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

I would love a cat (to be called CJ). We’re on a fairly busy road though and DH flatly refuses. Plus the dogs. When we move.

My now deceased pets. The cat made it to 21 and the dog over 14 - so good innings.
I’d love another dog but I do quite like the freedom not having a pet brings and they do break your heart when they go

Loving all the pet photos! Sadly, I can't have one as OH is allergic to everything (!) but always had dogs when growing up, mostly Springer Spaniels.

On the book chat, I'm also a fan of Life after Life. My first Atkinson was Behind the scenes at the museum but I didn't like it (in spite of everyone saying it was her best!!) and would have stopped there if some 50 bookers hadn't encouraged me to try some of her other novels. I've enjoyed everything else I've read by her but Life after Life definitely tops the list.

Just finished:
27 Yellowface - R F Huang
Cautionary tale of what can happen when you steal someone else's intellectual property. I didn't like any of the protagonists and ultimately gave up caring how this would resolve after the initial pacy start, and strong premise.

So, The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley was book 42 for me (or 41, as I'm still reading the book I'd previously designated as that number).

Unlike @SpunkyKhakiScroller I absolutely loved it. I think it's suffered from being miscategorised as a sort of spec fic romantic comedy, because a lot of the reader reviews I've seen have suggested that's what they were expecting, and it absolutely isn't that at all. It certainly has a romance at the centre of the story, and it is also very funny in places, but it's absolutely not a romantic comedy. A lot of the plot is quite dark, the central relationship is bittersweet at best, and there are elements that are painfully sad. It's as much about politics, racism, cultural identity, ethics and human rights, and how we're all shaped by our experiences over time as it is about anything else. I don't think it's a perfect book but I did really enjoy it and there were elements that I keep thinking about. The author is the child of a Cambodian refugee (as is the narrator of the story) and she's used the time travel idea and the Victorian male love interest, to explore the refugee experience.

I also really liked the way it looked at history and explored how looking back at a period of time with the benefit of all the subsequent context and consequences gives us a completely different view of it from the people who actually lived through it. For example, Graham Gore, the 19th century naval officer the narrator is assigned to supervise and help integrate into modern society, finds it very strange that he and his contemporaries would be described as 'Victorians' at all. Victoria has only been on the throne for 10 years of his life, for a start, and to him her reign doesn't have an era-defining significance.

I'll stop wittering on now, but suffice to say I really liked it, and while there was one section that made me want to shout at the author for making me feel so sad, I was pleased with the very end.

I'm also currently about 200 pages into Pagans by James Alistair Henry which I'm enjoying, although it's taken me longer than I would have liked to really get into it.

Loving everyone's pet pictures - tragically, I have no pets, although I would love some - and in particular I'm delighted to see @BestIsWest's two beautiful schnauzers! I grew up with a schnauzer (I was 10 when we got her and in my mid-20s when she died) and they are such, such brilliant dogs. Ours was such a little character - a really, really special dog.

@BauhausOfEliott they are proper characters. Ours are completely different in personality. We call them Horrid Henry and Perfect Peter.

Meant to say that I also loved Life after Life and (more controversially) A God in Ruins. They are by far my favourite Kate Atkinson books.

Sorry for your losses @DesdamonasHandkerchief

Behind the Scenes at the Museum was my favourite Kate Atkinson.

I’ve finished another couple of books and a DNF.
First, the DNF- a library book- I’m Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself by Glynnis MacNicol. I think I borrowed this because of a review on here, and it did warn about it being very sex filled. And it was very sex-filled. (Why didn’t I listen to the reviewer?!) I liked the start, and then it lost the bits about friendship and Covid and her own life and became too much about the sex. I’m not prudish about sex in general, only I’m not bothered about reading about it. In the end, I just wasn’t enjoying the book enough to keep going and I jacked it in at 47%.

I finished a reread of The Odyssey. This was in conjunction with my first attempt to read Ulysses (which I’m mostly enjoying) and I enjoyed The Odyssey more for this link too. The Wilson translation is straightforward and like me, seems to see Odysseus as a bit of a prick so despite it being less poetic, I enjoyed it more.

I also finished Land by Maggie O’Farrell. And I ended up loving it, despite my misgivings about the magical realism at the start. Others have given a better synopsis than I could- it’s essentially a story about land and home and family and it’s beautifully written and emotional. It definitely falls more into the style of Hamnet rather than The Marriage Portrait. Is it bold for me? I’m not sure yet. I need to sit with it a while.

At a family wedding in Thailand and between wedding events and sightseeing, I have had limited time to read. But I did manage to finish this for the Goodreads Spring challenge, completing all 12 prompts with one day to go.

60. Brigands and Breadknives by Travis Dupree - I quite enjoyed Legends and Lattes. This is set in the same world but focuses on a different character, with a different existential crisis, for which she finds a different solution. Being midlife myself, I find these books appealing in a low key way. They are heartfelt and sincere and they puzzle out the central conflict in a warm and fuzzy way. They tiptoe on the line between sweet and saccharine but mostly get it right. I wouldn't especially recommend it but it was fine.

I loved Behind the Scenes at the Museum too. It's my favourite of her non-Brodie ones I think.

Thanks - I’ve been checking out Natalie Hayes and the non-fiction Pandora’s Box is currently in the Amazon basket. I think DD will like the feminist perspective. I also have the one by a different author piggy recommended yesterday in there.
Hoping they are to DD’s taste - she can be very eclectic & you never know what she’ll take to. I don’t think she read the Percy Jackson’s - but did watch a series? film? of it a couple of years back. She is currently watching a violent mythological anime on Netflix. Somebody always seems to be having a limb severed or similar. I refer to it as a cartoon, which annoys her a great deal.

Loving the pet pics - none here sadly. I only just about manage to look after DD, a pet would be too much of a stretch. I liked the idea of having chickens and imagined myself throwing them corn while wearing a flowery apron, Little House on the Prairie style. When I mentioned this to my mum she simply said ‘Don’t you’re not capable of looking after them & I won’t be coming to feed them if you go on holiday’. She is right about this & they are best confined to my imagination.

So lovely to see all the beautiful pets! I can't resist sharing my scruffy pair:

28.Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin. David escapes to Paris from the USA, outwardly to find himself, but also at least in part to escape his feelings towards other men. While his new girlfriend Hella is in Spain, he is drawn into a coterie of wealthy gay men, at least in part for financial support, and starts a passionate but doomed affair with Giovanni. We know from the outset that their relationship is over and Giovanni is going to die, and so the story focuses on the kindling and unravelling of the relationship.

I think perhaps I need to hand back my 50 bookers’ membership card, as I admired this rather than loved it. Baldwin’s writing is very, very good, but the novel is so thick with guilt and shame and self loathing, creating an extremely oppressive mood. This is fully intentional, and very much the point of things, but it felt like a tough read. The characters are flawed to the point of being difficult to like, which left me lacking a true emotional connection to this very sad story.

Loving all the pet photos!

28) The Mandibles: A Family 2029-2049 by Lionel Shriver. A speculative piece set in the near future which follows the fortunes of the Mandible family in the aftermath of a prolonged economic crisis. In response to a new global currency threating the dollar, the US government defaults on its loans and the American economy is plunged into chaos. As a result of hyperinflation, prices skyrocket and currency becomes basically worthless.

This was just ok. I will say for a book published in 2016, some of the scenarios were worryingly prophetic. However there are too many info dumps of quite dry economic theory. It also felt like the author was using the characters as mouthpieces for her own beliefs. This is fine in theory. Like the rest of us, authors have biases which often reflect in their writing to an extent. But it takes me out of the story when characters seem to only exist to prop up an author's argument.

This is highlighted by the fact that in the later half of the story, Shriver barely even bothers to use the characters to make her point. For instance, the book infers that conditions such as eating disorders, depression, ADHD, etc are made up - in this world they'd 'disappeared' by 2049, as people had 'bigger things to worry about'. This isn't the opinion of a particular character, nor is it remotely relevant to the plot. It's just stated as fact, inserted incongruously during a scene where preparations for a dinner party are underway.

An interesting thought experiment, but I won't be rereading.

@StrangewaysHereWeCome if that review means you have to hand your membership card in then I have to rip mine up and scatter the pieces to the wind as I absolutely detested Giovanni’s Room with a passion.

I thought We Need to Talk About Kevin was an extraordinary book, but I haven’t liked the other Shrivers I have read.

37 The Opposite of Murder - Sophie Hannah
Jemma Stelling confesses her plans to murder her stepmother to the police in an effort to prevent herself going through with it. The problem is, the wicked stepmother is being murdered in exactly the same way Jemma planned in the meantime… A better offering than some of Sophie Hannah’s recent ones - it was good to be back with Spilling CID - but the ending was a bit of a damp squib. Not a typical Sophie Hannah wtf, more of an ‘oh, was that it?’

38 His Only Wife - Peace Adzo Medie
In modern day Ghana, Afi enters an arranged marriage with wealthy Elikem, whose mother wants Afi to lure him away from the (apparently) nasty Liberian woman he’s set himself up with. I found this a fascinating page turner and loved Afi’s growth through the story, as she moves from being a traditionally obedient wife to determining her own path. Immediately got Medie’s other book Nightbloom out of the library.

39 A History of Modern Britain in 20 Murders - David Wilson
Attempt to build a social history of Britain since the time of Jack the Ripper, by telling the stories of 20 murders and relating them to broader social trends. Surprisingly boring for true crime, and not systematic enough to achieve what it set out to do.

I loved G’s Room, but haven’t felt emotionally strong enough to tackle any other Baldwin novels since.

The Art Of A Lie by Laura Shepherd-Robinson
A rollicking good story of Georgian grifters and murder. Hannah Cole owns her father’s confectionery shop and is mourning (sort of) the brutal death of her husband, Jonas. He wasn’t much of a loss, as it turns out, Along comes handsome William Devereux, offering her assistance in releasing some money Jonas had stashed away from an unrecorded source. He also gives her the recipe for a ‘iced cream’ which proves a hit when sold in the shop.Henry Fielding, in his role of detective/would-be founder of a police force/general po-faced stickybeak is determined to discover the truth.
There’s intrigue, bodice ripping, a nasty criminal underbelly. A largely undemanding read but well written all the same and it has a firm background of research as well as sumptuous descriptions of what Hannah makes and sells in the shop.
It didn’t end how I thought it might and was all the better for that.

I’m loving all the beautiful pet pictures, I really miss having an animal in the house, I’ve been reluctant to add to the load the last few years honestly as we’ve had a lot on, but the time has almost certainly come.

Finished I Who Have Never Known Men - Jacqueline Harpman last night. Led to some very bleak dreams! I’m still working out what I think about it honestly - not sure I ‘enjoyed’ it as such, it was compelling though, and frustrating.

Here are my cats.

Same, on both counts. And I'm scared to go back and re-read Kevin, in case if turns out that what I thought at the time was the skilful construction of unlikeable characters, turns out just to be LS's authorial voice coming through 😔

@VikingNorthUtsire I think you are right to be cautious as I loved We Need To Talk About Kevin but when I tried to reread it was a DNF for me.