Six Degrees of Separation, from Butter to Sophie's World

Six Degrees of Separation is a monthly meme, now hosted by Kate @ books are my favorite and bestbooks 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. Butter: A Novel of Food and Murder by Asako Yuzuki

"Gourmet cook Manako Kajii sits in Tokyo Detention Center convicted of the serial murders of lonely businessmen, who she is said to have seduced with her delicious home cooking.

Inspired by the real case of the convicted con woman and serial killer, "The Konkatsu Killer," Asako Yuzuki’s Butter is a vivid, unsettling exploration of misogyny, obsession, romance and the transgressive pleasures of food in Japan." summary from Goodreads

My first link is another murder mystery where the chef is suspected to have committed the murder:

1. Murder on the Menu by Alex Coombs

Excerpt from my review:
"Chef Charlie Hunter arrived at Hampden Green, a little village in the Chiltern Hills, an idyllic English countryside, to open a new sheet to her life. She bought Old Forge cafe, and determined to transform it into a high quality restaurant with high quality foods she's capable to cook.

[...] Then there's the local builder, Dave Whitfield, who's known as a pompous bully - or knobhead, as Charlie's first staff Jess called him. He was found dead few days after Charlie punched him for bullying her. That's right, Charlie Hunter is a tough woman besides a good chef. Of course, this automatically made her a suspect." My complete review

Linking this to another foodie book seems too easy, so my next one is another murder mystery where the victim's profession is related to building construction, which I've just read recently:

2. But Not For Me by Allison A. Davis

Excerpt from my review:
"This is a combination of a murder mystery and a poignant tale of racial injustice and prejudices, of women's struggles for freedom and recognition. Add the unique atmosphere and pop culture of the 1950s into it, and you'll be entertained as well as inspired." The complete review

I quite enjoyed the time setting of this book, which is in the 1950s. Another modern crime fiction set in the same era of the 1950s I have enjoyed last year is:

3. The Bookshop Murder by Merryn Allingham

Excerpt from my review:
"After her aunt died, Flora Steel - an orphan who had lived with and adored her aunt - inherited a local bookshop in a quiet English village: Abbeymead. The year is 1955." The complete review

This is book one of a cozy mystery series I've been enjoying, where the main character and the amateur sleuth is a bookshop owner. Another book I read (but not enjoyed as much - unfortunately) with a bookshop owner as the main character is:

4. Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa

Excerpt from my review:
"After a bad breakup with her boyfriend, who married another girl, Takako was total wreck a d jobless. She accepted her uncle's invitation to stay rent-free in a room above the store. She isn't a reader, and at first felt suffocated sleeping with piles of books around her room. But little by little, she regained calmness, with the help of her caring uncle (whom she felt more connected with), and of course, the healing power of books." The complete review

What I love from this book, apart from the bookshop setting, is the lovely relationship between the main character and her uncle. Another Japanese book with the same dynamic of relationship is...

5. How Do You Live? by Genzaburo Yoshino

Excerpt from my review:
"The story is about a fifteenth year-old boy called Honda Jun'ichi, but nicknamed Copper. It's an interesting story how Jun'ichi got this nickname. His father died two years before, and his last wish was that Copper would grow into a good human being. So, Copper's uncle begins to guide and advice him. They become very intimate and inseparable."  The complete review 

It's a kind of philosophical coming-of-age story intended for middle grade readers. Through the reading, this book reminded me to another philosophical novel for teenager, but from a Norwegian author, that I've read years before:

6. Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder

Summary from Goodreads:
"One day fourteen-year-old Sophie Amundsen comes home from school to find in her mailbox two notes, with one question on each: "Who are you?" and "Where does the world come from?" From that irresistible beginning, Sophie becomes obsessed with questions that take her far beyond what she knows of her Norwegian village. Through those letters, she enrolls in a kind of correspondence course, covering Socrates to Sartre, with a mysterious philosopher, while receiving letters addressed to another girl. Who is Hilde? And why does her mail keep turning up? To unravel this riddle, Sophie must use the philosophy she is learning—but the truth turns out to be far more complicated than she could have imagined."

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