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Reviews & Recommendations

6 Degrees of Separation: The Arsonist

Melinda Tognini March 2, 2019 16 Comments
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Welcome back to Six Degrees of Separation in which Kate from Books are my Favourite and Best provides a starting title and we link that book to six others in any way we damn well please.

This month, we’re starting with The Arsonist by Chloe Hooper.

Chloe Hooper was recently a guest at Perth Writers Week. Although I attended a number of panel discussions, I missed both of her sessions due to programming conflicts. In fact, I felt like I spent most of the weekend trying to choose between two or more equally interesting sessions.

While I missed hearing Chloe Hooper speak about The Arsonist, I did attend Karen Foxlee’s session about her novel, Lenny’s Book of Everything. I really enjoyed hearing about her writing process and how she formed connections between seemingly unconnected elements (a boy who is ‘different’ in some way and a set of encylopedias).

Lenny’s Book of Everything has a young girl at the centre of the story, as does Marcella Polain’s Driving into the Sun, which begins in 1968. Young Orla is on the edge of adolescence when her father dies suddenly.

Like Marcella Polain, AJ Betts is also from Western Australia. Her latest novel for young adults is Hive, a dystopian fiction in which the community is highly structured, and resembling a bee hive.

Another YA novel I’d like to read is Bonesland by Brendan Lawley. Lawley’s debut novel is about a boy who can’t wait to escape his small town – until an intriguing girl comes into his life and changes everything. Although I now look back on my time of living in the country with fondness and nostalgia, I do remember counting down the days until I could leave home for a new life in the city.

A book that takes me to an even earlier time in my life is Meg McKinlay’s novel, Catch a Falling Star, which is set against the backdrop of Skylab falling in 1979. I was living in Perth at the time, and although I was only in primary school, I do remember people speculating about where and when it was going to fall to Earth.

Catch a Falling Star was one of the books I included on my list of 19 Books to Read in 2019, as was Dervla McTiernan’s The Scholar. The Scholar is the second in a series about Irish detective Cormac Reilly and set in Galway. If you love a good crime novel with complex, but likeable characters then I highly recommend you check it out.

This month has had a decidedly Perth Writers Week flavour – all authors mentioned appeared at this year’s festival. While some of the stories have been set a contempory time period, I’ve also travelled back to the 1960s and 1970s, and then forward to a dystopian future. I did eventually leave Australia, though, in order to visit Ireland for my final link in this month’s chain.

Reading really does its own special power to transport us through time and space.

Over to You

Where will Six Degrees of Separation take you?

If you’d like to know the myriad directions it has taken other readers, head over to Books are my Favourite and Best, where you will find links to other chains.

And if you want to read about other books I discovered at the 2019 Perth Writers Week, head to my previous post, 19 More books to Read in 2019 (Perth Writers Week Edition).

Next month’s Six Degrees of Separation will start with Ali Smith’s award-winning novel, How to be Both on 6 April 2019. Have you read it?

 

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Previous 19 More Books to Read in 2019 (Perth Writers Week edition)
Next Creative Prompts #4: Circus
Melinda Tognini

story-gatherer & mentor

Related Posts
6 Degrees of Separation: From Sorrow and Bliss to Lost and Found June 4, 2022
Book Notes: So Many Beats of the Heart by Carrie Cox May 31, 2022
So Many Beats of the Heart: In-Conversation with Carrie Cox May 24, 2022

16 Comments

  1. Maureen Helen says:
    March 2, 2019 at 11:08 am

    Love the way you link your reading, proposed reading and hope-to-be-reading books, Melinda. I always want to read the books you nominate.

    Reply
    1. Melinda Tognini says:
      March 2, 2019 at 12:14 pm

      Thanks, Maureen! I’m sure you’d enjoy playing 6 Degrees of Separation, too.

      Reply
  2. Lisa Hill says:
    March 2, 2019 at 1:54 pm

    Hello Melinda, how I envy you the Perth Writers Festival, I do so wish it were held in a cooler season! There was an article today (in the Guardian today about writers’ festivals where you can see how our MWF has taken turn away from books, see https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-02/australian-writers-festivals-controversy-crisis-looking-forward/10837076).
    I have discovered Marcella Polain via Amanda Curtin’s blog (Looking Up, Looking Down). I’ve bought The Edge of the World and I’ve got Driving into the Sun on reserve at the library. She sounds like an interesting writer:)

    Reply
    1. Melinda Tognini says:
      March 2, 2019 at 2:13 pm

      Hi Lisa, thanks for the link to the article – I look forward to reading it. Perth Writers Week seemed to be very much focused on books (and their authors of course!), and we were very fortunate with the weather – two days of warm but not excessive temperatures. I’d love to know how you find The Edge of the World. I read it in 2015, around the time of the Gallipoli centenary, which made it a particularly poignant read for me.

      Reply
  3. Whispering Gums says:
    March 2, 2019 at 4:31 pm

    What a very interesting chain Melinda. I love that you managed to include all writers who were at the Perth Writers Festival. I would like to get there one day. I love WA, and particularly Perth and its Mediterranean style climate!

    Reply
    1. Melinda Tognini says:
      March 2, 2019 at 5:09 pm

      Thank you! If you ever get over to Perth let me know, as it would be lovely to meet up in person, especially if it coincided with some book related event like Perth Writers Week.

      Reply
  4. AnnaBookBel says:
    March 2, 2019 at 6:41 pm

    Loved your sideways first link.

    Reply
  5. Muse & Views Bookclub says:
    March 2, 2019 at 9:15 pm

    Well we have been contributing to the Six Degrees meme for almost two years now and I am continually surprised as to how many interesting books we have yet to read or even heard of! It is a testament to how reading is universal and often local that in a world so closely connected in the 21st century, there are so many wonderful published stories that come from all over the world.

    Reply
    1. Melinda Tognini says:
      March 3, 2019 at 6:44 am

      I totally agree – at times it’s overwhelming to see how many wonderful books there are to read and know that there is probably no way I can read them all. I love the idea that ‘reading is universal and often local’ – I will remember that!

      Reply
  6. Emma @ Words And Peace says:
    March 2, 2019 at 10:14 pm

    Nice! The Scholar got me intrigued, I added the #1 of this series to my TBR. My chain is here, with some unusual result: https://wordsandpeace.com/2019/03/02/six-degrees-of-separation-from-hooper-to-hooper/

    Reply
    1. Melinda Tognini says:
      March 3, 2019 at 6:48 am

      Hi Emma, I hope you enjoy The Ruin as much as I did. Heading over to check out your chain now.

      Reply
  7. maria helena says:
    March 3, 2019 at 12:23 am

    I’m definitely adding The Scholar to my TBR list.

    Reply
    1. Melinda Tognini says:
      March 3, 2019 at 6:45 am

      I’ve have just bought it, and I don’t think we will be disappointed, Maria Helena.

      Reply
      1. maria helena says:
        March 7, 2019 at 2:00 am

        I’m looking forward to hearing what you think of it.

        Reply
  8. Lisa of Hopewell says:
    March 5, 2019 at 5:22 am

    Nice job!

    Reply
    1. Melinda Tognini says:
      March 5, 2019 at 7:17 am

      Thanks, Lisa!

      Reply

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    I would love to know what you think once you have finished them - I always love seeing your perspective on the books you read x
    In 6 Degrees of Separation: From Sorrow and Bliss to Lost and Found
    I found that fascinating too - especially given the reasons for the connection were totally different.
    In 6 Degrees of Separation: From Sorrow and Bliss to Lost and Found
    There are so many fabulous writers in Australia (both fiction and non-fiction), so I love being able to share them with others who might be less familiar with them!
    In 6 Degrees of Separation: From Sorrow and Bliss to Lost and Found

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