Six Degrees of Separation – from Coach to Marry in Haste

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 the last book I read in January, which is Coach by Michael Lewis (2005). It’s a novella about an influential baseball coach at the school Lewis attended in New Orleans but it’s really about the generational divide – how modern parents coddle their children and “protect” them from character building experiences and Coach Fitz’s more acerbic approach had upset current parents who wanted him fired. 

I read this for one of my book groups and enjoyed it, especially one anecdote about Peyton Manning who went to the same well-known school, Isadore Newman (which my parents once visited), and also had a run-in with the coach.

My first link also involves baseball. Honus & Me by Dan Gutman (1997) is a children’s book in which a boy finds a valuable baseball card and time travels back to see Honus Wagner's time and visit the last game of the World Series of 1909. I helped promote this book when my company published it and feel I did a lot to help this author establish a series for boys.

A different kind of card is the backdrop for Agatha Christie’s Cards on the Table (1936). A murder takes place in front of a group of bridge players, including several well-known detectives, but only Hercule Poirot can untangle the mystery. My review.

It is 1940 in London and the Ministry of Foreign Information has been created to translate foreign documents and letters, and Anne is assigned to the Translation Department’s Table Two in this novel by Marjorie Wilenski (1942), recently reprinted by Dean Street Press. My review.

In contrast to the rivalry and gossip of the women translators, Two Are Better Than One by Carol Ryrie Brink (1968) is about best friends, Cordelia and Chrystal, and is one of my top ten favorites. One of my favorite parts is when the girls, taking an exam, are asked to describe a place well known to them. As they have been writing a novel together, without hesitating one describes a castle on the Rhine and one describes a desert island, much to the confusion of their teacher who knows they have never left Idaho! This book is a hit with Betsy-Tacy fans.

After Ariel’s husband goes missing from their Portugal hotel in Two Nights in Lisbon by Chris Pavone (2022), she spends two frantic nights trying to find him, while realizing she knows very little about him. My review.

My final link is another book set in Portugal, Marry in Haste by Jane Aiken Hodge (older sister of Joan), published in 1961, about a penniless governess who agrees to a marriage of convenience out of necessity during the Napoleonic Wars. She accompanies her handsome diplomat husband on an assignment to Portugal, where misunderstandings keep them apart until the final page.

So I managed to go from New Orleans, 1909 Detroit, two in London, one in Idaho, and finally two in Portugal. Next month (March 2, 2024), Kate has chosen Tom Lake by Ann Patchett, which I enjoyed several months ago.

Did you play 6 Degrees this month? Please share your link!