terms of tone or content with the rest of the book. Still a strong recommend. I doubt any other book on the WP Non-fic longlist has a chance of beating this one.

I'm listening to Mother Mary too @ÚlldemoShúl and absolutely loving it. It's a definite bold for me and the first book I've read this year that I want to actively press on people. for having a mother like Mrs Roy.

16. The Fraud - Zadie Smith. RWYO. Zadie Smith's first foray into historical fiction is a story of 3 threads. The main one follows Eliza Touchet, based on a real person, and cousin and housekeeper to writer William Ainsworth, a less successful contemporary of Dickens. The other parts involve a court case about someone who claims to be Roger Tichborne, heir to a fortune and presumed lost at sea, and his valet Black Bogle. The book has lots of short chapters that jump around timelines. Sometimes it feels like Smith has found a reference to a dinner party or trip and decided she needs to add something on it which doesn't really contribute much to the story. The strongest part for me was Bogle's retelling of his life in Jamaica to Eliza. There are a lot of themes going on here and her writing is great as always but I don't think it's entirely successful as a book. I got a bit bored and just wanted it to be over.

There's a few books from the International Booker longlist I'm keen to read and have reserved at the library - The Director, On Earth as It Is Beneath and The Remembered Soldier. Im intrigued about She Who Remains but its not available yet at the libraries I'm signed up with. I won't be trying to get through everything like I did last year, think I ended up with Booker Burnout!

9 Katabasis - R F Kuang Couldn't resist reserving this on Borrowbox despite having hated Babel and disliked Yellowface. I liked this better than those - some quite funny commentary on academia and a storyline which takes the protagonists Alice and Peter (PhD students in Magick at Cambridge) on a journey into Hell, drawing on all the literature ever written on that topic. However, the book was average at best, with huge info dumps (Kuang really does not wear her learning lightly!) and limited worldbuilding or character development (she still hasn't learned about "show-not-tell" and has a knack of making her main characters deeply unlikeable; in terms of the setting, I eventually worked out that the action must be taking place in the early 90s but only from the date references - no contextual description at all; and she uses the book to unsubtly hammer home the message that the 90s were sexist).

The Hell described is populated solely by academics and students, and revolves around university-related locations and concepts like libraries and needing submit a dissertation in order to progress to the next stage towards redemption, which I thought was amusing and was presumably deliberate given that we experience Hell through Alice and Peter's eyes; however, there was never any development of this concept to explain what hell would look like for non-academics. It seems a bit of a metaphor for Kuang herself, who seems only to be able to write about her own experiences (academia and the publishing world - albeit I haven't read her historical trilogy which is apparently good).

Overall, fine as a story but plenty of flaws. Also, lots of grim and gruesome stuff which seemed a bit gratuitous and, in many cases, just there for shock value.

@SpunkyKhakiScrollerI read it a long time ago, but I really enjoyed The Radetzky March However, I love history, so a book set in the Austro-Hungarian Empire was always going to appeal to me.

@SheilaFentiman – I’d completely forgotten about that! Of course!!

32 I Who Have Never Known Men – Jacqueline Harpman – Kindle. A 99p special. I didn’t like this. 40 women are kept in a bunker. They aren’t sure why, memories are hazy. They are given food and a minimum of items to keep them clean and clothed by their male captors. Then, one day, they are able to escape. The captors have disappeared. They journey on, trying to find other survivors. Its bleak. I don’t mind bleak, I thought that The Road was excellent, but I just thought that this had too many mysteries that I wanted resolved. Were they on earth or on another planet? Why were they locked up? To what end? Why 40? Why the child? I wanted answers and didn’t get them.

Agree that this was ultimately very disappointing, after a strong start.

The shittiest of all work fortnights is finally done. I’m thinking 🍷 and a Miss Marple to celebrate 😀

@DuPainDuVinDuFromage thanks for the excellent review of Katabasis! I've decided not to read it (given how mixed my feelings were about Babel and Yellowface), but I really enjoyed reading your review.

Kuang has original ideas, but her books are written with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

concepts like libraries and needing to submit a dissertation in order to progress to the next stage towards redemption
This detail from your review makes me think that my decision to give Katabasis a miss is absolutely the right one. Why do I want to read about hellish events of that kind when I can experience things like academic writer's block every day in my real life 😂

It seems a bit of a metaphor for Kuang herself, who seems only to be able to write about her own experiences (academia and the publishing world)
Good point!

Speaking of hellishness, bravo @SheilaFentiman for making it through your awful fortnight at work! Enjoy your rest.

Well done @SheilaFentiman! I have a horrific fortnight coming up so feel your pain.

15. Persuasion - Jane Austen

Anne Elliot has a ghastly family (father and sisters, Elizabeth and Mary) but is fortunate that her dead mother's friend, Lady Russell, is a good friend to her. However, Lady Russell did side with Anne's father in opposing her marriage several years ago to Frederick Wentworth as he lacked wealth and name. Anne still loves Frederick and he comes back into her life (now a successful naval captain with some personal wealth) when his sister and brother-in-law take a lease on Anne's family home. However, Frederick seems more interested in Henrietta and Louise (Mary's sisters-in-law). Is Anne's love going to be unrequited?

I have read this before but not for sometime and had an unread copy on my Kindle so this counts as RWYO. I had forgotten how nice Anne is and how awful her family are! I remembered there was a trip to Lyme and an incident but not the details. Lovely reread.

I also hear I Who Have Never Known Men positively RAVED about in reviews, mainly BookTube and I’ve had to conclude that maybe those raving haven’t been exposed to better work. Apologies if that sounds snooty of me. It ultimately meandered and went nowhere IMO

@cassandre I can see why you would want to avoid it, as an academic! Though I’m sure you would wryly smile at a lot of it, and you’d be able to reassure yourself that the characters have it worse than you (at least, I sincerely hope so!). Definitely not a terrible book, and I’m judging it on a different level from the kind of trashy novels that get a pass for being guilty pleasures, but you’re so right about the sledgehammer use! 😆

@SheilaFentiman well done for getting through the last couple of weeks and I hope you are rewarded with a lovely weekend and an easier time ahead.

I did like the fact that there was a sentence in Katabasis that provided a nice link to one of my recent reads, A Walk In The Park: “They were just two ordinary people - two idiot hikers, really - who’d ventured down here on a whim” 😄

Hello! I am super late to this thread - I’ve joined every year for maybe 3 or 4 years and never made it to the end - maybe it will be different this year. Excuses for this year - I was away on a not-much-time-to-read holiday for the first 3 weeks of this year. First book of the year was a dnf - the latest Strike book, I got bored, can’t believe it. Might go back to it at some point.

1 - We Used to Live Here - Marcus Kliewer (ok, gripping, page turner, good idea, could have been executed better).

2 - The Dangers of Smoking in Bed - Mariana Enriquez (short stories, some excellent - some too grimly sexual for me, too much body horror and somewhat misogynistic in places - very good translation from Spanish though).

3 - Dark Entries - Robery Aickman (fantastic short stories - I really like RA and think he’s a brilliant writer - not for people who like satisfying endings).

4 - Hollow Places - T Kingfisher (good idea that ended up being a bit silly in places - inspired by The Willows by Algernon Blackeood).

5 - The Loney - Andrew Michael Hurley (not what I was expecting, subtly very disturbing - not quite a bold, but almost).

6 - Strange Buildings - Uketsu (I have really enjoyed all of Uketsu’s books - this is probably my favourite - translation is a bit clunky in places but still a very clever whodunit).

Currenly reading Ring by Koji Suzuki - novel that the J horror film and American remake are based on. I was terrified by these films when I was younger - have recently rewatched with my dd and not as scared as a jaded 40 something. The book is very good so far, but am wondering how it will manage the very visual aspects of the story. Quite a good translation from Japanese, which I sometimes find clunky.

Welcome @weareallcatsI found The Loney a great read true.
@EineReiseDurchDieZeitet al- also agree with everyone’s take on I Who Have Never Known Men- great potential but ultimately unsatisfying. At least I managed to finish it unlike the other BookTube darling of the same period Chaingang Allstars- didn’t even make it half way in that one.