Six Degrees of Separation – from Sandwich to Moby Dick

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 Sandwich by Catherine Newman (2024). Because it is set on Cape Cod, the book was a local bestseller and I would have bought it for my sister had it been available in July.

My August 2024 Reading

No 5s this month: I liked The Briar Club but not as much as Kate Quinn's other books. I enjoyed Long Island and will suggest my book group reads it but his style is very understated and I wasn’t sure I understood the ending. The Rom-Commers was fun and I’ve decided I like Center’s books much better than Emily Henry’s: although their styles are not dissimilar, I think Center demonstrates more sense of humor.

Two's Company - set during the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg

Whe Claire Farrell left New York, heading south in her new convertible, it was ostensibly to visit her grandparents in Williamsburg, but really to pursue a handsome actor, Whit Bowdon, performing in summer theater. Whit is sophisticated and willing to do whatever it takes to advance his career, in contrast to Philip Young, a young architect boarding with the Farrells, who is focused on the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg – and enjoys teasing Claire about her lack of interest in history.

The Concord Free Public Library in December

Concord, Massachusetts in December is an attractive place and I was in the mood to visit on Saturday, particularly because the library was having a book sale. 

The lobby/great room is decorated for the holidays

Spell the Month in Books – November

Spell the Month in Books is hosted by Reviews From the Stacks and occurs on the second Saturday of each month or maybe a few days later!

N    The Nowhere Man by Gregg Hurwitz (2017). Evan Smoak is a reluctant assassin. Once, he was Orphan X, a child plucked from an orphanage and turned into a killer.

Six Degrees of Separation – from Ethan Frome to March

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 Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton (1911), which involves a love triangle and a fateful sledding accident.

First Degree

A sledding accident with a less tragic outcome begins Louisa May Alcott’s Jack and Jill (1880); you may recall I secured my own copy in June.

October 2021 Reads

Another varied month of reading.  My favorites were Other People's Children, The Night Fire,  and Anthem (no, not Ayn Rand, be serious). Have you read any of these?

Fiction

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (2021) – Klara’s destiny is to accompany a needy teen home as a companion and she is hand-picked by Josie and her mother because of her unusual empathy. This was a Book Group choice that started out well but turned out to be only so so. My mini-review.

YA Fiction for the #1976Club

I found two unread YA novels for the 1976 Club, hosted by StuckinaBook and Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings.

Mystery of the Emerald Buddha by Betty Cavanna (1976)

Cavanna’s writing career extended from 1943-1987 and although she is best known for her teen romance/coming of age fiction (sometimes called malt shop books), she wrote several mysteries under this name and more as Betsy Allen. She lived in nearby Concord, Massachusetts with her second husband but I was amazed to read in her obituary that she spent her last years in Vézelay, France, from which I just returned!

Six Degrees of Separation – from Eats, Shoots & Leaves to The Thorn Birds

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 was a big bestseller when new: Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss (2003). I think the original cover's cute panda was half the appeal but it was certainly popular with comma fans! Most think of Truss as a grammar guru but she also wrote several mysteries.

The Only Black Girls in Town by Brandy Colbert

Title: The Only Black Girls in Town
Author: Brandy Colbert
Cover Art: Jenny Kimura
Publication: Little, Brown & Company, paperback, 2021 (originally published in 2020)
Genre: Middle-grade fiction
Setting: Southern California

Description: Seventh-grader Alberta has been the only black girl in her grade and town, so she is delighted to have new black neighbors when Edie, also 12, and her mother buy the B&B across the street.

Six Degrees of Separation: From Life After Life to The Luckiest Girl

Six Degrees of Separation is a monthly link-up hosted by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. Each month a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the other books on the list, only to the one next to it in the chain.

This month it’s a wild card – the chain begins with the book that ended our July reading, which means that my starting book is Life After Life by Kate Atkinson (2013).