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

@ÚlldemoShúl I have DNFd Skippy Dies about 3 times, could never get going with it. It’s transcribed audio clips in the Code but I think it’s texts and such in her other works!

Oh that’s interesting @EineReiseDurchDieZeitbecause we usually like a lot of the same books I often think. I loved The Bee Sting and I did find this one funny at the start- I mean it’s about a history teacher in a boys’ school- I’m a History teacher in a boys’ school so I should love it but I just don’t.

All I remember is someone choked on a donut and died?? I admired The Bee Sting but I don’t think I bolded it.

@ÚlldemoShúl I read it in January as RWYO after DNF it at 20% before.

It is basically more of the same though you get a bit more of Skippy's back story and the events leading up to his death, as well as what happens afterwards. There's quite a bit about his crazy friend (Rupert?) in the last part which I liked, but if you're not enjoying it, life is probably too short. I think it's probably a book more designed for younger men than middle aged women!

my review was:
It is set in a boys boarding school in Ireland in the 2000s I think. the book starts with Skippy dying and then goes back to explore the events leading up to it and aftermath from various characters including a teacher and the other boys. It's dark and funny and captures the boredom and ridiculousness of boarding school pretty perfectly (from personal experience). There are some great passages and big themes - it deals with everything from teenage sex, drugs, eating disorders, bullying, quantum physics and pedophiles. I think it was a bit too long, over 600 pages, and Murray's writing of women definitely improved between this and the Bee Sting, but on the whole I'm glad I finished it.

33. Fair Stood the Wind for France - H. E. Bates

I've been aware of this for years but can't quite remember now what impelled me to buy it for 99p - it must have been talked about somewhere. Anyway, it’s a wartime novel, published in 1944, about a bomber crew returning home from a mission. Engine failure forces them to crash-land and the pilot, John 'Frankie' Franklin, sustains a terrible arm injury in the process.
Attempting to get to Spain is their only hope, and Franklin and his 4 crew end up at a farm where a girl, Françoise, takes them in. She, her grandmother and father hide the men and do all they can to help them; gradually, Frankie falls in love with the supremely calm and utterly loyal Françoise. But how can he continue his journey with his injury - and can he now bear to leave Françoise behind?

This is a real page-turner but also beautifully written; the descriptions of nature and the countryside are ravishing and it has a dream-like feel at times. Bates skilfully twists the tension levels to end with a dramatic, heart-in-mouth climax. I kept thinking how Nevil Shute-like it was in terms of plot but with an extra dimension in the writing that elevates it to something more poetic and literary.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit i haven’t read A Woman of Substance but it does sound like something I would like so I’ll add it to my list, thanks

Thanks @StowickthevastI’m not sure if I dislike it- I think it’s just too long as you said in your review- been reading it forever and still at around 40%. Completely see what you mean about his writing of women. May keep it going in the background while starting something new. Thanks!

@Terpsichore Oh, I used to love H.E.Bates as a teenager along with Shute and R.F. Delderfield. I’ve probably mixed them all up in my head. Adding to my wishlist.

Erotic Vagrancy : Everything about Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor - Roger Lewis

Finally got to the end of this massive tome about the two mega movie stars. Can’t say I liked them at all. The incredible levels of wealth, profligacy, inconsideration, selfishness, destructiveness are breathtaking and neither star comes out of it at all well.
The author puts a lot of his personal opinion in, it’s not a straightforward biography giving facts about birth, childhood, career etc, although there is a lot of that, it jumps about quite a bit. He appears to dislike them enormously especially Taylor. He also appears to dislike Wales and the Welsh a great deal (he is Welsh). I tried not to take it personally.

Enjoyed it very much.

@Stowickthevast – yes. I’m disappointed, but I am a completist and therefore will carry on reading and, like you, dreaming of a lovely life in Three Pines.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit – I’m getting through The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Its never going to be a favourite of mine, but its definitely growing on me!

@SpunkyKhakiScroller – I’ve made a start on The Widows of Malabar Hill. Loving it! Thank you so much for the recommendation

1. Gallowglass - Gordon Ferris

The last of the Douglas Brodie quartet on KUL. I enjoyed it but felt the twist was heavily signposted. We open to the gravestone of our hero, but never fear! He has of course faked his own death in the pursuit of truth, justice and the Glaswegian way. Because someone wants Brodie to hang for something he didn’t do, and they know exactly what buttons to push to lure him.

Not a bold but definitely worth reading.

Malibu rising by Taylor Jenkins Read

A fun breezy book based on for siblings who have a famous absent father and throw a legendary party every year in Malibu. I enjoyed this for what it was and made a change from some of the heavier books I've read lately.

I think it was mentioned on A Good Read recently Terpsichore? Was it the one with the conversation about the contemporary views in England that occupied France was full of plucky resistance and Vichy France full of collaborators?

I’ve read The Names by Florence Knapp. Thanks to remus and everyone else who recommended this, I thought it was excellent. About three different ways a family’s lives may have gone after a moment in which the initiative was seized, or not, by a woman suffering abuse at the hands of her husband. None of the paths taken are easy, and the effects on the younger generation unfold over their lifetimes. Gripping and thought provoking.

Ah, thanks, Cornish - I vaguely thought it might be that but hadn’t checked yet - will do so now!

I just looked up something on an old thread and wondered what happened to @FortunaMajor who used to be a solid regular on the threads. @SatsukiKusakabeI think her name was also vanished! Anyone know?

Just a reminder for everyone on The Tale Of Two Cities read along that tomorrow is our final discussion.

Amongst other delights, The Wedding People is now 99p in the deals, if anyone fancies it and hasn’t read it.

Happy Jilly Cooper Day! 1st of May…

I’m going to read Imogen to celebrate.

Books 28 - 30 (I think, I seem to have different numbers on storygraph, goodreads and my notes at home!)
The Benefactors by Wendy Erskine Women's prize longlisted and much discussed on here already. I thought it was excellent - really well drawn characters, didn't shy away from any of the complexities of the situation, thought provoking and discomforting.
The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy Sweeping tale of five Black women in America following their lives from their early twenties to mid-forties. I admired this but didn't love it. It's a multi-perspective narrative and the timeline jumps around. Normally I don't mind either of those things, but it didn't feel cohesive. (To be fair, this may be partially circumstantial as I ended up reading it over a period of a couple of weeks and read several other books in between so perhaps it didn't get a fair chance.) There are a couple of scenes/chapters of absolutely virtuoso writing though.
It's Not Summer Without You by Jenny Han Book two in a YA trilogy with a love triangle between the heroine and two brothers at its centre. I watched the TV series on amazon recently and loved it - real guilty pleasure, beautifully filmed beautiful people in beautiful places living highly dramatic lives. Unusually, I don't like the books as much as the TV series, but they are quick light reads and I'll finish the series. (I can't imagine anyone is going to seek this out based on this review, but it doesn't work as a standalone book at all - you need to start with The Summer I Turned Pretty!)

I found the deals curiously hard to navigate this time. I only got 2 from my list. Bournville and Underland

I’ve been off the thread for a while because my baby has arrived! (Reminder that my secret identity is, I’m not really a granny at all)

I scrolled through all the deals during a night feed but didn’t find a single book to buy sadly.

I have managed to read a few undemanding things, here are my vague and brief thoughts:

Meet the Newmans by Jennifer Niven. The Newman family live out the life on a scripted TV show in the 1960s, but at risk of cancellation they need to start embracing the future and finding a new direction, especially matriarch Dinah who wants to do more than just housework. This was a fun and interesting idea but too many peripheral characters and not enough drama. To be fair I am very tired and struggled to follow some of it so not a fair review.

The Death of Us by Abigail Dean. Excellent and beautiful written thriller following a married couple and their relationship in the lead up to and the aftermath of a horrific crime being committed against them. I really recommend this with the caveat that the violence is very disturbing and upsetting.

Flirting Lessons by Jasmine Guillory. Truly boring romance which I didn’t care about at all. I like Jasmine Guillory generally, she’s a great champion of romance writers, but I think I need to give up reading her books.

Congratulations @GrannieMainland. Enjoy the baby snuggles.

Congratulations @GrannieMainland xx

Congratulations @GrannieMainland ! Lovely news 😊 I hope all is going well.

I’ve bought 7 books in the deals, which I think is a record…I’m currently reading books I bought nearly a year and a half ago (reading oldest kindle buys first), not to mention interruptions when BorrowBox reservations become available, so no idea when I’ll get to them!

Congratulations @GrannieMainland !

I’m doing terribly I’ve not picked up a book since I finished The Wedding People last week. Definitely going to start something new this evening.

Congratulations to @GrannieMainland- that is lovely news.

I bought the sequel / prequel to Heart the Lover (Writers and Lovers) and the Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell (had my eye on this for a while).

Tempted by the Wedding People too.