#6Degrees of Separation: From Second Place to The Blue

Posted on by whatcathyreadnext
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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 six degrees 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 Twitter using the hashtag #6Degrees.

This month’s starting book is 2021 Booker Prize nominee, Second Place by Rachel Cusk. It’s a book I haven’t read but according to the book description it concerns a woman who invites a famous artist to visit her remote house in the belief that his vision will help her understand the mystery of her life.

Since this sounds like difficult subject matter to match with another book, I’m going to go the obvious route with another book featuring artists – The Narrow Land by Christine Dwyer Hickey. The winner of The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction in 2020, it’s about two boys, Michael and Richie, who meet the artists Jo and Edward Hopper and over the course of one summer forge an unlikely friendship.

Edward Hopper was an acclaimed artist whilst his wife Josephine was overshadowed by her husband’s fame. The theme of women’s artistic talent not being recognized takes me to A Light of Her Own by Carrie Callaghan, in which talented artist Judith is trying to become the first woman admitted to the male-dominated Haarlem painters guild.

A similar struggle takes place in Blackberry & Wild Rose by Sonia Velton in which Esther Thorel dreams of having her designs woven into silk, and of finding some form of emancipation in the process.

In Crimson & Bone by Marina Fiorato, Annie Stride’s life is transformed when she is saved by talented pre-Raphaelite painter, Francis Maybrick Gill. She becomes his muse and the toast of London.  At one point, Annie likens the way she is being ‘remade’ by Francis to a transformation from black and white pen and ink sketch to ‘fully coloured’.

So staying with colour, my next link is to The Optickal Illusion by Rachel Halliburton in which American painter Benjamin West is visited by a dubious father and daughter duo who claim they have the secret that has obsessed painters for centuries: the Venetian techniques of master painter Titian.

Another search for an elusive element is the subject of The Blue by Nancy Bilyeau. Aspiring artist, Genevieve Planché, is offered the opportunity to study in Venice but only if she can learn the secrets of making the finest porcelain and, in particular, the use of the colour blue.

My chain has taken me from artistic revelation to colourful secrets. Where did your chain take you?

23 thoughts on “#6Degrees of Separation: From Second Place to The Blue”

  4. This is an amazing list. I pondered a lot about art-related books, but gave up because nothing came to mind other than Girl with Pearl Earring. Ia ma picking up the books by Halliburton and Velton, but seriously all of these picks seem very well chosen. Thanks!

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  7. Good choices. I tried Narrow Land, but my reading is just not going as well since COVID hit the world. I like the sound of the Benjamin West book–I know him only from Marguerite Henry’s children’s book.

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  8. Great chain, Cathy. I have The Blue on my TBR, but the others are all new to me. I will have to check them out to see what else I might be adding. I like that you selected the artist theme as it is not one I have read much about.

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  9. I don’t know why I didn’t go the art route… I have also read and reviewed A Light of Her Own and The Blue… plus, I have a few others that connect to art and/or artists I could have used… Lovely chain!

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