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Saturday, July 6, 2024

Six Degrees of Separation, from Kairos to The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax




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. Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck


"An unforgettably compelling masterpiece—tells the story of the romance begun in East Berlin at the end of the 1980s when nineteen-year-old Katharina meets by chance a married writer in his fifties named Hans. Their passionate yet difficult long-running affair takes place against the background of the declining GDR, through the upheavals wrought by its dissolution in 1989 and then what comes after. In her unmistakable style and with enormous sweep, Erpenbeck describes the path of two lovers, as Katharina grows up and tries to come to terms with a not always ideal romance, even as a whole world with its own ideology disappears." ~ Goodreads

I feel a bit lazy today, so I'm going to do this in easiest possible way. My first chain would be a classic by another German author:


1. The Nutcracker and the Mouse King by E.T.A. Hoffman



A Christmas classic I've read for the first time last year. I have never seen the ballet, but suspect that it would be much more beautiful than the book.

Another book with boy and girl siblings secondary characters but with no less importance to the story is...



2. Scarlet Feather by Maeve Binchy



It was my first Binchy, but loved it very much, I'll definitely read more of her. I read this for the last Ireland Month.

I would link this to another book with the word "scarlet" in the title:



3. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne



It was called a classic for a reason. I found layer upon layer of depth beneath the story that I produced a lot of posts around it.

Still linking words in title, here's a book with "letter" in the title:



4. Dear Paris: The Paris Letters Collection by Janice MacLeod



I learned so much more about Paris from this collection of illustrated letters than from any other sources before. What a joyful book to read!

Another play with the same words in the title, my next chain shares the word Paris :



5. Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris by Paul Gallico



A British charwoman won a lottery to buy her dream Dior dress in Paris was the most delightful read you'd come across!

For the last chain, here's another book with "Mrs" in the title, which shares similar elderly women who still have some spirits left in them for another life-changing adventures:



6. The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman



A charming, funny, and sweet story to enjoy, with spy-adventures - rather than thriller. It's also a good way of learning a little about the Cold War and Albanian culture in the 1950s.


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

10 comments:

  1. I enjoyed your chain, I might take a look at The Unexpected Mrs Pollifax. If you're interested in mine here is the link http://clairesreadsandreviews.home.blog/2024/07/06/6degrees-of-separation-4-july-2024/

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    1. Thanks Claire! The chain certainly ended with an unexpected book (pun intended) ;)

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  2. When I saw that this chain ended with Pollifax, I was very amazed that you got there from Kairos! But hey, you did, and beautifully. You know, I think they made a movie or TV series about Mrs. Harris goes to Paris. I'm going to check it out. Well done!

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    1. Thanks, Davida! That's the beauty of #6degrees, isn't it? It can turn to unexpected way.
      Yes, there's a new TV series of Mrs. Harris, but I haven't watched yet. Somehow I'm afraid I'll be disappointed..

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  3. Such appropriate links for #ParisinJuly. And, I loved Maeve Binchy! Mrs. 'Arris!! Wow--such good stuff here. I'm off to look for Dear Paris!

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    1. Ah yes, I haven't thought about that. Hopefully you'll get to enjoy Dear Paris for #ParisinJuly!

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  4. I have never read The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, but I have seen and actually performed in The Nutcracker ballet (albeit a small studio production the studio my daughter was dancing at the time performed with). I kept telling myself I would get to it, but it hasn't happened yet. I read The Scarlet Letter years ago. It's not one I've thought to revisit, but you never know! I enjoyed a book by Dorothy Gilman in the past. What a fun book to end on! Thank you for sharing!

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    1. True, The Scarlet Letter isn't very comforting to revisit. I know I won't, considering how thoroughly I have analyzed it.
      Dorothy Gilman is another writer I'd like to read the complete series!

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  5. A great chain with several I have read! You started with a good Binchy but nearly every one is enjoyable. Some include characters from earlier books - I haven't read Scarlet Feather for a long time but I think there are twins somewhere, right? And I used Mrs. Pollifax in my 6Degrees last month! Hawthorne is an acquired taste but, as you may know, I live in Boston where it is set.

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    1. The twins in Scarlet Feather really provide most of the hilarious scenes. They are like secondary characters, but the ones that tie all lose ends of every other characters' stories.

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What do you think?