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

Get well soon @Tarragon123

All good wishes @Tarragon123

Thinking of you @Tarragon123

Get well soon @Tarragon123 and hello @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie

Couple of reviews to add after catching up on the thread

36 Violets by Kyung-Sook Shin

Shelterbox pick about a young Korean woman, San, who has suffered trauma and loss as a child and as a consequence keeps herself to herself. Her world broadens out when she takes a job in a florist's shop and becomes friends with her ebullient co-worker. Experiencing emotional connection for the first time in many years, San starts to respond - but things don't quite connect for her. This is a thoughtful, melancholy novel that moves very slowly - a bit too slowly for me. And it's very sad. Parts of it were thought provoking and the ending quietly devastating, but it just took a little too long to get there fully to hold my interest.

37 She's Not There by Jennifer Finney Boylan

Boylan is an American English professor and author who transitioned from male to female. This is a memoir about her experiences of transition and its effect on those around her. Boylan is an engaging and funny writer, and I enjoyed reading this. It would be interesting to read a parallel narrative from her wife as, whilst Boylan gives us her account of what her wife expressed to her at the time, that's perhaps different from understanding how she felt. The most interesting part for me was the reaction of Boylan's best (male) friend, as she includes a number of searingly honest letters from him about the difficulty he had accepting Boylan's transition. There were some really interesting points about how (even if we don't think we are doing this) we respond to people along tramlines dictated in part by their sex.

East of Eden by John Steinbeck

This has been languishing on my kindle for sometime and then we discussed on here a TV show is coming so I thought I'd better jump on it quick.

What an astounding book. It's basically a family saga as we see three generations of the Trask family. The narration slows for detail at certain points of their lives and then skips ahead in other times. There is plenty of dialogue and it's pacey without feeling rushed.

It's an interesting look at how much of ourselves is governed by our inherited characteristics and how much we can make our own way. There are also moments of comedy and some darkness.

Some throwaway casual racism that wouldn't make it through at edit today, but also the Chinese servant Lee is probably the most interesting character, so I think it's a reflection of the language of the time.

I much preferred this to both Grapes of Wrath and Cannery Row.

Before I read this I would have told you my favourite Steinbeck was travels with Charley, but I think now it's East of Eden. A 5 star bold for me.

Hope you're fully recovered soon @Tarragon123 - hospitals are grim!
Hi @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie , nice to see you!

Books 38 and 39
River of Stars by Georgina Moore - neat and easy-reading romance about several generations of women in a family living on an island in the river Thames. Enjoyable enough, but not one that will linger in the mind for long.

Almost Life by Kiran Millwood Hargrave - Erica and Laure meet in Paris when Erica is spending the summer there before university. They fall in love and spend a happy summer together before Erica has to return to the UK and 'real life'. We then follow both of their lives, including several times when their paths (in some cases fairly improbably!) cross again. I thought it was very good - properly melancholic on the paths you take and the paths you could have taken; strong, complex, 'difficult' female leads; very good on growing up and how the young person you were folds into the adult you become. And Paris is gorgeous in it.

Get well soon @Tarragon123 , hospital is no fun, no sleep and no privacy.

Thank you for all your kind words, much appreciated. I’m so much better after a couple of days at home.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie – I might investigate Charles Paris. Its vaguely ringing bells. Was it maybe adapted for Radio 4 with Bill Nighy playing the title part?

@MaterMoribund – thank you. I’d really like that.

3 not great books from me:

66 The Madness of Crowds – Louise Penny – Three Pines 17. We are back in the village of Three Pines and it is now post pandemic. A statistician has suggested that Canada’s euthanasia laws are extended and that old people and the disabled are exterminated. I cant actually believe that she leads with this as a plot line. Completely put me off. I know I’ll get round to finishing the series, but right now, I’m putting it to one side.

67 Watching You – Helen Fields. Psychological thriller. I only got this as these books are set in Edinburgh. I don’t think I’ll bother with any more. The ending was ridiculous, completely unbelievable.

68 The Hoarder – Jess Kidd. Author of the Nora Breem series. I thought I’d see what else she has written. This was…bizarre. The accompanying blurb said something along the lines of Care Worker Maude, who possess psychic abilities is sent to help clear the mansion of an elderly hoarder (while he is still living there). She is helped along the way by a variety of Saints. Well, sounds right up my street. But the Saints were too…I don’t know. Pointless? They just float about, not really contributing anything. Saint Valentine just picking his teeth. Saint George glowering and putting his visor up and down. Its also an odd assortment of Saints. There’s also Saint Dymphna and another couple who I’ve forgotten. Anyway, there are secrets, missing girls and women and yet another unsatisfactory ending. Meh.

26) Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka. This is about the last 12 hours of a man who is due to be executed for multiple murders. The chapters ossillate between the man's point of view (in 1st person) and the perspectives of 3 women, Lavender, Saffy, and Hazel, who have a connection to him (all in 3rd person). It also goes back and forth in time to tell the story of his life and the events which brought everyone to this point.

I think I might need some time to sit with this one and mull it over before I do a full review. It definitely caused some cognitive dissonance between my beliefs and my feelings. For that reason alone, I'm giving it a bold. I suspect I'll be having random thoughts about this book years down the line!

55. Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree - A middle aged female orc warrior decides to retire and open a coffee shop. It is exactly as twee as it sounds and is all about found family, friendship, and finding yourself. But after battling through Fundamentally, I was in the mood for something warm and fuzzy, so I quite enjoyed it. I have realised I like books that achieve what they set out to do. This book has modest ambitions and it executes them well. Will happily read the sequels as palate cleansers

Hermit by Chris McQueer
Trainee incel, ineffectual single mother and absent violent father. Token Fierce Granny.
I didn’t DNF this but I did skip big chunks of it. I see (and admire) what it’s trying to do but it reminded me of many earnest safeguarding/ACE/trauma informed practice course scenarios I’ve sat through. Maybe it would have been better entirely from Jamie’s pov, as I found the female parts too lightly written and stereotypical. In contrast to Rat Race recently I also thought the dialect was hard going.

@TheDonsDingleberries I've had Notes on An Execution on my Kindle for years. I've started a couple of times but always been put off by is but being a crime book as such. Maybe I need to revisit it.

@FuzzyCaoraDhubh I'm halfway through Land - Bran ♥️♥️♥️

Yes! @Stowickthevast

Notes on an Execution is currently 99p on kindle so I've just bought it.

Thanks @TheDonsDingleberries!

Like @Stowickthevast I’ve had Notes On An Execution for a couple of years now not sure why I can’t get going with it, I must give it another bash

@Stowickthevast & @EineReiseDurchDieZeit Notes on an Execution had been languishing on my Kindle for about three years before I started it as well. Not sure why. Probably just not in the right mood.

Hope you enjoy it @Tarahumara !

ETA I'm going to start The Story of a Nobody by Anton Checkhov for my next read.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow - Gabrielle Zevin

Sam and Sadie meet in the children's hospital, aged 12 and 11, when he is recovering from a car accident and she is visiting her sister. They bond hard over gaming, fall out, but reconnect in Boston when they are both students.

I loved this. IIRC it was a bit Marmite on here, but I really liked the way the relationships were drawn and the strong sense of character.

38 Watermarks edited by Tanya Shadrick
This is a slim collection of writing about swimming outdoors, divided into sections for the sea; rivers; lakes, ponds and pools and lidos. It’s a mix of very short prose pieces (not really stories in the main, although some of them are) and poetry. There’s some beautiful writing, some of which really captures the joy and slight trepidation of swimming under the sky. Recommended for water lovers!

39 Cruel Acts by Jane Casey
I think this is my favourite Maeve Kerrigan so far, but I’ve thought that about a few of them, so that may just be driven by recency. I thought this one was great, though. A really good mystery, tension between Maeve and the emerging new female detective and the usual touch of personal devastation thrown in. Plus obviously continued endangerment of Maeve's life. My favourite thing about these books is the central core characters and I can’t say too much about this because spoilers, but Casey writes human emotions so well. My heart twisted several times in this book, and not because of the murder plotline.

Please may I join?
I don’t think I can hit 50 this year though. I fell in to a bit of a reading slump at the start of the year when I tried to read Brimstone by Callie heart after really enjoying the first book Quicksilver. Brimstone is just awful, I was trying to push through but couldn’t finish it. So looked for recommendations of books that are similar to my last favourite read which was Alchemised by SenLinYu and settled on The Poppy War by RF Kuang. I have just finished it and have the sequel lined up ready to go. I enjoyed it so much. Genuinely think it was a great read, although very dark and gritty. Moral of the story for me is to not push through if I’m not enjoying a book!

Welcome @VanGoSunflowersI am a fan of a DNF myself if a book isn’t grabbing me in the first 20% or so

Maybe I need to give Tomorrow x 3 another go. I couldn't get into it when it I started it last year and abandoned it very quickly.

Hi @VanGoSunflowers of course you can join in, and if there are any lurkers who're thinking about joining, please do! It's never too late and you don't have to read 50. Nobody cares - we're here for the book talk, not the numbers.

Welcome @VanGoSunflowers

I enjoyed The Poppy War too, Sunflower.

Today I finished book 32 of the year - Oathbringer, book 3 of the Stormlight Archive and a whopping 1239 pages. I have to read these balanced on a cushion because they are too heavy to hold up for long!

I think I'll treat myself to a light Georgette Heyer before embarking on book 4