6 Degrees of Separation: From Rapture to the Woods

It’s time for another adventure in Kate’s 6 Degrees of Separation Meme from her blog, Books Are My Favourite and Best. We are given a book to start with, and from there we free associate six books.

A historical novel longlisted for the 2025 Stella Prize, Rapture by Emily Maguire, begins our chain this month. Set in the ninth century, Rapture tells the story of “a wild and brilliant girl with a deep, visceral love of God,” according to Goodreads. “At eighteen, to avoid a future as a wife or nun, Agnes enlists the help of a lovesick Benedictine monk to disguise herself as a man and secure a place at the revered Fulda monastery.” Known as John, she eventually ends up as a celebrated teacher in Rome.

first degree

The Goodreads description of Rapture immediately reminded me of Pope Joan, a novel by Donna Woolfolk Cross that my book club read back in 2003. When I looked at the Goodreads description of Pope Joan, I was surprised to see that this earlier novel (published in 1996) is about a young woman who assumes the identity of her murdered brother John and enters the monastery of Fulda. She eventually ends up in Rome and becomes pope.

second degree

If I had a lot of spare time, I’d be tempted to reread Pope Joan and to read Rapture to compare the two novels. But that’s not how I want to spend my time right now, so instead I’m going to go to another book that my book group read in 1999, Suits Me: The Double Life of Billy Tipton by Diane Wood Middlebrook. This nonfiction work, published in 1998, tells the story of jazz pianist Billy Tipton, a woman who lived as a man over a 50-year performing career. I feel certain this story would be told quite differently today.

third degree

Another book with Billy in the title is Billy Summers by Stephen King. In addition to the Billy transition, this novel also features a main character taking on a different identity as Billy Summers settles into a suburban-homeowner role in preparation for a highly lucrative one-last-job as an assassination.

fourth degree

Among Stephen King’s other books is the novel The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. In this story a 9-year-old girl gets lost in the wilderness of the Maine-New Hampshire branch of the Appalachian Trail.

fifth degree

From the Appalachian Trail in the eastern United States, we move to the western U.S. for Wild, Cheryl Strayed’s memoir of hiking the Pacific Crest Trail.

sixth degree

Life in the wild is the subject of Liz Moore’s recent novel The God of the Woods.

I always enjoy the process of the monthly 6 Degrees of Separation meme, but I found this month’s exercise more challenging than usual. I’m also embarrassed to find that I haven’t reviewed most of the books I’ve used here, even though I’ve read all of them except the starter, Rapture.

Where did your 6 Degrees of Separation journey take you this month?