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

I think I'm trying to forget it fairly quickly, Eine 😂 but I'm not sure he mentions an actual postcode - it’s all very centred around the specific road they live in though (when the annoying born-again husband tries to persuade everyone in the street to give a spare room to a homeless young person - it goes slightly pear-shaped quite quickly).

No the postcode itself wasn’t mentioned @Terpsichore it was like :

in this postcode
in our postcode

etc etc

Oh yes! I see what you mean - yes, that definitely rings bells.

Guys,

Some help needed, I normally buy my BF and her DH two books each at Christmas and I’m stuck on the DH this year, I’m getting him Dungeon Crawler Carl but I’m lost on the 2nd choice. He’s recently bereaved so it needs to be light, maybe an unusual memoir??

what was that book about churches that some people read a couple of years ago - not the graves one that would be inappropriate

The Interior Silence by Sarah Sands? https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/products/interior-silence-book-sarah-sands-9781780725437?sku=GOR012207381&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=24038968708&gclid=Cj0KCQjwt9jVBhDXARIsAFSP-6ee0ymJeUiVQ09GeoomjnQ6nTw6Y4OexD6rnvFDtkQgcFEhS_pmGOYaApGUEALw_wcB

Interesting @Arran2024 but it wasn’t that one. It’ll come to me hopefully

I would highly recommend it regardless of it not being the one. I loved it.

My go-to recommendation would always be Patrick Leigh Fermor - A Time of Gifts or for something shorter A Time To Keep Silence is a lovely calming read.

Also I’m rather behind on this thread (and my reading) but happy birthday @DuPainDuVinDuFromage and great to see you back @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie - very timely as I am just embarking on a Dark Tower extended universe reread!

@EineReiseDurchDieZeitcould it be Steeplechasing by Peter Ross?

yes it was! Thanks so much!

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit what about a Ben Macintyre spy history for the DH? Disclaimer that I have a couple on my kindle that I haven't read, but they almost exclusively seem to get rave reviews.

Don't know whether he'd enjoy it, Eine, but DH is a big SF fan and is currently reading a biography of John Van Neumann called The Man From The Future. It is all a bit brain hurty for me, but for someone who's into science, it could be a good call.

Or A Rebel and a Traitor by Rory Carroll, who wrote Killing Thatcher. It's about the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland and Roger Casement.

Thanks @EineReiseDurchDieZeit I remember that now, I might give it a watch and see if that gives me the emotional angle that I feel was lacking in the book.

This is a good shout, thanks, I’ve had to jettison DCC as well because he’s read it!

Thanks as well @Stowickthevast I’ll take a look

Maybe Killing Thatcher itself is a shout?…

Thanks @MegBusset
I might have to join you on the quest for the Tower, if I can’t find anything else to read.

I fancy a crime series, but I’m struggling to find anything to fit the bill.

Killing Thatcher is excellent. If he hasn't read it that would be my choice. The Irish Uprising one is interesting but nowhere near as interesting as the Thatcher one imo.

But I have bought him Say Nothing previously and it’s a bit similar @Arran2024

I haven't read it but I guess it's quite similar, only the events in Killing Thatcher are 10 years later and maybe more relevant to people in Britain as more of the book is set here, and many of us remember the shock of the Brighton bomb.

Catching up with some reviews:

83 . The Warden by Anthony Trollope - a social reformer investigates the finances of a charitable foundation. This is the first of the famous Barsetshire Chronicles and is a slighter work than its successors. The beginning is excellent being a finely observed and entertaining portrait of the cathedral and its clerics - I particularly liked that the Archdeacon was secretly reading a novel rather than writing his sermon. Trollope is very sharp in his analysis of the central issue: the reader is left in no doubt that there is a clear case to reform the hospital but the outcome of doing so will be to no-one’s advantage. I lost interest when the action moved to London and the caricature of Dickens (“Mr Popular Sentiment”) seems ungenerous. Equally ungenerous is that BorrowBox does not have a copy of Barchester Towers.

84 . Tom Lake by Ann Patchett - a woman reminisces to her daughters about her youth as an actress particularly playing the role of Emily in In Our Town at the theatre of Tom Lake and her affair with a famous actor. Thanks to everyone who discussed this as I did enjoy this. It is quite a squalid portrayal of relationships though, especially as Lara puts such a low value on herself both in her relationship with Peter and in previous relationships.

84 . 28 Summers by Elin Hildebrand
85 . The Sixth Wedding by Elin Hildebrand
Another recommendation from this thread & I will read more by the author as I liked the Nantucket setting. This was a Kindle deal & is about a couple who are clearly well-suited but for various reasons don’t end up in a relationship but have an enduring affairs where they spend a bank holiday together every year. Unfortunately the romance wears off this as it’s difficult to romanticise adultery as it inevitably involves betrayal and because this is another woman character putting too low a value on herself. One character who doesn’t undervalue herself is the betrayed wife and despite the author giving her various negative features to justify the adultery, she is just too interesting a character (overachieving lawyer then politician) and plays an increasing role in the book. This further skews the readers sympathy away from the main characters and the sequel arguably shows that the author realised this.

Catching up a few reviews. Can’t remember what I’ve reviewed and what I haven’t so will keep them short.

I Have Some Questions for You- Rebecca Makkai
Literary thriller that is slow and nicely written. A podcaster goes back to her old boarding school to take a short course where one of her students decides to look into the solved murder of one of the podcaster’s fellow students when she was there in the 90s. Explores misogyny and class. I enjoyed this though think she could have cut out some of the subplots.

Far from the Madding Crowd- Thomas Hardy
A vain but smart and independent young woman inherits a farm and decides to run it herself. Despite being smart she ignores one wonderful man, badly treats another half way decent one and falls for the obvious cad. Well worn story- never the smart man who’s an idiot in love though. Anyway, I’m sure this is one of the earlier examples but it’s a storyline I’ve grown intolerant of over time so I didn’t love it and found some of the descriptions overly long- it doesn’t take three paragraphs to describe a snowy field. May have liked it better if not in bit of a reading slump.

Uprising- Tahmima Anam
Told from the collective point of view of the children of mothers forced or sold into prostitution on a Bangladeshi island. It’s told in the style of a fairy tale but its subject is brutal exploitation, poverty and climate change. This was a well-written and upsetting read that I’ll be thinking about for a while. Wonder why it didn’t get a Booker nod tbh.

A Meal in Winter by Hubert Mingarelli
A short novella translated from French and set in the Second World War where three German soldiers beg for a different job on a particular day. The book only covers that day and thoughtfully explores the issues in sparse prose. Read in a couple of hours, hard to put down.

87. Empire of Ivory by Naomi Novik

Book 4 in the Temeraire series, which is set during the Napoleonic Wars and follows the adventures of Captain Laurence and his fighting dragon Temeraire.

In this one, Laurence and Temeraire have returned from a trip to China to discover that a deadly epidemic has struck Britain’s dragons. They and their crew are sent off to Africa in search of a cure.

It was a bit slow in the middle, but the action roared to life once the hunt for the cure gets going in Africa, and ends on a bit of a doomy cliffhanger for Laurence.

88. My Hero Academia Vol 10 by Kohei Horikoshi

Manga. More action packed superhero vs supervillain action, as the heroes try to track down a kidnapped classmate.

89. The Weight’s Over, Take Back Control by Sandra Roycroft-Davis

This is about trying to change your mindset to develop a healthier lifestyle. There’s lots of useful tips and advice in here.

My main criticism is that after a while, this book started to feel like a very long advertisement for the authors business. She runs an online weight loss programme, and this is name dropped throughout the book and also in almost every testimonial at the end of every (very short) chapter. I can’t comment on whether this programme is as effective as the author and testimonials claim, but I was getting a little bit tired of hearing its name by the end of the book.

Some of us were debating how we see or don't see a story unfold in our mind's eye last week. Well, coincidentally, Yougov did some research on this very subject!

https://x.com/loopylooozz/status/2104173644393992557?s=20