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

3 from this list:
Mansfield Park - in which the most tedious characters come out on top
The Leopard - I have read all the words in this book but none of it made its way into the memory banks
Heart of Darkness - didn’t ‘enjoy’ it in itself, but it’s fascinating once you’ve read it to see the allusions to it popping up all over the place.

Almost Life definitely deserves a better recommendation than "a sapphic One Day" * (I loved Normal People, was disappointed by Conversations with Friends *about a young woman's affair with an older married man who was a creepy exploitative bastard, and I didn't actually like any of the characters).

35 . Homeschooled by Stefan Merrill Block

Memoir

An elementary schoolboy is kept home by his mother for five years to be Homeschooled. His mother appears on the page to be obsessive, needy and perhaps a bit mentally unstable. No one intervenes.

But then the book carries on past this point to Stefan’s return to school, and then his adult life and it’s not really all that interesting, except presumably, to people who know him. A book of two halves really. Thought this might suit @cassandre but I really wouldn’t rush, Educated is miles more impactful. I feel ‘Read With Jenna’ (W Bush’s daughter) has done me wrong here

Eight for me out of this bunch: Never Let Me Go, Disgrace, The Waves. Mansfield Park, My Brilliant Friend, A Fine Balance, Vanity Fair and The Golden Notebook. My stand out from these is The Waves.

Ten today so that makes 22 in total so far.
• 60 Howards End
• 59 Never Let Me Go
I'm a fan
• 56 Mansfield Park
• 54 Orlando
My favourite Woolf
• 51 My Brilliant Friend
Loved this quartet
• 50 Wide Sargasso Sea
• 49 A Fine Balance
Loved this even though I know the ending is sad
• 48 The Metamorphosis
Very weird
• 47 Vanity Fair
Loved this
• 46 The Leopard
Read this fairly recently. Was good but I'm surprised it is higher that Italo Calvino who is such an inventive writer (although we've not seen If on a Winter's Night yet)

Anyway, to move away from the heavy weights...

The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden
Part two in this trilogy based on Russian folktales and Vasya is travelling through the medieval Russian forest in winter disguised as a boy. What could possibly go wrong? Absolutely gulped this down and may have to buy my first book of the year to get the final book. The description of the Russian winter is so atmospheric, it's like another character in the book.

23 The Night Manager - John Le Carré

Took me a little while to get into this, but about halfway through it took a hold of me and never relaxed its grip. A brilliant spy thriller with a complex protagonist, suitably nasty antihero and fantastic supporting cast of characters. I haven’t seen any of the TV adaptation so maybe will give it a look…

Read four of today’s list, making eight-ish in total so far. Today’s list: Howard’s End (book club), Orlando, Wide Sargasso Sea, Heart of Darkness (another A level text).

A River Red With Blood by John Connolly
A return to form for the Charlie Parker series, after the last book which seemed a bit lacklustre.
A small group of men play The Game, a carefully planned series of hideous murders, but one faction seems to be becoming a little careless, putting the others in danger. The death of a boy from a reform school could be related and his father’s lawyer asks Charlie to investigate.
Connolly is rare among thriller writers in being able to write about some pretty horrendous people doing terrible things with respect for the victims and the reader. It never comes across as prurient or exploitative.
The familiar characters are there (Fulci fans rejoice!) and their story arcs develop in a natural and organic way. As always, the reader is not sure of their continued survival, because life is rarely fair. I admit to reservations about Parker’s backstory and how it will develop, but I trust Connolly not to over egg that particular pudding and I’m sure he will be able to convince me it’s plausible in future books.

Emily - Jilly Cooper
My least favourite of the ‘name’ books. But mostly the usual frothy stuff about clothes, food and drink with a bit of rape, incest and domestic violence. Still feeling rough so not capable of anything new or challenging.

20) Wundersmith: The calling of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend

Second installment of the Nevermoor series that I'm reading to my daughter. After passing the trials Morrigan has now joined the Wunderous Society, and is excited to start lessons with her fellow scholars. But due to the Elders' fear of how powerful Morrigan might become, she and her unit are told to keep her status as a Wundersmith secret on pain of expulsion, and Morrigan's education is restricted to what amount to history and geography lessons. To make matters worse, people in Nevermoor are going missing, and an unknown enemy starts blackmailing her unit.

I enjoyed this a lot. After the mystery of the last book, was fun to see more of Wunsoc's inner workings. The magical, mercurial geography of Nevermoor was also a hit.

Awaiting the next tranche of The Guardian top 100 list with interest. It might not be scientific but it is good fun!
Apparently it’s based on votes from 172 authors and critics asked to list their top 10 books, so it’s a pretty narrow field. The books ranked 99 to 90 each received 3 votes apart from No. 100 My Antonia which received 4 votes, which by my reckoning should put it between numbers 89 and 67 on the list, it must be a victim of the ‘weighting based on individual rankings’ mentioned:

This week, we reveal our list of the 100 greatest novels published in English, as voted for by authors and critics around the world. We polled 172 authors, critics and academics for their top 10 novels of all time, published in English, and asked them to rank their choices in order of preference. We scored the titles according to how often they were voted for, and then added a weighting based on individual rankings to produce the overall list of 100 greatest books.

its up:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/ng-interactive/2026/may/12/the-100-best-novels-of-all-time?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

In at 24 - the Bloody Boring Butler

I’ve read 7 on today’s tranche (it’s going up!):
The Handmaid’s Tale
Great Expectations
David Copperfield
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Frankenstein
Lolita
BBB

Enjoyed them all except Jean Brodie which I was underwhelmed by, and I’m on the fence about BBB - I didn’t like it the first time I read it but enjoyed it more on a reread. Maybe it’s due another reread to see if I like it more this time!

The much discussed The Remains of the Day is one if my all-time favourite novels, as is Lolita.

So from today’s list I have read:
The Age of Innocence (liked - need to read more Edith Wharton)
Great Expectations (ok - need to reread in the hope of appreciating it more)
David Copperfield (like)
Wolf Hall (like but prefer A Place of Greater Safety)

and (thanks to this thread)…

BBB (how did it manage to get a higher rank than the previous 4?)

There are also a few I failed to finish as a teen so probably ought to revisit including Don Quixote & The Handmaid’s Tale.

Very unsurprised to see more Kafka on the list.

@DesdamonasHandkerchief- I agree that the list is good fun.

And of the next 20 I’ve read:
The Handmaid’s Tale - Excellent & thought provoking
Great Expectations - One of my favourite Dickens
Wolf Hall - Masterpiece, Bring Up The Bodies even better
David Copperfield - My other favourite Dickens
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Enjoyable
The Remains Of The Day - Read a long time ago but I don’t think I found it boring!

So I've read 8 from 81-100, 10 each from 61-80 and 41-60, and 12 from 21-40 - 40 in total.

Mansfield Park for A level, didn't do GCSE as it was an option and although I wanted to I couldn't really choose more than 2 options in arts and humanities. I like Jane Austen but definitely prefer Pride and Prejudice, Northanger Abbey and Emma to MP. Again quite a lot which I've definitely read but don't remember so well from university reading lists for my literature courses, surprisingly so, as in how did I have time to read all that alongside my non literature studies? I did a pick and mix degree course which also included history and politics, and two out of three of my American studies courses weren't just literature and reading included non fiction as well as fiction. I don't know if anything other than Great Expectations will come up from my Comparative Lit list (or from the non reading list books I wrote about in essays) on the novel of Adolescence & Self Development, and my dissertation was on short stories not novels.

9 today.

The Age of Innocence
The Handmaid's Tale
Great Expectations
Wolf Hall
David Copperfield
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
The Trial
Lolita
BBB

I loved Jean Brodie and it’s the only one I’ve read more than once but that may have more to do with the 1978 TV series. I’m finding it interesting that quite a few of the authors I read in my teens (Kafka, Nabokov, Wharton, Henry James) and have never revisited. Now it’s mostly Jilly Cooper.

Their Eyes Were Watching God (barely remember it)
The Handmaids Tale (A Level Flashbacks)
Great Expectations(loathe)
David Copperfield (Fave Dickens)
Wolf Hall (great )
The God Of Small Things (don’t remember much about it)
The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie (good, she was evil)
Frankenstein (love)
Pale Fire(hated)
Lolita(just ok)
Midnights Children (great)
The Trial (baffling)
BBB (indifferent)
Things Fall Apart (grim)

Eight for me today taking me up to 25 in total:

The Age of Innoncence - good and agree I need to read more Wharton
The Handmaid's Tale - excellent
Great Expectations - fine, not a huge Dickens fan (although have not read many)
Wolf Hall - one of my favourite books
The God of Small Things - didn't love this but could appreciate it as good literature
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - so long ago I can't recall
Frankenstein - A level text not reread since
Lolita - unsettling

I have copies of the BBB and The Portrait of a Lady so will get to them.

Hoping to have a good number tomorrow!

7 for me today taking it up to 16. Will I hit 20 by the end? I'd be happy with 20.

Handmaid's Tale - brilliant but not my favourite Atwood
Great Expectations - enjoyed
David Copperfield - enjoyed more
The God of Small Things - very striking
Don Quixote - don't remember much
Remains of the Day - I liked it; Team not boring!
Portrait of a Lady - enjoyed but don't remember

10 for me today: The Handmaid's Tale, Great Expectations, Wolf Hall, David Copperfield, The God of Small Things, Frankenstein, Lolita, BBB, Midnight's Children and Portrait of a Lady.

Of these, I'd pick The Handmaid's Tale if I had to choose just one.

12 for me this time:

Their Eyes were Watching God (good)
The Age of Innocence (a while ago but I liked it)
The Handmaid's Tale (also a while ago but again think I thought it was good)
Great Expectations (liked but not loved)
Wolf Hall (good but didn't love as much as everyone else seemed to)
David Copperfield (as Great Expectations)
The God of Small Things (long time ago, remember liking it but not much about it)
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (long term readers of this thread may know this is my favourite book in the world)
Lolita (good)
BBB (loved it)
Midnight's Children (hated it)
Things Fall Apart (just OK for me)

I think that's 37 in total. My husband is on 57 I think...

I have read 11 of these! Bumper day.