6 Degrees of Separation: From Beach Read to The Twelfth Raven

Welcome back to Six Degrees of Separation, where Kate from booksaremyfavouriteandbest provides the name of a book; we all connect it to six other titles and see where we all end up.

The first book for 2023 is great choice for a holiday read, and aptly named Beach Read by Emily Henry.

The premise is that of a literary fiction author and romance writer, both struggling with writer’s block (oh, I hear you!), who end up staying in neighbouring beach houses and challenging each other to write a story in the other’s preferred genre. In fact, this six degrees is several days late because I decided to check out Beach Read instead, and stayed up way past my bedtime. It was exactly the escapist read I needed. (I’ve since also devoured Book Lovers, another Emily Henry title.)

Prior to that, the last book I read containing a romance is Natasha Lester’s The Three Lives of Alix St Pierre, which is set in France and Italy during and shortly after the Second World War.

This led me to finally read a book that’s been on my shelf for a while, and is mentioned in the references of Lester’s book: A House in the Mountains by Caroline Moorehead. It’s the true story of four women from Turin (Torino) who worked with the resistance during the German occupation. My fascination with this stems from my husband’s nonno who, as a young man, was also a member of the resistance.

Another novel (but based on a true story) set in a similar time and part of Italy is Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan.

A scarlet sky of a different kind is that created by fire.  Kinglake 350 by Adrian Hyland is a mix of memoir, biography and information about aspects of fire. Noticing the way Hyland brings different threads of the story together offers ideas about the structure of my own memoir (albeit a very different topic).

A book closer in theme to my work-in-progress but different in style is Malachy by Dominic Frawley. Malachy is Frawley’s son and was born with congenital heart disease.

Also narrated by the loved one of someone who has an illness is The Twelfth Raven by Doris Brett. When Brett’s husband has a massive stroke, losing his ability to speak, their world is upended. An experienced psychologist, Brett researches the latest on brain plasticity and neurotherapy in order to aid her husband’s recovery.

I began this chain in a house by the beach in the US, traveled back in time to Italy and France, and then returned to the present with some contemporary non-fiction – about fairly dramatic topics on reflection!

Where will six degrees take you?

Check out where it led other readers by heading over to booksaremyfavouriteandbest.

Next month, we will begin with a book which apparently topped the most ‘Best Books of 2022’ lists  – Trust by Hernan Diaz.