Six Degrees of Separation – From Shirley Jackson to Agatha Christie #6Degrees #SecretLibraryBookBlog

Six Degrees of Separation is a monthly meme hosted by Kate @ Books Are My Favourite and Best. The idea is to start with the book that Kate gives us and then create a chain of six books, each suggested by the one before…

This month Kate’s starter book is The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, is a short story that I’ve never heard of, although I have heard of the author and I do enjoy short stories.

I used to read a lot of short stories, but somehow have got out of the habit, maybe I read too many and had enough of them. 🤷‍♀️  One collection I loved was Paris for One and Other Stories by JoJo Moyes, a really lovely collection by a favourite author.

Another collection I loved was A Snow Garden and Other Stories by Rachel Joyce. It was a library book that I read in the middle of summer, but it was so perfect that when I found a second hand copy I snapped it up to read again sometime, preferably at Christmas.

Of course one of the most famous short stories is A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens which I’ve been in the habit of listening to every Christmas for years now. A tradition I look forward to every year because it’s Tom Baker of Doctor Who reading it.

The Mistletoe Murders and Other Stories by P.D. James is a wonderful collection of crime writing which starts with a Christmas story. It introduced me to the author’s work, although of course I had heard of her, just hadn’t read anything.

I’ve listened to a lot of Sherlock Holmes stories over the years and one of my favourites is The Adventure of the Speckled Band. I also got a copy of the complete Holmes stories from audible read by Stephen Fry which I really must get back to listening to.

Another collection I’d like to get back to is Hercule Poirot: The Complete Short Stories by Agatha Christie. I started them years ago but never finished, oops!

Starting with a short story by Shirley Jackson followed by a trip to Paris, a snow garden, some Christmas stories and two famous detectives, I hope you enjoyed the trip?! 😀

Next month the starting book will be
What Are You Going Through by Sigrid Nunez