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

@Welshwabbit – I cant wait to hear if you work out what happens and @TimeforaGandT thank you! I thought it was just me being dim

42 Kingdom of the Blind – Louise Penny – Armand Gamache 14. Hmmm, my second Gamache book in a row that I didn’t really enjoy and I’m trying to work out why. Jean-Guy is pissing me off no end, but that’s nothing new. Anyway, to the plot. Gamache is summoned to a village nearby and is told that he is to be an executor for a will of a woman that he didn’t know. Also in the same boat is Myrna and a young man that neither of them know. And because this is the world of Gamache, there is a murder. There is also a complex sub plot carrying on from the previous book, which didn’t do anything for me. However, what I do know about myself is that I am a completist and I will head off to the library to get book 15 tomorrow.

21 Chosen Family by Madeleine Gray

I really loved Gray's debut, Green Dot, and thought this tale of two friends - or something more - who decide to have a child together would be right up my street, but it wasn't, quite. I really enjoyed the first half, when Eve and Nell meet at secondary school and become friends, before Nell does something unforgivable and they fall out. There's a period of Eve without Nell, and then they meet again at university and (as is flagged throughout the book in flash-forwards) have a child - but this time, it's Eve's turn to do something unforgivable. I didn't really enjoy the second part of the book. Eve is portrayed as a good person and certainly feels bad for what she did, but her betrayal isn't a one-off but lasts for years and I found it extremely hard to retain any sympathy for her. The ending didn't work for me either - too pat. Add in a preternaturally precocious child (always a bit of a bugbear of mine) and it was a promising start with a disappointing end.

13) I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman (translated by Roz Schwartz). Forty women are held in a cage underground for years, guarded by men who never speak to them. None of them have any memory of how they got there, but 39 of them remember a time before their imprisoned. The fortieth, our narrator, is too young to remember anything other than the cage. A fact which initially isolates her from the others.

I'm not sure what to of this one. I didn't enjoy it much when the women were prisoners, but it got interesting once they found their freedom and started developing skills they didn't know they had.

I was a bit perplexed that the older women asserted the narrator would never know love, or that there was no point teaching her basic biology, because she would never have sex with a man. Not least because we're explicitly told that some of the same women have romantic relationships with each other. The narrator herself seems torn on the subject. On the one hand, she laments her celibacy, but on the other she abhors being touched, even platonically, and doesn't seem to have much of a libido beyond a few teenage fantasies and the briefest of self exploration. Which I actually think makes a lot of sense given her traumatic upbringing, and complete lack of physical affection as a child.

Overall this is a pretty bleak book which I don't think I'll read again, but it's one that will stay with me.

16 King Leopold’s Ghost - Adam Hochschild

Thorough, thoughtful and moving history of the atrocities perpetrated during the Belgian king’s reign of terror in the Congo. I hadn’t realised how relatively recent this was - within the lifetime of my grandparents. The book highlights the courage of those who dared to speak out against the regime - while acknowledging that history has left little in the way of contemporary accounts from the Congolese themselves.

Any advice for a perpetually exhausted 50 Booker who just can’t seem to muster the energy to read?

28 The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga
This won the Booker Prize in 2008 and I really enjoyed it. It tells the story of Balram Halwai who starts life as the son of a rickshaw driver and ends up as a Bangalore entrepreneur. It is not quite a rags to riches story as it is darker than that but it is disturbingly good on modern India and the differences experienced by the rich and the poor.

I'll join you in that club eine. I have had a teeny tiny bit of success with audio books, but Im very hit and miss with the narrators. Some I just can't listen to. I often fall asleep as well & then can't work out where I was up to.

This is me at the moment @Owlbookend I fall asleep before even a podcast has finished! And in the evenings I just vacantly watch whatever is on!

Books with short chapters/stories sometimes help me when I'm in a slump, e.g. I'm a Fan by Sheena Patel, Eye For An Eye by MJ Arlidge, Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

Revisiting childhood favourites can sometimes help me as well. I tend not to be able to concentrate on flights very well, but I reread a book from Lois Lowry's Anastasia Krupnik series on a long haul last year and it was just what I needed to pass some time.

Sometimes though you just have to give yourself a break until you find a book that really clicks at that particular point in time and you find yourself not wanting to put it down.

I find something fast paced and/ or short works for me at those times. Definitely nothing heavy. Terry Pratchett? Crime fiction? Maybe a bit of fantasy or spec fic (not dystopian though). Agree with @Owlbookendtoo that audio can help. But most importantly don’t beat yourself up about it- if you’re in a tv/ movies/ podcast frame of mind then go with it. It’ll come back when you’re ready for it.

I like a challenge/ list. So am doing RWYO and the Booker winners I haven't read. Even if I am a bit exhausted or read something I don't love - I can tick off something on a list and feel a small sense of achievement.

Joining the perpetually exhausted club - I also have a stonker of a cold that’s rendered me unable to do anything but sit in a sneezing, coughing huddle, so I've literally sent the whole day reading…

23. Robert and Helen - Elizabeth Jenkins

This was a weird one. Jenkins is probably best known now for The Tortoise and the Hare, but she wrote several other novels including this one of 1944.
Robert and Helen are brother and sister; he's happily married to the enchanting Racey (short for Horatia) and they live very comfortably with their small son in a pleasing Georgian house in a quiet country town. Helen, at 22, is a sweet-tempered, pretty girl beloved by the family, who often spends time with them.
I began thinking this was a wonderful domestic romp, until it got very odd with the introduction of a horrifically boorish Communist, Mr Maisel, who's a kind of Mr Mybug from Cold Comfort Farm on steroids. Much dwelling on class consciousness ensues (Robert and Helen are from a vaguely-uppercrust background) and there are various characters - sulky housemaids; salt-of-the-earth country folk; common girls with pretensions - enabling Jenkins to opine on those who know their place and those who do not; sideswipes at feminists are also freely taken.
The main focus really is on Helen's prospects for marriage and in the course of the novel she undergoes one relationship breakdown followed by a successful romance and blissful engagement, but Events ensure that this doesn’t go well either. The novel then has one of the most baffling endings I've ever read and even after re-reading it approx 20 times it still makes no sense. I’ve scoured the internet to find any mention by anyone else who’s read it as I'm now desperate to hear what others made of it, but I can’t find anything. So frustrating!

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit sorry to hear that, I definitely struggle with exhaustion at times, and find I just gravitate to shorter, easy reads, or revisit old comfort reads. I’m knackered this weekend as DD has been ill so I’ve read a John Grisham and am now reading a time travel book. Nothing I have to concentrate on or think about.

29. Marking Time by Elizabeth Jane Howard - a reread after 18 years of the second Cazalet Chronicle. It does what it says on the tin I.e it's a holding pattern sort of book in which nothing much happens but we get the interior lives of - mainly - the YA members of the family. And while it is very well done, I preferred the stories of their mothers in the first book. Perhaps because I am that sort of age myself. Maybe if I reread in 20 years, I will find the grandmother fascinating! All in all a good solid read, just not my favourite of the series. And it gets extra points for being a nuanced, layered chronicle about the war from the point of view of the women and children. Not the ones cracking codes and extinguishing fires but the ones just existing in increasingly narrower lives.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeitMy tips are crime/thriller particularly if you're part way through a series. Read something with a deadline. Book club makes me read and then that makes me read more. Search for someone talking or writing enthusiasticly about a book on your to be read list. Short stories can also kickstart me sometimes.

I generally go for crime when I'm stuck Eine. I've recently listened to Heart The Lover and The Correspondent from the WP list which were both decent audios, and didn't feel very heavy.

I'm passing the lemsip to @Terpsichore as an also struggling with a hideous cold at the moment and have spent all weekend binge watching Grey's Anatomy. Have been reading Daughters of the Bamboo Grove when my snotty nose wakes me up at 4 in the morning!

Hope everyone feels better soon.

I like a crime series when I’m stuck. @EineReiseDurchDieZeit Anne Cleeves, Rebus, Wexford, Strike, Lynley, Ruth Galloway, Gamache. There was a series by Vivica Sten set in Sweden that I liked too. I love Hazel Holt’s Mrs Mallory but she might be too tame after Maeve Kerrigan. You’ve probably read them all!

Just recommending The Pitt to Grey’s Anatomy fans, I’ve been binging this weekend.

@Stowickthevast Sympathies. I’m now 98% Lemsip.

@BestIsWest In between reading the strange Elizabeth Jenkins novel, I also watched episode 1 of The Pitt - now looking forward eagerly to the rest (though I did have to enable subtitles because there’s no way I'm going to understand all that top-speed medical jargon)

16 The Rachel Incident - Caroline O'Donoghue Told from the perspective of Rachel, a successful 30-something journalist in the present day, but focusing almost entirely on the year she was 20/21, in her final year studying English at uni in her home town of Cork (with a major crush on her tutor) and working part-time in a bookshop, where she meets James Devlin - the man who would become her best friend, and who happens to be gay and in the closet. They end up as housemates and the recounting of their chaotic, drunken, promiscuous lifestyle felt so realistic that it was almost like reading a memoir - my student days were a few years earlier than the 2010 setting and in a different country but I recognised a lot of my experiences in the skanky houseshare and the stories of nights out (not the main storyline though!!).

When I finished this last night, I was leaning towards this not being quite a bold; having re-read the last chapter this morning I've changed my mind as the present-day setting at the end of the book feels just as real as the student part and leaves you with a feeling of hope for the future of all the main characters (cryptic - hopefully not spoilery!). A really good read, like having a gossip with a good friend.

Dream Count: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

This is my first time reading a book by this author, although I've read many reviews of it on this thread.

The book is structured on the narratives of four Nigerian women connected with each other through family ties, friendship and work. Set against the backdrop of the COVID-19 lockdown, it opens with Chiamaka reflecting on her past relationships and why they did not fulfill her emotional needs. Also, societal pressure to get married comes across in Chiamaka's story as she is beautiful and comes from a wealthy family and has everything in her favour, but doesn't have a man.

I found Kadiatou's story the most compelling one; a house-keeper from Guinea who experiences a horrific assault (based on the Strauss-Klein case of a few years ago). This story stood out for me in the book.

The positive features for me in the book were the strong female relationships, the vivid portrayal of modern Nigeria, the themes of love, friendship, immigration and making a life of one's own. I also loved the prose; it was beautifully written. It drew me in immediately.

The slight crib I have with the book is that I found Omelogor's section a little too long. I enjoyed her critical view of American academia and I admired her bold stance as an employee of the bank, but I think the section could have been trimmed back a little. Perhaps I wanted to find out what was going to happen to Kadiatou whose story was on hold for Omelogor's.

I enjoyed this one and recommend it. I'll look out for other books by the author.

Best wishes to the 50-Bookers who are feeling unwell at the moment! 🌷

Thank you everyone

Last night I finished my number 15, The Correspondent by Virginia Evans.

I got the recommendation from this thread so thank you to whoever suggested it, and sorry to be so rubbish as not to keep a note.

I really, really enjoyed this. It reminded me in some ways of Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively.

I listened on audible, which was done well with the different voices - generally I don't like multiple 'cast members' in audiobooks, I prefer just one narrator. But with this being an epistolary novel it did work.

I don't know yet if it will be a bold for me this year, very probably, although I felt the ending a little neat and maybe a bit too happy/ positive. The relationships all rather neatly resolved. Which, as a slightly soppy reader I probably prefer, but it somewhat undercut the whole point of the discussion of 'Lonesome Dove' and the courage required to make characters suffer, and the emotional truth of that. Still, it was a good read (well listen) and did a great job of getting me invested.

I really enjoyed The Correspondent but views on here have been lukewarm. It was a bold for me.

17 You let me in - Lucy Clarke Bestselling debut author Elle arrives back at her beautiful new cliff-top home in Cornwall after a writers' retreat, during which period she has AirBnB'ed her house to help towards the mortgage (which is crippling now that she's split up from her husband, who clearly she still loves). She has only a month to turn in the manuscript of her second book, having been given a two-book deal as her first manuscript was so good - but she's been struggling to write anything at all, and things get worse as she starts to feel like someone else is getting into her house and ruining her things. Who were the AirBnB guests, and are they still there??

A perfectly good premise but the book was rubbish - lots of little supposedly tantalising hints which all add up to a failure to actually tell the story properly. I couldn't care less about any of the characters and the focus was on trying to keep the reader guessing instead of actually telling us anything interesting. Not recommended!

Finished 2 more Women’s Prize reads
A Beast Slinks Towards Beijing by Alice Evelyn Yang
Weihong turns up unexpectedly on the doorstep of the family home in America 11 years after leaving his wife and daughter Qianze talking of a prophecy he must warn Qianze about. The book then skips back and forward in time to tell the stories of Qianze living in present day New York, Weihong who grew up in China during the cultural revolution and his mother Ming who lived in Manchuria pre World War 2. There’s a thread of magical realism and the descriptions are sometimes visceral and graphic. I found this a total page turner and despite the sometimes brutal storyline I felt for all three characters at times. This one was bold for me.

The Best of Everything by Kit de Waal
I listened to this on audio and I’m not sure if I would have finished if I’d read the actual book. It tells the story of Paulette, her son Bird and another family they are connected to. I found Paulette hard to connect with - she kept making foolish decisions and showed no appreciation for the good things in her life. I didn’t really care enough about any of the other characters to make this a great read for me.

I only have 2 books on the WP longlist left to read now (plus to finish The Mercy Step if it gets onto the shortlist). My top reads from the list so far are

Dominion
A Beast Slinks Towards Beijing
Gloria Don’t Speak
Heart the Lover

If neither of the last 2 float my boat (Paradiso 17 and Moderation) I’ll probably round out my own personal shortlist with The Benefactors and Kingfisher.

I’ve really enjoyed this longlist this year- much more than last year.