Sunday, October 03, 2021

Six Degrees of Separation: The Lottery to The Good Wife of Bath

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. 



The starting point for this month is a short story called The Lottery by Shirley Jackson. I found this story online and so, somewhat unusually, I have actually read this one. However, I wrote this post before I read it, so it didn't really colour my choices.



My first link is to The Sundial by Shirley Jackson. This is the readalong book for Readers Imbibing Peril XVI (RIPXVI) for this year. I did think about using RIP reads as my through theme but I ended up going in a more random direction.



My next link is to The Clockmakers Daughter by Kate Morton because the sundial is a way of telling the time as is a clock.



My link to the next book was supposed to be  the word daughter but when I went to look for the cover I realised that the book I was thinking of is actually called The Cartographer's Secret by Tea Cooper (not the Cartographer's Daughter). I read this book earlier this year and loved it. So my connection can either be the possessive title or the fact that both books are historical fiction by Australian authors.



Let's get this chain back on track. My next choice is based on the fact that a cartographer is someone who draws maps, my next choice is The Year the Maps Changed by Danielle Binks which I currently have out from the library.



The connection to my next choice is the word year. Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks is a book that I read years ago and loved....well, except for the epilogue.



My final choice is The Good Wife of Bath by Karen Brooks, because of the shared surname.



I have just realised that other than Shirley Jackson, these authors are all Australian, which wasn't deliberate. It just worked out that way, or maybe is reflecctive of my reading patterns.



Next month, our chain starts with What Are We Going Through by Sigrid Nunez.  I am looking forward to it!

18 comments:

  1. I liked the way you found the link to The Cartographer's Secret despite getting the title wrong. Great chain!

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    1. Had to make it work Yvonne! The rest of my chain hinged on it! LOL

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  2. Cool links! I love Kate Morton's books!
    I have always debated reading Year of Wonders, but never heard about something special in the epilogue. I am intrigued

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    1. It must nearly be time for a new Kate Morton book Emma!. I must check and see if I can find anything.

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  3. I like the random direction, to be honest! That last book looks good to me!

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    1. I've heard good things about that author Davida!

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  4. Lovely to see Danielle Binks among your choices. I'm just about to feature her in Meet an Aussie Author, I just need to finish a review first.

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    1. I just need to get to actually reading it now Lisa! I have had it out from the library a couple of times now.

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  5. I do love an Australian chain, as these are authors that I am sadly not familiar with. And I love the way you misremembered that title but made it work anyway! (Glad to see I'm not the only one misremembering titles)

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    1. I do misremember a bit too often Marina Sofia!

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  6. This meme is full of serendipity. Who knows how many people find their ways to these books through this meme?!

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    1. It's always interesting to see how people can all start at one place but there is never a chain that is the same.

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  7. I do admire the way in which you have linked these books, and I'm interested in the Australian theme - I was just today listening to one of the Slightly Foxed podcasts, in which the guest author was Kate Young, Australian-born author of The Little Library Cookbook. One of the books discussed was Picnic at Hanging Rock, and she was explaining how the story can be interpreted as representing white men's colonisation of the country, and how they tried to cling on to very English habits (girls' boarding schools in the middle of nowhere, Victorian clothes in Australian heat, etc - similar to the British in India) and failed to understand anything at all about Australia. It was so eye-opening to someone like me, who (embarrassingly) grew up more or less being taught that Australia only started when the white settlers got there. I had had my own ideas about Picnic at Hanging Rock, and what the disappearance of the girls might mean, but this was an entirely different interpretation that had sadly passed me by. So I would like to read more Australian literature.

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    1. I haven't heard of Kate Young Rosemary. I am going to check her out.

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  8. it's about time i got into aussie authors more i feel so i will follow up some of your suggestions here.

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    1. There are so many good Aussie authors out there Sherry.

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  9. I like your chain although the only one I have read is Year of Wonders (I usually like Kate Morton but couldn't get into that one; I will probably try it again). A friend in my book group returned home late one night after a vacation and found some dead flowers tucked into her front door with a note that said, "Congratulations on your Pulitzer!" She was perplexed but eventually figured out that Brooks was renting a house several doors down. She went over to tell them what had happened and the husband, a journalist himself who I believe has died since, answered the door and invited her in for champagne as they were still celebrating her win for March!

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    1. What a cool story CLM. I do remember something about her husband dying a few years ago now.

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