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

Anything you’d really recommend @myislandhome? in my opinion Lonesome Dove wears its length lightly.

I didn’t care for The Women either but I really liked Last One At The Party - it was a standout for me we call them bolds so you put anything you really liked in bolds in a list and everything in bold when you review

I bloody loved it Sto I thought it was wonderful

Oh, I'm so sorry, I should have "bolded" and will going forward.
I enjoyed The Last One at the Party too

I am a PITA when reading, I never give 5 stars and am a bit too critical. I need to work on reeling it in and just taking books on face value. I think I'm looking for something that isnt there - that buzz of a perfect book.

@myislandhome I do give 5* but the older I get the more difficult to please I become! I too, search for that buzz of an exceptional book and rarely find it. I recommended something to a friend recently and he said it was the best book he had read in years, THAT’S what I am searching for!

Ok, Recommended from my list (depending on if it's your cup of tea or not I guess): None 5 stars, in fact I gave nearly all 3 stars) but interesting.

1. The Lamb, Lucy Rose (It's one of those books where it was ok when I was reading it but as I read more books I realised it was actually better than I gave it credit for - a mother/daughter cannibal story)
2. Last one at the Party, Bethany Clift (woman left alone at the end of the world, I eat this type of story up and enjpyed the introspective style)
3. Remarkably Bright Creatures, Shelby Van Pelt (just a nice story of a recently widowed woman who also lost her son many years ago- loneliness and family connections)
4. Yellowface, RF Kuang (disappointing ending but a would be author steals a best selling book from her dead friend and passes it off as her own)
5. Hunger, Choi jin-young (beautiful beautiful book but not for everyone, it's about grief, whereby a woman decides to eat her dead lover)
6. Room 706, Ellie Levinson (this was a actually really interesting premise- a woman married around 7 years has hooked up for a sex-only/secret tryst date every few months with a man and this time the hotel is taken over in a terrorist siege- it's an average as not *that well written but interesting book as it was a different type of read for me. I read it because people at IRL book club recommended it)
7. My year of Rest and Relaxation, Ottessa Moshfegh (hated it whilst reading as it was about a woman who decides to take the year out in a drug induced stupor but one of the few books I thought about afterwards so that must tell me something. I actually can't believe I'm recommending this but here it is!)

Most disappointing book for me was Project Hail Mary - this felt like being mansplained to by a teenage boy.

@myislandhome I DNFd My Year Of Rest And Relaxation and loved Project Hail Mary but I did it as audiobook

I basically forced myself to read year of rest & relaxation as I hated the druggie vibe but I'm glad I finished it. I have heard the audio for PHM is the way to do it. I still want to see the movie :)

I also loved Lonesome Dove- never read another western (and left the room when my dad used to watch them on the telly many years ago) but really loved lonesome Dove- it’s more about the characters than anything else. Considering reading the prequels and sequel at some point.
Finished A Voice in the Night by Simon Mason- one of his ‘odd couple’ police procedurals. The characters are cliches and the son of one is so precocious that I wonder if Mason has ever met a child, but I really enjoy these books. Didn’t guess whodunnit in this one where an ex Oxford don is murdered by a river. Enjoyed the odd couple bickering. Good fun.
Also finished my last Women’s Prize read Paradiso 17 by Hannah Lilith Assadi
Tells the life story of Sufien whose family lost their home in the Nakba in Palestine. He spends the rest of his life moving from place to place and never finding ‘home’. I imagine a trauma like this in your childhood has an impact but Sufien is a lazy, sleazy, disloyal, selfish asshole and it seemed to me that the author was trying to say this was okay because of his past. Also we skipped so quickly from episode of his life to the next that we never really got to know anyone else- the many people who tried to help / befriend/ love him along the way as he repeatedly threw it back in their faces. Didn’t love this clearly.

My Women’s Prize shortlist then is- A Beast Slinks Towards Beijing, Dominion, Gloria Don’t Speak, Heart the Lover, Kingfisher and Wild Dark Shore (I struggled with this last one between it and The Benefactors). My personal favourite is A Beast Slinks Towards Beijing, but I’d equally like to see Gloria Don’t Speak win for representing a voice we never hear so well.
Overall, it’s been a great list- mostly hits for me- I’d compare it to the year Pod and Fire Rush were on the list.

Catherine sounds interesting @ChessieFL, it only came out 8th February though (hardback looks beautiful 😍) so perhaps I’ll wait for a library copy or use one of my Audible credits if it’s a good narrator. I very much enjoyed Nelly Dean, a retelling from the servants point of view, (which received more mixed reviews) so I think it would be right up my street.

I’m another one who has Lonesome Dove on their TBR because of all the love on this thread but keep putting it to the back of the list because …. Western. I’ll also be interested to hear what you think @myislandhome.

For the last month I have been completely captivated by the world of Elena Ferrante. On the recommendation of a friend I watched (binged) all four series of the Neapolitan Saga on Sky, My Brilliant Friend. (Probably helped by the fact it’s in Italian so reading the subtitles meant I couldn’t be distracted by my iPad!) I was so bereft when I finished that I turned immediately to the books and have now finished three of them.
For once I wasn’t disappointed to read the books after watching the series. The books are so much richer and detail the inner monologue of the narrator clarifying her thoughts and motives which are less clear in the adaptation, but reading after watching meant I could keep the extensive cast of neighbourhood characters straight in my head (Although the crib sheet of major families and characters that Ferrante includes at the beginning of each book was still needed from time to time.)

The main thrust of the narrative tells the story of two friends - Lenù (Elenor Greco) and Lila (Raffaella Cerullo) from childhood to old age. They live in Naples, born into a world of grinding poverty and violence.
It’s a complex relationship, they often seem like two halves of the same person - one (Lila) dark, beautiful/striking, wild, chaotic, impulsive and intelligent, the other (Lenù) blonde, conventionally pretty, withdrawn, compliant, disciplined, intellectual.
They sometimes seem to love each other unconditionally at other times hate each other, their rivalry is fierce and riddled with schadenfreude, often the success of one seems to depress the other (I was reminded of the Groucho Marx quote; ‘No one is completely unhappy at the failure of his best friend’!) But however estranged they become an invisible thread seems to bind them and pull them back into each others orbit throughout their lives.
Luckily for me the Audible books for all 4 books are available on Libby and ebooks on Borrowbox, so I have the last instalment ready to go but I am trying to resist the temptation to dive straight in as I have The Secret Hours and A Tail of Two Cities to finish this month:

#7. My Brilliant Friend
#8. The Story Of A New Name
#9. Those Who Leave And Those Who Stay

All by the elusive Elena Ferrante who writes under a pen name and keeps her identity closely guarded, I’d love to know how much of the series is autobiographical.

I have a wish list that I am waiting for the price to go down on, this would be my - hopefully next on my list reads.
This includes:

• My Husband by Maud Ventura, Emma Ramadan
• Isola by Allegra Goodman
• Tom lake by Ann Patchett
• Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall (online book club read)
• One yellow eye by Leigh Radford (June's IRL book club read)
• Celestial lights by Cecile Pin
• The Delusions by Dr Jenni Fagan
• Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
• Parable of the sower by Octavia E. Butler
• Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke (seeing her speak at the end of the month)
• James by Percival Everett
• Small things like these by Claire Keegan
• Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
• The wedding people by Alison Espach
• Tender is the flesh by Agustina Bazterrica, Sarah Moses
• The mad wife by Meagan Church
• Margo's got money troubles by Rufi Thorpe
• The wall by Marlen Haushofer, Claire-Louise Bennett (really looking forward to this one)
• A far flung life M L Stedman
• A Secret History by Donna Tartt (because chat gpt keeps telling me I would love this)
• Gloria don't speak by Lucy Apps
• Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth
• Our wives under the sea by Julia Armfield
• The names by Florence Knapp
• Just watch me by Lior Torenberg
• Cleopatra by Saara El-Arifi
• The correspsondent by Virginia Evans
• Night bitch by Rachel Yoder
• Briefly very beautiful by Roz Dineen

I'm going to be SO broke
happy to hear "ditch or Keep" on these

@DesdamonasHandkerchief I really liked Nelly Dean too.

From your list (that I have read) @myislandhome

Loved- Tender is the Flesh, The Secret History and Small Things Like These

Liked - Wild Dark Shore, Gloria Don't Speak, Parable of the Sower (didn’t like the sequel much though)

Liked but overhyped (imo) James, Our Wives under the Sea, The Names, The Correspondent

DNFed- Isola - nothing new to offer, too overtly religious for my tastes.

What a great idea to tell ChatGPT your favourite books and get it to recommend others @myislandhome, I’ll have to give that a go!

I do have to tell it off sometimes though but mostly this works if you give it enough information

I did NOT realise isola would be religious, might scratch that! thanks!

In that case do be aware that Parable of the Sower has a religious storyline. It is a sub plot in the first but main plot in the second. (It’s her own religion rather than an existing one)

@ÚlldemoShúl I'm about 70% through Paradiso 17 and really struggling with what a wanker the main character is. Especially to his wife. It doesn't help that the audio has generic male mid Atlantic narrator that gives AI vibes. I've just started Beast, and have Dominion and Kit de Waal (which I may not bother with) left. I agree it's a strong list though my top may be slightly different.

@myislandhome from your list
loved - Small Things Like These ( though actually Foster I think is even better), Secret History, The Correspondent, Tom Lake
liked - Gloria Don't Speak, James, The Wedding People, Kindred, The Names
ok - Night Bitch, Our Wives Under the Sea - though think others on here have loved this

I've got Cecile Pin on my wishlist too as loved Wandering Souls. I hadn't heard of Yesteryear before today but she just popped up on my insta feed having a completely deserved go at The Guardian who has said Flesh was a return to make fiction after an underrepresented decade. In this decade, men still won 70% of literary prizes.... sigh.

I'm reading my way through Lonesome Dove atm, it's a project read for me (about 75 pages a month over the year!). It's great so far but it maybe didn't 'pick up' until about the 150 page mark. I'll usually pick it up in the evening and read about 10 pages at a time before I flake out in front of the telly, it saves me reading ahead as I think it might be easy to do that with this book.

@myislandhome

Do you have/read on Kindle or are you waiting for bargains on hardback/paperback books? Some of your list is very new, but then sometimes quite new books do get offered as Kindle bargains, such as the Ellie Levenson book. Quite a few on your list have been on offer at 99p, sometimes several times.

I've just collected two of the books on your list from the library after reserving them - and I'm reading The Wedding People on Kindle just now.

Yes, on kindle. I just grabbed atmosphere as it was reduced 50% but I check every day for bargains! I got a few kristin hanna's and Flashlight Susan Choi for 99p I think.

AI has just informed me that I am a fan of the 'hauntology' genre. Thsi si a new one on me. It's right, though!

Apparently mine is "Literary fiction with a supernatural or mythic edge. Propulsive but lyrical. Strong singular voice. Emotional depth. Slightly outside realism. Also Dystopian with literary quality".

Chat GPT thinks I ‘seem to enjoy books with depth, atmosphere, memorable characters, and emotional payoff rather than purely plot-driven reads.’ I actually think I’m pretty plot driven! But maybe I gave it too wide a list of books to nail my reading style - everything from War and Peace to One Day - it’s given me a long list of suggestions and narrowed that down to:

‘A few that feel especially you

If I had to choose the most likely 5-star reads for your taste:’

1. Demon Copperhead (Read didn’t enjoy as much as most, gave 3* on Goodreads)
2. The Likeness (Not Read will check out)
3. Hamnet (Another I didn’t rate as highly as most, gave a generous 3*)
4. Shuggy Bain (Read and appreciated, although found the relentless gloom depressing, 4*)
5. Piranesi (Read and found a bit frustrating 3*)
6. Still Life (Read and pretty much hated, rated it 1*)
7. Homegoing (Read, pretty good a 4* rating from me)

So all in all AI was a bit hit and miss, maybe I’ll stick with the old fashioned methods of getting my recommendations - like this thread!

Yes, I am learning to be very specific about what I like/d and dislike/d in books I've read. It has before recommended something I don't like and I don't hold back.

19. The Doctor Will See You Now by Amir Khan

Memoir written by a GP working in a busy GP practice.

As usual with this sort of book, there’s a mixture of funny anecdotes and sad anecdotes along with some musing over the state of the NHS. Dr Khan comes across as a very likeable GP in this book.