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

Is the reviewer a crime writer? Whether Y/N, what is her/his name? Or what are their names?

I look at what they say but I would also look up something to get a variety of opinion. Online friends book reviews or trusted blogs. If a review intrigues me I will go and read at least what it's about somewhere else. Like I might buy a book about a serial killer investigation but not if it's by a misogynist who sees women as bits of body in their books.

honestly I can’t remember as I’m no longer a subscriber- it’s a woman I think and she seems to prefer the fast paced big twist thrillers that I tend to avoid- I’m more of a slow plod character driven police procedural kinda gal!

So it doesn't "definitely live up to the hype" then. I do surveys on a Penguin Random House and they ask me to say if the blurbs would make me more likely to buy it! Much less likely on that blurb. More likely if blurbs actually say something about the book rather than Brilliant! Outstanding! because those don;t tell me anything.

Saying that I do have this book on my wishlist and it may end up Kindle TBR for many years, but only if it's 99p!

I'm very character driven for a crime reader as I forget the plot anyway. I really care more about characters than the plot.

I’m a recovering Guardian reader too. A lifelong faithful one, now had enough of them and won’t pay for a subscription so that’s it. If I need to read anything I do it through my library app (the cryptic crosswords are the only things I can’t live without)

I do pay subs for The Guardian and a semi-sub for The Times to get their cryptic crosswords. They both irritate me in different ways but as an ex journalist, I think journalism should be paid for. Otherwise you just get BuzzFeed and Mail style news out there.

Thanks for the recommendations @elkiedee, I've picked up Kin which was on my wishlist and Groundkeeping which I hadn't heard of but sounds right up my street. Hope your DS1 is ok, scary being stopped by the police even if you haven't done anything wrong.

49. Son of Nobody - Yann Martel. This is about an academic who discovers fragments of what he believes to be a retelling of the Iliad, from the point of view of a common soldier, Psoas, son of nobody. The book then splits into two parts - extracts from the Psoad, the new Iliad, and the academic's footnotes which are more his musings on his own life than actual footnotes. There were things I liked about this. Martel knows his Greek, and the imitation poem is well done, with some important changes to the original like how Helen gets to Troy. But his own story falls a bit flat without being particularly emotionally engaging. I don't think it really works as a whole.

21) The Vipers by Katy Hays

Loved this. It would be a great holiday read. It's set on the island of Capri and it really brings the Med to life. The story and characters are strong and there are a lot of plot twists at the end.

It is about a family that comes from huge wealth and can make things go away, like when the wife of one of the sons is found dead at the bottom of a cliff. This happened 30 years ago. The family is back on Capri but when another woman washes up dead, the suspicions grow.

It's cleverly plotted and gives great insights into how coming from one of these grand families actually works in practice- they have a reputation to consider, which outweighs their consideration for the individual members.

I wanted to mention that I get x number of Guatdian articles free of charge per month online through the UK app - but if I go to theguardian.com, there is no limit! I can read whatever I like for free.

We subscribe to The Times but it's useful sometimes to check out Guardian articles.

Q is for Quarry - Sue Grafton

I’m still working my way through these! This was a bit better than recent ones, possibly because it’s based on a real cold case. However the books now are longer than those earlier in the series and they really don’t need to be - I am finding that I can skim read pages that are just descriptions of what someone looks like, or what their house looks like, or what Kinsey’s eating for dinner, none of which adds anything to the plot. Anyway, here Kinsey is helping the police investigate a cold case of a ‘Jane Doe’ found dumped in a canyon in 1969 (the book is set in 1997). Of course Kinsey finds out who she is and who killed her.

Thanks @Stowickthevast re DS1. DS1 is fine, I'm not sure when this happened. He's a student in Manchester now, but this was very near our home and with his mates, on a slightly longer very residential street in Tottenham. Of course I worry about all of his friends as well, but esp ones who are likely to be stereotyped. There are still too many stories about racist police across London and Tottenham has too much history, including immigration raids, real crime and drugs issues, but also suspicion re "the crime of being black". At the boys' old school, post covid, students were invited to come and pick up their 2020 GCSE certificates. 4 16 year old boys were chatting outside, may not have seen each other for months, and the police rough them up. Headteacher was furious, and so he should have been.

DS2 is not great - but I won't clutter thread with this. Just working our way through and hoping that he can finish year 1 and find something study/work related next year - I don't want him to be watching Youtube videos 24/7, not only because I disapprove but it's no good for his mental health.

Agree @elkiedee we're very close to you so similar issues. I have slightly younger teen daughters but there's a whole other set of issues there!

We subscribe to the graun, weekend subscription for actual papers which feels a luxury even though I don’t actually read much of them! Also a small amount annually for online. Why have people had enough of them?

I’ve just flown through Gloria Don’t Speak by Lucy Apps. From the perspective of Gloria, who has a learning disability and at 19 has finished college and now spends her time walking round, avoiding people who jeer at her and looking for connection. Very moving, and the tension builds as she misjudges things. I thought the way she experiences past events as current in her mind was really well done. Recommended.

I just started it. Great reviews and i do love a murder mystery set in Scotland. But I am already irritated. The first page:

"For the writers, each and every one of you.

(Except for that one asshole, you know who youc
are)

......

The world needs your work

(Except for the aforementioned asshole, feel free to quit any time)"

And I can easily guess who they mean!

Now I want to know who it is…

You can!!???

I’ve been sat in all day in my cooldoir (which is what we are calling our one room with aircon) I do not do well in the heat and would only consider being outside in temps like this if I’m sat by a pool with slushies on tap.

I’ve managed to get through 2 RWYO books though.

57 The Summer Queen by Elizabeth Chadwick

Eleanor of Aquitaine has always been one of my favourite medieval queens so I was looking forward to this fictionalised account of her life, mostly covering her marriage to Louis, who became King of France. Eleanor had an adventurous life, marrying not one but two Kings, going on Crusade, having lots of children, and ruling as Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right. Despite all the great material this book felt a bit flat to me, with the character of Eleanor never really coming to life it’s part of a trilogy but I don’t think I’ll bother with the others.

58 The Pearl by John Steinbeck

This is a short novella about Kino who is a pearl diver, his wife Juana, and their son Coyotito. Kino discovers a huge pearl (pearl of the world) that he hopes will transform his family’s life. Instead, the pearl brings greed, violence, paranoia, and tragedy. I’m always in awe when a writer manages to convey so much in such a short space of time and that was definitely the case here. It was very good, and possibly a bold.

Talking of Scotland , I just whipped through the novella length Benbecula by Graeme Macrae Burnet which manages to pack a much greater sense of character and place into140 pages.

As to be expected with this author it's all very odd and grim. But it packs in themes of insanity, island poverty and deviance in an unsettling way.

I was a bit confused as tot he main storyteller though. Burnet plays games with that but I may not have been concentrating.

This is in deals at the moment. Only £2.29 for print version.

20 Quartet: How four women changed the musical world by Leah Broad
A group biography of four composers born between 1958 and 1922 and brought up in England - Ethel Smythe, Rebecca Clarke, Dorothy Howell and Doreen Carwithen. Enjoyable and subtly subversive - these were women who all chose paths of their own, not what an external observer might think best. It is depressing to me how their work keeps sinking out of view, often deliberately pushed out by their own actions. But it certainly makes me want to listen to more of their work. Dorothy Howell was Composer of the Week on R3 just recently so I may start there.

@PermanentTemporary I got about halfway through Quartet last year, put it down to swap into holiday reading, and forgot to pick it up again. Thank you for the reminder to go back to it. I know a few works by all of the composers apart from Howell and I must make an effort to seek out her music.

Surely the most loathed writer in certain circles. Edinburgh based too.....

Female?

I agree that journalism should be paid for, and I'm tempted by puzzles too. I quite like really complicated big Sudoku policies though I tend to get stuck quickly, and if I leave one lying around DS1 the mathematician will start tackling it when heare. I would love to learn to do cryptic crosswords. My cousin who is a puzzle genius is now puzzle editor for the Times, and I have a
friend who doesn't know my cousin, who has a library of reference books won through crossword competitions. I'm quite envious..... but I have my own quite ramshackle collection which includes dictionaries and Oxford Companions (English Literature, French Literature) but not very up to date and some quite battered. But not completely useless.

Yes

OK, got you.

Interestingly, as the book came out under a pseudonym, there was huge speculation about who had written it, and the buzz was it was JKR!! Of course it wasn't.