Six Degrees of Separation: From The Post-Office Girl to Going Postal

The Six Degrees of Separation meme is hosted by Kate at booksaremyfavoriteandbest. The idea behind the meme is to start with a book and use common points between two books to end up with links to six books, forming a chain. The common points may be obvious, like a word in the title or a shared theme, or more personal. Every month Kate provides the title of a book as the starting point.

The starting book this month is The Post-Office Girl by Stefan Zwieg. The book was published posthumously in 1982. Christine works in a post-office in Austria in 1926. Her mother is ill and they have little money. Christine has the opportunity to live with her aunt for a while and see how the rich live, then she has to return to the poverty of her previous life. I gathered all this from various reviews or summaries I read; I hope my description is reasonably accurate. 

1st degree:

My first link is to Rest in Pieces by Rita Mae Brown. The heroine of that book, Mary Minor Haristeen (nicknamed "Harry"), is the postmistress of the small town of Crozet, Virginia. She owns a farm, with horses, and has a grey tiger cat and a Welsh Corgi. Many of the residents of Crozet and the surrounding area are odd and quirky to say the least. In Crozet, everyone knows everyone and there is a lot of gossip.

The animals have a role in the story. They do not detect, but they do try to attract Harry's attention to clues, etc. They interact with other animals: Simon, the opossum; a barn owl; and Pewter, a neighbor's cat. The animals talk among themselves. At first I found that silly and distracting, but after a while, their conversations sounded much more intelligent that the humans.

2nd degree:

For my second link, I am sticking to the postal theme. My husband found this book for me: Lark Rise to Candleford by Flora Thompson. I found the best description of this book at Old Paper and Cats. S. Hargrave, who writes the posts on that blog, describes it as: "a trilogy of novels written by Flora Thompson about growing up in a remote English hamlet called Lark Rise and, later, her years working in a post office in the village of Candleford Green. These novels aren’t exactly ‘novels’ per se, in the sense that they are not traditionally structured narratives. Instead, they are more of a collection of stories about rural life in the later nineteenth century."

There are three short books in the series: Lark Rise (1939), Over to Candleford (1941), and Candleford Green (1943). Only the last book in the series covers the time that the main character was an assistant at the post office.

3rd degree:

I am staying with the mail theme, but moving on to those who deliver the mail. My next link is to Mailman: My Wild Ride Delivering the Mail in Appalachia and Finally Finding Home by Stephen Starring Grant.  In Mailman, Grant has written a memoir about delivering mail in Appalachia, after losing his job for a consulting firm. He moved back to his hometown of Blackburg, VA and got a job as a rural mail carrier because he needed to have health care and support his family. This major change in his life took place in the first few months of Covid. My husband read this book and enjoyed it a lot; the writing was good and the author comes across as a mellow person. I want to read Mailman later this year.

4th degree:

Another book about a letter carrier is The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman by Denis Thériault, a Canadian author. The setting is Montreal.  

This description is in my Kindle edition:

Secretly steaming open envelopes and reading the letters inside, Bilodo has found an escape from his lonely and routine life as a postman. When one day he comes across a mysterious letter containing a single haiku, he finds himself avidly caught up in the relationship between a long-distance couple who write to each other using only beautiful poetry. He feasts on their words, vicariously living a life for which he longs. But it will only be a matter of time before his world comes crashing down around him.

This book sounds appealing and in the Kindle edition it is only 106 pages long.

5th degree:

My next link will be to another book with postman in the title: The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain. The book is a classic noir mystery and also very brief, only 120 pages long in this edition. James M. Cain is a well known author of noir fiction; this was his first novel. I did not really enjoy reading this book (too noir, too grim, too gritty), but it is very well written, with good pacing. The last 30 pages was the best part and pulled the book together without going for an unrealistic "happy" ending. But what does it have to do with the postal service? Nothing. The title is symbolic and there have been many conflicting explanations for why it was used.

6th degree:

My last link is very definitely about the postal system, but it is a postal system set in a fantasy world. Going Postal is the 33rd book in the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. Most of the books in the series are humorous and satirical. The main character in this book is Moist von Lipwig, a swindler and a con man, who has been sentenced to hang for his offenses. But he has been given the alternative option to take over the ailing postal service of Ankh-Morpork, Discworld's city-state. Thus Moist von Lipwig accepts the position of Postmaster. He is also assigned a golem watchdog to keep him in line. It sounds like fun to me and I have a copy on my shelves.

My Six Degrees took me from the state of Virginia in the USA to the fictional fantasy world of the Discworld Series. Along the way I also stopped in Canada and the UK. Have you read any of these books? 

If you did this month's Six Degrees, where did your list take you?

The next Six Degrees will be on July 4, 2026, and the starting book will be Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke.

Six Degrees of Separation: From Wild Dark Shore to Where'd You Go, Bernadette?

 

The Six Degrees of Separation meme is hosted by Kate at booksaremyfavoriteandbest. The idea behind the meme is to start with a book and use common points between two books to end up with links to six books, forming a chain. The common points may be obvious, like a word in the title or a shared theme, or more personal. Every month Kate provides the title of a book as the starting point.

The starting book this month is Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy. This is a brief description at Goodreads: 

Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny weather-lashed island that is home to the world's largest seed bank. As Shearwater risks being lost to rising sea levels, the island's researchers have fled, and only the Salts remain. Until, during the worst storm in living memory, a stranger washes ashore.

What this description does not mention is that Shearwater is an island off Antarctica. I haven't read this book yet but I am fairly sure that either my husband or I will get a copy this year. I am a sucker for any novel set in or near Antarctica.

1st degree:

My first link is to another book by Charlotte McConaghy, Migrations. I have a copy of Migrations and plan to read it this year. This dystopian book is about a woman whose goal is to go to Greenland, then follow the Arctic terns on what will possibly be their final migration to Antarctica.

2nd degree:

Next I link to Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, using the author's first name, Charlotte. This book, published in 1847, is on my Classics List. I want to read this book soon, definitely in 2026.

3rd degree:

For this link, I am using the last name of the previous author, Brontë. In the last couple of years, I have read good reviews of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, written by Anne Brontë, sister of Charlotte, and published in 1848. Before that, I wasn't interested in the book because of its length. Now I am also interested in this book because it is categorized as an epistolary novel. The author uses letters and diary entries to create the structure of the story.

4th degree:

From here on, my Six Degrees chain will consist of epistolary novels. The fourth book is Dracula by Bram Stoker, published in 1897. For years I avoided reading Dracula, but many people, including my husband, told me that it is a very good read, and they were all right. The story is told through letters and diary entries and I enjoyed that format. It was much more accessible than I expected, although parts of it were challenging to read. This book is on my Classics List but I still haven't reviewed it.

5th degree:

Continuing with the epistolary theme, my next book is The Miernik Dossier, by Charles McCarry,  published in 1973. This was the first novel by McCarry and it is the first book in the Paul Christopher series. When it was published, this book was praised by Eric Ambler ("The most intelligent and enthralling piece of work I have read for a very long time."), among others. It is not my favorite in the series, but it is certainly a unique and entertaining novel.

The story is told entirely through documents, including but not limited to transcripts of conversations and diary entries. With this story-telling device, McCarry tells the story through five different characters. In this novel, Paul Christopher is not as much the focus as in later books.

6th degree:

Where'd You Go, Bernadette (2012) by Maria Semple connects to the previous books because the story is told entirely through a compiled collection of documents—emails, letters, faxes, police reports, and interoffice memos. It also connects back to the first book because the family is planning a trip to Antarctica. 

Bernadette Fox and Elgin Branch have promised their daughter a trip to Antarctica if she makes excellent grades. She succeeds, but unfortunately Bernadette get so mired down in the preparations that everything falls to pieces in their already precarious marriage. This is a real mishmash of a book, and there were many times that I was totally lost. Fortunately, it was worth the effort getting to the end. Bee Branch, their daughter, was my favorite character. 

My Six Degrees took me from Antarctica to England to Transylvania to Switzerland and the Sudan, to the USA, and back to Antarctica. Have you read any of these books? 

If you did this month's Six Degrees, where did your list take you?

I rarely have a Six Degrees chain where the last link connects back to the 1st link, this time I did that.

The next Six Degrees will be on  June 6, 2026, and the starting book will be The Post-Office Girl by Austrian author Stefan Sweig.

Six Degrees of Separation: from Wuthering Heights to Dancing in the Dark

The Six Degrees of Separation meme is hosted by Kate at booksaremyfavoriteandbest. The idea behind the meme is to start with a book and use common points between two books to end up with links to six books, forming a chain. The common points may be obvious, like a word in the title or a shared theme, or more personal. Every month Kate provides the title of a book as the starting point.

The starting book this month is Wuthering Heights by Charlotte Brontë. I don't remember ever reading that book, but recently when I read some reviews, it was described as being about obsession and revenge.

1st degree:

I searched on my blog for a book that combined obsession and revenge and the only one that came up was The Beast Must Die by Nicholas Blake. This book, a part of the Nigel Strangeways series, is widely acknowledged to be a crime classic. But I resisted reading it for years.

The story begins with these lines from Frank Cairnes' journal, in which he plans the death of the person who killed his son. 

"I am going to kill a man. I don’t know his name, I don’t know where he lives, I have no idea what he looks like. But I am going to find him and kill him…"

2nd degree:

I purchased my copy of The Beast Must Die at the Annual Book Sale in September 2019. The same year, I purchased four old paperback editions of books by Mary Stewart at that same book sale. One of them was The Ivy Tree, published in 1961. It is about a young woman, Mary Grey, who has a strong resemblance to the heiress to a fortune, who disappeared years before. She is persuaded to impersonate the heiress in a scheme to get the inheritance.  

3rd degree:

Josephine Tey's Brat Farrar is another impersonation novel, published in 1949. I read that novel but it has been so long that I want to read it again. From what I have read, Brat Farrar was an inspiration for Mary Stewart's book. I have read all of Josephine Tey's mystery novels. She wrote six Inspector Grant novels and two standalone mysteries.

4th degree:

Josephine Tey is the sleuth in a historical crime fiction series by Nicola Upson. I have read the first book in that series, An Expert in Murder. I don't always enjoy mysteries where the sleuth is a real person, and I had reservations about how much the sleuth in this book resembles the real Josephine Tey (whose real name was Elizabeth Mackintosh), but I did find the story compelling and enjoyed the setting, so I had planned to read more of this series. I have four more books from this series on my shelves so I should follow up on that.

5th degree:

Another mystery novel with a real-life author as the sleuth is Jane and the Man of Cloth. In this case the sleuth is Jane Austen. This 2nd book in the series was published in 1997 (and I read my copy in 2004). The 15th and final book in the series was published in 2023. I have only read the first two books but I have read many good things about the series and the way that Jane Austen is handled as a main character, so I may return.

6th degree:

My final book for this Six Degrees is from a historical mystery series that features real-life people as characters, but not as the sleuth. Toby Peters is a private investigator who is often asked to help movie stars of the 1940s with their problems. The first book in the series, Bullet for a Star, features Errol Flynn, Humphrey Bogart, and Peter Lorre. In Dancing in the Dark, the 19th book in the series, Fred Astaire is being harassed by a gangster and his girlfriend. The series is written by one of my favorite authors, Stuart Kaminsky. 

And that concludes my Six Degrees. All my books were mysteries. All of them were either vintage mysteries or historical mysteries. And all of the books were set in the UK except for the very last one. I prefer more variety in my Six Degrees chains, either in genre or setting or both, but these are all good books, so I am happy with the chain.

If you did this month's Six Degrees, where did your list take you? Have you read any of these books? 

The next Six Degrees will be on April 4, 2026 and the starting book will be  Virginia Evan's epistolary novel, The Correspondent.

Six Degrees of Separation: From Seascraper to Tokyo Express

The Six Degrees of Separation meme is hosted by Kate at booksaremyfavoriteandbest. The idea behind the meme is to start with a book and use common points between two books to end up with links to six books, forming a chain. The common points may be obvious, like a word in the title or a shared theme, or more personal. Usually Kate provides the title of a book as the starting point.

The starting book this month is Seascraper by Benjamin Wood, which was longlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize. The protagonist is a young man living with his mother in Longferry, a town on the English coast. He supports both of them by scraping fish off the sea shore, although his real goal is to be a successful folk musician. 

1st degree:

Using the title of the starting book, and the setting, I am starting my chain with The Seaside: England's Love Affair by Madeleine Bunting.  This is a nonfiction book about the seaside towns and resorts set on the coastline of England. For this book, the author traveled around the edges of England, staying in forty resorts in various types of accommodations. This is my husband's book, which he read in 2023 and gave a 5 star rating. I hope to read it someday.

2nd degree:

In The Seaside, Madeleine Bunting mentions a novel that is set in Bognor, a seaside resort town. The Fortnight in September by R.C. Sherriff was published in 1931. I haven't read that book either, but I do have a copy to read, soon I hope.

From the French flap of the paperback edition I own:

Meet the Stevens family, as they prepare to embark on their annual holiday to the coast of England. Mr. and Mrs. Stevens first made the trip to Bognor Regis on their honeymoon, and the tradition has continued every September since. They follow the same carefully honed schedule – now accompanied by their three children, twenty-year-old Mary, seventeen-year-old Dick, and little brother Ernie. 

Arriving in Bognor they head to Seaview, the guesthouse where they stay every year. It's a bit shabbier than it once was – the landlord has died and his wife is struggling as the number of guests dwindles. But the family finds bliss in booking a slightly bigger cabana (with a balcony!) and in their rediscovery of familiar beloved sights.

3rd degree:

I will continue in the beach theme for this next book in the chain: The Mask of Memory by Victor Canning. Canning is the author of one of my favorite espionage series, about a covert security group in the UK. The secret wife of one of the most experienced operatives in the group lives in North Devon and often walks on the beach, enjoying the scenery and the birds in the area. One of my favorite parts of the books in this series is the beautiful descriptions of the countryside and the wildlife, especially birds, in each of the locations.

4th degree:

And now I am linking to a mystery novel with a beach setting in Argentina. Where There's Love, There's Hate, published in 1946, was written by Adolfo Bioy Casares and Silvina Ocampo, Argentine writers who were married to each other.

Dr. Humberto Huberman is visiting the seaside at Bosque del Mar, Argentina. He is staying at a hotel owned by relatives. It is a small hotel and not many guests. On the first evening after his arrival, one of the guests dies, by poison. Dr. Huberman appoints himself the investigator, but of course the real policemen arrive soon enough. 

5th degree:

Fall from Grace by L.R. Wright, published in 1991, is a another mystery where a dead body is found on a beach. Sechelt is a real-life seaside community on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia, northwest of Vancouver. Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sergeant Karl Alberg is out sailing with his lover Cassandra when they see the body of a man on the beach. It turns out that he had fallen from a cliff above. The dead man was Steven Grayson, who grew up in Sechelt but has been living in Vancouver for the last ten years. The story is told from multiple perspectives (Karl Alberg's, Cassandra's, the various members of the community that are affected by the death).

6th degree:

The last book in this chain is also a mystery; two bodies are found on a beach, and the setting is Japan. In Tokyo Express by Seichō Matsumoto, published in 1958, two detectives in different cities in Japan investigate the same crime and collaborate, sharing their thoughts and discoveries. A man and a woman are found dead on a beach in Kashii, and the police assume that it is a double suicide. Inspector Torigai in Kashii is first assigned to the case, and he has no reason to disagree with that determination, but he does notice some puzzling aspects and continues to have nagging questions. Later Inspector Mihara from Tokyo comes to discuss the case with Torigai.  Mihara thinks the deaths are related to a bribery scandal in the government. This novel was first published in English translation as Points and Lines.

My Six Degrees started out in England, then went on to stops in Argentina, Canada, and Japan. Have you read any of these books? 

If you did this month's Six Degrees, where did your list take you?

The next Six Degrees will be on January 3, 2026. Kate has decided that the starting book will be a wildcard. Those participating in Six Degrees can either start with the last book in the December 2025 chain or, if you did not play in December, begin with the last book you read.

Six Degrees of Separation: From The Safekeep to Tales of the South Pacific

The Six Degrees of Separation meme is hosted by Kate at booksaremyfavoriteandbest. The idea behind the meme is to start with a book and use common points between two books to end up with links to six books, forming a chain. The common points may be obvious, like a word in the title or a shared theme, or more personal. Every month Kate provides the title of a book as the starting point.

The starting book this month is The Safekeep by Yael Van Der Wouden. The book is set in 1961 Netherlands; Isabel is living in the family home alone, when her brother asks her to let his girlfriend Eva move in with her. This book won the 2025 Women's Prize for Fiction.

1st degree:

Using the title of the starting book, but inverting it in a way, I have chosen I'll Keep You Safe by Peter May as my first book in the chain. It is a crime fiction novel mostly set on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. Niamh and Ruairidh Macfarlane are on a business trip to Paris to promote their luxury brand of tweed, when Ruairidh is killed by a car bomb. After talking to the police, Niamh is allowed to return to Lewis. The story focuses on Niamh's life in Lewis following her husband's death, and the policewoman who is investigating the crime. I am a fan of Peter May's books but I have not read this one.

2nd degree:

I have read another book by Peter May set on the Isle of Lewis. It is the first book in the The Lewis Trilogy, The Blackhouse. In this book, Fin Macleod, a detective from Edinburgh, is sent to the Isle of Lewis because of previous connections to a similar crime. He does not want to return to the island because he grew up there. This was the first book I read by Peter May.

3rd degree:

For my third link, I am sticking with Peter May and another book he wrote which is set on two islands. Entry Island blends historical fiction with a present-day police procedural. Both stories come together in the end, as one would expect. The historical focus is on the Highland Clearances which take place on the Isle of Lewis and Harris in Scotland. The current investigation centers on a death on a small Canadian island, which is a part of the Magdalen Islands, in the province of Quebec. This was an unusual and compelling story.

4th degree:

I am liking the focus on islands, but I will move on to a different author. The next book is Mindful of Murder by Susan Juby, set at a spiritual retreat on one of British Columbia’s Gulf Islands. The island in the book is a fictionalized version of a real island. This is an unusual mystery with a unique sleuth and a different approach, sort of a cozy. The protagonist is a female butler, and I enjoyed learning about Buddhist beliefs and what today's butlers do in their jobs.

5th degree:

White Heat by M. J. McGrath is set on Ellesmere Island, Canada's northernmost and third largest island. The heroine is an Inuit hunter and guide, Edie Kiglatuk. When a man is shot and killed on an Arctic adventure that she is leading, the murder is investigated by police sergeant Derek Palliser. I enjoyed reading about this part of Canada, and the mystery was good too.

6th degree:

The last link is to Tales of the South Pacific by James Michener, a collection of short stories set during World War II, loosely connected to each other by recurring characters in the stories. The events take place on islands in the South Pacific, especially around the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, and the stories focus both on the people of the islands and the servicemen stationed there. I have not read this book, but we have a copy that I will be reading.

In my Six Degrees, I visited islands in different parts of the world, starting with Scotland, going next to Canada, and finally to islands in the South Pacific. Have you read any of these books? 

If you did this month's Six Degrees, where did your list take you?

The next Six Degrees will be on September 6, 2025 and the starting book will be the winner of the 2025 Miles Franklin Literary Award, Ghost Cities by Siang Lu.

Six Degrees of Separation: From Theory & Practice to The Paris Diversion

The Six Degrees of Separation meme is hosted by Kate at booksaremyfavoriteandbest. The idea behind the meme is to start with a book and use common points between two books to end up with links to six books, forming a chain. The common points may be obvious, like a word in the title or a shared theme, or more personal. Every month Kate provides the title of a book as the starting point.

The starting book this month is Theory & Practice  by Michelle de Kretser. This book won the Stella Prize, a major literary award celebrating Australian women’s writing, and championing diversity and cultural change. Theory & Practice is described as autofiction; thus it is a blend between autobiography and fiction. When I was looking into this subgenre of fiction, I was both confused and interested in all the descriptions and various interpretations. 

1st degree:

My first link will be to Outline by Rachel Cusk, which is also described as autofiction. I have that book on my shelves, unread. So I hope to give it a try soon.

The main character in Outline is a novelist who goes to Athens, Greece to teach a writing course during the summer. She has ten conversations with people she meets on the way to Athens and during her stay there.

2nd degree:

The second link is to The Messenger of Athens by Anne Zouroudi. This book takes place mainly on the fictional Greek island, Thiminos. A woman is found dead at the bottom of a cliff; the local police call it an accident. Then a stranger comes to Thiminos from Athens, with the intention of solving her murder.

This is another book I have on my bookshelves. The Greek Detective series gets good reviews and I should read it soon.

3rd degree:

The Light of Day by Eric Ambler starts in Athens and ends up in Turkey.  Arthur Simpson, thief and con man, is hired to drive a car to Turkey. He does not know that he is smuggling illegal weapons in the car, and he is caught by border guards. The authorities force him to deliver the weapons to the people who hired him, in order to uncover their nefarious plans. 

The book was adapted to screen as Topkapi. Peter Ustinov won an Oscar for Supporting Actor for the role of Arthur. Maximilian Schell and Robert Morley also starred.

4th degree:

The James Bond spy thriller From Russia with Love (1957, Ian Fleming) is set in Instanbul, Turkey. The Russians plot to rid themselves of James Bond by faking the defection of a female cipher clerk. Bond is sent to Istanbul to help the defector escape. They take the Orient Express from Istanbul to Paris, where the story ends. Also made into a very successful film, starring Sean Connery.

5th degree:

A good portion of the last book took place on a train and it ended in Paris. That takes me to The Sleeping-Car Murders by Sébastien Japrisot, a French author, screenwriter and film director. This novel was first published in French in 1962. The night train from Marseilles arrives in Paris. In the sleeping car, the body of a young woman is found dead. This is a police procedural and the investigation takes place in Paris.

6th degree:

My last link is to a book that also takes place in Paris. The Paris Diversion by Chris Pavone is an espionage thriller which begins with a terror attack on Paris. It is the second book featuring Kate Moore and her husband Dexter. The first book was The Expats. This is a very fast-paced thriller (at times) but the story is told very well.

This is another Six Degrees where I rediscovered some books on my own shelves that I have not read yet. 

My Six Degrees took me from Athens, Greece to Turkey and then ended up in Paris, France. Have you read any of these books? 

If you did this month's Six Degrees, where did your list take you?

The next Six Degrees will be on August 2, 2025, and the starting book will be the 2025 Women’s Prize winner, The Safekeep by Yael Van Der Wouden.

  

Six Degrees of Separation: From All Fours to The Spellman Files

 

The Six Degrees of Separation meme is hosted by Kate at booksaremyfavoriteandbest. The idea behind the meme is to start with a book and use common points between two books to end up with links to six books, forming a chain. The common points may be obvious, like a word in the title or a shared theme, or more personal. Every month Kate provides the title of a book as the starting point.

The starting book this month is All Fours by Miranda July. Although the book has been very successful, I know very little about it, so I am linking to my first book using the author's first name.

1st degree:

Linking from the author's name, Miranda July, my first book in the chain is City of Secrets (2011) by Kelli Stanley; the main character in this book is Miranda Corbie. I think Miranda is a lovely name. I haven't read this book but my husband has, and here is his brief review from Goodreads:

This excellent private eye thriller - the second of the Miranda Corbie series - weaves a genuinely sinister plot line into an evocative 1940 San Francisco setting. A strong protagonist (who drinks and smokes lots!), well drawn supporting characters, and style to burn.

2nd degree:

Using Kelli Stanley's last name, I link to a book from the Stanley Hastings series, Favor (1988) by Parnell Hall. My husband and I both read this book, but his review (at Goodreads) is much better than mine:

Stanley Hastings is a lowly-paid leg man for an ambulance chasing lawyer, a wannabe sort of private eye and writer, a self-deprecating and loving family man. In this, the third of Parnell Hall's series, we find Stanley off to Atlantic City to do a quick favor for someone who's not really even a friend. Before too long, he finds himself charged with grand larceny (the way he tries to get out of that is elegant) and in the frame for two murders. The characters are all sharply drawn, the pace is swift, the plot is complex in a good way, and there is a light tone throughout. There are nearly 20 in the series and I can't wait to get to the next one.

3rd degree:

Parnell Hall was a prolific author with multiple series. For my next link I choose a book by another author with the last name of Hall. Adam Hall was a pseudonym used by Ellestor Trevor, and under that name he wrote a long-running series of spy novels featuring Quiller, a British secret agent for a covert organization of spies, unacknowledged by the government. Quiller is a very unusual spy fiction protagonist in that he doesn't smoke, drink, or carry a gun. The Quiller Memorandum (1965) is set in the 1960s in Berlin, and Quiller has finished a long string of assignments to find Nazi war criminals and bring them to trial. He is planning to return to England the next day, but is enticed into a new assignment when another agent is killed.

4th degree:

Moving from a spy series written in the 1960s to another series written at about the same time, my next link is to Funeral in Berlin (1964) by one of my favorite authors, Len Deighton. In this story, the nameless spy (called Harry Palmer in the movie adaptations) is sent to East Berlin to facilitate the defection of an East German scientist. He must work with the Russian security-chief Colonel Stok and Hallam of the British Home Office. An elaborate plan is set up to get the scientist out of East Berlin. This book was published only three years after the Berlin Wall was constructed; in the introduction, Deighton speaks of the time he spent in East Berlin shortly after the wall went up. The setting feels very authentic.

5th degree:

Funeral in Berlin is about a defector in East Berlin. My next book, Defectors (2017) by Joseph Kanon, is about a group of American and British spies living in and around Moscow during the Cold War, after defecting to the USSR. The focus is on the relationship of the two brothers in the story, Frank, the US spy who defected to Russia in 1949, and Simon, his younger brother, who had to leave his job in intelligence to work in publishing after Frank's defection. In 1961, Simon has been allowed to come to Moscow to work with Frank on publishing his memoirs. I loved the exploration of family relationships, but the story has plenty of action also.

6th degree:

My next book, The Spellman Files (2007) by Lisa Lutz, is also about family relationships. The Spellmans are a strange and dysfunctional family who run a detective agency. Before reading the book, I had the mistaken notion that this book was primarily a humorous and cozy mystery. It is humorous but not so cozy, and sometimes does not even seem like crime fiction. I loved the writing, and I found the book hard to put down.

My Six Degrees starts in the US, moves to Berlin, Germany, then Russia, and back to the US. If you did this month's Six Degrees, where did your list take you? 

Have you read any of these books? 

The next Six Degrees will be on July 5, 2025 and the starting book will be the 2025 Stella Prize winner, Theory & Practice by Michelle de Kretser.

Six Degrees of Separation: From Rapture to State of Wonder

The Six Degrees of Separation meme is hosted by Kate at booksaremyfavoriteandbest. The idea behind the meme is to start with a book and use common points between two books to end up with links to six books, forming a chain. The common points may be obvious, like a word in the title or a shared theme, or more personal. Every month Kate provides the title of a book as the starting point.

The starting book this month is Rapture by Emily Maguire. This is a historical fiction novel, set in the 800s, about a young girl who becomes a monk by disguising herself as a male. I may read this book because it sounds interesting and is not overly long. The book was longlisted for the 2025 Stella Prize, which celebrates the best writing by women and non-binary authors in Australia. 

1st degree:

My first link is to another Australian novel, Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay, published in 1967. The story is about a group of young female college students that go on a picnic. Some of the girls don't return. 

2nd degree:

Using "Rock" in the title of the previous book takes me to my next book, Brighton Rock by Graham Greene, published in 1938. I haven't read much by Greene so I was happy to find this old hardback edition of Brighton Rock with the dust jacket mostly intact at the 2023 Planned Parenthood book sale. The protagonist is Pinkie, a teenage gang leader who has murdered a journalist and thinks he can get away with it. The book goes beyond a thriller to explore moral issues.

3rd degree:

The Zig Zag Girl by Elly Griffith's is my next link because of its setting – Brighton, in the 1950s. This is from the description at the author's website: "When the body of a girl is found, cut into three, Detective Inspector Edgar Stephens is reminded of a magic trick, the Zig Zag Girl. The inventor of the trick, Max Mephisto, is an old friend of Edgar’s. They served together in the war as part of a shadowy unit called the Magic Men." This is the first book in the Brighton Mysteries series, and I have not yet read it.

4th degree:

Another book with "Girl" in the title is Girl Waits with Gun by Amy Stewart. This book is also the start of a historical mystery series, set in the early 1900s in New Jersey. It is based on a real woman who was one of the first female deputy sheriffs in the US. 

5th degree:

Again using a word from the title, I link to Gunshine State by Andrew Nette. This is a gritty heist novel set in Australia. Description at Goodreads: "Gary Chance is a former Australian army driver, ex-bouncer and thief. His latest job takes him to Surfers Paradise, Queensland, working for aging standover man, Dennis Curry. Curry runs off-site, non-casino poker games, and wants to rob one of his best customers, a high roller called Freddie Gao. ... Chance knows he can’t trust anyone, but nothing prepares him for what unfolds when Curry’s plan goes wrong." 

6th degree:

Gunshine State takes me to State of Wonder by Ann Patchett, a novel that is set in the jungles of Brazil. From the description at the author's website: "Dr. Marina Singh, a research scientist with a pharmaceutical company, is sent to track down her former mentor, Dr. Annick Swenson, who seems to have all but disappeared in the Amazon while working on what is destined to be an extremely valuable new drug. Nothing about the assignment is easy: not only does no one know where Dr. Swenson is, but the last person who was sent to find her, Marina's research partner Anders Eckman, died before he could complete his mission." 

My Six Degrees took me from Australia to the UK, then to the US and back to Australia, but ended in Brazil. I have not read any of the books in this post, but I have five of them on my TBR shelves. Have you read any of these books? 

If you did this month's Six Degrees, where did your list take you?

The next Six Degrees will be on June 7, 2025 and the starting book will be All Fours by Miranda July.