50 Books Challenge 2026 Part Seven

[Southeastdweller]

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

78. Happy-Go-Lucky - David Sedaris

I've got a bit of a strange relationship with David Sedaris - I wasn’t keen on him for ages, just from hearing him on the radio, then I finally read some of his books and found myself almost weeping with laughter. He can be wickedly funny, but also very bleak.
This latest book of essays covers his experiences of the Covid era, but the topic he returns to repeatedly is the last few years of his father, Lou - a deeply odd and often downright unpleasant parent to have; a tyrant to his six children, who bonded together inseparably as a result. Sedaris is very close to his sisters Amy, Lisa and Gretchen; his remaining sister,Tiffany, committed suicide after years of mental health issues and claims that their father abused her. It’s characteristic of Sedaris that he writes frankly about all this and still makes it funny - as I said, he knows how to explore the the line between humour and horror, and land on just the right side of it. By the time you get to his description of 98-year-old Lou's death and its aftermath, you’re not really sure whether to laugh or cry. Maybe both.

50) Dead Heat by Sabine Durrant

My 50th and it was a good one.

Matt is spending the summer with old friends in Greece. He is facing a crossroads in his career and personal life and becomes infatuated with the case of a missing visitor, who was staying at the home of the multi-millionaire across the bay. He and his friends end up at a party at the big house, and they all become infatuated with the owner, but for different reasons. Resentment build, people do awfulvthings...

It's a great read. Strong recommend.

How to keep house while drowning by KC Davis

This is a very short book aimed to support those who are struggling with things like depression, overwhelm, ADHD, task initiation or executive function. She does an excellent job of removing the shame, and describes care tasks as morally neutral, you are not a bad person if your house is untidy or dirty. She does remind you that you deserve a functional space and there might be other reasons to clean such as keeping away pests and wanting to eat off clean plates.

For someone really in the depths of this, I bet this would make you feel really heard and understood and could be a game changer.

Mostly I came away with much gratitude that my task initiation mostly works, that my husband and I already split tasks in a way that works for our particular brands of neuro spicy.

The Accidental Tourist (Anne Tyler) is 99p today.

Finished one more.

I Have Some Questions For You by Rebecca Makkai
Bodie Kane returns to the private boarding school she attended as a teen with assistance after a difficult childhood. While she was there her ex roommate was murdered and a PE instructor arrested for the crime. As an adult Bodie is a podcaster and at the school she is taking a class in podcasting where one student is reinvestigating the crime. This is sold as literary crime fiction and I agree- it’s a slow exploration of misogyny and race and class issues both then and now. At times it’s too slow but overall I enjoyed it and managed to finish in a slump which is no mean feat.

Finished book 49. Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff. I picked this up because I really liked Matrix a few years back. This has a similar feel; a strong woman surviving against the odds in a new, hostile environment. The protagonist escapes Jamestown settlement in Virginia during the Starving Time of 1609-1610 and disappears into the unchartered wilderness. The novel switches between the girl's personal history in "the City" before sailing off to the new world, and her travel towards the north where she hopes to encounter the French settlement.

Lyrical, fever-dreamish novel of survival of all sorts. The ending dragged on a little, but it was beautifully written so I didn't mind terribly.

@Pigtailsandall Lauren Groff is a fabulous writer. There are certain sections of that book (the mother squirrel!) that I think I’ll remember forever!

Oh the mother squirrel and the sleeping ducks!!😪

Booker shortlist is out and I was pleasantly surprised to see two of my favourites on there. I reckon you’ll be pleased @Stowickthevast
The shortlist is
John of John by Douglas Stuart
The Disappearers by Marlon James
May we Feed the King by Rebecca Perry
The Things we Never Say by Elizabeth Strout
The End of Everything by M John Harrison and
Black Bag by Luke Kennard

Not too fussed on reading Black Bag or The End Of Everything from the shortlist, am glad most of the 'weird' offerings never made it.

I literally started reading The Things We Never Say this afternoon, because my reservation finally came through and dp picked it up for me yesterday (his office is in the central library building in a neighbouring borough). A copy of Yesteryear has also come up, and luckily I'd caught up with the other books I won't be able to renew. Though I have to collect 2 more newly published book reservations. George Pelecanos is an American crime writer who is less well known than he should be, and the other book is a Kate Atkinson. I will have a little bit more time than usual with these two though as the branch I normally go to is closing in early October for some repairs for 6 weeks, so anything due back after 5 October is being issued for 9 weeks instead of 3.

I have 2 of the shortlisted books - and 4 of the others on the longlist that came up on Kindle deals, including The Vivisectors (though I find the title offputting) which is £1.99 today. I bought The Shadow of the Object for 99p in June, because I have an earlier Chloe Aridjis book that I've been meaning to read for a few years - borrowed from the library!

Yes good shortlist IMO @ÚlldemoShúl

Although I suspect the judges are slightly trolling us with The End of Everything which was in the bottom 3 of every prediction video I watched and has a 2.95 rating on Good Reads. I haven't read it so will get to that and Then Disappearers before the final announcement.

I liked Black Bag a lot @InTheCludgie. It does drift a bit in the second half but on a sentence level I thought was great and first half very funny.

Mary Beard (one of the judges) on the short list https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/sep/22/i-read-163-novels-and-these-are-the-six-best-mary-beard-on-judging-the-booker-prize

@Pigtailsandall- I like the sound of Lauren Groff. Thank you!

It’s interesting reading everyone’s views on the Booker but they all seem quite offputting. I think the Women’s Prize will be enough for me this year.

81 . September by Rosamunde Pilcher - I enjoyed reading Winter Solstice at Christmas, so was pleased to see this on the deals this month. It’s in a similar ensemble style to Winter Solstice or The Shell-Seekers, and features a character from the latter (who has to choose between continuing his current hedonistic lifestyle or marrying a young woman who lacks glamour but beautifully cooks lamb chops). I enjoyed that story and the one about an army veteran struggling with civilian life; but I found some of the other characters less engaging. That said, the opening was immensely enjoyable and I enjoyed being engrossed in the book’s world.

82 . The Day of the Storm by Rosamunde Pilcher - a woman visits her mother’s estranged family in Cornwall, where she encounters secrets, attractive men & lots of rain. I originally read this as a teen & couldn’t resist reading it again after September. It’s a much slighter work but very engrossing, and I enjoyed it so much that I even overlooked the whirlwind romance (a trope that I normally find irritating) and it made walking along Cornish cliff tops in the rain sound absolutely lovely.

I just checked my Kindle wishlist (I sort low to high and skim down to books up to about £2 normally, occasionally there's something which is a little bit more but still a spectacular deal).

Not listed as a KIndle daily deal is a non fiction book I've had on the list for a while - Timothy Egan, A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them - I've read a previous book by him about the dustbowl and the Depression in the US in the 1930s.

Curtain Call by Anthony Quinn
I picked this up in a charity shop because I was attracted by the setting of Soho in 1936. It was okay - too many characters and a bit long winded, to the point that I’m afraid I skim read some of it. Some interesting characters and relationships, but needed some serious editing.

I’ve just done a search to see what others have thought of the Quinn and it seems I read and loved it back in 2018. I didn’t recognise it at all and clearly didn’t love it as much this time around! Oops!

Time to Burn is 99p on kindle today, @MamaNewtNewt and anyone else who fancies it

Love that, Remus!

I’m often in a charity shop looking up kindle on my phone. They must think I’m trying to see if I could pay even less on Amazon than £2 for a dented paperback, but actually it’s the only way I will know if I already bought this book 5 years ago!

I read and loved Fever in the Heartland. Excellent and interesting non-fic.

😂
I think I must have read the Quinn in a charity shop or library copy, so that trick wouldn’t have worked. So strange that nothing at all about it seemed familiar!

I remember very much enjoying Curtain Call as did a lot of us about ten or eleven years ago but I’ve not been tempted to read another of his. I hated the film adaptation mainly because Ian McKellen was miscast as Jimmy.

@ChessieFL I’ve bought it, thanks. I tried to look back to see previous comments on it, but the search facility is so dreadful that I can’t find anything. I generally enjoy a bit of time travel though.

I do this all the time! 😂

These messages prompted me to check my wishlist and I got Heart The Lover for £1.99 and The Presidents Hat for £1.99.

Now to carve out some time this weekend to actually read...