whatcathyreadnext

It’s the first Saturday of the month so 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 Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. It’s a book I haven’t read but I know it’s a much-loved classic about a little boy called Max who puts on a wolf suit and has a series of imagined adventures.

It made me think of another children’s book that features wolves, The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken. As well as being a prolific author of books for children, Joan Aiken also wrote The Haunting of Lamb House, a ghostly re-imagining of events in the house in the Kent village of Rye where Henry James lived for a time. It was also there that he wrote The Turn of the Screw.

The 1961 film version of The Turn of the Screw, released under the title The Innocents, starred Deborah Kerr as the governess to two children who becomes convinced the house and grounds are haunted. Deborah Kerr also starred in the 1955 film adaptation of Graham Greene’s The End of the Affair. Set during and shortly after the Second World War, it tells of the affair between a man and his friend’s wife.

Also set partly during the Second World War is Michael Ondaatje’s latest novel, Warlight, which was shortlisted for this year’s Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction (although it lost out to The Long Take by Robin Robertson). The ‘warlight’ of the title refers to the years when blackouts and curfews were in effect. This takes me to my final link – The Great Darkness by Jim Kelly. It’s a historical crime mystery set in Cambridge in the opening weeks of the Second World War, when the first blackout – the great darkness of the title – covers southern England.

So for this month’s Six Degrees we’ve travelled from dreams of wild things to very real dangers under cover of darkness.

Excitingly, next month (3rd August 2019), is a wild card – start with the book you’ve ended this month’s chain with (or for those playing for the first time, start with the last book you finished reading).

My5FavouriteJuneReads

I read eleven books in June including one five-star read and several that came close. You can find details of my five favourite of the books I read last month below. Click on the book title to view the book description on Goodreads.

You can keep up to date with all my reading in 2019 here with links to my reviews. If we’re not already friends on Goodreads, send me a friend request or follow my reviews.

My first choice is historical novel Fled by Meg Keneally. Based on a true story, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and thought Jenny (and her real life counterpart, Mary Bryant) a remarkable character brought convincingly to life by the author. Read my full review here.

Next up is The Playground Murders by Lesley Thomson. Although the seventh in the author’s ‘The Detective’s Daughter’ series, it’s the first of the books I’ve read. That didn’t stop me enjoying this compelling crime mystery that switches back and forth in time from the present day to 1980, the location of the murder of the title. You can read my full review here.

My next choice is non-fiction – Monopoli Blues by Tim Clark & Nick Cook. It’s the remarkable story of Tim Clark’s search for the story of his parents’ wartime service in the SOE. I described it as ‘a touching portrait of a loving relationship, a compelling account of wartime bravery and a fitting commemoration of…perfectly ordinary people who did extraordinary things’ but you can read my full review here.

Back to crime now but historical crime. I loved S.W. Perry’s first book, The Angel’s Mark, and I’m happy to say I enjoyed its sequel, The Serpent’s Mark, just as much. Set in Elizabethan London, its intriguing premise and the twists and turns of the plot kept me turning the pages right to the end. You can read my full review here.

My final choice is a psychological thriller with a distinctly literary feel – The Body Lies by Jo Baker – in which life starts to imitate art in an unsettling way for the main character. Read my full review here.