6-Degrees of Separation -- from SANDWICH to ...

It’s time for #6degrees of separation. We all start at the same place as other wonderful readers, add six books, and see where we end up.

This week I created a spreadsheet of Best Books of 2024 End-of-the-Year 

(BBEOTY) lists. I found seventeen lists, to be precise. All the books on this 6-degrees list are mentioned on some of these lists. 

Six Degrees of Separation

Today we state with 

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Sandwich by Catherine Newman. Is on five of the best-books-end-of-the-year (BBEOTY) lists so far. My book club is considering this one for an upcoming meeting.
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Playground by Richard Powers. Is another book the my club is considering. It is on six of the BBEOTY lists. This is a favorite author of mine.

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The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich. Another book with six BBEOTY mentions. This is also written by a favorite author. 

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Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte. I hadn't heard of this books until I started looking at the BBEOTY. This book is on seven lists. It is a collection of interconnected stories.

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You Like It Darker by Stephen King. Another story collection. This one by a very popular author but not on as many BBEOTY lists, only two.

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Intermezzo by Sally Rooney. Another very popular author. But this book is on eight BBEOTY lists.

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James by Percival Everett. The only book on this list I've read. It is one of the best books of the year. It's on thirteen BBEOTY lists. It is also our next book club selection.

-Anne

Six Degrees of Separation: From INTERMEZZO to ...?

Six Degrees of Separation

We Begin with:

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Intermezzo by Sally Rooney. Two brothers. One is a competitive chess player.

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The Tempest by William Shakespeare. In Scene I of Act 5 Miranda and Ferdinand play chess and flirt.

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Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rawling. In this first book in the YA series, Ron has to play wizard's chess to dismantle the enchantment.
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The Cardturner: A Novel About a King, a Queen, and a Joker by Louis Sachar. A teenager is the cardturner for his blind uncle who plays Bridge. He doesn't know the rules of the game and the uncle can't see. It's a crazy situation.

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One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey. In the Oregon State Mental Hospital McMurphy gets the other patients to play Monopoly for real money. The game lasts for three days.
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Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. The characters play a lot of games. One is Whist, another game played for money. Elizabeth declines the invitation to play, implying she doesn't have the money to join in "fun" with the others who are behaving like snobs.
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The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. In this dystopian novel Offred, the breeder, is called to do something unusual, play Scrabble with the Commander.

Join the fun. See where you end up. Link: Books are My Favourite and Best 6-Degrees Meme.

-Anne

Six Degrees of Separation --- Starting with KAIROS

Six Degrees of Separation

We Start With

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Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck.
I hadn't even heard of this book until it showed up on the 6-Degrees list this week. I had to do a little research about it. I learned it was written in German and is set in Berlin before the Berlin Wall came down. I was curious about the title: Kairos. I learned that "kairos" is an ancient greek word, often used in the Bible. It means timeliness or a time which requires interpretation or conversations among people; a moment in time when ordinary people may be called upon to do extraordinary things.
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Brotherless Night by V.V. Ganeshananthan
Sashi lives in Sri Lanka with her parents and four brothers. She wants to study to become a doctor but the moment asks a lot from Sashi and her family as civil war breaks out and she is asked to do more than she could ever have imagined she could do to save her family and secure freedom for her people.
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The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich
A novel based on the extraordinary life of Louise Erdrich’s grandfather who worked as a night watchman and carried the fight against Native dispossession from rural North Dakota all the way to Washington, D.C. to speak before Congress.

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Fire Keeper's Daughter by Angeline Bouley
The teen protagonist in this mystery set on a Native Reservation in Minnesota acts with dignity while honoring her Ojibwe traditions.
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I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger
Set in not-too-distant America in the state of Minnesota. Rainy, the story's lovable protagonist, endures terrible conditions and persists working toward his goal of finding a place to make a better life.
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Inland by Tea Obreht
This is a stunning tale of perseverance where Nora waits for her husband to return with life-giving water and her son is frightened by a magical beast no one expects to see in the Arizona territory of the 1880s -- a camel.
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West With Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge
Another novel inspired by the incredible true story, this one is of two giraffes, very unexpected animals, who made headlines and won the hearts of Depression-era America.

END.

Join the fun. See where you end up. Link: Books are My Favourite and Best 6-Degrees Meme.

-Anne

Six Degrees of Separation --- "The Anniversary to ..."

Six Degrees of Separation

We start with

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The Anniversary by Stephanie Bishop.
It was on the Stella Prize Longlist this year. I haven't read it.

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The Souvenir Museum: Stories by Elizabeth McCracken.
This story collection was on the National Book Award Longlist Book in 2021.

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Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri.
This story collection won the Pulitzer Prize in 2000. Many of the stories are set in India.

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The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese.
Is also set in India and it won the 2023 BrowseBook Award and the Viking Award for setting and place. I've never heard of either of these award before.

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The Leavers by Lisa Ko.
The Leavers won the Bellwether Award in 2016. This is another award most people haven't heard of. It recognizes excellence in literature which addresses social justice issues. 

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The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas.
This YA novel won the Morris Award and a Printz Honor, among its many, many awards in 2017 for this sharp criticism of racial justice in the US.

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The Testaments by Margaret Atwood.
This book pokes a sharp stick at the terrible treatment of women and girls in a dystopian future. It was the Booker Prize co-winner in 2019. 

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Question mark.
Today, May 6th, The Pulitzer Prize will be announcing their pick for best literature of 2023. What book will win? The Pulitzer Prize committee does not tip its hand and give any hints, finalists or short or long lists to help us guess. What book will win? We don't have long to wait to find out.

There are so many different book awards, each recognizing different authors, types of books, or nationalities. For example the Stella Prize goes to the best literature written by an Australian female author, while the National Book Award goes to an American author. A qualification for the Booker Prize used to be that the author must live in the British Commonwealth but they have extended it to be books written in English and published in the UK. The Women's Prize, which I couldn't find a way to work into my list, goes only to female authors publishing in English. The Printz Award is the highest honor given to YA books as part of the Youth Media Awards given out by the American Library Association. It is announced each years alongside many other awards which you likely have heard of like the Caldecott Award and the Newbery Medal. I really enjoy reading award books because I think someone else, who knows what they are doing, has already done the work of determining the quality of the writing. And that is a big deal to me.

Join in the fun by creating your own 6-Degrees list of books. One never quite knows where they will end up. Link: Books are My Favourite and Best 6-Degrees Meme.

-Anne

Six Degrees of Separation: TOM LAKE to...

Six Degrees of Separation

We begin with --

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Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
The title of the book is the name of the summer stock theater company who performs plays every summer at a resort on Tom Lake in Michigan.

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Our Town by Thornton Wilder
One of the plays the company performed that summer was "Our Town" by Thornton Wilder. And the main character of the play was also the narrator of the book.

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The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chkhov

Patchett clearly wants Tom Lake to be a paean to Our Town and to its playwright, Thornton Wilder. 

In addition, I'd say that Patchett snuck in quite an homage to Anton Chekhov, too. His last two plays were titled "Three Sisters" and "The Cherry Orchard". Hmm. A good deal of the story takes place in a cherry orchard and, of course, there are three sisters. One could almost feel Chekhov hovering nearby. Wilder may have been "driving the tractor" but Chekhov was certainly nearby lending his ideas for stage directions.

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A Swim in the Pond in the Rain by George Saunders
The subtitle of this book tells you what the book is about: In Which Four Russian Authors Give a Master Class on Writing. One of the four Russians that Saunders highlights is Anton Chekhov, though the work he highlighted wasn't "The Cherry Orchard."

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Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
This is the first book I read by Saunders. Read is a misnomer, as I actually listened to the audiobook. It has 166 unique voice actors reading the parts. Listening to this book was a transfixing experience for me. 

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His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman
Another transfixing audiobook experience with a large cast of narrators, I immersed myself totally in the story and read all three books in rapid succession.  

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The Book of Dust series by Philip Pullman
Another series by Philip Pullman where I found myself completely lost inside the story. The only problem, this series is incomplete. The 2nd book, The Secret Commonwealth, was published in 2019. And now I and other fans have to wait for the third book to be published and no publication date has been set. Sigh.

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That brings us back around to Tom Lake by Ann Patchett.
I don't often pay attention to upcoming books, but I love Ann Patchett so much I am always eagerly await her new books. Thankfully she didn't make us wait five+ years for this book.

I made it full circle. Six degrees from Tom Lake and back again. How'd I do? Did you follow my logic?

-Anne

Six Degrees of Separation from -- Empathy Exams ...

Six Degrees of Separation

We begin with

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The Empathy Exams: Essays by Leslie Jamison
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These Precious Days by Ann Patchett
Like Empathy Exams, These Precious Days is a collection of essays. I find Patchett to be a very kind and empathetic writer, especially evident in the essay, "These Precious Days", about her life-altering friendship with Sooki, the gal who painted the art on each side of the cover.
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The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet by John Green
Another collection of essays which really touched my heart, head, and sometimes my funny-bone. The anthropocene is the geologic Age of Man, which makes for a very clever title.

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The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert
In this fascinating and understandably depressing book about the extinction event we are living in right now in the Anthropocene period on Earth.

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Dinosaur Lady: The Daring Discoveries of Mary Anning, the First Paleontologist by Linda Skeers, illustrated by Marta Alvarez Miguens
A children's nonfiction book about Mary Anning, the first person to identify dinosaur bones for what they were. Dinosaurs, we know, lived during the Age of Dinosaurs. We also know that they went through an extinction event in what is known as the 5th extinction event on earth, 65 million years ago. 
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All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys Soccer Team by Christina Soontornvat
I read this Middle Grade nonfiction book in January 2021 as part of my role as Round 2 judge for Cybils Book Awards. I also read Dinosaur Lady the same January as part of my same role.
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This is Your Brain on Stereotypes: How Science is Tackling Unconscious Bias by Tanya Lloyd Kyi, illustrated by Drew Shannon
 Another MG nonfiction title I read as part of my role as a Cybils judge. We need to have empathy toward people who are different than us, not stereotype them. That brings back around to...
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The Empathy Exams
Which I haven't read, but want to. All other books on the list I have read and recommend.

How'd I do? Did you follow me and my decisions leading from The Empathy Exams to This Is Your Brain on Stereotypes?

Thanks to Books are My Favourite and Best for hosting this fun activity.

-Anne

Six Degrees of Separation --- From: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow to...

 Six Degrees of Separation

We begin with --

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Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
The title, we learn, is from the Shakespeare play Macbeth (spoken by Macbeth.)

"Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,

To the last syllable of recorded time;

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,

And then is heard no more. It is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing."

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The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
This title is also from a famous Shakespeare play: Julius Caesar

“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings.”
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Exit, Pursued by a Bear by E.K. Johnston
The title of this book is also Shakespearean, though not from dialogue but from the stage directions in A Winter's Tale.

Generally, Shakespeare limited his stage directions to the most basic instructions -- [Exit Hamlet], [Enter Ophelia], [Dies] - simple enough. But in this particular direction, a lot of things happen at once without any warning or supporting dialogue. Antigonus has been tasked with abandoning the baby Perdita in a desolate place, but he's having second thoughts. Suddenly a storm wrecks his ship, and then… he exits, pursued by a bear (O.S.).
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A Heart in a Body in the World by Deb Caletti
[This will seem like an abrupt change, but read on...] Like the girl in the above book, Exit, Pursued by a Bear, the protagonist in this book is sexually assaulted and uses athletics and friendship to find her way to a healthier mindset. 

“A human heart is the size of two hands clasped together. Imagine your own hands joined, or your hand in someone else’s, because that is what hands are for, and what hearts are for: holding each other. This can be very, very hard to remember when hearts have been so broken.”

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Plan A by Deb Caletti
By the same author of A Heart in a Body in the World, this one grapples with the issue of abortion. It is her body and her choice, but politicians don't see it that way.

"My body is still my body. It's not my enemy. I'm kind of proud of it, how hard it works and the stuff it has to endure in order to carry myself around."
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Mercy Street by Jennifer Haigh
The protagonist in this novel is a health care counselor, assisting women who need reproductive care. Though not specific to this book, the topic of mercy is brought up by Shakespeare in The Merchant of Venice.

“The quality of mercy is not strained.

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven

Upon the place beneath. It is twice blessed:

It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.

'Tis mightiest in the mightiest. It becomes

The thronèd monarch better than his crown.

His scepter shows the force of temporal power,

The attribute to awe and majesty

Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings,

But mercy is above this sceptered sway.

It is enthronèd in the hearts of kings.

It is an attribute to God himself."

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The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
My book group read Mercy Street and The Storied Life of AJ Fikry. Both books led to great discussions. And this book brings us back to Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow as Zevin wrote both of them.

“Sometimes books don't find us until the right time.”

How'd I do? Did you follow me and my decisions leading from Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow to The Storied Life of AJ Fikry?

Thanks to Books are My Favourite and Best for hosting this fun activity.

-Anne