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 the classic novella, Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton – picked because I figured many would have read it as part of Novella November (#NovNov)
Ethan Frome links to Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis, my first book for this year’s #NovNov. It was a re-read for me, and I chose it because I’m engrossed in the Once Upon a Time at Bennington College podcast, which explores Ellis’s time at university with fellow student, Donna Tartt.
Tartt’s inspiration for The Secret History was drawn from her time at Bennington. I’m rereading it now and it’s as good as I remember.
So, two rereads in 2021… Rereads are rare for me – my last was way back in 2014, and it was Flowers in the Attic by V. C. Andrews. In the eighties, I read everything that Andrews wrote, and each book passed around at school. I lent My Sweet Audrina to a friend and it was never returned. Grrr. I guess I won’t be re-reading that one!
Another book I lent to someone that never found its way back was The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne – disappointing because the first edition of that book had no blurb, so you really didn’t have any hint of what was ahead.
I’ll finish on a less-grumpy note – Boyne’s The Heart’s Invisible Furies was one of my favourite books of 2018 – absolutely everything I want in a novel.
Where will other chains go? Link up below or post your link in the comments section.
Next month (January 1, 2022), we’ll start with a story that begins on New Year’s Eve – Rules of Civility by Amor Towles.
