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.

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 Theory & Practice by Michelle de Kretser. As usual, this is a book I haven’t read! Here’s what it’s about:

In the late 1980s, the narrator of Theory & Practice — a first generation immigrant from Sri Lanka who moved to Sydney in her childhood — sets up a life in Melbourne for graduate school. Jilted by a lover who cheats on her with another self-described “feminist,” she is thrown into deeper confusion about her identity and the people around her.

The narrator begins to fall for a man named Kit, who is in a “deconstructed relationship” with a woman named Olivia. She struggles to square her feminism against her jealousy toward Olivia—and her anti-colonialism against her feelings about Virginia Woolf, whose work she is called to despite her racism.

What happens when our desires run contrary to our beliefs? What should we do when the failings of revered figures come to light? Who is shamed when the truth is told? In Theory & Practice, Michelle de Kretser offers a spellbinding meditation on the moral complexities that arise in this gap. Peopled with brilliantly drawn characters, the novel also stitches together fiction and essay, taking up Woolf’s quest for adventurous literary form.

I’m going to use an immigrant from Sri Lanka as my first link. The Swimmer by Roma Tearne (1) begins with Ria, a woman in her forties, discovering a young man swimming in the river behind her house in Suffolk. His name is Ben and he’s a Tamil refugee who has fled violence in Sri Lanka and made his way to England. I enjoyed watching Ria and Ben’s relationship develop until a sudden change of narrator sent the story in a different direction.

Staying with the theme of swimming, Wonder Girls by Catherine Johnson (2) is set in 1928 and tells the story of Ida Gaze, who at the age of sixteen sets out to become the first person ever to swim the Bristol Channel between Wales and England. Although it’s a fictional story, it’s still a very inspirational one!

Another book with ‘wonder’ in the title is The Wonder by Emma Donoghue (3), a dark but fascinating novel about an eleven-year-old girl in 19th century Ireland whose parents claim she has eaten nothing at all for four months. To prove whether the girl really is a miracle or whether it’s a hoax, a nurse, Lib Wright, is hired to watch over her and see if the claims are true. Lib has been serving in the Crimean War and was trained by Florence Nightingale, which leads me to the next book in my chain…

The Nightingale Girls by Donna Douglas (4) is the first in a series about a group of student nurses at London’s Nightingale Hospital in the 1930s. I enjoyed meeting the three main characters and stated in my review that I was looking forward to the rest of the series – well, that was twelve years ago and I still haven’t picked up any of the others!

Nightingale is the name of the author of the next book in my chain. Murder in Tinseltown by Max Nightingale (5) sounded fun, but was a disappointment. It’s an interactive ‘choose your own adventure’ style book, where you play the role of a detective investigating a murder and at various points in the story you choose what happens next by turning to different pages. A good idea, but it needed a lot more editing, unfortunately.

A book starting with the same two words in the title is Murder in the Crooked House by Soji Shimada (6). This is one of several Japanese crime novels I’ve read over the last few years, but not one of my favourites as I found the mystery far too convoluted and too concerned with alibis, timings, room layouts and other little details rather than the characters and their motives. It was originally published in 1982 but I read a reissue in an English translation by Louise Heal Kawai.

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And that’s my chain for July. My links have included: Sri Lanka, swimming, the word ‘wonder’, Florence Nightingale, the name Nightingale and titles beginning with ‘Murder in’.

In August we’ll be starting with The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden. I have that book on my TBR – I wonder if I’ll be able to read it before August!