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

I've had the first Rebus book on my shelf for ages, I really need to get round to reading it.

I'm almost finished Renovation by Kenan Orhan on audio, which i really wasn't sure about diving into but gave it a go as it was a short wait time on Libby. I'm loving this, there's much more to it under the surface than the blurb of 'builders build a cell/portal instead of a bathroom'. Would definitely recommend and i hope this makes the Booker shortlist.

Just to update you, I finally went to a&e yesterday as I was in real pain and it turns out I have a spiral fracture of my 5th metatarsal. No wonder RICE wasn't working , now in a boot and waiting for the fracture clinic to contact me. Finding it hard to concentrate but that will improve when I get proper pain killers, hopefully

Oh gosh @minsmum the pain you must be in!

Really sorry to hear that @minsmum- it sounds very painful. 💐

Oh no @minsmum- that sounds awful. Fingers crossed you get decent pain relief that kicks in soon.

Eek @minsmum sorry to hear that it was worse than you thought. Roll on the good painkillers.

Wishing you well @minsmum 🌺

The Renovation: Kenan Orhan

I read 'The Renovation' a couple of weeks ago, but I'm only getting round to reviewing it now.

Dilara, her husband and her father are exiles, living in a village near Salerno in Italy to escape the persecution of her father, who was an outspoken critic of the Erdoğan administration in Turkey. Dilara has her father move in with them, as his dementia has made it impossible to live on his own.

The couple get some renovation work done in their apartment to accommodate their father. They want a new ensuite bathroom. On the day that the work is finished, however Dilara gets her first look at the bathroom and discovers that it isn't a bathroom at all, but a prison cell in Turkey alongside other identical cells and guards. Dilara is taken aback but accepts this turn of events. She tries to keep it a secret from her husband, who is always worried about being observed. When he finds out, he runs away, leaving Dilara to cope alone with her increasingly frail father.

The prison cell becomes a sort of refuge for Dilara and serves as a connection to her home country which she misses very much. She spends more time with the community of women than she does with her Italian neighbours. As she becomes more drawn to prison life, her father becomes a prisoner of his dementia and Dilara is also locked out of his life which is fast fading away.

I found this to be a really powerful read. It's very sombre and thought-provoking. I learned a lot about Turkey through Dilara's reminisces about what her life was like before she went into exile. I loved these descriptions that are underpinned by homesickness and longing. The relationship between Dilara and her father is also excellently drawn and it's complicated and difficult as you would expect.

This book is very well written in a fluid prose that I found immersive. The prison cell is presented in a matter-of-fact way. It exists as Dilara's place of escape. Otherwise the book is grounded in the realities of living as an immigrant and caring for an unwell parent. I really liked The Renovation. It's a bold for me and I think that @AgualusasL0ver should really like it too. It's so good that I read it twice and I only do that if I really like the book. Recommended!

That's a lovely review, Fuzzy.

41 The State We're In by Adele Parks. Jo finds out her ex is getting married, decides that he's the one that got away, and gets on a plane to try and stop the wedding. Dean finds out his estranged father is dying, which brings up a host of difficult feelings. Massive coincidences ensue along the way. Fairly decent chick lit.

42 A Walk in the Park by Kevin Fedarko. Non fiction about Kevin's "thru-hike" through the Grand Canyon. This is a truly epic undertaking - the number of people who have ever completed it is only in the double figures (including those who have done it in one go as well as those who did it in a series of separate hikes, like Kevin). There is a lot to like about this book, including details of Kevin's own experiences, tales of other hikers, descriptions of the views, and information about the park's history and the various native American tribes who live in the area. However, I found the writing style rather too florid for my taste.

Finished my 50th - woo hoo!

It was Persuasion. I keep thinking (and being told) that if I read more Austen , I will come to appreciate her. Meh.

I mean, this was OK... I got bogged down at first and missed comedy Mary when she wasn't in it. Anne is a bit of a bore. It passed the time.

But surely there were more male names than Austen uses? I mean, for goodness' sake , why are there three Charleses in this book!?

I feel this novel might be helped by some sort of family tree at the beginning. How distant exactly is her cousin with the same surname who is destined ot be her husband? Who are all the Charleses married to??
And whose children are whose?

There is an excellent introduction in my Wordsworth edition which did make the novel seem deeper than I found it.

I can't grow to like Austen. Sorry. Except on screen, occasionally.

@minsmum ooch. I once waited a week before going to A&E with the same fracture. I remember DS (13 at the time) had been embarrassed about me "making a fuss" because I was limping. Those boots are awkward to get around in. Hope you got some good painkillers.

@Piggywaspushed brave admission. I have a good friend who has quite an obsession with Jane Austin, runs a Jane Austin book group, named her daughters after characters. I daren't tell her I'm indifferent to Austin.

Congrats @Piggywaspushed on reaching your 50!

How Soon is Now by Paul Carnahan
This is in the daily deals today and I was drawn in my the title (Smiths reference) and the fact that it’s about time travel. I found it very readable and enjoyed the music references. Worth a shot if you fancy a light read and like time travel novels. It would have been a good beach read!

Ouch @minsmum. I did the same thing, also falling down the stairs years ago. It’s very painful. I remember them giving me some strong painkillers and then having to phone my boss and brief him on some work I was supposed to be doing that day. I could barely string a sentence together.

Puts hands over ears re Persuasion criticism. I can’t hear it.

John and Paul - A Love Story in Songs -Ian Leslie

Second listen to this marvellous book about the relationship between Lennon and McCartney. The author does a wonderful job in not only telling the history of the duo but in analysing the need each one had for the other.
It was a bold on the first listen and remains a bold on the second.

Congratulations to @Piggywaspushedalthough I’m also disappointed by the Persuasion criticism although I suspect you wouldn’t agree with my views on Lord of the Flies.

@Stowickthevast I’m also in the DNF club for My Brilliant Friend. I listened to the book club episode but it hasn’t persuaded me to try it again.

I have had a terrible few weeks reading-wise. I keep starting books, leafing through them, putting them down, picking up something else. I must have started a dozen by now. Nothing is terribly gripping me, but I'm also moving house soon and my brain can't seem to settle enough from the pre-moving panic to concentrate.

The two things I did finish were book number 41 (I think - I have lost count) which was Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo. I have had this book since it came out and this was the fhird attempt at it. I persevered, but almost out of duty as it is an important book and winner of prizes et cetera et cetera. I felt it was way too fast-paced, too try-hard witty, too sprawling. The book centres around 12 different women in Britain at different points of recent history, mainly women of colour, and it is interesting - the pace was just dizzying, and I couldn't enjoy it. It felt like travelling in India does - as soon as you step on the street, your senses are all over the place, the scents, sounds, sights and you have no time to think and just go with the flow... I'm glad I have read it but I am not in a hurry to recommend it.

Number 42. was The Watsons by Jane Austen. This was an interesting one. I have a full-length copy, in French, from the 70s, from my parents' house. I have no idea as to the origin of this book, the translator, or if it is based on Jane Austen's fragments and how much of it is supplemented by other unknown authors. It didn't feel like Austen. It lacked the witticism and it was rather obsessed with class. Whoever finished it, raced to the end - the last 100 pages had virtually no dialogue. Kind of an odd read, but again one I have had for years in my box of books.

almost certainly not

Lalalalalalala —cannot hear Piggy—— lalalal. To be fair whilst I love Persuasion I do get why someone wouldn’t. The witticisms in conversation are what drive Pride and Prejudice and some of the others and Persuasion is all introspective. That said, sounds like this has confirmed you don’t enjoy Austen. I’m going away tomorrow with some Austen fans - one’s pet is full on called ‘Jane Austen Surname’ at the vet.

Enjoying all The Renovation love and discussion. I’m more than half way and really taking my time. Some of it is quite hard to read.

Did somebody just diss Jane? Will the shades of the Fifty Bookers be thus polluted? Badly done, @Piggywaspushed badly done.

Only joking - but I may take a while to recover from this shock.

The controversy I have caused is more dramatic than all of Jane's novels combined.

<ducks>

How to Kill Your Family - Bella Mackie

Enjoyed this very much. Our (anti-)heroine Grace is in jail for a crime she didn’t commit. There’s the small matter, however, of the murders that she did commit…

Whilst she prepares for her appeal, she decides to write about those crimes, and why and how she did them. Grace is a snob, but she is witty and waspish with it, and hence a fun narrator. We alternate between past misdeeds - her rather obsessive revenge quest - and her present trying to dodgy her over friendly cell mate Kelly. Lots of fun.

@Stowickthevast I had no idea that Beginning middle end was a sequel. This may possibly have clouded my judgement...

53 The Family Next Door - Charlotte Stevenson What a load of absolute shite. I genuinely don’t think I’ve ever read a worse book, god knows what led me to buy it - even at 99p it was a waste of money (and time). Supposedly a creepy thriller about a weird family that moves next door to the protagonist, it was an incoherent, non-sensical mess with absolutely no characterisation and robotic prose. Avoid!

👀 comes on thread, moments pause, sign of the cross (RE Austen)

@nowanearlyNicemum I don't think it is exactly a sequel in that you don't need to have read the previous one, but it follows the same character as her last novel The Lost Children Archive. Which apparently also has a similar character to her novel before that!