Six Degrees of Separation: Romantic Comedy to All That I Am

 

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. 

 

This month's starting point is Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld. When this was announced as the starting point I was pretty pleased. I mean, I read plenty of books which might be counted as romantic comedies. Except when it came to making the first step when I was writing the post I got very stuck. And the theme I ended up following wasn't particularly romantic or funny!

One author who came to mind when I thought about romantic comedy is Emily Henry. Her book Happy Place was also released in April 2023, the same month as the Sittenfeld book. Emily Henry's next book is going to be called Funny Story so that must surely be a romantic comedy. She announced that this week.

Also announced this week was the winner of the Miles Franklin award for 2023 which was Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens by Shankari Chandran. I read this book last year and liked it a lot, which isn't always the case for me and award winners.

Another Miles Franklin award winner I have read and enjoyed many years ago now is That Deadman Dance by Kim Scott who is an indigenous author. (my review)

I mentioned above that I am not always enamoured by award winners. One Miles Franklin award winner that I tried unsuccessfully to read was Carpentaria by Alexis Wright. She too is an indigenous author.

So I have given you two Miles Franklin Award winners I have read and enjoyed, one I DNF'ed so my next step is another winner by another indigenous author, Tara June Finch which is called The Yield. I own this book but I haven't read it yet!

My final link in the chain for this month is another Miles Franklin award winner that I have read which is All That I Am by Anna Funder. I really wanted to finish with this book because the starting point for next month is Anna Funder's new book, Wifedom. (my review)

Are you joining in on Six Degrees this month? Where did your chain take you?

Six Degrees of Separation: Rodham to Light Between Oceans

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 this month is Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld. I can't imagine that I will ever read this book as I don't think it is my kind of book. It is an alternate telling of the life of Hilary Rodham Clinton, asking the question of what her life would have been like had she not married Bill Clinton.

For my first link in the chain, I have gone down the alternate history route, but kind of an extreme alternate. In the world that that Jasper Fforde has created for the Thursday Next series,  which starts with The Eyre Affair, dodos are the pet of choice, you can travel from one side of the world to the other in a tube, and the Crimean War still rages on even though it is 1985.

For my next link, I am focusing on the Crimean War and choosing The Rose of Sebastopol by Katharine McMahon. The Rose of Sebastopol is about a young woman who goes off to the Crimean War to be a nurse alongside Florence Nightingale.

I am following the war time nurse thread for my next link which is to Daughter of Mars by Thomas Keneally. This book is about a young woman who heads off from country Australia to the front in World War I.

Normally I try to use books I have read for these posts, but this time I am using a book I am going to read as my next link. The Wreck is by Meg Keneally, who is Thomas Keneally's daughter. They have written a historical mystery series together which I also have on my shelves, but this book is due to be released this month.

From here I kind of got stuck on the lighthouse motif, choosing Lighthouse Bay by Kimberly Freeman, because lighthouses are supposed to try and prevent wrecks, and because it is a really good book!

For my final link I chose Light Between Oceans by M L Stedman, once again because of the lighthouse, although I was trying to make a pun about preventing physical wrecks but not necessarily preventing emotional wrecks! It's a stretch though.

For this month I have travelled from an alternate world where dodos and mammoths roam to the Crimea, to the Mediterranean of WWI and then to the Australian coast. Where have your links taken you?

Next month's starting point is The Turn of the Screw by Henry James.