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

@SpunkyKhakiScroller I'm slogging through The Twyford Code at the moment. It's taking me weeks as I'm not finding the urge to pick it up, but I've reached the point of no return and feel the need to finish it.

@Tarragon123 I love the idea of books in places, some of those trips are very tempting. I have often taken a book set in a place that I am visiting. A Rebus to Edinburgh, an Elly Griffiths to Norfolk and so on.

@StrangewaysHereWeCome I decided when reading Outlander that there is no such thing as a point of no return. I've been known to DNF a book with only a few pages to go.

You are of course the voice of reason @NotWavingButReading, Reading on makes no sense whatsoever. But there is a tiny part of me that at least wants to know the ending, so I shall entirely irrationally continue!

I am happy to DM you the ending if you like! It is honestly not worth the struggle to finish.

Managed A Deadly Episode , Anthony Horowitz's latest Hawthorne novel in two days. I like these. They are jaunty, undemanding but well written and paced. For a change , I didn't quite see whodunnit from Chapter One. Good fun albeit cliched.

@SpunkyKhakiScroller

This was it :

The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett

Seldom have I read a book that has caused me so much instant aggravation. It was sold to me very much on the premise that this book is about Edith Twyford, a very thinly veiled and obvious take on Enid Blyton, and this was about a code she built into her Super Six books which had something to do with Nazi gold. Early on, there is an extremely on the nose reference to Masquerade.
So this is The Famous Five meets Masquerade. I ask you, who among us as a child bookworm doesn't immediately want to read this?
Unfortunately, Hallett takes this genius burning candle of an idea and just torches it to fucking cinders.
An intro tells us that what we are reading are audio files which have been transcribed by a machine so that's the reason for any errors. Must've becomes mustard etc and further excuses are made later.
What it's really an excuse for is for the author to write what she imagines the following character must sound like :
A working class, barely literate man, who grew up on a housing estate, was in Remedial English and has just left prison
If you are imagining a fucking cringeworthy display of cliche, class prejudice and stereotype not just in characterisation but in all round plot, you'd be right. My deepest cringe came at the forelock tugging way protagonist Steve displays his gratitude that his son, at least, attended private school.
I don't know how she maintained this writing style throughout it's got to have been as painful to persist with as it is to read.
All the Super Six and Twyford stuff is buried under the How Much Could I Care Less? "Journey" of the protagonist
When the series of twists and reveals come thick and fast as they do in maybe the last 20 pages, it just provokes, firstly, oh ok, that's quite cool, but then as they keep coming it just provokes multiple reactions of : Oh Fuck Off/What A Total Fucking Waste Of My Time
I could nearly cry for the book this could have been. Wouldn't touch this author again with a bargepole.

29 . A Woman Of Substance by Barbara Taylor Bradford (audiobook)

Emma Harte is a wealthy businesswoman in her 70s, who discovers her adult children are plotting against her. The action flashes back to her origins as a teenage drudge to the family of a squire in Yorkshire. A series of unfortunate events leads Emma to vow revenge on them and the novel follows her journey.

This was a 35 hour audiobook but I thought it was worth the effort - I really enjoyed it and looked forward to each session with it.

It is not without issues. It could be classed as Rather Dated. There’s a character described as Black Irish (which has dubious origins) and he is referred to as Blackie throughout. The Oirishing of his voice was just cringe as well.

At one point an adult confesses hatred for a “retarded” child and is sympathised with

One thing that I really did hate is the way Emma is constantly described in the most glowing terms. Everything goes right for her always and every man she meets is in love with her, because she’s the most beautiful etc etc. It wears thin. She’s a neglectful mother and this is well and truly glossed over but it’s no wonder her adult children neglect her in return.

Despite my criticisms I really did enjoy it. It’s a proper saga and really satisfying. I think @Tarragon123 recommended me this so thank you.

In return I’d like to recommend it to @BestIsWest and @ChessieFL if they haven’t read it because it reminded me both of Maeve Binchy and Jilly Cooper (but with less shagging)

A treat

17 Show Me Where It Hurts by Claire Gleeson. Rachel and Tom are on the way back from a visit to his parents when Tom deliberately drives off the road in an attempt to kill both of them and their two young children in the back (not a spoiler as it happens early on). For the rest of the book Rachel is picking up the pieces. This was reasonably good, but it lost a lot of respect from me due to the far-too-sympathetic portrayal of a man who could do such a terrible thing.

18 War Crimes for the Home by Liz Jensen. This is a dual timeline novel, with Gloria as a very young adult in the wartime timeline, living with her sister, working in a factory and having a fling with handsome GI Ron. In the later timeline she is an elderly woman, living in an old people's home, visited by her son and his wife. She struggles with her memory of earlier times, or maybe sometimes she is choosing not to remember. I enjoyed this.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit you don't hold back do you! I agree with your assessment though. By the end, I was just WTF was that! The author's The Appeal is better but not enough to recommend.

@SpunkyKhakiScrollerSometimes! I go for it if I really HATE something. Only now and then! The only other one I remember really going for in my time on the thread is The One by John Marrs.

Thanks @EineReiseDurchDieZeit. I have read it many years ago, probably as a teenager when it came out in 1979. I remember enjoying it it and you’ve prompted me to contemplate a reread. I did try the recent TV series but didn’t get on with it.

Edit: ha! Just caught up with your Twyford post. Lol. I DNF.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit another Maeve Binchy and Jilly Cooper fan here and I'm re-reading them.
I read A Woman of Substance when it was published but I think I'll leave it back in 1979. I watched the recent TV series which was enjoyable if untrue to the book. At the time I read it I failed to notice what a dreadful mother she was, probably because I had zero interest in children at the time, but it stood out in the TV series.

@NotWavingButReading One of the weird things about Emma as a character is she doesn’t see anything but money, she thinks she’s given her children everything and expects their loyalty as adults but she only gave them a wealthy background the only child she took any interest in is her youngest.because she loved her father

@Terpsichore – offt! Bargain!!

@NotWavingButReading – yes! I have done that as well. I actually made a point of visiting Campbeltown because of Denziel Meyrick’s books!

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit – my pleasure! I managed to get A Woman of Substance for 99p but I havent started it yet. I really enjoyed rewatching the 1980s tv adaptation but it is very dated. Hilariously, after the recent adaptation, someone wrote into the Radio Times to complain about the missing character of ‘Blackie’. What, you couldn’t have worked out that Blackie is perhaps not the best name and he has been renamed as Mac?? I'm also amazed that every man just falls in love with Emma.

All the Devils Are Here – Louise Penny – Three Pines 16. M et Mme Gamache are visiting their family in Paris. Also in the group is Stephen, Armand’s godfather and multi millionaire. Stephen is hit by a van and is seriously injured. Armand is drawn into the attempt on Stephen’s life. More mysteries are revealed.

I have two issues with this book. The first is the actual plot. It was too similar to a previous one, only set in Paris, instead of Quebec. Secondly, it was like reading a second rate Scooby Doo story. Armand brings in everyone to help in investigate, his son (who is a banker), the Head of the French Library Archives, various randoms. Ridiculous.

I do this too!

A Closed And Common Orbit (Wayfarers no 2) by Becky Chambers

As with the first one, the world building and alien species are imaginative and fantastic. Only one plot line and character from the first book moves over to book two and I can't say what without giving away the end of book one.

I spent the first third of the book wondering where all the characters were from the first one, especially Sissix, and once I realised they weren't turning up I actually got properly engaged in this story.

Not an awful lot happens plotwise, but that's not the point of Wayfarers I don't think. We are just hanging out with the some weird and wonderful aliens for a bit.

I will read the other two in series but I am not rushing to buy them full price.

21.Big trip up yonder by Kurt Vonnegut.
In the future no one dies and it gets crowded.

22.Murder in the New Forest by Carol Cole.
Crime fiction with added horses.

Prime loan. These are often promotions for new writers or occasionally for established authors with a new book out. I probably DNF 90%. This was a treat.

One of the best reads this year so far and a new writer. The plot is standard crime stuff, the murder of a horse rider with plenty of crime fiction tropes. What made this enjoyable was the multiple interesting characters and prose, witty, clever writing. Set in the New Forest (books in places) the lead detective is newly widowed and transferred from Glasgow. The DC, Daisy, is a local who knows everyone and has some kind of dark secret. My only tiny complaint is in the use of nicknames throughout. I don't know whether it's just me but I struggle to maintain a picture in my head of a character called Bird or Legs. Give me Janice or Bob any day. This is the first in a series of three and I'll definitely be buying the rest.

@Tarragon123 I do think Louise Penny has diminishing returns with some of her more recent books. And I basically read them to fantasise about living in Three Pines with amazing croissants every day, so never like the ones where they're somewhere else.

2 more for me, both decent reads although neither bold.

39. The Original - Nell Stevens. This is narrated mainly by Grace, who goes to live with her rich aunt and uncle when she's 11 and her parents are put in asylums. The action starts when Grace is in her early 20s in 1899 and her presumed dead cousin Charles turns up in Italy. Grace is a brilliant copyist and copies works of art perfectly but can't draw anything original. The book is all about the themes of copying, and what's real and what's not. The central plot is not really a mystery but I liked it. Somewhere between Fingersmith and The Fraud.

40. Dusk - Robbie Arnott. Set in an unspecified time and place, but I assume 1800s Tasmania, this is about 37 year old twins Iris and Floyd who go to hunt a puma, Dusk, for a bounty. It's an Aussie western with frontier towns, and wild landscapes. It's narrated mainly from Iris's point of view and we get flashbacks to her childhood and appalling parents who were thieves. It is a bit of a slow burner but really takes off when they start hunting for Dusk. Some gorgeous descriptions of the land.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit I did like your Twyford Code review 😄 And I agree wholeheartedly with your assessment, of that book and also The One.

23 The Impossible Fortune - Richard Osman Latest in the Thursday Murder Club series, and the usual combination of gentle humour, convoluted plots and tearjerking moments. Good fun and ready-made for its inevitable TV adaptation (I did find myself picturing the actors as I was reading, having seen the adaptation of the first book recently).

Thanks @DuPainDuVinDuFromage

I watched all of 5 minutes of the Woman Of Substance adaptation before saying NO and turning it off. Jim Fairley is an extremely minor character and wouldn’t be entertained by Emma Harte!

Will definitely be swerving The Twyford Code after those reviews!

26. Mansfield Park - Jane Austen

A re-read as part of RWYO as had an unread Kindle copy. Ten year old Fanny Price is sent to live with her cousins at Mansfield Park where she is kept firmly in her place as an impoverished relative by everyone except her cousin Edmund. As adults, Fanny is constant companion to her aunt and watches on as her cousins, Maria and Julia, live a social life and befriend Mary and Henry Crawford. I found the first part of the book quite annoying as María and Julia are so shallow but found the second part better. Fanny has the patience and tolerance of a saint but is prepared to stand her ground and is perhaps often unfairly written off as a bit of a drip. Not Austen's best.

Well I liked The Twyford Code! I like that she’s trying something a bit different.

There’s nothing wrong with trying something different! It was a great idea, but it was extremely poorly executed and her depiction of a “working class person” was embarrassingly offensive. I’ve also criticised the Strike books for the same issue. We can’t all agree. Have you read A Woman Of Substance?

I haven’t read The Twyford Code but I’m generally not a fan of novels written in letters/ emails etc so will probably give it a swerve. I do remember reading my mum’s copy of A Woman of Substance as a teen and watching the original series with Jenny Seagrove in it.

I’ve finished two more and am slowly making my way through Skippy Dies by Paul Murray. I’m only on part 2 and I really enjoyed part 1 but it’s starting to feel really long drawn out- I think I have less patience for long comic writing- I lose interest I think. Anyone read it that can let me know if it’s worth sticking with?

The two I finished were
After Midnight by Daphne du Maurier- a new short story selection of some of her horror short stories and like most short story collections, it was a mixed bag. Some stories were phenomenal (How had I never read The Birds before and realised how genuinely sinister and terrifying it was?) and others just okay.

Alive by Piers Paul Read
The true story of the Uruguayan rugby team whose plane crashed in the Andes and they survived by cannibalism. This was such a difficult but fascinating read. How the men managed to survive and keep each other going through those 70 days was incredible. The cannibalism did get a bit too detailed at times and was genuinely horrifying but also understandable as their only method of survival. I would have liked to have known how the rest of their lives are going, how they coped with the survivor guilt, the infamy and settling back into normal life.