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

Am I the only one who doesn't get the Cazalet love? They have all the components of things I love, but I found the first book quite dull, pedestrian and was surprised that it is often pitched as a comfort read when something I really didn't expect happened. I am yet to stumble across anyone who didn't like them though.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit I have stalled on The Shining. Maybe I will pick it back up.

The Shining is my favourite Stephen King book. I love the character of Dick who barely features in the film. I may reread for Tabby & Dom. Am definitely swerving American Psycho which I hated!

@AgualusasL0ver they're slow burners and it took me a while to get into them. But after a while I did get the whole comfort read thing. I also like to think that EJH had endured more than Kingsley Amis who I think belittled her writing.

@Stowickthevast I loathe American Psycho utter garbage

@AgualusasL0ver I don't think of the Cazalets as a comfort read exactly. They have the form of a comforting family saga but there is some disturbing stuff in there! I like that EJH gives us so many perspectives into life in the war and post war years. It's not all brave soldiers/devoted women. Each character has a unique voice and story and all of them are capable of good and bad. I find the books very absorbing.

Some very late replies to comments again!

@TimeforaGandT you said, yes, I read Scaffolding - your review is much more highbrow than mine which said there was a lot of sex and it was very French.....

Ha, your review is an excellent summary! I really liked Scaffolding but didn't give it five stars in the end because it was a little too self-indulgent. I have a love/hate relationship with Lacanian theory. I went to grad school at a US university where I took some amazing courses on Lacanian psychoanalysis with a very charismatic professor who had herself worked with (and reportedly slept with) Lacan. She had a sort of cult following among the graduate students, and I was more than a little in love with her as well, even though I was very much on the fringes of the cool crowd rather than a proper member of it. Looking back, I feel nostalgia but also find it all a little comical. We were a lot of young people reading literature and taking ourselves so very seriously. Students wore black and chain-smoked and nodded sagely over Lacanian aphorisms like 'The unconscious is structured like a language' and 'There is no sexual relation' (which Elkin also quotes).

When I read Lauren Elkin's bio and discovered she has French and English postgraduate degrees from Paris and the US East Coast, I was not surprised, let's put it that way! We were trained to speak the same language. I don't know if her novel would go down so well with readers who haven't read Lacan ... I think the novel can pull it off though. She writes so lucidly, she isn't just writing for an in-crowd.

Lacan has a lot of brilliant ideas, but I have two big issues with him (not that anyone asked!). First, his language is so cryptic that you almost HAVE to study him formally in order to understand what he's saying. That means that Lacanian literary criticism isn't easily accessible. I think that if you have a good idea, it's important to be able to explain it in language that thoughtful literate people can understand. So I dislike his lack of clarity. Second, he was a psychoanalyst, but my sense is that he was less interested in helping patients feel better than in exploring his own intellectual views of how language worked. He would famously end a session not after an hour, but whenever he wanted to stop, even if that meant only five minutes (this was meant to be therapeutic, but was it really?). Some of his patients died by suicide, and I can't say I find this surprising.

Sorry for the long tangent on Lacan; I didn't mean to be so wordy! Will catch up with the rest of the thread now.

I too hate American Psycho, enjoyed The Shining but have never read any of the Cazalets. Wonder am I missing out?

@VikingNorthUtsire that was a lovely review of Ripeness! I also agree with your review of Fundamentally. The author is clearly very well-educated, and I felt like she was dumbing things down too much in order to appeal to a broader audience (don't underestimate the intelligence of the ordinary reader!).

I also discovered Guest House for Young Widows thanks to MN, and loved it.

@Stowickthevast excellent point about how the Booker shortlist is not geographically diverse, with the lack of Asian and African writers.

Congrats @MaterMoribund on your book haul!

Interesting to read reviews of the new Cazalet book. I've only read books one and two of the series - I liked them but got distracted and never pursued with the rest (very typical of me).

57. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald 5/5
    A reread after many years. What a beautiful and heartbreaking novel! It captures a particular time and place so vividly (the 1920s Jazz Age on Long Island). The prose is minimalist and limpid. I had forgotten there were so many big themes in this short narrative: class inequality, gender, love, race, and, well, the meaning of life. Tom Buchanan is obnoxiously racist, which I hadn’t remembered. All the characters are vulnerable and insecure in different ways, however, and the authenticity of the narrator Nick’s human connection with the troubled Gatsby is very moving.

58. Vernon Subutex 2, Virginie Despentes 5/5
    The second novel in Despentes’ best-selling trilogy. I loved the first one, and this sequel did not disappoint. The French language is hard going due to the heavy use of slang and colloquialisms, but I felt I was settling into the lingo by the end. Despentes is incredibly gifted at depicting a wide range of diverse characters across modern-day Paris; she’s been called the Balzac of our times and I would say she deserves the compliment. In this book Vernon is homeless, but mostly very zen, and a whole group of lost souls (some more privileged than others) gather round him. The ending is rather implausibly utopian, but I didn’t mind.

59. Ripley Under Ground, Patricia Highsmith 3/5
    I enjoyed this even though I don’t feel like I really ‘get’ Tom Ripley as a character! @DesdamonasHandkerchief described him as ‘unburdened by any scrap of conscience’ and that hits the nail on the head. I read this on holiday in France and my favourite aspect was the description of Ripley’s life in his glamorous French country estate.

Joining in the book chat, I absolutely loved Hamnet and own, but have not read The Wedding Portrait.

The Shining is one of King’s best and I really enjoyed Dr Sleep, it was great to find out what happened to Danny and everyone.

82 The Puppet Show by MW Craven

I needed another crime series to get into after finally finished the Ruth Galloway series and when @EineReiseDurchDieZeit mentioned this I realised I had bought it on my kindle back in 2020. I really enjoyed this, the story was a little grim, but I can forgive that if it is well plotted with great characters and a few twists, which this definitely was. I’ll definitely be continuing with the series, although might need to wait until they are in the deals.

I have Hamnet to read next because a friend whose opinion I value has persuaded me. The only other MOF I’ve read was the Heatwave one which I didn’t love and I’m sorry to say I gave up on Land.

Agree that The Shining is one of King’s best. It’s a pity that many people probably only know it through the awful film.

I hated Hamnet. Found her writing style extremely turgid and grating.

I paid about a fiver each for most of the Washington Poe books iirc and thought they were well worth it.

Still in a slump with nothing to read. Not a happy bunny.

I think Maggie O'Farrell's books are very varied in a sense that they're just not that like each other. I probably liked The Marriage Portrait more than you did, because I don't dislike any of her books. I love the Robert Browning poem that inspired it - I was introduced to it by my English teacher at school at 14 or 15. Agnes in Hamnet is a much fuller multi-dimensional character than the girl in TMP.

@Stowickthevast
"I also like to think that EJH had endured more than Kingsley Amis who I think belittled her writing."

My memory is that Kingsley Amis actually was quite respectful and admiring of her writing, at least in the years where they fell in love (I think he left his previous wife for EJH). As the relationship soured and alcohol brought out the worst in Kingsley Amis, there was also some competition and jealousy between them.

I think Maggie O’Farrell writes about a varied range of subjects, but structurally the ones that I’ve read are similar: start in the present, flashbacks to the past, then the action moves forward. Her writing style is also very distinctive & consistent (when I first read her I felt it was very “swirly” but there will be a far more coherent way to analyse it). I can see that this will be something that a reader will either respond to or dislike as her writing style is something you are very aware of when reading.

I liked Hamnet as I felt the subject suited her structure & writing style - in my view it’s probably her best book, although I also liked Esme Lennox when I read it years ago. I’ve liked some of her others & will read more although I wasn’t so keen on This Must be the Place & Instructions from a Heatwave. For both of these two, it was the plot rather than the style that was the issue for me.

I’m not an EJH fan - I wanted to like them and have read the first one but didn’t like them enough to continue.

Re EJH, I loved the Cazalets but didn't enjoy The Long View as much, which has put me off reading anything more of hers. I didn't know her niece had written a follow up - unless I hear it's terrible I will definitely read that.

Esme Lennox is my favourite Maggie O’Farrell I’ve read so far.

Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
A re-read for me but from years ago so it wasn't completely familiar. Enjoyable read but it baffles me how Bathsheba attracts men like she does. She's extremely irritating to the point of narcissism!

I'm looking forward to the new Cazalet novel, because as well as liking EJH since I was quite young - 80s teenager, the first Cazalet books were early 90s) I really like Louisa Young as a writer in her own right - she has written a trilogy about a single mother in 1990s? London - which may have elements of autobiography in it, a loosely linked historical trilogy starting with My Dear, I Wanted to Tell You set in WWI, about a couple from very different social/class backgrounds - book 2 is about after the war, when many who survived the war were traumatised and angry, as well as those who lost loved ones, and this really did change everything for many people. Book 3 is also about an Italian Jewish family, related to the woman in the previous books, who saw Mussolini as someone who would save them from Communism.

She's also written a memoir of a long time relationship about her long time partner, of losing him to the drink and death (that's not a spoiler, it's in the title You Left Early).

And I'm currently reading her most recent novel before the Cazalet Project - which is very different from her previous work - about love and bereavement and ghosts. (Louisa Young has lived for some years now with Michel Faber whose wife died of cancer).

77.Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by VE Schwab
Bold. Thank you to whoever has suggested this upthread. I would never have come across this without this lovely corner of the internet. I so enjoyed this. The language was beautiful and the settings sparkled throughout the saga. I have read amazon reviews saying it was dull or the pacing was off but this was not my experience at all. I stayed up late to finish it. Lesbian vampire fiction. Who’d have thought it! I have put another of the author’s on my wishlist.

78.A Clash of Kings by George RR Martin
The second Game of Thrones book. I am not quite sure why I started this as I didn’t totally love the first one. I felt much the same about this one and I think I will probably leave the series here (although everyone talks about The Red Wedding and I don’t know what that is so I am slightly intrigued to perhaps get to that stage before giving up....). Anyhow, I struggled to keep track of the many many characters and was frustrated about the story meandering between people I didn’t care about and those that interested me. Give me a whole book about Tyrian, Sansa, Arya and Jon (possibly Bran) and I would happily read the whole series. Everyone else can do one because I just don’t care.

79.A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J Maas
The second in A Court of Thorn and Roses. This was a real surprise. I quite enjoyed the first but found it quite formulaic. Here the formula was turned on its head and I was pleasantly surprised by the direction it took. I found the characters more fleshed out and Feyre significantly less whiny (for the most part). I will definitely be reading the next one.

I bought the whole set on the basis of all the love and I saw a tv adaptation which I loved. Just couldn't get into the books.

@elkiedee I didn’t know there were sequels to My Dear I Wanted To Tell You. I really liked that. Must investigate.

40 - The Four Winds - Kristin Hannah
I was completely absorbed by this and read most of it over the weekend.

From 1930s Dust Bowl Texas to the promise of bountiful California, this is a powerful and often heartbreaking story of survival.

It was a real eye-opener to this period of history for me, although the author clearly states she took creative liberties with the historical facts, particularly the timeline. There is so much hardship in this book that it could have been a total misery fest but I was drawn in by the main characters, their struggle to make a living from the land and their fight for justice and a better life. I particularly loved the poignant mother-daughter moments throughout the novel.

Lots of reading while on train journeys, so nothing too demanding.

124. Faro's Daughter, Georgette Heyer
Good fun, with hero and heroine battling for supremacy, to the point of kidnapping (her having him kidnapped, which was fun). Our heroine is in less respectable circumstances than usual in these books, so it was all rather refreshing.

125. The Dead Side of the Mike, Simon Brett
Someone dies at a BBC radio studio - murder or suicide? Our actor/amateur detective hero tries to find out. The author has some fun with a particularly deadening committee and a treasure hunt following musical clues in a radio programme, but I think I've read enough of this series for now. (I've noted the recommendation for Washington Poe and here and will give that series a shot).

Not adding a number as it's a re-read -
The Last Samurai, Helen Dewitt
It must be a good 20 years since I originally read this book, but the image stayed with me of the small boy with his single mother, endlessly riding the Circle Line to stay warm while he colours in Greek words to learn the language. His mother doesn't want to reveal who his father is (for no good reason other than to further the plot, as far as I can see) so endlessly shows him the Seven Samurai so he has male role models. As he gets older, he is inspired to go in search of potential father figures. Through today's lens, I think there would be more explicit reference to neurodivergence, but here the characters are just their quirky selves, pursuing their own special interests, with nary a diagnosis in sight. Characters are introduced briefly with their own dramatic stories, and this time round I found these sub-stories the most interesting aspect.

126. Some Die Eloquent, Catherine Aird
I seem to be on a bit of a 1970s crime fiction crime kick, as this is from 1979. This is a police procedural focusing on why a schoolteacher died with an inexplicably large sum of money in her account. It's of its time. The lead detective is trying to investigate while his wife is in the process of giving birth, which is portrayed with rather unexpected tenderness.

127. The Veteran, Frederick Forsyth
The first book I have read by this author. I vaguely associate him with Cold War thrillers with lots of technical detail, so this collection of short stories was surprising in its range - there's a detailed account of the investigation and prosecution of an attack on an army veteran; an art fraud leading to an enjoyable revenge plot; a story that reads like a straightforward Catholic hagiography for most of its length; an account of drug smuggling, and perhaps most surprising, a time-travel/ghost love story. It all zipped along very nicely.

128. The Men Who Created Winnie-the-Pooh The Lives of AA Milne and EH Shephard, James Campbell
Not much new information in this as I've read a couple of books about A A Milne previously, but this was short and efficient and had nice illustrations.

129. Constable Country, Catherine Aird
This is a later book in the same series as book 126. The characters are the same ages, but it was written more than 40 years later in 2023. Frankly, it wasn't a very good book. I can barely remember the details of the crime. I was mostly curious how the author would handle times changing but not her characters. Not very well, as it happens. There were some references to mobile phones, but the social setting seemed if anything to have gone backwards in time and relied on stereotypes from decades ago. To be fair, the author was in her eighties and died the year after this book came out.

130. Friday's Child, Georgette Heyer
Features one of her child brides, married at age 16 to a slightly older man she's hero-worshipped since childhood. I found some of this uncomfortable, particularly early scenes where he boxes her ears and shakes her. The point is that he is treating her like a little sister and he himself has to grow up and realize he loves her, but it hasn't aged very well.

131. On the Calculation of Volume I, Solvej Balle
Woman finds herself reliving 18th November over and over. The focus is on the loneliness of her situation - she tries to communicate her problem to her partner, who believes her and tries to help her find a solution, but every morning he wakes up and the knowledge is erased, so she has to explain over and over again, growing more remote in experience from him. I knew going in that people had found this slow-moving and so it was. I wasn't engaged enough to pursue the further books in the series.

Also re-read All Passion Spent, by Vita Sackville-West.
A newly-widowed 88-year old woman decides to spend her remaining time stepping away from what is expected of her by her family, and looking back over her life. She married and had six children and supported her husband's career, but never lived out her own dreams.

It's described as a fictional counterpart to Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own, but her quiet rebellion also makes me think of an older woman's counterpart to Lolly Willowes.

I enjoyed this reread - there are humorous moments but also sincere feeling about what it means to be a support act to other people rather than the main character in your own life.