Saturday, October 4, 2025

Six Degrees of Separation – from I Want Everything to Camino Island

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.   This month’s starting point is I Want Everything by Dominic Amerena, which is about an elderly Australian novelist who was once accused of plagiarism.

First Degree

My first link is plagiarism.  In Emily Climbs by L. M. Montgomery (1925), a favorite I just finished rereading, Emily loses a writing contest, finding out later that the winner, an unpleasant young woman who has gossiped about her and played a nasty trick on her, plagiarized a poem.  Should she expose Evelyn?  After what she's put up with, I would!

Second Degree

A much less congenial Emily is in Jane-Emily by Patricia Clapp (1969).  When orphaned Jane spends the summer in a mysterious old house in Massachusetts, she discovers the house is haunted by her aunt Emily, who died before Jane was born.  This book is very scary and every childhood reader remembers the reflecting ball in the garden!  I'd like one myself, but not one that is haunted . . . 

Third Degree 

Another mysterious dwelling in Massachusetts is in The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (1959).  Four strangers agree to move into a house with a bad reputation to determine if it really is haunted.

Fourth Degree

Just as Hill House radiates a malevolent presence all its own, the mental facility and the surrounding area in Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane (2003) seem to be possessed. This was a compelling but very uncomfortable book I was considering for my library’s Community Read.  I'd definitely be too scared to see the movie!

Fifth Degree

If you ever have ever visited Long Island, you have to wonder if it is an island or a peninsula.  Geographically the first, but by law, the second, it turns out.  Regardless, my next link is Long Island by Colm Tóibín (2024).  This is a sequel to Brooklyn, and begins when a stranger comes to Eilis’ front door and says her husband Tony has impregnated his wife.  

I have a friend who tries not to read any book with adultery. I assume this is because her parents’ marriage ended badly and wonder how her book group has survived for 25 years.  But Tóibín says:

The flippant answer is that God made adultery so we could have novels. This is one of the things the world knows, and if it’s in the world, it’s part of creation. It’s not as though I have decided to bring this into the world.

Have you ever boycotted a certain theme in literature?  Of course, one can't always know what will turn up!

Sixth Degree

My final link is third island, Camino Island by John Grisham (2017).  This is quite different from his other books: a gang of thieves has stolen rare books from the Princeton Library.  Bruce Cable, a bookstore owner on Camino Island in Florida, is also a rare book dealer.  A young woman novelist, who is broke, is hired to infiltrate Cable’s circle and figure out if he is involved in the stolen books. 

So I managed to start with a book about a writer and end with one – the protagonist of Camino Island has writer’s block but maybe if she doesn’t have an NDA, she can write about her sleuthing in her next work.

Coincidentally, for next month (November 1, 2025), Kate has chosen another book by Shirley Jackson, We Have Always Lived in the Castle.  I just realized Kate used one of my books as her starting point last year but, although I try not to repeat, it is too late to change!   

9 comments:

Anne@HeadFullofBooks said...

I want to read Long Island but otherwise I've not heard of the other books. I liked your logic as you led me through your list.

My #6Degrees Chain

Anonymous said...

I started my chain with an LM Montgomery book, too! Different book, similar theme to yours.
I enjoyed your chain. The quote about adultery from an author is an interesting look at how authors think.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, didn't realise I was anonymous. I'm Rose Reads Novels.

Ryan said...

The Haunting of Hill House is one of my favorite books of all time, but I never heard or Jane-Emily, I'm going to try and give that a read.

Anonymous said...

A pleasure to see something I've actually read on one of these lists lol. I love the Emily books, I prefer them over the Anne books, tbh. I had no idea The Haunting of Hill House was based on a book. I'll definitely have to pick that one up. Love that came full circle with your chain. (Adele Bound in Books)

Fanda Classiclit said...

I have read only Camino Island - that was very entertaining, and very different from Grisham's other books.

CLM said...

Jane-Emily should be available at most libraries; Clapp also wrote Constance, which of course I also enjoyed!

Fanda, I agree that Camino Island was very different from Grisham's legal thrillers, although I have enjoyed them too. On my last day working at Bantam Doubleday Dell, I helped myself to two galleys of books about to be published - Outlander and The Firm - both of which would become huge bestsellers.

Adele, I do love Anne Shirley but once I had read the three Emily books, they became my favorites. They were out of print for so long that not as many people have read them, however.

Marianne said...

Interesting list with interesting questions.

I read Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín and didn't like it, so I didn't try Long Island. Did you read both books?

There isn't really a topic about which I wouldn't want to read. We have a member in our book club who doesn't want to read anything about WWII. Not so easy, I think, and the rest of us resents that sometimes.

There are certain genres I don't like much and will only read if it is chosen in one of my book clubs, like fantasy or sci-fi.

And how interesting that you have a book by Shirley Jackson in your chain. I have read a book by her, "The Lottery", quite a thriller.

Here is my list:
https://momobookblog.blogspot.com/2025/10/six-degrees-of-separation-i-want.html

TracyK said...

This is a very interesting Six Degrees. You have reminded me that I want to read The Haunting of Hill House, and I have a very nice looking copy, and October is a great time to read it. I am still a little leery of it though. I saw the movie for Shutter Island but would be too scared to read it.

When I have read about Long Island I have always wondered what it is... so now I know it is really a peninsula. I have Brooklyn on my shelves to read, and then I will decide about the second book, Long Island.

Very interesting question about boycotting a theme. I do not enjoy books about adultery but it is usually when the protagonist is the adultery, and less about the theme. It could be related to my first marriage, or it could go back further to my childhood, although my parents were very happy together.