Six Degrees of Separation – from Founding Mothers to The Little Wartime Library

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 Kate suggested we start with our book group’s current selection, which for me is Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation by Cokie Roberts (2004). My friend Carrie chose this with the recent 250th celebration in mind, and she made our meeting very festive with Chicken Pot Pie as the entrée and red, white, and blue (or purple) gelato and little bags of red, white, and blue Hershey’s Kisses.

First Degree

Founding Mothers is a nonfiction look at the founding fathers’ wives, mothers, sisters, and daughters who kept farms running, managed political boycotts, and supported the military effort on the home front and battlefields. My first link is to Patriot Hearts: A Novel of the Founding Mothers by Barbara Hambly (2007), historical fiction inspired by Roberts’ bestseller. Hambly focused on just four of these women: Martha Washington, Abigail Adams, Dolley Madison, and Sally Hemings. My review.

Second Degree

A completely different type of mother (the frazzled, multitasking working parent) is portrayed in Just What Kind of Mother Are You? by Paula Daly (2013). Lisa is an overwhelmed mother of three when her best friend’s daughter disappears – and it’s Lisa’s fault. Of course, she tries to find her and, in the process, discovers all sorts of secrets about her friends and the community.

Third Degree

In contrast to all these mothers, I started thinking about the welfare programs that sent thousands of orphans from the East Coast to rural families in the Midwest and West between 1854 and 1929. In particular, I was reminded of Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline (2013), in which 91-year-old Vivian Daly looks back on her orphan experience as she interacts with a troubled teenager. Of course, their enforced friendship benefits them both, blah blah blah, but it was a good book (best of the three I have read by this author).

Fourth Degree

Another troubled orphan is Alix Watson in The Astral Library by Kate Quinn (2026). She leads a bleak and impoverished existence until she goes through a magical portal at the Boston Public Library, where she works part-time. My review.

Fifth Degree

I went on a Garth Nix binge over the last few weeks, reading Sabriel, Lirael, Abhorsen, Clariel, and Goldenhand. Of these, I thought Lirael was the strongest with a lonely heroine, an orphan who longs to possess the Sight like her kinspeople the Clayr, but is merely a humble librarian (as a part-time librarian, I can assure you we are never humble – except when people complain the printer is not working).

Nevertheless, it is Lirael’s destiny to save the kingdom using skills she does not know she has. Much of her knowledge was gained in the Great Library of the Clayr, which is full of books, scrolls, and records of the Clayr's prophecies, as well as housing ancient maps, recipes, magical artifacts, old armories with pristine weapons, and odd historical paraphernalia.

Sixth Degree

A more traditional library in an unlikely place is The Little Wartime Library by Kate Thompson (2023). During WWII, the subway station in London’s Bethnal Green was not only a bomb shelter with dozens of bunk beds for those sheltering from the Blitz but also a library, inspirting this book. Thompson does a great job capturing the many stories of those taking refuge there, as well as its librarians.  My review.

The actual library!
copyright Historia Magazine

This book reminded me that when I lived in NYC, there was a tiny New York Public Library branch tucked underground inside the 51st Street and Lexington subway station. It was convenient when I worked nearby but the librarians always charged me $1 to request an ILL book and not one ever appeared so I uncharitably wondered if they even tried to get them! I don’t think that is why it was closed in 2023, however; probably due to accessibility issues.

So my book journey this month took me from Virginia/DC and Massachusetts, England’s Lake District, Maine (with stories about the Midwest), Boston, the imaginary Old Kingdom of Garth Nix, and London. Have you read any of these?

If you did #6Degrees this month, where did you go? Next month, October 3, 2026, we’ll start with Rachel Cusk’s controversial book inspired by Natalie Portman, Life of M.