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

Just finished Ian McEwan's What We Can Know. You need to be patient with this one - it's in two parts , in two time frames : a future ravaged by climate change and the present. The second bit is better but the first bit is essential in that it revisits and revises the first part. As with all McEwan it is very clever. As with much McEwan this can leave it rather cold. McEwan has a central male figure who is pedantic, literary and patronising. At times, I wish McEwan would be less wordy and literary.

Caledonian Road is £1.29 on daily deals today

Also now finished Laura Bates' Fix the System Not the Women. Obviously now feeling very angry and need to go and sit in a quite corner for a while.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit I've been debating over spending an Audible credit on Project Hail Mary and you've now made my mind up for me

@elspethmcgillicudddy I love the Game of Thrones book series but am a bit frustrated that it'll probably never be completed. I think it's best to leave reading the others in order to avoid that frustration too!

Less than a fortnight until the Booker longlist announcement. Anyone have any thoughts on what might be on it? Douglas Stuart's John of John seems to be a favourite, along with Transcription by Ben Lerner, I have both on reserve from the library.

Another one here loathing the 'see more' feature.

55. Grief Work as Autotheory - Meg Jensen

A bit of a left-field one for me as this is a publication by an academic who works in the field of memoir/life-writing and trauma. However, despite the somewhat opaque title I found this compelling - an account of her own mental health struggles in coping with the lifelong impacts of a wildly dysfunctional upbringing as a severely-neglected child in a large family, and - most crucially - the suicide of her beloved older sister Mary. Despite the undeniable bleakness of the material Jensen makes this a gripping and often dynamic narrative which reads with all the pace of a novel.

‘See more’ is very Facebook, isn’t it?

I am reading Land, slowly and carefully, because it is utterly beautiful.

We won, it’s been “paused”!

Hurrah!

2 more books finished
Careless People by Sarah Winn-Williams
I’m late coming to this one- the tell-all of a high ranking executive at Facebook. Most of what she reveals here has been well publicised in the papers etc before Facebook completely shut her down- which was what made me pick up the book in the first place. Tbh I was equally as shocked at US corporate culture - I didn’t realise Succession was so accurate - as I was at the Facebook specific stuff. At the start, I couldn’t stop reading, but it became repetitive after a while and I couldn’t help but question why she stayed there so long

Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka
RWYO- I’ve had it on my kindle for ages and recent reviews on here made me move it up my TBR. It’s a well written story of the women whose lives were impacted by a serial killer- his victims, their families and his family. This was engrossing and tragic, in more ways than one. A page turner for sure.

I am very behind with reviews!

Natural Disaster - Lisa Owens

A day in the life of a mother to a baby and a toddler, where she plans the perfect last day of maternity leave but unfortunately the kids have other ideas. I really enjoyed the first half, but less so the second half.

Service - Lauren Mooney

When her relationship breaks down Danielle goes to housesit at her boss’s country estate, but strange things start to happen there. I enjoyed most of this but the ending was too inconclusive for my liking.

Emotionally Weird - Kate Atkinson

I didn’t like this much when I first read it, but I enjoyed it much more this time around. Effie tells her mother Nora all about her life at university in Dundee, and Nora tells Effie not very much at all really. It’s the usual Atkinson stories where random odd things happen but it all just seems to work somehow.

The Woman In The Hall - G B Stern

Part of The British Library’s republishing of some older books. This is about Lorna who goes round posh people’s houses begging for money with various sob stories. It sounded really interesting but unfortunately did not deliver.

Receipts from the Bookshop - Katie Clapham

A year of working in a bookshop. Nothing much happens, but it’s still an enjoyable read hearing about all the different customers etc.

John Grebble Is Gone -Peter James

Short story about a man who suddenly finds he’s been declared dead, and what he does about it. I enjoyed this and thought it could have been fleshed out more into a novella.

Return to Kirrin - Neil Howlett

It’s 1979 and Julian, Dick, Anne and George, now all in their 40s, are returning to Kirrin Island which Julian is turning into some sort of themed resort. This is a funny adult revisiting of the Famous Five series and I enjoyed it.

The Night Stairs - Erin Kelly

Dual timeline story set in a Catholic girls’ boarding school where in both timelines the girls suddenly start suffering from unexplained vertigo. I really enjoyed this - Kelly is a good writer and I liked the school setting.

Emma’s Baby - Abbie Taylor

This wasn’t bad for a book I found abandoned on a train. Emma’s baby is kidnapped on the London Underground, but nobody believes her so she has to try and find him herself.

Born In A Burial Gown - M W Craven

Written before the Washington Poe series, this features detective Avison Fluke who is quite similar to Poe, and the story is all set around Cumbria like many of the Poe books. I enjoyed this so it’s a bit of a shame there’s only two books featuring Fluke.

@InTheCludgie
I’ve heard a few other possibles mentioned including:
Son of Nobody by Yann Martel (I’ve read and wasn’t impressed)
Keshed by Stu Hannigan
Uprising by Tahmima Anam
Said the Dead by Doireann Ni Griofa
This is where the Serpent Lives by Daniyal Mueenuddin
Land by Maggie O’Farrell (it took me a while to warm to this one but I really liked it in the end)

I think Son of Nobody is getting the love because Mary Beard is the chair. It's a tricky year as so many past short listees or winners have got books out, which means they get an automatic entry.

Possible crossover from the woman's prize of Dominion, Gloria Don't Speak or A Guardian and A Thief.
May We Feed The King by Rebecca Parry which just won the Waterstones debut
The Palm House by Gwendoline Riley
Departures - Julian Barnes final book
Lost Lambs but it didn't feel very Booker to me
New Strout, Ann Patchett, George Saunders, Rachel Cusk, Deborah Levy and Emily St Mandel.
I've only read the Strout which I really liked and Saunders which I didn't, but have Levy and Patchett waiting.

oh and Hernan Diaz, Marlon James, Sebastian Barry and Dave Eggers - it really is a bumper year for past authors.

It seems you can get the first 6 in paperback for just under £20 from Amazon, and all 14 are available on Kindle for £4.25 each - I bought the first 5 (for Kindle) for slightly less and read them a few years ago.

I don't think I read any Trebizon books as a girl. Looks like there are quite a few on the internet archive for anyone who's looking.

The only ones I’ve read of those are the Strout as well (which I liked) and the women’s prize books (which I liked apart from A Guardian and a Thief) though I have a few of the others on my kindle that I picked up in 99p deals along the way,
including the Rebecca Perry which I must get around to reading. I also picked up Wimmy Road Boys a couple of days ago on kindle daily deal which book tuber Ben Reads Good predicted.

I'm off on holiday today and have Whistler in my bag. I've also read Palm House, Departures, Transcription and Vigil + Women's Prize ones. I wasn't that into any of them apart from Gloria Don't Speak but did really like the Rebecca Parry.

I've got Deborah Levy to read on holiday too, but missed the Wimmy Road one. There's one called Fruit Fly too that I've got that I've seen a couple of times. Let's see. Fully expecting there to be nothing I've read.

I picked up Vigil from the library yesterday, mixed feelings about it so far but I'm only about 35 pages in.

Same! I enjoy reading the Booker longlist but I'm hoping I've already read at least one or two on the longlist. Too many books, too little time as the saying goes...

Rachel’s Holiday by Marian Keyes Rachel is living a glamorous lifestyle in New York - complete with parties and strictly recreational drug taking. So when her friends and family fly her back to Ireland and book her into a rehab clinic, they are totally overreacting. This is readable, witty, and very insightful into Rachel’s world.

Weird thing just happened. I had The Talisman audiobook on my Wish List and I just went to buy it and it basically no longer exists. Where’s it gone?

The Stephen King book?

That’s weird. Have they done a new version of the audiobook or something like that?

I noticed some copies of The Talisman with a new cover in Asda last week. I think there’s another sequel due to be published later this year?

U is for Undertow - Sue Grafton

Continuing my way through the Kinsey Millhone alphabet books. This was one of the better ones, although still with far too much pointless description and details of all the food Kinsey eats. A man comes to see her and says he’s suddenly remembered something that links to a kidnapping 21 years ago. That turns out to be a red herring but tenacious Kinsey keeps digging and of course manages to solve the kidnapping.

67. The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim - A very sweet, fable-like novel. Four women who don't know each other decide to split costs and take a month long holiday to an Italian castle. I don't think it's really about Italy or even the castle, but about what happens when people step outside the routines and responsibilities that have quietly trapped them into unhappy ways of living and thinking.

I found myself reflecting a lot on the idea that you need space away from emotional and physical labour to be able to know and love yourself. That felt very relevant.

The characters are intentionally a little one-note, almost archetypes, which suits the fairy-tale feel.

I suspect this is a book I'll revisit. Not because I expect to notice hidden details, but because its central message is one that probably needs relearning at different stages of life.

@StitchesInTime yeah! I noticed that it was a very long book so I decided to go with the audio and put it on the list last week or week before!

It could be that they are doing a new one. I’ll ask AI

Finished Seascraper by Benjamin Wood. I picked this up, I assume, because of its Walter Scott shortlisting. It is set at some point in the past , not long after WW2 I guess, but this is never specified. I suppose this is fair enough as, in real life, we probably don't go around talking about what year it is. It's a lost seaside world of horse and carts, seaside poverty, whelk gathering and folk songs in pubs set against a backdrop of a Hollywood interloper.

Very atmospheric, unsettling at times, intense- and very odd.