Six Degrees of Separation

The #6degrees meme is hosted at Books are my Favourite and Best. 

This month the chain begins with Beach Read by Emily Henry which I listened to on audio and quite enjoyed in February 2021 (when there was nothing beachy about the weather in NH). 

I'm going to begin my chain with another book set in a beach house. Poet Cynthia Huntington's memoir (1) The Salt House is about a long summer stay on Cape Code. It is beautifully written and thoughtful and celebrates both the landscape and the feeling of the place. 

Continuing with the theme of retreating to a beach house to figure stuff out my next book is (2) A Year by the Sea by Joan Anderson. This book is about a year when Anderson retreated to a beach-side cottage to sort things out and is a quiet meditation on how Anderson sees herself fitting into the world and whether it is working for her. Another title I enjoyed which addressed those same themes is (3) Magical Journey: An Apprenticeship in Contentment by Katrina Kenison. 

Retreating from the world to figure out where you go next is also the subject of Ruth Reichl's beautiful book (4) My Kitchen Year: 365 Recipes that Saved My Life. The idea that you can cook your way to clarity about your world is also a large part of what makes  (5) Midnight Chicken and Other Recipes Worth Living For by Ella Risbridger  a wonderful book. 

All of these books (including Beach Read) focus on women who have retreated from the world to some degree in order to reassess the direction of their lives. I am going to complete my chain with a novel that seems to me to be the quintessential work on this theme: (6) The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim.