Six Degrees of Separation is a meme hosted by Kate over at Books Are My Favourite and Best. It works like this: each month a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six others to form a chain. A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the titles on the list, only to the one next to it in the chain.
This month we’re starting with Dominic Amerena’s I Want Everything, a twisty tale of literary ambition and deceit.
I’ve read several novels on this theme but one of my favourites is Delphine de Vigan’s taut thriller Based on a True Story.
A title which could be used for Jami Attenberg’s Saint Mazie about the life of the eponymous Mazie aka Queen of the Bowrey.
Mazie also appears in Joseph Mitchell’s collection of essays on early twentieth-century New Yorkers, Up at the Old Hotel.
Paula Bren’s The Barbizon is the history of a New York hotel set up to provide affordable accommodation for working women.
Sylvia Plath, author of Ariel, was one of The Barbizon’s illustrious literary residents
Ariel is a character in Shakespeare’s play, The Tempest.
This month’s Six Degrees has taken me from a page-turning novel about who owns the story to Shakespeare’s play set on a magical island. Part of the fun of this meme is comparing the very different routes other bloggers take from each month’s starting point. If you’re interested, you can follow it on Twitter with the hashtag #6Degrees, check out the links over at Kate’s blog or perhaps even join in.
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Love your succinct links this month. They make me want to revisit NYC.
Thank you! I’m just back from holiday (not in NYC) hence the brevity.
A brilliantly taut list. I even made time to read it on my blog-free break!
I’m honoured, and thank you!
Great chain. I have a hotel link in mine this month too (but completely different books).
Thank you. I spotted that. I’ve a soft spot for both hotel and apartment building settings.
Some very neat linking here, Susan. And a few books that I’d be interested in, including the essays Up at the old Hotel, and The Barbizon. Hotels make great subjects for fiction and non-fiction don’t they?
Thank you. Indeed they do. I have another one on my tbr list – Inside the Dream Palace about New York’s Chelsea Hotel.
I love the sound of Based on a True Story and Up at the Old Hotel; great chain this month, Susan. I especially liked your trio of New York links.
Thanks, Mallika. New York seems to pop up a lot in my chains.
Smart links!
I have only read The Tempest.
I went with ‘everything’: https://wordsandpeace.com/2025/10/04/six-degrees-of-separation-everything/
Thank you, and for the link.
The Barbizon link is clever. Great chain
Thanks! I enjoyed that one.
I have heard of some of these books. Only one I have read is The Tempest, for my university degree. I did really like it.
Me, too. It’s wonderful on the stage.
We are dealing with a tempest this weekend in the form of Storm Amy. Snug at home reading the riveting 38 Londres Street by Philippe Sands. Final book in his excellent trilogy.
That sound the best policy. We’ve escaped the worst of it although I arrived in town quicker than usual this morning!
I appreciate your logical choices. I didn’t know that Sylvia Plath lived in the Barbizon.
My #6Degrees Chain
Thanks for the link, Anne. Joan Didion also lived there for a while as did Grace Kelly, apparently.
The Barbizon sounds fascinating, especially considering Sylvia Plath used it for the setting of The Bell Jar. Hotels that are known for their clientele, be they artists or writers or musicians are so intriguing!
Absolutely! I have my eye on a history of New York’s Chelsea Hotel.
Good chain. I like Shakespeare, but ‘The Tempest’ is one that I haven’t read. I had no idea he used the name Ariel. Interesting.
Thank you. It’s a long time since I saw The Tempest but it’s a play that stays with you.
That first link is great. Loved Based in a True Story
Thank you. My favourite de Vigan!
Love this chain! My Mom dreamed of studying fashion in New York at living at the Barbizon. She loved that book, too.
Thank you. What a lovely dream! I’m glad she loved the book.
She also loved a novel based on the Barbizon–something summer??? [I’ll see if I can figure out the title later]
That would be great
I think it was the Doll House by Fiona Davis. I have not read it. Mom and I like many of the same books, but not all. I did not like Davis’ book set in the NY Public library.
Thank you. I’ll look it up.