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Reviews & Recommendations

6 Degrees of Separation: From Tales of the City to A Wrinkle in Time

Melinda Tognini July 7, 2018 12 Comments
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Welcome back to Six Degrees of Separation, the bookish meme that invites you to take a given title (as suggested by Kate from booksaremyfavouriteandbest), and link it to six other books in any way that comes to mind. It could be by subject matter, place, time, author, word or any other random way your mind chooses to form connections.

This month, we’re starting with Tales of the City: a Novel by Armistead Maupin.

Tales of the City, the first in a series, is set in San Francisco in 1976, and was originally published in 1978.

I’ve just finished reading You Belong Here by Laurie Steed. It was published earlier this year, but also begins in the 1970s. There was so much in the book that resonated with me. If you grew up in surburbia in the 1970s or 1980s, or watched your parents divorce, or experienced sibling love and rivalry, or saw a loved one struggle with their mental health – or if you ever owned a copy of Just Hits ’85 (I did!) – then I think there’s a lot you’ll relate to as well.

On the theme of belonging, I couldn’t go past Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone by Brene Brown. I’ve read a couple of Brown’s books now and this is probably the one that has engaged me the most.

Burke and Wills experienced a more literal wilderness when they set out across the interior of Australia in 1860. I know that Peter FitzSimons has written another blockbuster with his retelling of this story, but I’m actually thinking of Sarah Murgatroyd’s The Dig Tree: The Story of Burke and Wills about the same expedition.

The Dig Tree was recommended to me by my friend Nathan Hobby, who is currently writing a biography of Western Australian author, Katharine Susannah Prichard. I can’t include his book because it’s still being written, so I’ll mention one of Prichard’s instead. The Roaring Nineties is the first in her trilogy about the Western Australian goldfields, and gave me a glimpse in to the life of my great-grandmother, who grew up in and around Kanowna and Kalgoorlie.

I am currently reading A Tear in the Soul by Amanda Webster, who also grew up in Kalgoorlie, and returned forty years later to confront (to quote the book’s blurb) ‘her racist blunders, her cultural ignorance and her family’s secret past.’ I haven’t finished it yet, but Webster has drawn me into the world of her childhood and her much later awareness about the ‘distorted and idealised version of the past’ she’d lived with for many years.

A Tear in the Soul reminded me of the notion of a ‘tear in the universe’. I don’t really know where I’ve heard that phrase before, but it made me think of Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time, with young Meg travelling through time and space in search of her father.

So there you have it. I travelled from the 1970s to the present day in search of belonging, then back in time to the harshness of the Australian outback, before seeking out the rest of the universe. A fair bit of armchair travelling this month!

Over to You

Where will six degrees of separation lead you?

Be sure to head over to booksaremyfavouriteandbest, where you can find links to other participants. No two chains are the same and it’s always interesting to see where others ended up, so let me know if you decide to join in.

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Previous Falling in Love (with Writing) Again
Next Searching for Ancestors: Uncovering Traces of the Past
Melinda Tognini

story-gatherer & mentor

Related Posts
6 Degrees of Separation: From Western Lane to Bedtime Story November 4, 2023
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12 Comments

  1. Nathan says:
    July 7, 2018 at 9:32 am

    I’ve actually read a majority of these for the first time! I hadn’t heard of Amanda Webster’s book – sounds interesting. I was just revisiting a 1931 story by Katharine Prichard which is a miniature version of Roaring Nineties, “Mrs Jinny’s Shroud” – it’s now digitised on Trove: http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-603944587.
    Also, spotted a recent history of Kanowna at the Millpoint Caffe Bookshop – it’s called Wealth for the Willing: the Story of Kanowna by Robert Baugh; my mum bought a copy for my dad – https://www.facebook.com/Wealthforthewilling/

    Reply
    1. Melinda Tognini says:
      July 7, 2018 at 11:16 am

      I will have to check out the short story – thanks for the Trove link. I have recently read Wealth for the Willing, but it’s on loan from a friend, so I might have to see if the Millpoint Caffe Bookshop has any more copies …

      Reply
  2. Susan Osborne says:
    July 7, 2018 at 4:03 pm

    That’s quite a journey. I imagine a few stories have been passed down the generations from your great-grandmother.

    Reply
    1. Melinda Tognini says:
      July 7, 2018 at 5:10 pm

      Unfortunately, not as many stories as I’d like! She died before I was born and my grandmother didn’t talk much about her background. But the snippets we do know are the fragments my great-grandmother told my mother, with a warning, ‘Don’t tell your mother I told you!’

      Reply
  3. Margaret @ BooksPlease says:
    July 7, 2018 at 7:22 pm

    Such interesting books! All new to me except for A Wrinkle in Time.

    Reply
  4. Lisa says:
    July 7, 2018 at 8:45 pm

    Wow! Superb job. So many fascinating and new-to-me books! Exactly why I love Six Degrees!

    Reply
  5. MarinaSofia says:
    July 8, 2018 at 4:13 pm

    I hadn’t heard about Brene Brown’s Braving the Wilderness, but I like her talks and writing generally, so I will have to search for this. Very interesting and new to me chain!

    Reply
    1. Melinda Tognini says:
      July 8, 2018 at 5:33 pm

      I love her talks, too. I found a lot I identified with in Braving the Wilderness, and made me want to go back and read more of her earlier work, as well as watch more of her talks.

      Reply
  6. Kate @ booksaremyfavouriteandbest says:
    July 8, 2018 at 9:08 pm

    Such a terrific chain. I really must read You Belong Here (all of the things you mentioned about that book screamed YES! to me.
    Love your link to Brown ?

    Reply
    1. Melinda Tognini says:
      July 8, 2018 at 9:14 pm

      Thanks, Kate. Yes, do read You Belong Here – and I hope you enjoy it, and find as much to relate to as I did.

      Reply
  7. Dani @ Perspective of a Writer says:
    July 11, 2018 at 11:22 am

    The Dig Tree sounds fascinating and I admit the cover is quite compelling too. And I have a friend who would love You Belong Here! I’ll have to suggest it to her. I am planning to keep participating. ❤️

    Reply
    1. Melinda Tognini says:
      July 11, 2018 at 3:59 pm

      Hi Dani, so good to hear from you – and so glad that you plan to keep participating – it’s a lot of fun isn’t it!

      Reply

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    Thanks, Margaret. I thought Chloe Hooper's book was particularly interesting because of the way she weaves different elements together, but just a note that it is essentially a recovery narrative, which may or may not be what you're looking given your daughter's experience x
    In 6 Degrees of Separation: From Western Lane to Bedtime Story
    An intriguing chain. I like the look of Between Water and the Night Sky. And the Chloe Hooper interests me because my daughter had exactly this to face when my son-in-law was dying. But each of these look interesting. Great post!
    In 6 Degrees of Separation: From Western Lane to Bedtime Story
    Thank you, Davida! I Am, I Am, I Am has become my favourite memoir as a collection of essays I have read to date. But yes, heartbreaking in some many different ways!
    In 6 Degrees of Separation: From Western Lane to Bedtime Story

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