Time has been tight for me this last month so I’ve rushed this month’s Six Degrees a bit, but I hope it satisfies my regular readers’ different needs! So, let’s just get to it … the Six Degrees meme, I mean. If you don’t know how this meme works, please check host Kate’s blog – booksaremyfavouriteandbest.

The first rule is that Kate sets our starting book. In November we are back to books I haven’t read. Indeed, this is one I hadn’t even heard of, Chetna Maroo’s Western Lane. It’s a debut novel that was shortlisted for this year’s Booker Prize. GoodReads starts its description with “a taut, enthralling first novel about grief, sisterhood, and a young athlete’s struggle to transcend herself…”

I could go with books about sisters, or athletes, as I’ve read a few of those on my blog, but I’m going in a different straightforward direction instead, to another debut novel by a young writer, albeit this one a century or so ago, Louise Mack’s The world is round (my review). It’s not about a struggling athlete, but it is about a would-be writer.

Now, I don’t want to go down the content path though that would be easy – and, you never know, we might meet a would-be or struggling writer or two a bit later in this chain. Here though I’m going for a word in the title, and so it’s to Michelle Scott Tucker’s biography, Elizabeth Macarthur: A life at the edge of the world (my review) that I’m linking next. Round worlds, edges of worlds, where to now? Not to worlds, in fact … but to …

Another strong woman. Elizabeth Macarthur had to be strong to keep the family farm going in colonial Australia while her husband spent months if not years travelling to and from England. Freya Stark was another strong Englishwoman who made her way in a man’s world, a century or more after Macarthur. The book I’m linking to is Jane Fletcher Geniesse’s biography, Passionate nomad: The life of Freya Stark (my review).

Geniesse’s biography was published in 1999, as was the wonderful Amy Witting’s gorgeous novel, Isobel on the way to the corner shop (my review). Here come the would-be writers! Isobel is a young woman who is struggling to be a writer. Poor, starving and isolated, she ends up contracting TB and, after a dramatic collapse, is admitted to a sanitarium, where she starts to recover in more ways than one.

From Isobel I am taking us to my most recent post, Rebecca Burton’s Ravenous girls (my review) which is about another young woman – starving for different reasons – who ends up as a long stay patient in hospital. Justine is a different person to Isobel, and the story is from her sister’s perspective, but the link still works!

And now, I’m going to do something I don’t usually do, which is to close the circle. Maroo’s book is apparently about sisterhood, and so, in a large way, is Burton’s Ravenous girls, so it’s on sisters that I’m going to conclude, but with sisters at the older end of the spectrum. John Clanchy’s Sisters (my review) are not struggling to find themselves, or to make their way in the world. Instead, they are needing to resolve secrets from the past, which just goes to show that when you solve one of life’s challenges, there’s sure to be another waiting! In fiction, at least!!

I’ve spent far more time in Australia than I usually do, but we did make a quick foray to the middle east, and we have traversed Australia from its early colonial days to through to the present. I have also been, as last month, rather one-sided in author gender, with just one male author again bringing up the rear.

Now, the usual: Have you read Western Lane? And, regardless, what would you link to?

Daylight savings started in my jurisdiction last week, and I am so happy. I love the longer end of days in summer, and not being woken so early in the morning. I am not so looking forward though to what this forecasted hot, dry summer might bring, but let us be hopeful… meanwhile let’s get to Six Degrees. If you don’t know how this meme works, please check host Kate’s blog – booksaremyfavouriteandbest.

The first rule is that Kate sets our starting book. In October it’s finally a book I have read, but long before blogging, Dodie Smith’s work of historical fiction, I capture the castle. I loved it when I read it as a teenager – who didn’t, really – but I’m going to share the Goodreads description: “Through six turbulent months of 1934, 17-year-old Cassandra Mortmain keeps a journal, filling three notebooks with sharply funny yet poignant entries about her home, a ruined Suffolk castle, and her eccentric and penniless family”. So, a lively coming-of-age story set in a castle.

For my first link I am, as last month, going obvious, again in deference to commenter MR, who wants logical links. (But it won’t last MR!) So, the link is another work with castle in the title, Jane Austen’s work of juvenilia, Lesley Castle (my review). Written when Austen was 16, it’s a comic novella that starts with letters sent by Margaret Lesley, from her Lesley Castle abode, complaining about her brother’s adulterous wife and her roué father running amok in London. It gets sillier from there!

My next link is on the juvenilia angle, and it’s to Eleanor Dark’s Juvenilia (my review) which was published by Juvenilia Press as part of their inspired program which uses juvenilia to teach the skills of “editing, annotating, designing and illustrating” a scholarly publication, thereby killing two birds with one stone (to use a cliché). I have reviewed several of their books, and have a few more to go – and they are still publishing.

Keeping to obvious links, my next one is on author’s first name. I have reviewed books by a few Eleanors but I want to leave Australia, so it’s to New Zealand author, Eleanor Catton’s The luminaries (my review) that I’m taking you next.

Catton’s novel is a work of historical fiction that won the Booker Prize in 2013. Another work of historical fiction won the Booker Prize the year before in 2012, Hilary Mantel’s Bring up the bodies (my review), so that is my next link. As I recollect, some naysayers didn’t like the emphasis on historical fiction in the shortlist when the first book in Mantel’s Cromwell trilogy, Wolf Hall, won in 2009, but clearly the judges took little notice of them!

As I’ve implied already, Bring up the bodies is the second book in Mantel’s Cromwell trilogy. My next link is another second book in an historical fiction trilogy, Pat Barker’s The women of Troy (my review). Just as an aside, the third book in Barker’s historical fiction Regeneration trilogy, The ghost road, also won the Booker, back in 1995.

And now, you know, to be a bit tricksy, my next link is to Peter Carey’s Amnesia (my review). Why, do you ask? Well, Pat Barker was born on 8 May 1943, and Peter Carey was born the day before, on 7 May 1943. Both have had stellar literary careers. But, one of the reasons I thought to end with this book is because I wrote in my review that I believed Carey wanted us to “maintain the rage”, to remain aware and vigilant of what is happening, and of whose fingers are in which pie. This is still relevant as politics becomes increasingly polarised and mired in misinformation. I’m not a conspiracist, but that doesn’t mean it’s not sensible to think about who is arguing what, and why, as well as about the argument itself.

We’ve rambled quite a bit this month across time and place, but hmmm, I have been rather one-sided in author gender this post, with just one male author bringing up the rear!

FINALLY: A little shout-out on Love Your Bookshop Day to my new (because I’ve moved) neighbourhood independent bookshop, The Book Cow. Not only is it friendly and helpful but it actively supports writers, especially our local ones. And not far down the road from there is the lovely Muse which I’ve written about several times here before and which also regularly runs literary events involving local and other authors.

Now, the usual: Have you read I capture the castle? And, regardless, what would you link to?

Woo hoo, our house is sold (though not quite off our hands), and spring has sprung down under (just), so the Gums are feeling ready to begin the next stage of our lives. We are relieved, but, you know, it’s acceptance that we are on the downward trajectory – to put it bluntly, so let’s just get to Six Degrees. If you don’t know how this meme works, please check host Kate’s blog – booksaremyfavouriteandbest.

The first rule is that Kate sets our starting book. In August it’s another book I haven’t read, Anna Funder’s Wifedom: Mrs Orwell’s invisible life. It is about Eileen O’Shaughnessy who married Orwell in 1936 but has been barely mentioned in biographies of Orwell. Funder set out to discover why.

Now, it appears that some of my links have been a bit obscure lately. So, in deference to regular commenter here, MR, who wants a fighting chance to work out my links, my first one this month is an obvious one, Stasiland (my review), which is another non-fiction work by Anna Funder.

Stasiland was well-reviewed when it came out and was shortlisted for many awards. It won at least one of those, the 2004 Samuel Johnson Prize for the best non-fiction writing in the English language. Ten years later, in 2014, Helen Macdonald won the same prize for her book, H is for Hawk (my review). FYI, in 2015 this prize was renamed, the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction.

Macdonald writes about training, and hunting with, a hawk, while she works through her grief for her father who died suddenly. A very different work about a hawk is Australian writer D’Arcy Niland’s short story, “The parachutist” (my review) though we do also see the hawk in hunting mode.

In “The parachutist”, the hawk preys upon an innocent young kitten who is oblivious to the danger of a predator from the skies. Chris Flynn‘s novel Mammoth (my review) also includes a predator from the skies, Pterodactylus, who tells the other “characters” in the novel, “I was referred to as the Reptilian Eagle, an apex predator who dominated the skies. It would have been a compliment, had it not come from the mouths of maniacs”. (The maniacs were the Nazis.)

Pterodactylus, like many characters in Mammoth, is a fossil. Another historical fiction novel (if you can call Mammoth historical fiction) that deals with fossils is Tracy Chevalier’s Remarkable creatures (my review). It tells the story of the early 19th-century fossil collector, Mary Anning.

Mary Anning’s collecting work focused on the marine fossil beds in the cliffs at Lyme Regis. Some of you, on hearing this, will immediately guess my last link, and you would be right. It is to Jane Austen’s Persuasion (my post on volume 1), in which a significant (and memorable) event occurs in the same place. 

My post this month started in England with Kate’s choice and ended there, but in between we visited Germany and Australia, and we traversed a wide expanse of time from pre-history to the 21st century. We also, unusually, spent a bit of time in the animal kingdom.

Now, the usual: Have you read Wifedom? And, regardless, what would you link to?

So now, the BIG CLEAN is done, and we are in the lap of the real estate gods. I hope to be able to tell you next month that we have sold, but in the meantime I’m taking my mind off it all to think about something that’s far more fun, this month’s Six Degrees. If you don’t know how this meme works, please check host Kate’s blog – booksaremyfavouriteandbest.

The first rule is that Kate sets our starting book. In August it’s another book I haven’t read – I am doing worse this year than I ever have before in this regard – Curtis Sittenfeld’s Romantic comedy. Those of you who know Sittenfeld and who know me might guess that I’d make my first link, Pride and prejudice, because she wrote a P&P adaptation titled Eligible as part of the Austen Project. I thought about it, but then decided not to do the obvious…

I also decided not to go the rom com/chick lit route, which is the genre to which Romantic comedy belongs, despite having considered a couple of options. Instead, I’ve gone way out on a limb and chosen a book by an author with, like Curtis Sittenfeld, a gender-neutral first name. The book is A love letter from a stray moon (my review) by the British writer, Jay Griffiths. It’s an historical fiction told in the voice of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.

My next link is a very personal one. I read and reviewed A love letter from a stray moon while travelling in Japan in 2011. I don’t manage to write a lot of review posts when I travel, but another one that I did manage was First Nations author Ali Cobby Eckermann’s memoir, Too afraid to cry (my review), when we were travelling in the USA in 2017. She explores her heritage, including her family’s experience of the Stolen Generations and its impact on her.

Ali Cobby Eckermann is primarily a poet. Another contemporary Australian poet who has written a memoir is John Kinsella, so it’s to his Displaced: A rural life (my review) that I am linking next. It’s a relevant link for other reasons too because in his memoir, which I described as part manifesto, Kinsella explores such things as finding a meaning for “home” that recognises Indigenous “dispossession” and that also doesn’t encompass exploitative colonial ideas of “ownership”.

In the opening paragraph of my review of Kinsella’s book, I wrote that it reminded me of the book I had just finished, Gay Lynch’s historical novel Unsettled (my review), so that is my next link. I was reminded of Lynch’s novel for a few reasons: both have one-word titles which play with opposites; in both cases, those opposites refer to physical meanings and more abstract, intellectual, social and/or emotional ones; and, in both again, these meanings draw significantly from the colonial act of settling Australia and displacing its original inhabitants. 

My next link is more obvious. It’s to another work of historical fiction that explores the act of colonisation, Audrey Magee’s The colony (my review), albeit this one is set in Ireland – on a small island off its west coast.

It seems I can’t get away from the issue of colonisation this month, although that theme is not the reason I chose my final link. The reason is that the majority of the book is also set on an island, this time Bathurst Island off the Northern Territory. The book is another memoir by a First Nations author, Marie Munkara’s, Of ashes and rivers that run to the sea (my review). Munkara, like Eckermann, was raised by a non-Indigenous family, and also experienced abuse.

My whole post this month has stayed in the British Isles and its colony, Australia, in terms of authors at least, though we do visit Mexico. That was purely by accident but I’m not sorry because as long as the fallout from colonisation continues to negatively affect people’s lives, I’m fine with keeping the issue front and centre.

Now, the usual: Have you read Romantic comedy? And, regardless, what would you link to?

Well, the BIG DECLUTTER is essentially done. Now it is the BIG CLEAN. Boring! So let’s move on to something far more interesting than how to clean ovens, bathrooms and windows. In other words, let’s think about this month’s Six Degrees meme. If you don’t know how it works, please check host Kate’s blog – booksaremyfavouriteandbest.

The first rule is that Kate sets our starting book. In July, dare I say it, it’s another book I haven’t read, Time shelter, by Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov (and translated by Angela Rodel). It won the 2023 International Booker Prize, and it sounds like a fascinating read. In deed, it sounds like one I’d be interested to read, moreso perhaps than some of this year’s other starting books.

Goodreads starts its description of the book with: ‘In Time Shelter, an enigmatic flâneur named Gaustine opens a “clinic for the past” that offers a promising treatment for Alzheimer’s sufferers: each floor reproduces a decade in minute detail, transporting patients back in time’. What to link from this? I could have taken the quick way and chosen a book with “Time” in the title, as I’m afraid I haven’t read any Bulgarian authors. However, instead I’ve gone with a book in which Alzheimer’s or dementia plays a part, though it’s not the book’s main feature by any stretch, Carol Lefevre’s Murmurations (my review).

Murmurations is one of those books that is tricky in terms of its form. Is it a novel? Or, is it short stories? Well, it’s probably best described as a book of connected short stories, so I’m linking to another book I’d describe that way, First Nations Australian writer Marie Munkara’s blackly funny Every secret thing (my review).

Now, each year in Australia, we celebrate NAIDOC Week in the first week of July (this year from 2 to 9 July), so in honour of that I’m linking from First Nations Australian writer Marie Munkara to the most recent work I’ve reviewed by a First Nations Australian writer, Claire G. Coleman’s short story “Nightbird” in the Unlimited futures anthology (my review).

From here I’m linking on two points, another First Nations story in another anthology, this one Native American-based. It’s Leslie Marmon Silko’s “The man to send rain clouds” (my review) in Great short stories by contemporary Native American writers. It is set in a New Mexico pueblo and deals with clashing religious practices over the death and funeral of an elder. Coincidentally, in my review, I wrote that the story reminded me, in a small way, of Munkara’s Every secret thing, so if I hadn’t already linked to that book, I could have done so now! Darn it.

So, instead, I’m going to another short story, this one by Willa Cather, “The enchanted bluff” (my review). The story is set, in fact, in Nebraska, and is about six boys on a camping trip at the end of summer, before they return to school. As people do around campfires, the boys share stories and mysteries, and end up talking about the legend of New Mexico’s Enchanted Bluff. They all vow to go there, when they grow up, and to share their experiences when they do so … The story is told by one of the boys from twenty years later.

I can’t resist staying with Willa Cather, and linking to another story by her – this time a novel – in which a man reflects on past events. If you haven’t guessed already, the book is My Ántonia (my post), one of the few non-Jane Austen books I’ve read more than once. That tells you something about how much I like it, despite its completely different style, subject matter and tone to Jane’s.

Hmm … we’ve not travelled very far at all this month, having moved smartly from Bulgaria to Australia and then to North America, but we have traversed a few different cultures and eras, so that’s something at least.

Now, the usual: Have you read Time shelter? And, regardless, what would you link to?

My posting continues to be irregular and erratic, but things are looking up, and we are coming to the end of the BIG DECLUTTER. I really hope to get back to reading more books, and writing more posts very soon – and, to reading all the other blog posts that I’ve been so neglecting. Meanwhile, let’s move on from, and get onto Six Degrees. If you don’t know how it works, please check host Kate’s blog – booksaremyfavouriteandbest.

The first rule is that Kate sets our starting book. In June, it’s yes another book I haven’t read, Elizabeth Day’s Friendaholic: Confessions of a friendship addict. It sounds like a book I would enjoy because friends have always been a very important part of my life, but do I need to read a 400+ page book about friendship? Probably not right now, but I’d be interested to read some reviews by bloggers who do read it.

It’s a while since I’ve done Six Degrees title poem but Elizabeth Day’s Friendaholic seemed to be asking for it – and, I could do it in the time I had available. Hope you enjoy. (Links on the titles are to my reviews).

Friendaholic
Mrs Spring Fragrance,
Warming the core of things
In certain circles,
But now, Summer’s gone,
And we’re Paris dreaming
For A stolen season.

With thanks to the authors of my chosen works – Edith Maude Eaton, Elizabeth Harrower, Norma Krouk, Charles Hall, Anita Heiss and Rodney Hall. All are Australian, I’ve just realised, except for Edith Maude Eaton. She was an English-born Chinese American writer who wrote under various names including Sui Sin Far. The work of hers I’ve linked here is a Library of America published short story, hence no book cover.

Now, the usual: Have you read Friendaholic? And, regardless, what would you link to?

April already, and I am back in Melbourne to spend Easter with the family (and feed grandchildren too much chocolate probably!) But that’s a week away. Today is Six Degrees time. If you don’t know how the meme works, please check meme host Kate’s blog – booksaremyfavouriteandbest.

The first rule is that Kate sets our starting book. In April, yep, it’s a book I haven’t read – again – Bruce Springsteen’s autobiography, Kate calls it, Born to run. I make that point about “autobiography” because so often these days the books people write about their own lives tend to be “memoirs” but I presume Springsteen’s book covers more than a memoir typically does?

For my first link I’ve gone with something pretty obvious, a memoir with “running” in the title, Haruki Murakami’s What I talk about when I talk about running (my review). This is definitely not autobiography because it really does focus on his running. I had hoped – despite the title – for a bit more about his writing!

As I recollect, Murakami’s book takes a bit of a log-cum-diary form, so I’m going to another memoir that really is diary form, Helen Garner’s Yellow notebook: Diaries, Volume 1, 1978-1987 (my review). She is a mistress of the form and I hope to get to volume 3 next year – if life would just slow down a bit.

In her book, Garner mentions many authors whom she admires. One of these is Christina Stead, whom she calls “a visionary”. I’m linking to her novel For love alone (my review).

Christina Stead left Australia in her 20s, and made her name as a writer after she left our shores. Another Australian writer who made her name as a writer after leaving Australia is Madeleine St John, but it’s to her Australian-set novel, The women in black (my review), that I’m linking.

The women in black was adapted to film, but its title was slightly changed to The ladies in black. My next link is a bit cheeky, but not, I think, as cheeky as my last link will be. Jane Austen’s Emma (one of my posts) has been adapted several times to film and TV, but one of my favourites is the one Wikipedia describes as a ““reworking and updating”, Clueless. (Now, that’s a big change in title!)

And now for, perhaps, my cheekiest link yet! Alicia Silverstone, who starred in Clueless as Cher (the updated Emma) left the movie world and became interested in animal activism and organic eating/veganism. Australian poet/novelist/essayist/academic David Brooks wrote a memoir-cum-reflection about his journey to vegetarianism and then veganism, The grass library (my review), in which he also talks at length about his relationship with some farm animals.

So, I could argue that I’ve achieved a bit of a circle this month, taking us from Springsteen’s autobiography to Brooks’ sort-of memoir? A circle is not required for the meme, so let’s not argue the point and just move on! We have covered a lot of ground from running, to diary-writing, to Aussie expats, before taking Jane Austen over to the US and ending up on a small farm in Australia’s Blue Mountains.

Now, the usual: Have you read Born to run? And, regardless, what would you link to?

I may as well continue my practice of talking about the weather! Here down under, autumn has started, and we in the nation’s capital at least have had a beautiful start with the warm, mild days we love autumn for. May it continue for some weeks given our non-summer. Now, to this month’s Six Degrees. If you don’t know how the meme works, please check meme host Kate’s blog – booksaremyfavouriteandbest.

The first rule is that Kate sets our starting book. In March it is YET another book I haven’t read, though I remember it well, Gail Sheehy’s best-selling self-help book, Passages. GoodReads describes it as “a brilliant road map of adult life” so, what to link?

Well, reader, I was challenged. The closest to self-help I’ve read is Julia Baird’s Phosphorescence but I’ve linked to that before. Perhaps, then, a book that spans adult life? Well, yes, I s’pose. That would certainly be doable, but, I’ve decided to go with author birth-date. Gail Sheehy was born in 1936, and so was the Australian author, Alex Miller, so it’s to his Lovesong (my review) that I’m linking.

Now, another Australian author has also written a book titled Lovesong, Elizabeth Jolley. However, I read that before blogging, so I’m going to link to one of her books I have read since and reviewed here, The orchard thieves (my review). It’s a glorious book about a grandmother thinking about her children and grandchildren, about “little rogues and thieves” who “would, during their lives, do something perfect and noble and wonderful and something absolutely appalling”.

Somehow, I’ve read a few books about orchards, and one of them is local author Karen Viggers’ The orchardist’s daughter (my review), which is set in northwest Tasmania and deals with two siblings who had grown up on an orchard, though they leave it at the beginning. It’s a strong story about life and tensions in a logging-based town.

For anyone who is up-to-date on Australian writing, the next link is so obvious I’m almost too embarrassed to make it, Robbie Arnott’s Limberlost (my review). This novel is set in a northeast Tasmanian orchard, and while it is not specifically about siblings, siblings do play a significant role. It also encompasses the issue of logging, though not as centrally as Viggers’ book does.

Now, we really need to leave Australia, because, much as I love to promote Aussie Lit, I mustn’t be too ethnocentric about all this. So, my next link is on third novels. Limberlost is Robbie Arnott’s third novel. Singaporean author Balli Kaur Jaswal’s Erotic stories for Punjabi widows (my review) is her third novel, so, short and sweet, that’s my next link.

My final link is on subject matter, as both Jaswal’s novel and Hanif Kureishi’s The buddha of suburbia (my review) deal in some way with subcontinent culture in London. Jaswal’s protagonist, Nikki, is born in England to Punjabi immigrant parents, while Kureishi’s Karim is the English-born son of a Pakistani father from Bombay and an English mother. Both characters, in different ways, have to make their way through the intersection of anglo and immigrant cultures.

So, we haven’t travelled a lot this month as we started in America with Passages, spent some time in Australia and then went to England! My author gender-split though has been 50-50 which I rarely achieve.

Now, the usual: Have you read Passages? And, regardless, what would you link to?