Six Degrees of Separation: We Have Always Lived in the Castle to The Girl Who Chased the Moon

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 and A Good Book and a Cup of Tea hosted at Boondock Ramblings.

This month the starting point is Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle, a book I have not and I am unlikely to read.

I did start reading The Sundial by Shirley Jackson a few years ago because it was a read along book for RIPXVI. I never did finish the book. 

The readalong book for this year's RIP (the 20th time the event has been held!!!) was Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia which I ended up sending back to the library unread

I had a few books set in Mexico I could have chosen but I ended up going with the book Texas by James Michener. I know that sentence seems strange but a large part of the state of Texas was once Mexican territory. 

If I think about the early days of Texas as we know it now then Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry comes to mind.

I need to avoid going down the bird route because I end up doing bird related books quite regularly, so instead I am choosing the last book I read by Larry McMurtry which is Comanche Moon.

The word moon leads me to The Girl who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen.

Next month, the starting point is a novella that you may read as part of this year’s Novellas in November – Seascraper by Benjamin Wood.


Will you be joining us?

Six Degrees of Separation: The Good Earth to Burial Rites

 

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 is a little different from normal as we need to start with the book we finished with last month, which for me was The Good Earth by Pearl S Buck.

I had quite a few ideas of places to start this month, but the one I chose to go with was The Lost Pearl by Emily Madden, because of the name Pearl.

The Lost Pearl is partially set in Hawaii, so I have chosen to use Hawaii by James Michener, a book I read many, many years ago as my next choice.

For my next link I chose another James Michener book which is Texas.

When I think of colonial Texas, I think of Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

Using a type of bird as my prompt I am choosing The Peacock Summer by Hannah Richell

And then finally, a book by another Hannah which is Burial Rites by Hannah Kent.

Next month's starting point is Notes on a Scandal by Zoë Heller. Where will your Six Degrees of Separation take you?

Top Ten Tuesday: New Orleans or bust!

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Purple, Green and Gold in honour of Mardi Gras which is today.

Whilst I am pretty sure I can do purple, green  and gold books pretty easily, but I thought I would twist it the topic a little bit. The last time I visited the US we visited New Orleans. Because we aren't going anywhere any time soon, I thought I would revisit some places that we have visited over the last few years on our US holidays, a couple with books associated!

The main reason for starting our 2018 trip in New Orleans was to catch up with some friends who I originally met through Sara Donati's author forum. Her book, Queen of Swords, was set against the background of the Battle of New Orleans. We were able to visit a few of the places she visited when researching for the book which was fun.

Other books I have read set in New Orleans include the Sherrilyn Kenyon series. I used to read these books a lot but I can't remember the last time I read a  paranormal romance.Back in the day, I didn't read a lot of contemporary romance but did read a bit of paranormal romance. Now it's the other way around.

During our visit to New Orleans we did visit one of the famous cemeteries where the books referenced included Interview with a Vampire, and A Confederacy of Dunces got a mention too during our time there. I haven't read either of these though.

In 2017 we visited New York. Of course there are tons of books set in New York, but I thought I would focus on two historical novels. One of these is from the follow up series to the Into the Wilderness series about the next generations. It was such a good read. 

The other series that I wanted to mention was Beverly Swerling's Old New York series which is set in the early days of colonisation.

Of course, there are many, many contemporary novels set in New York too. The latest one I read was The Prenup by Lauren Layne which was so much fun and then there is the futuristic New York as portrayed in the J D Robb In Death series.

The reason why we visited the US both in 2017 and 2019 is that my son was at college playing basketball in a place called Concordia in Kansas. Whilst I am sure that there aren't many books set in the town, there is a museum called the National Orphan Train Complex, which tells the story of the orphans who were taken from the East Coast to the midwest. The town is filled with statues telling stories of the children who rode the train. This book, The Orphan Train wasn't set in the town but the connection to the story that the museum is trying to preserve is obvious

Of course it's hard to talk about Kansas without thinking about The Wizard of Oz!

Other places that we visited on those two trips to see my son included Wichita, Tuscon, Nashville, Memphis, Tulsa, and Kansas City (twice) .

We also went on a Carribean cruise that docked in Honduras (where we officially got engaged), Belize and Mexico so in honour of that I am posting one of the James Michener  books I used to read back in the 80s and 90s.