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

Thanks for the heads up @RazorstormUnicorn . I really enjoyed The Nightingale a few years ago and started another of hers off the back of that, but DNF. So unimpressed with it I can't even remember the name!!

Then waited ages before trying another so I did well to choose The Four Winds (recently reviewed) which I thought was well written.

I would totally agree with the claim of extremely uneven body of work from Kristin Hannah (and have added The Winter Garden to my list because I hadn't heard of that one!)

I'm currently reading and LOVING The Correspondent.

Oh glad to hear it!

67 Bitter Sweet, Hattie Williams

I think I am too old for any more books about fragile young women making poor decisions.

In this one, Charlie, still struggling after the sudden death of her mother a few years earlier, gets embroiled in an ill-advised affair with a much older married man. It's good on the murkiness of consent where the balance of power is very mismatched, and toe-curlingly good at hideous, awkward sexual and social situations. Cf Cat Person, cf Fleabag, cf Conversations with Friends, cf poor bloody Monica Lewinsky. I just found myself underwhelmed by this particular version of the story - I guess I was hoping for something new, some different angle, whereas this is just an adept telling of a tale as old as time.

68 The Glovemaker, Ann Weisgarber

I loved this. Set in a tiny isolated community in Utah during a harsh 19th century winter. Deborah's husband, Samuel, has been away for months working as a wheelwright, and at the opening of the book he is three weeks late coming home. In his absence, Deborah is keeping their small homestead (chickens, a cow) running, and trying not to worry.

One night, there's a knock at the door. Deborah and Samuel are part of a network (somewhat reluctantly but with a strong sense of religious duty) helping fellow Mormons to escape prosecution under anti-polygamy laws. This isn't the first stranger to have come to their door seeking help, but they never normally appear during the winter, and Deborah knows that there's something troublingly different about this one.

This is a stark and beautiful book full of atmosphere and quiet, intense emotion. Snow, darkness and isolation dominate the setting, and the reader feels all of the characters' tension and indecision as things slowly unfold.

Long Winter vibes, which is definitely a plus in my book! A bold.

@VikingNorthUtsire
I quite liked Bitter Sweet though I do understand why you didn't. I liked all Sally Rooney's other work but I was really quite disappointed by Conversations with Friends when I read it, as her married man was such a creep. I thought Hattie Williams was much clearer about the creepiness, and her character has colleagues and friends who care about her. Perhaps it's just about remembering my own mistakes a long time ago - I think I've jbeen with dp just about half my life. Which is funny when I've had more stepparents than parents.

@VikingNorthUtsire

I also loved The Glovemaker, and her previous novel The Promise, another historical set in Galveston, Texas, where there was a terrible storm in 1900 (fictional characters, true event setting).

Talking of books about extreme weather and old classics, I bought this last year and still have it to read but just noticed that it's 99p again: Woman in the Polar Night by Austrian painter Christiane Ritter, first published 1934, is a memoir of spending a year in the Arctic with her husband, intro by Sara Wheeler. Of course, I now have to look her up to find out her views on that other Austrian painter who came back to annex Austria a few years later.

Hagstone by Sinead Gleeson
This was on my list to buy from Collected the other week but they were out of stock. Was going to put it on my Wish List but it was part of the Kindle Library rotating offer - I didn’t even know that was a Thing! Most of the books on there weren’t to my taste but I picked this one up and How To Kill Your Family.

Anyway, it was a decent female-centred story. Island community, folk horror, modern world intruding and being dealt with. Some pseudo-nuns form an inner wheel of insularity up on the cliff top. Nell is an artist who likes to peep through windows in the dark. The community is occasionally cowed/exhilarated by a mysterious Sound that sweeps the island.
Lola Petticrew should play Nell if it’s adapted for the screen.

I enjoyed Woman in the Polar Night. As ever with such tales of extreme conditions, I marvelled at the ability of certain humans to endure and even enjoy such things whilst I am wrapped up on the sofa!

IMO, very good Kristin Hannah: The Great Alone (Alaska, so get your extreme weather here too) and The Four Winds

Less good: True Colours, Firefly Lane, Fly Away

Plan to read more in due course!

However, the TV version of Firefly Lane is well worth watching.

ETA I enjoyed How to Kill Your Family @MaterMoribund

I really enjoyed A Woman in the Polar Night.

I was ultimately disappointed by The Great Alone, though it showed early promise. It’s the only one of hers I’ve read and it didn’t make me want to try more.

I've been in a reading slump for quite a few months only reading my book club book and trying to get through my tbr pile so not really keeping up / buying new books .
However just got The Pirate Queen by Ariel Lowhon ( author of Frozen River ) and finding it a great read . Would definitely recommend .

I bought The Correspondant on Audible recently - glad to see it is getting good reviews.
I have a long drive next week and might save it for that.

Another one who thinks Kristin Hannah is a bit variable - I loved The Women (though it went a bit silly towards the end) and The Great Alone. Didn't like Firefly Lane as much. Seemed a bit Chicklit for me -not judging anyone who enjoys a bit of that though!

@elkiedee It is worse than you think for me, Pollocks soon to be Perspehone is about 45 secs from my office. I already can't walk up to M&S because it means passing Waterstones on Tott Ct Rd.

I think it was the Firefly book that I DNF

42 - Deep Blue – Steve Backshall
I listened to this, narrated by Backshall, the explorer, conservationist and TV presenter. Would definitely recommend.

Combination of conservation, wonderment and personal endeavour.
Are our oceans really scr*wed or not?

Will be dipping back into it again at a later date as I’m useless at retaining information - and this was full of it!

How to kill a witch (which was recommended on here) is in today’s deals.

On the subject of whether to review romances (or other genres of fiction), I’m just going to note that good & bad writing exist in all genres & limiting oneself to a single genre (even literary fiction) would be rather boring. I always think of this passage from Northanger Abbey as it’s a debate that has being going on for a very long time:

”And while the abilities of the nine-hundredth abridger of the History of England, or of the man who collects and publishes in a volume some dozen lines of Milton, Pope, and Prior, with a paper from the Spectator, and a chapter from Sterne, are eulogized by a thousand pens—there seems almost a general wish of decrying the capacity and undervaluing the labour of the novelist, and of slighting the performances which have only genius, wit, and taste to recommend them.”

I feel like Kristen Hannah books fall just short of greatness every time.

Oh my gosh. Has anyone seen the new Stephen King hardback? It’s a monster! I’m going to need some sort of pulley system to hold it.

I have The Women on my TBR pile but can’t summon up any enthusiasm.

The Women is the only Kirsten Hannah I’ve read and I didn’t love it- mainly because I thought there was more focus on her relationships than her experience of war or the aftermath or the other women. I do have The Great Alone and intend to try it some time.
Re the new Stephen King- I loved The Dark Tower and Talisman books but I’d need to reread them I think before this one and I don’t know if I’ll ever get around to that. I’m listening to Never flinch at the minute and enjoying it.

The only Kirstin Hannah I can remember reading is The Four Winds. I liked the opening, but didnt get on with it after that. I cant remember why ... this often seems to happen to me these days.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie I have so much of Stephen King's backlist to read it's unreal, I really need to make more time to get through them. I may listen to some on audio as im back using Audible, if anyone can recommend any of his books which work well to listen to, I'd love your recommendation!

I've never read a Kristin Hannah book, which would be a good one to start with?

Also, thanks for The Book Club podcast chat, I'm loving listening to this - think I might prefer it to Backlisted now.

I can't cope with listening to books, so no help at all. Sorry!

I've never read a Kristin Hannah book, which would be a good one to start with?

The Great Alone is my favourite so far because I think she captures the sense of place in Alaska so well alongside the story.