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 a short story, The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, which I haven’t read. However, I understand it is set in a small American town where an annual lottery takes place in which every family must participate but no one wants to win.
Another unsettling tale set in a small community is The Wicker Man by Robin Hardy, the book based on the 1975 film of the same name, which involves the search for a missing girl on a remote Scottish island.
In The Missing Girl by Jenny Quintana a woman embarks on a search for her sister who disappeared many years before.
It’s a missing boy who is the focus of The End of Summer by Anders de la Motte in which the boy’s sister, assisted by the police officer who failed to solve the case at the time, tries to discover the truth about her brother’s disappearance after a space of many years.
In The Coral Bride by Roxanne Bouchard, a detective is assigned to the search for a missing fisherwoman after her abandoned lobster trawler is found adrift off the coast of Quebec’s Gaspé Peninsula.
Hermit by S.R. White concerns a man found at the scene of a crime who vanished without reason fifteen years earlier and whose whereabouts during that time are unknown.
Finally, to bring us full circle, Shirley Jackson also wrote a short story entitled The Missing Girl.
My chain has taken me through a series of disappearances. Where did your chain take you?
