Six Degrees of Separation: What I Loved to A Guide to the Birds of East Africa

Welcome to this month's edition of Six Degrees of Separation, which is a monthly meme hosted by Kate from Books Are My Favourite and Best.  The idea is to start with a specific book and make a series of links from one book to the next using whatever link you can find and see where you end up after six links.  I am also linking this post up with The Sunday Salon, hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

The starting point this month is What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt, a book I don't recall hearing about let alone reading. When I was thinking about what my strategy was going to be in relation to this book, it was almost as though I then thought, "and how exactly can I make this even harder for myself", and a plan was hatched.

My starting point was to think about what Siri Hustvedt's background was, and it turns out that she is an American author, whose family background is Norwegian, so then I thought about what other books I had read either by a Norwegian author or set in Norway, and the first one that came to mind was The Storm Sister by Lucinda Riley, which is the second book in the Seven Sisters series. A lot of the action in this book took place in Norway so this was my first step.

Where I complicated it for myself was then I decided that my links for this month would be based on the books in the Seven Sisters series. I could have done just the books in the series - there's an obvious link - but that would be a bit boring right. So my twist was that my selections will be based on the settings in each of the books from this point on.

The first book in the series is The Seven Series. In the historical part of the novel, we learn the story of how the Christ the Redeemer statue was created. A lot of the book was set in Brazil, but there were significant portions of the book that were set in Paris as the statue was being designed. The only book that I can think of that I have read that was set in Brazil was State of Wonder by Ann Patchett.

The second book in the series is The Storm Sister, which was my link to What I Loved in the first place. This book is set primarily in Norway and looking at the history of Edvart Grieg, the man who composed the music for Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt.

The third book in the Seven Sisters series is The Shadow Sister. This time, the historical section of the book focuses on a young woman who is friends with Beatrix Potter. The modern part of the book focuses on an antique book and life in the country. The characters are looking for a hidden family treasure which reminded me of The Peacock Summer by Hannah Richell where an old house hasn't given up it's secrets yet.

The fourth book in the series is The Pearl Sister which has a significant section of it's story set in the far north of Western Australia. I thought I would choose a contemporary novel - The Girl in Steel-Capped Boots by Loretta Hill. This was one of the early rural romances I read, and I think it would easily stand up to a reread. I certainly have good memories of this one.

The fifth book is the one that I am listening to on audio at the moment - The Moon Sister. This time the author is exploring the history around flamenco dancing in Spain. For another historical fiction novel set in Spain I have chosen The Last Queen by C W Gortner about Juana, the sister of Catherine of Aragon, who married into the powerful Hapsburg family.

The latest book in the series, the sixth, is The Sun Sister. I haven't read it yet, but I understand that it is set in Africa, so for my final choice I am revisiting a lovely book that I read many years ago, A Guide to the Birds of East Africa by Nicholas Drayson. This was such a delightful read which I thoroughly enjoyed but I had forgotten all about!

I have taken us on a journey around the world from Norway to Kenya using the books in the Seven Sisters series by Lucinda Riley as the compass.

Next month's starting point is How to Do Nothing by Jenny ODell. Maybe I will keep it a bit simpler next month, but maybe not. We'll see.

Where has your six degrees taken you this month?