It’s time for another adventure in Kate’s 6 Degrees of Separation Meme from her blog, Books Are My Favourite and Best. We are given a book to start with, and from there we free associate six books.
This month we start with the book that topped the most ‘Best Books of 2022’ lists – Trust by Hernan Diaz. Since I had bought the book on vacation last July, this choice prompted me to read it.
Trust is a brilliant novel comprising four sections that each offer a different viewpoint on the lives of a wealthy financier and his wife involved in the 1929 economic crash in the United States. It’s the story of an investment trust, but also an examination into which of the four narrators readers should trust. The novel uses the language of finance throughout its variations on the concept of trust.
first degree
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin also uses an extended metaphor. Focusing on characters in the world of video gaming, the novel considers some of life’s big issues such as identity, motivations, life choices, and relationships.
second degree
Emma Straub’s novel This Time Tomorrow contains the same keyword in its title, but there’s also a (perhaps far-fetched?) thematic similarity between them. In video games, the dreaded “game over” notification allows one to start all over again to try out other virtual selves and virtual lives. In Straub’s novel, the magic of time travel allows the protagonist to start over again each day in her attempt to learn from the past.
third degree
“After all, tomorrow is another day,” Scarlett O’Hara famously declares at the end of Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. This novel received the National Book Award for Novel in 1936.
fourth degree
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead is another work that won the National Book Award for Fiction (2016). If I hadn’t already read it, I’d have it on my list of books for this month, Black History Month.
fifth degree
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward won the National Book Award for Fiction in 2017. This novel was on my TBR shelf until a couple of days ago, when I picked it up as my first book for Black History Month. Also, the covers of this novel and The Underground Railroad are the same color.
sixth degree
Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby also has an orange cover, also is on my TBR shelf, and also is a book I intend to read for Black History Month.
Where did your musings on Trust take you this month?
© 2023 by Mary Daniels Brown
Excellent! I like how you switched things up between the links.
Thanks, Davida.
Some really interesting ways of making links here – and interesting looking books too!
Thanks for reading and commenting, Margaret.
I loved how the last three are dually bound by the colour of their covers and Black history!
To tell the truth, Mallika, I kind of ran out of creativity near the end. Thanks for visiting.
I have read two of the books on your list (Gone With the Wind and The Underground Railroad) and loved them both.. Zevin’s Tomorrow is something I have seen everywhere and added to my TBR late last year.. hope to get to it soon.. This Time Tomorrow as well as the last two books on your chain are getting added to my TBR too..
love how you linked them all..
Here is my 6 Degrees of Separation
Thanks, Vidya. I liked your list as well.
I am currently reading Tomorrow, and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, and have to do so quickly, as there is a long waiting list at the library for it, apparently!
I hope you enjoy it, MarinaSofia. It crept up on me, and then Wham!
It feels a bit YA so far… but let’s see. I had to laugh at the Hanafuda reference, as my son and I are currently playing it a lot (it was my Christmas present from him).