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

@Terpsichore I hope you like the film if you do see it! My recollection of it is hazy but very positive (and at the time I saw it, I didn't know anything about Helen Garner or even register her as the writer).

YES she would be a fantastic friend, I agree! I think it speaks highly of her that she has such a positive relationship with her daughter. She speaks of her daughter in the diaries with such warmth. I believe she now lives next door to her daughter, her son-in-law and her grandchildren. I'm happy for her.

It seemed she was willing to let her daughter find her own path, instead of trying to force her to be a particular kind of person. Mother/daughter relationships can be so tricky (yes, I'm thinking of my own DM here!).

@cassandre Agree, she writes so positively about her daughter (the entry where she said she really admires M was great and very touching). It does sound as though HG did a fine job as a mother despite not having been well-parented herself - the entries about her totally unencouraging mother and father brought to mind mother-daughter dynamics in my own family that make my heart sink.

Anyway, I watched the film trailer and it looks great - then found a copy online for the grand total of £2.57! Plus Bruno Ganz and Kerry Fox are in it, two actors I always enjoy watching.

Firstly just catching up with news - sending lots of sympathy to @HagCymraeg & I hope listening to BB brings comfort. Really pleased to hear that @GrannieMainland& Baby are ok & I hope @Tarragon123is feeling better. Lovely to hear from @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie& welcome to @VanGoSunflowers!

@cassandrejust to add to your points on epistolary novels, the other problem is that they are difficult to write as each letter has to contain only stuff that its author can know - that requires a lot of character development. We’re also not used to them as a genre - all the examples I can think of are 18th century. I don’t think you can discuss epistolary novels without referring to Les Liaisons because it’s the only masterpiece I can think of that is still read. I haven’t read The Correspondent yet as the waiting list on BorrowBox is v long.

Just to add to the discussion on The Art of the Lie - I’ve read 3 books by the author & with each there were lots of things that I liked, but I felt that the author overloaded her characters with too much baggage. I also felt that Henry Fielding deserved a better portrayal.

61 . Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy - this was in the deals some months ago & I finally read it due to @ÚlldemoShúlsuggesting that we do a greatest novels list to check that it is the masterpiece that I remembered. It is - Hardy’s prose is an absolute joy to read & there is a lot about the book that I had forgotten or just not noticed when younger. For example, I had forgotten that Tess’ parents disappear to a lock-in at the beginning and the backgrounds of Alec & Angel are much more realised than I remember. When I read this as a teen, I saw it as very much a book locked in time both in Hardy’s depiction of Wessex and due to Tess’ fate. Reading it again after various modern news stories, I was so struck by how timeless Hardy is in his observations - the vulnerability of women both re their employers & getting home safely after a night out, how Alec tries to control & manipulate Tess & most strikingly how Alec takes to religion to whitewash his past.

@Benvenuto I'll add Dracula as an example of a classic epistolary novel that is still read, and also (not as famous but an old favourite of mine) Daddy Long Legs by Jean Webster. I really enjoyed The Correspondent although I do agree that the ending was a bit too neat.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and 84, Charing Cross Road are also relatively modern epislatory novels (and my favourites).

@HagCymraeg - sorry to hear about your loss and hope you and your family can work through it. I agree with you that I have enjoyed all the John Boyne books I have read - though some more than others - and haven't had a dud yet. I have The House of Special Purpose unread on my Kindle so will move it up the TBR pile/list.

41. The Names - Florence Knapp

Much read and reviewed on here, the story of one boy given different names and the impact of his mother's naming decision on their family's life. I enjoyed this. Slightly annoyed by the final decision by Bear at the end to continue fannying around rather than taking prompt action (trying to avoid a spoiler!).

The Benefactors by Wendy Erskine

I found this a bit confusing from the outset, I think perhaps knowing the overall storyline I was in a rush to get there. There are lots of different points of views, and these are also interrupted by paragraphs that are (I think) individual memoirs of people tangentially related to the story. Some of them are so tangential that I had no idea what the connection was.

I quite liked that we got more from the parents point of view than the kids, but I found it hard to accept the collective shrug the parents of the boys gave.

Pleased to have read it, but one of those books which leaves me feeling if I missed something by not being quite clever enough to 'get it'.

Yes - when i started it i very much thought it would be my type of thing. Just didnt turn out that way. Im open to trying another of hers thought - it was easy to read. I didnt like how the event introduced at the end was 'used' for what seemed like shock value. However, it is just a personal perspective.

Sorry you’re dealing with that @HagCymraeg , I hope you’re doing ok. Bill Bryson is an excellent comfort read!

35 Wild Fire - Ann Cleeves The eighth and apparently last in the Shetland series (though it looks like we’ll be following the main characters to Orkney…). The action centres around two families in a small village - recent incomers from London with young children including an autistic 11-year-old (who I thought was portrayed well), and their friends and neighbours the middle-class doctor’s family, who have teens and also two younger children, with a live-in nanny. Another decent murder mystery as well as some further character development for the detectives. I enjoy Cleeves’ books and will go on to the Orkney series if BorrowBox has it.

Sorry for your loss @HagCymraeg

111. Tam's Tale. Michael Findlay
     This is listed as being YA Fantasy, although there wasn't a lot of Fantasy imo. It would, however be perfect for teens. Tam leaves his home to travel to Colonia and find work. On the way there he finds a golden eye which comes from a statue in Colonia. Theres a prophecy that a boy and girl will one day return the eyes to their rightful place. Of course he finds a girl along the way who also found an eye. There's lots of adventures on the way, which I can imagine younger me would have found much more engaging, although I enjoyed them as an adult too. Tam gets caught up in Colonia's death games to, which were a bit like the hunger games but with wolves not other kids. There were some beautiful illustrations too. So if you've got DC who fall into the YA age group (which isn't adults at all, I hate this as an age category) then they might really enjoy this.

112. Fanning Fireflies. L.S Delorme
     Book 3 in the Limerent Series. Although books 1-3 can be read in any order,I think this one needs to be book 3 as some of the characters from the other 2 books appear in this as side characters and if you didn't "know" them already they might seem a bit 2 dimensional.
     
     This book is set in America in the 1940s, the language reflects that so isn't necessarily PC these days. Its really hard to explain what these books are about because they are so unusual.
     Veronica is a young, white woman who works enlisting men into the army. They alternate days processing white men and "colored men" (told you the language was of it's time). Despite the fact they only meet a couple of times, V falls in love with one of the men. He heads off to war, and they "meet" in their dreams.
     
     There's also a white supremacy type group in the town. First cats and dogs turn up dead. Then women start being murdered. The white men blame the black men. They insist its not them. I really love this series, but it's so hard to explain!

@Tarahumara- I hadn’t realised that Dracula was an epistolary novel (my only excuse is that I really don’t like vampires). I’d also completely forgotten about Dear Enemy (which I also like but haven’t read for a few years). @SpunkyKhakiScroller84 Charing Cross Rd is on my wishlist & I’ll add the Guernsey book as well.

62 . The Others by Sheena Kalayil - this was another Women’s Prize fiction nominee & like Heart The Lover it’s a love triangle. The setting of East Germany just before the collapse of communism was interesting but I found the writing style cool & distant so I didn’t love the characters enough. I also disliked the ending as it felt that at least 2 of the characters had rather unfulfilled lives (also similar to one of the characters in Heart).

I’ve also DNFed another from the fiction list (A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar) - another interesting premise, but again I found it a bit of a chore to read. I’ve found the Women’s Prize non-fiction list much more rewarding to read than the fiction one.

I also enjoyed Meet me at the Museum as another epistolary novel that was recommended on this thread. Am about half-way through The Correspondent and enjoying it so far.

29. The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman

The last of the murder mysteries set in a retirement home in Sussex. I thought it had the strongest plot of all of them, but you can tell he was running out of steam, as there is little development of the main characters and instead the focus is on a new bunch related to the new crime. His previous books really focused on Elizabeth, the ex spy, for example, but she barely features.

Anyway, I enjoyed it as an easy read for the heat.

30) The Amateur Marriage by Anne Tyler

I have had this for ages, probably when it first came out, but never got round to reading it. I do like an Anne Tyler and this was no exception. She is so good at observation and describing people's lives.

The story covers the adult lives of a couple who meet and marry in haste due to the start of WW2. They turn out to be hugely unsuited to each other and limp along for many years in badly disguised contempt - it is a lot more fun than it sounds.

@Benvenuto I read The Others in Berlin which helped but I did find Theo in particular, an unlikeable character. The ending felt like it was trying to wrap too much up. I also wasn't a fan of a Guardian and a Thief as found out really depressing, and the central tenet - that both characters were both guardians and thieves - dealt with in a very heavy handed way.. But I know it's had a lot of love.

#24. The Gift Of Rain by Tan Twan Eng (Audiobook)
It’s probably just me, as it’s been well reviewed on Goodreads (Scoring 4.28 out of 5), but I hated this. It should have been one of those books that taught me about a time and place I knew very little about, the Malayan Island of Penang before & during WWII Japanese occupation, and I suppose it did serve that purpose to a degree, but I couldn’t wait for it to end.
The novel concerns a young impressionable upper class boy, Philip Hutton - half English, half Chinese, who comes into contact with an advance party Japanese Diplomat/Spy who becomes his ‘Sensei’ - a teacher of martial arts and spiritual guru of sorts. With a side order of homoeroticism which is oft hinted at but never made sexually explicit.
So far so ‘Karate Kid’ with endless descriptions of boring lessons and fights.
This is definitely one of those authors who never uses one adjective where three can be squeezed in. And the metaphors, similes and flowery language became laughable.
The actual invasion seems to take for ever to happen, and when it finally does Philip and his family leave no bad decision unturned. Which made for a frustrating narrative.
I probably should have DNF this but having invested several hours listening to the dodgy Chinese/Japanese accents employed by the narrator and waiting for something to actually happen (I blame this thread as I’m always conscious of trying to get my paltry reading figures up to a respectable number!) I decided to plough on, surely all those Goodreads reviewers couldn’t be wrong? Well in this case I think they were!

#25 The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
I just finished this today and it’s been interesting to read whilst the various thread discussions about it have been going on.
I enjoyed the patchwork nature of how the various items of correspondence built up a vivid picture of Sybil. I enjoyed it, although I would agree it was perhaps a strange choice to win the 2026 Women’s Prize for Fiction.

@DesdamonasHandkerchief shocked by your review of Gift Of Rain do you think it was maybe the audio?

@Stowickthevast- I felt rather sorry for Theo as he wasn’t allowed to be as gorgeous as the other 2! I also thought his storyline was a missed opportunity as his life opens up the day he can cross into West Berlin but then his ending just felt flat. I also found A Guardian quite a grim topic, but I just didn’t care enough about it for it to work. I hadn’t got as far as working out the tenet - but I had started to pick up on it & that would explain why I didn’t warm to it.

That's disappointing @DesdamonasHandkerchief as I read another Tan Twan Eng last year - The House of Doors which I really liked so was going to try another. Maybe not that one!

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit I’m shocked too, I expected to love it. I think the narration was quite off putting, maybe it would have been better in book form.
I did think it must have been well reviewed on this thread as that’s where I get a lot of my TBR recommendations.
The fact it has so many 5 star Goodreads reviews would suggest it’s a me problem!

The Bride Price by Buchi Emecheta

Aku-nna, her brother and mother leave Lagos after her father dies and go to live with her uncle in Ibuza. Aku-nna is quiet and intelligent so will fetch a good 'bride price' for her uncle. But the man she falls in love with is not considered a suitable match.

I love Buchi Emecheta's writing and this was no exception. Now to stalk WoB for another out of print novel by her...

And similarly to @TimeforaGandT, do give it a go - if you liked a different book by this author maybe you’d enjoy The Gift Of Rain, and either way I’d be interested to read your review.

@DesdamonasHandkerchief I loved it but I will add the caveat that it was 10-15 years ago that I read it and tastes change, if the narrator was particularly bad that really does affect my enjoyment of a book

@HagCymraeg - I’m very sorry to hear about what you and your DC are going through at the moment .

@ChessieFL Villa Coco sounds very much up my street. I enjoyed Less a few years ago so will give this a try.

@VanGoSunflowers Welcome to the thread! Looking forward to reading your reviews

@VikingNorthUtsire I was also very much not a fan of Audition - either it went completely over my head, or it was the Emperor’s New Clothes.

27.Land by Maggie O’Farrell
A family saga following the fates of Tomás and Phina, and their children Liam, Enda, Rose and Eugene. Tomás and Phina survived The Great Hunger as children. At the start of the novel Tomás now works as a surveyor for the English colonialists, translating place names on behalf of the ruling class. On visiting an ancient well he finds himself more connected to his country’s past. He can no longer tolerate working for the English, and spends the family’s life savings on acquiring a run down cottage abandoned during The Great Hunger. We then hear of how each of the children in turn come to leave their family home, travelling far from Ireland, and how some eventually return.

My views chime in pretty well with those of @Stowickthevast. I should probably start by confessing that I know shamefully little about Irish history and so have no idea how well O’Farrell has portrayed this period. I enjoyed this, but it did feel that there were two clear strands - the family history and a more magical mythology - didn’t blend fully. There’s a point at which the book deviates completely to ancient times and the fate of a young Celtic girl, and this is never returned to later. It reminded me a bit of the long section with the flea’s journey in Hamnet, and I didn’t think that added much either. But I really liked the family story, the relationships of the children to one another, and the idea of always being connected to home no matter where in the world you might be. The descriptive writing about the landscapes is beautiful and quite cinematic - you can feel the bones of a film that I'm sure must already be in development. Not perfect, but still definitely recommended.

Enough Said - Alan Bennett

His diaries 2016-2024.

Oh I enjoyed this so much. He covers Brexit, Boris and the pandemic, many deaths and funerals of friends, ruminates on aging (he is 91 by the end), on love, on sex. He is jealous, admiring, sarcastic and generous about his contemporaries by turn but never spiteful (unless about Boris). Lots and lots of name dropping. He reflects on his parents and his own shyness, his army years, noting every year on August 8th the date he joined up. He writes about his partner with such love and their trips home to Yorkshire, the care he gives him, the meals they eat, the people they bump into. He is just so nice all the time whilst reflecting inwardly that he isn’t really.

I guess, going by the title, this might be the last. Truly a national treasure.