Six Degrees of Separation, from A Gothic Classic to A Historical Mystery

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, for a change, we are starting from a book I have actually read:

0. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

I read Wuthering Heights fifteen years ago - here's my review in Bahasa Indonesia, if you care to read - and this has always been one of those universally-beloved-but-I-hate books. Wuthering Heights is a Gothic tale of 'unhealthy' passionate love and tragedy, between Heatcliff and Catherine Earnshaw. It was set in a bleak Yorkshire moors, and though some put this into 'romance' category, there's nothing romantic in it. To this day I fail to understand why people love it, but that's that. There are such books that always bring mixed emotion to the readers - either you adore it or hate it. And that instantly reminded me of similar reaction I have had to this book in the next chain....

1. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

Also a book that falls to my category of universally-beloved-but-I-hate, Murder on the Orient Express is often daubed as most favorite mystery from Agatha Christie. Indeed, it has become one of the The Guardians' Top Ten Agatha Christie Mysteries. I have first read it during school years - not liking it - and then reread it in 2020 (just to see if I'd like it a bit more) - but still not liking it; I even hated it. You can see why in my review. Beware of the spoiler though - if you haven't read it yet - but I have placed a spoiler alert for you, don't worry. This was one of those crime novels which are set on trains, which are almost always fascinating. Another one which I liked much more is....

2. The Wheel Spins by Edna Lina White

Set mostly on a train, this is a psychological thriller about an innocent young girl who boarded a train, befriended a spinster, to find the next day that her fellow passenger was missing. On a train which didn't stop anywhere, and no other passengers seemed to have noticed the missing woman. Was it only the girl's imagination, or something sinister was going on? Whatever it was, she's alone who can solve it. You can read my complete review here.
Helpless heroine in thriller always promises a good read. So, here's another one from the queen of thriller...

3. Where Are You Now? by Mary Higgins Clark

Caroline is the helpless heroine in this thriller. Ten years after her brother was missing, his name was linked to the murder of a missing girl. So, Caroline determined now to seek the truth about his missing (is he still alive? or...) and to clear her brother's name. Quite a nice thriller! Here's my complete review. I don't know about you, but for me, books with interrogative sentence titles always piqued my interest. And so, here's another book in that category, but of different genre...

4. How Do You Live? by Genzaburo Yoshino

This is a wonderful use of interrogative sentence title in a philosophical novel. It's a nice lecture on life for middle-graders, packed in a fun way, without making it boring. Excerpt from my review: "One day Copper and his Uncle are on top roof of Ginza, looking down on the busy street of Tokyo. At that moment Copper realized how tiny his existence was, just like a single molecule within the wide world. And that's when his Uncle starts writing a letter-like notes to Copper in a notebook. His topic ranges from science (Coppernicus - that's whom Copper got his nickname from), philosophy, ethics, to culture (Buddhism) and history (Napoleon)." And this is the complete version, if you're interested. Genzaburo Yoshino wrote this book in response to a friend's request - job offer, really - of editing ethics textbook series for younger readers. Since he thought such book would be too boring, hence this novelized version.

5. Death Comes as the End by Agatha Christie

Death Comes as the End was also Agatha Christie's work in response to a friend's request. It's more of a challenge from her friend to write a mystery in Ancient Egypt (2000 BC), while the friend provided facts and knowledge of the daily household and cultural background. You can read my review here. And what would be a better way to end the chain than with another mystery book set in Egypt?

6. Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters

Excerpt from my review: "First of all, there are no crocodile involved in this light mystery, set in Victorian era. 'Crocodile on the sand bank' was a jargon used by Egyptian locals to indicate that a problem is underfoot. When thirty something spinster of Amelia Peabody - an unorthodox English woman, intelligent, and independent - decided to have a long journey to Cairo, she's never expected that any 'crocodile' would be on her sand bank." Here's the link to the complete review. And so, the chain started with a gothic classic, and ended up with a historical light mystery. Have you read any of the books? And if you do Six Degrees of Separation, what book you ended up with?