#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.
I have heard of the book, it seems to be one of the books that everyone is supposed to read this year. I doubt that will be the fact in my case, I don't think this is my kind of literature.
So, here is the description:
"A traditional American woman, a 'tradwife' influencer, suddenly awakens in the brutal reality of 1855—where she must unravel whether this living nightmare is an elaborate hoax, a twisted reality show, or something far more sinister in this sensational debut novel.
My name was Natalie Heller Mills, and I was perfect at being alive.
Natalie lives a traditional lifestyle. Her charming farmhouse is rustic, her husband a handsome cowboy, her six children each more delightful than the last. So what if there are nannies and producers behind the scenes, her kitchen hiding industrial-grade fridges and ovens, her husband the heir to a political dynasty? What Natalie’s followers—all 8 million of them—don’t know won’t hurt them. And The Angry Women? The privileged, Ivy League, coastal elite haters who call her an antifeminist iconoclast? They’re sick with jealousy. Because Natalie isn’t simply living the good life, she’s living the ideal—and just so happens to be building an empire from it.
Until one morning she wakes up in a life that isn’t hers. Her home, her husband, her children—they’re all familiar, but something’s off. Her kitchen is warmed by a sputtering fire rather than electricity, her children are dirty and strange, and her soft-handed husband is suddenly a competent farmer. Just yesterday Natalie was curating photos of homemade jam for her Instagram, and now she’s expected to haul firewood and handwash clothes until her fingers bleed. Has she become the unwitting star of a ruthless reality show? Could it really be time travel? Is she being tested by God? By Satan? When Natalie suffers a brutal injury in the woods, she realizes two things: This is not her beautiful life, and she must escape by any means possible.
A gripping, electrifying novel that is as darkly funny as it is frightening, Yesteryear is a gimlet-eyed look at tradition, fame, faith, and the grand performance of womanhood."
As I mentioned, this is not my genre. So, I decided to go with my usual, mark the words in red and then find another word ... well, I discovered that I read a lot of books with the word Year in its title, so that's the way I went this month.
Russell, Helen "The Year of Living Danishly: My Twelve Months Unearthing the Secrets of the World's Happiest Country" - 2015
I always enjoy reading everyone's 6 Degrees posts. I am on the library list for Yesteryear. I am intrigued by the premise.
ReplyDeleteI need to reread Brooks' Year of Wonders--I remember loving it until the ending. I am curious if I would feel the same on a reread 20 years later.
I tried to reread One Hundred Years of Solitude a couple of years ago but just wasn't in the mood, I guess, as I abandoned early on.
So do I, Jane, it's always great to see what everyone comes up with.
DeleteI read Year of Wonders after having read most of her other books and was disappointed with the ending, though not with the story, but I'm not sure whether I would re-read it. My favourite by her is People of the Book.
As to García Márquez, he is not the easiest of writers and I do think you have to be in the right mood for him. But then, his books are wonderful.
Thanks for coming by and discussing this list with it. It was a pleasure.
Nice work! Lisa of Hopewell https://hopewellslibraryoflife.wordpress.com/2026/07/03/six-degrees-of-separation-yesteryear-by-caro-claire-burke/
ReplyDeleteThanks, Lisa. I'll jump over to your page and see what you came up with.
DeleteThis a nice easy chain. I have only read One Hundred Years of Solitude.
ReplyDeleteFor once, I did a real chain: https://wordsandpeace.com/2026/07/04/six-degrees-of-separation-parisinjuly2026/
Fantastic, Emma. I'll have a look. Thanks.
DeleteAh, very nice... I often try to do the same with my chains, but I don't think I always have enough of one word. Well done!
ReplyDeleteYour chains are always so inspirational, Davida. I loved the way you used the title of the starter book to find your links. Well done.
DeleteI read 100 Years of Solitude for a graduate class. I'm intrigued by The Year of Living Danishly (fun title, too!).
ReplyDeleteThanks, Joy. I hope you liked the Solitude book, I really did but I can see that many don't.
DeleteThe Year of Living Danishly is just another book by someone who lived in a foreign country for a while but Helen Russell describes it so well and it really is funny. I read it before my son moved to Sweden for three years and on re-reading my description, I remember a lot of things that he also commented about.
I hope you can find this book and read it. Enjoy.
I agree about the ending of Year of Wonders. If we look at the history of her work, YoW came six years after her Nine Parts of Desire, The Hidden World of Islamic Women and I think she drew on that. I tried reading it myself (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_Parts_of_Desire) but gave up in dismay because I thought it sanitised the lack of agency of women in Islamic countries and we all knew more about that by the time I came to read it because of the (first) Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. (I taught refugee kids at the time and thanks to them and their mothers I found myself in the odd position of knowing more about Afghanistan before and after the Taliban than most other people — including the media which didn't start reporting on it straight away. When the kids first arrived I didn't even know where it was.)
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of Nine Parts of Desire but I might have been interested in it before reading your comment, Lisa. I have also had a lot of information on Afghanistan due to my husband's profession and read a lot about it (if you're interested, check my posts under Afghanistan). I also taught refugees but not Afghanis but we helped an Afghani family who were trying to find an apartment for themselves, so I might find it the same.
Deletehttps://momobookblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Afghanistan
A very good book for me was:
The Sewing Circles of Herat: A Personal Voyage Through Afghanistan by Christina Lamb:
https://momobookblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/lamb-christina-sewing-circles-of-herat.html
I'm sure that would be one for you.
Thanks for your detailed comment, it's always lovely to hear and say a little more.
Aaagh, I just wrote a long comment on TSCoH and it's just vanished into cyberspace!
ReplyDeleteNo, it didn't, Lisa. I got a lot of spam and can't block anyone on blogger, so I set comments to posts older than a couple of weeks to get approved by me. Which I have done and answered your comment. Thanks for that. You should have gotten a note when you posted, but ....
DeleteOh, great, I'll have a look!
ReplyDeleteSorry for the inconvenience, Lisa. But it works. When I first installed that, I still got some spam that I didn't publish, now I hardly ever have any.
Delete