Six Degrees of Separation - July 2017

Six Degrees of Separation is a monthly meme that was started by Annabel Smith and Emma Chapman. It is currently hosted by Kate on her booksaremyfavouriteandbest blog, and normally runs on the first Saturday of the month. The main idea of this meme is to form a chain of books by linking something they have in common, kind of like forming a word ladder with common letters, and everyone begins their chains with the same book. Other than that, there are no set rules. You get to make your own!

This month, we are starting with Picnic At Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay. It probably won’t surprise you that this is another one that I haven’t read. What I know about it comes from the synopsis at Goodreads; it takes place in Australia so I’ll use that as my jumping-off point.

The image of a harsh and rocky Australian shore makes me think of The Light Between Oceans by M.L Stedman. The words in the book evoked beautiful images but it was not a pretty story. I differed from most everyone who has read the book in that I didn’t enjoy it. I read it for book club!

Another book that I read for book club, but really didn’t enjoy, also has the word ‘ocean’ in its title — The Ocean At The End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman. There was a supernatural element to the story that just didn’t work for me!

Miss Peregrine’s House for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs also had a supernatural element to it, and again, it just didn’t work for me. This was another book club selection, so I finished it. It is the first in a series that I won’t be continuing on in..

Another series in which one book was enough is The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collinsm — another book club selection! By itself, I didn’t really love the book but I liked it well enough. But I wasn’t ready to repeat the experience. One round of Hunger Games was enough, thank you very much!

Divergent by Veronica Roth is also the first in a series, and in many ways reminds me of The Hunger Games. We also read this one for book club, but this time it is a series that I actually devoured. The last book was a bit of a disappointment, but I digress.

One thing I loved about that book was the setting — Chicago, a city I am pretty familiar with. The story takes place in future day Chicago. Another book that is set in Chicago, but this time in the past, is The Devil in the White City by Eric Larson by Eric Larson. This tells the story of America’s first ‘serial killer’ at the time of the Chicago World’s Fair in the 1890s

And there’s my chain; from Picnic At Hanging Rock to The Devil in the White City in six moves, and except for the first one, I have read them all with my book club! Visit the current Six Degrees post on Kate’s blog to link up your chain and see what others have done with Picnic At Hanging Rock. Next month we are starting with Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Be sure to come back to see what I do with it!

Six Degrees of Separation - June 2017

Six Degrees of Separation is a monthly meme that was started by Annabel Smith and Emma Chapman. It is currently hosted by Kate on her booksaremyfavouriteandbest blog, and normally runs on the first Saturday of the month. The main idea of this meme is to form a chain of books by linking something they have in common, kind of like forming a word ladder with common letters, and everyone begins their chains with the same book. Other than that, there are no set rules. You get to make your own!

This month, we are starting with Shopgirl by Steve Martin. This is another one that I haven’t read, or until now even heard about! What I know about it comes from the synopsis at Goodreads; a young woman is a transplant to California and working in a department store.

This reminds me of a novel I read a few years ago, Band of Sisters by Cathy Gohlke. The protagonist in this one, a young immigrant from Ireland, also works in a prestigious department store. Along the way, she stumbles upon a sex-trafficking crime ring.

Stumbling upon a group of criminals is also the fate of the the young protagonist of Against The Tide by Elizabeth Camden. This time the crime involves opium.

Though it wasn’t a crime at the time,opium was also a factor in a novel our book club read a couple of years ago, The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom. This one is set on a southern plantation in the pre-Civil War era, and slavery was an important theme.

Slavery was also an important theme in another novel my book club read, The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd. This is a fictionalized story of the life of Sarah Grimke and her sister Angelina, two women who even though they grew up in a slave-owning family in the south, became active in the abolitionist movement..

Clarina Nichols by Diane Eickhoff, is a middle school biography about a woman who was also active in the abolitionist movement. During her work she became acquainted with the Grimke sisters. Clarina was also active in the women’s rights movement, particularly property rights and voting rights.

Terrible Virtue by Ellen Feldman is a fictionalized story about Margaret Sanger, another woman who devoted her life to women’s rights. Margaret’s focus was on reproductive rights and she is considered the founder of Planned Parenthood.

And there’s my chain; from Shopgirl to Terrible Virtue in six moves, all featuring women with a cause! Visit the current Six Degrees post on Kate’s blog to link up your chain and see what others have done with Room. Next month we will start with Picnic At Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay. Be sure to come back next month to see what I do with it!

Six Degrees of Separation - May 2017

Six Degrees of Separation is a monthly meme that was started by Annabel Smith and Emma Chapman. It is currently hosted by Kate on her booksaremyfavouriteandbest blog, and normally runs on the first Saturday of the month. The main idea of this meme is to form a chain of books by linking something they have in common, kind of like forming a word ladder with common letters, and everyone begins their chains with the same book. Other than that, there are no set rules. You get to make your own!

This month, we are starting with The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas. I haven’t read this book, and really know nothing about it other than what I read in the synopsis at Goodreads. Here are the first couple of sentences.

“At a suburban barbecue, a man slaps a child who is not his own.

This event has a shocking ricochet effect on a group of people, mostly friends, who are directly or indirectly influenced by the slap.”

That immediately calls to mind a book I have read, Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty, where something bad also happens when a group of friends are gathered at a barbeque. Both stories unfold as the characters give their different points of view.

As you may have figured out if you read my SIx Degrees of Separation post last month, Liane Moriarty is one of my favorite authors. Around the same time she released Truly Madly Guilty another of my favorite authors, Jodi Picoult, also released a book with a catchy three-word title, Small Great Things. This is a book with themes exploring racism and privilege, and is centered around a fictional nurse, Ruth Jefferson, a strong African-American woman who cares deeply about her teenage son.

Another book in which a main character is a strong African-American woman who cares deeply about her son is Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker by Jennifer Chiaverini. Elizabeth Keckley is — no surprise here — the dressmaker to Mary Todd Lincoln during her years in the White House. But more than that, she is Mrs. Lincoln’s best friend and strongest supporter during those years.

Another book which features the word ‘dressmaker’ in the title is The Dressmaker by Kate Alcott. This is the story of a young European woman who is a talented seamstress. She catches the eye of an important designer of the day, Lucille Duff Gordon, and is hired to accompany her to America aboard the Titanic. Obviously there is much more to the story, including testimony at hearings on the sinking of the Titanic, but the important point here is that she eventually becomes a dressmaker!

A book I read around the same time, and chose because it evoked the sinking of the Titanic when I saw the cover, is The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan. This is a completely different story having nothing to do with the Titanic, but it does have hearings as part of the aftermath of the sinking of a ship! The main character is Grace, a young woman who has very recently wed a wealthy young husband. The newlyweds were aboard the ship and Grace quickly finds herself widowed as a result of the sinking. She gives testimony at the hearings, and I was never sure how reliable that testimony was.

I’m ending my chain with another book featuring an unreliable narrator, The Other Typist by Suzanne Rindell. This story is set about ten years later, during prohibition. Rose is in the typing pool for the local police department, typing up confessions of murderers and gangsters. As a young woman of this time, Rose eventually finds herself involved with some of the illicit happenings of the day, and things spin out of control. As she tells the story, we are never quite sure exactly what happened and when.

And there’s my chain; from The Slap to The Other Typist in six moves! Visit the current Six Degrees post on Kate’s blog to link up your chain and see what others have done with Room. Next month we will start with Shopgirl by Steve Martin. Be sure to come back next month to see what I do with it!

Six Degrees of Separation - April 2017

Six Degrees of Separation is a monthly meme that was started by Annabel Smith and Emma Chapman. It is currently hosted by Kate on her booksaremyfavouriteandbest blog, and normally runs on the first Saturday of the month. The main idea of this meme is to form a chain of books by linking something they have in common, kind of like forming a word ladder with common letters, and everyone begins their chains with the same book. Other than that, there are no set rules. You get to make your own!

This month, we are starting with Room by Emma Donoghue. I haven’t read this book, not have a seen the movie. The subject matter just seems too depressing to me. I thought at one point I would read it with my book club, but it turned out that most of us felt the same way about the book.

But the subject matter involving a kidnapping and prolonged captivity does remind me of another nonfiction book, A Stolen Life by Jaycee Duggard. I’ve not read that one either, though I’m open to the possibility. It doesn’t seem nearly as depressing knowing the outcome and that Ms. Duggard appears to be doing well now.

I have always confused A Stolen Life with another memoir, Stolen Innocence by Elissa Wall. This one is about the author’s forced marriage as a young girl. I’ve read this one and enjoyed it I’m not really sure why I confuse them. I guess the word ‘stolen’ in the title as well as the idea of the loss of the innocence of childhood runs together in my mind.

Stolen Innocence is the story of a young woman raised in a religous sect, FDLS, in which she later came to feel brainwashed and made her escape. fathermothergod by Lucia Greenhouse has a similar theme. Though the idea of ‘escpape’ is a bit extreme the author felt similarly brainwashed by her Christian Scientist parents. This all came to a head for her when she learned her mother was suffering from terminal cancer after years of avoiding doctors.

Another book in which the mother is diagnosed with a terminal case of cancer is Sally Hepworth’s latest story, The Mother’s Promise. Unlike fathermothergod, this one is fiction. It’s a good one, so add it to your list if you haven’t yet read it!

Sonya, one of the characters in The Mother’s Promise, is a victim of domestic violence. Domestic violence is also a theme in Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty, one of my favorite authors. I read a lot of her books.

I’m ending my chain with another of my favorite books by Liane Moriarty is The Husband’s Secret.

And there’s my chain; from Room to The Husband’s Secret in six moves! Visit the current Six Degrees post on Kate’s blog to link up your chain and see what others have done with Room. Next month we will start with Room. Be sure to come back next month to see what I do with it!

Six Degrees of Separation - March 2017

Six Degrees of Separation is a monthly meme that was started by Annabel Smith and Emma Chapman. It is currently hosted by Kate on her booksaremyfavouriteandbest blog, and normally runs on the first Saturday of the month. The main idea of this meme is to form a chain of books by linking something they have in common, kind of like forming a word ladder with common letters, and everyone begins their chains with the same book. Other than that, there are no set rules. You get to make your own!

This month, we are starting with Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby. I haven’t read this book, not have a seen the movie. I do know, though, that it is a baseball movie; one that, as a lifelong St. Louis Cardinals fan,  I don’t have any interest in seeing considering it would make me relive one of the worst weeks of my life!

But this does lead me to think of another baseball movie, possibly my favorite movie ever! That would be Field of Dreams, based on the novel Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella. I’m sure I don’t have to tell anyone that this is the story of Ray Kinselle, who plowed down his corn to build a baseball field. There is a lot of magic in that field, and it all happens in Iowa!

Another book I read that was set on an Iowa farm is Some Luck by Jane Smiley. This family saga tells the story of a midwestern farming family through about 35 years, beginning in the 1920s. It got some good reviews when it was released a few years ago, but for me it was just an ‘ok’ read.

A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler is another family saga that covered several generations that also received some good reviews when it was released. And as with Some Luck, I didn’t really get what all the fuss was about; it was just an ‘ok’ read. And to be honest, having read both I get the story lines confused.

The ‘blue thread’ reminds me of the ‘red string’ important to the story in Diamond Head by Cicily Wong. The red string of fate is a Chinese parable; the string works  to bind a couple together when they are predestined to fall in love. This is another family sage, this time following the  Leong family, a Chinese family who settle in Hawaii in the early twentieth century. .

While the Leongs weren’t really a Chinese-American family because Hawaii was not yet part of the United States at the time the settled, they do remind me of another Chinese American family. That would be the Wong family featured in Mambo in Chinatown by Jean Kwok. This story is about Charlie Wong, a Chinese-American girl struggling with her identity. She thinks of herself as an American, but her father clings to his Eastern heritage, rejecting Western way. The real struggles begin when Charley takes a job at a dance studio and learns she is a pretty good dancer!

The last book in my chain is also a book about dancing and identity issues, The Girl From the Paradise Ballroom by Alison Love. This is set in the WWII period in London. Antonio is an Italian-born Londoner and an excellent dancer, Even though he considers himself British, he is considered an enemy alien because of his Italian heritage.

And there’s my chain; from Fever Pitch to The Girl From the Paradise Ballroom  in six moves! Visit the current Six Degrees post on Kate’s blog to link up your chain and see what others have done with Fever Pitch. Next month we will start with Room by Emma Donoghue, another book i’ve not yet read. Come back next month to see what I do with it!

Six Degrees of Separation - February 2017

Six Degrees of Separation is a monthly meme that was started by Annabel Smith and Emma Chapman. It is currently hosted by Kate on her booksaremyfavouriteandbest blog, and normally runs on the first Saturday of the month. The main idea of this meme is to form a chain of books by linking something they have in common, kind of like forming a word ladder with common letters, and everyone begins their chains with the same book. Other than that, there are no set rules. You get to make your own!

This month, we are starting with Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff. I haven’t read this one yet but it has been on my list for awhile. I first learned about it when it was introduced a an ‘up and coming’ book at a Stay Calm and Read On event hosted by Penguin Random House at our local library a couple of years ago.

Another book I was introduced to at a Stay Calm and Read On event is The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins. This is a psychological thriller that I really enjoyed. Psychological thrillers don’t always work for me, so I was pleased that this one did!

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn is a book that has been compared to The Girl On The Train, but I have to say that I did not enjoy it nearly as much. Both books have gone the ‘book to movie’ route.

A book that I’ve not yet read, but that has also gone the ‘book to movie’ route is Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly. I know you’ve heard of it because it is very big in the theaters right now. I need to read the book so that I can see the movie! This is a book about unappreciated contributions of women who were instrumental to the success of our U.S. space program.

Hidden Figures reminds me very much of a book I have read and that also tells the story of women whose contributions were unrecognized, The Girls Of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan. This is the story of the women who supported to war effort during WWII with their secret work on the Manhattan Project. These women took on unconventional roles that in normal times would have been filled by men, often resulting in risk to their safety and health.

This leads me to another book about women risking their safety to join the war effort, this time during the Civil War. The book is Gunpowder Girls by Tanya Anderson In This book we learn of the women and girls who worked in gunpowder factories during the war, and some of the tragedies they suffered.

The last book in my chain is also a book about women who worked in factories and became victims of workplace tragedies. Triangle by David von Drehle is about the the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire that killed 146 people in 1911. I’ve had this one on my list for a long, long time, but just haven’t made time to read it yet. I guess that takes me right back to where I started, with a book on my list that I haven’t’ yet read!

And there’s my chain; from Fates and Furies by to Triangle in six moves! Visit the current Six Degrees post on Kate’s blog to link up your chain and see what others have done with Fates and Furies. Next month we will start with Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby. I haven’t read it, but after reading the reviews, I think maybe I should! Come back next month to see what I do with it!

SIx Degrees of Separation - January 2017

As you can see, I’ve taken quite a long break from blogging until a couple of weeks ago. I’m trying to get started again, but the only way I will get this going is if I make it fun for me instead of an obligation. One of my favorite things to blog in the past was the Six Degrees of Separation meme, so today I’m going to have some fun with it….even if it IS three weeks late!

Six Degrees of Separation is a monthly meme that was started by Annabel Smith and Emma Chapman. It is currently hosted by Kate on her booksaremyfavouriteandbest blog, and normally runs on the first Saturday of the month. The main idea of this meme is to form a chain of books by linking something they have in common, kind of like forming a word ladder with common letters, and everyone begins their chains with the same book. Other than that, there are no set rules. You get to make your own!

This month, we are starting with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. This is a mystery/thriller set in Sweden and translated from the original Swedish that I read and enjoyed several years ago. If you haven’t read it yet, take a look!

Another book that I just finished for book club, The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald, is also translated from the original Swedish. This is the story of a yound woman from Sweden who comes to visit a friend in a small Iowa town and opens a bookstore during her stay. Books are a big part of her life — can you relate?

A bookstore is also an important part of the story in Mr. Penumbra’s 24-hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan. This is a fantasy book with a supernatural element, and the thing I liked best is the ‘glow-in-the-dark’ cover! So fun!

The Witch of Lime Street by David Jaher also has a fun ‘glow-in-the-dark’ cover. This is narrative nonfiction about Harry Houdini and his work to expose mediums during the era of spiritualism. Though it is long and took me awhile to get through, the book is well-written and sourced, and I enjoyed learning about this period in our history.

Another book of narrative nonfiction that took me awhile to get through, but is well-written and I enjoyed is Ravensbrück by Sarah Helm. This is the true story of the women who were imprisoned and tortured by the Nazis at Ravensbrück — a difficult read but a story that is important to know!

I read Ravensbrück as a follow-up to Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly. While I have trouble when someone asks me for a ’top ten’ list, I have no problem saying this book was definitely among my top three reads of 2016! This is historical fiction about the ‘Polish Rabbits’, a group of Polish women who were imprisoned and experimented on by doctors at Ravensbrück. Even as fiction, it was at times difficult to read!

There it is...my first chain of 2017; from The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo to Lilac Girls in six moves! Not too bad for my first Six Degrees post in almost a year! Visit the current Six Degrees post on Kate’s blog to link up your chain and see what others have done with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Next month (next WEEK!!!) we are starting with Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff. I haven’t read it, but it’s been on my list awhile. Come back and see what I do with it!

#6BoookishDegreesOfSeparation - "Time"

It’s time for #6BookishDegreesofSeparation, hosted by Tanya at Girlxoxo. Making connections between books is what this meme is all about! Each month Tanya will give us a starting point, and our job is to pick a book using that point and adding five more books to make a chain, drawing connections between the books.

This month our starting point it ‘time’.

This month I am starting with a thriller The Girl With A Clock For A Heart by Peter Swanson because….a clock keeps time!

The next book in my chain shares the word ‘heart’ in the title, Heart of the Matter by Emily Giffin.

The next link in my chain is another book by Emily Giffin, Where We Belong, contemporary fiction set in my hometown in Missouri.

From there I am staying in Missouri, but jumping back about 200 years to When The Mississippi Ran Backwards by Jay Feldman. This is nonfiction which tells of the events surrounding one of the largest earthquakes experienced in the United States new New Madrid, Missouri.

My fifth book, Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfeld, also features the New Madrid Fault. This is contemporary fiction about twin sisters, one of whom is a psychic and predicts an earthquake along the fault. Her twin is doubtful about whether she really has these abilities and suspects she may just be seeking attention.

My final book in this chain is The Moon Sisters by Therese Walsh. This is also a ‘sisters’ story in which one of the sisters has a special ability, synesthesia. Her older sister also doubts her abilities and suspects she wants attention.

 

There you have it; from time to special abilities in 6 steps! Do you have a chain this month? Be sure to link it on Tanya’s blog or leave a comment below.

#6BookishDegreesofSeparation is meme hosted by Tanya at Girlxoxo. This is based on the Six Degrees of Separation meme formerly hosted by Annabel Smith and Emma Chapman. Tanya has the schedule up for the entire year, so if you are interested, take a look!