For August, we start with Maggie O’Farrell’s new release (and already a best-seller), Land. Set in 1865, Land features a man, Tomás, and his son, Liam, working on the Ordnance Survey project of mapping all of Ireland. first degree The book I read before picking up Land was The Last Murder at the End of […]
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For July we start with a book that everyone’s talking about – Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke. According to Goodreads, in this currently popular novel “A traditional American woman, a ‘tradwife’ influencer, suddenly awakens in the brutal reality of 1855.” first degree Like Natalie Heller Mills of Yesteryear, Billy Pilgrim of Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Slaughterhouse-Five
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June’s challenge starts with a book by Austrian author Stefan Zweig – The Post-Office Girl. first degree We English-speaking readers must access The Post-Office Girl in translation. I’ve recently added another translated work to my TBR list, Taiwan Travelogue: A Novel by Shuang-zi Yang, translated by Lin King, 2026 winner of the International Booker Prize.
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This month’s stating point is Virginia Evans’s epistolary novel, The Correspondent. In this novel we get to know Sybil Van Antwerp from her 73rd birthday until her death about 10 years later. first degree One of the people to whom Sybil writes is author Joan Didion. In an example of synchronicity, the book I read
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This March we start with a classic in celebration of its being made into a new film – Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. first degree A much more recent book that focuses on the next generation left to deal with its family’s mess (some things never change) is The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell. second
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This month’s starter is a book that topped lots of 2025 ‘best of’ lists – Flashlight by Susan Choi. first degree Although I’ve seen many good words about Flashlight, I haven’t read it yet. But a book that was on a lot of 2025 “best books” lists that I DID read is Buckeye by Patrick
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Today’s starting point is a favorite of mine, the novella We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. first degree Jeannette Walls’s father had big plans to someday build a glass castle, which she describes in her memoir The Glass Castle. second degree The word castle also figures in the title of The
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Thanks to book blogger Kate for once again sponsoring 6 Degrees of Separation. This month we begin with the winner of the 2025 Miles Franklin Literary Award, Ghost Cities by Siang Lu. Description from Goodreads: Ghost Cities – inspired by the vacant, uninhabited megacities of China – follows multiple narratives, including one in which a
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This month we start with the 2025 Women’s Prize winner, The Safekeep by Yael Van Der Wouden. I haven’t read this book. first degree The most recent 6 Degrees of Separation starter book that I hadn’t read is last month’s, Theory & Practice by Michelle de Kretser. But I have read it since writing last
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This time around, we start with the 2025 Stella Prize winner, Michelle de Kretser’s work of autofiction, Theory & Practice. Here’s part of the description of the novel from Goodreads: What happens when our desires run contrary to our beliefs? What should we do when the failings of revered figures come to light? Who is
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