Six Degrees of Separation, from Mountains to Beach: A Wild Card

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.

To kick off the new year, we get a wild card by starting with the book you finished your December chain with. I love wild card!

0. In the Mountains by Elizabeth von Arnim

Excerpt from my review: In the Mountains is an epistolary novella by Elizabeth von Arnim, which is structured as diary. The author, thus the narrator, is an English woman, who seeks refuge at her chalet on the Swiss Alps. It's post Second World War, and for some mysterious and dark reason, our narrator is depressed and longed for peace and solitude of the Swiss Alps mountains to be cured. However, just when she feels quite refreshed after spending hours in languid nature while admiring the beautiful views and cold crisp air, our narrator becomes restless and lonesome. It's her birthday, and as she wants to be busy herself to avert her mind from "the thing", she gives the servants holiday. And it is when she's alone, two women clothed in black, arrive on the scene. Here's the complete review.
I always feel refreshed after reading books set in the mountain, maybe because I myself live in a tropical country, and prefer cold and crisp air than hot and damp ones.  

1. Jade Dragon Mountain by Elsa Hart

Here's another book set in the mountain, which even has "mountain" in the title too. 

Excerpt from my review: Jade Dragon Mountain is Elsa Hart's debut historical mystery novel, set in Dayan, a small mountainous town at the Chinese border with Tibet, in 18th century. Our sleuth is Li Du, an imperial librarian in exile, who is visiting his cousin, who were the magistrate of Dayan, during his journey. Dayan was an insignificant town in the vast empire, but at present it's proudly preparing for the upcoming visit of the Emperor himself, as a total solar eclipse would occur in several days... You can read my complete review here if you're interested.

This reminded me of an author whose name was associated with the days of the week.

It's not often that we have a Chinese detective in a crime-mystery novel, and although Li Du isn't a proper detective - he's more of a scholar with good deduction skill and intuition. 

2. The House without a Key by Earl Derr Biggers

Excerpt from my review: This is the first book of Charlie Chan series. He's probably the most exotic detective you'd ever read about; a Honolulu police detective, who is a Chinese-Hawaiian. Charlie Chan is portrayed as intelligent and honorable. His eagerness to learn English through poems shaped his way of talking, always polite and with admirable choices of words. It's one of the amusements this book provides, besides, of course, the mystery. You might need to read the complete review to know more about this book.

Charlie Chan, the Chinese-Hawaiian police detective, doesn't appear much in this first of the series. Nevertheless, he provided a charm to this delightful locked-room murder mystery - or to be more precise, a murder in the house without a key, which was implied in the title...

3. The House on the Strand by Daphne du Maurier

This one also has 'the house' in the title, but with a far different atmosphere. Like most of du Maurier's, it's a gothic semi-thriller, but with time-travelling theme.

Excerpt from my review: As is usual with all of du Maurier's, this one is also a gripping story about the addiction to another life when ones' own is less eventful and stuck in a place one doesn't want to be. Richard Young has befriended Magnus Lane since university. He often stayed with the Lanes on holidays at Kilmarth, an ancient house near the Cornish coast. Magnus Lane is now a scientist, a chemical researcher or biophysicist at the University of London, and Richard, or Dick, has often been his guinea pig. Magnus has a laboratory in his house, and here he is perfecting a special concoction, which Dick has agreed to test. You can read my complete review here.

4. Genderang Perang dari Wamena by Djokolelono

This is an Indonesian children fantasy novella, where two teenagers are having a thrilling adventures while rummaging through pile of stuffs at the backyard shed. Here's an excerpt from my review: Opening a box in which Adi's father kept stuffs from the museum, they found a little drum. It's a traditional music instrument from Papua which is usually called tifa. Playfully one of them starts to beat it, and a strange thing happens. The player can't stop beating the drum, his hand goes faster and faster, while the other can't stop dancing on the tune. Then a white mist fills the shed, and the shed suddenly turns into a jungle. The boys are time-travelling to the jungle of Wamena in Papua, in the 18th century, following a Dutch expedition consisting of four white men and some locals. And here's the link to the complete review.

5. Chasing Vermeer by Blue Baillett

And here it is another thrilling adventure of two teenagers (a boy and a girl this time) that I have enjoyed very recently. Excerpt from my review: It was an entertaining story about art theft (Vermeer's A Lady Writing painting) and coincidences, full of puzzles and codes, and some suspenseful actions; not mentioning the history of art (particularly Vermeer). [...] This was an exciting read for me. I always love books with art theme, especially paintings. And Vermeer is one of painters I always admire (Girl with A Pearl Earring is my favorite by Vermeer). Apart from the far-fetched dream of Petra (the Lady asked for help and guided Petra to her location), this is an educational and entertaining read for middle grader. Read the complete review here.

6. The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher

The painting which was the backbone of this book is a fictional one, as well as the painter. Nevertheless, I could see it vividly in my mind, thanks to Pilcher's lovely narrative, but partly also to the cover of this audiobook version. 

Here's the excerpt from my review: The Shell Seekers is the title of a painting which hung on the wall of Penelope Keeling's abode. It was a wedding gift from his father, with herself as one of the shell seekers depicted in the painting. The story opens when Penelope is sixty years old, and has just been out of hospital and recovering from a heart attack. After that, the story runs parallelly between Penelope's past and present, giving us the view of how she had become what she is now, and why she does things that is incomprehensible to her children. And here's my review.

And so, that's how I had begun in the mountains, and ended up on the beach.

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