The 52 Book Club: 2026 Challenge discussion

WEEKLY CHECK-IN
March 5, 2026 -- Week 10

This week we released our March Mini Challenge and our Mystery Genre Challenge, what are your thoughts? Are you starting them now, or waiting until later? Are you excited, or overwhelmed? (if the latter, we can help, and the challenge doesn't have deadlines!)


March Mini: https://www.the52book.club/march-2026...
Mystery Genre: https://www.the52book.club/mystery-ge...

I'll work on the mini now, and meantime I'm pulling all the mysteries off my TBR bookshelf to sort through for prompt assignment. Then I'll go through all the mysteries on Kindle and do the same. Loving this challenge.

Honestly I love it! I would loveeee to see a Historical Fiction themed one in the future.

At first I was like really only mystery? But it challenges me to read outside my comfort zone. Most of the books I’m reading so far for the main are books I’ve wanted to read and can easily fit them in to various categories.

My goal is to finish the main and all the mini challenges this year. I may return back to the full mystery challenge at some point but it would probably be later in the year after I complete the main. I’ve already finished 1 of 3 books and I‘m enjoying the 2nd book as well.

As of right now, I'm only planning on filling prompts with books from my TBR list. Later in the year, after I've pared that down, I may read books especially for the challenge.

I am really excited to start the mini challenges and honestly I’m so grateful that the creators offer so much variety. I always look forward to the new releases and watching the reveal videos. I do have a tendency to get overwhelmed though, so currently I’m staying focused on completing the main 52 prompts and then I will move on to complete the mini challenges.
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I am just going to do the mini. Mystery is not my favorite, but I read a few so doing the mini will be fine, doing the whole mystery challenge would be too much like homework to be enjoyable. My book club just choose The Murders of the Rue Morgue, which should fit the mini, or I might use it in the main for the genre defining prompt.

I look forward to someday having a different genre challenge like this one. I would love a classic, historical fiction, or nonfiction.

I had already decided to read the Inspector Alan Grant series by Josephine Tey for March/April, 2 of them for a challenge for my local library. I have matched book 1 & 3-6 for a case, picked books for 8 more cases, and got tips for more from the Goodreads lists.


I am already well on the way on case 47 Collection of true crime mysteries Murder Houses of Edinburgh by Jan Bondeson, and after finishing that I'll be reading Palmemordet: de tio spåren by Erik Magnuson for case 50 Published this year. I am also reading it for prompt #52 book published in 2026.


I am picking up 2 books by Monica Kristensen at the library tomorrow of a series set at Svalbard, book 3 & 5. I read book 1 & 2 in 2021, and briefly started book 3. I own a copy of book 4, one of those will be for a snowy setting (case 34) and from what I remember of the start of book 3, it had flashbacks (case 40).

I am likely to do the mini, but not likely to finish it in March. And since I enjoy mysteries, I will keep track of the whole undated Mystery Challenge as I read various books & slot them in wherever they may fit. It may take me years to finish all the prompts, though.

As soon as I finish buddy reading Project Hail Mary with hubby, I'm diving right in. I've been looking for any excuse to read more Verity Bright, and this is my chance.

Death at the Dance ~ #8 ~ title includes the word death or dead
A Witness to Murder ~ #12 ~ an amateur sleuth
Murder in the Snow ~ #34 ~ a snowy setting

Perfect!

Anna wrote: "I am just going to do the mini. Mystery is not my favorite, but I read a few so doing the mini will be fine, doing the whole mystery challenge would be too much like homework to be enjoyable. My bo..."

Nonfiction would be interesting!

Mystery is my favorite genre, so I’m doing a happy dance! I’ve started both the Mystery Genre & mystery mini challenges. I’m not going to use the same titles for the “regular” annual challenge prompts in order to make the challenges take longer for me to complete. I agree with another comment that a Historical mystery mini challenge, etc. would be fun!