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

Thanks for the new thread southeast.

The Art of a Lie by Laura Shepherd-Robinson Chose this for a holiday read. Set in Georgian London - Hannah Cole is recently widowed and trying to keep her Piccadilly confectionery shop afloat in the face of hostility from suppliers and neighbours. William Devereux, a friend of her late husband, enters her life, but is he out to help her or to defraud her? I did enjoy the twists and turns of this, and the period detail, but I didn’t rush through it and it’s not a patch on Sarah Waters. I may be doing it an injustice though as I’ve found it difficult to concentrate on anything in the heat.

See that’s not ringing a bell either @VikingNorthUtsire - I’m now back to wondering if I did read Oranges after all (i can’t find it in kindle history, and don’t remember ever owning a physical copy. May have been BorrowBox - I seem to be locked out of that account somehow so can’t check).

Or maybe I’m just remembering different snippets of different books and lumping them together in my mind!

Thanks @EineReiseDurchDieZeit l’ll look out for that.

I’m glad I’m not alone in disliking Look What You Made Me Do. In fact I’d taken a break from it but now I think I might just DNF. I’ve liked his other books.

Much sympathy @CornishLizard I feel I am finally out of my slump, but it was really beginning to get me down not being able to enjoy what I was reading. Two hits over the last couple of days. Summer Heat, Defne Suman, trans by Betsy Goksel I will admit I bought this because I recognised that the author had a Turkish name and I cannot help myself - one day I will end up with Turkish Science Fiction and be very sorry. This is the story of Melike, told in snippets of her childhood and her trying to reconcile with her painful memories. This is beautifully written (translated) for the most part and a good deal of the story takes place on Buyuk Ada, one of the Prince's Islands near Istanbul as well as the city itself and I visited only a few weeks ago so it all felt very real to me. I almost felt like I could hear the sea but that might also be because I really wanted to hold on to the memory. I don't want to say too much as it all unfolds as you read through. Melike herself is hard to like, she repeatedly cheats on her husband and the explanation seems to be that she uses sex as a way to validate herself and her trauma. I am not sure that this isn't a bit of a cop out, but overall, I am excited to see that Suman has three more books that have been translates into English.How to Kill a Language: Power, Resistance, and the Race to Save Our Words, Sophia Smith Galer Non-fiction that is small part memoir about the author's search for the language (known for most of the book as dialet, a dialect of Italian) of her mother and her nonna. There are substantive chapters that cover a different language that losing speakers for varying reasons - migration, supression, simply being ignored and others. Whilst this book follows my current obsession with words and language and translation, I found this an incredibly emotional read. Part of my recent trip to Istanbul was because I spent an entire week crying that I was losing the ability to speak Turkish and I had no one to speak to and I haven't taught my kids properly. I was really in a slightly crazed crisis, so when she came back to her nonna and familial languages at the end, I was a blubbering mess. For those less emotional than me, this is actually a wonderfully thorough examination on what it takes to preserve language and why it is important. Both writers happen to be at the Wimbledon Book Festival in October. Currently reading a book about the Regency, about to start Northanger Abbey ahead of seeing a touring production and have the is wonderful pile selected from my shelf (Tahmina Anam because she will ALSO be at Wimbledon).

Argh the paragraphs. I have no idea what is wrong.

It was a bit ill thought out and lacking in substance.

@elspethmcgillicudddy – I loved that Trebizon books. Actually, any boarding school book!

@AgualusasL0ver – big hugs

ANTHONY GORDON ALERT!

@elspethmcgillicudddy another Trebizon fan here. I didn't grow up in the UK so only ever had 4 of them, which I retrieved from my childhood bookcase and brought back recently. Must get hold of the rest and do a reread. I had the skating-heartbreak one, the Sue scholarship one, the hockey one, and the hot (and creepy) Maths teacher one.

66. The Final Gambit by Jennifer Lynn Barnes - final book of the trilogy read at the behest of my young teenager. While I enjoy YA books on occasion, this series was a little too young for me. I rolled my eyes through the teenage angst and at the stereotypical love interests - the brooding one! The reckless one! But the mystery and puzzles that form the plot were entertaining and fun. This final book was particularly interesting and I wouldn't be averse to reading the spin offs if such demands are made by my offspring!

@StitchesInTime Yes, The Ritual is grim and bloody, but personally I would highly recommend

I think the first half where the group are lost in the forest being trailed by some unknown evil is the most tense, can’t-sleep-with-the-lights-off horror writing I’ve ever experienced. Like most horrors, it gets quite daft towards the end - much better before you see the monster.

Another Trebizon fan here! I have all the books. The later ones are quite rare and ££ but you can find the earlier ones quite easily.

I’d agree that the first half of The Ritual is far superior to the second half. The whole element with the monster lurking just out of sight, ready to pick them off one by one, is certainly satisfyingly tense and creepy.

I’d probably have felt a lot more positively about the book if it had stopped after the first half. The second half almost felt like a different story, and I really didn’t take to the whole plot line with the Satanists and the ever so slow lead up to the attempts at summoning the monster and the final showdown.

I have somehow finished three books this week:

45 Emma - Jane Austen

A re-read as part of RWYO as I had an unread copy on my Kindle. I am pretty sure I did this for either O level or A level in the 1980s but can’t remember which. Emma is still very annoying/conceited at times – still Cn’t get over her rudeness to Miss Bates at the picnic. I know Miss Bates can be a bore but Emma’s putdown is brutal and is the sort of thing you think (or say to a like-minded friend afterwards) but not say aloud. However, I do now respect her for her dedication to her father’s comfort. Not my favourite Austen.

46 The Thirty-Nine Steps - John Buchan

Also read as part of RWYO and don’t think I have read it since school. Richard Hannay goes on the run around Britain whilst trying to foil an espionage plot. It’s dated and the views reflected are of the era (anti-Semitism, racist). Short, has its moments but not sure I need to re-read again.

47 A Game of Lies - Clare Mackintosh

And another RWYO book which is a sequel to After the Party but could be read as a standalone book if you don’t care about the personal back story of the main character, PC Ffion Morgan. We are back in North Wales where a reality TV show is being filmed when things start to go wrong. The investigation is, again, a joint one with the North Wales police investigating with Cheshire police. I like Ffion as a character - quite mouthy, not very good at following rules and hampered by her enormous rescue dog as well as her connections to some of the suspects. Easy, page-turning read.

What’s with the new “see more” option? I wanna see ALL the book reviews, MNHQ!

Eww, yes. No to that.

See more is very annoying. I do hate it when MN introduces "helpful" features.

I did Emma for A level @TimeforaGandT and wrote my coursework on the motif of mystery within it which I didn't really get but my teacher suggested. I should have done the metaphysical poets instead in retrospect!

a few reviews:

71. Transcription - Ben Lerner. Widely touted as a potential Booker nominee, this is a short book split into three parts. In the first, the writer is about to interview his 90year old mentor and famed academic when he drops his phone in the sink and breaks it. Instead of telling said mentor, he pretends to record the interview. I guess it's saying something about phones and dependency but I didn't really get why he didn't admit he'd broken his phone. There is then a short middle part when the narrator is telling a group of people putting a show on about the academic what happened. Then the final third is the academic's son talking about his relationship wuth his father, and his daughter's eating issues. I think the whole book is meant to be about technology and how it affects us - there's a bit about unboxing videos in the final part - but it felt a bit thin, or possibly over my head. It'll probably win the Booker now!

72. John of John - Douglas Stuart. Reviewed up thread by @ÚlldemoShúl, this is about Cal, a young gay man who goes back to the island where he grew up, to live with his strictly religious, and violent, father and grandmother. I thought this was great and would much prefer to see it on the Booker list than Transcription.

73. The Life of Rebecca Jones - Anghared Price. This short novel originally written in Welsh, follows Rebecca Jones throughout the 20th century. She lives in a valley in Wales with her parents and brothers, 3 of whom are blind. It reads more like a memoir than fiction, Price's family have lived in the valley for a thousand years, and it's based on her great-aunt. The writing is very poetic particularly about nature, and looks at what changes and what continues. I'd recommend this one for something quiet but beautiful.

31) Conclave by Robert Harris. 118 Cardinals assemble in the Sistine Chapel to elect the next Pope following the sudden death of the Holy Father. As Dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Lomeli is responsible for coordinating the conclave. The novel follows Lomeli as he navigates political machinations and scandals behind closed doors in the most eventful conclave of his life.

I've been meaning to watch the film, so when I saw the book available at my library I picked it up. After the passing of the Pope at the beginning of the story, I initially found it a bit of a slog. There were detailed, almost word-for-word descriptions of some Masses, and lots of names of Cardinals listed with little else to separate them. However there was enough intrigue to keep me going and by the first ballot the pace picks up considerably, and I tore through the second half.

I thought this was a solid read but not outstanding. Without spoiling anything, I thought the twist at the end was pretty obvious given all the foreshadowing. I definitely learned a couple of new things about Catholism though!

I'm not sure why that gif was added to my previous post!

Would quite like a coffee now though 😄

I have been into Talk settings and See More doesn’t seem to be one that can be turned off.

There's a thread on it in Site stuff where I have added my disapproval and name checked the 50 books

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/site_stuff/5551948-whats-this-show-moreshow-less-nonsense-for?page=3&reply=153590091

It’s not appearing on the app yet thank goodness (though there are other parts of the app I find frustrating e g the only reaction you can give is thanks)

I have too @Stowickthevast.

As have I!

Ugh, I will too. I mean this example is ludicrous, are they having a laugh?!

20 Smoke - Dan Vyleta
Victorian boarding school boys team up with a teenage girl to save the world during their Christmas holidays. Sounds pretty dull stuff, but the formula is shaken up by the unusual world in which they exist. In this universe, everybody is preoccupied by Smoke, which is emitted by all humans leaving a residue of Soot, indicating their emotional state. Posh kids at boarding school are instructed in techniques for the suppression and control of Smoke, which is a social indicator and their control denotes their superiority over the ordinary folk. A school trip to London is a massive eye-opener for the boys who get the opportunity to view the hideous pall of Smoke and Soot-sullied streets of the capital of Vice.

Thomas is a bit of a maverick character, befriended by the likeable Charlie and bullied by the odious Julius who is outwardly pure and Smokeless and therefore admired by teachers and schoolboys alike. The boys are invited to spend Christmas with Thomas's rich relatives, where they meet uptight Livia; things go awry when they discover Livia's mother's laboratory, along with "sweets" and "cigarettes" - tools for the wealthy with which to control personal Smoke. The threesome are intercepted in their bid to flee and the adventure begins.

I enjoyed this, it's very well written and at no point could I guess where the story was going next. It feels rather like the author didn't really know where it was going either, and the ending feels like it kind of petered out because he ran out of steam. Not a bold, but an interesting read.

1. Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively
2. The Blank Wall by Elizabeth Sanxay Holding
3. Old Baggage by Lissa Evans
4. Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix
5. Atlas of unidentified flying objects by Andy McGrillen
6. Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobson
7. Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck
8. The Vegetarian by Han Kang
9. Rushing to Paradice by J.G. Ballard

10. Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte 11. Extreme Economies by Richard Davies I got this after another person on this thread read it – very glad I did, more about social economic behaviour which is why I liked it 12. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin 13. Fresh Dirt from the Grave by Glovanna Rivero 14. The bells of little woodford by Catherine Jones 15. Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash 16. G by John Berger – This is the last of all the booker winners I was making my way through (I just have the latest one to read) 17. The only good Indians by Stephen graham jones 18. The Rachel incident by Caroline O’Donoghue 19. Sisters by a river by Barbara Comyns 20. The Pearl by John Steinbeck 21. The worst street in London by Fiona Rule 22. Cassandra at the wedding by Dorothy Baker 23. London Falling by Patrick Radden Keffe 24. Nesting by Roisin O’Donnell 25. Some tame Gazelle by Barara Pym 26. The Offing by Benjamin Myers 27. Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid 28. The red Notebook by Antoine Laurain 29. The Director by Daniel Kehimann 30. The Vanishing by Tim Krabbe 31. The beginning of the world in the middle of the night by Jen Cammpbell 32. Trust by Hernan Diaz 33. None of this is true by Lisa Jewell 34. Hunger and Thirst by Claire Fuller 35. Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito

36. Anne of Green Gables
    I never read this as a child which is a shame as I know I would have love this. My and my son listened via audio book on our commute to work/college and my son did love this. For context my son goes to a special needs college so his maturity is much younger than his age. Certain plot points of the book really captured his imagination which he enjoyed talking about and he now wants to watch the Netflix series.

37. Agent Zigzag by Ben MacIntyre
    Very late to the party, a fun read which sounds made up.

38. The Safekeep by Yael van der Woulden
    This was ok I think. I didn’t really understand the main character or really understood why she acted the way she did a lot of the time, it made for an interesting book club discussion though.

39. Land by Maggie O’Farrell
    On the face of it this is another Irish immigrant story but there is an added richness to the land and history which the characters and future generations will take with them. The land itself is described as deep, boggy, wet, green, familiar, dense and mythical which you are either going to connect with or find the writing too dense.

40. Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
    Read via audio. This would make a great book club or holiday read, I enjoyed this for what is was and found myself thinking about the themes.