It’s the last month of winter, and I can’t wait for it to be over. It’s been colder than usual here (though not as cold as some of your experience in winter I realise). However, I do like the Six Degrees meme, so let’s get straight to it. If you don’t know how this #SixDegrees meme works, please check Kate’s blog – booksaremyfavouriteandbest.
The first rule is that Kate sets our starting book. This month, it’s another winning book, Yael van der Wouden‘s The Safekeep which won the 2025 Women’s Prize. It’s about Isa, a recluse, who lives alone, until her brother asks that his girlfriend Eva stay with her for the summer. Isa is initially repulsed by Eva, but slowly a romantic relationship develops between them.
Another novel in which two strangers end up sharing a house – albeit for a different reason – and are initially antagonistic towards each other is Sigrid Nunez’s The vulnerables (my review). I considered making the next link to Michelle de Kretser’s Theory & practice, because both novels reference Virginia Woolf, and both Nunez and de Kretser aspired in their novels to create a new form of writing. However, as de Kretser’s book was last month’s starting novel, I decided to think again and so …
My next link is to Carmel Bird’s short story collection, Love letter to Lola (my review). The link might surprise you – a macaw. In Nunez’s novel it’s Eureka, a miniature macaw, which the two inadvertent housemates are responsible for pet-sitting. In Carmel Bird’s titular short story, it’s a Spix’s Macaw writing sadly to his lost mate.
Now that was a difficult link for you all to have guessed – sorry MR – so my the next one is more obivous. It’s on the title. My next link is Jay Griffiths’ A love letter to a stray moon (my review), a book I reviewed much earlier in my blogging days. It’s a first person novel in the voice of Frida Kahlo. I did consider another novel in the voice of an artist, but then …
decided to keep it simple before I get a bit tricksy again. It’s another title link, this time to Elizabeth Jolley’s My father’s moon (my review). The first of a trilogy, it’s a work of autofiction, I guess we’d say now, though I don’t think I used the term then.
And now back to trickier links. It’s to Helen Garner’s Yellow notebook: Diaries, Volume 1, 1978-1987 (my review), the link being that Helen Garner was a big admirer of Jolley and wrote about her several times in this first volume of her diaries.
Another writer Garner admired and mentions in this diary is Jane Austen. She specifically mentions Mansfield Park, writing, “Mansfield Park. She never tells you anything about the appearance of her characters. As if they were moral forces. I love it”. It’s therefore to Mansfield Park (one of my posts) that I must link. I am not surprised that Garner likes Jolley and Austen. After all, I like all three! They have a wit about them, and are all wonderful observers of human nature, albeit from different perspectives more often than not.
All of my selections this month are by women, which was not intentional. It’s just how it fell out. The writers are all English, American or Australian, but their subject matter spreads a little more widely to encompass, for example, Mexico and Brazil, the home of the Spix’s macaw. One of the novels is written in and set pre-20th century, but the rest are set in the 20th or 21st centuries.
Have you read The safekeep and, regardless, what would you link to?
Whispering Gums 
It was so sweet to find Love Letter to Lola here in the chain. Hooray!
It was a perfect fit Carmel… glad you saw it. PS I haven’t forgotten your subscription problem but I need to understand the advice I’ve received so I can pass it on. I will get to it!
I’ve tried to start The Safekeep a couple of times but didn’t fall in with the tone or style of the writing, so I would pick the cover and move onto Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks and the original cover design that I read, which used a painting by G. Daniel Massad featuring a pear.
Interesting Brona. I think I’ve seen a few mixed reactions to it. I don’t imagine I’ll get to it, unless my reading group chooses it which I wouldn’t mind!
Love your pear link. They are just the greatest fruit for all sorts of design I think.
Yes indeed – I do have a bit of a thing for them – I have quite a few pears and pear shaped things around the house 🍐
Oh, I can imagine having a pear collection Brona – but my only read pear claim to fame is a brooch based on the pears that were (hmm… are they still) outside the National Gallery of Australia. I love the brooch but haven’t worn it for a while.
Yes they are still there – I visited them quickly when we ducked to Canberra last week so I could see the new Matisse, Picasso et al exhibition. Well worth seeing if you haven’t already.
Oh my … no I haven’t seen it Brona! (Remember to give me a call if you are here and have some time! But I understand … I don’t have much free time which is why I haven’t seen it yet. I seem to see more exhibitions in Melbourne than I do in my own city! And I do like Matisse in particular!)
I did think of you, but this was a quick trip with a packed schedule! Hopefully our next trip will be more relaxed as I’d love to catch up again. We did enjoy an amazing meal at Koto – have you been there?
Completely understand. And, yes we have, a few times. It’s very good, isn’t it. We also like its sister restaurant in the city, Inka – Japanese-Peruvian.
That was on my list too – next time 😊
My first experience of Brooks – I was knocked out !
Year of wonders, you mean, MR? It’s a good read isn’t it?
It’s a bit of a ripper ! 😀
Me too.
Having not read Yellow Notebook, I was delighted to find that Garner is an Austen fan, ST, but not amazed. 🙂
No, I agree, MR, it’s not amazing is it, given Garner’s love of observing human nature. I loved reading her thoughts on Austen.
The temperature is cold in Victoria, too!
I’ve only read Mansfield Park from your chain but will read the Carmel Bird short stories and Helen Garner diary sometime. I’ve read the later diaries, but for some reason didn’t start chronologically.
Oh great Rose (not about the cold though!) I’d love to know what you thought of Carmel Bird’s collection. I’ve read the first two Garner diaries but not the third which I must get to.
I’ve loved everything I’ve read by Carmel Bird so expect I’ll enjoy the short stories. Same with Helen Garner, although I prefer her essays, diaries and the like to her fiction.
I love them both too Rose. I can understand your preference for Garner’s nonfiction.
Hi Sue, I have read The Safe Keep, and at times liked the writing, but not that impressed with the novel. I do like your connection to the The Vulnerables. My links are The Nature of Fragile Things by Susan Meissner; Human Acts by Han Kang; Stone Yard Devotion by Charlotte Wood; The Corrections by Jonathan Franzan; Atonement by Ian McEwan, and The World We Knew by Alice Hoffman.
Thanks Meg … you just confirm the mixed impressions I’ve been getting of the book.
I liked your links though I don’t know the first one at all.
This is the third six degree this month that has mentioned a Helen Garner book connected to The Safekeep. Definitely a theme.
Wow, that’s interesting Becky. I have seen two others – probably the same ones – and we are all different. That’s fascinating isn’t it?
I haven’t read The Safekeep, didn’t really fancy it. I enjoyed reading your chain though. I have love letters in mine too!
https://portobellobookblog.com/2025/08/02/6degrees-of-separation-for-august-2025-from-the-safe-keep-by-yael-van-der-wouden-to-love-letters-from-paris-by-nicolas-barreau-booksky-%f0%9f%92%99%f0%9f%93%9a/
Thanks Joanne … I like letters. Will come check out which ones you’ve included!
Lovely start to your chain! I so enjoyed The Vulnerables.
Thanks Susan. I hoped by choosing a non-Aussie book to start with that more visitors than usual would recognise my chain start at least. I’m glad that you not only recognised it, but liked the book too!
I love reading these six degrees – and especially love the interesting connections…
Thanks Rach … they are fun to read, I agree.
I liked the bird links. Nice chain here.
Thanks Davida.
Of the authors, I have read only Nunez and Austin, of the books only Mansfield Park. So taking shared quarters as a theme,
Degree one will be The Golden Spur by Dawn Powell. It is set mostly in New York, and the protagonist shares quarters for a while with two women. There are no romantic attachments within the digs, strictly speaking.
Degree two, switching coasts, is Love Among the Barbarians by Wright Morris, in which a lyricist and composer share part of a house near the beach in Los Angeles.
Up that coast a bit is degree three, John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row, set in Monterey during the Depression. The men sharing quarters would have been called bums by most of respectable society.
Degree four will be Marilyn Robinson’s Housekeeping, in which the housemates are aunt and niece.
Degree five, Wheat That Springeth Green by J.D. Powers. Here the housemates are Catholic priests, the central character first as assistant, later as pastor.
Degree six is straight farce, the play Box and Cox by John Maddison Morton, the characters roommates without knowing it for most of the time.
I love the shared quarters theme, George. I suppose Mansfield Park is a shared quarters book too, in a way, given Fanny comes to live with her rich relations. (And Mary Crawford with her half-sister.) I recognise three of your authors – but have yet to read Powell, though you keep putting her under my nose!
Very creative!! The macaw was especially good work.
Thanks Lisa. I nearly didn’t go that route but it was too delicious not to, in the end. I mean, how many works of fiction feature macaws, after all.
What a great chain! I think the esoteric links, like the macaw, are my favorites.
Why thanks Olivia, I’m glad you like the esoteric links.
I’m on a very long waitlist at the library for Safekeep, but my turn will come around eventually. Kudos that you had 3 covers in a row with birds on them and did not link to any of them because of the covers 🙂
HOW did I miss this, Stefanie. Probably because I was in Melbourne with grandkids! Anyhow, love that you picked up the bird covers. They are gorgeous aren’t they?
Ohhhh, I love the Bird links! Wonderful. I haven’t read The Safekeep yet; like, Stefanie, I’ve got a long library wait ahead. Perhaps I’ll “find” a copy before that resolves. It does sound very good.
Oh, did I not reply to this Marcie? I was in Melbourne – so that’s my excuse. But, I do apologise. I loved finding those macaw links.
I’m afraid I’m in the camp of readers who don’t care for Mansfield Park. Love all Austen’s novels (my favourite is Persuasion) but just can’t excited about MP.
I understand that Karen. I do think of all her novels it’s an acquired taste. I think she really wanted to write something heavier than P&P, and she did it!