My Continued Apologies
The comment glitch on this blog continues. My hosting provider has been helpful in trying to track down the cause.
In the meantime, here’s a work-around that may may work: If you type a comment and hit the “post comment” button, you’ll get the message “submitting comment,” followed by nothing. But, if you manually reload the page, the comment will magically appear. At least that’s what happens for me.
Again, I apologize for this inconvenience. I do value your comments and look forward to restored communication.
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 Kate has presented us with a beach read as our starting point: Sandwich by Catherine Newman.
Here’s the description from Goodreads:
This year’s vacation, with Rocky sandwiched between her half-grown kids and fully aging parents, promises to be just as delightful as summers past—except, perhaps, for Rocky’s hormonal bouts of rage and melancholy. (Hello, menopause!) Her body is changing—her life is, too. And then a chain of events sends Rocky into the past, reliving both the tenderness and sorrow of a handful of long-ago summers.
It’s one precious week: everything is in balance; everything is in flux. And when Rocky comes face to face with her family’s history and future, she is forced to accept that she can no longer hide her secrets from the people she loves.
I love secrets and evaluations of one’s life, so I’m adding this book to my already huge TBR list for future reading. But, for now, I’m going with the title to begin this exercise.
first degree
Sandwich is a metaphor used to describe Rocky’s situation as someone in between two groups of people she has to care for: her children and her aging parents. The Hidden Machinery: Essays on Writing by Margot Livesey also contains a metaphor in the title. Livesey uses the machinery, hidden away in a building’s basement, that keeps the building running smoothly as a metaphor for how the unconscious processes of writing work to create a cohesive whole.
second degree
Another book with a metaphor for its title is Trust by Hernan Diaz. A trust is a financial instrument, and the book tells the story of the world of high finance around the time of the financial crash of 1929 that lead to the Great Depression. The book’s structure comprises four different types of documents, each with a different narrator, that offer four different versions of what happened. These various versions force the reader to consider which one to trust as the truth.
third degree
Like both Sandwich and Trust, Idaho by Emily Ruskovich is a book with a single-word title.
fourth degree
Ohio by Stephen Markley is yet another book with one word for the title. The blurb on the back of the paperback edition describes the novel as “set over the course of a single evening.”
fifth degree
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens also takes place over a single evening. This book is also appropriate for this month of December.
sixth degree
Last month I ended my 6 Degrees post with an association between one author’s name and the next book’s title. I got such a kick out of doing that that I decided to do the same thing this month. Therefore, I end this chain with The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields, with Carol being the link. I read this book several years ago and have recently been thinking I should reread it, which is probably why it came to mind for this exercise.
Where did your 6 Degrees of Separation journey take you this month?
I wish all the best for everyone who is celebrating a holiday at this time of year. See you next year!
© 2024 by Mary Daniels Brown
It’s been a number of years since I read The Stone Diaries. I should probably reread it! Trust by Hernan Diaz sounds like a book I would enjoy.
Thanks for commenting, Liz. I hope the commenting problem here has been resolved. I’m going to reread Stone Diaries in January. What I remember about it is that it has about the most minimal narrator possible in fiction. I’m looking forward to reading it again, after so many more years of reading experience.
You’re welcome, Mary. I’ll be very interested in your take on The Stone Diaries the second time around.
I enjoyed this Six Degrees. I liked your associations between books, and especially the last one from a word in the title to an author’s name.
I wasn’t successful with my comment on your new literary links post so I hope this one works.
Tracy, your comment did come through on the Literary Links post. In fact, I just replied to it. Sorry about the wonky comments stuff. I hope the tech folks can get it figured out sometime. Anyway, thanks again for reading and commenting.
interesting chain and i have only read A Christmas Carol here though Trust is on mY TBR.. It is always fun to see how each of us finds links to other books..
My post is here
Thanks for reading and commenting, Vidya. I enjoyed your post as well.
FYI… that commenting glitch is happening to EVERYONE these days. WP has really taken their eyes off the ball!
REALLY??? I hadn’t seen anything about that, although I admit I’ve been so wrapped up in my own situation that I haven’t been doing much else. But now I don’t feel so bad. The latest suggestion from my hosting company was that I contact the Jetpack people, which is a sub-thing of the WordPress people. I sent Jetpack a support ticket last night. If other people are having a similar problem, perhaps that will sufficiently motivate them to fix the issue.
Well, I’ve read the books in the second half of your chain, which encourages me to try some from the first half! Your first choice sounds intriguing, so maybe I’ll begin there.
Thanks for reading and commenting, Margaret. I enjoyed The Hidden Machinery because the subconscious processes of both writing and reading have always seemed magical to me.
Indeed! Definitely worth a go then.