Six in Six was the idea of Jo of The Book Jotter, who sadly stopped blogging in 2025, and is now hosted by Emma of Words and Peace. I’ve been taking part in this every year since it began (I was shocked when I looked back through my posts and discovered that Jo started it in 2012!) so I’m pleased a new host has picked it up.
Six in Six is a great way to look back on our reading over the first six months of the year. The idea is to choose six categories (there’s a list of suggestions on Emma’s blog, but participants can come up with new topics of their own if they prefer) and then try to fit six books or authors we’ve read from January-June into each category.
My attempt for 2026 is below – as you’ll see, some of these books could have fit more than one category, but I only wanted to use each book once.
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Six books in translation
The Blind Woman of Sorrento by Francesco Mastriani (Italian)
Embers by Sándor Márai (Hungarian)
Suspicion by Seichō Matsumoto (Japanese)
Gigi and The Cat by Colette (French)
Letter to My Judge by Georges Simenon (French)
The Final Problem by Arturo Pérez-Reverte (Spanish)
Six books involving a journey
West by Carys Davies
The Wandering Queen by Claire Heywood
Travel Light by Naomi Mitchison
Son of Nobody by Yann Martel
An Astronomer in Love by Antoine Laurain
The News from Dublin by Colm Tóibín
Six books with a mystery to solve
Murder at the Spirit Lounge by Jess Kidd
The Killer Question by Janice Hallett
Dead Men Don’t Ski by Patricia Moyes
Mrs McGinty’s Dead by Agatha Christie
Murder Like Clockwork by Nicola Whyte
A Deadly Episode by Anthony Horowitz
Six books set in countries other than my own
The House of Barbary by Isabelle Schuler (Switzerland)
A Far-flung Life by ML Stedman (Australia)
She Walks at Night by Seishi Yokomizo (Japan)
The Lost Orphans of Lyon by Helen Parusel (France)
Penitence by Kristin Koval (USA)
Brigid by Kim Curran (Ireland)
Six books with elements of fantasy or science fiction
The Unicorn Hunters by Katherine Arden
Vile Lady Villains by Danai Christopoulou
Trouble with Lichen by John Wyndham
A Remedy for Fate by MA Kuzniar
The Astral Library by Kate Quinn
All the Fear of the Fair edited by Edward Parnell
Six books by authors new to me this year
Room 706 by Ellie Levenson
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
The Infamous Gilberts by Angela Tomaski
The Witch’s Stone by Kirsty Ferry
The House of Fallen Sisters by Louise Hare
The Three Witches by Elena Collins
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What do you think of my six sixes? Have you read any of these books? Did you enjoy your reading in the first six months of the year?
She Reads Novels 
I love these categories. I always struggle with choosing my 6 categories as there is just so much choice. I like your mystery choices too. I’m currently reading Murder at the Spirit Lounge and thoroughly enjoying it.
Yes, it’s hard to choose. There were other categories I wanted to use, but had to narrow them down to six. I’m glad you’re enjoying Murder at the Spirit Lounge!
I’m so impressed with everyone who manages this challenge and your categories are brilliant! Dead Men Don’t Ski is such a great cover!
Yes, I love the cover of Dead Men Don’t Ski. It was an entertaining book as well and I’m looking forward to reading more in the series.
Great categories, thanks for playing.
Nice to see Laurain here, yes that was quite the journey!
I actually DNFed Mastriani’s, so I’m on my way to check your review.
And Wyndham’s is on my TBR
Thanks for hosting! I had fun choosing my categories and putting this post together. I really enjoyed the Laurain book and am hoping to read more of his books soon.
Yes, all his books are so good!
This is such a fun tag and I love how customisable it is. I need to try and get to more translated fiction, so far I think the only ones that fit are the Strange Pictures titles. We only have The Wandering Queen in common so far but there are several others here I really want to get to, including House Of Barbary which I somehow forgot all about 🙈
Yes, the great thing about Six in Six is the way you can adapt it to fit your own reading. I had read enough translated fiction this year for a whole category, but in other years I probably wouldn’t have read six by this point. I hope you can get to House of Barbary soon!
Unusually for me I have a few overlaps with your choices: the Mitchison and the Wyndham I also read this year, and I have a copy of the Colette to read for Paris in July; meanwhile, The Unicorn Hunters is on my wishlist thanks to you! Enjoyed your categories too. 🙂
It’s good to know we have at least one or two books in common! I thought the Mitchison and Wyndham were both fascinating, although I didn’t quite manage to love either of them. I’ll look forward to your thoughts on Colette.
Nice overview of your reading year so far, I like the ‘Six books involving a journey‘ category!
Thank you! I’ve never used the journey category before but I found I had six books that fit.
Well done – no repetitions is always the hard bit! Love your categories – six journeys sounds delightfully fun!
Thank you! The journeys were all to different parts of the world as well.
Love your categories! I am also impressed with how many translated books you’ve read. Will have my own Six in Six post up soon! 😊
Thank you. I’ve been trying to read more translated books and am pleased I’ve read enough this year to fill a category.
Oooh I like your categories! Especially “involving a journey” very creative!