Sunday, February 07, 2021

Six Degrees of Separation: From Redhead by the Side of the Road to One Hundred Years of Solitude

Welcome to this month's edition of Six Degrees of Separation, which is a monthly meme hosted by Kate from Books Are My Favourite and Best.  The idea is to start with a specific book and make a series of links from one book to the next using whatever link you can find and see where you end up after six links.  I am also linking this post up with The Sunday Salon, hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.



I missed last months Six Degrees which was a shame, but I am back this month with a list that contains at least one tenuous link! See if you can spot it.



The starting point this month is Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler, an author who I have  never read, although I am sure I should have! I did think about doing books with red in the title but I have a feeling I have done that before, if not in Six Degrees, definitely in a Top Ten Tuesday post, so I took a different direction.




The Secret of the Mansion by Julie Campbell (Trixie Belden mysteries book 1) - My first thought related to the word redhead and that kind of inevitably lead to me to think about my first red headed book crush - Jim from the Trixie Belden books!



Voyager by Diana Gabaldon - Jim was not my only red headed literary crush. There was also James Alexander Malcolm Mackenzie Fraser from the Outlander series. This book, the third in the main series, is probably my favourite. Maybe it is something about a variation of the name James, and not the redhead, but I don't think so.




The Red Scarf/Under a Blood Red Sky by Kate Furnivall - When I checked my handy dandy spreadsheet which list the books I have read since  2004, the author directly above Diana Gabaldon alphabetically is Kate Furnival. I kept on thinking about the red scarf as the link too. This book is set in 1930s Russia, specifically in a Siberian prison camp.



The Tolstoy Estate by Steven Conte - Also set in Russia, but this time during WWII, this was one of my favourite books from last year



Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy - An obvious connection here, from a book where most of the action takes place at Tolstoy's house  to a book written by the man.



One Hundred  Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez- I originally read Anna Karenina as part of Oprah's Book Club back in the 90s.  This was the first book that I ever  read with the book club! I am not sure I would've read either without my fellow readers and the fun that we had in the forums. I am still online friends with a lot of those people now!



Did you spot the very tenuous link?

Next month the starting point is Phosphorence by Julia Baird, which is going to be interesting to find a connection to. Better get my thinking cap on early for that one!

20 comments:

  1. Glad you're back, tenuous link or not. (I love this meme!)

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    1. Thanks Davida. Before I started this I thought it looked super hard but really it is quite freeing as you can go in any direction you like

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  2. This is a fun exercise. I like it gets your brain clicking. And I'm intrigued by The Tolstoy Estate and Under a Blood Red Sky, both of which sound like books I'd enjoy.

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    1. The Tolstoy Estate was excellent! I have read a number of Kate Furnivall books over the years. I do need to get back to them.

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  3. I forgot about Trixie Belden!!
    Anna Karenina is on my TBR list this year.

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    1. I Loved the Trixie Belden books when I was a kid Jackie. I was super surprised that they were first published in 1948

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  4. Six degrees of separation between books - what an interesting concept. And I like the way your mind works to make these connections. Very clever!

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  5. I am always impressed by how you link the books. I read about the concept and think, Ok I get this....then I can't do it. Ha!

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    1. Once you start you will be surprised at where the links take you Tina

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  6. Anna Karenina is the only one I've read there, I also want to read a particular book by Anne Tyler, but I can't remember the title just now... A retelling of The taming of the shrew, I think ?...

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    1. Anna K is a good one to have read IzaBzh

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  7. Aaah yes, Jamie Frasier... Interesting chain Marg, but I get where you link them up. Very nice!

    I'm a bit late with Six Degrees, but here's my list: 6 Degrees of Separation - missed it by a red hair's breadth

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    1. I'm surprised that I haven't used Outlander multiple times before in this meme.

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  8. Ah Trixie Belden - such great memories of those books! Great job on the chain.

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    1. First bingeworthy mystery series right there Iliana!

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  9. I have just listened to Anna Karenina on BBC Sounds, which I have found a great way to engage with books that would otherwise intimidate me (I've also finally got through Wuthering Heights this way, at last). I enjoyed it but in the end I lost patience with Amma. My husband has read the book and he felt quite differently - I think I must be getting too old and cynical! But I like the look of The Tolstoy Estate, what an interesting idea.

    I've never heard of Trixie Belden! She looks fun though. I love old children's books, especially ones with strong female characters.

    Thank you for introducing me to these books.

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    1. That's agood way to get through an intimidating book Rosemary!

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