Six Degrees of Separation: The Dry

The 6 Degrees of Separation meme is a monthly meme hosted at booksaremyfavoriteandbest, that explores the ways in which a chosen book can be linked to six other books.

The May 2019 book is: The Dry by Jane Harper

My chain this month features: pastel covers, unfinished novels, Gilded Age transatlantic marriages, and Sofia Coppola film adaptations.

I haven’t read The Dry, but I do know that this mystery takes place in Australia during a terrible drought. At first, I thought about other books that feature droughts and/or a lack of water, but then I decided to go in the opposite direction. The remedy for a lack of water could be described as…

 

The Water Cure by Sophie Mackintosh

This intriguing feminist dystopian novel about three sisters living on an isolated island, is on my TBR list. The publisher’s description proclaims it as The Handmaid’s Tale meets…

 

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

I can’t believe I still haven’t read this raved about novel! Hopefully, I’ll love it as much as I remember loving the ethereal film adaptation directed by Sofia Coppola, who also directed a period drama inspired by…

 

Marie Antoinette: The Journey by Antonia Fraser

Antonia Fraser’s biography of the doomed last Queen of France was incredibly interesting, well-researched, and engaging. It’s one I’d definitely like to re-read in the future. I’m not fond of movie-tie in editions, but I don’t mind this one too much. The shade of pink on the cover is very similar to the one on my copy of…

 

Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell 

Wives and Daughters will always have a place near and dear to my heart. It’s a cheerful classic with an excellent cast of characters and is always a delight to read. I’m still devastated that Elizabeth Gaskell passed away before she could finish the last few chapters. Thankfully, between her notes which describe her planned ending and the perfect way in which the BBC miniseries wraps up, there is plenty of plot resolution for a satisfying conclusion. Another unfinished classic written by a woman that also became a miniseries is…

 

The Buccaneers by Edith Wharton, completed by Marion Mainwaring

Edith Wharton’s final novel tells the story of a group of wealthy young American women who cross the Atlantic in search of titled husbands. The new world and its new money meets the traditional world of the English aristocracy.  The result is plenty of drama, conflict, scandal, and romance. The real-life transatlantic marriages upon which The Buccaneers is based were full of just as much drama as evidenced in…

 

To Marry an English Lord: Tales of Wealth and Marriage, Sex and Snobbery by Gail MacColl and Carol Wallace

If you’re a Downton Abbey fan who wonders how the marriage between Lord Grantham and Cora came about, this entertaining nonfiction read will give you all the details you could ask for. To Marry an English Lord is a social history full of fun facts about the American heiresses referred to as “dollar princesses,” who married into the English aristocracy during the late nineteenth century. It will make you long for a costume drama series set during the height of this phenomenon.

 

Where did your #6Degrees chain take you this month?