Six Degrees of Separation: Orbital to The Secret Daughter of Venice

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 Orbital by Samantha Harvey.

Usually when I sit down to write this post, I just have to look at the book title and the idea of where the first link, and then the second link, etc etc will take me. My main challenge is in completing a chain not using books I have used multiple times before. This was not one of those months. Part of the reason is that I was trying to force a direction but it just wasn't working. Sometimes, you just have to keep it simple. 

Over the last 18 months, British author Gillian Harvey has become a must read author for me. She writes books about life in France and starting over. Her new book, Midnight in Paris, comes out in the next couple of weeks and I am looking forward to reading it!

Midnight in Paris is a movie that I have seen quite a few times and which features several very famous authors who lived in Paris in the golden years of the 1920s. One of those authors was Ernest Hemingway and the book I am choosing is A Moveable Feast.

From a moveable feast I am then linking to Immovable Feast: A Paris Christmas by John Baxter. Baxter is an Australian who has lived in Paris for many years and published a number of books about the city and his experiences.

My most recent read about Christmas in Paris was Christmas at the Little Paris Hotel by Rebecca Raisin. I do have several books that I could have chosen about Christmas in Paris. Is anyone surprised.

Moving from Paris to Venice, my next choice is The Venice Hotel by Tess Woods, which I read recently.

Also set mostly in Venice is The Secret Daughter of Venice by Juliet Greenwood. This is the second book in the Shakespeare Sisters series, and tells the story of a woman who is trying to find her true identity during WWII.

I mentioned that I struggled at the beginning this month. Once I get going though, the connections do just happen. I was just finalising this post when I realised I had accidentally done a seventh degree. I could probably keep going as well. Maybe I will do a Top Ten Tuesday one day with ten connections! 

Next month, the starting point is Dangerous Liaisons by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

Will you be joining us?

Six Degrees of Separation: Sandwich to Agnes and the Hitman

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 Sandwich by Catherine Newman.

I thought I would do things a little bit differently this month. Whereas normally this is an exercise in word and thought association. This time, I am going to make....a sandwich

When you are making a sandwich you need to start with bread. In this case, I am choosing a collection of short stories called Bread and Chocolate by Philippa Gregory. I had completely forgotten about this book until I recently revisited the first few book reviews I ever wrote and this was one of them.

Next, I am going to add Butter by Asako Yuzuki

I then need to decide what protein. Will it be ham, or turkey or something else. Maybe chicken, using the book Mr Chicken Goes to Paris by Leigh Hobbs. I read this book many years ago to my nephews  when we were visiting the State Library and I have never forgotten it.

Next up tomatoes. I am choosing Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe by Fannie Flagg, although I probably wouldn't normally fry them!

The next filling was a little trickier. In the end I have chosen a book about Lettice Knollys, cousin and rival to Queen Elizabeth I. I first read about her in high school in a book called My Enemy, the Queen by Victoria Holt, which is a pseudonym of the prolific author Jean Plaidy.

The final link was even trickier. If I was making a chicken, lettuce and tomato sandwich I would want to add mayonaisse, but there aren't many books where this fits. I am therefore choose a book that was co-written by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer (Mayer/mayo is close right?) called Agnes and the Hitman.

So there you have it, my chicken, lettuce and tomato sandwich!

Next month, which will also be next year (!!!) the starting point is Orbital by Samantha Harvey, which is a new book to me.