Six Degrees of Separation – from Trust to The Big Killing

It’s time for #6degrees, inspired by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. We all start at the same place, add six books, and see where we end up. This month’s starting point is Trust by Hernan Diaz, which my book group read and I reviewed last month.

First Degree

Diaz’s characters are fictional but they inhabit the same New York world as the Roosevelts, which links to my first book, Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life, and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt by David McCullough (1981). I listened to this while driving to Quebec several years ago.

Second Degree

McCullough also wrote about Orville and Wilbur Wright. When my book group read that book, some felt their sister Katherine deserved some of the credit for their accomplishments so we considered reading The Wright Sister by Patty Dann (2020), expecting it to flesh out her life. I read it but found it somewhat disappointing; it was mostly about her marriage so not what my group was looking for.

Third Degree

My next link is Wright. The Lonely Doll, written and illustrated by photographer Dare Wright (1957), was one of my childhood favorites. As an adult, I recognize Mr. Bear exhibits some abusive tendencies, which makes me sad. But not sad enough to relinquish my copies!

Fourth Degree

Another link is loneliness. I saw The Hills is Lonely by Lillian Beckwith (1959) at my friend Deb’s house in January. I don’t usually include books I haven’t read yet but this piqued my interest and I got it from the library today. Beckwith was recuperating from an illness and planned to go to Kent but somehow ends up in the Hebrides, where she has an eccentric and entertaining time (that apparently continues for three books!).

Fifth Degree

Hills are my next link. A Killing in the Hills (Bell Elkins, #1) by Julia Keller (2012) was a bleak but well done mystery about a mother and daughter caught up in a murder in drug-infested West Virginia. The mother is the DA and the daughter is a cranky teen. I’d better catch up on this series – it’s now up to eight books!

Sixth Degree

My final link is killing. Leslie Wetzon is the best headhunter on Wall Street in The Big Killing (Smith & Wetzon, #1) by Annette Meyers (1990). Unfortunately, after she meets a client for drinks at the Four Seasons, he is stabbed to death, which is not great for business. It seems reasonable for Leslie to try to solve his murder, given he left his briefcase with her. I really liked this series and used to give copies of this first book to every headhunter I met.

See how I linked Trust and the early days of NY finance back to present-day Wall Street. Have you read any of these? Did you play #6Degrees this month? Next month (March 4, 2023), we’ll start with Passages by Gail Sheehy, a self-help bestseller from 1974!