Six Degrees of Separation - from The Post-Office Girl to Happy Landings

 It’s time for #6degrees, inspired by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. We all start at the same place as other readers, add six books, and see where it ends up.  June’s starting point is The Post-Office Girl by Stefan Zweig (1982).  It’s about a lowly postal worker and Ursula LeGuin described it as “a dark fairytale of Austria in 1926.”

A Place Beyond Courage by Elizabeth Chadwick #20BOS26-1

Elizabeth Chadwick is an author I have enjoyed in the past but somehow I had not read any of her books since moving back to Boston, so she seemed a good candidate for the 20 Days of Summer. I gather her books about William Marshal are her most acclaimed so I meant to start with one of them but when I checked, it turned out that A Place Beyond Courage is a prequel about William’s father, so needed to come first. John FitzGilbert is a charismatic leader, the marshal to Henry I (1068 – 1135), and just 25 when the story begins.

20 Books of Summer – 2026

The 20 Books of Summer is a reading challenge meant to identify books you've been putting off (in a good way) or to make a dent in your TBR pile. Participants make a pledge to read and review a list of 10, 15, or 20 books during the summer months (typically June 1st through August 31st). 

It was created by Cathy of 746 Books, and is now hosted by Annabel of AnnaBookBel. Here are my 20 books, plus an extra:

Change of Plans by Sarah Dessen

An unexpected trip becomes a way to take control of her life 18-year-old Finley in this new book by bestseller Dessen. Finley has just finished high school when her world (at least, her small piece of it) falls apart. One minute she is planning to go to college with her boyfriend, Colin, after a fun trip to Manhattan with her mother, Catherine. Then, instead of New York, Catherine unexpectedly brings her daughter to clear out the family’s beach house, the Woods, vacant since her parents died. Catherine’s sisters, Kasey and Liz, are irritated that for years she hasn’t been around to help, but they welcome Finley, whom they’ve only met twice.

“Change Your Life for €1,” the headline had read . . .

When she was at her lowest emotionally, Skye saw a competition to win a cottage in Greece for one euro, and entered. How she won and how the paperwork was completed quickly and without publicity requires some suspension of disbelief but, why not, every book needs a plot, and apparently this is an actual thing:

WWW Wednesday – May 20

WWW Wednesday is hosted by Taking on a World of Words.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

April 2026 Reading

My best reads in April were The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl and three rereads - Spring Magic by D.E. Stevenson (the ultimate in comfort reads as April was chilly and reading required a cozy blanket) and The Ivy Tree and Marry in Haste for the 1961 Club.

Lady Tremaine by Rachel Hochhauser - a retelling of Cinderella

Cinderella is one of those stories that everyone knows and accepts the basic premise: cruel stepmother, exploited stepdaughter, bullying stepsisters, a fairy godmother, and a prince to rescue Ella from the ashes. Some modern versions provide a heroine who focuses on self-actualization over marriage as a form of rescue but those are less likely to find favor among little girls who love the Disney princesses. So I was intrigued to hear about this book which tells the Cinderella story from the point of view of the stepmother.