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

@bibliomania I'm glad you like my lists. Most of my reading is things I've been sent to review, so a lot of ARCs/ new releases, plus some slightly older stuff that just never got any attention. It means i end up with a lot of "good" books, with a few "great" ones thrown in. Mind you, that could happen reading best sellers these days. I always say I'll do less reviews and more of my own reading, yet here I am.

Thanks for the welcome back everyone else. @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie hope you're ok. I have no idea what's been going on but hi!

Ok this week's books.

84. A Warriors Vow. Morgan McLaren
    Fantasy. I haven't read any fantasy got a while, I enjoy it but can't read too much too close together as they get jumbled up in my brain. Astra and Julien have been captured and enslaved until they are rescued by the Adaghi tribe. The Adaghi are very traditional in terms of gender roles. So Astra is sent off to the kitchens with the other women and Julien spends time in the training grounds. Only she's not a cook and he's not a warrior. Romance and fighting follow including some fun scenes where the teenagers and children are taught how to protect everyone by getting them to safety when invaders come.

85. Temporary Fix. Colleen McNamara
    This was a Beta read so I can't actually say much about it. Its the sequel to Ever Since New York. They are both a bit "booktok", cheesy romance type. With lots of Harry Styles/one direction references. They are also some of the representations of living with mental illness.

86. Mrs. Benedict. Emma Parry
    Based on the true story of Peggy Arnold, nee Shippen. Peggy was a peer of Alexander Hamilton, Eliza, Layfayette etc. So if you're a fan of Hamilton you might like this one. It's a slow start, but lots of important things happening. In what is called "the ultimate act of treason", Peggy does what she thinks is necessary to try and bring an end to the war.

87. Hope Begins. Rebecca Griffiths
    Romance which started sweet then gained depth and realism, with a side of too many coincidences. Hope's mother was killed when she was a child and she went into care. Years later she returns to her hometown where she meets Alec, a single dad who annoyed me. Apparently his ex decided to get pregnant without consulting him. Clearly condoms don't exist! Oh, and she's a crap mum who only let's him have the child on her terms. That said, he's a great dad. In terms of the romance it was more believable than a lot.

88. A Wartime Promise For The East End Girls. Jean Fullerton Book 3 (?) In the series. One of my "you know what you're getting" books. This one is mainly about Nell, one of a group of WAAFs who work as barrage balloon operators in 1940s London. A nice cozy sort of read with Nell's criminal family adding some fun.

89. The Romance Loop. Mary Shotwell
    This book is intentionally really cheesy. Lacy is an author who writes what sounds like awful romance novels. Her reader count is dropping and book stores are cancelling her signing events. Then she starts "falling" into her stories, ending up as the heroine, including being a brain surgeon at one point. She has to work out why it's happening and how to stop it.

90. Survivors. Allan Zullo and Mara Bovsun.
    It took me far longer than was reasonable to read this book, I just picked it up when I had a spare few minutes. It's actually aimed at children and is a collection of short, true stories about children who survived the Holocaust. Because it's aimed at children, the horror is there but nothing is described in too much detail. It would be a great introduction to the whole thing.

40. Sky High - Michael Gilbert

Well, this was an absolute delight; an accidental find in the British Library Crime Classics reissues. Published in the 1950s originally, so very much the era of Christie et al, yet despite a classic country village setting it’s more like Miss Marple on steroids.

Widowed 60-something Liz Artside is the choirmistress in sleepy Brimberley, mother to Tim, who now lives with her after concluding his (highly secret) war service in Palestine. Liz, however, rides a motorbike, has a mind like a steel trap, and with the help of Tim and her great friend, retired General Sir Hubert Palling G.C.B., G.C.M.G., D.S.O., T.D. (and grandfather to choir-member Sue) she sets out to crack the mystery when a shattering event arrives to disturb the peace of their little community.

I loved this, hooted at the humour, and while it’s not a very taxing mystery, the writing was a joy. Gilbert was hugely prolific and I think I've got another of his well-known whodunnits, Smallbone, Deceased knocking around somewhere, so I'll definitely be reading that too.

(Oh, and I also discovered that Gilbert was the father of Harriett Gilbert, host of A Good Read, one of my favourite R4 programmes)

My rather less highbrow contribution to the "blue" discussion is that it reminded me of the bit in Bridget Jones when she and her friends are laughing about her blue soup!

I finished Catland by Kathryn Hughes. This is nominally about cat artist Louis Wain, whose work I was passingly aware of but not really his name. But really it is social history of cats in his lifetime (spanning form Victorian up to the eve of WW2) but also mental illness, attitudes to animals (often brutal), mean and women, homosexuality and various other things.

It's a whimsical and sometimes fascinating book : I rather enjoyed it.

Really must nudge that one nearer the top of the Kindle tbr pile, @Piggywaspushed! Did you hear on the news yesterday that two paintings by Wain found in a skip have just sold for £16,000?

Yes, it was one of those funny coincidences that happens ! Kit Yates explains these in his maths book. Rather spoils the fun..

Shrink Solves Murder - Philippa Perry

This book is about psychotherapist Patricia Phillips solving the murder of one of her patients. I wonder where the author, psychotherapist Philippa Perry, got her character inspiration from?! Anyway it’s cosy crime, very much in the vein of The Thursday Murder Club. Maybe a bit slow in the middle, but I liked it. The ending was set up for it to be a series and I will read the next one.

35. Journeys in the Wild by Gavin Thurston Memoir by a wildlife cameraman in diary format. Slightly weirdly the diary entries are grouped by theme rather than date and so the action moves back and forward a bit but this wasn’t as much of a problem as it might have been. It was good.

36.The Mini Breakers by Lucy Kennedy
Chick-lit about a group of 40 something school friends who go on holiday to Portugal together and have to confront various issues in their own lives and their friendships. Light but enjoyable. An easy holiday read.

37. Sacrifice by Oisin Murphy
    This was fascinating. A whim in the kindle daily deals. An autobiography of a year in the life of a champion jockey. I know nothing at all about this world and a huge amount of this went above my head but it was interesting to find out about this world. I had no idea how many horses a jockey will ride in a day or a week or a season. I also didn’t understand the nuances of different horses and how they react to different conditions. Fascinating.

38. Heartwood by Amity Gaige
    Missing person mystery on the Appalachian Trail. I didn’t hugely gel with this. I didn’t like the chapters being narrated by different characters and I didn’t enjoy the slightly random thread about an older woman in a retirement facility who has a tangential association with the case. Not for me.

39. The Glass Maker by Tracy Chevalier
    Solid, reliable, well researched historical fiction. I could live with the time skip aspect and thought it worked ok.

40. The Last by Hanna Jameson
    Pretty good post apocalyptic novel about a man who is stuck in a Swiss hotel following a nuclear attack on most of the Western world. There was a slightly odd murder mystery aspect to it which wasn’t as interesting or well done as the general world building.

41. The Last of Earth by Deepa Anappara
    Novel about explorers in Tibet before the borders were open to foreigners. I just didn’t really enjoy it. I didn’t think it flowed especially well and it was a bit of a slog.

42. It’s Not What You Think by Clare Mackintosh
    This was pacey and relatively enjoyable. The core premise was intriguing- a woman comes home in the day as she suspects her partner of infidelity. She arrives at the house to find the police and forensics are present as he has been murdered. A couple of days later she tries to contact the police to give more details only to find that they have no record of the crime even though she has witnessed the crime team.

Disappointingly the twists and turns were pretty obvious. Turns out it was exactly what I thought it was. Which was ironic. And a shame.

@ChessieFL I’m only surprised that she didn’t call the shrink Peri Phillips…

40 . The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Jewell (audio)

I’ve read two Lisa Jewell’s : None Of This Is True which was excellent and Don’t Let Him In which was good if far fetched. Both were audiobooks so I thought I’d go for another

I was quite surprised to find that this wasn’t the thriller I was expecting, instead it’s a domestic family saga conducted across decades

Megan believes that she and her siblings Beth, Rory and Rhys had an idyllic childhood so what went so badly wrong and why?

This was good. I enjoyed it as a listen which is what I care about in an audiobook

If I’m honest I did find some of it a tad repetitive “oh no not ANOTHER email to Jim.” and I thought the small revelation near the end was a bit unbelievable

That said, like My Husband’s Wife it was a good listen if narratively flawed

To copy someone, I can’t remember who sorry, I’m going to call it : Mid!

I know several of us have read and enjoyed God of the Woods - there’s an adaptation being made and they’ve announced the casting: https://deadline.com/2026/05/the-god-of-the-woods-tv-series-cast-adds-five-1236929137/

Several good choices I think!

My reading slump seems to have expanded into general slump. Checking my notebook, today marks my first finished book since 12 April. I can’t even remember all the DNFs and I am increasingly frustrated to feel in a slump - everything is objectively ok, but I feel so meh.

Anyway, I went to the European Writers’ Festival at the British Library a couple of weeks ago and was inspired to re look at my minuscule writing efforts and therefore finished (I started this, dipping in last year).

Always Take Notes edited by Simon Akam and Rachel Lloyd

Split into chapters like ‘Success’, ‘Money’, ‘Research’ etc it’s a series of anecdotes from writers who have featured in the podcast of the same name.

As such, it was perfectly fine. My favourite Russian history lecture popped up and tried to make everyone feel sorry for his success which was amusing - but I am going in for the podcast now.

I hope to be back with the other two books I am reading and catch up with Les Mis and rejoin after ducking out as host.

Looks good @DuPainDuVinDuFromage I’m also looking forward to the forthcoming East Of Eden starring Florence Pugh

@AgualusasL0ver I detest a reading slump just leaves me so frustrated. I’ve DNFd my last 3 books and I’m not far in to my fourth so I don’t know how it’s going to go

I'd love to be able to DNF. I am trying really hard as part of the RWYO challenge to try 50 pages and then give up if it isn't grabbing me - so far I have three books open at page 60!

@CutFlowers I think I DNF about half the books I start but I didn't used to.
I told myself that I am reading only for me, I'm not doing an exam and if I don't love it I won't waste time. I usually give it a chapter but I have been known to DNF half way through a book. Gave up on The Mandeville Secret at 70% because it promised to be a time slip and really wasn't.

@AliasGrape Another evocative post, at the end.

I am really struggling too now. Overwhelmed. Tired. Can't sleep. Too hot. To be polite. Now I am watching political satire youtube videos from the Iain Duncan Smiths, have recommended them to my boy who loves the truly Weird Al Yancovic. He's a previous reader who gave up a few years ago but he reads online (I think it's fanfiction). He watches too much Youtube, so I am going to give him suggestions to ignore.

I did go to a truly wonderful free literary festival in one day courtesy of Friends of Hornsey Library (actually in Crouch End by modern understanding. Ward boundaries, local understanding and estate agent fantasies are a bit different in my neighbourhood and in our neighbouring neighbourhoods. I am just awed by how hard they must have worked. I was reading the programme in the middle of the night and tried to book stuff, then went in order to meet up with a friend, and finally ended up talking to another person I know about our 17 year old boys in Costa. She is almost my age, we have similar complicated families in our background and there are parallels with our kids, and we both love our libraries and are on a committee to support them.

Are you doing print/audio? Have you looked for a literary adaptation on Iplayer or whatever streaming services you have access to without spending even more, something just to watch until you can read a little again?

21 Once upon a time: the captivating life of Carolyn Bessette Kennedy
An impulse buy. I end up reading a lot of US media because their market is still big enough to support some actual verbal journalism. This book was mentioned in another article as the basis for the Disney plus series about JFK jr and his wife. They really weren’t ever a major part of my mental landscape, so it was quite odd reading about the obsessive media pursuit they endured. Imagine having twenty people with cameras shouting ‘cunt’ at you every time you leave the house to try and get a picture of you looking upset that they can sell as illustration of a piece about your supposed impending divorce/preganancy/breakdown. It certainly made a lot of current celebrity practice (bodyguards, private compounds, media deals, all that) more comprehensible. However, sadly it wasn’t possible to see these particular people as very interesting in their own right.

@elkiedee my current read is The Grapes Of Wrath the audiobook doesn’t suit, I normally love Richard Armitage but he’s doing a fake American accent and it’s just an absolute NO. I managed to fall asleep on my audiobook last night AGAIN so I’ll have to work out where I am again

@PermanentTemporary

I remember seeing video footage of Suri Cruise getting papped. It was absolutely disgusting. She was about 3 and there was a huge crowd of men all screaming at her and she looked scared

I’ve downloaded a load of podcasts about books and writing for the commute. I just find it impossible to get my book or kindle out at the moment. I am back to reading a bit more though, a little after dinner and even less in bed where I fall asleep.

I am actually enjoying my current reading but I just don’t seem to be finding the time, wasting the time, or falling asleep.

23) Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books by Kristen Miller

Local busybody, Lula Dean, becomes a celebrity in her small town of Troy, Georgia when she tries to ban a selection of 'inappropriate' books from the library & schools. Titles such as The Diary of Anne Frank and Catcher In The Rye get swept from the shelves, despite Lula not having read them. Beverley Underwood, a member of the school board and Lula's rival since childhood, is determined to stop her. This results in both women running against each other for mayor.

Meanwhile Lula sets up a Little Library in her front yard, filled with wholesome, approved books to counteract the effects of 'pornographic material' on the town's residents. But on the Little Library's first night, someone swaps Lula's books with their banned counterparts, wrapping them in 'wholesome' dust jackets. The Southern Belle's Guide to Etiquette becomes The Girl's Guide to Revolution. The Rules cover hides All Women Are Witches. The banned books start to circulate and mayhem shortly follows.

I loved the premise of this book, but the execution was just ok. It was a quick, entertaining read, but a bit heavy handed with it's messaging. It would make an excellent beach read though.