The meme is hosted by Books are My Favourite Best and is described thus: On the first Saturday of every month, a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book. Each person’s chain will look completely different. It doesn’t matter what the connection is or where it takes you – just take us on the journey with you.
This month is wildcard month, with the request that we start with either the last book in our December chain, or the last book that we read in 2025. I didn't participate in the meme in December, so I am starting this month with the last book I read in 2025, which was Brooklyn by Colm Toibin. I was very taken with this book, as I am sure many other people have been before me. It follows the story of Eilis, a young Irish woman who migrates from Ireland to New York in the 1950s in search of work and a new life. It's about migraton and homesickness and understanding where you belong in the world. It was so easy to read, I felt I slipped into the world and didn't emerge again until the novel was complete.
Devotion by Hannah Kent (referenced here) is another beautiful and this time lyrical work of fiction about migration of people looking for a new life and a protagonist who is driven to remain where she feels she belongs, alongside those that she loves.
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (my review here). Without saying too much, the beyond the grave narration in The Book Thief connects it in my mind to Devotion by Hannah Kent, not to mention that they are both written by two of my faviourite Australian authors.
Unfinished Business by Sulari Gentill (my review here). This is a bit of a jump, but this came to mind next because it is authored by another Australian author who I have read a lot of. I particularly love Gentill's Rowland Sinclair Mysteries, but I thought of Unfinished Business because I have been reflecting on my 2025 reading and particularly on the high concenration of crime fiction that I explored.
Heavenly Pleasures by Kerry Greenwood. I turn next to Heavenly Pleasures as it was the last work of crime fiction that I read in 2025. Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher series has a special place in my heart and I was upset to hear of her passing earlier this year. I decided to explore her Corinna Chapman series and was disappointed to find that I didn't enjoy it all. There was so much minute description of everything that the characters did - from opening doors and watching television to cooking dinner and doing the laundry. I think that was part of what the charm of the series is supposed to be but I was bored by it.
Green Dot by Madeleine Gray (my review here). What connects Heavely Pleasures to Greent Dot is that they are both rooted in their respective cities, Melbourne of Heavely Pleasures and Sydney for Green Dot, and both use real landmarks and streets and suburds to situate their stories in real contemporary Australia. In both books the city is an important part of the setting the mood of each novel. With Green Dot in particular I was familiar with many of the places and suburbs mentioned which contributed to how I visualised the novel as I read.
Orbital by Samantha Harvey (referenced here). Not an obvious choice but Harvey in Orbital equally created a strong sense of place, albeit in an unconventional way. Rather than being set in a city or even a country, Orbital is set in a shared shifting envirfonment of a space station. There is constant movement as the world spins underneath them, and yet the characters and still and unmoving in their small cacoon above us all.
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I've had a lovely sense of recognition from your chain as have read a few of your choices this month, and have read other books by the authors of the remaining books!
ReplyDeleteI really like a strong sense of place in a story, too, and thought Orbital did this extraordinarily well.
Rose Reads Novels.