6 Degrees of Separation

Left: large book cover, Trust by Hernan Diaz. Right: 2 rows of book covers, each half as tall as Trust. Top row, left to right: Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin; This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub; Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. Bottor row, left to right: The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead; Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward; Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby.

6 Degrees of Separation

This month we start with the book that topped the most ‘Best Books of 2022’ lists – Trust by Hernan Diaz. Since I had bought the book on vacation last July, this choice prompted me to read it.  Trust is a brilliant novel comprising four sections that each offer a different viewpoint on the lives […]

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Book covers: Beach Read by Emily Henry; Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan; The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline; Exiles by Jane Harper; The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield; A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki; The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki

6 Degrees of Separation: A Very Short Journey

Beach Read by Emily Henry is this month’s starting point:  “ A romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters. Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews

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Book covers: The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey; The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman; The Island by Adrian McKinty; The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave; The Last to Vanish by Megan Miranda; Then She was Gone by Lisa Jewell; Gone, Baby, Gone by Dennis Lehand

6 Degrees of Separation

This month’s exercise begins with The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey, set in Alaska in 1920. Jack and Mabel, a childless couple homesteading in the lonely wilderness, build a child out of snow. The next morning, the snow child has come to life. She hunts and roams the forest, like a creature out of a

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Collage of book covers: Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller, In the Margins by Elena Ferrante, How to Read Now by Elaine Castillo, Writing in an Age of Silence by Sara Paretsky, A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason, The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

6 Degrees of Separation: Reading About Reading and Fiction

This month we start with Notes on a Scandal by Zoë Heller. I thought I had seen the film adaptation of this book, but from the description I see that I have not. I saw something, probably on Netflix, similarly titled, but about a politician. first degree However, not having seen the film or read

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Book covers: The Pigman by Paul Zindel, I Am the Cheese by Robert Cormier, The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley, The Help by Kathryn Stockett, The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb, A Conspiracy of Paper by David Liss

6 Degrees of Separation

This month’s assignment is to start with the book that we ended with last month. That was The Pig Man by Paul Zindel, which I described as a “seminal work in the movement to portray teenagers and their lives realistically (well before the designation young adult literature came into use).” first degree Another author who

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Book covers: Wintering by Katherine May, Winter by Ali Smith, Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell, In the Bleak Midwinter by Julia Spencer-Fleming, Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng, Gone, Baby, Gone by Dennis Lehane, I'll Be You by Janelle Brown

6 Degrees of Separation: Of Winters and Motherhood

This month’s starting point is Wintering by Katherine May: “ Wintering is a poignant and comforting meditation on the fallow periods of life, times when we must retreat to care for and repair ourselves. Katherine May thoughtfully shows us how to come through these times with the wisdom of knowing that, like the seasons, our

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Book covers: Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason, Father Melancholy's Daughter by Gail Godwin, Darling Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel, Where the Moon Isn't by Nathan Filer, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon

6 Degrees of Separation: Mental Health Edition

This month starts with a book by an Australian author shortlisted for the 2022 Women’s Prize for Fiction – Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason. I got a late start on reading Sorrow and Bliss and have not yet finished it, but so far I’m liking it. The novel deals with one of my particular

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Book covers: True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey, Billy Summers by Stephen King, Billy Bathgate by E.L. Doctorow, The Friends of Eddie Coyle by George V. Higgins, The Women by T.C. Boyle, Sweet Little Lies by Caz Frear, Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella

6 Degrees: What’s in a Name?

This month’s starting point is Peter Carey’s True History of the Kelly Gang. This novel, which won the Booker Prize and several other awards in 2001, opens with this declaration: . . . my dear daughter you are presently too young to understand a word I write but this history is for you and will

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Book covers: Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield, In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick,Moby Dick by Herman Melville, Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana, Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks, The Eleventh Plague by John S. Marr & John Baldwin, Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson

6 Degrees of Separation: From the Sea to the Plagues

As this month’s starting point, Kate has chosen “a hot favourite to make the 2022 Women’s Prize for Fiction longlist, Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield.” As wonderful as this book sounds, it won’t be available in the U.S. until July 12, 2022.  first degree Therefore, I’ve decided to start with a key

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