It’s the first Saturday of the month which means it’s time for 6 Degrees of Separation.
Here’s how it works: a book is chosen as a starting point by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book.
Kate says: Books can be linked in obvious ways – for example, books by the same authors, from the same era or genre, or books with similar themes or settings. Or, you may choose to link them in more personal or esoteric ways: books you read on the same holiday, books given to you by a particular friend, books that remind you of a particular time in your life, or books you read for an online challenge. Join in by posting your own #6Degrees chain on your blog and adding the link in the comments section of each month’s post. You can also check out links to posts on X using the hashtag #6Degrees.
This month is slightly different because we’re asked to make the starting book our book group’s current pick (or alternatively the book we’re currently reading.) My book club’s pick for September is Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams which I’ve already read but won’t review until after my book club meeting. (Spoiler: I had mixed feelings about it.) Links from each title will take you to my review or the book description on Goodreads.
Careless People is the author’s expose of her experiences working for Facebook and its CEO Mark Zuckenberg, and her increasing concern about its operating methods. A billionaire technology entrepreneur also features in The Seventh Son by Sebastian Faulks, one who plans to stretch the boundaries of ethics. Can’t think what made me come up with that connection…
One of Sebastian Faulks’ most well-known novels is probably Birdsong. Inverting that title takes me to Songbirds by Christy Lefteri. Set in Cyprus, one of the characters is a poacher who hunts the tiny songbirds who make their way to Africa each winter.
In The House of Birds by Morgan McCarthy the walls of a room in an old house are decorated with blue wallpaper covered in exotic birds.
In The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a woman suffering from what we would now recognise as post-natal depression is confined to her bedroom by her husband on the advice of a doctor who has prescribed a period of ‘complete passivity’. The room is decorated with a faded yellow wallpaper whose hypnotic pattern the woman finds strangely repulsive.
Set partly in the 1950s, The Forgotten Letters of Esther Durrant by Kayte Nunn also involves a woman suffering from post-natal depression who is committed to an asylum by her husband, her condition being considered a form of madness. Many years later a cache of letters is discovered.
From forgotten letters to forgotten objects. In Lost Property by Helen Paris, Dot Watson works in Baker Street’s Lost Property office diligently cataloguing the items handed in.
My chain has taken me from a technology company who seemingly couldn’t care less to items lost through carelessness. Where did your chain take you?
What Cathy Read Next... 