2026 - 50 Books a Year Challenge

I was quite surprised granfromafar because I'm not a big fan of Bob Mortimer but I was pleasantly surprised.

# 9 The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena

I couldn't put this book down and read it in one day, staying up late to finish it.

Two couples - Cynthia and Graham, and Anne and Marco - live next door to each other and regularly socialise, although Cynthia feels that the friendship with Anne has changed since Anne and Marco had their baby.

Cynthia and Graham are having a small party to celebrate
Graham's birthday and invite Anne and Marco, but make it clear that this is an adults-only party and a crying baby is not welcome. The babysitter can't come at the last minute and Marco persuades his wife that the baby will be ok on her own if they take the baby alarm with them, and check on her every half an hour. After all, he says, we will only be next door.

The baby was sleeping well when she was last checked, but when the couple go home, they find her crib empty.

They've never had to call the police before but now they are under suspicion themselves.

I thought the "read a book in one sitting" was a cliche. Not any more! 10/10

5. The Hallmarked Man, Robert Galbraith

I’m lagging behind a bit and must make wiser choices if I’m ever to catch up with my target - this one was over 900 pages. Also, I downloaded it onto my Kindle and as an audiobook (yes, both!), so spent lots of time synchronising the two and, because it’s so long and involved, scrolling back to check on who was who and what was what (so much easier with a proper book). I’ve enjoyed the ride though, as I always do with Strike novels. I’m captivated by the relationship between Strike and Robin, and can’t wait for the next one, though if JK’s listening I’d prefer a modest 6 or 700 pages, pretty please?

11-Secrets of the Toffee Factory Girls-Glenda Young
I enjoyed the first of this series so much that I ordered this from the library, and have ordered the last in the trilogy as well.
The three main characters come alive on the page and make you want to cry or smile with them. A joy to read.

12-Salem Street-Anna Jacobs
The first of a set of 5 books about the life of Annie Gibson. Born in 1820 to a millworker's family it is an amazingly detailed story of how hard life was in that century.

No 5 The Artist by Lucy Seeds. This is set mostly in the beautiful south of France, with glorious descriptions of villages and surrounding countryside. The plot concerns an acclaimed but aging, reclusive artist called Edouard Tartuffe and his young niece/assistant. A third element is added by the arrival of a journalist named Joseph, and thereby hangs the tale. I loved it.

#13. The Coast Road by Alan Murrin.

4 Beautful Ugly by Alice Feeney

A psychological thriller with some twists. Grady Green is an author whose wife goes missing on her way home after she sees the body of a woman in the road. She is on the phone to Grady at the time and he warns her not to get out of the car. However, she ignores him, gets out to investigate and vanishes.
A year later his agent suggests he visits a quiet Scottish island where he might be able to find some peace and write again.

Quite a disturbing book. I'm not sure if I will buy any more by this author as I couldn't really get to know any of the characters, they were not drawn in any depth.
I liked the dog best!

9. A Miscellany of Garden Wisdom by Bernard Schofield

'Presented herein a collection of useful tips & homespun knowledge much of which has been obscured by time and memory'
Old folklore about gardening which was inteersting and quirky

10 The Last Love Song Lucinda Riley

I was so sorry when the news broke a couple of years ago that Lucinda Riley had died. She was such an engaging story teller. Her narratives rolled along effortlessly and sometimes that's all I want from a book, depending on the mood, just a damn good yarn, this one has all of those qualities. She wrote it back in the 1990s under her then name of Lucinda Edwards. Her son, Harry Whittaker has taken over her back catalogue of the ones, such as this, written before she achieved phenomenal success a few years later with her breakthrough novel.

I picked this up quite randomly at my local library. I loved it It was such an easy but enjoyable read but with the page turning impetus of wanting to find out what happens next.

The year is 1964 when we first meet Sorcha O'Donovan and Con Daly from a small town on the West coast of Ireland. 17 year old, schoolgirl Sorcha, the product of a comfortably off family, her father being a partner in a local firm of solicitors falls in love with Con a 20 something, blessed with good looks, a musical ability and a voice to match, nevertheless living on on the fringes in a ramshackle beach hut overlooking the wild Atlantic, theirs is a covert and forbidden love affair. Their cover is blown by a somewhat envious, questionable as to her intentions, friend Helen, as is their taboo romantic liaison. When her father finds them in flagrante, tipped off by Helen. Absolutely enraged, he is to cast Sorcha out of the family home.

Con's musical aspirations take them both to a London on the cusp of the seismic explosion that took the music world by storm. There they start their gradual ascent from barely getting by, living in a grotty bedsit, Con busking, Sorcha finding work behind the makeup counter in Swan and Edgar, leading to her being scouted for modelling work whilst Con is to join a newly emerging group whose trajectory into eventual international success will be monumental. They marry, but the pressures of stardom will eventually compromise their happiness. From their past, Helen, with a head for numbers also finds her way to London on a trajectory of a different nature she is also to achieve spectacular success in a field that is very intertwined with the star crossed lovers.

Couldn't put it down.

No 6 Benbecula by Graeme Macrae Burnet. This short novel is set on the island of Benbecula and is a retelling of a real life murderous crime that took place in the 1850’s. I don’t know what make of it, to be honest. The author writes beautifully but the story just seems to hang in the air.

SueDonim

No 6 Benbecula by Graeme Macrae Burnet. This short novel is set on the island of Benbecula and is a retelling of a real life murderous crime that took place in the 1850’s. I don’t know what make of it, to be honest. The author writes beautifully but the story just seems to hang in the air.

Did you read "His Bloody Project"? by the same author Sue, I found that quite riveting.

Yes, I did. This didn’t have the same suspense to it all. It’s part of a Scottish series called The Darkland Tales, which to quote the website re-imagining stories from the country’s history, myth and legend. This series reclaims history for a modern audience.

It really is just a retelling, although I admit I had never heard of the crime. It just lacks any ‘breath-holding’ moments.

Great thread, just discovered it. I must read 50 books a year at least but never keep a count.
I'd love to join in.
My favourite genre is psychological novels but .I've started the year off on a gentler note.
The first one of this year was 'Don't Believe a Word' by Susan Lewis which I believe is a series ; then Cold Earth by Anne Cleeves featuring Detective Jimmy Perez (played in the TV series of course by Doug Henshall.
I've now just started one of Kathy Kelly's - light reading but comforting winter night cosy.
I have a couple of thrillers gifted by my daughter at Christmas one of which I plan to read next.
Will check back on the thread for recommendations.

Book No. 10 Need to Know by Karen Cleveland

This was a random pick from the library and was gripping. I shall definitely look for more by this author.

A couple have been married for 10 years and have 4 small children. She works for the CIA.

She goes to work, makes a coffee and turns on her computer. Her task is to break into a Russian criminal's laptop and find proof that he's concealing 5 deep-cover agents - seemingly normal people living in plain sight.

She gets into the computer - 5 faces stare back at her. She scrolls down. One of them is her husband!!!!

The author used to work for the CIA so she knows her stuff.
I would give this 10/10.

#11 A Snowball’s Chance in Hell by J D Kirk
One of the DCI. Logan series set in the Scottish Highlands. Is anyone else reading this series? I am really enjoying it, the characters and dialogue are great. This was #9, but think there are over 20 in the series. I am spacing them out between other books do that I don’t just rattle through them.
When a young man is found frozen to death on a highland street, during a blizzard, it’s initially put down to a Christmas night out gone wrong. But then then team discover they are dealing with a killer with a perverse sense of justice and list that includes some very familiar names. 8/10

#12 Out in the Cold by Stuart Johnstone
When a senior officer’s decision not to respond to a disturbance that has fatal consequences, DS Colyear finds himself banished from Glasgow to work in a remote Highlands town. Despite not wanting to be there, he soon settles into life investigating petty crimes, but soon he starts to suspect something sinister about the town. A series of teenage disappearances seem to have been ignored by the local police force he has joined. When a local groundsman is apparently murdered, Colyear suspects that long held secrets are coming to the surface.
I picked this up randomly in the library, having not read this author before. I enjoyed it, the characters and location were well drawn. 7/10

Sparklefizz I will look for The Couple Next Door after your recommendation. I read a book by that name a couple of years ago and this didn’t sound like the same book so I checked. The previous one I read was by Claire Douglas, I enjoyed it, but your one sounds better.

Terribull I’ve never read Lucinda Riley, but I will look out for The Last Love Song.

#14. What Have You Done? by Shari Lapena.

10 The Heritage of Linlithgow - In 100 buildings & places by Ronald P A Smith

I have just read Don't Let HimIn by Lisa Jewell, apologies if it’s been discussed before. A fantastic book, about a duplicitous and psychopathic con man.
It does flit through several time lines, but a very modern tale.

AliBeeee

Sparklefizz I will look for The Couple Next Door after your recommendation. I read a book by that name a couple of years ago and this didn’t sound like the same book so I checked. The previous one I read was by Claire Douglas, I enjoyed it, but your one sounds better.

Terribull I’ve never read Lucinda Riley, but I will look out for The Last Love Song.

I have read the Claire Douglas The Couple Next Door and it is certainly worth a read.
I enjoyed many of the Lucinda Riley books, but have never read the Moons Sister saga, 8 books I believe!

J52

I have just read Don't Let HimIn by Lisa Jewell, apologies if it’s been discussed before. A fantastic book, about a duplicitous and psychopathic con man.
It does flit through several time lines, but a very modern tale.

I loved it too! She is my top author of the psychological genre. She has a new book coming out this year "It could have been her" Something for Lisa Jewell fans to look out for.

AliBeeee Lucinda Riley's books are good easy reads imo.

Yes there are 8 books in the Seven Sister series, the 8th one, published posthumously ties up the numerous loose ends.

11 The Scheme for full Employment by Magnus Mills. A bit of an odd book but reminded me of a couple of councils I worked for in the past although I actually really liked it.

11 Nesting Roisin O'Donnell

A remarkably accomplished debut novel from this Irish writer, which was Long Listed for The Women's Prize for Fiction 2025.

The setting is Dublin, the book opens with Ciara, originally hailing from Sheffield, a 30 something married mother of 2 very young daughters with a handsome husband Ryan. Outsiders might perceive theirs as a perfect union, what gradually unfolds is a woman so cowed by a manipulative partner she never trusts her own judgement. This former once confident woman having travelled the world, qualified as a teacher is now a shell of her former self having been cowed by her outwardly charming husband, who behind closed doors is controlling, unpredictable and undermines her every move, slowly isolating her not only from her supportive family back in Sheffield, in particular her Irish mother and closely bonded sister. Friends fall away, her existence shrinks to her only role, wife and mother contained within the confines of the four walls of the family home A brilliant account of coercive control and a woman worn down by emotional abuse she has ceased to trust her own feelings. Living with the mercurial nature of Ryan, his outbursts stay just this side of tipping into violence...but for how long? Eventually she bites the bullet and leaves him. Taking the children with her she ends up in emergency accommodation, within the confines of a hotel room. Endeavouring to find independence, she takes a job teaching English as a foreign language. Although qualified as a junior school teacher in England, to become one in Ireland there is a requirement of Irish as a second language which prohibits her finding full time employment. Ryan is to lurk in the background full of menace, manipulating her through lies and deceit every which way. To add to her mounting problems she is pregnant again.

Tense throughout, I couldn't put it down. Ciara eventually with the support of family and friends is to find the resilience to rebuild her life facing umpteen almost insurmountable hurdles. The most challenging of those is the coercive manipulation from the man who has created the toxic environment she is determined to escape from, whilst navigating the many obstacles he puts in her way.

Not posted for a while but reading has helped me through family bereavement and a chest infection.
Book 5 The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffith, an unusual murder mystery, always enjoy her books
Book 6 The Bay by L J Ross summer suspense with some romance thrown in
Book 7 The Garnett Girls by Georgina Moore a debut novel the family dynamics of 3 sisters and their mother, didn’t really warm to any of them
Book 8 All the light we cannot see by Anthony Doerr set pre and during WW2, a German boy who is sent to Hitler Youth school because of his talent for mending radios, conscripted age 16 and a French girl who loses her sight, lives in Paris with her father who is a locksmith and works in a museum, when Paris is occupied they flee to family in St Malo her father having been entrusted with a diamond from the museum. The story is beautifully written allowing us a glimpse into how the young girl “sees” through her other senses. Their 2 lives inevitably overlap. Highly recommend
Book 9 White Nights by Ann Cleeves, book 2 in Shetland series, am enjoying all her books
Next one on the go is The Curious Incident of the dog in the night time by Mark Haddon for book club (I always seem to be late to the party on the books I read and tv series I watch!)