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 2024 winner of the International Booker Prize, Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck (translated by Michael Hofmann). I haven’t read it, but here’s what it’s about:

Berlin. 11 July 1986. They meet by chance on a bus. She is a young student, he is older and married. Theirs is an intense and sudden attraction, fuelled by a shared passion for music and art, and heightened by the secrecy they must maintain. But when she strays for a single night he cannot forgive her and a dangerous crack forms between them, opening up a space for cruelty, punishment and the exertion of power. And the world around them is changing too: as the GDR begins to crumble, so too do all the old certainties and the old loyalties, ushering in a new era whose great gains also involve profound loss.

From a prize-winning German writer, this is the intimate and devastating story of the path of two lovers through the ruins of a relationship, set against the backdrop of a seismic period in European history.

I struggled to get started with this month’s chain. I know I have already used Berlin as a link in several previous chains, so I wanted to do something different. Eventually I decided to go with another book with a one-word title beginning with K: Kindred by Octavia E. Butler (1). This is a fascinating novel exploring slavery on a Maryland plantation through the eyes of a woman from 1976 who travels back in time to the 1800s.

Another time travel novel, also with a one-word title, is Mariana by Susanna Kearsley (2), although the setting is quite different. Our heroine, Julia Beckett, moves into a lonely farmhouse and finds that her life has become linked with the life of a woman who lived there centuries earlier, during the aftermath of the English Civil War. This was one of my first Susanna Kearsley novels and still a favourite.

Staying with women’s names, my next link is to Theodora by Stella Duffy (3). This novel is set in 6th century Constantinople and tells the story of Empress Theodora, wife of Justinian I. Theodora begins life as an actress and entertainer, before rising to become one of the most powerful women in the Byzantine Empire.

Booth by Karen Joy Fowler (4) also has a theatrical theme (and another one-word title). I loved this fictional biography of the 19th century theatrical family, the Booths, which focuses not just on the infamous John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of Abraham Lincoln, but also on his parents, brothers and sisters.

Junius Brutus Booth and Edwin Booth were renowned Shakespearean actors, which leads me to a play by William Shakespeare himself: Macbeth (5). I could have picked any play here, but my reasons for selecting Macbeth are simple – it’s one of the few Shakespeare plays I’ve actually posted about on my blog and, most importantly, it has a one-word title which keeps that theme going throughout my chain!

The three witches in Macbeth are referred to as the ‘weyward sisters’ in Shakespeare’s First Folio (and later, the ‘weird sisters’) so my final link is to Weyward by Emilia Hart (6). In this novel, Hart explores the stories of women from three generations of the same family who are connected through witchcraft and the power of nature.

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And that’s my chain for July! My links have included titles beginning with K, time travel, women’s names, acting, Shakespeare and witches. As an extra challenge to myself I only used books with one-word titles in this month’s chain.

In August we’ll be starting with The Museum of Modern Love by Heather Rose.

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 a Japanese novel, Butter by Asako Yuzuki. I haven’t read it and probably won’t, but here’s what it’s about:

Gourmet cook Manako Kajii sits in Tokyo Detention Centre convicted of the serial murders of lonely businessmen, who she is said to have seduced with her delicious home cooking. The case has captured the nation’s imagination but Kajii refuses to speak with the press, entertaining no visitors. That is, until journalist Rika Machida writes a letter asking for her recipe for beef stew and Kajii can’t resist writing back.

Rika, the only woman in her news office, works late each night, rarely cooking more than ramen. As the visits unfold between her and the steely Kajii, they are closer to a masterclass in food than journalistic research. Rika hopes this gastronomic exchange will help her soften Kajii but it seems that she might be the one changing. With each meal she eats, something is awakening in her body, might she and Kaji have more in common than she once thought?

Inspired by the real case of the convicted con woman and serial killer, “The Konkatsu Killer”, Asako Yuzuki’s Butter is a vivid, unsettling exploration of misogyny, obsession, romance and the transgressive pleasures of food in Japan.

Butter is a dairy product, which makes me think of Nick Davenant, a character in Bee Ridgway’s The River of No Return (1) who owns a dairy farm in Vermont and is anxiously awaiting a visit from the cheese inspector at the beginning of the book. Nick is not just a dairy farmer, however – he is also a time traveller and was once an English nobleman who fought in the Napoleonic Wars. I think this book was intended to be the first in a series, but a sequel has never appeared.

Next is a simple link to another book with ‘river’ in the title: River of Stars by Guy Gavriel Kay (2). This novel is set in an alternate world based on China during the time of the Song Dynasty. Although Kay’s books are often described as historical fantasy, there are very few actual fantasy elements in this one, apart from some mentions of the spirits and fox-women who are part of Chinese myth.

Fox spirits also feature heavily in The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo (3), set in Manchuria in 1908. The novel follows the dual stories of an elderly private detective investigating a suspicious death and a white fox spirit who has taken the form of a human woman while she searches for the man who killed her daughter. I found this book very slow, but enjoyed the details of Chinese myth and foklore.

The title character in the Yangsze Choo novel is called Snow, so my next book is one in which snow features heavily in the plot: The Sittaford Mystery by Agatha Christie (4). The village of Sittaford is cut off by snow, making it the perfect setting for a murder mystery to unfold. This is a wonderful standalone Christie novel and I loved the heroine, Emily Trefusis.

Like my edition of The Sittaford Mystery, Benighted by J.B. Priestley (5) also has a picture of a house on the cover. A married couple and their friend get caught in a storm while driving through the Welsh countryside one night and take shelter in a crumbling old mansion inhabited by a very strange family! This was my first book by Priestley and I’m sure I’ll be looking for another one.

Benighted was published in 1927, so the final book in my chain is another published in that same year. The Land of Green Ginger by Winifred Holtby (6) is about a missionary’s daughter who is born in South Africa but comes to England to be raised by her aunts in a small rural community in Yorkshire. I’ve read nearly all of Holtby’s novels now and this is probably my least favourite, but it still explores some interesting topics.

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And that’s my chain for June! My links have included: Dairy products, the word ‘river’, fox-women, snow, pictures of houses and the year 1927.

In July we’ll be starting with Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck.

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 are starting with The Anniversary by Stephanie Bishop. It’s not a book I’ve read – or had even heard of until now – but here’s what it’s about:

Novelist J.B. Blackwood is on a cruise with her husband, Patrick, to celebrate their wedding anniversary.

Patrick is older than J.B., formerly her professor. But now his success is starting to wane and hers may overshadow his.

For days they sail in the sun. They lie about drinking, reading, sleeping, having sex. There is nothing but dark water all around them.

Then a storm hits, and Patrick falls off the ship. J.B. is left alone, as the search for what happened to Patrick – and the truth about their marriage – begins.

With a stay-up-all-night plot and breathtaking prose, this is the haunting and unforgettable story of a marriage and a death.

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I’m using the idea of ‘falling off the ship’ as my first link. Someone else who was swept overboard on a cruise is Nona Ranskill in Miss Ranskill Comes Home by Barbara Euphan Todd (1). Stranded on a desert island just before the start of World War II, Miss Ranskill is rescued after almost four years and returns to England to find that war has broken out in her absence and life has changed almost beyond recognition. I loved this book; it was one of the first books published by Persephone that I read and still one of my favourites.

Another novel set on an island is Haven by Emma Donoghue (2). In 7th century Ireland, three monks set out on a pilgrimage to look for an isolated place to build a monastery. Their search takes them to the steep, rocky island of Skellig Michael, uninhabited except for thousands of birds. The novel follows the monks as they try to establish their new settlement and prepare for a life of seclusion. It’s more interesting than it sounds, although I’ve preferred other books by Donoghue.

A pilgrimage of a very different sort takes place in Jerome K. Jerome’s Diary of a Pilgrimage (3). First published in 1891, the Diary is narrated by J, an Englishman who travels to Germany with a friend to see the famous Passion Play at Oberammergau. Although it’s not as funny as Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat, it is written in a similar style, with J sharing amusing anecdotes about the things he experiences and people he meets during the journey.

Staying with books set in Germany, my next link is to Nightmare in Berlin by Hans Fallada (4). Despite the title, there’s no connection to Fallada’s more famous book, Alone in Berlin, and this is a completely separate novel, following the story of Dr Doll and his wife Alma in post-war Berlin. Apparently the book is very autobiographical, as Fallada himself, like Dr Doll in the novel, was appointed mayor of a small rural town after the war and later struggles with a serious morphine addiction. I read a translation by Allan Blunden from 2016 (the first time the book was made available in English).

Nightmares are bad dreams and the title of my next book is the opposite – Dreams of Joy by Lisa See (5). Set in the 1950s, this is the sequel to See’s Shanghai Girls and follows nineteen-year-old Joy Louie as she leaves her home in Los Angeles to travel to Shanghai, full of enthusiasm for Chairman Mao’s new communist China. As you can imagine, the story isn’t very joyful at all and Joy eventually begins to learn that the new regime isn’t as wonderful as she hoped.

Another book about Communist China, a non-fiction one this time, finishes my chain. It’s Wild Swans (6), Jung Chang’s autobiography, telling the stories of her grandmother, mother and finally herself and taking us on a journey through the history of 20th century China. I found this book fascinating and was able to learn a lot from it; it’s also one of the most gripping non-fiction books I’ve ever read.

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And that’s my chain for May! My links have included: falling overboard, islands, pilgrimages, books set in Germany, good and bad dreams and Communist China.

In June we’ll be starting with Butter by Asako Yuzuki.

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 were told we could begin with any travel guide of our choice. Coincidentally, I have just begun reading Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, Rebecca West’s 1941 travel book about her journey through the former Yugoslavia. I’ve wanted to read this for years and have been put off by the length, but I’ve finally decided to just plunge in.

Rebecca West’s epic masterpiece not only provides deep insight into the former country of Yugoslavia; it is a portrait of Europe on the brink of war. A heady cocktail of personal travelogue and historical insight, this product of an implacably inquisitive intelligence remains essential for anyone attempting to understand the history of the Balkan states, and the wider ongoing implications for a fractured Europe.

Girl at War by Sara Nović (1) is set in Croatia in 1991, during the breakup of Yugoslavia. As the country descends into war, we see events unfold through the eyes of a ten-year-old girl. I found this a very moving and emotional novel and enjoyed reading it during a trip to Dubrovnik.

A book with a shared word in the title is War Horse by Michael Morpurgo (2). It’s a children’s book, but can also be appreciated by adults; I read it in preparation for going to see the Steven Spielberg film version in 2012. The story is narrated by Joey, a young horse who serves in the cavalry on the battlefields of World War I.

Lean on Pete by Willy Vlautin (3) is also a book about a horse. It’s the story of fifteen-year-old Charley, who gets a job at the Portland Meadows race track in Oregon and forms a close bond with the racehorse, Lean on Pete.
As well as being an author, Vlautin is currently the guitarist and vocalist with the American country soul band The Delines.

Another author who is also a musician is Mat Osman, the bassist in the band Suede (and brother of author and TV presenter Richard Osman). I have read his second novel, The Ghost Theatre (4), which is set in an alternate history version of Elizabethan London, where one of our protagonists belongs to a community of bird-worshippers known as Aviscultans.

Birds provide the link to my next book, The Bird King by G Willow Wilson (5), in which a mapmaker accused of sorcery and the ability to draw magical maps flees across 15th century Spain in search of the legendary island of Qaf, said to be the home of the King of the Birds. I found this a very unusual novel, combining history, myth and fantasy.

In Kim Fay’s novel, The Map of Lost Memories (6), a woman dreams of making an important historical discovery and establishing her own museum. Setting off on an expedition to Cambodia, she begins a search for ten lost copper scrolls recording the history of the Khmer people. I think this is possibly the only book I’ve read set in Cambodia!

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And that’s my chain for April. My links have included: books set in the former Yugoslavia, books with war in the title, horses, authors who are musicians, birds and maps. Staying with the ‘travel’ theme, my chain this month has taken me to Croatia, France, USA, England, Spain and Cambodia.

In May we’ll be starting with a novel longlisted for the 2024 Stella Prize – The Anniversary by Stephanie Bishop.