Six Degrees of Separation: from Time Travel to Jazz Age Murder Mystery

Six Degrees of Separation is a monthly meme, currently 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 a thriller which I have not read:

0. Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

A traditional American woman, a “tradwife” influencer, suddenly awakens in the brutal reality of 1855—where she must unravel whether this living nightmare is an elaborate hoax, a twisted reality show, or something far more sinister in this sensational debut novel. One morning Natalie wakes up in a life that isn’t hers. Her home, her husband, her children—they’re all familiar, but something’s off. Her kitchen is warmed by a sputtering fire rather than electricity, her children are dirty and strange, and her soft-handed husband is suddenly a competent farmer. Just yesterday Natalie was curating photos of homemade jam for her Instagram, and now she’s expected to haul firewood and handwash clothes until her fingers bleed. Has she become the unwitting star of a ruthless reality show? Could it really be time travel? Is she being tested by God? By Satan? When Natalie suffers a brutal injury in the woods, she realizes two things: This is not her beautiful life, and she must escape by any means possible.
I have not read many time-travelling novels, but this one is probably my favorite of all:

1. Vintage 1954 by Antoine Laurain

Excerpt from my review: "The year 1954, wine and UFO. These are three elements that Antoine Laurain had woven into a fantastic time-travelling story set in Paris. [...] This is a wholesome read, very entertaining, fast-paced, and memorable. The atmospheric of 1954 Paris is the main highlight for me." If you love time-travelling story and/or the 1950s Paris of Edith Piaf, jean Gabin, and Salvador Dali, you would adore this one! You can check on more about this book in this post.

For the next degree, I picked a book that was first published in the year 1954:

2. Because of Sam by Molly Clavering

Excerpt from my review: "Upon his death, Millie Maitland's husband left her almost nothing besides their house, Fernieknowe, and their only daughter Amabel. So bleak their condition were, that Millie's lawyer, Mr. Ramsay, proposed Millie to marry him. She wisely rejected it, and made a living as a dog boarder, or in modern day, household dog care facility - a rare occupation, let alone of women, at that time. [...] On the whole, it's a charming, comforting, heartwarming story - the quality you expect from Molly Clavering." And here is the full review.

Speaking about women's profession as dog boarder, one book came instantly to mind, where two of the characters are dog breeder women.

3. Bramton Wick by Elizabeth Fair

Excerpt from my review: "Bramton Wick is an English rural country side, the setting of this cheerful slice-of-life story in the aftermath of WWII, where ration coupons were still in use, and fuel is a luxury. [...] As usual, there is a healthy mix of eccentricity and pompousness to spice up the plot. [...] There are the other spinsters who're more interesting: Miss Selbourne and Miss Garret, who had first met when they drove ambulances during the war, and now live together as dog breeder." You can find my full review here.

Trust it to Elizabeth Fair to write a slice-of-life kind of story of English countryside that is both exciting but calming at the same time. I can't believe that this was Fair's debut novel! Another slice-of-life novel I have read this year that is also a debut novel is...

4. Minor Disturbances at Grand Life Apartments by Hema Sukumar

Excerpt from my review: "Grand Life Apartments is located in the beautiful coastal city of Chennai, India, and is owned by Mr. Mani, who had changed his ancestor's home to be a modern and comfortable middle-class apartment building. [...] In the midst of (the residents') personal struggles, though, there looming another problem that will have had bigger impact on all of them. A big construction company has been pestering Mani to sell the apartment building, as they wanted to build more modern ones." Here's the full review of this slice-of-life story.

Since I also live in an apartment building, I am always fascinated by books that are set in apartment building, such as this one...

5. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

Excerpt from my review: "The story takes place in an elegant apartment building in central Paris, where two of our heroines live. One is a genius teenage girl from a bourgeois family, the other is the concierge. Paloma, the little girl, is planning to end her life by committing suicide, because she feels she'd never fit in the world. Nobody understands her - neither her family, her schoolfriends, nor her teachers." Here's my full review.
For the last degree of separation, I picked a murder mystery with similar intelligent-teenager-misunderstood-by-the-family as the main character:

6. Murder at the Spring Ball by Benedict Brown

Excerpt from my review: "Murder at the Spring Ball is Benedict Brown's first book of Lord Edgington cozy mystery series, set in the 1925 England. It's charm is thanks to the combination of the Golden Age Detective vibes - complete with red herrings, incompetent police officer, Poirot-ish style of rather dramatic denouement - and an unlikely sleuth of a former detective and his fourteen years old grandson. There's a little jazz, a little dancing, a little Downton Abbey-ish atmosphere, and a good murder mystery. What else would one need to enjoy one self thoroughly?" - and here is the link to the full review. And so, another #6Degrees which I have managed to end - again - with a murder mystery, LOL! Have you read any of the books? And how did your #6Degrees turn out?