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

Thanks @Stowickthevast It’s still very expensive on kindle but it’s in my wish list.

@StitchesInTime Are Is Heathcliff a Murderer? and Can Jane Eyre be Happy? worth it? I feel I must have read the review you posted because I looked up the Jane Eyre one the other day, but cannot recall and I think they were full price and I wasn't sure.

@ÚlldemoShúl Peter Frankopan is one of my historian crushes. When The Silk Roads came out he ran a competition on Twitter to win a ticket to a study day at the British Museum on the theme, and I won and I was chatting to him swooning---- and he asked my name and when I said it he went 'Oh yes, we chat on Twitter a lot' and I almost had his baby there and then (and when I was totally thankful for my foreign name). Needless to say, I enjoyed the book, but it is a part of the world I am particularly interested in, I have got around to the follow up yet, though I do have it so a contender for my next RWYO.

I'm also bumping up the Joanne Harris reads, I read Gentleman and Players a few years ago and I think I have the rest but havent quite got to them.

@Stowickthevastsounds like it could be a pretty challenging read. (Reminds me of going to a pub quiz when I lived in Australia where there was a 27 question round on timber!) There’s only 4 of us taking part in this read (online book group too) -I’ll let you know how it goes.
@AgualusasL0verNow I feel bad about my DNF I may go back to the actual book rather than audio at some stage when I’m not RWYO. I was looking forward to learning the history of other countries which I’d love to visit and was somewhat disappointed to be plunged into the romans and the spread of Christianity.

Sorry to hear your news @PermanentTemporary. Hopefully reading is providing some comfort/distraction at this time 💐

So sorry to hear PermanentTemporary, take care xx

So sorry @PermanentTemporary💐

Really sorry to hear your sad news PT. Hugs to you.

So sorry to hear about your mum @PermanentTemporary . I'm glad reading has provided some small comfort.

8. The Crash - Robert Peston

I read his previous book and can't remember much about it other that it was reasonably pacy. Anyway, same main character, Gil, a journalist who now works for the BBC (apparently he was at the fictional version of the FT before). It's set in 2007 just before the financial crisis and is set around the failure of a fictional version of Northern Rock. It's fast-paced but not very realistic (well, I hope not given the murderous, blackmailing, torturous kidnapping habits of the bankers, politicians, PR people). Slightly more credible (although still quite extreme) were the sex, drugs and parties. However, I spent much of my time wondering who was babysitting, looking after the dog etc and asking myself who drives from London to Worcestershire for a party and doesn't plan to stay overnight but drives back to London??

10. So Long, See You Tomorrow - William Maxwell

A re-read. Short and elegiac novel, framed as a memoir and recounting events in the American Midwest in the 1920s. The central story concerns two farming families, once close, and an affair that destroys both of them. Though it isn't quite as straightforward as that: there’s a distinctly Proustian feel to Maxwell's exploration of memory and imagination, though he somehow achieves in one highly compressed work what Proust might have taken many chapters (if not volumes) to do. Maxwell writes with a kind of luminous economy to produce a novel that lingers in the memory.

It’s an indication of how short this book is that I read it in its entirety during the night spent in A&E waiting to be seen. I’ve joined Remus in the broken wrist club - hope yours is progressing satisfactorily @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie ? - but on the positive side that might give me a lot more time for reading!

So sorry to hear that @PermanentTemporary I hope you are doing ok. The John and Paul book was wonderful, my favourite NF last year.

@terpsichore I hope your wrist is on the mend now.

13 - The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

I feel like I’ve been reading this book forever. There were bits that I enjoyed. There were bits that were brilliant even. There were bits that were boring and dragged, so many bits, too many bits. There was absolutely no need for this book to be so very long. There’s the germ of a good book here but it’s just hidden under a ton of bloat.

Another RWYO. I’m powering through my TBR mountain, and apart from this one I’m being very strict about DNFing books I’m not enjoying, which is helping to reduce the list. 30 days in and no books purchased. A stretch not seen since I was about 10 years old.

Dnf: The Good Liar by Denise Mina
Just can’t be doing with this. It’s a whodunnit full of tropes rather than people. The central character has just realised that her sister, a long term addict, has started using again. And has continued to allow her sister to care for her children. Also she [spoiler] thinks her husband took his own life but doesn’t seem to have taken much time off work or brought in any professional help for said children. And makes bracingly stupid financial decisions all her life. But is a top expert in her field. I’ve just lost interest. Also couldn’t care less whodidit. Maybe another time I would like it, there’s some interesting things about forensic science in there.

Oh no @Terpsichore Wishing you happy reading and a good recovery. Is it your dominant hand?

Oof. Sorry to hear that, @Terpsichore , and I hope it isn't too painful.

The book sounds great though! Adding it to the wishlist.

Gosh everyone is having a tough time with broken bones and loss at the moment. Wishing books to lose oneself in all round!

My contribution is to say not to bother with High Wide and Handsome by Julian Bishop.

It is billed as a lockdown road trip across America and through National Parks. Since road tripping through National Parks is about my favourite thing in the world I thought this would be right up my street.

Each chapter opens with a single page or maybe two about where he has just driven to. He visits beautiful places in the North Cascades, Montana and Oregon and mentions them only briefly, staying often only one night and rarely going for a hike. Obviously it is not an actual requirement to hike in these locations but I am at a loss as to why you wouldn't. After these brief travel notes he stumblingly segues into explaining a slice of American life like health insurance, or politics or consumerism.

He is incredibly positive about America proclaiming it not racist, not ignorant and not consumerist. He explains the guardrails of the rule of law and how safe it is. He only wrote the book four years ago and I winced many times at how wrong he has been proven (I know, not all Americans. But polls show that a frightening proportion are actually happy with what is going on in the USA right now).

Whilst I have no picture to be sure, I am reasonably certain he is a white, middle class man which may inform some of those positions. He certainly has a lot of wealth privilege as he is funding his daughter's through college which is no mean feat.

I would only recommend this if one knows nothing about American systems and culture.

I nearly put it down at 20% when I realised he was never going to talk about the landscapes and people he was meeting in the detail I wanted but I was stubborn. Hopefully I will only make this mistake once in 2026.

Yep! Surgeon has done a brilliant job sticking me back together, though.

That’s good. I’m back at the hospital next week to see how well the surgeon has stuck me back together. Still finding it difficult to get used to how little I can do left handed.

I MUST buy some books today.

Sorry for everyone that’s having a rubbish time. Hope February brings some calmer waters.

My list:

1. The Lamb Lucy Rose.
2. Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall.
3. the Pumpkin Spice Cafe by
4. Buckeye by Patrick Ryan.
5. The Maiden by Cynthia Harrod Eagles
6. Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne Du Maurier. A book club reread - a fave and was universally loved by my work book club which has never happened.

My first DNF of 2026 is The Land In Winter by Andrew Miller. I’m trying this year to stop reading books if I get to 60-100 pages and I’m not feeling it. Rather than slog on when there’s so many books to read and so little time. This story of 2 families over the big freeze in the 60s in the West Country was just so ploddy. Probably more me than the book but I just couldn’t be bothered to pick it up. So I won’t.

Oh no @Terpsichore ! I'm so sorry to hear about your wrist. I hope it's not too painful and that it will heal as quickly as possible. In the meantime, I hope you can be distracted by some really good books 💐📚

Sorry to hear about your wrist @Terpsichore50 Bookers are having no luck at the minute.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupiehistorical crime you might not have read- Michael Russell’s The City… series set in neutral Ireland during WW2 or another Irish one The Winter Guests (can’t remember the author) set around the Irish civil war

Not sure if I dare admit that I’m still in my, ‘It can’t be set in Ireland era’. I’ll get my coat.

A question- do we only bold the title if we recommend it?

lol no worries- we all have our own no nos in books.

We usually bold the title and author in every review but when writing a list only the ones we loved get bold print. Hope that makes sense 😊

Thanks for clarifying the bold rules @ÚlldemoShúl .
@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie Shame about the Ireland era thing, does that include the North? I remembered my all time favourite period crime novels are the Duffy series starting with The Cold Cold Ground by Adrian McKinty.
Set in Northern Ireland in the 70s and 80s. The writer grew up in Belfast during the troubles and they are an education for anyone wanting to get a feeling for the period. Also very funny.