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

Thanks southeast.

1. The Parallel Path, Jenn Ashworth
2. Chinese Parents Don't Say I Love You, Candice Chung
3. Overwhelmed, Brigid Schulter
4. Destination Lapland, Mark Wallington
5. The Hard Way, Lee Child
6. Hamnet, Maggie O'Farrell
7. Patricia Brent, Spinster, Herbert Jenkins
8. The Cutting Room, Louise Welsh
9. How the World Made the West, Josephine Quinn
10. The Unfinished Clue, Georgette Heyer
11. Nothing to Lose, Lee Child
12. Devil's Cub, Georgette Heyer
13. The Killing Stones, Ann Cleeves
14. The World Within, Guy Stagg
15. May We Feed the King, Rebecca Perry
16. The Lark, E Nesbit
17. This Rough Magic, Mary Stewart
18. The Bells of Old Tokyo, Anne Sherman
19. One Fine Day, Mollie Panter-Downes
20. A Particularly Nasty Case, Adam Kay
21. Selected Essays, G K Chesterton
22. In Ordinary Time, Carmel McMahon
23. Albany, Gretta Mulrooney
24. The Second Cut, Louise Welsh
25. Touch Not the Cat, Mary Stewart
26. The Score, C Thi Nguyen
27. Recommended! Nicola Wilson
28. The Cut Up, Louise Welsh
29. Loneliness & Time: British Travel Writing in the Twentieth Century, Mark Cocker
30. Reacher: The Stories Behind the Stories, Lee Child
31. At the Table, Claire Powell
32. Strangers, Belle Burden
33. Death and the Maidens, Janet Todd
34. The Writer's Room, Katie da Cunha Lewin
35. Personal Pleasures, Rose Macaulay
36. Experience, Martin Amis
37. These Old Shades, Georgette Heyer
38. The Aspern Papers, Henry James
39. Wreck, Catherine Newman
40. Powder and Patch, Georgette Heyer
41. 12 Birds to Save your Life, Charlie Corbett
42. Claire Clairmont and the Shelleys, Robert Gitting and Jo Manton
43. Killing Me Softly, Christie Watson
44. Miles of Memories: Cycling the Sustrans Land's End to John O'Groats Route, Alan Loach
45. A City of Bells, Elizabeth Goudge
46. Frostlines: An Epic Exploration of the Transforming Arctic, Neil Shea
47. Fire in the Flint, Eva St John
48. The Pennine Way: the Path, the People, the Journey, Andrew McCloy

And most recently 49. Moral Injuries, Christie Watson. Three young women meet as medical students and become best friends, haunted by a terrible secret. Twenty-five years later, history seems to be repeating itself - how far will they go? I wasn't that bothered by the plot, but as usual with this author, enjoyed the authenticity of the medical setting.

In homage to the absent remus, I'm not doing a list !

I just finished Helm by Sarah Hall. This is such an intriguing , entertaining and thought provoking book.

To say it is a book about a wind really doesn't explain it. But I don't think it is possible to explain it without reducing it. Just read it if you haven't!

Just placemarking. @BestIsWest I think you’ve got the better deal, I’m still chilling my bits off in Siberia with the Romanovs 🥶

My list so far:
1 Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (RWYO)
2 Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
3 The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë (RWYO)
4 Milkman by Anna Burns (RWYO)
5 The Ghost Orchid by Jonathan Kellerman (RWYO)
6 Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz
7 Blitzed by Norman Ohler (RWYO)
8 The River is Waiting by Wally Lamb
9 Winter in Madrid by CJ Sansom (RWYO)
10 The Silence by Susan Allott (RWYO)
11 Heart the Lover by Lily King
12 Different Class by Joanne Harris (RWYO)
13 All the Rage by Virginia Nicholson (RWYO)
14 Clown Town by Mick Herron
15 The Painted Veil by W Somerset Maugham (RWYO)
16 Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys (RWYO)
17 The Brilliant Abyss by Helen Scales
18 Dance Move by Wendy Erskine
19 The Conservationist by Nadine Gordimer (RWYO)
20 Death of an Ordinary Man by Sarah Perry
21 The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters (RWYO)
22 Taken by Dinuka McKenzie (RWYO)
22 The Finest Hotel in Kabul by Lyse Doucet
23 Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner (RWYO)
24 Human Acts by Han Kang (RWYO)
25 Passing On by Penelope Lively (RWYO)
26 Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy
27 A Narrow Door by Joanne Harris (RWYO)
28 Pagans by James Allister Henry
29 Morgan is my Name by Sophie Keetch
30 Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (RWYO reread)
31 The Director by Daniel Kehlman
32 The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
33 The Wax Child by Olga Ravn
34 Daughters of the Bamboo Grove by Barbara Demick
35 On Earth as it is Beneath- Ana Paula Maia
35 Kingfisher by Rozie Kelly
36 Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghey
37 Dominion by Addie E Citchens
38 Gloria Don’t Speak by Lucy Apps
39 Death of a Lesser God by Vaseem Khan (RWYO)
40 Call for the Dead by John le Carre (RWYO)
41 Dreamland by Rosie Rankin Gee (RWYO)
42 The Others by Sheena Kaliyil
43 A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar
44 A Beast Slinks Towards Beijing by Alice Evelyn Yang
45 The Best of Everything by Kit de Waal
46 The Puppet Show by MW Craven (RWYO)
47 The Broken Shore by Peter Temple (RWYO)
48 Troubles by JG Farrell (RwYO)
49 King Lear by William Shakespeare (RWYO)
50 Perspectives by Laurent Binet
51 Paradiso 17 by Hannah Lilith
52 A Voice in the Night by Simon Mason
53 Under Water by Tara Menon
54 A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
55 Fatal Isles by Maria Adolfsson
56 Orlando by Virginia Woolf
57 In Search of Lost Time Volume 5 The Prisoner by Marcel Proust (RWYO)

Only one review I need to catch up which is The Prisoner. Part 5 of ISOLT. Our narrator becomes ultra-controlling and barely lets Albertine out of the house while having her permanently watched. He’s also pretty critical of M de Charlus’s homosexuality seeing as the author is gay. Self-hatred or trying to draw attention to prejudice I wonder. Here I can see the series starting to loop around with M and Albertine becoming like a very skewed version of Odette and Swann while we look at memory and perception and art. I find the prose in these almost soothing once you settle into it. The last paragraph was hilarious though. Probably next year by the time I get to number 6.

Hated it! If you loved it try Cuddy and North Woods they are of a similar style and I hated them as well! 😂

I think I could only take so much, to be honest.

@SpunkyKhakiScroller I live in France and my library has a pretty decent selection of English books (and French ones obvs!!) so I use it a fair amount. Sadly the choice of audiobooks is extremely limited - none in English and very few in French but your post did remind me that I need to check back every now and again as I hope this will improve at some point!

thanks fits the new thread @Southeastdweller and here’s my list. Not many bolds this year but there have been a LOT that were pretty near and overall I’ve been enjoying my reading this year. Largely thanks to participating in RWYO.

1 Murder At Martingale Manor by Jodi Taylor
2 Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About The World - And Why Things Are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling
3 Dying Fall by Elly Griffiths
4 Black and British by David Olusoga
5 The Outcast Dead by Elly Griffiths
6 Queen Victoria’s Youngest Son. The Untold Story of Prince Leopold by Charlotte Zeepvat
7 The Ghost Fields by Elly Griffiths
8 The Witch’s Egg by Donya Todd
9 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
10 Step Aside, Pops by Kate Beaton
11 Stolen In The Night by Patricia MacDonald
12 Menopause. A Comic Treatment ed. MK Czerwiec
13 The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
14 Helping You to Identify and Understand Autism Masking: The Truth Behind the Mask by Emma Kendall
15 In Lieu of You by Keith Pearson
16 When the Dust Settles by Lucy Easthope
17 Paper Cup by Karen Campbell
18 Path of Bones by LT Taylor
19 Last One at the Party by Bethany Clift
20 Flint in the Bones by Eva St John
21 The Convenient Marriage by Georgette Heyer
22 It Ends With Her by Brianna Labuskes
23 In Memoriam by Alice Winn
24 The Time Machine by HG Wells
25 The Sleeper Lies by Andrea Mara
26 Matilda: Wife of the Conqueror First Queen of England by Tracy Borman
27 The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff
28 The Blackwater Lightship by Colm Toibin
29 Small Secrets by Lucy Goacher
30 Black in White by JC Andrijeski
31 The Woman in Blue by Elly Griffiths
32 Four Sisters. The Lost Lives of the Romanov Grand Duchesses by Helen Rappaport
33 The Chalk Pit by Elly Griffiths
34 Parable of the Sower by Octavia E Butler
35 Say Nothing: A True Story Of Murder and Memory In Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe
36 I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue
37 Babel by RF Kuang
38 The Racketeer by John Grisham
39 Patricia Brent, Spinster by Herbert George Jenkins
40 To Sir Phillip, With Love by Julia Quinn
41 We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker
42 Focus: Birth of a Time Traveler by Kendra Rumbugh
43 The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
44 Jar of Hearts by Jennifer Hiller
45 Fire in the Flint by Eva St John
46 The Nothing Man by Catherine Ryan Howard
47 The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
48 Killer Instincts by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
49 All In by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
50 Bad Blood by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Thank you @Southeastdweller for keeping us on track. Here's my list:

1 The Proof of Innocence - Jonathan Coe
2 Marble Hall Murders - Anthony Horowitz
3 The Voyage Home - Pat Barker
4 Passing On - Penelope Lively (RWYO)
5 Double Cross - Ben MacIntyre (RWYO)
6 Bleeding Heart Square - Andrew Taylor (RWYO)
7 Devil's Cub - Georgette Heyer (RWYO)
8 The Crash - Robert Peston
9 The Truth about Melody Browne - Lisa Jewell (RWYO)
10 Howl's Moving Castle - Diana Wynne Jones (RWYO)
11 The Lock Up - John Banville (RWYO)
12 Malibu Rising - Taylor Jenkins Reid (RWYO)
13 The Beautiful and the Damned - F Scott Fitzgerald (RWYO)
14. Audition - Katie Kitamura
15. Persuasion - Jane Austen (RWYO)
16. Score - Jilly Cooper (RWYO)
17. Air - John Boyne
18. Dumb Witness - Agatha Christie
19. Regency Buck - Georgette Heyer (RWYO)
20. Lessons - Ian McEwan (RWYO)
21. Tom Lake - Ann Patchett (RWYO)
22. A Bird in Winter - Louise Doughty (RWYO)
23. Horse - Geraldine Brooks
24. Pandora - Jilly Cooper (RWYO)

Currently nearing the end of A Tale of Two Cities for the readalong, need to catch up on Les Mis and also reading Mansfield Park

Thank you @Southeastdweller .
Currently slogging my way through a mediocre folk horror by one of my (previously) favourite authors <sigh>

Thanks for the new thread @Southeastdweller

I'm bringing across my reads since the last thread - mainly prize reads this time. Am going to try to get back to more RWYO in May

20 The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
21. A Family Matter - Claire Lynch
22. The Mercy Step - Marcia Hutchinson
23. The Remembered Soldier - Anjet Daanje, trans by David McKay
24. Wild Dark Shore - Charlotte McConaghy
25. The Correspondent -Virginia Evans
26. A Guardian and A Thief - Megha Majumdar
27. Moderation - Elaine Castillo
28. Heart The Lover - Lily King
29. Daughters of The Bamboo Grove - Barbara Demick
30. The Others - Sheena Kalayil
31. Gloria Don't Speak - Lucy Apps
32. Three Days In June - Anne Tyler
33. Kingfisher - Rozie Kelly
34. Paradiso 17 - Hannah Lilith Assadi
35. A Beast Slinks Towards Beijing - Alice Evelyn Wang
36. Green Dot - Madeleine Gray
37. She Who Remains- René Karabash

Currently reading The Pretender by Jo Harkin which is great, and listening to Dusk By Robbie Arnott.

I liked all three of Helm, Cuddy and North Wood. I think North Wood was probably my favourite but I feel bad saying that as it's the one not set in England!

Thanks @Southeastdweller for the new thread.

1 Desdemona - Toni Morrison
2 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy trans. by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky
3 Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions - Chimamanda Ngozi Adidche
4 Recitatif - Toni Morrison
5 Nutshell- Ian McEwan
6 The Bookbinder of Jericho - Pip Williams
7 Celestial Bodies - Jokha Alharthi trans. Marilyn Booth
8 Breathtaking - Rachel Clarke
9 I am Malala - Malala Yousafzai trans. Christina Lamb
10 The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson
11 Dear Friend, from My Life, I Write to You in your Life - Yiyun Li
12 A Spy Alone - Charles Beaumont
13 The Plague - Albert Camus trans Stuart Gilbert
14 Brotherless Night by V. V. Ganeshananthan
15 The Woman who Died A Lot - Jasper Fforde
16 Dream Count - Chimamanda Adichie Ngozi
17 A Light through the Cracks - A Climber's Story - Beth Rodden
18 New Boy - Tracy Chevalier
19 Kitchen Curses - Eka Kurniawan
20 The Narrow Road to the Deep North - Richard Flanagan
21 Burial Rites - Hannah Kent
22 Moon Tiger - Penelope Lively
23 The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes
24 Chasing the Stars - Majorie Blackman
25 Defiant Dreams - Sola Mahfouz
26 Where the Hell is Nirvana? - Champ Wongsatayanont
27 The Midnight Library - Matt Haig
28 The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga
29 Will You Help Me? Maggie Hartley
30 The Cellist of Sarajevo - Steven Galloway
31 A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
32 Home Fire - Kamila Shamsie
33 Shades of Grey - Jasper Fforde
34 Spring - Ali Smith
35 Patricia Brent, Spinster - Herbert George Jenkins
36 Ultra-Processed People - Chris van Tulleken

I am currently trying to finish The Man who Spoke Snakish which I have been reading since Christmas but keep putting down!

This made me laugh 😄

Checking into the new thread.

I've just finished An Awfully Big Adventure by Beryl Bainbridge for the Rather Dated Bookclub.

Also, I'm enjoying the readalong of Les Miserables very much.

Many thanks for the thread, @Southeastdweller

My list (sorry, I can't be bothered to delete the forward slashes that enable the correct numbering)

1. /A Dry Spell - Clare Chambers
2. /The Bookshop, the Draper, the Candlestick Maker - Annie Gray
3. /Two Flamboyant Fathers - Nicolette Devas
4. /The Mingham Air - Elizabeth Fair
5. /Careless People - Sarah Wynn-Williams
6. /The Proving Ground - Michael Connelly
7. /Long Live Great Bardfield: the autobiography of Tirzah Garwood
8. /Write on Both Sides of the Paper - Mary Kelly
9. /The Man Who Ate His Boots - Anthony Brandt
10. /So Long, See You Tomorrow - William Maxwell
11. /The Lark - E. Nesbit
12. /Lucy Carmichael - Margaret Kennedy
13. /A Father’s Diary - Fraser Harrison
14. /Bookish - Lucy Mangan
15. /Vermeer: A Life Lost and Found - Andrew Graham-Dixon
16. /The Proof of My Innocence - Jonathan Coe
17. /The Locked Room - Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöö, transl. Paul Britten Austin
18. /The Crowded Street - Winifred Holtby
19. /A Year With Gilbert White - Jenny Uglow
20. /The Word-Hord - Hana Videen
21. /Flaubert’s Parrot - Julian Barnes
22. /A Spot of Bother - Mark Haddon
23. /Robert and Helen - Elizabeth Jenkins
24. /Singled Out - Virginia Nicholson
25. /Treasures of Time - Penelope Lively
26. /Family Roundabout - Richmal Crompton
27. /The Private Life of the Diary - Sally Bayley
28. /The Noise of Time - Julian Barnes
29. /Great-Uncle Harry - Michael Palin

And I've just finished 30. An Awfully Big Adventure - Beryl Bainbridge
Latest Rather Dated Bookclub choice and a re-read for me. In 1950s Liverpool, stage-struck 16-year-old Stella is engaged as a general dogsbody at the Playhouse Theatre and becomes involved in the dramas of its backstage world. A coming-of-age story heavily based on Bainbridge's own teenage experiences. I may be in a small minority here but I loved it. Full thoughts over on the over thread in due course!

@SheilaFentiman Thanks for recommending Gordon Ferris - I'm deep into The Hanging Shed and need to keep turning the pages.

My list:

1 Cuddy - Benjamin Myers
2 Falling Animals - Sheila Armstrong
3 Hangover Square - Patrick Hamilton
4 North Woods - Daniel Mason
5 The Giant, O'Brien - Hilary Mantel
6 Jill - Philip Larkin
7 The Plague Dogs - Richard Adams
8 Digging to America - Anne Tyler
9 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon
10 The Party - Tessa Hadley
11 Tom Lake - Ann Patchett
12 The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 - Sue Townsend
13 The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole - Sue Townsend
14 Adrian Mole: the Wilderness Years - Sue Townsend
15 Adrian Mole: the Cappuccino Years - Sue Townsend

1. Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively
2. The Blank Wall by Elizabeth Sanxay Holding
3. Old Baggage by Lissa Evans
4. Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix
5. Atlas of unidentified flying objects by Andy McGrillen
6. Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobson
7. Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck
8. The Vegetarian by Han Kang
9. Rushing to Paradice by J.G. Ballard
10. Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte
11. Extreme Economies by Richard Davies I got this after another person on this thread read it – very glad I did, more about social economic behaviour which is why I liked it
12. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
13. Fresh Dirt from the Grave by Glovanna Rivero
14. The bells of little woodford by Catherine Jones
15. Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash
16. G by John Berger – This is the last of all the booker winners I was making my way through (I just have the latest one to read)
17. The only good Indians by Stephen graham jones

18. The Rachel incident by Caroline O’Donoghue 19. Sisters by a river by Barbara Comyns 20. The Pearl by John Steinbeck 21. The worst street in London by Fiona Rule 22. Cassandra at the wedding by Dorothy Baker 23. London Falling by Patrick Radden Keffe 24. Nesting by Roisin O’Donnell 25. Some tame Gazelle by Barara Pym 26. The Offing by Benjamin Myers - I cant remember why I brought this but am pretty sure its because of someone on this thread recommended.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit lol. Were you also not really offended that I hated Emma? I’m going to persevere, but I’m not loving it so far. About 12% in.

Thank you @Stowickthevast but @SpunkyKhakiScroller 😱 Also thank you @carefullythere Do you all think that A Fine Balance worse that say Brotherless Nights. That was a great book, but some of the violence in that was a lot. I’m also really chickenhearted when it comes to animals. Not over the death of Mrs Roy’s dog, to be completely honest.

Thank you @Southeastdweller

@BeaAndBen – I DNF Beloved. Found it too difficult.

@TheDonsDingleberries – also reading Demon Copperhead, but its hard! When is this poor guy going to catch a break?

I’ve reserved Cuddy from the library.

54 Longbourne – Jo Baker. An imagining of Pride and Prejudice from the PoV of the servants. Perfect for P&P enthusiasts. I preferred Introducing Mrs Collins, but this was enjoyable. I’d have preferred a stronger finish. It was a bit meh in the end. However, I did enjoy the setting and the description of the sheer drudgery of the work. I’ve never thought about the amount of laundry that 5 young women would produce.

Hill, naturally, is the servant that we all know. She is married to Mr Hill and there are two young girls, Sarah and Polly. A young man, James joins the team as a footman. He’s a bit mysterious and we aren’t quite sure what to make of him. Sarah is certainly intrigued. Mr Bennet does not come out of this well.

No @Tarragon123I think that was Remus

The Offing might have been my recommendation @BadSpellaSpellaSpella . It’s one of his ‘nicer’ books

I loved The Offing so might have recommended it at some point.....

28 . A Court Of Thorns And Roses by Sarah J. Maas

Feyre, a peasant girl, accidentally kills one of the Fae. For this her punishment is to leave her home and spend the rest of her life in Prythian, the fairie land where there is more going on than meets the eye.

I, probably regrettably scoffed at the idea of Romantasy not so long ago. I actually enjoyed it. Thought it was more than ok but not great or amazing. I don’t have the will or the energy to complete the series but I’m not sorry I gave it a go.

I literally only read it because they are covering it on Dominic Sandbrook’s book podcast in a fortnight

If you’ve been umming or aahing it’s light, quite YA, and it’s worth a look.

I went to a lovely independent bookshop today and came away with only what I went in to buy - a birthday present for a friend's 14 year old daughter. Am feeling proud of my restraint and also of my choices. For a serious and slightly pretentious teen who likes 'fantasy, mystery, mythos and tragic dynamics', I chose The Outsiders by SE Hinton and The Firekeepers Daughter by Angeline Boulley.