It’s time for #6degrees. Join in and see which direction your book chain takes you.
This month we begin with Laura Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate. Every so often, I see a movie before I read the book and this was one such book (I loved both).
A similar example is Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick. I haven’t read the book yet and although this might be the opportunity for a few gratuitous Bradley Cooper links, instead I’m jumping to another book by Quick, Boy 21.
I bought Boy 21 for my son (12 at the time) who is a picky reader. He was engrossed, so I suggested he find other titles the author had written (I didn’t realise it was the same Quick…). Anyway, when he said ‘Silver Linings’ I thought “Whoa! What was Boy 21 about?!”. Thankfully, Boy 21 is a YA book (phew) but probably more ‘mature’ than he’d have normally read, on account of the fact that “There was a bit of swearing, Mum. But it was in context.”
Which reminded my of A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines. I read it at school. Somewhere in the book, there’s the word ‘fuck’. Every school text falls open to this page and I distinctly recall the day my friend was chosen to read the ‘fuck passage’ in class.
From kestrels to hawks – in Helen MacDonald’s memoir, H is for Hawk, she tells how training a goshawk became associated with grieving for her father.
Another book about birds and grieving is Max Porter’s Grief is the Thing with Feathers. Now’s probably a good time to mention that I have a serious bird phobia.
On the topic of phobias and things with wings, my last link is to Erica Jong’s Fear of Flying.
My chain started with something I love (chocolate, not Bradley Cooper…oh, wait…) but was dominated by the thing I fear most (birds). I wonder where other chains will lead? Link up below (or add your link in the Comments section).
Next month (November 4, 2017), we’ll begin with a controversial bestseller by a member of the eighties ‘literary Brat Pack’ – Bret Easton Ellis’s Less Than Zero.
