Six Degrees of Separation: The Safekeep to I Knew You Were Trouble

 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's starting point is the 2025 Women’s Prize winner, The Safekeep by Yael Van Der Wouden.

A Dutch author I have read is Simone Van Der Blugt. Her book was called Midnight Blue and was about the distinctive Delft pottery, in particular the time when the art on the pottery changed from being of Asian scenes to being of Dutch scenes which we associate with it now.

Another art inspired book was The Naturalist of Amsterdam by Melissa Ashley which featured a mother and daughter naturalists who drew flowers and produced amazing books. Part of this book was set in Suriname which was a Dutch colony. (My review)

When I first visited Amsterdam back in the 1990s I was a little surprised that we went to an Indonesian restaurant for dinner. The reason for this was that what we now call Indonesia was another Dutch colony known as the Dutch East Indies. Sunbirds by Mirandi Riwoe tells the story of fighting for Indonesian independence from the Dutch against the backdrop of WII. (My review)

The capital of independent Indonesia is now called Jakarta but it used to be known as Batavia. My brother in law and his family live in a town where there is a replica of the boat of the same name (and a shopping centre called Batavialand!). A new release that I am interested in reading is Daughters of Batavia by Stefanie Koens

The Dutch played an important part in the history of European discovery of Australia. landing here long before the British arrived.  I have long been interested in the story of the Batavia, which was shipwrecked off the coast of Western Australia in 1629. A book that tells the story of the Batavia is The Night Ship by Jess Kidd.

Finally, I am going to finish with a contemporary novel by an Australian author which is partially set in Amsterdam and features a tall Dutch man as the main male character. My husband is 100% Dutch blood even though he was born in South Africa, as both of his parents are Dutch. The book  is I Knew You Were Trouble by Sandy Barker but Robert is no trouble whatsoever! (My review)

So there's my Six Degrees of Separation with a Dutch flavour. Both the first and last covers feature the distinctive houses of Amsterdam so that is almost a full circle right?

Next month, the starting point is the winner of the 2025 Miles Franklin Literary Award, Ghost Cities by Siang Lu.

Will you be joining us?

Six Degrees of Separation: The Museum of Modern Love to Hamnet

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. 

The starting point for this month is The Museum of Modern Love by Heather Rose.

I am choosing to start by focusing on the word museum. Whenever I visit Perth, I love to visit the port city of Fremantle. Even thought I have been many times I love to visit the Shipwreck Museum and visit the wreck of the Batavia. This was a Dutch ship which sank off the cost of Western Australia. A book which tells the story of the Batavia is The Night Ship by Jess Kidd.

When we visited the Netherlands just under 2 years ago, we stayed with my brother and sister in law. It just so happens that they live in the town where there is a replica of the Batavia. So my next link is the most recent book I have read about Dutch history, Midnight Blue by Simone van der Vlugt

A famous name that made a cameo appearance in Midnight Blue was the artist Vermeer. He was also a character in Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier

My next choice is using he word pearl as the key, so I am choosing the fourth book is the Seven Sisters series, The Pearl Sister by Lucinda Riley.

And then using the word sister as the link I am choosing a book I read not too long ago, The Shakespeare Sisters by Juliet Greenwood

My final choice is Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell which is all about Shakespeare and his family. As an aside...we are going to go to the Globe when we are in London soon. Looking forward to it.

Next month the starting point is After Story by Larissa Behrendt.

Where has your chain taken you this month?

This Week...

Life

We have had a very pleasant weekend. If we start with Sunday, we went into the city and visited the Pharoah exhibition which is currently on at the NGV. Every year, they have a winter masterpiece exhibition and it is always good, and this one is no exception! Part of the joy of going to the exhibitions held at NGV is to see how they are staged, and this one was once again excellent!!

Friday was Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year. I wouldn't normally do anything to celebrate solstice, but I happened to see an ad for a Winter Solstice event at the winery down the road and thought why not! We have driven past this winery so many times and had never been there. There was live music, fires and a fire guy who came and did tricks for the crowd! It was a different way to spend Friday night.

I'm reading

I finished reading Midnight Blue this week. I then promptly started another translated book, Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum. This is a Korean book, and will be my fourth book in translation this month! I'll have to convince my fellow book clubbers to have this as a theme again!

I haven't mentioned my audiobook for a while, but I think I will finish Song of the Sunbird by Shankari Chandran this week. This is a book that covers around 60 years of Sri Lankan history. If you know anything about the recent history you might recall that there was a civil war in this island country so there were times when listening was quite confronting. I have enjoyed the book, but I do think I will be listening to something a bit lighter next!


I'm watching

A few weeks ago my sister mentioned a show called Home Town when we were talking about feel good shows. I started watching this week and it definitely qualifies as TV that you can watch and be left feeling better about life afterwards. The show features a couple who renovate homes. The twist is that all the houses are in their small home town of Laurel in Mississippi.  I will definitely be watching more.

A friend mentioned a documentary called Mont St Michel: Resistance Through the Ages. We visited Mont St Michel when we were in France 18 months ago. In fact, we were there on New Years Eve and we had an amazing night! Even without having visited, the documentary would have been fascinating but it was even more so seeing as we have visited.

Posts from the last week


Top Ten Tuesday: Books on my Winter 2024 To-Read List

Cook the Books: Family Tree by Susan Wiggs
Sunday Salon: Rachael Johns Book Club Reader Retreat 2024



I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date

This week....

Max

It was this handsome boys second birthday last week!

I'm reading

It's been a really busy reading week this week!

I finished The Itinerary by Penny Pentley, started and finished Clara Reads Proust by Stephani Carlier, both of which continue my recent run of French inspired reads. 

Next up I started and finished a short intro prequel to a series called The Barrington Series. I heard about this series over the weekend. The newest book in particular sounds appealing, but I thought I would start with this free prequel.

Finally, I started reading Midnight Blue by Simone van der Vlugt. This is a third book that will count for my read on a theme bookclub. The theme this month is Translated Books. I suspect they will give me some grief about over-achieving. What can I say?

I'm Watching

Who has time to watch anything!

Life


It's been a really busy week! Last week I spent a couple of days in Sydney as I was welcoming a new team member. I flew up on Monday, which was a public holiday, so I had a bit of time. I therefore took the opportunity to do a harbour cruise to see the amazing lights around the harbour as part of #vividSydney. 

I was home for a day and then we flew up to the Gold Coast for Rachael Johns Book Club Reader Retreat. This is the second retreat which I have attended, and it was fabulous. This is an opportunity to interact with other book people and authors. I plan to write more about this over the weekend!

Posts from the last week


Top Ten Tuesday: Same, Same But Different!

Blog Tour: The Riviera House Swap by Gillian Harvey

Weekend Cooking: Masterchef Alumni







I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Was Super Excited About But Still Haven't Read

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Books I Was Super Excited to Get My Hands on but Still Haven’t Read. And yes, I am sticking to the script this week. It isn't always the case

Daisy and Kate by Meredith Appleyard - I first saw the cover for this at a reader retreat last year and wanted to read it straight away....but still haven't!

The Other Bridget by Rachael Johns - I bought this as soon as it came out in book form, as opposed to on Kindle, but still haven't read it.

The Missing Sister by Lucinda Riley - I listened to all the previous Seven Sisters books, but the idea of listening to a book 30 hours long is very intimidating right now as I don't get to listen that much anymore. And then I have the next book after that as well

Midnight Blue by Simone van der Vlugt - I had to have this book as soon as I saw it!

The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn - What am I waiting for? Yeah, I don't know either

The Last Bookshop in London by Madeline Martin - I could also mention this author's subsequent books too.

Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum - I have had this on my radar since last year.

The Starfish Sisters by Barbara O'Neal - I have quite a few unread books by this author

An Astronomer in Love by Antoine Laurain - Maybe I'll get to read this for Paris in July.

The Air Raid Book Club by Annie Lyons -  I like the sound of this author's upcoming book too.

Have you read any of these books?

Six Degrees of Separation: Tom Lake to A Game of Thrones

 

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 we are starting with Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. I feel like I could have gone in a lake direction and pretty much have done the whole chain based on that theme, but in the end I took a different direction.

I decided to use another book by Ann Patchett as my first link and I have chosen The Dutch House. 

Recently I bought a book that has easily identifiable Dutch houses on the cover - Midnight Blue by Simone Van Der Blugt. I am looking forward to reading this at some point. When I do read it, it will count towards the Books in Translation challenge as it is written by a Dutch author..

I went looking for a book with the word blue in it, and found The Lady in Blue by Javier Sierra. This is another book in translation, this time by a Spanish author. 

If you were ever to ask me to name a Spanish author, then the first one that would come to mind would be Carlos Ruiz Zafon. I loved his book The Shadow of the Wind so much!

Another wind named book that I absolutely loved was The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss.

Patrick Rothfuss is a somewhat famous, or maybe infamous, for being a bit grumpy when people ask when are we ever going to see the next book in the Kingkiller Chronicle series. Another author who is the same is George R R Martin, so I am finishing with A Game of Thrones.

Next month the starting point is a bit different. Kate's instructions are to "look to your bookshelf – do you see a Lonely Planet title there? Or an Eyewitness Travel title? Or any other travel guide? That’s your starting book." I don't think that my starting point will be a surprise to anyone who knows me at all!