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

@LadybirdDaphne@campingwidow- The Lost Rainforests of Britain is on my RWYO list - I thought the Midnight Library was too, but it turns out it’s another Matt Haig (The Humans - bought as I quite like some of his children’s books), which I’m now tempted to read to see how bad it is

I dropped off the other thread and have just found this.
I've been ill and grumpy so my DNF list is as long as my read list.
I was due to go on holiday this week for some winter sunshine but had to cancel due to illness so I will start the books I had set aside for holiday reading.
2026

1.A Town Like Alice by Neville Shute.
2.Take a Chance on me by Beth Moran
3.Holes by Louis Sacher
4.A Secret Escape by Sarah Morgan
5.The War Poems by Siegfried Sassoon
6.Hitler's Secret by Rory Clements
7.Let the Dead Speak by Jane Casey

1. The Distance Between Us: by Philppa Ashley

9.Once upon a thyme by Jane Lovering.
10.The Farthing girl by Daisy carter
11.We Belong Together by Beth Moran
12.Cruel Acts by Jane Casey

Just finished Cruel Acts by Jane Casey. Didn't love it as much as the previous one but still zipped through it. I won't review it because it's been done many times on this thread.
My reading records go back to 2002 when DS2 was a reluctant reader in reception. We both started a book list and we both still do it!

I don't know why but when I post the list gets jumbled and I've tried editing and it keeps doing it...

Leaving the full stop out of the numbering usually works for me.

Thanks again all.

@NotWavingButReading so sorry about your holiday and I hope you feel better soon

The Final Vow by MW Craven
7 down and number 8 not published yet. I liked this much m, much more than the previous one- more subtle more scary.

I now have a problem though. This series has really helped take my mind off things, so what the heck do I read next? Another series would be great.

@NotWavingButReading , sorry you had to cancel your holiday. So frustrating.

Make allowances for the fact Maeve Kerrigan has its flaws in the early books and let yourself love it @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie

Sorry you’re unwell @NotWavingButReading

I tried to read the first two @EineReiseDurchDieZeit and thought they were terrible. Sorry, but I just don’t think that I can go there.

Have you done, or tried and hated, Louise Penny or Anne Cleeves Remus ? Or what about Reginald Hill? He may be more up your street.

Outside of the detective world, do you like/have you tried David Lodge?

Glad MW Craven was a bit of a distraction.

@NotWavingButReading I've kept a book diary since I was a student so 1996! Still in the same notebook with the spine fallling apart now.

10. The Chase by Ava Glass

Secret agent Emma Makepeace is given the assignment of tracking down a man targeted by the Russians, and bringing him safely to MI6.

Things go wrong fairly quickly after the Russians get control of all the CCTV in London, which leads to a chase through London at night and multiple attacks by Russian agents.

This dragged far more than it should have done given the sheer number of narrow escapes and murder attempts going on.
I’m also not clear on why the Russians were making so much effort to kill this particular man. I mean, the book explained why he was a target, but it’s a pretty flimsy explanation for what comes across as a major operation on the Russian’s part.

How about the Bryant And May series by Christopher Fowler @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie ? Apologies if you have tried them and didn’t like them.
JD Kirk’s crime series is fast paced, mindless and graphic. I got bored with the samey-ness after a few of them but preferred them to the Washington Poe books.

What about Elly Griffiths Brighton Series @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie? Set in the 1950s about a detective and a stage magician. They weren’t my cup of tea but might be more up your street. I see them recommended for fans of Bryant and May.

I like her Ruth Galloway books for an easy read but suspect you would hate them.

What about Laura Shepherd-Robinson @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie? The Art of the Lie was well received on here last year (I think you might have read it) and she has a few others. I’m currently reading Blood and Sugar which is set in Deptford & is about the murder of an abolitionist. So far it’s interesting (although I’m probably the target audience as I think there should be more books about the Abolition).

V I Warshawski? The Lincoln Lawyer?

I really liked the Department Q series set in a cold case department in Denmark. They recently made it into a TV series set in Scotland, which I also really liked.

Hope you’re feeling better soon @NotWavingButReading , and @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie too.

@Benvenuto I’va finally caved and bought BBB (and Never Let Me Go) to see what all the fuss is about, despite the kindle discount not being enough to meet my usual criteria - your review was the wafer-thin mint that pushed me over the edge 😂 Not that I’ll get to them for ages, if I stick to my “read the oldest book on my kindle app first” policy.

@LadybirdDaphne thanks for your review of the Shrubsole book, it’s on my wishlist and it sounds like it will be worth reading even if I end up disagreeing with his attitude to the countryside…I do like the nominative determinism though 😄

I’ve moved my living room around at the weekend, which involved emptying the bookcase. When I came to put it all back, I planned to cull a few. Instead, I spent a while looking fondly at my books, saying “well I want to read / re-read that, and then it can go”. The other main category is “I really want to read that soon.” Decluttering fail.

I really need to stop looking at kindle daily deals, but Starve Acre is 99p today, and I regretted not buying it last time, so I bought it.

I enjoyed Starve Acre @Castlerigg

Thanks @EineReiseDurchDieZeit

36 Introducing Mrs Collins – Rachel Parris. Oh I liked this. Based on the characters from Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice, Charlotte Lucas is the main character, but of course, we have Mr Collins, Elizabeth and an assortment of other Bennets, Lady Catherine de Bourgh and so on. An enjoyable romp!

So shall I go ahead and announce @Tarragon123 ?

No One Would Do What The Lamberts Have Done - Sophie Hannah

Well. What the heck was that about, then?

(there’s a 2025 thread about the book which I hid until I had read it; most posters there were also baffled)

@DuPainDuVinDuFromage- thank you, I appreciate the compliment. My main reason for reading was to be able to pronounce on whether the Butler is boring in future debates.

I’m also highly entertained that that book now seems to be known as BBB.

Thanks for the good wishes.
@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie if it's crime fiction you're after these are some of my favourites. I had years of reading crime fiction but I've gone off it now.

DCI Banks by Peter Robinson. Yorkshire based procedurals.
The Roy Grace series by Peter James. Slightly gritty but not graphic.
DI Charlie Resnick Series by John Harvey. Written mostly in the 90s, set in Nottingham.
Graham Hurley’s Joe Faraday series, set in Portsmouth, again probably 90s/ 00s.
My all time favourite is the Sean Duffy series by Adrian McKinty set during the 80s in Belfast. Witty and beautifully written but I have an inkling you don't like Irish settings?

I'm reading Introducing Mrs Collins at the moment. It's been in my current reading pile for some time but is now top of the pile - originally I started it when it came through from the library but then acquired it as a Kindle bargain.

I didn't hate The Midnight Library at the time I read it but did feel it's a bit overrated so I found the review quite funny. I'm feeling quite grumpy tonight after an incredibly frustrating day so I need some laughs!