Six Degrees of Separation - from Rapture to My Life in France

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 Rapture by Emily Maguire.

My November 2024 Reading

My favorites this month were The Law of Innocence about Harry Bosch’s half-brother, Mickey Haller, accused of murder and forced to defend himself from prison, and Mrs. Hart’s Marriage Bureau, a historical novel set between the wars in Britain. I also enjoyed another book about Orphan X and two books by Joan Aiken for Witch Week 2024 – Night Fall is just as memorable as the first time I read it.

Night Fall by Joan Aiken #WitchWeek2024

It’s Witch Week, hosted by Chris of Calmgrove and Lizzie Ross to honor Diana Wynne Jones’ Witch Week, and this year they are celebrating the work of Joan Aiken. Several of my favorites have been featured by some talented bloggers but the week would not be complete without a lesser-known but one of my favorites: Night Fall, a suspenseful novella set in London and Cornwall.

The Serial Garden by Joan Aiken #WitchWeek2024

Those who only know Joan Aiken from the beloved The Wolves of Willoughby Chase and later books in the series or her much admired adult regency historicals may not realize she was also a gifted writer of short stories. This collection contains 24 stories about the quirky Armitage family, not published in one place previously, and includes introductions from Aiken’s daughter Lizza and by author Garth Nix. I am not sure how I missed the Armitages. 

Looking forward to the 1962 Club

Twice each year, Simon from Stuck in a Book and Karen from Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings host a readalong celebration of books published in a carefully chosen year and it starts on Monday. At first, I didn’t think 1962 was such a great year, although I have quite a few friends born that year. What about books? Here are a few I have already reviewed:

Six Degrees of Separation – from Our Wives Under the Sea to Joan Aiken's Kingdom . . .

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 Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield (2022), described as “fathomlessly inventive” by the publisher, if you like puns.

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.

Bookshelf Traveling with the Aiken Sisters - December 12

Time for another round of Bookshelf Traveling in Insane Times which was created by Judith at Reader in the Wilderness and is currently hosted by Katrina at Pining for the West.  Last time I displayed a shelf that holds my juvenile hardcover Joan Aikens, so today we are going downstairs to a shelf that is shared by Joan and her sister Jane Aiken Hodge, another favorite. 

Bookshelf Traveling - November 29

Time for another round of Bookshelf Traveling in Insane Times which was created by Judith at Reader in the Wilderness and is currently hosted by Katrina at Pining for the West. This is a shelf in my guest room where most of the children’s books live and contains three favorite British authors: Ruth M. Arthur, Elfrida Vipont, and Joan Aiken.

Six Degrees of Separation: from Sanditon to Mrs. Tim Christie

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.

Sanditon, the unfinished Jane Austen, was Kate’s starting book. I read this long ago and unfortunately don’t remember it at all.  However, I am looking forward to the new dramatization on Masterpiece Theatre beginning January 12, 2020.

Joan Aiken came to mind because I thought she had completed Sanditon, but "her" Austen is Emma Watson, The Watsons Completed, which is my first book (not to be confused with actress Emma Watson!). 

The Whispering Mountain (Book Review) #1968Club

The 1968 Club is a meme created by Simon from Stuck in a Book, who chose a literary year and has encouraged other bloggers to read up and post on books published that year.  Check out all the reviews here!  When I realized the other book I had chosen, Cousin Kate, had been reviewed by several people, I wanted to pick something not previously included, hence:

Title: The Whispering Mountain
Author: Joan Aiken
Publication:  Jonathan Cape, hardcover, 1968
Genre: Children’s fantasy/historical fiction/speculative fiction – part of the twelve book Wolves Chronicles that begins with the beloved The Wolves of Willoughby Chase.

Dominion by C. J. Sansom (Book Review & Giveaway)

Title: Dominion   
Author: C. J. Sansom

Publication Information: Hardcover, Mulholland Books (Hachette), February 2014

Genre: Historical Fiction   ISBN: 0316254916

Plot: Imagine if England had surrendered to Hitler.  In Sansom’s dark and convincing alternate history, it is 1952 and Germany is ruling England while Winston Churchill is hiding out from the authorities, encouraging a British Resistance. Newly recruited to the cause is David Fitzgerald, who has been surreptitiously passing along information obtained from his government job.  He kept his involvement from his wife whose family are ardent pacifists but that has created distance in his marriage, already strained by the death of their child.  When David’s Oxford friend Frank is committed to an asylum, both the Americans and Germans learn that Frank holds the key to a secret that could result in devastation to the whole world.  Only David can be trusted to rescue Frank, and as his cover is blown, he and his cohorts desperately try to escape with German agents in hot pursuit.

Meeting Joan Aiken

In December of 1998, the Greater NY Betsy-Tacy Society (or representatives thereof) went to Books of Wonder where Joan Aiken (seated, center) signed books and chatted with fans. It was such a thrill to meet her, and as you can see, she graciously posed for a picture with the group. I think she was pleased to hear I was also a fan of sister, Jane Aiken Hodge.* I am so glad not only that I met Joan just a few years before she died but she encouraged me to write to Jane (more on that another day).

In this photo, left to right, front row: Laurie, JA, Elizabeth; left to right, back row: I am blanking on the woman on the left, then I, Linda, and Ilene. Joan signed several books for me including the only hardcover I had with me, below:

It took persistence but Books of Wonder has supported Betsy-Tacy, albeit never with the quantities I suggested (and, of course, I was their Scholastic/Penguin rep, not their Harper rep).

By the way, I am distressed that Houghton Mifflin does not appear to be reprinting Joan's books as needed. I had great difficulty obtaining a copy of The Cuckoo Tree, which I do not own, for my niece's birthday. Boo!

* I do not understand how a poet like Conrad Aiken could have had so little imagination as to name his daughters, Jane and Joan!  His son was John, which is practically the same name.

Children's Favorites

The problem with completing Elizabeth Bird's Top Ten Middle Grade Chapter Book list is twofold: 1) that it took far too long, when I should have been doing at least a dozen other things; 2) my choices might be totally different if compiled at some other time (and that doesn't even take into account my question of whether a series counts). I was disappointed not to meet her at ALA but assume she is a kindred spirit. . .
1-A Little Princess/Burnett (all my favorite genres in one: orphans, historical fiction, school story)
2-Anne of Green Gables/Montgomery (the ultimate orphan)
3-A Traveler in Time/Uttley (time travel, and one of my other favorite things, Elizabethan England)
4-Betsy-Tacy series (if I had to pick just one, I guess Betsy and Joe)
5-Masha/Mara Kay (not very well known but adored by anyone who read it, orphans and school story)
6-Charlotte Sometimes/Farmer (school story and time travel and I think she’s an orphan too)
7-The Wolves of Willoughby Chase/Aiken (orphans almost always a theme with Aiken)
8-Ballet Shoes/Streatfeild (although Skating Shoes a close second) (more orphans)
9-Knight’s Castle/Eager (although it is hard to pick my favorite Eager between this and Seven Day Magic and The Time Garden)
10-Diamond in the Window/Langton (yet more orphans)

Runners-Up
Time at the Top/Ormondroyd
The Lark and the Laurel/Willard (first in one of my all time favorite series)
The Prydain series/Alexander
Emily series/Montgomery (Powell’s has these in YA but AOGG in middle grades-as a series I like these better but AOGG beats them out individually)
Emmy Keeps a Promise/Chastain
Autumn Term/Forest (I am tempted to count this but did not read it until grown up)