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 Shirley Jackson’s short story, The Lottery.
Stick with me while I explain my first link. When I think ‘lottery’, I immediately think of family friends who won the lottery in the eighties. They lived near Byron Bay at the time. I recently watched the TV series, Nine Perfect Strangers, based on the book by Liane Moriarty, which was filmed near Byron Bay. Coincidentally, one of the characters in the book had won the lottery.
Hallucinogenic drugs are used in Nine Perfect Strangers as ‘therapy’. This links to Ayelet Waldman’s memoir, A Really Good Day, which recounts her experience with micro-dosing LSD.
Waldman is half of a ‘literary power couple’ – she’s married to Michael Chabon. I rushed to buy Chabon’s 2012 release, Telegraph Avenue, and I still haven’t read it. The record-store setting was what attracted me.
Think fictional record stores for the link to The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce.
A character in The Music Shop is distinguished by her pea-green coat. Likewise, the titular character in Virginia Feito’s novel, Mrs March, is distinguished by her mint green gloves.
Mrs March was a striking and unreliable narrator, much like Rose in Suzanne Rindell’s The Other Typist.
From lotteries and LSD, to record stores and unreliable narrators – where will other chains go? Link up below or post your link in the comments section.
Next month (November 6, 2021), we’ll start with Sigrid Nunez’s What Are You Going Through.
I LOVE it!! Mint green gloves? Wow! Well done.
The Music Shop and Mrs Marsh have remarkably similar covers, don’t they? And yet when I studied magazine design we were always told to NEVER put orange/red and green together because it makes it difficult for colour blind people to see! (I like the sound of Mrs Marsh, by the way, I might see if my library has it because I honestly should not be BUYING more books, I just can’t afford it.)
My link is here: https://readingmattersblog.com/2021/10/02/six-degrees-of-separation-october-2021/
Haha, Kate, I enjoyed your tricksy first link. I liked your musical links too.
Here is my chain: https://whisperinggums.com/2021/10/02/six-degrees-of-separation-from-the-lottery-to/
I think your first link is terrific – much better than mine. I really struggled with it but decided eventually to go with another book by Shirley Jackson, not very original!
One day I will have read your opening link! As it is, I just went with the idea of a lottery and things that did and didn’t happen.
https://residentjudge.com/2021/10/02/six-degrees-of-separation-from-the-lottery-to/
Lovely chain here! Nine Perfect Strangers isn’t the type of book I usually read, but I’ll be watching the TV series. I’ve never read Waldman, but I’ve read two Chabon books (Moonglow and Kavilier & Clay), plus and I have this one on my shelf (my husband loved it). The Music Shop… oh, my… I adored it, but I’m a Rachel Joyce Addict! Here’s my chain https://tcl-bookreviews.com/2021/10/02/tcls-6degrees-of-separation-for-october-2-2021/
A nicely varied chain. Here’s mine: https://margaret21.com/2021/10/02/six-degrees-of-separation-in-october-2/
This was my first attempt at a chain, and I must thank you because it was fun going down my reading memory lane, and selecting books.
Here’s my chain: https://www.damyantiwrites.com/2021/10/01/novels-read/22/00/35/11755/featured/damyantig/
I nearly used the same second link as you because of the character who won the lottery! Nice chain.
What a fascinating chain of books. Love it.
My Six Degrees of Separation led me to The Wave, a great book that explains a lot about human nature and why we have so many problems in this world.
Brilliant chain! Here’s mine
https://thesecretlibrarysite.wordpress.com/2021/10/02/six-degrees-of-separation-from-shirley-jackson-to-agatha-christie-6degrees-secretlibrarybookblog/
Very clever links, particularly your first one! I haven’t read any of those books, but would like to read The Music Shop. Here’s my chain:
https://shereadsnovels.com/2021/10/02/six-degrees-of-separation-from-the-lottery-to-the-haunting-of-hill-house/
Some of your links are inspired! Great chain.
Very enjoyable chain! I was fascinated by the Waldman when I read it. It was the cover that first attracted me to Mrs Marsh but it was the increasingly unreliable narrative that made me love it.
Interesting chain. Loved how you got to your first link!
Here’s my chain:
https://adarngoodread.blogspot.com/2021/10/six-degrees-of-separation-from-lottery.html
Some great links and weirdly I have read books by four of these authors but not the ones you featured. I did enjoy the Lottery recently, however. A group of lawyers who clerked for the same judge but in different years have been getting together on Zoom each month. The Judge made us read Hemingway and we watched the recent miniseries (the women all disliked Hemingway, the more we got to know him). In July, one of the former clerks who is now a justice for the Massachusetts Supreme Court, chose The Lottery for us to read and we had a great discussion.
Here is my chain, which went in an odd direction: https://perfectretort.blogspot.com/2021/10/six-degrees-of-separation-from-lottery.html
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Neat connections! Here are mine: https://wordsandpeace.com/2021/10/02/six-degrees-of-separation-from-lottery-to-tides/
My chain includes Mrs. March as well, but for a different reason than yours. Mine is here: https://www.notesinthemargin.org/2021/10/02/6-degrees-of-separation-deranged-minds/
The Music Shop and Mrs March both appeal to me from your chain, and I love their book covers.
My chain this month is a little gloomy, I’m afraid. My antennae were primed to pick up on the gender disparities in Jackson’s story, and I’ve gone down a road.
https://thinkaboutreading.wordpress.com/2021/10/02/six-degrees-of-separation-from-the-lottery-to-the-resident/
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Goodness, I don’t know any of your choices, it’s not often I luck out like this. Here’s mine: https://anzlitlovers.com/2021/10/03/six-degrees-of-separation-from-the-lottery-to/
Thanks for hosting this meme! It is always fun to put together the chain and to see what other readers came up with. Here is mine: http://bibliographicmanifestations.blogspot.com/2021/10/six-degrees-of-separation.html
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One of my very, very favourite writers as the starting point – there is something so sly and unexpected about her writing, she really just creeps up behind you and wallops you! Have added my link, as always slightly late.
I’m very proud of this one. My chain can work frontwards or backwards. My forward or backward chain from The Lottery to Lucky Jim or The Lottery to Rebecca
Love that pea green link. Clever and original chain as usual, Kate.
Interesting linking! Here is mine:
https://cathysreadingbonanza.wordpress.com/2021/10/04/six-degrees-of-separation-lottery-across-the-ages/
I finally got my 6-Degrees post up. Here is the link: https://headfullofbooks.blogspot.com/2021/10/six-degrees-of-separation-lottery-and.html
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My first attempt at this meme:
https://abooknerd13.wordpress.com/2021/10/10/six-degrees-of-separation-october-2021/
I just found this and it was a lot of fun.
my post: https://blessedmommysc.blogspot.com/2021/10/six-degrees-of-separation-lottery-enemy.html
this was so much fun!
https://blessedmommysc.blogspot.com/2021/10/six-degrees-of-separation-lottery-enemy.html