Tag: memes

#6Degrees of Separation – A book chain from After Story to Days Without End

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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.

After StoryThis month’s starting book is After Story by Larissa Behrendt. As usual, it’s a book I haven’t read – or even heard of – but I understand it involves the mysterious disappearance of a child, twenty-five years after the disappearance of the protagonist’s sister.

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

The disappearance of a child also forms the basis of End of Summer by Anders de la Motte. Set in Sweden, it was made into a TV series in 2023.

Also set in Sweden are Henning Mankell‘s novels featuring police inspector Kurt Wallander, the first of which was Faceless Killers. The novels were also made into a TV series with the British version starring Kenneth Branagh.

Earlier in Branagh’s career he starred in the TV adaptation of the cycle of novels by Olivia Manning comprising The Balkan Trilogy and The Levant Trilogy. The first book in the series was The Great Fortune.

Branagh’s co-star in that series was Emma Thompson who played the role of Miss Kenton in the film adaptation of The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Ishiguro’s first novel, A Pale View of Hills, won the 1982 Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize, awarded by The Royal Society of Literature for the best regional novel of the year. The prize was later incorporated into the Ondaatje Prize and the winning novel in 2017 was Golden Hill by Francis Spufford.

Golden Hill was also shortlisted for The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction the same year but lost out to Days Without End by Sebastian Barry.

My chain has involved starring roles and prize winners.  Where did your chain take you this month?
#6Degrees of Separation September 2024

#WWWWednesday – 4th September 2024

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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

To Calais, in Ordinary TimeTo Calais, In Ordinary Time by James Meek (Canongate) 

Three journeys. One road.

England, 1348. A gentlewoman is fleeing an odious arranged marriage, a Scottish proctor is returning home to Avignon and a handsome young ploughman in search of adventure is on his way to volunteer with a company of archers. All come together on the road to Calais.

Coming in their direction from across the Channel is the Black Death, the plague that will wipe out half of the population of Northern Europe. As the journey unfolds, overshadowed by the archers’ past misdeeds and clerical warnings of the imminent end of the world, the wayfarers must confront the nature of their loves and desires.

Gabriel's MoonGabriel’s Moon by William Boyd (eARC, Viking via NetGalley)

Gabriel Dax is a young man haunted by the memories of a every night, when sleep finally comes, he dreams about his childhood home in flames. His days are spent on the move as an acclaimed travel writer, capturing the changing landscapes in the grip of the Cold War. When he’s offered the chance to interview a political figure, his ambition leads him unwittingly into a web of duplicities and betrayals.

As Gabriel’s reluctant initiation takes hold, he is drawn deeper into the shadows. Falling under the spell of Faith Green, an enigmatic and ruthless MI6 handler, he becomes ‘her spy’, unable to resist her demands. But amid the peril, paranoia and passion consuming Gabriel’s new covert life, it will be the revelations closer to home that change the rest of his story. . .

Recently finished

A Place Without Pain by Simon Bourke 

What Cathy Will Read Next

Shy CreaturesShy Creatures by Clare Chambers (Wiedenfeld & Nicolson) 

In all failed relationships there is a point that passes unnoticed at the time, which can later be identified as the beginning of the decline. For Helen it was the weekend that the Hidden Man came to Westbury Park.

Croydon, 1964. Helen Hansford is in her thirties and an art therapist in a psychiatric hospital where she has been having a long love affair with a charismatic, married doctor.

One spring afternoon they receive a call about a disturbance from a derelict house not far from Helen’s home. A mute, thirty-seven-year-old man called William Tapping, with a beard down to his waist, has been discovered along with his elderly aunt. It is clear he has been shut up in the house for decades, but when it emerges that William is a talented artist, Helen is determined to discover his story.