Six Degrees of Separation – from Flashlight to The Phoenix and the Carpet

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. February’s starting point is Flashlight by Susan Choi, about which the New York Times said, “This is a novel about exile in its multiple forms, and it reads like a history of loneliness.”

First Degree

Well, that description sounds very depressing (Booker shortlist notwithstanding) but luckily I was reminded of The Exiles by Hilary McKay (1991), so my first link is a hilarious book in which the four Conroy sisters are forced to spend the summer with their grandmother, who tries to break them of their reading habit by substituting fresh air and hard work for books. Similarly, my grandmother, despite being a reader herself, was always trying to make us go outside and play when we visited, and we would beg to be taken to the Chappaqua library instead!

Second Degree

Hilary Clinton lives in Chappaqua (I just looked it up: 1.3 miles from my grandparents' house), and I liked and recommend the book she wrote with Louise Penny, State of Terror.  The main character is a U.S. Secretary of State, who must unravel a global conspiracy involving terrorism and nuclear threats.

Third Degree

I am a big fan of Patricia Wentworth’s Golden Age mysteries but her first book was historical novel called A Marriage Under the Terror, set during the French Revolution The heroine is a brave young noblewoman and a revolutionary marries her to save her from the guillotine. It is probably only for diehard Wentworth fans but I enjoyed it.

Fourth Degree

I think I’ve used most of the books I’ve read about the French Revolution except for The Glass-Blowers by Daphne du Maurier. It’s an imagined story about her French ancestors, glass-blowers in rural France just before and during the Revolution. My review.

Fifth Degree

Glassmaking is my next link and is a key element of The Glass Phoenix by Mary Stetson Clarke (1969). When his father is lost at sea, young Seth Arnold starts working at the glass factory in Sandwich, MA to help support his family. You should go to the Sandwich Glass Museum if you ever visit Cape Cod!

Sixth Degree

The Phoenix and the Carpet (1904) is the second and maybe the best in E. Nesbit’s trilogy following Five Children and It, about five British children who discover a magical carpet and a talking phoenix that grants them three wishes a day, leading to many adventures, not to mention awkward situations.

Next month, (March 7, 2026), Kate plans to with a classic (and in celebration of the forthcoming movie) – Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë.