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

I have read six of today's list (taking me up to a total of 17 so far):

Howards End - enjoyed, might be due a reread
Never Let Me Go - don't want to cause a riot - not his worst!
Mansfield Park - just finished re-reading. Assume this means all of Austen's books will be included
My Brilliant Friend - loved this series but agree some stronger than others
Giovanni's Room - enjoyed but wasn't a bold for me
Housekeeping - again, enjoyed but not a bold

From the next 20 I’ve read:
Never Let Me Go - The passive voice Irritated me
Mansfield Park - Read in 2019 but don’t remember it that well, underwhelming
My Brilliant Friend - Read all 4 books this year and raved about them
A Fine Balance - Bleak but brilliant
Vanity Fair - Enjoyable and groundbreaking for its time
Heart Of Darkness - Ugh another set text, hated it, but enjoyed dissecting it. A lot to unpack as it turned out.

Of Todays Installment

Never Let Me Go (good but not amazing)
Disgrace (can’t really remember it)
Mansfield Park (not her best)
Orlando (baffling)
The Metamorphosis (surreal)
Vanity Fair (loved)
Giovanni’s Room (didn’t rate it, the way others do)
Housekeeping (not a patch on the Gilead books)
Heart Of Darkness (a trudge)

@TimeforaGandTI’m not convinced that all of Jane Austen’s books will make it. It’s a gloomy serious list and I can imagine one or more being booted off for frivolity (possibly Northanger Abbey). Mansfield Park fits in with the list as it is serious and complex. 6 books by Jane Austen (or 5 by Virginia Woolf if @Welshwabbitis correct) feels too much.

@FruAashild- I think Proust will make the list as he ought to appeal to fans of The Line of Beauty but the question is which Proust (putting in the whole of A la recherche du temps perdu as one book really is cheating as each individual tome is extremely lengthy). I think Tolstoy is too massive (in both reputation and novel length) to ignore but will they include both War and Peace and Anna Karenina. I would hope they include Les Mis (for similar reasons) but then there’s Madame Bovary too. Then there’s traditional A-Level texts like L’Etranger that might make an appearance due to their wide readership. I think it makes it difficult including translated texts, because it’s really hard to boil down the literature of one country to a few books.

I have read:

Never Let Me Go
Wide Zargossa Sea
Heart of Darkness
Vanity Fair
A Fine Balance
Disgrace
Mansfield Park

I find it suspicious that they don't release the next tranche til the afternoon, like they wait til the New York workers get to work and load it. The Guardian does have a strong US content, and I suspect that is reflected in some of the choices.

I’ve only read one 😩 ! (Never Let Me Go)

I've read ten of yesterday's list
Rebecca, A House for Mr Biswas, The Rainbow, Dracula, The Bluest Eye, Jude the Obscure, The Master & Margharita, The Color Purple, White Teeth & Half a Yellow Sun.

and 7 of today's
Howard's End, Mansfield Park, My Brilliant Friend, Wide Sargasso Sea, The Metamorphosis, Vanity Fair & Heart of Darkness.

I think I could happily read most of them again - except The Rainbow, Jude & Heart of Darkness.

Yes a 4th! Just recently released 2026, Children of Strife. I thought it stood up well.

19) Julie Chan is Dead by Lianne Zhang - Chloe is a popular influencer, making thousands from her socials. Her estranged twin, Julie, works on a supermarket checkout and is about to be fired for stealing. But then Julie gets a disturbing call from Chloe. Concerned, Julie makes her way to Chloe's apartment, only to find her twin dead on the floor. When Julie unlocks Chloe's phone to dial 911, she realises that she now has access to Chloe's socials. And sponsorship deals. Julie decides in the spur of the moment to take over Chloe's identity. But can Julie convince fellow influencers, the Belladonnas, that she's really Chloe while on holiday with them?

This was ok. It took a bit of a weird turn halfway and felt like 2 different books with two different premises. Not sure it really worked.

@Benvenuto - you may well be right. It's just that Mansfield Park always gets the most criticism/least love (on 50B at any rate!) so I assumed the others were dead certs if that was included.

@Benvenuto - surely Persuasion and P&P have to be dead certs?

The Keeper - Tana French

Third in the series about Cal Hooper, a retired Chicago PD detective who has moved to rural Ireland, to the village of Ardnakelty. Three years on from the first book, Cal is settled with Lena and Trey (now 16) and his dog Rip, still living next door to Mart. Is he too settled? Has the village got into his marrow now?

The central mystery in this one is the death of local woman Rachel Holohan, in her early twenties and on the brink of engagement to Eugene Moniyhan (he who was a friend of Brendan's in book one). But the beauty of the landscape, plus the menace and the rhythms of village life, in a place where feuds run ancient and no one ever calls the police if there's an alternative are - as before - the main point of the writing.

I slightly preferred the second book, but this one is still a bold.

From the Guardian list so far (so out of numbers 41-100) I’ve read 21.

The Road
Catch-22
The Return of the Native
The Turn of the Screw
The Talented Mr Ripley
Rebecca
Dracula
Our Mutual Friend
Jude The Obscure
Crime and Punishment
The Master and Margarita
White Teeth
Never Let Me Go
Disgrace
Mansfield Park
Wide Sargasso Sea
The Metamorphosis
Vanity Fair
Giovanni’s Room
The Magic Mountain
Heart Of Darkness

@BeaAndBenI would rank Persuasion & P&P & probably Emma above Mansfield Park (however I’m biased as I would much rather read JA than Lawrence or Metamorphis).@TimeforaGandTI think its completely fair that MP gets the most criticism for various reasons that I am looking forward to writing about in my long essay review when I finish reading it as it is arguably the least fun to read. However, this list is partly from academics & I suspect it is a very rewarding text to study as due to its complexity. The introduction in my book alluded to the references to slavery in it - this has been known about for years but I suspect there will be new angles to study given recent research on slavery (one reason for my reread was that Miranda Kaufman said in Heiresses that Mrs Norris was based on JA’s slave-owning aunt).

8 more on today's list. Didn't massively like any of them.

5 more on today’s list:

Never Let Me Go (I’m in the ‘love it’ camp)
Mansfield Park (studied for A level and didn’t like it; reread as an adult and enjoyed it much more)
Disgrace (whinging man)
Howard’s End (enjoyed but can’t remember much about it now)
Vanity Fair (loved).

I DNF My Brilliant Friend.

Oh no Sheila, there were spoilers in there for me - I am halfway through The Searcher and really enjoying it. Though I suppose knowing he ends up with Lena and (possibly?) adopts Trey are not really spoilers. It's one of my infrequent audiobooks and the narrator is great but I do make quite slow progress with audiobooks as I get sensory overload after about 30 minutes.

From today's Guardian list, I have 5, which is somewhat more respectable than previous days but still only a total of 9. Some of today's I read for pleasure and not uni.

Howards End - I remember enjoying this but have no other memories
Mansfield Park - this actually was for uni and it was fine but not my favourite JA
A Fine Balance - incredibly good and completely devastating. Could not read it again.
Vanity Fair - great fun
Heart of Darkness - uni adjacent read (we had Lord Jim in the syllabus). Hated Jim, loved HoD.

Sorry @mouche202 I tried not to say too much about past books.

@SheilaFentiman I was just joking 😀, you didn't give away anything I wouldn't have guessed. I am extremely glad I will have someone to talk to about it once I finish.

Finders, Keepers: The Secret Life of Second-hand Books by Nicholas Royle

Not quite the book I was expecting, but I still enjoyed it! This is more about the second-hand books the author buys and why, rather than the second-hand book industry generally. A lot of the books he buys are because it contains something like a map, postcard, business card or train ticket in it. If he gets an address he sends the book back to that person/address. If a train ticket, he makes the same journey and reads the book during it. If a map he’ll walk the route of the map, again reading the book as he goes (he seems to spend a lot of time reading while he walks!). Not a bold, because he doesn’t actually tell us much about the books in most cases, but still an interesting read for those who like books about books.

Another 5 from today’s list (in descending order):
Giovanni’s Room
A Fine Balance
My Brilliant Friend
Disgrace
Never let me go

I’m tempted to read Never let me go again to see if I hate it as much the second time!

Today’s is my most read day of The Guardian list. I’ve read 9:
Never Let me Go (okay, not half as good as the BBB)
Orlando (very recently- my least favourite Woolf so far but that’s still excellent)
My Brilliant Friend (one of my all time favourites)
Wide Sargasso Sea (recent read. Loved it)
A Fine Balance (mostly liked it but overlong and relentlessly miserable)
The Metamorphosis (loved it, want to read more Kafka)
Vanity Fair- awful characters and Napoleon- never ending- yawn
Giovanni’s Room - beautifully written and v sad
Heart of Darkness - short, dark and interesting

@SheilaFentimanglad to hear the new Tana French is a good one. It’s on my wishlist.

oh this was my biggest amount, 12 and 31 overall. Lots of classics in this section.

I've read:

Howard's End - Only Connect! I remember being slightly obsessed with this as a student and snogging some boy after having a in depth chat about it, happy days!
NLMG
Orlando
The Waves - would have loved to see the play @Welshwabbit

Mansfield Park - not her best
My Brilliant Friend - was on the hate side here and haven't read any of the others
Wide Sargasso Sea - want to re-read having just read another Rhys. Dd2 is doing Jane Eyre next year for GCSE so may re read both then
A Fine Balance - Love but so sad
Metamorphosis - odd
Vanity Fair - enjoyed far more than Dickens
Housekeeping - liked
Heart of Darkness - ok

Reassuring to see some books I’ve really loved at last on that list. Mansfield Park is my favourite Austen (at the moment). A Fine Balance I think of as ‘the Mumsnet novel’ because it’s so often recommended on here, but it’s fair because it’s SO good. Getting quite intrigued to see the rest.