50 Books Challenge 2026 Part Six

[Southeastdweller]

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

Thank you so much for the new thread @Southeastdweller - hope you are ok, you haven’t been around much x

I’m fine thanks @SheilaFentiman I do a lot of overtime these days to stay on top of the cost of living so not as much time to read as usual. I’ve almost finished Kathy Burke’s book, which is pretty average so far.

Thanks @Southeastdweller 😊

Evenings and weekends by Oisin McKenna

This book follows a period of time with a group of friends and family who are quite intertwined. The first part of the book follows a weekend in quite some detail and then the last section we jump ahead a bit, to see how things work out for the characters. I usually like a tied up ending, but actually this could have stopped ambiguously at the end of the weekend.

The friends live in London and go to parties and take drugs and have sex with people they don't know well (or at know at all) and I assume this is quite true to life for some, but I am far too boring to have loved my 20s doing this. What I did really relate to, is the mundane thoughts and conversations in among the big events that are driving the plot along. I've definitely commiserated with friends about serious health issues and then in my next breath suggested we go get cake or something stupid. So I was sorting of relieved to see it's just me who does that!

Solid 4 out 5. I don't think I'll be thinking about in a few days, but it was entertaining and kept wanting to pick it up and see what has happening next. I'd read another by this author too.

Thank you @Southeastdweller! Sorry to hear you have less time for reading.

Bringing my list across to keep track of where I am:

1 The Proof of Innocence - Jonathan Coe
2 Marble Hall Murders - Anthony Horowitz
3 The Voyage Home - Pat Barker
4 Passing On - Penelope Lively
5 Double Cross - Ben MacIntyre
6 Bleeding Heart Square - Andrew Taylor
7 Devil's Cub - Georgette Heyer
8 The Crash - Robert Peston
9 The Truth about Melody Browne - Lisa Jewell
10 Howl's Moving Castle - Diana Wynne Jones
11 The Lock Up - John Banville
12 Malibu Rising - Taylor Jenkins Reid
13 The Beautiful and the Damned - F Scott Fitzgerald
14 Audition - Katie Kitamura
15 Persuasion - Jane Austen
16 Score - Jilly Cooper
17 Air - John Boyne
18 Dumb Witness - Agatha Christie
19 Regency Buck - Georgette Heyer
20 Lessons - Ian McEwan
21 Tom Lake - Ann Patchett
22 A Bird in Winter - Louise Doughty
23 Horse - Geraldine Brooks
24 Pandora - Jilly Cooper
25 A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
26 Mansfield Park - Jane Austen
27 Fire - John Boyne
28 Bad Actors - Mick Herron
29 Clown Town - Mick Herron
30 London Falling - Patrick Radden Keefe
31 From London with Love - Katie Fforde
32 The Road to Lichfield - Penelope Lively
33 The Pretender - Jo Harkin
34 Carrie Soto is back - Taylor Jenkins Reid
35 The Hounding - Xenobe Purvis
36 The Wedding People - Alison Espach
37 Brooklyn - Colm Toibin
38 The Editor's Wife - Clare Chambers
39 Deadman's Pool - Kate Rhodes
40 Scaffolding - Lauren Elkin
41 The Names - Florence Knapp
42 Precipice - Robert Harris

And I have just finished (which I will review later):

43 House of Glass - Hadley Freeman

Thank you @Southeastdweller

My list such as it is :

1. The Lamb by Lucy Rose
2. The Book Of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey
3. Sonny Boy by Al Pacino
4. The Benefactors by Wendy Erskine
5. The Names by Florence Knapp
6. Helm by Sarah Hall
7. Love Forms by Claire Adam
8. Patricia Brent, Spinster by Herbert George Jenkins
9. Black Woods, Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivey
10. Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis
11. Deep Cuts by Holly Brickley
12. Paper Cup by Karen Campbell
13. The Wedding People by Alison Espach
14. The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
15. Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
16. The Favourites by Layne Fargo
17. John and Paul : A Love Story in Songs by Ian Leslie
18. The Trouble With Mrs Montgomery Hurst by Katie Lumsden
19. Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors
20. Last One At The Party by Bethany Clift
21. Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst
22. Death Of The Author by Nnedi Okorafor
23. Boy Parts by Eliza Clark
24. The Beginning Of The End (Apocalypse Z : Book One) by Manel Loureiro
25. On The Calculation Of Volume IV by Solvej Balle
26. The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne by Ron Currie
27. Everything Is Tuberculosis by John Green
28. A Court Of Thorns And Roses by Sarah J. Maas
29. A Woman Of Substance by Barbara Taylor Bradford
30. London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe
31. Strange Houses by Uketsu
32. Say You’ll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez
33. Termush by Sven Holm
34. I’m Thinking Of Ending Things by Iain Reid
35. Homeschooled by Stefan Merrill Block
36. Tender Is The Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica
37. My Husband’s Wife by Alice Feeney
38. Slags by Emma Jane Unsworth
39. Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe
40. The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Jewell
41. The Grapes Of Wrath by John Steinbeck
42. Look What You Made Me Do by John Lanchester
43. Fall And Rise : The Story Of 9/11 by Mitchell Zuckoff
44. Strange Pictures by Uketsu
45. Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

Shocked and disappointed by my reading in recent months I know I have a good reason but it’s just so unlike me! Hopefully things will turn around soon

As I’m on over 100, I won’t copy the whole list, but here are the bolds.

1. The Dictator’s Wife - Freya Berry
2. The Stolen Crown - Tracy Borman
3. Orbital - Samantha Harvey
4. The Story of a Heart - Rachel Clarke
5. Tunnel 29 - Helena Merriman
6. The Curious Case of Mike Lynch - Katie Prescott
7. There are Rivers in the Sky - Elif Sharak
8. The Long Walk - Richard Bachman
9. The Amateur Marriage - Anne Tyler
10. Madam, Will You Talk? - Mary Stewart
11. Just One Damned Thing After Another - Jodi Taylor
12. The Paying Guests - Sarah Waters
13. The Death of Us - Abigail Dean
14. The Hanging Shed - Gordon Ferris
15. Memorial Days - Geraldine Brooks
16. Pilgrim Soul - Gordon Ferris
17. Friendaholic - Elizabeth Day
18. Death of an Ordinary Man - Sarah Perry
19. Code Dependent - Madhumita Murgia
20. Bookish - Lucy Mangan
21. Magpie - Elizabeth Day
22. The Giver of Stars - Jojo Moyes
23. Ultra Processed People - Chris Von Tulleken
24. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow - Gabrielle Zevin

Thanks for the new thread @Southeastdweller

Bringing over my list since the last one:

53. Groundskeeping - Lee Cole
54. The Weekend - Charlotte Wood
55. London Falling - Patrick Radden Keefe
56. Kin - Tayari Jones
57. Look What You Made Me Do - John Lanchester
58. Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir
59. Departures(s) - Julian Barnes
60. A Room Of One's Own - Virginia Woolf
61. Let Me Go Mad In My Own Way - Elaine Feeney
62. Land - Maggie O Farrell
63. The Elements - John Boyne
64. Big Sky - Kate Atkinson
65. Death At The Sign of The Rook - Kate Atkinson
66. The Things We Never Say - Elizabeth Strout
67. After Annie - Anna Quindlen
68. The Delusions - Jenni Fagan

I think Land on reflection is a bold for me. Will be interesting to see whether O Farrell gets her Booker nomination for this one.

Marking my place - no list here but will be back later with my latest reviews.

Place-marking on the new thread.
Thank you Southeastdweller.

@RazorstormUnicorn I quite enjoyed Evenings and Weekends when I read it over a hot weekend in June a couple of years ago. It's based in areas that I'm very familiar with and the people are very true to east London - including the partying!

69. The Palm House - Gwendoline Riley. This is one that's been on a few Booker prediction lists. It's set in 2017 in London, and is narrated by Laura, who is around 40, and has been friends with Putnam since her days at UCL, who is about 10 years older. Putnam has just resigned from his job at a New Statesman type magazine where he's worked most of his life. The book is very good at creating the atmosphere of a time and a place, Southwark, the various pubs they drink in, different living conditions between Putnam who has his own flat near work and Laura who can't afford to buy anywhere. There's no real plot, more a series of vignettes looking mainly at Laura's life, her self-absorbed mother, absent father, and relationships, including one awful grooming experience. I quite liked reading it but was expecting something more, and found it a little thin. Apparently she wanted to write like Penelope Fitzgerald and it does have a similar feel. to books like Offshore and The Bookshop.

Hello all, and thanks as ever @Southeastdweller for the new thread. I'm with you @Stowickthevast on bolding Land. Despite not really getting on with the magic realism aspects there was so much I did like.

@TimeforaGandT I absolutely loved House of Glass so am looking forward to your review.

1.Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi
2.The Rest of Our Lives by Benjamin Markovits
3.Bournville by Jonathan Coe.
4.Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
5.Seascraper by Benjamin Wood
6.Shattered by Hanif Kureishi
7.Jump! by Jilly Cooper.
8.Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
9.Daughters of the Bamboo Grove: China’s Stolen Children and a Story of Separated Twins by Barbara Demmick
10.The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald
11.Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë
12.Lying in Wait by Liz Nugent.
13.Black and British: A Forgotten History by David Olusoga.
14.Munichs by David Peace
15.Mount! by Jilly Cooper.
16.Unravelling Oliver by Liz Nugent.
17.Cuddy by Benjamin Myers.
18. Heart the Lover by Lily King
19.The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett
20.The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai
21.A Family Matter by Claire Lynch
22.The Fortnight in September by RC Sherriff.
23.Rodham by Curtis Sittenfield
24.Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald
25.The Safekeep by Yael Van Der Wouden
26.Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
27.Land by Maggie O’Farrell
28.Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
29.The Art of a Lie by Laura Shepherd Robinson

Reading v-e-r-y slowly due to work and the World Cup so I'm still on Precipice by Robert Harris which is great, but I've just not found much time. All my recent "reads" have been audio - driving during the working day helps! Current audio is The Human Stain by Philip Roth, which so far is 50% off-puttingly blokeish and 50% compelling.

Thank you for the new thread @Southeastdweller
My list:

1. Trespasses by Louise Kennedy
2. The Drums by Mike Joyce
3. The Wedding People by Alison Espach
4. The Long Shoe by Bob Mortimer
5. The Colour Of Our Sky by Amita Trasi
6. There Is Nothing For You Here by Fiona Hill
7. My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
8. The Story Of A New Name by Elena Ferrante
9. Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay Elena Ferrante
10. A Tale Of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
11. The Story Of The Lost Child by Elena Ferrante
12. The Secret Hours by Mick Herron
13. Enough Said by Alan Bennett
14. Bookish by Lucy Mangan
15. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
16. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
17. Seascraper by Benjamin Wood
18. I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
19. Never Mind by Edward St Aubyn
20. Bad News by Edward St Aubyn
21. Some Hope by Edward St Aubyn
22. Mother’s Milk by Edward St Aubyn
23. At Last by Edward St Aubyn
24. The Gift Of Rain by Tan Twan Eng
25. The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

And most recently:

#26. The Disappearing of Margaret Small by Neil Alexander
This was recommended as a good audio book, and it was well narrated. It deals with the story of a woman with learning difficulties who is spirited away to an institution as a young girl and kept there for decades. It was however a bit too chick litty in style and I didn’t like that some of the humour in the book was at the protagonists expense.

I’ve hit a bit of a wall.
Listening to A Gentleman In Moscow, but slowly, and it’s not really grabbing me.
Alan Bennett’s Pandemic Diaries were indeed lifted wholesale from Enough Said, as BestIsWest rightly surmised, so I haven’t counted them.
DNF The Siege - nothing wrong with it but didn’t get a real momentum going and it was removed by BorrowBox at the end of my loan.
Also reading a library book called Thirst after a glowing Guardian review but it’s really aimed at people with alcohol issues rather than a liquid version of Grace Dent’s Hunger as I’d hoped.

Checking in on the new thread - thanks southeast.

Thanks for the new thread @Southeastdweller
Just checking in as my list is now at almost 100.

For those interested, I did a Wish List search today and the book Muv about the Mitford Sisters Mum mentioned by @ChessieFL has dropped massively in price on Kindle to £1.99

Thanks for new thread. Have a few things on the go.
Hell Bay and the Mary Portas, both recs from the last thread.

Also a re-listen to John and Paul.

Thank you as always for keeping us organised @Southeastdweller - much appreciated!

@DesdamonasHandkerchief I've recently started Thirst too but am listening to it, narrated by the author. I understand your disappointment if you were looking for a liquid version of Hungry by Grace Dent (which would be an excellent idea for a book!!). Personally, I'm always questioning my relationship with alcohol so it's a good listen so far for me.

Like several PP I'm also packing but as I'm heading to Blighty I'm only taking one physical book with me and my kindle. An emergency visit to a charity shop could be justified if necessary but frustratingly, I need to travel very light on the way home. I have selected My brilliant friend - Elena Ferrante from my bookcase as I've been looking forward to it for ages. What do you think my chances are of finding the next instalments in aforementioned charity shops??

Just finished
30 - We solve murders - Richard Osman which I have thoroughly enjoyed. An easy read, and good fun.

And because I'm doing everything topsy turvy in today's post here's my list ;)

• Lethal White – Robert Galbraith
• Revenge wears Prada – Laura Weisberger
• Bookish: How reading shapes our lives – Lucy Mangan
• Maurice & Maralyn – Sophie Elmhirst
• Menopausing – Davina McCall + Dr Naomi Potter
• Crazy Rich Asians – Kevin Kwan
• Troubled Blood – Robert Galbraith
• There are rivers in the sky – Elif Shafak
• East of Croydon – Sue Perkins
• Notes on a nervous planet – Matt Haig
• Learn Italian – Paul Noble

DNF - Making it up as I go along – Marian Keyes

• The Ink Black Heart – Robert Galbraith
• The Light between Oceans – M L Stedman
• Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow – Gabrielle Zevin
• Went to London, took the dog – Nina Stibbe
• The Wedding People – Alison Espach
• Home Fire – Kamila Shamsie
• Fallout – Eleanor Anstruther (ARC)
• Project Hail Mary – Andy Weir
• Eat Bitter – Lydia Pang (ARC)
• Death at the sign of the rook – Kate Atkinson
• An unlikely visitor – Joanna Cannon (ARC)
• Summer at the French bakery – Jo Thomas (ARC)
• Rewilding – Jane Green (ARC)
• Hungry Eyes – Dawn O’Porter (ARC)
• Ducks, Newburyport – Lucy Ellmann
• Yellowface – R F Kuang
• How not to be a boy – Robert Webb
• When the cranes fly south – Lisa Ridzén
• We solve murders - Richard Osman

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit- thanks for the tip-off!

Thanks, have bought that one!

Thanks for the new thread, @Southeastdweller.

My list since the last thread:

41.The Loved and Envied - Enid Bagnold
42. Dear Reader - Cathy Rentzenbrink
43. Before the Coffee Gets Cold - Toshizaku Kawaguchi
44. Black Sunset - Clancy Sigal
45. Another World - Melvyn Bragg
46. Whose Body? - Dorothy L. Sayers
47. Answer in the Negative - Henrietta Hamilton
48. Craftland - James Fox
49. How To End A Story - Helen Garner
50. Regions of Thick-Ribbed Ice - Helen Garner
51. Through A Glass, Darkly - Helen McCloy

And I've just finished 52. Enough Said - Alan Bennett
I suppose it’s not surprising that a beloved writer in his late 80's (he turns 90 during the course of these diaries) should be increasingly focused on the past, on family and friends he's lost, and on his own achievements of years ago. I'm a big Bennett fan but I did find this volume deeply sad - despite some guffaws - as he chronicles his infirmity and the indignities of age. His frailness when he was interviewed on the radio about the book told its own story and I don’t think there'll be another volume, sadly.

Thanks for the new thread southeast!

My list since the last thread:

31 Cold Earth - Ann Cleeves
32 Joe Country - Mick Herron
33 Slough House - Mick Herron
34 Entitled: the Rise and Fall of the House of York - Andrew Lownie
35 Wild Fire - Ann Cleeves
36 Bad Actors - Mick Herron
37 Standing by the Wall - Mick Herron
38 The Sea Sisters - Louise Douglas

Thanks @EineReiseDurchDieZeit (and @ChessieFL for the original mention). I've bought Muv too.

Thanks @Southeastdweller !

1. I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue
2. North Wood by Daniel Mason
3. Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
4. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North
5. Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend
6. A Village in the Third Reich: How ordinary lives were transformed by Fascism by Julia Boyd & Angelika Patel
7. If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio
8. Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Braithwaite
9. The Country of Others by Leïla Slimani
10. The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy by Megan Bannen
11. Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell
12. Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves by Sophie Gilbert
13. I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
14. The Names by Florence Knapp
15. Play Nice by Rachel Harrison
16. I'm a Fan by Sheena Patel
17. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
18. Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
19. Julie Chan is Dead by Liann Zhang
20. Wundersmith: The Calling of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend
21. Hail Project Mary by Andy Weir
22. Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico
23. Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books by Kirsten Miller
24. Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis
25. Hermit by Chris McQueer
26. Notes on an Execution By Danya Kukafka
27. The Story of a Nobody by Anton Chekhov
28. The Mandibles by Lionel Shriver
29. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
30. Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon

Thank you @Southeastdweller . I am glad to hear you are managing to carve out a little time for reading.

Checking in - and here's my list so far:

1 - So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell
2 - Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves
3 - Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty
4 - The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
5 - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - JK Rowling
6 - Take Your Breath Away - Linwood Barclay.
7 - All the Lives We Never Lived - Anuradha Roy
8 - The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffernegger.
9 - The Bookseller of Kabul - Asne Seierstad
10 - Tell Me Everything - Elizabeth Strout
11 - Revelation - CJ Sampson
12 - Olive, again - Elizabeth Strout
13 - The Storm Sister - Lucinda Riley
14 - The Shadow Sister - Lucinda Riley
15 - 44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith
16 - Lord of the Flies - William Golding
17 - I'm the King of the Castle - Susan Hill
18 - Wobegon Boy - Garrison Keillor
19 - Death at the Sign of the Rook - Kate Atkinson
20 - Paris Echo - Sebastian Faulks
21 - Three wishes - Lianne Moriarty
22 - Piranesi - Susannah Clarke
23 - My Name is Lucy Barton - Elizabeth Strout
24 - Anything is Possible - Elizabeth Strout
25 - The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
26 - Shuggie Bain - Douglas Stuart
27 - Instructions for a Heatwave - Maggie O'Farrell
28 - Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
29 - The Boy who Followed his Father into Auschwitz - Jeremy Dronfield

Finished the last one on a train last night. It's the true story of a father and son in various concentration camps during WW2. Their story is extraordinary but I didn't always like the way it was written - there was a lot of sensationalising where it just wasn't necessary. The number of times he must have said 'and worse was still to come...' - their whole experience was, as you'd expect, horrific and that cliffhanger style at the end of chapters just didn't sit right with me. Still, it's important these stories are told and I'm glad I read it.

Harking back to the Dickensian footballers, can I chuck Leighton Baines in the mix? Not even so much for his name, but the fact he just looks like he's stepped out of the Victorian era! Stick some breeches on him and he'd fit right into a period drama. (Fellow Evertonian here @Tarragon123 - sorry @EineReiseDurchDieZeit!)