50 Books Challenge 2026 Part Eight

[Southeastdweller]

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

You've reminded me that I need to listen to The Shining episode @DesdamonasHandkerchief

2 more from me:

112. I Want You To Be Happy - Jem Calder. This is about Chuck, a 36 year old man who's broken up with his fiancée for no real reason and is now drinking excessively and having a relationship with a 23 year old Barista, Joey in East London. The book switches viewpoints between Chuck and Joey, but I suspect Joey's sections fail the Bechdel test as they're mostly about when to text Chuck. I guess someone pitched this as a male Sally Rooney, I found it a load of tosh with unsympathetic characters ( who want to be a writer and poet respectively - bit autobiographical Jem?) and no plot to speak of. If you want to be happy, I would swerve this.

113. Partita - Barbara Kingsolver. I love BK but this doesn't quite stack up to her best for me. It's about Livia who was once a star pianist and now teaches piano and runs a farm in the countryside where she grew up. The book follows the form of a Partita apparently (I have no knowledge of classical music) and i's split between preludes in the present and various movements in the past where Livia is an impoverished music student at college and falls into an intense relationship with a communist. I preferred the present parts, the past is rather over wrought - I think intentionally to show young passion- and also goes through various tragic events that feel relentless. I liked the ending though and there's a musical accompaniment to the book which is interesting. solid 4.

@ÚlldemoShúl I'm only really ploughing through Les Mis as I've come too far to give up - i keep zoning out of the audio and I've got too many other things I want to read to switch over to a physical or kindle copy. I'm good at DNFing but want to keep going with this for some reason.

@SheilaFentiman I definitely agree re a DNF clicking if you go back to it - I tried reading The Future Homemakers of America last year but couldn't get into it, tried again recently and found I loved it.

@Piggywaspushed there are tours of Walter Scott's house? Who knew. I've had Ivanhoe on my TBR since forever and have put it on my 50 books before I turn 50 list. I think The Observations may be set in the Lothian area but it's still a great book which I'd highly recommend.

@CornishLizard The Winter Guest sounds right up my street, I've added it to my wish list.

From the deals:

The Curious Case of Mike Lynch
Claws Out
The Unworthy
Last Night I Dreamt
The Killers Mark
Munichs
The Finest Hotel In Kabul

Two books from the deals for me:

The Finest Hotel in Kabul - sounds intriguing
The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy. A couple of Booktubers I follow have been recommending this but it's not available in my local libraries, so I jumped at this one

Empire of Pain is in the monthly deals, in case anyone hasn’t read it yet. As is Glorious Exploits

Also Polo
The Searcher and The Likeness by Tana French
Another Life by Kristin Hannah
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Kala by Colin Walsh
Agent Sonya - Ben McIntyre

@InTheCludgie Thanks for The Wilderness tip - I've read it via Netgalley but wanted a "proper" copy

Warning: Munichs is in the deals but it's £3.79 - I guess that's not really expensive but it's obviously a bit more than 99p or £1.99.

Women's Prize non fiction listed title With the Law on Our Side by Lady Hale is 99p

A couple of bargains for women's writing reprint fans

Not So Quiet by Helen Zenna Smith, foreword by Alice Winn, Mermaids Collection, anti-war WWI novel - 99p - I have the Virago Modern Classics paperback which I think is one of my VMCs

Miss Granby's Secret by Eleanor Farjeon is from the Furrowed Middlebrow imprint

The new London Persephone shop opens on Wednesday, and I'm hoping to get there this week but not yet sure which day. I was looking at the website to work out which titles I most need, and it comes to 12 of the books published since they moved to Bath plus another two I didn't buy previously that I'm looking at again.

I have some shiny new reservations waiting for me at libraries, but also have to give back a couple to be allowed to collect from Islington, and am considering just buying one or both now (and whether to just get Kindle copies or order paper copies).

Oh, I thought I'd carefully chosen my books for this month but you're all encouraging me to go back and look again.

I'm going to double check my list again against BorrowBox but am planning:

Almost Life, Kiran Millwood Hargrave (reviewed positively by someone here)
The Noise of Time, Julian Barnes
In Wonderland, Joyce Maynard

Lots of other good ones there that I have already read or own. So far, so restrained.

Then I saw The Favorites - @EineReiseDurchDieZeit was that the ice skating romance that you recommended? It was you, right?

And something called See You Next Tuesday which made me snigger but then I saw it's an enemies to lovers political romance described as The West Wing crossed with Heated Rivalry...... somehow it has also jumped into my basket 😂😂

Also tempted by Michael Lewis's book about Sam Bankman-Fried.....

If Munichs is in the deals can I insist everyone reads it immediately. It was my fiction bold of the year a couple of years ago.

Thanks as always to southeast for the thread

My new reads are:

96. India Knight - The Beauty Edit
97. Lesley Cookman - Murder at the Crooked Horse
98. Helen Dickson - The Countess He Can‘t Have
99. John Banville - Snow
100. LM Montgomery - Anne of the Island
101. Susannah Gregory - A Deadly Brew
102. Michael Innes - Appleby Rides Again
103. Deanna Raybourn - A Ghastly Catastrophe
104. Rhys Bowen - A Royal Flush
105. Sue Townsend - The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 3/4
106. Elisabeth Hobbes - The Laudanum Ladies‘ Society
107. Rachel Parris - Introducing Mrs Collins
108. Erin Kelly - The Night Stairs
109. Anthony Horowitz - The Marble Hall Murders
110. Shaun Tan - The Arrival
111. Lucy Strange - The Ghost of Gosswater
112. Nick Louth - The Deep End
113. Nick Louth - The Hanging Place
114. Maureen Johnson - The Velvet Knife
115. Stephanie Garber - Caraval
116. Annie Haynes - The Abbey Court Murder
117. Rob Rinder - The Defence
118. Sophie Irwin - A Lady’s Guide to Fortune Hunting
119. Kate Rhodes - The Mermaid’s Cry
120. Jodi Taylor - Who’s There?

My sister recommended Outlander to me. Perhaps she remembered my love for Jilly Cooper? I'm with @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie It was all too much shagging for my liking. DNF'd at 400 pages.

@VikingNorthUtsire If you fancy a romantic comedy Jane Lovering has written a few set in the Highlands. There's often a free one on Prime reading.

Question 7 and a couple of Barbara Pyms in there too.
My Name is Leon.
Stone Blind
Alias Grace

And Vianne (from the Chocolat series)

I read it, I didn’t love it.

Just wanted to say, thank you to everyone who contributes (in any way!) to this lovely thread. I haven't been on MN much recently as DM had a major stroke; she's still in hospital and we (as a family) are having to decide whether she can come home at some point or whether she will need to be in some form of care home. It's very tough and I've really appreciated having this to distract me, and being able to dip back in whenever I can.

@Arran2024 I'm so pleased your DH has recovered from his stroke and @PermanentTemporary, the staff on the stroke ward at DM's community hospital are fab, thank you to everyone who works on one for all the work you do

On a personal note @bibliomania I love Timeline and was so disappointed by the film - and @ÚlldemoShúl I'm glad someone else enjoyed No Name, I thought it was cracking! I too have 'comfort reads' and Richard Osman's books are amongst those (but not the We Solve Murders* series, which I thought was dire) - also Philippa Gregory, who has lots of books in the Kindle daily deals today.

From my latest reads, I wasn't going to bold Introducing Mrs Collins about Charlotte Lucas from P&P as I thought it was quite dull till about half way through, then it all changed round and I found it more moving than anticipated; I really like the DI Jan Talantire books from Nick Louth and the Sophie Irwin and Jodi Taylor books were pure fun biggest disappointment was probably The Velvet Knife, as I'd really enjoyed the previous books in this YA series. This one was mainly flashbacks and only a little detecting, plus I'm finding the main character Stevie quite irritating. The books now read a bit like a tick list of issues for YA fiction: mental health issues? Tick. Characters with medication requirements/ dependencies? Tick. Non-binary characters? Tick. And so on, even though these contribute nothing to the storylines...

Sending best wishes to @Stowickthevast as well

It's incredible. Worth every penny of £3.79.

Thinking of you all at this tough time @ClaraTheImpossibleGirl. I’m glad that reading is giving you some comfort 💐

@Piggywaspushedand @BestIsWestfo you have to like football to enjoy Munichs? I actively hate it (the noise drives me insane) so if football is a big part of the book I’d have to swerve (but don’t want to swerve with such strong recommendations)

I have pondered this myself but I don't think so. It is about the world of football and that world being thrown into a terrible arena of loss and grief in a time when most footballers were on the cusp of a transition to ordinary lads leading ordinary lives to the era of glamour.

It's really a very poignant study of grief but also how a nation , individual families, the media and communities respond to shared and personal trauma. There have been programmes made about Hillsborough that have hit the same tone.

I think all you need to know is a bit about the event and the people involved.

I would suggest avoiding reading it if you are in the midst of grieving as it may be a bit much or - definitely - if you are on , or soon to go on, a plane journey. I described the first 20 pages or so as like reading through a panic attack in my review.

Thanks @Piggywaspushedthe fact that these footballers will have been ordinary lads rather than the overblown players of today definitely appeals to my more.

The football world of the 1950s was very different to today.

48) The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. I'm sure this one needs no introduction! I'd never actually read it before, and we were in need of a family audiobook for our half term travels so I picked this classic.

It was... fine? I needed to pause and explain some bits to our 10 year old and stopped listening at times to concentrate on the road, so that interrupted the flow a bit. Or maybe I was already too familiar with the story to appreciate the original text? Either way it fell a bit flat for me.

Almost Life seems to have been on offer quite a lot but I thought it was really good, I think several people have written proper reviews of it here - which I haven't, yet (I should have).

Sending gentle support, @ClaraTheImpossibleGirl 💐

@VikingNorthUtsire Has anyone suggested any inspector Alan Grant? That’s my go to for Highland fun. My favourite is The Singing Sands

Sending best wishes, @ClaraTheImpossibleGirl

@ClaraTheImpossibleGirl For your Mum

@Piggywaspushed @BestIsWest I’ve been wanting to read Munichs for ages but it was pricey, I don’t know when I will get to it though