Six Degrees of Separation ~ We Have Always Lived in the Castle

Jackson, Shirley 
"We Have Always Lived in the Castle" - 1962

#6Degrees of Separation:

from We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Goodreads) to Carry On, Jeeves

#6Degrees is a monthly link-up hosted by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. I love the idea. Thank you, Kate. See more about this challenge, its history, further books and how I found this here. 

The starter book this month is "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" by Shirley Jackson. As usual, I haven't read the starter book. But I have read another book by her, "The Lottery". One of the scariest books I have ever read.

This is the description of the novel:

"Shirley Jackson's beloved gothic tale of a peculiar girl named Merricat and her family's dark secret.

Taking readers deep into a labyrinth of dark neurosis, We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a deliciously unsettling novel about a perverse, isolated, and possibly murderous family and the struggle that ensues when a cousin arrives at their estate."

This was a nice title to find connections through words. I like that because it usually gives us a lot of different topics rather than all the same books. And I often get books I don't use so often otherwise. So we start with: The White Castle

Pamuk, Orhan "The White Castle" (TR: Beyaz Kale) - 1985
The author transports us back into the Venice and Istanbul/Constantinople of the 17th century. His tale is about two men who are as different and yet as similar as possible to each other who come from the two different parts of the world. We learn about the differences between the Orient and the Occident.

Aicher-Scholl, Inge "The White Rose" (GE: Die weiße Rose) - 1952

Inge Scholl was the sister of Hans and Sophie Scholl and is writing this book about her siblings and the Munich resistance group.

If there are any books that everyone should read, the story of the White Rose is definitely one of them. It shows that even in deepest Nazi Germany there were people who resisted, who paid for it with their lives, but who should be a great role model for all of us.

Eco, Umberto "The Name of the Rose" (I: Il Nome de la Rosa) - 1980 
A murder mystery. A monastery in the 14th century. One death occurs after the other, some of them seem very suspect, but for most of them it is very clear that another person caused the death. In other words, there is a mass murderer at large. Two visiting monks start to investigate and find a lot of links, some of them correct, others definitely false.

Osorio, Elsa "My Name is Light" (E: A veinte años, Luz) - 1998
A highly interesting novel about something that didn’t happen that long ago, yet is not so widely published. Of course, everyone knows there were a lot of problems in Argentina but I have not read a novel where it was described this well.

Obama, Michelle "The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times" - 2022

Such a wonderful woman, such a strong personality. We need more women like her who tell us how they lead their successful lives without pointing a finger, without letting the book be a "self-help book".

It's a huge privilege to be let into the thoughts of Michelle Obama, she shares so much that can be helpful to all of us. We can always learn from each other but especially from successful people.

Wodehouse, P.G."The World of Jeeves" (Jeeves #2-4: The Inimitable Jeeves #2, Carry On, Jeeves #3, Very Good, Jeeves! #4) - 1923/1925/1930

I had a lot of fun reading this over several months, the two helped me through some awful Corona months.

There isn't much more to say about these books other than how wonderful they are. I mentioned before that they aren't just funny but that the language is superb.

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I couldn't find a connection between the first and the last one. The first was written by an American, the last by a Brit, the first one by a woman, the last by a man, the first is scary, the last funny. But both covers are quite monochrome. So, that's my conclusion and I stand by it. 😉 

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Happy November!

 Happy November to all my Friends and Readers
New Calendar picture with this
beautiful watercolour painting by Frank Koebsch
"The Old Svaneke Lighthouse - Bornholm"
"Svaneke Gamle Fyr - Bornholm"

Frank says to this picture:
"Das Dänemark Aquarell präsentiert den Leuchtturm in einer typischen Landschaft an der Ostsee im ausklingenden Herbst."
"The Denmark watercolor presents the lighthouse in a typical landscape on the Baltic Sea in the late autumn." 

It's always lovely to see a picture with a lighthouse. I love lighthouses. You can see this in my list:
Top Ten Tuesday ~ Lighthouses

When we took our boat tour last month, they had a cute little decoration with a lighthouse there, I just had to take a picture and hope you like it as much as I do.

Read more on their website here. *

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And October was again a special month. I celebrated my 15 year blogiversary on the 5^th of the month. For a wedding that would be crystal.

My very first post on October, 5, 2010 was:
Which Austen Heroine are you? I found out that I am Elinor Dashwood. While I always thought I might be Anne Eliot, I can see how Elinor came about. 
If you are interested, who you are supposed to be, there is a link on my page. Let me know, if you've done the test.

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For our Jane Austen read (see #Reading Austen project) this month, I found a book about Janes Austen's time. And it was a very interesting and detailed book about all the little things we don't know anything about:
Adkins, Roy & Lesley "Eavesdropping on Jane Austen's England: How our ancestors lived two centuries ago" (aka "Jane Austen's England) - 2013

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And here we have another German expression that fits everywhere but since the colder time of the year is beginning, we might wear slippers sometimes and that's what made me think of this word:

Pantoffelheld

The German word "Pantoffel" means slipper, "Held" is a hero, so a slipper hero. But we are talking about something very different from a hero. It's a man who allows himself to be controlled by his wife and who has no say at home. Of course, in former time that was really bad, nowadays older people often use it for modern men who "help" at home. And that's just ridiculous, it's his home as well as hers, why should she carry all the burden especially sind most women work for their money today, as well.

Anyway, the English expression would be hen-pecked. Do you know of similar expressions in other languages?

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* You can also have a look under my labels Artist: Frank Koebsch and Artist: Hanka Koebsch where you can find all my posts about the two artists. 

🎃 I wish you all a very Happy November! 🎃