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Saturday, November 4, 2023

Six Degrees of Separation, from Western Lane to The Unfinished Clue




Six Degrees of Separation
is a monthly meme, now hosted by Kate @ books are my favorite and best.

On the first Saturday of every month, a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book.

This month we start from yet another book I haven't read:


0. Western Lane by Chetna Maroo

A coming-of-age novel about an eleven-year-old girl who was shaped by her father to be a sport machine.

"Eleven-year-old Gopi has been playing squash since she was old enough to hold a racket. When her mother dies, her father enlists her in a quietly brutal training regimen, and the game becomes her world. Slowly, she grows apart from her sisters. Her life is reduced to the sport, guided by its the serve, the volley, the drive, the shot and its echo.

But on the court, she is not alone. She is with her pa. She is with Ged, a thirteen-year-old boy with his own formidable talent. She is with the players who have come before her. She is in awe.

An indelible coming-of-age story, Chetna Maroo’s first novel captures the ordinary and annihilates it with beauty. Western Lane is a valentine to innocence, to the closeness of sisterhood, to the strange ways we come to know ourselves and each other." ~Goodreads


The main character has lost her mother, and that would be the link to my first chain, a girl whose mother has just passed away in a book I've read very recently:


1. The Weather at Tregulla by Stella Gibbons



My review

Una Beaumont lost her chance of studying acting in London after her mother's death, and she saw her chance of freedom in a self-centered painter who regards his painting above anything else.

This reminded me of another book with a self-centered painter I've read lately:


2. Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie



My review

Hercule Poirot investigates a murder which happened sixteen years ago. He classified the five suspects as five little Pigs, following a nursery rhyme.

Agatha Christie loved to title her books with nursery rhymes. Another of these is one of her famous books:


3. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie



My review

And Then There Were None was originally published as Ten Little Indians, and the order of the murders were also following the nursery rhyme. I read it in junior high school and it was the first book I've read set in Devon.

Another Golden Age murder mystery set in Devon:


4. Murder in the Mill Race by E.C.R. Lorac



My review

A quiet little village was disturbed by the murder of its prominent figure, Sister Monica, whose body was found drowning near the mill.

The mill here instantly reminded me of another book, also with 'the mill' in the title:


5. The Mill in the Floss by George Eliot



My review

I read this book many years ago, so I had to read my own review to find any thing to link with the next chain. And I got it! There's a minor character in this story called Stephen Guest. And that reminds me of another Stephen Guest on another book I've read recently:


6. The Unfinished Clue by Georgette Heyer



My review 

It's a perfect Golden Age detective story with a charming detective, wonderful plot with surprising twist,  proportionate writing with decent pace, a tinge of efficient romance, pleasant and believable characters, set in an English countryside.


Have you read those books? If you do #sixdegree, how it worked out for you this time?

15 comments:

  1. Nice chain! By the way, the original, original title of "And Then There Were None" was "Ten Little N*ggers" which was the first iteration of the nursery rhyme. But political correctness changed it to Indians and then later to the final title.

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    1. Thanks, Davida. Yes, I'm aware of the original title, but for the same reason, I chose the 'second' original title. :) Actually my first copy was that of the original title.

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  2. Great chain! Very pleased to see two Christies here. Love the Stephen Guest link--I've read The Mill on the Floss and the Unfinished Clue but I didn't remember Stephen Guest in the first one.

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    1. Thanks, Mallika! I didn't realize the Stephen Guest at The Mill on the Floss either, if I hadn't read my own review!

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  3. Oh, fun chain! I meant to read the Stella Gibbons for the #1962 Club but did not get a copy in time. I have read the Christies and The Unfinished Clue. Not sure I ever finished The Mill on the Floss, however!

    Constance

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    1. Thanks, Constance :) Hope you'll get to read The Weather at Tregulla eventually, it's charming!

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  4. Interesting, you moved to murder mystery quite quickly. What a great idea.

    From your books, I have only read The Mill on the Floss and quite liked it.

    Thanks for visiting my Six Degrees of Separation which took me from Western Lane to The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells.

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    1. Thanks for visiting too, Marianne! I've read The Mill on the Floss a long ago, and didn't like it then. I found the characters unsympathetic.

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  5. Wow! Lots of great authors here--Georgette! Agatha! George Elliott and a British Library Crime Classic! Superb!

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  6. You are right, they are not very likeable. I still did like the book but I read it as an adult, that usually makes a big difference.

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  7. I read and enjoyed And Then There Were None a few years ago.. Like you, I read The Mill on the Floss ages ago; and I only have the memory of reading it at this time..
    Want to check out The Weather at Treguilla and the Heyer book
    My post is here

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    1. Fortunately for us book blogger, we have our posts to remind us what we've forgotten about certain book... ;)

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  8. This is a great chain, Fanda. Sorry it took me so long to check it out. So many books here I want to read (or loved reading). I would like to try this book by Stella Gibbons, and I have only read a couple of books by ECR Lorac and I want to read more. I have read the books by Christie, but I don't have a copy of that mystery by Heyer.

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    1. Thank you Tracy! I hope you'll like the Stella Gibbons when you read it. Its character aren't really amiable, but the writing is superb!

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