6 Degrees of Separation

Collage of book covers: Intermezzo by Sally Rooney; The Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker; Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg; The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig; Summer of '49 by David Halberstam; The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon; Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz

6 Degrees of Word-Association Separation

The starting point for this month’s 6 Degrees of Separation challenge is Sally Rooney’s latest release, Intermezzo. I keep meaning to read Sally Rooney’s works, but, you know, “so many books, so little time.” So I’m going to begin this exercise with word association first degree Intermezzo immediately reminded me of the title The Mezzanine […]

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Collage of book covers: Long Island by Colm Toibin; Sag Harbor by Colin Whitehead; The Last House Guest by Megan Miranda; The Night Guest by Hildur Knútsdóttir; Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson; Night Woman by Nancy Price; The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud

6 Degrees of Separation

This month’s starting point is Colm Tóibín’s Long Island. Here’s the description from Goodreads: From the beloved, critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling author comes a spectacularly moving and intense novel of secrecy, misunderstanding, and love, the story of Eilis Lacey, the complex and enigmatic heroine of Brooklyn, Tóibín’s most popular work, twenty years later.

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Collage of book covers. Large cover on left: After Story by Larissa Behrendt. Smaller covers: top row: Black Cake by Charmaine Wilderson; Searching for Sylvie Lee by Jean Kwok; Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng. Bottom row: The Center of Everything by Laura Moriarty; The Center Cannot Hold by Elyn Saks; Brain on Fire by Susannah Cahalan.

6 Degrees of Separation

This month’s starting book is After Story by Larissa Behrendt. I haven’t read it, although it sounds like a book I would appreciate. Here’s the description from Goodreads: When Indigenous lawyer Jasmine decides to take her mother Della on a tour of England’s most revered literary sites, Jasmine hopes it will bring them closer together

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Collage of book covers: Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck; A Time to Kill by John Grisham; Killing Time by Caleb Carr; Stories are Weapons by Annalee Newitz; Tell Me a Story by Daniel Taylor; The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid; Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney

6 Degrees of Separation: On Time and Storytelling

This month we start with the 2024 winner of the International Booker Prize, Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck (translated by Michael Hofmann). Jenny Erpenbeck has created an unforgettably compelling masterpiece with Kairos. The story of a romance begun in East Berlin at the end of the 1980s: the passionate yet difficult long-running affair of Katharina and

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Collage of book covers: Butter by Asako Yuzuki; Yellowface by R.F. Kuang; The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz; Misery by Stephen King; Season of Eclipse by Terry Wolverton; The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin; Babel by R.F. Kuang

6 Degrees of Separation: From “Butter” to “Babel”

This month’s starting point is a crime novel with difference – Butter by Asako Yuzuki. Inspired by the real case of the convicted con woman and serial killer, “The Konkatsu Killer,” Asako Yuzuki’s Butter is a vivid, unsettling exploration of misogyny, obsession, romance and the transgressive pleasures of food in Japan. —Goodreads This sounds like

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Book covers: The Anniversary by Stephenie Bishop; Swimming Lessons by Claire Fuller; Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman; The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese; Hit Me by Lawrence Block; The Husbands by Holly Gramazio; The Midnight Library by Matt Haig.

6 Degrees of Separation

This month we begin with a novel longlisted for the 2024 Stella Prize – The Anniversary by Stephanie Bishop. Description from Amazon: Novelist J.B. Blackwood is on a cruise with her husband, Patrick, to celebrate their wedding anniversary. Her former professor, Patrick is much older than J.B.. But when they met, he seemed somehow ageless,

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Book covers: Lonely Planet Pocket Rome; Emperor of Rome by Mary Beard; A Rome of One's Own by Emma Southon; I am Rome by Santiago Posteguillo; Daughters of Rome by Kate Quinn; The First Man in Rome by Colleen McCullough; The Ides of March by Thornton Wilder.

6 Degrees of Separation: Rome Through the Centuries

For this month’s starting point we were told to look on our shelves for a travel guide. I have a bunch of badly outdated travel guides, but the most recent one added to the shelf is Lonely Planet’s Pocket Rome: Top Experiences – Local Life.  There’s a reason why this book is on the shelf:

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Book cover collage: Tom Lake by Ann Patchett; Our Town by Thornton Wilder; Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters; Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson; Ohio by Stephen Markley; Idaho by Emily Ruskovich; Montana 1948 by Larry Watson

6 Degrees of Separation: Travels Around the U.S.

This month we start with Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. Last month (February) we were directed to start with the book our chain had ended with the previous month (January), which for me was . . . Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. So this time around, I’m accepting the challenge of taking the same starting

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Collage of book covers: Tom Lake by Ann Patchett, The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov, The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin, Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield, The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

6 Degrees of Separation: From “Tom Lake” to “The Thirteenth Tale”

This month we start with the book we ended with in January. That was Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. The title refers to a region in Michigan where the protagonist and her family own a cherry orchard. first degree My first-degree entry is a no-brainer: Anton Checkhov’s probably best known play, The Cherry Orchard. second

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Collage of book covers: Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin; A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce; Drowning Ruth by Christina Schwarz; The Drowning People by Richard Mason; Normal People by Sally Rooney; A Nearly Normal Family by M.T. Edvardsson; Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

6 Degrees of Separation

This month we start with Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, which was My Most Surprising Read of 2022. Zevin’s powerful novel made me consciously re-examine how I read fiction, and I began putting together a list of books that, at various times in my life, have changed the way I read fiction.

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