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 Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke. I haven’t read it, but here’s what it’s about:

Natalie lives a traditional lifestyle – and her followers are sick with envy. Her charming farmhouse on her working ranch is artfully cluttered, her husband is a handsome cowboy, her homemade sourdough boules are each more beautiful than the last. So what if there are nannies and producers and industrial-grade ovens behind the scenes? What her followers don’t know won’t hurt them.

Then, one morning, Natalie wakes up in a strange, horrible version of reality. Her home, her husband, her children—they’re all familiar, but something’s off. Is this a hoax? A reality show? A test from God? Natalie knows just two things for sure: this isn’t her perfect life, and she must escape, by any means possible.

I’m sure there are more creative directions I could have gone in for my first link, but as Yesteryear seems to involve an element of time travel, although apparently with a twist, I’m simply going to link to one of my favourite time travel novels, The House on the Strand by Daphne du Maurier (1). It’s set partly in 14th century Cornwall, but it wasn’t the historical storyline that interested me so much as the method of time travel itself – psychological via an experimental drug rather than physical – and the implications it has for the lives of our present day (1960s) characters.

Du Maurier is known for her strong affinity with Cornwall, where she lived for many years. Another author who has set several of her books in Cornwall is Jane Johnson – for example, The White Hare (2). This one is set in a fictional Cornish valley which is beautifully and vividly described. Johnson works the legend of the white hare into the novel – a legend which really is a part of Cornish forklore.

Hare Sitting Up by Michael Innes (3) shares a word in the title. It’s the eighteenth book in Innes’ Inspector John Appleby series – and you’ll be pleased to know it’s not necessary to have read the previous seventeen first! In this book, more of a thriller than a mystery, Appleby is investigating the disappearance of Professor Howard Juniper, a top government scientist who has been conducting secret research into biological warfare.

Juniper is an unusual name, although apparently becoming more popular again. The Cromarty Library Circle by Shona MacLean (4) features a Miss Juniper, an elderly governess with a dubious past who has taken two young women under her wing to help prepare them for their future lives. According to the author, she based the character on Elizabeth Bond, a real schoolmistress from Scotland’s Black Isle.

In MacLean’s novel, a group of people from the Black Isle town of Cromarty decide to start a circulating library. Another novel about libraries is The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles (5) which tells the story of the American Library in Paris and the people who worked there during the Nazi occupation. There’s also a modern day storyline which I didn’t like very much, but the wartime parts were fascinating and it was good to see that the library staff found various ways to keep the library operating throughout the war.

As Emma of Words and Peace is hosting Paris in July this month, I thought it would be nice to stay with books set in Paris for my final link. Paris by Edward Rutherfurd (6) is an obvious choice as it takes us through the history of the city from the 13th century to the 20th, following six different fictional families through multiple generations. I’ve read and enjoyed all of Rutherfurd’s novels (they’re all written in a similar way) but this isn’t one of my favourites as I found the non-chronological structure confusing.

And that’s my chain for July. My links have included: time travel, Cornwall, hares, the name Juniper, libraries and Paris.

In August we’ll be starting with Land by Maggie O’Farrell.