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

The memoir point also applies to Indignity - which again I found interesting - although that has more structure. My problem is that I’m not a great fan of memoir style books at all - it’s a format I can read & enjoy / find interesting but it just doesn’t immediately appeal to me - so I’ve no idea which out of Nation or Death is the better book.

I haven’t got to either of the Hotel books yet, although Kabul has just arrived via BorrowBox, but will be interested to see how similar they are.

15 The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands - Sarah Brooks This has a great premise: the whole of Siberia and the other lands between Russia and China are a no-go area due to some unexplained disaster which made everything go weird - farm animals went transparent, the air is toxic, etc. Huge walls were built at the Russian end and the Chinese end to contain the dangers, and nobody enters…except for the trans-Siberian train, a marvel of modern (steampunk) engineering which powers across the Wastelands transporting people and goods on a 15-day crossing where the passengers avert their eyes from the strange and terrible sights outside, and windows are firmly shut and iron-barred. But one this latest crossing, something goes wrong and the passengers and crew come into contact with whatever is out there…

Unfortunately, while this could have been amazing, it was just ok. The storyline was twee (I expected much more menace from the Wastelands!) and most of the characters were one-dimensional stereotypes (rich, elderly and rude Russian countess; posh arrogant Brit; pleasure-seeking French dilettantes etc). It was all a bit flat really. Perfectly readable but disappointing compared to what it could have been.

I saw Michael Sheen in Our Town too and though he, the cast and the choreography were great I was a bit underwhelmed by it in truth. I enjoyed Tom Lake much more.

@Benvenuto it looks like 2 books about art, 2 books about girls and 2 memoirs.

I'm reading Daughters of the Bamboo Grove at the moment and am really liking it.

I was very pleased to see Mother Mary but I guess Roy needs the publicity least of them all.

Just catching up on the thread.

@cassandre I also enjoy your meaty reviews. Mine are always pathetic and I really do fully appreciate all those of you who are able to write a proper, insightful review!

I really enjoyed Hamnet when I read it a while back but didn’t love seeing it as a film. Adored the acting, the colours, costumes etc but found it so very melodramatic compared to the novel.

Holes was a late discovery for me too thanks to an American teacher my daughter had when she was 9 or 10 I think. Fantastic. Also massive fan of Tom Lake - audible listen narrated by Meryl Streep.

14 - Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow – Gabrielle Zevin
As a "non-gamer", reading The Ink Black Heart and then this almost back to back was an interesting coincidence! Much reviewed on here, I enjoyed it but wasn't mad about it. Something about the main characters just didn't ring true for me. I think I have another of her books on my kindle so will definitely get round to that at some point!

15 - Went to London, took the dog – Nina Stibbe
Oh my, I loved this! Stibbe's wry observations during a year where she returns to live in London, renting a room from Deborah Moggach, are priceless. I fully intend to work my way through her back catalogue.

Gosh, I am jealous of you people who are getting up to date prize nominees on Borrow box. I am pretty certain (unless they've magically appeared in the last week) that our local library is offering zero of the WP nominees.

I guess libraries have to pay for different levels of access and ours have decided (maybe rightly, given our demographic here) that people mostly want soapy romance, family sagas and airport thrillers. I think we probably have the cheapest membership plan 😂

@VikingNorthUtsire they seem to go with what they think their membership want, and in my experience (of only one local authority to be fair) is that they’re very happy to order books if you request them - so might be worth getting in touch about anything you’re really interested in!

I'm impressed at those of you who're keeping up with recent publications. I'm meandering placidly amongst older stuff. Including:

35. Personal Pleasures: Essays on Enjoying Life, by Rose Macaulay
As the name suggests, these are very short essays about the small pleasures of life. They're fairly tongue-in-cheek and I enjoyed several, such as the essay on recalling your dignified adult siblings as very undignified small children, and another essay on the pleasures of competitive boasting. Some haven't aged well in the 90 years since they appeared, such as the one on the joys of imaginary travel, where we're invited to imagine ourselves in the exotic role of slavers.

My library used to be terrible at getting the prize lists but a couple of years ago they started to order in the Women’s Prize for fiction and both Booker longlists on Libby. Some are on audio, some in ebook and a handful in both. That’s where I’ve accessed most of mine. That said it’s only the ones that are out at the time- they don’t update with the ones that are released after the prize so I’m currently debating whether or not to get Paradiso 17 from the WP List at full price on kindle.

My library is the same though their Libby selection is better than their Borrowbox. Even the audiobooks on Libby are better. I have had some success with deep search on Libby and adding things to the Notify Me list. Maybe they keep an eye on those and order if enough people are interested

12. Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne

The tale of Phileas Fogg and his wager to traverse the world in 80 days.

I was familiar with the premise and outcome of this story (as I suspect many of you on this thread will be!) thanks to the numerous adaptations there’s been. So the conclusion of the book was not as suspenseful as it would have been to the original readers.

But ignoring that, it’s an entertaining and exciting read with lots of adventure and descriptions of the various places Fogg & co pass through on their journey. It was published in 1873, and as such reflects attitudes of the time, so there’s definitely some parts where it’s very obvious why they were missed out of recent adaptations.

It was difficult to imagine Fogg as a real person though. The portrayal of Fogg takes the stereotypical British stiff upper lip to a ridiculous level. I’ve seen plenty of depictions of fictional androids that show more emotion than Fogg does, even in the most adverse of circumstances.

Anyone read The Best of Everything which is on the WP longlist? I'm listening on audio and debating DNF'ing

I’m listening now- just a couple of chapters in and liking it so far but I’d say I’m behind you so not much help!

20 A Woman of Substance by Barbara Taylor Bradford

This was on the 99p deals recently and I thought I could do with a rollicking saga, especially as I might like to watch the new TV adaptation (and I always like to read the book first). I'd never read anything by BTB before and she can certainly spin a yarn. It is, in fact, a testament to her yarn-spinning capacities that I made it through this, because I really wanted to know what happened. Emma Harte is a great character; a bit too perfect in some ways but her desire for money and revenge leavens that somewhat. But oh my goodness, the writing. Taylor Bradford never uses a short word when a long, often inapposite one, will do. At times I felt she was just showing off her vocabulary rather than writing a story. And the sex scenes...I can't resist quoting one sentence that actually made me laugh out loud (those of a sensitive disposition please look away now):

"And he took her then, his manhood at full flood, thrusting deeply into the very core of her, to touch her heart..."

That anatomical image will remain imprinted on my brain for quite a while.

So great story, painful at times to read - I think on the whole I would have been better off just watching the TV adaptation (maybe the original rather than the new one, based on the reviews).

That's an impressive anatomical reach alright, @Welshwabbit .

@VikingNorthUtsire- that’s rubbish about your library & reminds me of the difficulties I had of using a library when younger. Given the current dire headlines re reading / literacy, we need libraries to be expected (& funded) to do better - making a fuss about longlists is one way to do this especially given the price of buying all 16! People probably don’t know that they want to read the longlists (I didn’t until I started posting here). The Women’s NF prize longlist covers such a range of writing (science, law, history, art etc) & it really is in the national interest to encourage people to read books like this & model reading to their (grand)children.

34 . The Founding by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles - first book in a long series of historical novels focussing on a family in Yorkshire. This one tells the story of a young noblewoman who marries a Yorkshire farmer and their support for the House of York during the Wars of the Roses. Recommended on MN, this was a nostalgia read for me as I can remember seeing many volumes in my library as a teenager but never borrowed any. I liked the premise of this book as it’s about a family building up their business in the wool trade, but it took me quite a while to warm to it as the writing felt dated, as there rather too many characters falling in love as teenagers & feeling bound to the object of their affections for life. I did enjoy the second half of the book more - possibly because I had got used to the style and characters. Although it was quite a light look at history, I did like how it included enough illness, war & other unpleasantries to get across just how grim life was in the late Middle Ages. It’s probably a useful read for anyone who wants to improve their knowledge of English history but who wants something more entertaining than a history book. I will probably read more when I run out of books to escape into.

35 . The Boundless Deeps by Richard Holmes - very readable biography of the poet Tennyson’s youth. It helps if you like some of Tennyson’s poetry (I’m rather fond of The Lady of Shalott and Morte d’Arthur and discovered The Kraken via reading the book). There was lots of interest in his childhood, which was difficult due to his father, and in his time at & friends from university- especially his interest in science. I really liked the discussion about the different style of his poems (including different verse types / rhyme schemes etc.). Not a bold, but it has made me realise that I need to read more of Tennyson’s poetry.

36 I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue

I think quite a few people on the thread have read this so I’ll just add that I really liked it. Free on kindle unlimited so well worth a read if you have that.

@Benvenuto I read the entire Morland dynasty series last year - it was my 3rd attempt to do it and I'm not sure I would have succeeded if I hadn't been on a sabbatical from work. There are a LOT of them. I agree about them being old fashioned and they do require some suspension of disbelief at how the family manages to be at the centre of every major historical event. But as a painless guide to history from medieval england to WW2 (which is what I believe the publisher's brief was to the author), it's quite incredible.

@Benvenuto I read The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes and really enjoyed it. It's a bit of a romp through early modern science but has one of the best biographies of Caroline Herschel (first female scientist to be paid) I've read. Will have to look out for the Tennyson biography.

Another RWYO for me, and continuing the trend I’ve been experiencing of really liking a book, but not quite enough for it to be a bold.

37 Babel by RF Kuang

Well this was a bit of a beast. Set in an alternate reality where silver is used as a tool to unlock the power of words in different languages, via their connected origins. It’s set in the early 1800s, mostly in Oxford where Babel is a part of the university and the work of translators using silver powers the British Empire. We follow a cohort of 4 students Robin (from China), Ramy (from India), Victoire (from Haiti) and Letty (from England). There’s themes of imperialism, empire, friendship, misogyny, racism, industrialisation, colonialism, cultural appropriation, and class warfare.

I am fascinated by language, the meaning of words, and the linkage between different words in different languages so there was a lot for me like here, I imagine if you are not into this that this book could be very tedious indeed. That said it felt overlong even to me and that is probably what prevents it from being a bold.

The Wedding People - Alison Espach

Could be my mood, but I didn’t love this as much as others. All a bit too neat

Phoebe’s marriage has fallen apart after infertility and infidelity. She travels to a high end hotel to kill herself, but the rest of the hotel is booked out for a “wedding week” and a chance encounter with the bride to be in the elevator changes the course of both their lives.

I’ve read 14 books so far this year (aiming for 100!)
best ones-
Tim weaver missing pieces
Bonnie garmus lessons on chemistry
Sophie Kinsella what have I done

worst -
Louise Candlish neighbours guide to murder. I just couldn’t get into it

I'm now 50% in, was feeling like I didn't care what happened to the characters but then debated googling to see how it ended - maybe i care more than I'm letting on!