Category: Reviews

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 Friendaholic by Elizabeth Day. Subtitled ‘Confessions of a Friendship Addict’, it’s a book I’ve not heard of let alone read but from the blurb I understand it’s an exploration of the significance and evolution of friendships. The author reveals that growing up she was determined to be a ‘Good Friend’.

So on the topic of friendship, my first link is to Girl Friends by Alex Dahl, which will be published on 6th July 2023. In the book, Charlotte invites her new found friend, Bianka, on her annual girl’s trip to Ibiza but things don’t go exactly as planned.

Thea and Denise by Caroline Bond sees two women embark on a road trip but this time it’s around Britain. Both women have different reasons for wanting to escape but Denise’s is discontent with her marriage to Simon who seems to want a wife who will fulfil the role of housekeeper and administrator rather than life companion or lover.

The Letter Reader by Jan Casey features an equally unhappy marriage. It’s 1967 and Connie’s husband, Arthur, controls every aspect of her life insisting the household operate to a strict routine. Connie had an important role during WW2 as a postal censor and, as part of her attempt at freedom, she embarks on a search to find out what happened to some of those whose correspondence she read.

Correspondence is also the subject of The Lost Letters of William Woolf by Helen Cullen. William works as a letter detective in the Dead Letters Depot in East London spending his days trying to reunite letters and packages with their intended recipients.

Another William – William Somerset Maugham – is the subject of The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng. During a two week visit to Penang in 1921, Willie (as he is known) finds inspiration for a new collection of stories in the revelations of his hostess, Lesley. He is accompanied by Gerald, nominally his secretary but in reality his lover as their relationship must remain secret.

Set at the end of the nineteenth century, in The New Life by Tom Crewe, the co-authors of a book aimed at challenging convention and the law surrounding homosexuality each have relationships they wish to keep secret. Married man, John Addington is in a relationship with Frank, a working-class printer who is nominally his assistant, and Henry Ellis’s wife Edith has fallen in love with a woman.

My chain has taken me from public friendships to clandestine relationships. Where did your chain take you?