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

29 Kingfisher by Rozie Kelly

A mostly gay man falls for a female English lecturer.

I really enjoyed this. I can see why it didn't win the women's prize but I'm glad they brought my attention to this author.

30 This is Where the Serpent Lives by Daniyal Mueenuddin

Four loosely connected novellas about men in Pakistan.

Bit dull and wanted to know more about the women.

31 The Tips for Teachers guide to Call and Respond by Craig Barton

Good short and interesting but maybe not suitable for 16/7 year olds.

32. A Highland Christmas by Rachael Lucas
    Lovely short romance set in a coastal village in Scotland. Felt rebellious reading it in June.

33. The Tips for Teachers guide to Turn and Talk by Craig Barton
    Another short useful read

I have no idea why I never read Return of The Native as a teen as I was a fairly devout Hardy lover. The influence may have come form my sister who studied it at school and called it 'Return of the Bloody Native,', perhaps foreshadowing the BBB !

It was very Hardyesque . I liked the plot shenanigans, the wily Eustacia and the awful Wildeve. What a bore Clym is though.

No Hardy will ever be as compelling as Tess really.

Im getting really fed up of MN deleting my half typed posts if I accidently navigate away from the page. Especially as it often "saves" ones I've actually posted meaning the thread opens in the wrong place. Anyway

The Vellum Morta. Myrddin Young
Light fantasy , book 1 of a series. The Syldani are assassins who's job is it to assassinate whoevers name is on the vellum they are given. The vellum supposedly comes from the skin of an old God who was flayed many years ago. Blayne doesn't believe in the old Gods. Until he's tasked with killing one. I enjoyed this, it's technically YA fiction, but my inner teenager escaped!

The Vineyard Secret. Gosia Nealon
Dual timeline, set in 1940 and the present day.

In the present day, Matylda has been left 49% of her Grandmother's Vineyard in Poland. She has to live there alongside the man who now owns the other 51% and then they can decide what to do with it.

In 1940, a young Polish girl is kidnapped in the streets and sent to Germany as a forced labourer.

Of course the 1940s girl is the Grandmother, and the farm is now in Poland due to boundary changes. What's not clear at the beginning is how she ends up owning the farm, or why she's left over half of it to the Grandson of her captor, a young man she's never met.
Im a massive fan of Gosia, so naturally loved this.

The Boy With The Heart of Seaglass. Laura Livingstone
Sam was born on a tiny Cornish island, but taken to live in London as a small child. Now 18, and heartbroken he moves back to the Island to recover. He finds out the distressing truth of his father's death, falls in love, and has done really odd dreams that start to come true. He dreams he's drowning, then wakes up coughing up seaweed.
Honestly , it sounds kind of stupid from that. But it was genuinely beautiful. Myths comes true, and hearts are healed. This was almost a bold. Plus Sam is gay, so it's perfect for pride month.

Rübezahl. M Laslo
Not sure what to say about this. I believe it's a retelling of a German myth, but can't be sure. The author has a really odd writing style. I like his books, but a lot of people I know hate them.

The Orange Man and Me. Lord Hugo Dastardly
This is the funniest and grossest book! The titular character is POTUS in 2017/18/19 ish. I think he is named, but only once. The book is from the point of view of a woman who is madly in love with him. Ick. There's more comments on sex life than anyone ever needs. Eye bleach needed.
However, it's also entirely Satire. So whilst it comes across as a book praising MAGA etc, its clearly poking fun at them. If you love the orange one, you'll hate it.

Case Files Vol 2. Rachel Amphlett
More short crime fiction. These are all based around murders. Unlike book 1, the felt mainly unfinished. But as most of them are only 5 min reads it's still alright.

Three Days Grace. Jeremy Bradley-Silverio Donato
Set over 3 days, a group meet up in Paris. Lynne, her (female) partner, Lynne's son Nick and a family friend. It's mainly about the fallout from the past. There's historical CSA mentioned, suicide and generally fucked up family relationships. I found Lynne really unlikeable, her ex husband abused their children and her reaction was to send them away and blame them. There are reasons, so I did feel for her. But as a Mum I'm not sure. Trying to avoid spoilers! It was another almost bold.

Watching Them Humans In The AI Age. Will & Alice Shin
No idea what to say about this. It's a comic book really, looking at what animals would make of AI. I don't know, maybe I didn't "get it"

@CornishLizard - thank you for the witchy book. I read The Manningtree Witches a few years ago and basically being a woman who wasn't married seemed to be sufficient. If moles were evidence of the devil then I must be very high in the witch hierarchy!

38. The Editor's Wife - Clare Chambers

Read as part of RWYO. I have read and enjoyed lots of Chambers' books. Irrationally annoyed by the title of this one as obviously the wife, Diana, is a person who shouldn't be defined by her husband. However, I got over this......and enjoyed the book.

A male protagonist (which wrongfooted me), Chris, is the stereotypical author, starving in his Brixton garret having dropped out of university to write. His luck changes when he meets Owen who works in publishing and gets taken under his wing meeting Owen's wife and friends. Life is not plain sailing and the book covers many years. Chris has an eccentric brother, Gerald, who provided lots of humour as well as being the catalyst for many events. Recommended (if you have liked her other books).

To be fair Benvenuto the modern references aren’t a huge part of it, though they struck me the most, but the whole take on it is contemporary.

@BadSpellaSpellaSpella I really liked Trust when I read it. I went in totally blind and read the first part as 'real' so was taken aback as it unfolded.

Land sounds wonderful @FuzzyCaoraDhubh but I need to get over my aversion to Maggie O'Farrell, which tbf is based solely on The Marriage Portrait so I am not being at all fair to her.

@Owlbookend I have only just come out of my slump, I am not quite there, but its as if I can feel it lifting. Hoping for the same for you soon.

I saw Wendy Erskine at a Writers' Festival recently, and she was great.

@Piggywaspushed Oh I LOVED Return of the Native, I did read Tess first then have something like a 7 year break whilst I got over it, but i was not disappointed when I got to ROTN.

My Husband, by Maud Ventura, trans from French by Emma Ramadan
This was a page turner, which aren't normally the sort of thing I read. A woman is obsessed by her husband to the point that she tracks the things he does to offend her e.g. move his hand too quickly after she has held his, she then will punish him by not kissing him or similar. It is bizarre, mad and quite uncomfortable. A solid 3 star. Will it stay with me, no, but a good reading experience.

@AgualusasL0ver I loved My Husband. It was like a car crash I couldn't look away from. I'm quite fond of an unhinged narrator though!

• Mongrel - Hanako Footman

I didn’t get on that well with this, but that was on me more than the book. I think I should have read it in a couple of solid sessions, not picked up and put down a lot.

It’s a multi viewpoint novel - Mei, motherless and growing up in Surrey with her father and step family. Yuki, who left Japan for London to train as a violinist but an unequal relationship gets in her way. Haruka, who grew up in the countryside with her grandparents and ended up in a hostess bar in Tokyo. All of them feel out of place and are striving for meaning and completion and love.

Finished book 33 today, The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M Cain. Nasty, brutish and short - and I loved it. It was written in 1934 and has that proper, grubby, sweaty noir feel and some incredible period detail. The two main characters are incredibly amoral and their relationship is absolutely toxic, and yet weirdly I was still kind of rooting for them. Apparently it was quite scandalous when it was published and I can see why because by 1930s standards it must have seemed quite steamy.

Now on book 34 which is A Short Stay In Hell by Steven L Peck.

31 Finding My Way: A Memoir, Malala Yousafzai 4/5
Book group read. I enjoyed this account of Malala’s years at Oxford more than I expected. It’s clearly ghostwritten, and the use of American terms to replace British ones was grating at times (Malala’s Oxford college Lady Margaret Hall is repeatedly referred to as a ‘campus’, and tutors are all called ‘professors’ no matter how humble their status). Poetic licence is frequently taken; no matter where Malala happens to be located in college, she looks out onto idyllic river views (never mind that in real life, the river is not remotely visible from several of the specified locations). However, the narrative remained compelling. I hadn’t realised that Malala’s family came from such a humble background. She struggles to make friends in Oxford (with security guards always in tow), to stay on top of her studies, to placate her anxious parents, and to keep up with the schedule of international appearances that enable her to financially support not only her immediate family, but further clusters of relatives in Pakistan. It’s impossible not to admire her stamina. All in all, the memoir reminded me that whatever undergraduates learn academically at university is vastly less important than everything else they learn there: the life skills, the social interactions, the newfound independence from family. In short, the chance to start working out who they are in the world, and who they want to be.

32 Maddaddam, Margaret Atwood 4/5
The final volume in the Oryx and Crake trilogy. I felt about this much as I felt about the earlier two volumes: dystopian fiction isn’t really my thing (The Handmaid’s Tale being a shining exception), but this was thought-provoking and often very witty, even though I was never fully gripped by either the characters or the plot.

33 Paradiso 17, Hannah Lillith Assadi 3/5
Women’s Prize longlist. Recently reviewed by @Stowickthevast and @ÚlldemoShúl and I agree with their reviews entirely. This novel recounts the life of a Palestinian refugee, who eventually settles in the US and marries a Jewish woman (and whose story is apparently based on that of Assadi’s own father). Assadi writes well, but the main character is hard to sympathise with… perhaps this is the effect of the trauma he has undergone. He has trouble maintaining bonds of friendship and love with all the people closest to him. Unfortunately it is difficult for the reader to form a bond with him as well.

I know this is slightly nutty as it was SO long ago, but I keep forgetting to say a few things I meant to say in the last thread, and never got round to 😳

Thanks @EineReiseDurchDieZeit for tagging me in your review of Homeschooled by Stefan Merrill Block. I do definitely want to read it! I'm not surprised that it's not as gripping as Educated, as you say... Westover is a hard act to follow I think.

And @Terpsichore very belated congratulations on finishing Proust! Very exciting. I'm planning to read vol. 2 this year (I'm not setting any records for speed here, ha).

And in response to your comments about the Garner diaries, I agree, it's nothing less than excruciating to read about what 'V' put her through. At points I felt so frustrated, I didn't know if I wanted to carry on reading. It's sobering to think that a woman as independent and intelligent as Garner could stay in a relationship like that for so long - making herself smaller in various ways to try to placate that dreadful man.

I find some consolation in the fact that he clearly cared very, very much about what people thought of him (he even tries to forbid her from writing about him in her diaries at one point), so I'm sure he wasn't best pleased when Garner published the diaries and they were greeted with acclaim.

I came across a pristine copy of his book Eucalpytus in Oxfam the other day and almost bought it, because he's been on my radar for a long time as an Australian author I haven't read. But then I thought, nah, I don't care how good your book is, you're an asshole. (Moment of high cerebral literary judgement there 😂)

"I came across a pristine copy of his book Eucalpytus in Oxfam the other day and almost bought it, because he's been on my radar for a long time as an Australian author I haven't read."

I've just returned Helen Garner's diaries to the library and am hoping they come back in about 3 months, when my reading has calmed down, haha - of course that's not how it works..... I compound my bad habit of reserving too many books with checking out the new additions that have just been catalogued and adding a few of those. And then there's all the ones I own.

There must be plenty of Australian authors and books by them you haven't tried yet. All those published by Text Classics, to start with. New Zealander Fiona Kidman sets a couple of her best novels partly in historical Australia, Paddy's Puzzle and The Captive Wife. Have you read Elizabeth Harrower?

@cassandre thanks re. Proust! We definitely didn’t set any speed records either - we (I read it with a small circle of friends) started it during Covid, and we've just finished, so it wasn’t exactly fast. I did have to smile wryly, though, at the rash of Guardian letters following their much-contested ‘best books' list insisting that the whole of Proust was 'unreadable', which pretty much coincided with us having a celebratory meal to mark our achievement. People do have some odd ideas about books.

Anyway, I really posted to add 46. Whose Body? - Dorothy L. Sayers

Search me how I've managed not to read any of DLS's novels despite being interested in her as a person and reading a couple of biogs and her letters. Anyway, this the first Lord Peter Wimsey case, and excellent fun, even if the explanation of how the central mystery was achieved strains all credulity (still nowhere near Sophie Hannah levels of bonkersness, mind you).
DH has ancient copies of all her books so I now know what else I'll be reading this year…

Hoorah for a DLS year, @Terpsichore

<waves from the Bellona Club>

I pull so many recommendations from this thread, it truly is one of the nicest corners of the internet. I also look at Facebook and Instagram for books, but you never know who is sponsoring what there!

A couple of reviews from recent reads:
24) Invisible Woman by Caroline Criado Perez
I'm late to the party on this one and it has been much reviewed, but just in case anyone doesn't know this book goes into the shocking root cause of gender inequality, looking into women’s lives at home, the workplace, their health and relationships. She uses data from around the world, to show how women are often disregarded in data collection, which is used to plan resources and infrastructure, which consequently leads to a world which is badly designed and often unfair for women in terms of transport, housing, the workplace, product designs, protective clothing, safety, honestly the list is endless.
Should be essential reading.

25. The Frozen People by Elly Griffiths I really like the Ruth Galloway series by the same author, so was lward to this one, it was a long wait on Borrowbox which is usually a good sign. It’s the first of a series which the main character works cold cases, so cold they are “frozen” and they are beginning to use time travel to solve previously unsolvable cases. In this case a government minister asks them to go back to Victorian times to clear his great great grandfathers name, who was accused of being part of a secret society called the Collectors who had to murder a woman to become a member. The plot was a bit silly and got sillier but readable enough. Not sure I will bother with the rest of the series.

I currently relistening to A short History of nearly everything by Bill Bryson as a comfort read and still ploughing through the Maeve Kerrigan series as well.

@elkiedee thanks for the recs of Fiona Kidman and Elizabeth Harrower. I've never heard of Harrower and she looks great. I didn't mean to imply that I have an exhaustive knowledge of Australian fiction. However, my DH is Aussie and I have read a lot of Australian lit due to him. (He wooed me with Oscar and Lucinda, ha.)

I'm having library problems similar to yours. A whole heap of books I'd been waiting for came in at once, and they're new releases and can't be renewed. I have no idea how I'll finish them all. After this lot, I plan to stop reserving library books for awhile and try to focus on my RWYO pile.

@Terpsichore I'm envious of you having a lovely circle of friends who read Proust with you! That's amusing about the cross Guardian letters. Some books are so firmly ensconced as Great Literature, it makes people think they're unreadable... which they're not, provided the reader is willing to invest the time and energy! I think some of the 19th c MN read-alongs have been fabulous in terms of demystifying Great Books and showing how accessible they actually are. I'm thinking of the Tolstoy read-alongs in recent years, and the Dickens ones (mostly shepherded by @Piggywaspushed and more recently by @DesdamonasHandkerchief ).

That said, Proust is not THAT accessible 😂But having made it through the first volume, I feel like I have a sense of his 'vibe' and I think it will be easier to carry on. There's something to be said for sticking with an author for the long haul.

I'm delighted that you're reading Sayers! Her detective fiction is a funny mix of density and frivolity. One of my book clubs has chosen Gaudy Night so I'll be rereading that soon. I love it.

@Tarahumara Mother Mary is also my stand-out of the year so far.

@Cherrypi interesting review of Where The Serpent Lives. It seems very marmite, I keep thinking I should read it but it doesn't really appeal. Will sit tight and see if it gets on the Booker list.

Malala's Oxford memoir sounds fascinating @cassandre

58. Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir. Late to the party on this one, I think I'd been put off by the science and not loving The Martian, but this was great. Audio was brilliant. Am encouraging DH to read it and Dd1 whose about to finish GCSEs tomorrow with physics. She's going to do biology and loved the astrophysics section of physics so should be right up her street. Anyway a bold from me.

59. Departures(s) - Julian Barnes. This is Barnes' final novel and reads more like musings on memory and age. There is a brief story of sorts about a couple that he was at uni with but mainly it feels more like a memoir. I read a few of his books years ago - Flaubert's Parrot and The History of the World which I don't really remember, and Arthur and George which I didn't really like - but this has motivated to read Sense of An Ending at some stage. I did end up liking Barnes without much liking the book.

@cassandre good luck with restraining yourself about library reservations!

25) Hermit by Chris McQueer. Nineteen year old NEET, Jamie, has barely left the house since dropping out of school three years ago without any qualifications. He spends his days festering in his room, playing video games with his younger online friend, Lee. Through Lee, Jamie learns about the incel community, and a man Lee's met on a forum who's offering them both a place to stay in London. The two boys decide to run away from their 'nagging' mums, and head to London to start new lives in a like-minded community.

The story is told from the alternating perspectives of Jamie and his mum, Fiona. Fiona is herself reclusive, only really leaving the house to go to work, the shop, and her intimidating mother's house. Since kicking out Jamie's abusive drunk of a father when Jamie was about 6, she's been trying her best as a single parent, but feels at a loss to help her son while barely treading water herself.

This was a bold for me. I felt extremely sorry for Jamie, Fiona, and Lee. Neither of the boys were bad people, but both were lonely, depressed, and extremely naive. I could understand how they were easy to prey on. Although not diagnosed, it seemed obvious that both Jamie and Fiona were neurodiverse, and in Fiona's case still dealing with the trauma of her past abuse. They loved each other, but found it almost impossible to verbalise this. Both were somewhat frustrating characters in their own right, but still sympathetic.

Definitely worth a read.

Sometimes, books don’t even make it onto my Wish List after a review on 50 Bookers - Hermit is 99p so I just bought it. Incorrigible Me

28. Felicia's Journey by William Trevor

A reread, as I wanted to read it after rereading The Story of Lucy Gault last week. It seems to be out of print but I got hold of a second hand copy.

I had forgotten just how sinister it is. There was a fil with Bob Hoskins playing the catering manager, Mr Hilditch. It is a story about people on the periphery and the dangers of trusting people you barely know.

I'm not giving it a bold simply because it made me feel so uneasy, but it's a great book.

I agree with you completely @HagCymraeg - this thread is where I get most of my reading recommendations. Reviews here are honest and heartfelt, and I suspect that too many reviewers across all sorts of media have undeclared conflicts of interests, whether writers sharing a publishers, or BookTubers depending on positive reviews to keep the work coming in.

25.The Safekeep by Yael Van Der Wouden. In 1960s Netherlands Isabel lives a very small life in her late mother’s house. Her brother Louis arranges, without Isabel’s say so, to move his bright and outgoing girlfriend Eva into the house, and then promptly goes away for work. Isabel is forces to engage with Eva, but soon their relationship deepens.

Extensively reviewed here already, I thought this was fine, but not earth shattering. Isabel is a deliberately unsympathetic character, but I don’t feel that I ever understood quite why she was so bitter and miserable. The slow and simmering atmosphere became too slow at times, and I was almost ready to bin it off before the plot took off like a rocket when Isabel came across Eva’s diary and discovered Eva’s motivation in her relationship with Louis. The setting in time and place was really interesting, and the writing excellent, so even though I thought this was patchy I’d be keen to see what Van Der Wouden does next.

26.Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. Our narrator Klara is an Artificial Friend awaiting purchase in a store. These solar powered AI creations are bought by parents for their lonely, largely housebound teens. Klara is bought for Josie, a teenager whose life is limited by serious health problems.

This reads very much as a companion piece to Never Let Me Go. I know most posters aren’t fans of that novel (or certain other Ishiguro works !) but I really liked it. This shares not just some of the same themes of identity and the ethical boundaries of medical science, but also the gradual unveiling of some of the key features of the dystopian landscape. This was really effective as we see the world through Klara’s eyes, as she tried to make sense of Josie’s life and experiences. I thought this was very good, but preferred NLMG, and I don’t think there is anything here that would convert the Ishiguro naysayers.

Jane and Prudence - Barbara Pym

I must confess I don’t really get the love for Barbara Pym. ‘Nothing much happens’ as someone said. Vicar’s wife Jane moves to a new parish and tries to get her old Oxford pupil Prudence married off to a handsome widowed parishioner. Lots of trips to London for lunch, worthy ladies sorting out clothing for distressed gentlewomen and worrying over what kind of tea and cake to serve at whist drives.
No curates in this one thankfully.
I guess the genius and the humour is in the detail with Pym rather than in the story itself but she doesn’t do much for me.

Fellow Pym hater @BestIsWest don’t get her at all

Glad it’s not just me @EineReiseDurchDieZeit.