It’s time for #6degrees. Start at the same place as other wonderful readers, add six books, and see where you end up.
This month, we begin with A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. This book was one of my book group’s selections earlier this year and I didn’t read it. That’s notable because I almost always read the book. The last one I didn’t read was Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts (we did that in 2003 and my excuse was I’d just had a baby and couldn’t focus on 900+ pages).
My husband rarely reads for leisure, however, he has been meaning to read Shantaram for more than a decade. In fact, he takes it on every holiday with the intention to start. It has become a running joke when we are packing –
Me: Have you got your bathers, your fishing gear and Shantaram?
Him: Yep, all packed.
Last holiday, Shantaram came with us, as well as The Arsonist by Chloe Hooper. My husband picked up the Hooper and read it in one day (Shantaram remained untouched). The Arsonist focuses on the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires. Alice Bishop’s A Constant Hum is a fictional take on those same fires.
I’m obsessed with the cover of A Constant Hum. The designer, Imogen Stubbs, recently won an award for her cover for The Art of Taxidermy by Sharon Kernot.
Kernot’s book is about taxidermy and a girl whose mother has died. I couldn’t think of any other books I’ve read about taxidermy but there are plenty about mothers dying – the first book that popped to mind was Lost and Found by Brooke Davis, whose real life experience of her mother dying prompted the novel.
‘Lost’ links me to The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante, the final instalment in the Neapolitan series.
I started in Moscow and ended in Naples – where will other chains go? Link up below or post your link in the comments section.
Next month (October 5, 2019), we’ll begin with a book that everyone’s talking about – Three Women by Lisa Taddeo.
I’ve listened to Shantaram, I’m not sure it’s worth carrying to the beach every year. But I do have books I carry with me for years in the bottom of my work backpack without ever reading them. The latest is a collection of The a Ashley short stories, no longer in my ‘currently reading list but still at the bottom of my bag.
I have books that I’ve had on my TBR shelf for years but I don’t carry them around with me! My husband does so much reading for work that when it comes to leisure time, it has to be light an undemanding (I think Shantaram is too much of a time investment). So what will prompt you to read the books in your backpack?
Sometimes its time comes (ie. I feel like reading it), sometimes I feel guilty, but more often I get held up somewhere and slowly make my way through all the reading material in the truck.
Love the Shantaram story!
My link will post at 10am, so I’ll come back then and share my link.
BTW Next month’s book that everyone’s talking about? This is weird, it’s not in my radar at all, so I decided to look it up. Hmm, it rings a bell, but I tend not to pay much attention to bestselling books, so their titles and authors rarely stick in my brain these days. I feel I’m becoming a literati failure. Anyhow, I can see that it won’t be hard to link from it.
Ha, Sue, I bet we will choose the same link to 1970s book about That!
Haha Lisa… If you’re thinking what I’m thinking I must say it crossed my mind but I’m going to do my darnedest to come up with something else!
Now I’m trying to think what book you’re referring to… bring on next month!
LOL I’ll have forgotten what I meant by then… #ShortAttentionSpan
It was one of those new releases that was accompanied by feature articles and author interviews – a luxury bestowed on only a handful of new releases! And a bunch of friends reported that their book groups were reading it – so that’s ‘everyone’ 😀
Well, I didn’t end up reading A Gentleman in Moscow but I still managed to come up with six degrees:
https://theresasmithwrites.com/2019/09/07/six-degrees-of-separation-from-a-gentleman-in-moscow-to-the-second-cure/
Bit trickier when you haven’t read the book though!
Starting with a favourite book of the Muse & Views Bookclub, here is our rendition of this month’s Six Degrees
https://bookclub9.blogspot.com/2019/09/six-degrees-of-separation-from.html
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I loved Lost and Found, but still haven’t read the Ferrante novels despite everyone raving about them. I have just bought Three Women, so it may be I’ve actually read one of the starting books next month!
My chain is here: https://www.melindatognini.com.au/6-degrees-of-separation-from-a-gentleman-in-moscow-to-on-the-brink-of-everything/
Here’s mine, Kate, thanks for hosting!
https://anzlitlovers.com/2019/09/07/six-degrees-of-separation-a-gentleman-in-moscow-to/
That’s hilarious about Shantaram. And so funny that you mention book covers – my first thought on opening your post was what a great cover for A Gentleman In Moscow! Here’s my chain with the much more ordinary AGIM cover lol. https://wp.me/p75Lt6-12
Haha, I too like the Shantaram story – I hope your husband gets to read it soon, so you don’t have to bring it on every holiday. I posted my chain via Mr Linky.
Here’s mine Kate, as promised this morning: https://whisperinggums.com/2019/09/07/six-degrees-of-separation-from-a-gentleman-in-moscow-to/
Great chain – I have read A Gentleman in Moscow and enjoyed it, but haven’t read any of the others. Here’s mine for this month: https://shereadsnovels.com/2019/09/07/six-degrees-of-separation-from-a-gentleman-in-moscow-to-poor-miss-finch/
Enjoyed your post. I’ve not read any of the books mentioned. A Gentleman in Moscow is in my TBR. My chain for this month https://adarngoodread.blogspot.com/2019/09/six-degrees-of-separation-from-a-gentleman-in-moscow-to-the-jacobites-wife.html
I haven’t read any of your books either. I’m curious now abut Shantaram – haven’t come across it before. Here’s my chain – https://booksplease.org/2019/09/07/six-degrees-of-separation-from-a-gentleman-in-moscow-to/
Pingback: Six degrees of separation: From Moscow to Vimy | Words And Peace
I think you deserve an entry in the Guiness Book of Records for the best travelled copy of Shantaram!
I really enjoyed A Gentleman in Moscow but have not read any of your others. The author went to school in the next town over from me and when my book group read it and I was reading some reviews I found a funny story about his visiting his old school. It sounded as if everyone had been assigned to read the book before his visit and, knowing teens, I wondered how many had actually done so.
I thought about switching to WordPress once because it does seem easier to manipulate photos. I like the way you included all seven covers!
Shantaram has been on my to read list for a while, it was recommended to me by a librarian, but Ive never gotten around to it,
This month I started in a hotel, and ended up on a farm
https://bookdout.wordpress.com/2019/09/08/six-degrees-of-separation-a-gentleman-in-moscow-to-the-farm/
Nice trip! I haven’t read any of these, but your links seem interesting. For mine, I ended up in France: https://wordsandpeace.com/2019/09/07/six-degrees-of-separation-from-moscow-to-vimy/
My entry is here: http://www.notesinthemargin.org/weblog/2019/09/07/6-degrees-of-separation-from-a-gentleman-in-moscow-to-the-chatham-school-affair/
Hi Mary, I left a comment on your post but it was blocked 🙁 – something about proxies??
Anyway, wanted to say thank you for the reminder about & Sons – I’ve had it on my TBR list for years and at the time, I’d heard such good things about it.
I, too, tried to leave you a comment but it blocked me and said I had a proxy. If you want to participate you might want to open up your field a bit to let other’s in.
Hi, Kate and Anne. I’m sorry about the proxy thing. I’ve rooted around in my settings, and I think I may (fingers crossed!) have eliminated the problem. Anne, this is not something I did on purpose to keep people out. It just started happening a while ago, and I have no idea why. Sorry. Thanks for listening.
Success! I was able to leave a comment 🙂
Thanks for trying again. I’m glad it’s finally working!
Hi Kate, My links stayed in Russian and with some of the books mentioned in A Gentleman in Moscow: Essays by Michel de Montaigne; Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy; Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak; The Master and Margarita by Milkhail Bulgakov: Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky; and We the Living by Ayn Rand.
Really interesting links Kate and some beautiful covers too. My Shantaram is Joyce’s Ulysses – one day….
Great starting title! I stayed in Russia this month – here is my chain: https://luvtoread.com/2019/09/07/six-degrees-of-separation-a-gentleman-in-moscow/
Shantaram is one of those titles that I keep intending to read and somehow never ever pick it up … 🙂
Pingback: #6Degrees of Separation, September 2019 – findingtimetowrite
Very late indeed to this, as I was away at the weekend and am having the week from hell at work… Not quite Naples, but I did try a bit of an international tour and ended up in Yorkshire!
Funny that so many of the books were books you struggled reading. We all are in the same place. I actually added a book to my list this time that I haven’t read which is a first for me. Here is my list: My Six Degrees
I totally see why you are taken with the A Constant Hum cover! It’s really pretty!
I ended up going on a tour of my high school reading list for this week’s #6degrees.