50 Books Challenge 2026 Part Three

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the third 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 first thread of the year is here and the second thread here

Thanks for the new thread @Southeastdweller

I'm bringing over the books I've read since the last thread. They were mainly RWYO except the first one which was a book club, 2 audios, and the last which was a deals buy. A good reading month for me, with no real duds though I did get a bit bored with The Fraud.

8, The Melancholy of Resistance - Laszlo Krasznahorkai
9. The Fertile Earth - Ruthvika Rao
10. The City of Lost Chances - Adrian Tschaikovsky
11. Vigil - George Saunders (a)
12. Rapture - Emily Maguire
13. Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë
14. The Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfield
15. The Antidote - Karen Russell
16. The Fraud - Zadie Smith
17. Unsettled Ground - Claire Fuller
18. Mother Mary Comes To Me - Arundhati Roy (a)
19. The Final Vow - M.W. Crave

edited to try and sort out blummin MN formatting

Thank you for the new thread. My list so far:

1. I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue
2. North Woods by Daniel Mason
3. Martyr! By Kevah Akbar
4. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North
5. Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend 6) A Village in The Third Reich by Julia Boyd & Angelika Patel
6. If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio 8) Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Braithwaite
7. The Country of Others by Leïla Slimani

Currently reading The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy by Megan Bannen

@Southeastdweller thank you for the new thread place-marking
Book list 2026 so far … The Sixth Lamentation and The Names are bolds.
1.welcome to the hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reun
2.Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
3.The Sixth Lamentation by William Brodrick
4.The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins
5.A Gathering Light by Jennifer Donnelly
6.Death at the Sanatorium by Ragnar Jonasson
7.The Specimens by Mairi Kidd
8.The Names by Florence Knapp

Now seem to have three on the go Persuasion by Jane Austen,
The Women of Wild Hill by Kirsten Miller,
In a thousand different ways by Cecelia Ahern

Thanks @Southeastdwellerfor the new thread.
My list so far for this year
1 Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
2 Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
3 The Tenant of Wildfell Hall- Anne Brontë
4 Milkman by Anna Burns
5 The Ghost Orchid by Jonathan Kellerman
6 Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz
7 Blitzed by Norman Ohler
8 The River is Waiting by Wally Lamb
9 Winter in Madrid by CJ Sansom
10 The Silence by Susan Allot
11 Heart the Lover by Lily King
12 Different Class by Joanne Harris
13 All the Rage by Virginia Nicholson
14 Clown Town by Mick Herron
15 The Painted Veil by W Somerset Maugham
16 Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
17 The Brillian Abyss by Helen Scales
18 Dance Move by Wendy Erskine
19 The Conservationist by Nadine Gordimer
20 Death of an Ordinary Man by Sarah Perry
21 The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
22 Taken by Dinuka McKenzie
23 The Finest Hotel in Kabul by Lyse Doucet
24 Hotel Du Lac by Anita Brookner
25 Human Acts by Han Kang
26 Passing On by Penelope Lively
27 Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Toy
28 A Narrow Door by Joanne Harris
29 Pagans by James Alistair Henry

Most were RWYO and a mix of ebook, physical and audio. I’ve changed 2 bolds in hindsight- I downgraded Hotel du Lac (now that I’m over my annoyance at online misogynist comments) and upgraded Palace Walk as I keep thinking about it.

Place marking on the new thread - thanks southeast!

Thanks @Southeastdweller for the new thread. Here is my list:

1 To All The Boys I've Loved Before - Jenny Han
2 Vagabond - Tim Curry
3 Witches Abroad - Terry Pratchett
4 Legends and Lattes - Travis Baldree
5 The Housemaid - Freida McFadden
6 Last Night at the Lobster - Stewart O'Nan
7 Literary Noir 1 - Cornell Woolrich
8 Eleanor & Park - Rainbow Rowell
9 The School of Night - Karl Ove Knausgaard
10 Burial Rites - Hannah Kent

I have a higher than usual amount of bolds so far which is great!

Re the Women's Prize longlist, the only one I've read is Audition which I found ok but not a standout. I collected The Benefactors from the library today and have a few others (The Correspondent, Wild Dark Shore, Heart the Lover and A Guardian and Thief) on reserve.
I reserved The Correspondent six weeks ago and am now number 20 on the list. Hope i get my hands on it before the shortlist announcement

Thank you @Southeastdweller

My short list, but already several bolds :

1. The Lamb by Lucy Rose
2. The Book Of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey
3. Sonny Boy by Al Pacino
4. The Benefactors by Wendy Erskine
5. The Names by Florence Knapp
6. Helm by Sarah Hall
7. Love Forms by Claire Adam
8. Patricia Brent, Spinster by Herbert George Jenkins
9. Black Woods, Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivey
10. Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis
11. Deep Cuts by Holly Brickley
12. Paper Cup by Karen Campbell
13. The Wedding People by Alison Espach
14. The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
15. Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
16. The Favorites Layne Fargo

Currently reading John And Paul : A Love Story

Thanks for new thread Southeast. Not got anything on the go at the moment.

Thanks for the new thread southeast!

My list:
1 Psyche - Kate Forsyth
2 The Forgotten Forest - Robert Vennell
3 Did I Ever Tell You This? - Sam Neill
4 Raising the Sen-betweeners - Lisa Lloyd
5 What We Fear Most - Ben Cave
6 A Tale of Two Titties: a writer’s guide to conquering the most sexist tropes in literary history - Meg Vondriska
7 The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern
8 Cultish: the language of fanaticism- Amanda Montell
9 William Wordsworth - selected by Seamus Heaney
10 Oaxaca Journal - Oliver Sacks
11 The Greatest Nobodies of History - Adrian Bliss
12 Hunchback - Saou Ichikawa
13 Crypt - Alice Roberts

Currently reading The Lost Rainforests of Britain (mixed feelings), The Wager (excellent) and The Midnight Library (bilge, but for book club).

<wanders in, puts the coffee mugs out for the morning>

Currently reading Entitled about Andrew MBW and Fergie. It might make me a Republican, they are so awful!

Many thanks @Southeastdweller
3 bolds out of 7 reads so far, so I’ll just list those.
Once Upon A White Horse - Peter Ross
Pagans - Alastair James Henry
The Benefactors - Wendy Erskine

I don’t feel I’m reading as many books as the last few years; a combination of being busier at work and really getting into sewing (which replaces my Reading Afternoons with Swearing At My Sewing Machine Afternoons ). The books I am reading are all decent, so I must be getting better at choosing/picking good recommendations from these threads!

Thanks for the new thread @Southeastdweller, I’m still wading through my latest NF so nothing new to report.

Thank you @Southeastdweller - I am reading at quite a pace for me this year with a good mix of books so far (although no non-fiction yet). Doing quite well on RWYO although I have succumbed and bought a few books in offers. Here's my list:

The Proof of Innocence - Jonathan Coe
Marble Hall Murders - Anthony Horowitz
The Voyage Home - Pat Barker
Passing On - Penelope Lively
Double Cross - Ben MacIntyre
Bleeding Heart Square - Andrew Taylor
Devil's Cub - Georgette Heyer
The Crash - Robert Peston
The Truth about Melody Browne - Lisa Jewell
Howl's Moving Castle - Diana Wynne Jones
The Lock Up - John Banville
Malibu Rising - Taylor Jenkins Reid
The Beautiful and the Damned - F Scott Fitzgerald
Audition - Katie Kitamura
Persuasion - Jane Austen
Score - Jilly Cooper

And my latest read is:

17. Air - John Boyne

Part of the element series which I think I am managing to read in order of this is the third. Short but good. Mostly set on a long flight taken by father and teenage son dealing with their relationship as well as looking at the relationship between his parents and the events that have shaped them. It includes characters from Water (although it took me a while to realise that!). Recommended.

Thank you for the new thread @Southeastdweller .

Here's my list so far. Currently reading Appointment with Yesterday by Celia Fremlin.

1 Who Wants to Live Forever, Hanna Thomas Uose
2 The Marriage Portrait, Maggie O'Farrell
3 A Long Way from Verona, Jane Gardam
4 The Two Lives of Louis & Louise, Julie Cohen
5 The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning, Margareta Magnusson
6 The Parallel Path, Jenn Ashworth
7 Consider Yourself Kissed, Jessica Stanley
8 Plain Bad Heroines, Emily M Danforth
9 The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, V.E. Schwab
10 Strong Poison, Dorothy L. Sayers
DNF The Nakano Thrift Shop,
Hiromi Kawakami
11 Easy Connections, Liz Berry
12 Black and Blue, Anna Quindlen
13 Dream Count, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
14 The Housemaid, Freida McFadden
15 Let's Make a Scene, Laura Wood
16 Everland, Rebecca Hunt

I have read any of the Women's Prize list yet although I have a few on my wishlist or library requests (I am on a no-buy rule for books atm). Looking forward to Flashlight (although it's had mixed reviews here) as I loved Trust Exercise by the same author a few years ago.

Thanks for the new thread @Southeastdwellerhere’s my list so far. Not too many bolds but a few that were pretty near.

1 Murder At Martingale Manor by Jodi Taylor
2 Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About The World - And Why Things Are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling
3 Dying Fall by Elly Griffiths
4 Black and British by David Olusoga
5 The Outcast Dead by Elly Griffiths
6 Queen Victoria’s Youngest Son. The Untold Story of Prince Leopold by Charlotte Zeepvat
7 The Ghost Fields by Elly Griffiths
8 The Witch’s Egg by Donya Todd
9 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
10 Step Aside, Pops by Kate Beaton
11 Stolen In The Night by Patricia MacDonald
12 Menopause. A Comic Treatment ed. MK Czerwiec
13 The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
14 Helping You to Identify and Understand Autism Masking: The Truth Behind the Mask by Emma Kendall
15 In Lieu of You by Keith Pearson
16 When the Dust Settles by Lucy Easthope
17 Paper Cup by Karen Campbell
18 Path of Bones by LT Taylor
19 Last One at the Party by Bethany Clift
20 Flint in the Bones by Eva St John
21 The Convenient Marriage by Georgette Heyer
22 It Ends With Her by Brianna Labuskes
23 In Memoriam by Alice Winn
24 The Time Machine by HG Wells
25 The Sleeper Lies by Andrea Mara

Thanks for the new thread Southeast won’t bother with my pitiful list. Latest read is:

#5. The Colour Of Our Sky by Amita Trasi
The story of two girls in India, one from a privileged Mumbai background, and a poor village girl who is destined to become a temple prostitute as her mother and grandmother were, their lives become intertwined and tragedy ensues.
I listened to this on Audible and found it a bit of a slog. I think I picked it up on a two for one deal, taken in by the 5 star reviews.
Normally repetitive writing can be ameliorated by a good narrator on Audible, sadly that isn’t the case here.
This was a tragic story that managed to be both unbelievable and predictable at the same time. There was a decent story idea in there but this book was in serious need of a good edit. Low rent Khaled Hosseini.

I’m currently reading my Match chapters of A Tale Of Two Cities and Fiona Hill’s There Is Nothing For You Here.

I realise I hadn't put A Long Way from Verona into bold, maybe because it was a re-read so I already knew it was brilliant. It totally deserves to be bold. Will amend that for next time.

Thanks Southeast. Four bolds so far - I’ve reconsidered two since reviewing:

John and Paul: a Love Song in Stories by Ian Leslie
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay

Thank you for the new thread southeast! Here’s my list:

1. The Umbrella Murder - Ulrik Skotte
2. There is nothing for you here - Fiona Hill
3. In a good light - Clare Chambers
4. The White Darkness - David Grann
5. Doppelganger: A trip into the mirror world - Naomi Klein
6. The Country Set - Fiona Walker
7. A Walk in the Park - Kevin Fedarko
8. Conclave - Robert Harris
9. Katabasis - R F Kuang

Shorter than previous years at this time (because I’ve read more non-fictions than usual), but bolder 😊

Thank you for the new thread Southeastdweller!

I've finished The Crowded Street by Winifred Holtby which I must review and then I'll go on to a new book.

I can't remember my list - is there a way of looking back at my own posts? Or how do you all do it, especially those with an impressively healthy list?!

I've just finished The Bookseller of Kabul - Asne Seierstad. She's a journalist who was working in Afghanistan after 9/11 and covered the fall of the Taliban. She meets a bookseller and lives with him and his family for a few months, charting their lives. It's a fascinating glimpse of a world we don't often see in the West - the treatment of women is particularly shocking and she says that's what she clashed with the family about most of all. Some of the characters are extremely dislikeable; she presents them all just as she sees them. I wonder how they're all doing 20-odd years on, back under the Taliban again.

About to start Tell Me Everything - Elizabeth Strout, which I found in a National Trust bookshop. I've a couple of train journeys today where the wifi is barely working so hopefully I'll be able to get stuck in.

Notes app on my phone and an Excel spreadsheet.

But you can advance search posts by yourself in the What We're Reading topic, in date order, so you can see all from 2026.

@Iamnotaloggrip I just have a list in a Word doc...as @SheilaFentiman says you can do an advanced search of MN posts but it's a bit of a faff!

I see from friends' social media posts that it's World Book Day today...if we all had to dress up as a character from a book we are currently reading, who would you be? I would have a choice between Fantine, Dolours Price, and a Mitford sister...

I keep my list in a spreadsheet with one tab for each year, plus a tab for my unread kindle books (to help me choose my next book). This has all my lists going back to 2013!

1. Gabriel's Moon by William Boyd
2. Nesting by Roisin O'Donnell
3. The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters
4. Waist Deep by Linea Maja Ernst
5. Culpability by Bruce Holsinger
6. Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis
7. The Artist by Lucy Steeds.
8. These Summer Storms by Sarah MacLean.
9. Chosen Family by Madeleine Gray
10. Wreck by Catherine Newman
11. Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaughy
12. We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
13. The Tenant by Frieda McFadden

I'm not doing bold until the end of the year to see which ones stay with me. Definitely been a good standard of books so far this year. Most recent one, and only addition to the list, The Tenant by Frieda McFadden, is probably the weakest so far. Book club read, and it was gripping with some good twists, but I didn't care about any of the characters at all and found it a little bit thriller-by-numbers.

I keep a list of books I've read in a word document, but I think now I want a spreadsheet!!