50 Books Challenge 2026 Part Four

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the fourth 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 as this makes it much easier to keep track of books or authors that may appeal (or not appeal) to everyone else.

Some of us bring over our updated lists to the new thread. Again, this is up to you.

The first thread of the year is here the second thread here and the third thread here

It’s extremely grim

This doesn’t bode well: I’ve read one (Catch 22 at A Level) 😁

I do have The Talented Mr Ripley in my TBR pile, does that count?

I've read The Line of Beauty and The Vegetarian. I can't remember much about The Line of Beauty.

I remember The Line Of Beauty as “everyone was gay, regardless of whether it was plausible”

30 Brother. Do. You. Love. Me by Manni and Reuben Coe

Read for my work book club, this is an account of Reuben's recovery from a deep depression, triggered by isolation in his care home during the Covid lockdown. Reuben has Down's Syndrome and his brother, Manni, realises that things are very bad from him when he receives the title text message. He removes Reuben from the care setting and spends several months living with him and helping him rejoin the world. There is a lot to like about this book - Reuben is a hugely interesting and sympathetic individual, and it flags up many problems with the care system, especially during Covid, whilst lauding many of those who work within it. Unfortunately, the book is also quite difficult to follow in places (it skips between locations and times and it's not always clear where we are) and it would also have benefited from more judicious editing. I'm glad I read it, though. The love Manni and Reuben feel for each other, and Manni's recognition that he has a need to feel responsible, useful to someone - so the relationship is very far from one way - shine through. Edited to add that the book is written by Manni but illustrated with Reuben's distinctive felt tip drawings, which I liked as a combination (save for the issues mentioned above).

Of the Guardian list, I've read The Go Between, Catch-22, The Left Hand of Darkness, The Line of Beauty, The Talented Mr Ripley, A Farewell to Arms and The End of the Affair. I can't remember much about A Farewell to Arms, but I remember that I thought it was good. I think all the others would be bolds. I loved The Left Hand of Darkness and The Line of Beauty and I think Ripley is a fabulous creation. The End of the Affair made me cry and cry.

I’ve read none of that Guardian list! I’ve never even heard of quite a few of them. Oh well.

Of the Guardian list so far I've read:
The Go-Between
Ragtime
The Line of Beauty
The Turn of the Screw
The Talented Mr Ripley
The End of the Affair, and thought all of these were excellent. I also started and DNF’ed Catch 22 and The Vegetarian, and have no desire to return to them.

Glad it’s not just me!!

Jude is just so unbearably grim - I hadn’t forgotten it but I refuse to consider it his best. I guess The Return of the Native does make it as his fourth best as I do want to reread it whereas I really don’t want to reread Jude!

55 . Moderation by Elaine Castillo - this is from the Womens’ Prize for Fiction Longlist but it wasn’t for me. It’s the story of a social media moderator asked to work on a new virtual reality game. The tech aspect didn’t feel as well-realised or as thoughtful as good science fiction and the romance side wasn’t as funny as good romantic comedy nor as compelling as a true love story. The heroine was meant to be about 35-40 by my calculations but seemed much younger & there was a potentially interesting theme about her Filipino family that could have been much more interesting. The book also had what are rapidly becoming my bête noire in romance: firstly the main character had a complex romantic history (in this case previous relationships with women but now falls for a man) - that in itself isn’t a problem but if an author wants this complexity then they do need to work at the character development so that it seems plausible to the reader. Then there was the product placement - there was a lot of it including an appearance by a Sainsburys’ Reliabag at a critical romantic juncture. It also didn’t help that there were a lot of similarities to Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, tomorrow and tomorrow (which I enjoyed much more).

56 . The Pretender by Jo Harkin - as recommended on this thread. This is a novel about the Pretender Lambert Simnel and was the first book I have read from the Sir Walter Scott Prize list. I really like that Sir Walter Scott has a prize, as he had such an impact on the development of the novel and thinking about what features of a novel would be in keeping with his work (as in how his original readers experienced it as I find him quite hard to read), I would expect a distinctive style, an eventful yet plausible narrative, interesting characters and some depth to the book. I found that this met lots of my expectations - the style was striking and I found the inclusion of archaic words quite effective. I found the characterisation vivid and the plot eventful and pacey. It’s not a bold as I didn’t find the ending particularly convincing but I definitely want to read more from the list.

Still making painfully slow progress with The Children’s Book - it’s not the fault of the book, it’s my piss poor attention span and scrolling addiction honestly.

I’ve read only 2 of that crop from The Guardian, Catch 22 and The Talented Mr Ripley, both of which I loved. Interested to see what else comes up as the list goes on. Like @SheilaFentiman I do wonder if I’ve read more - maybe the Hardy - as I too went through the £1 penguin classic phase in my teens and I certainly read a lot of Hardy then, though I only ever liked Far From the Madding Crowd.

Interested to read that summary of May We Feed the King @Stowickthevast - I’ve got it on my wish list after seeing it recommended by someone I follow, but I’m not so sure now I’ve read your review! Though if you say you enjoyed it maybe it’s worth a try.

@Benvenuto I said this at the time

The paperback is a chunk and I thought it would be a trudge but I made quicker work of it than I anticipated.
Yes, the end is properly horrific; but were there ever such simpering foolish bores alive as Sue and Jude? Not to mention Philloston?
If I could have slapped them all I would have. Christ Alive, Never Again! This was panned at publication and deservedly so.
Whingy fools become the architects of their own misery, and wallow in it
Jude The Tedious.

Oh @Stowickthevasti did buy May we Feed the King too but haven’t got to it yet. Your review has piqued my interest though!

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit- that is a fantastic (& completely merited) review.

3 and a couple of DNFs from that list for me. I read My Antonia after a 50 Bookers rec a couple of years ago.
A bit better today. I’ve progressed from bed to the sofa and spent the day watching Rivals. Love a man with a moustache and a hairy chest. I married one in 1987 as it happens.

I am sure I've read 8 at least once - I think I might have read one more (Jacob's Room) but too long ago, whereas I've reread the ones I first read when I was young in the last 25 years (mostly a little bit more recently) - Catch 22 and A Farewell to Arms were on university course reading lists, I think so was My Antonia, Virginia Woolf was on as an author but not sure about Jacob's Room.

My favourite here is probably Life and Fate and I liked Catch 22, A Farewell to Arms, My Antonia and The Line of Beauty a lot. Nothing I really hated yet. I wonder if those I didn't like - lots more American lit stuff - will show up. It would seem odd to have lots of novels by any one author on it, but I can't imagine that there won't be better known works by Virginia Woolf or Thomas Hardy further up the list.

I recognise that there are 5 books by women in the first 20, one South Korean, but the list seems a bit white and male and dominated by American and British writers so far. I hope there will be more black and Asian writers, whether they are British, American or from other countries, more women....., but 100 doesn't really seem very many if this is the first 20.

If I remember, I'll share the next set tomorrow!

I have read seven from that list but some of them a very long time ago (80s schooldays). The ones I have read:

The Go-Between - liked
The Road - so depressing
Catch-22 - can't remember it at all
The Line of Beauty - loved and have read twice
The Talented Mr Ripley - know it was good but need to reread!
A Farewell to Arms - fine, annoyed me in placed
The End of the Affair - again, know it was good but need to reread!

Looking forward to seeing rest of list!

I'm similar to others on that list. Have read 8, liked half of them.

Favourites are
The Vegetarian
Talented Mr Ripley
The Go-Between
Catch- 22 - but feel like i'd have less patience for it now.

I'm still thinking about May We Feed The King...

I have read 5 from the list - The Line of Beauty, The End of the Affair, The Vegetarian, The Road, and the Go Between. Must check some of the others out.

I think I’ve read 4 from that list, though at least two I would struggle to tell you anything about.

4 for me too from that Grauniad list - Catch-22, The Line of Beauty, Mr Ripley and The Road. Someone chose The Road for our book club and my heart absolutely sank, but I surprised myself by really admiring it - though no getting away from the fact that it’s grim. Not a book I’d ever have voluntarily read.

I meant to say in my post yesterday that on Monday I went to see a production of The Waves by Virginia Woolf (superbly adapted for stage - no mean feat - by Flora Wilson Brown) at the Jermyn Street theatre. It was really good; the cast were uniformly excellent, it's a nice crisp 90 minutes and I thought it really captured the essence of the book - which I found a slog, but with elements I still find myself thinking about a year after I read it. It's been extended til 30 May but unfortunately, on checking, I think it's sold out now - but I expect it will pop up somewhere else before too long as it's done so well.

I’ve only read two from that list - The Left Hand of Darkness I was a bit meh about, and The Return of the Native I read several times as a set text for A Level English, but hated it at the time and seem to have mentally blocked out the traumatic experience. (I was the sort of teenager who thought the other novel on our A-level list was the most brilliant, romantically passionate thing since sliced bread - yep, Wuthering Heights it was!)

You blink and this thread has moved on 100 posts!
On that list I've read

The Road - Frustrating and grim
Catch-22 - I must be the only person who didn't love this
The left Hand of Darkness - a teenage favourite read 50+ years ago
A Farewell to Arms - read but can't remember

The guardian have done this before and there's a list from 2012 on Goodreads.
Also a list from 2015 on the guardian website

Interesting that TKAM was number one in 2012 and seems to have dropped off entirely in the 2015 list. Maybe because of it's overuse in schools?

31. Lies Sleeping by Ben Aaronovitch

Book number 7 in the Rivers of London series.

This is not a series to jump into half way through, as the book does assume knowledge of events in previous books, but if you’ve enjoyed the previous ones in the series then you’ll probably enjoy this one too.

For anyone unfamiliar with the series, the basic concept is a small unit of magic using police officers tackling magic using criminals / other law breaking supernatural entities.

32. Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

An eccentric billionaire dies and names 17 yr old Avery as his main heir.
She’s never even heard of him, has no idea why she’s been left all the money, but in order to inherit she has to live in the family mansion for a year. Along with the billionaire’s surviving relatives. And turns out that the billionaire was fond of puzzles and has left a trail of clues and secrets to be uncovered.

An entertaining YA read.