Six Degrees of Separation: Daisy Jones & the Six to Under A Silent Moon

January’s Six Degrees of Separation meme begins with Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid, which I read between Christmas and New Year expressly because it was chosen for this meme. I knew it had received high praise from bloggers and readers but I honestly wasn’t expecting to like it much, happily though that wasn’t the case – I thought it was pretty terrific.

My first link required very little thought, the first book of the year I read is already generating buzz, Such A Fun Age, and the author, Kiley Reid, shares her last name with Taylor. This sparked the idea for a theme with which to connect the books in my chain. One of the main characters in Such A Fun Age is Alix Chamberlain, and the surname provides a link to…

The Good Father by Diane Chamberlain. Published in 2012, this contemporary fiction novel is a bit of tearjerker. The authors first name provides my next link to…

Empire Day by Diane Armstrong, a historical fiction novel set in Australia. I’d never heard of Empire Day until reading this novel, but the book’s real focus is on the post-WWII immigrant experience as the ‘reffos’s’ struggled to adjust their new life, one of whom is named Emil.

I’ve used Hannah and Emil by Belinda Castles in a chain previously but it was the obvious book to choose here since it links the two characters by their first name. The story, about two lovers set against the backdrop of WWII, is based on the lives of the author’s grandparents. Sharing Belinda’s first name is…

A character in Riverboat Point by Trisha Stringer. In this romantic suspense novel, the main character, Savannah Smith unexpectedly finds herself running a houseboat charter business, relying in part on her seemingly friendly neighbours, Belinda and Ashton Palmer for help.

Smith is also the last name of Elizabeth Haynes’ lead character in Under A Silent Moon. DCI Louisa Smith is a crime analyst leading her fist task force investigating the murder of a horse groomer.

So this month I’ve managed to connect the names of authors, and characters in six different permutations.

Next month (February 1, 2020), will begin with a book that topped the critics ‘best of 2019’ lists, Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner.