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 Ghost Cities by Siang Lu. It’s not a book that I’ve read, but here’s what it’s about:

Ghost Cities – inspired by the vacant, uninhabited megacities of China – follows multiple narratives, including one in which a young man named Xiang is fired from his job as a translator at Sydney’s Chinese Consulate after it is discovered he doesn’t speak a word of Chinese and has been relying entirely on Google Translate for his work.

How is his relocation to one such ghost city connected to a parallel odyssey in which an ancient Emperor creates a thousand doubles of Himself? Or where a horny mountain gains sentience? Where a chess-playing automaton hides a deadly secret? Or a tale in which every book in the known Empire is destroyed – then re-created, page by page and book by book, all in the name of love and art?

I had trouble thinking of a first link this month, so I’ve just gone for something very obvious – another novel about China! Edward Rutherfurd’s China (1) tells the story of 19th century China, covering key events such as the Opium Wars and the Boxer Rebellion through the lives of several fictional families.

The word ‘China’ also appears in the title of Bone China by Laura Purcell (2), but this time it refers not to the country but the type of porcelain. This is a Gothic novel set in the 19th century on the coast of Cornwall where our narrator has taken a new position as nurse to Louise Pinecroft, a woman who spends her days sitting silently in a room surrounded by china cups and plates. This book was published in the US as The House of Whispers, just in case there’s any confusion!

One of the characters in Bone China is a doctor who is carrying out research into consumption (tuberculosis). The Victorian Chaise-longue (3), an unsettling novella by Marghanita Laski, features a young woman recovering from tuberculosis in 1950s London. Falling asleep on a chaise-longue in the drawing room, she wakes up to find herself in the year 1864.

Staying with a furniture theme, my next book is The Poison Bed by Elizabeth Fremantle (4). This is a fictional account of the real-life Thomas Overbury murder case, a poisoning which took place in the early 17th century and implicated Robert Carr, a favourite of King James VI and I, and his wife, Frances Howard.

Cyanide is a type of poison, so my next link leads me to Sparkling Cyanide by Agatha Christie (5), in which a beautiful heiress is poisoned while celebrating her birthday in a restaurant. No Poirot or Miss Marple in this one, but it does feature one of Christie’s other recurring characters, Colonel Race.

I looked for another book I’d read with a glass on the cover but struggled to find one, so I’m linking to one with teacups on the cover instead. Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson (6) is a lovely book about the relationship between a retired British Army officer and a widowed Pakistani woman.

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And that’s my chain for September! My links included: Books about China, the word ‘China’, tuberculosis, furniture, poison and pictures of drinks.

In October we’ll be starting with I Want Everything by Dominic Amerena.

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 Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden. I haven’t read it yet but do have a copy and am hoping to read it soon. Here’s what it’s about:

It is fifteen years after the Second World War, and Isabel has built herself a solitary life of discipline and strict routine in her late mother’s country home, with not a fork or a word out of place. But all is upended when her brother Louis delivers his graceless new girlfriend, Eva, at Isabel’s doorstep – as a guest, there to stay for the season…

In the sweltering heat of summer, Isabel’s desperate need for control reaches boiling point. What happens between the two women leads to a revelation which threatens to unravel all she has ever known.

I’ve read a lot of books about the war so it would have been easy to go down that route, but I was drawn to the phrase ‘the sweltering heat of summer’ so decided to use that as my first link instead. The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis (1), about five young women who don’t fit in with their small community in 18th century England, is a book I read recently that is also set during a hot summer. It’s so hot that the river starts to dry up, affecting the trade of Pete Darling, the ferryman, who takes out his frustration on the girls, claiming he has seen them turn into dogs.

Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield (2) follows the story of a child rescued from a river on the evening of the winter solstice in 1887. The legend of Quietly, a ghostly ferryman said to guide those in danger on the river to safety, plays an important part in the novel.

The name ‘Quietly’ leads me to The Quiet Gentleman by Georgette Heyer (3). I loved this one – it’s one of Heyer’s Regency novels but has a strong mystery element (involving a series of accidents that befall Gervase Frant, 7th Earl of St Erth) as well as a romance. I wish we saw more of the heroine, though!

The Temporary Gentleman by Sebastian Barry (4) is another book with ‘gentleman’ in the title. Barry’s novels are always beautifully written and this one is no exception. It’s set in 1950s Ghana, where Jack McNulty is writing his memoirs, looking back on his early life in Ireland and his difficult relationship with his wife.

I don’t seem to have reviewed any other books by authors with the name Sebastian, but I did find one by a Seb: The Light Ages by Seb Falk (5). This is a non-fiction book in which Falk looks at some of the advances in science, mathematics and astronomy during the medieval period and tries to dispel the idea that the Dark Ages were a time of little progress.

A similar title and a shared theme of astronomy brings me to the final book in my chain: Enlightenment by Sarah Perry (6). Perry’s novel explores the relationship between two members of a Strict Baptist community in Essex, tied together through the story of a 19th century female astronomer, Maria Vǎduva, whose ghost is said to haunt a local manor.

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And that’s my chain for August! My links have included: hot summers, ferrymen, the word ‘quiet’, the word ‘gentleman’, Sebs and Sebastians, and astronomy.

Next month we’ll be starting with Ghost Cities by Siang Lu.