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

Always an option, though I do generally agree with you.

I read The Sun Also Rises, which is a much slimmer book. I enjoyed it. I read it for a book club - the woman who chose it always chose books her husband recommended, which irritated me, as she seemed to have no confidence in her own choice. So that's how we came to read Hemmingway.

Btw there is a very good book about his wives, which I really enjoyed.

I read Hemingway as a teenager and have no real desire to go back there though I did read A Moveable Feast a few years ago. But I’d recommend both The Paris Wife by Paula McLain and Mrs Hemingway by Naomi Wood.

That’s the only Hemingway I've ever read, too - also for a book club! It was an easy enough read but the bull-fighting isn’t my cup of tea, and tbh I'm a bit turned off by the whole macho tortured-genius Hemingway thing. I have been to the bar he frequented in Havana, though 😂

@Benvenuto oh dear, DD1 (13; cries at sad stories) has just begun A Traveller in Time - is she going to be devastated? I never came across it as a child/teenager so haven’t read it yet.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit yay for reading a book! Sorry it wasn’t one you enjoyed much - hope you’re doing better and get back into the reading habit soon.

Re. Dominic and Tabby, I think I’ll do a re-read of The 39 Steps after the podcast episode. I loved it and the sequels as a teenager/young adult, but there are plenty of problematic aspects. I haven’t read anything else specifically for the Book Club episodes - either I’ve already read the book, or I’m not bothered about spoilers (except for one very early episode which I’ll listen to once I’ve read the book, which I recently bought). I’ve read one Hemingway at uni and I think it must have been For Whom the Bell Tolls as it was definitely about fighting in the Spanish civil war, so it’s got to be that one I guess? Very limited memories of it, but I do remember it was a slog and I didn’t feel any inclination to read more by him.

@FuzzyCaoraDhubh Pied Piper sounds great, I’ll add it to my wishlist. I’ve never read any Neville Shute but he seems to be popular on here.

Highly recommended @DuPainDuVinDuFromage

I got a copy of it from the library, but it's on Kindle too. I also found it on Internet Archive.

I read Fiesta - The Sun Also Rises at Uni, probably for the American Lit module, and if that’s the collective favourite I’ll definitely avoid the rest! Although l see Terpsichore’s Havana bar hang out and raise you a visit to his home on Key West, populated by 6 toe cats - descendants of his original pets it’s claimed.

Loved Pied Piper, @FuzzyCaoraDhubh .

There was a bar I used to go to in Madrid that had a sign saying "Hemmingway never drank here" which made me laugh, possibly the only one in central Madrid!

When I lived there in the early noughties, it was full of Americans wanting to be the next Hemmingway, which further put me off him.

I can't remember what the book I read about Martha Gellhorn was called, but that was really good.

Little Spark by Jess Kidd ARC from Netgalley, published 13th August.
Bodkin Bell has a peculiar talent and her guardian, Cornelius, capitalises on it without exploitation. Bodkin produces a powerful static electricity which is very useful to a travelling showman like Cornelius, harnessed into show stoppers like zapping hornets in a human sized jar (a questionable exception he makes as a Victorian vegan). Things come undone when an oaf attempts to kiss Bodkin and the stored electricity that she’s not entirely in control of kills him. So we see Bodkin in a prison cell, Cornelius lost to somewhere she does not know.
A rescue of sorts appears in the corvid-like frame of Lady Hesperia Haseley, intrigued by the embroidery Bodkin is doing in the prison workshop - a large house with swans in the foreground… We are then propelled into a world of close-mouthed servants, mysterious heirs and no small amount of ‘mechanical horrors’. Bodkin is ostensibly at Point Mote to see out her prison sentence by assisting Ramshaw Haseley but it soon becomes apparent that much more is going on behind the scenes. Almost like clockwork….
The creepiness is excellently ramped up as the book goes on, the descriptions of the landscape and characters perfectly drawn.
Bodkin is a fantastic character and Kidd excels as always in portraying neurodiversity as the normal it is.
Definitely one for a chilly Autumn and if you’re a fan of automata as I am then there are possibilities in this book beyond your grimmest nightmares! Although she doesn’t mention the Silver Swan at the Bowes Museum, I’m sure the author must have seen it and she does mention the Museum Of Automata near Inverness, which is now most definitely on my to-visit list.
A return to form after the disappointment that was Murder At The Spirit Lounge.

I do remember it was a slog

Oh …. Joy!

54.The Artist by Lucy Steeds
I enjoyed this immensely and it is probably a bold. Joseph has been sent to rural France in 1920 to write an article about the reclusive painter, Tartuffe. He becomes the model for a painting and ends up staying with Tata and his niece, Ettie, for the summer.

The writing was beautifully evocative of both the countryside and the art. Tata is abusive and controlling but what implications does this have about his art. I thought the storytelling in this was particularly good with chapters alternating between Ettie and Joseph’s points of view.

55.Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash
Modern American semi-comic novel about a family in turmoil. The eldest daughter is dating an unsuitable man, the middle daughter is being quietly radicalised online and the youngest polymath daughter is sent to wilderness camp for unruly behaviour. The parents have decided to have an open marriage.

I didn’t really gel with this. The telling was just too frenetic for me. I did find the middle daughter’s antics quietly amusing but otherwise this wasn’t for me.

56.Last Man Off by Matt Lewis
Astounding true story about a young man in the late 90s who is recruited as a scientific observer aboard a fishing vessel in Antarctic waters near South Georgia. The boat is poorly maintained and the crew lackadaisical. The vessel sinks and many of his crewmates are lost- his rescue is frankly miraculous. Hard to put down.

I have Precipice TBR, but I'd be worried if I found Asquith as a character in a novel (or a non fiction work) too sympathetic, because of his hostility to women's rights. Although I also think, based on both recent and past reading, that the two best known suffragette leaders - Emmeline Pankhurst and her oldest daughter Christabel became deeply unpleasant women who treated their other daughters/sisters appallingly, also several former friends and allies when they'd fallen out.

Don’t worry @elkiedee Asquith comes across as a massive bellend

Hahaha. Yes, he does in the histories and bios of about the suffrage movements too. Thanks for the reassurance @EineReiseDurchDieZeit.

98. Self-Help from the Middle Ages, Peter Jones
This was rather delightful - a historian muses on medieval perspectives on human frailty and how we can learn to live in balance with our darker urges. The whole thing is enlivened by personal anecdotes of his time living and working in Siberia, and the blues he experienced there. Well-written. One of those books where I ended up with a bit of a crush on the author.

99. The Lost Women, Tim Weaver
Our hero investigates missing people. An investigation into a recent disappearance turns out to be linked to other disappearances from years ago. Can he unravel the truth? The whole thing relies on wildly over-complicated plotting by the arch-villain - there are surely easier ways of accomplishing the same goals - but it did keep me turning the pages.

100. The City and the City, China Mieville
A police procedural with a high concept setting - a murder investigation is complicated by jurisdictional issues, as it cuts across two cities who occupy the same space but whose citizens are indoctrinated not to see each other. The concept is more memorable than the action - I think it will stick with me.

Still working my way through 101. The Story of Birds: An Evolutionary History of the Dinosaurs That Live Among Us, Steve Brusatte
It's quite a thought that birds are descended from dinosaurs, although I can believe it when looking at turkeys. This is a lucid account of their evolution by a palaeontologist. I like his writing, including the vignettes of individual scientists. In the face of environmental anxiety, it can be a relief to read about when the asteroid hit 66 million years ago, and the fact that it still wasn't quite the end of everything.

48 . The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell (audio)

Three bodies are found in a house and with them an immaculately cared for 10 month old baby. Two teenagers are missing. Was it a suicide pact and if not what happened?

25 years later, answers will be revealed

I sort of love a Lisa Jewell now. They aren’t AMAZING books but they’re solid and reliable as a good read. And I would strongly recommend them as an audiobook, they’re always very well done. Especially if you’re looking for something neither taxing nor braindead either.

I think in order of preference I would recommend:

None Of This Is True
It Could Have Been Her
Don’t Let Him In
The Family Upstairs
The House We Grew Up In

I think they’re all the ones I’ve read

I have only read one Lisa Jewell which was The Truth about Melody Browne which was recommended on this thread and was very readable. Would certainly read more.

I have For Whom the Bell Tolls lingering on my Kindle and had no idea it was so long - oh dear.

My abiding memory of The Sun Also Rises was how much alcohol they all drank! I have also read A Farewell to Arms. I think in both cases they were ok reads which I didn't love or hate.

@bibliomania I absolutely loved The City and The City but remember that Cote detested it, as did Mr Remus. I might re-read it now you’ve reminded me of it.

Ah, @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie I do miss cote sometimes, especially the, ahem, vigorous exchanges between the two of you!

😂😂😂😂

And Then She was Gone was another Lisa Jewell which was good as an audiobook.

I decided I can't stand Hemingway after suffering through A Farewell to Arms.
My recollection is just his wife saying "Darling, don't leave me" or "Darling, please love me forever".
Thinking about it now makes me need a nap or a stiff drink.

@Hellohah - you would be in good company with Hemingway and his characters if you opted for the stiff drink!

Not done that yet, the narrator is a Brookside actress

Geography of an Adultery: Agnès Riva (trans. John Cullen).

This is the second of the French books that I picked up at the library, along with Offenses.

The short review is that there is a lot of geography and not a lot of adultery in this book.

The longer review is that this is a slim tome written in cool, elegant prose about an extra-marital affair and specifically, the locations where the affair takes place. The chapter headings are the places where Paul and Ema arrange to meet away from prying eyes, for example, 'the interior of paul's car', 'a corner in the kitchen in ema's house between the sink and refrigerator' and 'the corner behind the front door of ema's house at 7.30 in the evening'.

Being restricted to meeting up in tiny spaces or only seeing each other at work is frustrating for Ema (often referred to as 'the young woman') more than for Paul ('the man'). He seems happy to snatch a few minutes here and there at his convenience, often with long gaps between their rendezvous. She is looking for more and seeks out other places ('paul's house') to bring their relationship to the next level, or even a horizontal level.

Ema does eventually achieve her aim, ('aparthotel', 'novohotel by the lake') but these encounters are disappointing and fail to live up to her expectations, the man even breaking out of an embrace to exclaim; 'Look, I got the croissants'. Hardly the heights of passion! (Although who can resist an almond croissant? Not me.)

Riva takes inspiration from the urban landscape of Paris and this is evident in the description of the protagonists' houses, the 'communes' where they live, shopping districts and travel-lodge type hotels. The urbanity of these surroundings are stifling and don't give space for the relationship to grow, but an even bigger obstacle is the narrow mindset of the man who can't envisage living differently and who is pretty much the embodiment of a cul-de-sac. This was an odd, quirky book with an original premise and it was a short, interesting read. The dedication to the author's grandmother 'who expected so much of men' sets the expectation perfectly for the conclusion of this story.