Six in Six 2020

This is the first time I've heard of this game, but I like the idea!  Jo at The Book Jotter says:

The idea being that as the end of June approaches and we are then halfway through the year,  let us share the books we have read in those first 6 months. In fact let’s share 6 books in 6 categories, or if time is of the essence then simply share just 6 books. Whatever combination works for you as long as it involves 6 books.

Well, that sounds fun!  There are about a zillion categories, so it's hard to pick just six.  It had to be a little bit arbitrary if I was ever going to choose.  Here we go, six books in six categories:

We all need a break from the world sometimes, so here are Six books to read to avoid politics: 

• The Murderbot Diaries
  
• Spock Must Die!
• The Rivers of London series
• Bellman and Black
• Coronation Summer
• Edward Lear: The Life of a Wanderer

I love reading non-fiction, so: Six From the Non-Fiction Shelf:

• The Unwomanly Face of War
• Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo
• When They Come For Us, We'll Be Gone
• Vasily Grossman and the Soviet Century
• The Voice That Thunders
• A Strange Stirring
  

Books sometimes disappoint.  Six books that didn’t live up to expectations:

• The Long Walk turned out to be fiction.  Twelve days in the Gobi Desert without water?  Really?
• Last Ones Left Alive: "the skrake" sounds really cool.  Guess what it turned out to be?
• The Cuckoo's Calling was too long and needs an editor.
• Bill, the Galactic Hero was OK, but not my cup of tea since I'm not a veteran.
• The Door Through Space was kind of oogy.
• The Return said it would be spooky and darkly thrilling, but it was not.
  

Here's kind of an easy one, given my Reading All Around the World project.  Six Non-US/Non-British Authors:

• A Tempest (Martinique)
• Jazz and Palm Wine (Congo)
• The Dark Child (Guinea)
• Subtly Worded (Russia)
• The Ultimate Tragedy (Guinea-Bissau)
• Death of the Snakecatcher (Turkmenistan)
  

I'm not very artistic, but here are Six book covers I love:

• Footsteps
• The Rivers of London series
• Red Cavalry
• Forest of a Thousand Daemons
• The Seven Citadels series
  
• When They Come For Us, We'll Be Gone

And finally, we'll end on a high note with Six books I have enjoyed the most:

• Mudlark
• The Golden Thread
• Red Cavalry
• The Castle on the Hill
  
• Prisoners of Geography
• The Fortunes of Richard Mahony
• Virgin Soil (oops, that's seven)
  

PS: For a bonus, Six book covers that bear no resemblance to the story contained within.  I didn't have six of these, but I certainly have one: the very very pretty Bards of Bone Plain, the heroine of which is an archaeologist constantly covered in dirt.

Speaking of six, my oldest told me about this musical which I guess is something of a hit in the UK, which posits the six wives of Henry VIII as a girl group singing about their lives.  This is a pretty awesome idea, and I really like Anne Boleyn's song and also Katherine of Aragon's spiky cap.  This is about half? the song on a talk show: