It’s the first Saturday of the month which means it’s time for another Six Degrees of Separation, hosted by Kate of Books are my Favourite and Best. The idea is that Kate chooses a book to use as a starting point and then we have to link it to six other books of our choice to form a chain. A book doesn’t have to be connected to all of the others on the list – only to the one next to it in the chain.
This month we’re starting with The Museum of Modern Love by Heather Rose. I haven’t read it, but here’s what it’s about:
Arky Levin, a film composer in New York, has promised his wife that he will not visit her in hospital, where she is suffering in the final stages of a terminal illness. She wants to spare him a burden that would curtail his creativity, but the promise is tearing him apart. One day he finds his way to MOMA and sees Mariana Abramovic in The Artist is Present. The performance continues for seventy-five days and, as it unfolds, so does Arky. As he watches and meets other people drawn to the exhibit, he slowly starts to understand what might be missing in his life and what he must do.
I’m going to start this month’s chain with a book that shares a word in the title: Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson (1). This was Atkinson’s first novel, published in 1995, and is narrated by Ruby Lennox, who lives above a pet shop in York with her parents and two older sisters. The book takes us through Ruby’s life from birth to adulthood, while also moving backwards and forwards in time to tell the stories of previous generations of the family.
Ruby is also the name of a character in Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple mystery, The Body in the Library (2). When a young woman is found dead on the floor of the library of Gossington Hall in St Mary Mead, she is identified as Ruby Keene. Dolly Bantry, who lives at the Hall with her husband Colonel Bantry, calls in her friend Miss Marple to help investigate.
From a library in a country house to a very different kind of library: the Seward Park branch of the New York Public Library, where Zia de Luca works in The Orchid Hour by Nancy Bilyeau (3). This historical thriller set in New York’s Little Italy during Prohibition is maybe not one of my favourites by Bilyeau but it does have a fascinating setting and some interesting facts about growing orchids!
There are lots of books with flowers in the titles (I put a list together for a recent Top Ten Tuesday post), but the one I’m going to link to here is Rose Cottage by Mary Stewart (4), in which a young woman returns to her grandmother’s cottage at the end of World War II and makes some unexpected discoveries about her past. This is a lovely, gentle novel but has none of the suspense and mystery I love in Stewart’s other books.
The next book in my chain is by another author with the surname Stewart, although as far as I know they’re not related. In Ill Will (5), Michael Stewart creates a story to fill in the gap in the middle of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, where Heathcliff disappears for three years with no explanation. Although the Brontë novel is one of my favourite classics, I didn’t like this book much at all, mainly due to the language and the fact that the characters barely resembled the originals.
The cover of Ill Will, with a tree that has lost its leaves, reminds me of the cover of The Woman in Black by Susan Hill (6). In this ghost story, Arthur Kipps, a young lawyer, has several encounters with a mysterious woman in black while staying at Eel Marsh House to sort through the papers of a client who has recently died. I enjoyed it, although I didn’t find it as frightening as I was expecting!
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And that’s my chain for August! My links have included: the word ‘museum’, characters with the name Ruby, libraries, books with flowers in the title, the surname Stewart and trees with no leaves.
In September we’ll be starting with After Story by Larissa Behrendt.
She Reads Novels 
Love that first link, great chain!
Thank you!
Great first link – I’m a big Atkinson fan. I’ve not read The Woman in Black but have been scared witless by a theatrical performance despite knowing what was coming, and also found the TV adaptation very chilling!
I love Atkinson’s books too, but need to catch up with reading her most recent ones. I haven’t seen a theatre performance of The Woman in Black but my friend did and said it was terrifying!
I love it when people use little things in one book to connect to the next one, like a character’s name or a picture on a cover. Brava!
Thanks!
I enjoyed the ‘Ruby’ link especially since I love Body in the Library. Behind the Scenes at the Museum and The Orchid Hour sound like titles I’d very much enjoy. A great chain, Helen!
Thank you! I really enjoyed The Body in the Library, although it’s not my favourite Miss Marple.
It’s among my favourites. In fact I put it in a list of my top 4 Marples when replying to a question on Twitter/X yesterday 🙂
A clever chain, from which I’ve read the first two. I’m afraid my first foray into Christie’s work was not a success. I do rather better with Kate Atkinson!
Kate Atkinson is great. I’m looking forward to reading her new Jackson Brodie book.
I am a big Kate Atkinson fan and originally started out with this book but suddenly could not remember if I had read it! I guess that means I can enjoy it for the first time. Have read the Christie and Rose Cottage and I saw a play of The Woman in Black on my first trip to London (my friend and I were unnerved, which I guess was the point). I am enjoying her Simon Serrallier mysteries now.
Constance
The Woman in Black didn’t scare me much in book format, but yes, I’ve heard that the play is very unnerving! I haven’t tried the Simon Serrailler series yet.
Fun chain of books. It’s been a long time since I read Rose Cottage; I don’t even really remember it. I do remember reading The Woman in Black. I liked that one. 😀
I liked Rose Cottage but it wasn’t one of Mary Stewart’s more exciting books! I’m glad you enjoyed The Woman in Black.
The Body in the Library is one I really want to read because I have yet to try any of Christie’s Marple stories! & I’m of two minds if I want to read The Woman in Black, the movie really disturbed me but it was also a good story! You did say it didn’t scare you as much as you expected so maybe I should give it a try! Either way, fun connections!
My #6Degrees is here
I think the stage/film adaptations of The Woman in Black are scarier than the book, from what I’ve heard!
Ah okay good, then that bodes well for me haha 🙂
Great chain, I love how different they all are
Thank you!