Six Degrees of Separation: The Four Dutchmen to Case Histories

 Welcome to this month's edition of Six Degrees of Separation, which is a monthly meme hosted by Kate from Books Are My Favourite and Best. The idea is to start with a specific book and make a series of links from one book to the next using whatever link you can find and see where you end up after six links. I am also linking this post up with The Sunday Salon, hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz and A Good Book and a Cup of Tea hosted at Boondock Ramblings

This month is a wildcard to begin the year so we start with the book that we finished last month’s chain with, which means I am starting with The Four Dutchmen by W Somerset Maughan. My instant thought was to o with a Dutch connection but I actually did a whole Dutch chain a couple of months ago so had to give it some more thought.

I very nearly still went with a Dutch related book for my first link but instead I am going in a completely different route. My first choice this month is The Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros. This is a book featuring dragons in a romantasy setting.

My next selection is also a book with dragons but this time the setting is real history, with a twist. Temeraire by Naomi Novik is set against the background of the Napoleonic Wars! This book was also published under the title His Majesty's Dragon. (my review)

From here, I had a decision to make. One choice would have taken me down the path of books published with different titles, but in the end I have chosen to focus on the word dragons, even though there was no sign of actual dragons in the book. My next selection is Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman which is one of a trilogy of books which tells the history of Welsh royalty

The book that I have read most recently that was set in Wales is Christmas at Hollybush Farm by Jo Thomas. (my review)

The most recent book that I read which was a Christmassy book was One December Morning by Emma Davies. (my review)

A book that was mentioned in that book was Case Histories by Kate Atkinson. (my review)

So there's my Six Degrees of Separation which has dragons and no dragons, a bit of time in Wales and some Christmas fun. 

Next month, the starting point is Flashlight by Helen Choi, a book that I am currently trying, and struggling, to read.

Will you be joining us?

Top Ten Tuesday: 10 Degrees of Separation

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Books You’d be a Fool Not to Read (Happy April Fool’s Day! In honor of this silly holiday, share the books you think people must read for whatever reason. They could be your favorites, books you deem classics, books that you learned something important from, books you wish you’d read sooner, etc. You could even narrow it down to a specific genre and share the must-reads for that genre. Get creative!)

I am not really feeling this as a topic so I have decided to be a fool in a different way. Every month, I participate in a meme called Six Degrees of Separation. It is a monthly meme hosted by Kate from Books Are My Favourite and Best. The idea is to start with a specific book and make a series of links from one book to the next using whatever link you can find and see where you end up after six links.

You can choose to make the links between books in any way that you like. It could be from a word in the title, part of the authors name, a cover that reminds you of another book, the subject of the book. It really is just a big game of association. In order to start things off, I am going to choose to use the last book I mentioned in last week's Top Ten Tuesday post and see where that takes me using 10 books instead of the normal 7!

So how does this make me foolish? Because I am doing the wrong meme!

My starting point is White Mulberry by Rosa Kwon Easton as it was the last book that I mentioned in last week's Top Ten Tuesday post. 

One of the main characters names in Daughters of Tuscany by Siobhan Daiko is Rosa which connects nicely to the author's name for the previous book. (my review)

I am choosing to use the fact that the main setting for Still Life by Sarah Winman is Florence which is  the capital city of Tuscany This book is almost a love letter to the city.

From there I am choosing to use the word Life from the title and choose Life After Life by Kate Atkinson 

Another Kate whose writing I enjoy is Kate Forsyth who writes phenomenal fairy tale retellings wrapped up in historical fiction. Normally I would pick Bitter Greens but this time I am going with The Beast's Garden which is set against the backdrop of WWII.

Next I am choosing Briar Rose by Jane Yolen. This is another fairytale retelling I enjoyed, once again set during WWII. There are even some similar motifs on the cover of both of these books. (my review)

Using the word Rose and the WWII setting as the links I am choosing The Rose Code by Kate Quinn, which is about the codebreakers working at Bletchley during WWII. 

Still focusing on WWII settings, and the work of codebreakers, this time Australian women who were based in Brisbane, I have chosen The Codebreakers by Alli Sinclair

I hadn't really intended to have so many WWII connections, but here is another one. My main link though is that both authors have the same first name. I have therefore chose At the Foot of the Cherry Tree by Alli Parker as my next link.  

And finally, I am using the word tree as my link to Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak . (my review)

So there we have it! 10 books linked by various different means taking us from a Korean woman living in Japan in the lead up to WWII to a book where the Cypriot characters are living in London following years of conflict on their island. I inadvertently ended up with quite a few WWII books, as well as several books with roses on the cover!

I would mention that there are lots of option with every level of this there are multiple different ways you could go. For example, I saw Sarah Winman at Melbourne Writers Festival a few years ago now, so I could have picked any other author who I have seen at MWF as my next choice and the chain would have ended up looking very different, and everyone's chains are always unique. Do you think you would have fun doing this exercise?

Top Ten Tuesday: Same, Same But Different

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Bookish Wishes (List the top 10 books you’d love to own and include a link to your wishlist so that people can grant your wishes. Make sure you link your wishlist to your mailing 

address or include the email address associated with your e-reader in the list description so people know how to get the book to you. After you post, jump around the Linky and grant a wish or two if you’d like. Please don’t feel obligated to send anything to anyone!).

Now, I have more than enough books so don't need anyone to buy me any, so I am going with my own theme. I have had this post sitting in draft for a while now since I first thought of it so it seems like a good opportunity to post it.

So I bring you different books with the same title

The Secret Ingredient - Sue Heath and Nancy Naigle - I read the Sue Heath book earlier this year and loved it.

Inheritance - Nora Roberts and Christopher Paolini - It's pretty clear from the covers that they are very different books

The Tea Planters Daughter - Janet McLeod Trotter  and Sara Banerji - I think I have both of these books on my Kindle

Hungry Ghosts - C J Barker and Kevin Jared Hosein - These books were both reviewed for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge so it threw my stats out a little bit until I realised it was different authors 

Life After Life - Kate Atkinson and Jill McCorkle - I listened to the Atkinson book years ago.  Must get to the next book at some point.

Can you think of other examples? There are lots out there.

Six Degrees of Separaton: Western Lane to To Say Nothing of the Dog

 

Welcome to this month's edition of Six Degrees of Separation, which is a monthly meme hosted by Kate from Books Are My Favourite and Best.  The idea is to start with a specific book and make a series of links from one book to the next using whatever link you can find and see where you end up after six links.  I am also linking this post up with The Sunday Salon, hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz. 

 

This month's starting point is Western Lane by Chetna Maroo, which is a novella that has been nominated for the Booker prize.

For my first link I am going to be a bit obvious and go with the opposite direction to West and choose East of Eden by John Steinbeck! East of Eden was a book that I read thanks to the Oprah Book Club back in the day. 

Another book I read through that was One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia. I recently heard that that Netflix are making a series from this book.

Another book that recently got the Netflix treatment was All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. I haven't started watching it yet, but we will. After all, reading this book inspired us to stay in St. Malo when we were in France earlier this year.

A place I would love to visit in France after reading about it in a book is Carcasonne. A book that is set there is Labyrinth by Kate Mosse

Another author named Kate is Kate Atkinson and I have chosen to use her book Started Early, Took the Dog for the purposes of this exercise.

Keeping with the dog theme, my final selection is To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis

The starting point for next month is Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain.

Where did your chain take you this month?

Top Ten Tuesday: Woof!

 Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is Bookish Wishes, but I am twisting the topic a bit!

Yesterday was the first birthday of our dog Max, so my theme today is all about dogs! But first, here's the birthday dog himself

So today I bring you nine books with the word dog in the title, a couple of which are and one book with a dog on the cover, including a couple of kids books.

The Snake, The Crocodile and the Dog by Elizabeth Peters

The Lost Dog by Michelle de Kretser

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis

Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson

Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Hatton

A Dog's Purpose by W Bruce Cameron

Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion

Hairy McClary from Donaldson's Dairy by Lynley Dodd

The Labrador Pact by Matt Haig

Snowy Mountains Daughter by Alyssa Callen 

Happy birthday Max!!

Case Histories by Kate Atkinson

'Investigating other people's tragedies and cock-ups and misfortunes was all he knew. He was used to being a voyeur, the outsider looking in, and nothing, but nothing, that anyone did surprised him any more. Yet despite everything he'd seen and done, inside Jackson there remained a belief - a small, battered and bruised belief - that his job was to help people be good rather than punish them for being bad.'

Cambridge is sweltering, during an unusually hot summer. To Jackson Brodie, former police inspector turned private investigator, the world consists of one accounting sheet - Lost on the left, Found on the right - and the two never seem to balance. His days are full of people clamouring for answers and explanations. A jealous husband suspects his wife. Two spinster sisters make a shocking find. A solicitor investigates an old murder. A nurse has lost her niece; a widow, her cats.

Jackson has never felt at home in Cambridge, and has a failed marriage to prove it. He is forty-five but feels much, much older. He is at that dangerous age when men suddenly notice that they're going to die eventually, inevitably, and there isn't a damn thing they can do about it. Surrounded by death, intrigue and misfortune, his own life is brought sharply into focus.

Ingeniously plotted, full of suspense and heartbreak, CASE HISTORIES is a feat of bravura storytelling that conveys the mysteries of life, its inanities and its hilarities. It is a life-affirming work of profound insight and intelligence.

Jackson Brodie is a former police officer who has set up his own private investigator business. He becomes involved in three old cases, in addition to the one investigation that he already has where he has been enlisted to try and prove that a wife is cheating on her husband. The first case is 20 years old, and involved the disappearance of a 3 year old girl called Olivia Land. The Land family is very strange, and the three remaining older sisters are, what could only be called dysfunctional, and yet can it be that between the three of them, they may be able to provide the key details that will help unlock the mystery of what happened to their younger sister on a hot summer night so many years ago.

The second case has its roots in the apparently open and shut case of a young mother who apparently killed her husband. She asked her sister to look after her young baby, and after serving her time in jail, has now disappeared. Unfortunately the sister has lost track of the daughter and is now trying to track her down.

The third case is over 10 years old, and is about the seemingly random murder of 18 year old Laura Wyre. Her father has never been able to put the death of his beloved daughter behind him, and having collected every scrap of evidence he has been able to find, has asked Jackson to see if he can figure out what happened to her.

Whilst investigating these cases, Jackson also needs to deal with his own personal relationships. His relationship with his ex wife is somewhat hostile, but Jackson is doing his best to be a good father to his young daughter, a task made somewhat more difficult by the fact that Jackson seems to be having a bit of difficulty staying out of trouble at the moment! Jackson is also quite closed off about his past, but in the end some of those events in the past are the very ones that shapes the current Jackson.

Jackson is in many ways the quintessential jaded detective - hard bitten, unable to connect properly with others on many levels, and yet he is also more than that. I guess the word that I am looking for is probably multi faceted.

Woven through the narrative is also the story of a schoolteacher, who has suddenly realised that she is not happy in her life and is getting ready to run to a new life, not for the first time! Which of the cases is she connected to. It makes sense when you read the book, but the other characters are in many ways completely unaware of her.

Whilst this is a mystery book, it is also not a mystery. In some ways it is a character study of the people left behind when crimes are committed. Many of the characters seem to have no other connection other than through Jackson, and yet there are small things that happen in everyday life that also unknowingly connect these people as well. The other interesting thing is that whilst the reader knows the answers to that most basic of questions in any mystery - Who did it? - it is not necessarily the case that the characters have that same resolution.

Overall, quite an intense, but good, read!

Rate 4/5

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