Tag: memes

#6Degrees 6 Degrees of Separation: From Beezus and Ramona to The Final Revival of Opal & Nev

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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 Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary.

I haven’t read the book (and hadn’t even heard of it before this) but I gather from the blurb that it features nine-year-old Beezus Quimby who has her hands full with her little sister, Ramona. Another character who has her hands full with her sister is Korede, the narrator of My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite.

My Sister, The Serial Killer was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2019. Also on the shortlist that year was Circe by Madeline Miller. The book is a retelling of the legend in which Circe is banished by the god Zeus to a deserted island.

Another book which involves the exile of an individual to a remote island is An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris. In this case, the exile is Alfred Dreyfus, a young Jewish officer, convicted of treason and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil’s Island.

An Officer and a Spy was the winner of the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction in 2014. The most recent winner of the prize was The Narrow Land by Christine Dwyer Hickey which features the artist Edward Hopper and his wife, Josephine.

Edward Hopper has a walk-on part in Artist, Soldier, Lover, Muse by Arthur D. Hittner which transports the reader to the art world of New York in the 1930s.

Staying in New York but fast forwarding forty years, The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton is set in the New York City’s lively music scene.

My chain this month has comprised sisterhood, exile and the creative muse. Where did your chain take you?

#WWWWednesday – 28th April 2021

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WWWWednesdays

Hosted by Taking on a World of Words, this meme is all about the three Ws:

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What did you recently finish reading?
  • What do you think you’ll read next?

Why not join in too?  Leave a comment with your link at Taking on a World of Words and then go blog hopping!

Currently reading

The Heretics MarkThe Heretic’s Mark by by S.W. Perry (review copy, courtesy of Corvus and Readers First)

The Elizabethan world is in flux. Radical new ideas are challenging the old. But the quest for knowledge can lead down dangerous paths…

London, 1594. The Queen’s physician has been executed for treason, and conspiracy theories flood the streets. When Nicholas Shelby, unorthodox physician and unwilling associate of spymaster Robert Cecil, is accused of being part of the plot, he and his new wife Bianca must flee for their lives.

With agents of the Crown on their tail, they make for Padua, following the ancient pilgrimage route, the Via Francigena. But the pursuing English aren’t the only threat Nicholas and Bianca face. Hella, a strange and fervently religious young woman, has joined them on their journey. When the trio finally reach relative safety, they become embroiled in a radical and dangerous scheme to shatter the old world’s limits of knowledge. But Hella’s dire predictions of an impending apocalypse, and the brutal murder of a friend of Bianca’s forces them to wonder: who is this troublingly pious woman? And what does she want?

My Sister, the Serial KillerMy Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite (review copy, courtesy of Atlantic Books and Readers First)

When Korede’s dinner is interrupted one night by a distress call from her sister, Ayoola, she knows what’s expected of her: bleach, rubber gloves, nerves of steel and a strong stomach. This’ll be the third boyfriend Ayoola’s dispatched in, quote, self-defence and the third mess that her lethal little sibling has left Korede to clear away. She should probably go to the police for the good of the menfolk of Nigeria, but she loves her sister and, as they say, family always comes first. Until, that is, Ayoola starts dating the doctor where Korede works as a nurse. Korede’s long been in love with him, and isn’t prepared to see him wind up with a knife in his back: but to save one would mean sacrificing the other…

AriadneAriadne by Jennifer Saint (eARC, courtesy of Wildfire and Random Things Tours)

As Princesses of Crete and daughters of the fearsome King Minos, Ariadne and her sister Phaedra grow up hearing the hoofbeats and bellows of the Minotaur echo from the Labyrinth beneath the palace. The Minotaur – Minos’s greatest shame and Ariadne’s brother – demands blood every year.

When Theseus, Prince of Athens, arrives in Crete as a sacrifice to the beast, Ariadne falls in love with him. But helping Theseus kill the monster means betraying her family and country, and Ariadne knows only too well that in a world ruled by mercurial gods – drawing their attention can cost you everything.

In a world where women are nothing more than the pawns of powerful men, will Ariadne’s decision to betray Crete for Theseus ensure her happy ending? Or will she find herself sacrificed for her lover’s ambition? Ariadne gives a voice to the forgotten women of one of the most famous Greek myths, and speaks to their strength in the face of angry, petulant Gods.

Recently finished

Links from the titles will take you to my review.

Skelton’s Guide to Suitcase Murders (Arthur Skelton #2) by David Stafford 

Beyond This Broken Sky by Siobhan Curham

The Ice House by Laura Lee Smith

Charity by Madeline Dewhurst

To The Fair Land by Lucienne Boyce 

What Cathy (will) Read Next

A Room Made of Leaves audioA Room Made of Leaves by Kate Grenville (audiobook)

It is 1788. Twenty-one-year-old Elizabeth is hungry for life but, as the ward of a Devon clergyman, knows she has few prospects. When proud, scarred soldier John Macarthur promises her the earth one midsummer’s night, she believes him.

But Elizabeth soon realises she has made a terrible mistake. Her new husband is reckless, tormented, driven by some dark rage at the world. He tells her he is to take up a position as lieutenant in a New South Wales penal colony and she has no choice but to go. Sailing for six months to the far side of the globe with a child growing inside her, she arrives to find Sydney Town a brutal, dusty, hungry place of makeshift shelters, failing crops, scheming and rumours.

All her life she has learned to be obliging, to fold herself up small. Now, in the vast landscapes of an unknown continent, Elizabeth has to discover a strength she never imagined and passions she could never express.

Inspired by the real life of a remarkable woman, this is an extraordinarily rich, beautifully wrought novel of resilience, courage and the mystery of human desire.