50 Books Challenge 2026 Part Five

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the fifth 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, the third thread here and the fourth thread

Re American pronunciation - I've just started listening to Project Hail Mary and the way he says "Pipe-ets" is driving me nuts!

Welcome @EstoyRobandoSuCasa interesting selection. I loved Moon Tiger and really like Claire Keegan. I keep meaning to read some Katherine Mansfield.

@BadSpellaSpellaSpella I read Unsettled Ground earlier this year and thought it was great so glad to hear Hunger & Thirst is good too. She did a COVID type one about an octopus that I wasn't as keen on.

Great to hear that Land is good too. It's my online book club read this month and debating whether to get it on audio or hold out for a Kindle deal. @MaterMoribund I saw a thing on good reads where she mentioned a book called Map of a Nation by Rachel Hewitt which was all about the ordnance survey.

I've just realised that I've spelled 'ordnance' wrong in my post. Apologies!

It isn't necessary to know the technical aspect of mapping to follow the story, by the way. It serves as a frame. There were mention of tools that I hadn't heard of before. I clearly know nothing of ordnance surveying ;)

36. The Wedding People - Alison Espach
Much reviewed on here already and the good reviews made me break out of RWYO and buy it. Phoebe ends up the only non-wedding guest in a luxury hotel taken over for a week of wedding celebrations. She becomes embroiled in the wedding party and the voice of sanity. It actually took me a while to get into but once I did get into it, i thoroughly enjoyed it. So many potential MN bridezilla threads! I had also failed to spot from the reviews that this was set in the US.....

Looking forward to Land!

Not book related, but i am watching WW2 With Tom Hanks on Sky and the Americans all say "Aydolf Hitler". I don't understand why they do this.

Not book related either but is WW2 worth a watch @Arran2024 ? We're doing our millionth rewatch of Band of Brothers just now and debating WW2 next

I've just started WW2 with TH, agree that the American pronunciation of Adolf is weird. So far I've heard nothing new, but I do like TH so might stick with it.

41. Death’s End by Cixin Liu

Final book in the Three Body Problem trilogy. It’s hard to go into much detail without giving spoilers for the previous two books.

This one leans into the dark forest philosophy of the previous book so has more alien threats and the potential extinction of humanity. There’s lots of time skips as main characters go in and out of hibernation, with the action spanning hundreds, then thousands, of years, so pretty epic in scope.

It’s interesting and imaginative and filled with big scientific ideas, and also one that requires a fair amount of concentration to take in all the detail. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading this trilogy.

We finished Band of Brothers again the other day! I hadn’t heard about the Tom Hanks series so might try that. I’ve also finished my annual rewatch of The West Wing tonight (oh for a saner time in US politics) so I’m in need of a long series to watch.

I binge watched the first 5 episodes in one go. It is US focused of course. 2 of the first 5 episodes were on the Pacific - Pearl Harbour, Battle of Mid Way, presumably to keep the US audience interested. But there are 20 episodes so lots more to come. Worth a watch.

I had my in person book club last night to discuss The Names and I was the only person who didn't love it. My review is earlier in this thread but I was curious what the general consensus of the 50 bookers was. The demographics here is very different from my book club and I am curious if that makes a difference.

I think it was very popular here too @SpunkyKhakiScrollerI was like you in that I didn’t love it- I liked the premise but didn’t think it was very well-executed although it raised important issues.

I bolded The Names @SpunkyKhakiScroller but it has definitely not been universally loved here

@SpunkyKhakiScroller I loved The Names (I do agree with your point that the impact was primarily about how the mother’s life went after the pivotal choice rather than the son’s life)

We are also doing it for book club this month too (but I read it a little while ago)

Can't answer about The Names as I've taken it on and off my tbr list based on successive enthusiastic and unenthusiastic reviews on here - although maybe that's an answer in its own right!

70. Nature's Memory, Jack Ashby
Non-fiction. A very readable defence of natural history museums and the contribution they can make towards current challenges such as the climate crisis. Although he is very much in favour of them, he's still critical of their biases, including their colonial roots and unthinking sexism. Recommended to anyone who likes poking around museums.

71. En Route: A Journey Round France in the Company of Great Writers, Peter Fiennes
A combination of travelogue and writing about writers is always going to be catnip to me. The author takes us lesser-known (to me anyway) corners of France in the off season and tells us about writers associated with the area, both French (Maupassant, Beauvoir and Sartre, Collette) and anglophone (Baldwin, Wharton, Mansfield). I enjoy the author's style, but he does tend to dwell on the gloomier side of life, so we get syphilitic deaths, antisemitism, environmental degradation and the Battle of Verdun. I appreciate that it's not all sipping rose in fields of lavender, but it does dissipate the holiday mood a little.

72. You Were Gone, Tim Weaver
I dip in and out of this long-running series about a missing persons investigator. He watched his own wife die painfully of cancer eight years ago, so who is this woman who walks into a police station claiming to be her? Can he trust his own memories? This delivered the page-turning drama you want from the genre.

@bibliomania I've read a few Times Weaver books including You Were Gone which might be the most far fetched. I made the mistake of not reading in order and there are some threads that run through. I've had a few from Borrowbox.

@NotWavingButReading , yes, this one does require some fairly major suspension of disbelief! I haven't been reading in order and I agree that it would be better to do so, but too late now.

Also discussing The Names at bookclub tomorrow! I'm another that thought it was brilliant and may well end up one of the year's bolds.

Guess we are the outliers! Like you, I liked the concept but not the execution. I found it too lightweight for the seriousness of the subject matter. I wanted a 4th timeline where things didn't work out in the end.

My book club skews younger and more genre readers than the 50 bookers. Very interesting to see the universal love for it regardless of demographics.

Can we just be a little bit mindful of 'spoilers' please? Lots of us have The Names on our TBR (waves!) as it has only just come out in paperback and general discussion and reviews is of course fine but can people exercise caution about discussing outcomes , endings and pivotal events if poss?

Ta.

<runs away and hides>

Sorry Piggy, I’ve asked for my post to be deleted.

My feeling was The Names was a bit more gimmicky than of substance.

It felt like a concept - "Sliding Doors but with three outcomes and in a book!" - than a well written novel.

Appreciated!

Sorry to be a moaning Minnie!

I thought The Names was just ok. The way it was marketed made me think it would be a look at how names affect other people's perception, and how those differences affected them through their life (e.g. what assumptions would teachers make of a boy called Bear in the early 90s? Would Julian's CV be given preferential treatment over another equally qualified candidate? Would Gordon's name give prospective dates the ick in the late 00's? etc). Instead the names didn't actually matter that much overall. It was the mother's actions at and immediately after registering the birth which really affected the trajectory of the sons' lives.

I also thought the ending of Bear's storyline was mawkish.

I have The Names on my TBR pile - maybe I should move it up so I have a view too!