Six Degrees of Separation: Knife

First Saturday of the month and time for the super monthly tag Six Degrees of Separation, which is hosted by Kate at Booksaremyfavouriteandbest, Six Degrees of Separation #6degrees picks a starting book for participants to go wherever it takes them in six more steps. Links to my reviews are in the titles of the books chosen. The starter book this month is:

Knife by Salman Rushdie

I’ve not read Rushdie’s memoir of the awful attack on him in New York and its aftermath yet, but I want to. The cover doesn’t actually feature a knife, but a book that does is:

Season to Taste by Natalie Young

With a knife and fork on the cover, one day Lizzie Prain snaps and murders her husband of thirty years with a spade. She then dismembers the body and freezes it. As in the subtitle of this novel ‘How to Eat Your Husband’, her plan is to eat the evidence and then disappear off to a new life in Scotland. We get taken through all the recipes as she gradually works her way through her freezer… Staying with cutlery, my next pick is

Spoon-Fed by Tim Spector

Spoon-Fed essentially continues on from Spector’s previous book, The Diet Myth, and takes a different, updated, look at where we are now in the field of nutrition science. Each chapter sets out to explode a particular nutritional myth, all those statements which have been ‘spoon-fed’ to us from the post-war decades onwards. He takes on topic after topic: saturated fats, salt, processed foods, food labelling, fast foods, sugar versus sweetener, butter versus spreads, allergies, gluten, exercise, bottled water, is fish better for you than meat and so on. Time after time, he exposes the fact that as many of these myths result from food research done some time ago paid for by food companies, there is often a very selective presentation of results.  This book has fruit and veg on the cover, another cover with fruit is

A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G Summers

This novel is in the form of a prison confession, from Dorothy Daniels, food critic and serial killer of her lovers. Dorothy is far from being a reliable narrator. Dorothy’s style, as you might surmise, is heavy on sensual foodie descriptions – everything can be described in food-related terms, especially meaty ones! Dorothy was so enjoying wallowing in her confessions that she is always in danger of over-egging it, but I did enjoy it. Another book involving a critic is:

The Proof of My Innocence by Jonathan Coe

Coe’s latest novel is a bit of a departure for him, as it combines cosy crime with dark academia and (fictional) autofiction in its three main parts. However his usual satire full of subtle skewering of politics and commentary on the state of the nation is still present in this tale of the murder of a government critic. His detective on the case is a joy – a bon viveur and very much in the mould of Poirot, but in the body of a younger Miss Marple, a shoe-in for Olivia Colman. I enjoyed it very much. The opposite of innocence is…

Guilty by Definition by Susie Dent

Lexicographer Dent’s first novel is also great fun. A mystery set in the environs of an Oxford-based dictionary.. The plot revolves around the disappearance of new dictionary head Martha’s sister ten years previously, and mystery letters steeped in references (mostly, but not all Shakespearean) with fiendish cryptic clues, that start arriving. Martha has a delightful set of quirky colleagues, young, old, disaffected, enthusiastic and so on – an inclusive bunch considering their ancient environs. There are some great twists and turns along the way, and plenty of lexicographical fun to be had.

The Liar’s Dictionary by Eley Williams

I’ll end with another dictionary. Alternating between two timelines – now and 1899 when a Peter Winceworth worked for Swansby’s New Encyclopaedic Dictionary – this witty novel, working its way through the alphabet is a delight and introduces us to the concept of ‘mountweazels’ – ‘bogus entries cooked up and inserted into a dictionary or encyclopaedia as a means of protecting copyright.‘ Part of Mallory’s job in the present is to find all the mountweazels Winceworth hid for the new edition.

As usual from me – an eclectic mix. Where will your six degrees take you?