50 Books Challenge 2026 Part Six

The Two Roberts by Damian Barr
Fiction about real people is a close second Pet Hate to audiobooks, so it’s a good job I didn’t know this was the case when I put this on my wishlist. I would have been depriving myself of a quite marvellous read!
It sets out the life of Scottish artists Robert Colquhoun and Bobby MacBryde, spanning the time between their first meeting at Glasgow School Of Art and Robert’s death. They hobnob with the bright young artist milieu, including Francis Bacon and Elizabeth Barker, their rising stars halted by Robert being conscripted for WW2, their enduring relationship always necessarily hidden. Then we see how their promise starts to wilt as commissions fade away and they ping from friend to friend to acquaintance leaning on favours past that they often don’t quite deserve.
I’m feeling a bit woozy with the heat so I won’t blather on not doing it justice, but it’s a solid bold for me. There’s an Afterword, then the Kindle review page popped up, but then comes an alternative ending that just blew me away. Just stunning and I went down several rabbit holes researching their art and the circles they moved in.

Anyone can join, so welcome !

As you’re already halfway through the year, give us an idea of your taste by telling us which titles you would highlight in bold to recommend out of what you’ve read!

Can I join
im on book 51 today, my yearly goal is 75

My pleasure @Owlbookend

lifelong blue

I’M OUTNUMBERED BY ALL 3 FELLOW SCOUSERS

<mutters darkly>

The Names Florence Knapp
First of all massive thanks to @EineReiseDurchDieZeit for the recommendation. This is the first physical book I’ve read in months. It grabbed me from the first chapters & I was motivated enough to keep going despite the current challenges of my injury.
I was aware of it previously, but I thought I wouldn’t enjoy the concept because the names aspect would be gimmicky. It also has the words ‘life affirming’ on the cover that to me are a similar turn off to magical realism. They are like a mawkishness siren. Anyway, despite some reservations, it was eine’s recommendation and I took the plunge.
It opens with Cora registering the name of her infant son. Trapped in an abusive relationship the choice she makes reflects her response to the violence she experiences and her attitude to her young daughter Maia. We then follow the parallel lives of her son named Bear, Julian or Gordon, over several decades.
First the good. As a plot device, the parallel narratives really worked for me. I was hooked wanting to revisit the boys and eventually men as the years past. It also all fits together like a jigsaw. Characters that feature in one narrative appear in the others in different contexts. There are emotionally devastating moments in the first half of the novel. It never shies away from the horror of abuse. It makes you think - what makes us, us? Does our environment determine our future? Our personhood? Are monsters made not born? How much responsibility do parents bear? Do women in abusive relationships bear responsibility for how their choices impact their children?
Even though there was a lot I liked, there were issues for me. Although I found the plot structure compelling, it ultimately seemed a bit mechanistic. I sometimes felt the characters were there to show certain things rather than them being ‘real people’ & yes I can see the absurdity of that statement 😀. I also found their was increasing amounts of tell not show. Characters would discuss or explain the meaning of things that I felt would be better left unsaid. Ultimately, I felt it was answering questions rather than posing them.

I could write more, but don’t want to ramble on. Also, I know others haven’t read it yet & there is stuff I can’t say for fear of spoilers. Not a bold for me, but definitely ‘a good read’. Thanks again dine.
PS I’m a lifelong blue, & had a season ticket for years⚽️

@nowanearlyNicemum Around here it would be very easy to pick up the rest of the Neopolitan books from a charity shop, but I think it will prob depend on where you are. Nothing to report here. Am reading - which is bliss after months of not, so am very happy.

44. The Last Party - Clare Mackintosh

Ffion Morgan is a police officer in North East Wales and has a bad start to the New Year after someone goes missing after a NYE party on her local patch. Things become more complicated for her when the investigation has to be shared between the Welsh police and Cheshire police because the location is on the Welsh/English border. This was a page-turner for me and I liked the fact that it dealt with the animosity between the locals and second-homers. I think the author lives in N Wales so is on familiar territory. A few plot holes (or perhaps points that stretched credibility) but still a fun read.

39 Bookish: How Reading Shapes Our Lives by Lucy Mangan
More bookish musings from Lucy. I loved this and hope she writes another one

40 Less by Andrew Sean Greer
Had this on my shelf for ages. It's the story of a man who splits up from his boyfriend and distracted himself when his boyfriend remarries by taking up any international opportunities offered to him as a writer.

It's gently comic. I enjoyed it. I'm surprised it won the Pulitzer prize as I didn't seem that unusual. Maybe an elderly gay protagonist was more revolutionary at that time.

41 The Palm House by Gwendoline Riley
A writer in her forties and her older male friend through work at a literary magazine talk about him leaving his job due to the awful new boss. It goes into their pasts and what brought them to this point.

I utterly adored this and I'm not sure why. The writing was just so completely believable. I've taken everything else they had from her in the library. I hope this makes the booker longlist this month.

Thanks to @EineReiseDurchDieZeit for pointing out I was on the old thread!

Tart - Slutty Cheff
I finished a book! Unfortunately, not a book I liked much.

Sex, drugs and mise en place: this is the story of the anonymous author training to be a chef after quitting her office job. I bought this without knowing she was Instagram famous and I suspect it works much better if you already “know” her through that, because I just didn’t care that much about her personal life, though the restaurant kitchen parts were interesting.

Still, I finished something, so that is to be celebrated!

That's good to hear!

Popping in to place mark. List haters can rejoice as I am not on my phone so my minuscule one won’t be pasted over.
Thanks to @piggywaspushed for your suggestion. DD gobbled up Jessie Burton’s Medusa.

Belated thank you to @Southeastdweller for the new thread (and Brian Cox is GREAT. Love his interviews).

1 Who Wants to Live Forever, Hanna Thomas Uose (RWYO)
2 The Marriage Portrait, Maggie O'Farrell (RWYO)
3 A Long Way from Verona, Jane Gardam (RWYO)
4 The Two Lives of Louis & Louise, Julie Cohen (RWYO)
5 The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning, Margareta Magnusson
6 The Parallel Path, Jenn Ashworth
7 Consider Yourself Kissed, Jessica Stanley
8 Plain Bad Heroines, Emily M Danforth
9 The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, V.E. Schwab
10 Strong Poison, Dorothy L. Sayers
11 Easy Connections, Liz Berry
12 Black and Blue, Anna Quindlen (RWYO)
13 Dream Count, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (RWYO)
14 The Housemaid, Freida McFadden
15 Let's Make a Scene, Laura Wood
16 Everland, Rebecca Hunt (RWYO)
17 Appointment with Yesterday, Celia Fremlin (RWYO)
18 Esther is Now Following You, Tanya Sweeney
19 Smoke and Ashes, Abir Mukherjee (RWYO)
20 Atmosphere, Taylor Jenkins Reid
21 Death in Venice, Thomas Mann
22 A Stranger City, Linda Grant
23 A Bright Ray of Darkness, Ethan Hawke
24 Mind over Money: The Psychology of Money and How to Use It Better, Claudia Hammond
25 The Last Hundred Days, Patrick Mcguinness
26 Christmas in Austin, Benjamin Markowits
27 Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi (RWYO)
28 Heart the Lover, Lily King
29 Orbital, Samantha Harvey (RWYO)
30 The Disappearance of Adele Bedeau, Graeme Macrae Burnet (RWYO)
31 The Book of American Martyrs, Joyce Carol Oates (RWYO)
32 Audition, Katie Kitamura
33 The Girls of Summer, Katie Bishop (RWYO)
34 To Exist as I Am: A Doctor's Notes on Recovery and Radical Acceptance, Grace Spence Green
35 The Dream Hotel, Laila Lalami
36 Albion, Anna Hope
37 Wild Dark Shore, Charlotte McConaghy

I've just finished 38 Creation Lake, Rachel Kushner. I missed this a couple of years ago when it hit the Booker longlist, although I had loved The Mars Room. Thanks to @Arran2024 who reviewed it recently and brought it to my attention.

This is a smart, philosophical book masquerading as a thriller. I have to admit it took me way longer than it should have done to realise that it wasn't just going to be a straightforward spy story, albeit with a few Neanderthals thrown in. I'm going to blame one of the quotes on the cover (something about "Kill Bill written by John Le Carre") which set my expectations. Unfortunately I probably spoilt the book for myself because I rushed through the earlier parts, looking for plot that wasn't forthcoming.

One thing that I loved about this book was that there were numerous background characters, most of whose stories are completely unresolved, and who were interesting and real-seeming enough that I would happily read a whole book about any of them. I want to know more about the mysterious Marseille sun-tanning woman!

@CrochetGrannySquare - The Buried Giant is one of my bete noires - all that trudging and incessant "Princessing"!

@InTheCludgie that is one impressively contented cat! Lovely 🐈

@ÚlldemoShúl a coincidence you reserving judgement about whether or not to bold the Ishiguro as I was just pondering how to rate The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro. I'd already decided to delay my rating decision for a few days in case I find myself thinking about the book. Right now, I'd mark it down just for the ogres but that's a me problem as I'm not much of a fantasy fan.

Thank you @Southeastdweller for the new thread 🌻

Ah I'm really disappointed to hear this. I've always thought that Kathy would do a good memoir. She comes across as quite contrary and free of bullshit on the few times I've seen her interviewed.

So many Sleb books are just cash grabs. None of them want to be honest because they are too concerned with their careers and getting cancelled @Southeastdweller

Thanks for the new thread @Southeastdweller .

A continuation for me.

49 Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls - David Sedaris
50 Every Light in the House is Burnin' - Andrea Levy
51 Letters from Burma - Aung San Suu Kyi
52 Sedated: How Modern Capitalism Created our Mental Health Crisis - James Davies
53 Good Harbour - Anita Diamant
54 The Missing Family - Tim Weaver
55 The Correspondant - Virginia Evans
56 The Luminaires- Eleanor Catton
57 One August Night - Victoria Hislop
58 Three Men in a Boat - Jerome K Jerome
59 A Horse Walks into a Pub - David Grossman

Thanks to the person on the thread that recommended the David Raker books. I have struggled a bit with detective/crime recently as my concentration is rubbish but The Missing Family kept me gripped!

Thank you for the new thread @Southeastdweller. Here is my list:

1 To All The Boys I've Loved Before - Jenny Han
2 Vagabond - Tim Curry
3 Witches Abroad - Terry Pratchett
4 Legends and Lattes - Travis Baldree
5 The Housemaid - Freida McFadden
6 Last Night at the Lobster - Stewart O'Nan
7 Literary Noir 1 - Cornell Woolrich
8 Eleanor & Park - Rainbow Rowell
9 The School of Night - Karl Ove Knausgaard
10 Burial Rites - Hannah Kent
11 Across The Nightingale Floor - Lian Hearn
12 The Benefactors - Wendy Erskine
13 Gone Tomorrow - Lee Child
14 Heart The Lover - Lily King
15 Kingfisher - Rosie Kelly
16 This Is The Story Of A Happy Marriage - Ann Patchett
17 The Correspondent - Virginia Evans
18 The Best of Everything - Kit De Waal
19 Accidental Tourist - Anne Tyler
20 On Earth As It Is Beneath - Ana Paula Maia
21 The Mercy Step - Marcia Hutchinson
22 A Guardian and A Thief - Megha Majumdar
23 A Beast Slinks Towards Beijing - Alice Evelyn Yang
24 The Director- Daniel Kehlmann
25 Poirot's Early Cases - Agatha Christie
26 Strange Houses - Uketsu
27 A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
28 Future Homemakers of America - Laurie Graham
29 Jamaica Inn - Daphne du Maurier
30 Heated Rivalry - Rachel Reid
31 The Nineties - Chuck Klosterman
32 Three Days in June - Anne Tyler
33 Third Form At Malory Towers - Enid Blyton
34 Kin - Tayari Jones
35 Palaver - Bryan Washington
36 Passing - Nella Larsen
37 The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson
38 Rizzio - Denise Mina

Today I started reading Trustee From The Toolroom by Nevil Shute and I'm still plodding along with Les Miserables on audio. Next up will be Golden Hill by Francis Spufford.

Very late to the party with the pet pics but here is one of the cat just chillin'.

@ÚlldemoShúl The God of Small Things is now on my TBR.
It's currently free with Prime Reading if anyone wants to borrow it from Amazon.

Books 99 and 100 just finished for me. Definitely one, possibly both of which are bold.

99 The God of Small Things by Arundahti Roy
Continuing both RWYO and my attempt to read all the previous Booker winners in the next couple of years. This book is exceptional. It tells the story of a family in Kerala - twins Estha and Rachel, the older generation of their family and the arrival of their cousin Sophie Mol from England. The prose is dense and lush and a sense of foreboding and rot leaks out through it and the setting as we are told from the start that a tragedy happens. The timeline moves back and forth as the lead up to and aftermath of the tragedy are explored. The characters are fully rounded and real and I could hardly put it down. Definitely bold.

100 An artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro
Artist Masuji Ono revisits his past when marriage negotiations for his daughter seem to be struggling. Ono slowly reveals the pertinent events of his life but is he unreliable, rewriting a little or misrepresenting events? Set in an unnamed Japanese city in the aftermath of the Second World War, this was a fascinating read and explored many of the same themes as the BBB but not quite as well (in my opinion). It’s maybe bold. I want to see if it sticks with me.

Same ! @ChessieFL I saw a book today that has been on there since 2015!

Thanks for the tip