#6Degrees of Separation – A book chain from Sandwich by Catherine Newman to Talland House by Maggie Humm

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 Sandwich by Catherine Newman set in Cape Cod. It’s a novel I’ve not read or even heard of before now and, based on the description, probably not a book I’m likely to pick up.

Links from each title in the chain will take you to my review or the book description on Goodreads.

Fairly predictably my first link is food-related and something you might use when making a sandwich.  Butter by Asako Yuzuki (translated by Polly Barton) features a female serial killer who is also a gourmet cook. 

Eliza Acton, the main character in The Language of Food by Annabel Abbs, was definitely not a serial killer but was a pioneering cook. She was the author of the first recipe book aimed at domestic readers, Modern Cookery for Private Families. 

Miss Graham’s Cold War Cookbook by Celia Rees also features recipes but this time as a way of communicating coded messages as part of an operation to root out Nazis trying to escape prosecution after the end of WW2.

In Mr Standfast by John Buchan, it’s John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress which is used to decipher coded messages between Richard Hannay and his comrades who have been given the task of tracking down and destroying a network of German spies during WW1.

Hannay’s adventures take him to, amongst other places, the Isle of Skye which is also the setting for To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf.

Talland House in St. Ives, Cornwall is where Virginia Woolf spent many summers as a child and Talland House by Maggie Humm is a historical fiction novel featuring characters from To the Lighthouse.

My chain has taken me from Cape Cod to Cornwall via the Isle of Skye. Where did your chain take you this month?