Six Degrees of Separation is a meme hosted by Kate over at Books Are My Favourite and Best. It works like this: each month a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six others to form a chain. A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the titles on the list, only to the one next to it in the chain.
Kate’s given us the choice of starting from last month’s end point or from the last book we finished. I’ve plumped for The Last Banquet by Jonathan Grimwood from my last Six Degrees in which the eighteenth-century French main protagonist relishes eating absolutely anything.
Set against the background of the French Revolution, A D Blakemore’s The Glutton is about a man with an insatiable appetite.
Much of Edward Carey’s Little, about Madame Tussaud, also takes place during the French Revolution.
Carey illustrates his novel with his own drawings as does Ann Stafford in Army Without Banners based on her ambulance-driving experiences in the Second World War.
Stafford was the co-author of Business as Usual whose letter-writing main protagonist works in the book department of a thinly disguised Selfridges.
A bookseller features in Charlie Hill’s Books a smart slice of satire on the book trade
My review of Books mentions Jasper Fforde in the subheading leading me to his novel The Eyre Affair, a delight for book lovers with a taste for puns.
This month’s Six Degrees has taken me from an eighteenth-century boy, first spotted relishing stag beetles, to a pun-filled literary detective story. Part of the fun of this meme is comparing the very different routes other bloggers take from each month’s starting point. If you’re interested, you can follow it on Twitter with the hashtag #6Degrees, check out the links over at Kate’s blog or perhaps even join in.
I haven’t read any of these, but I do have Little on the TBR. I love books with illustrations – they always add something special to the reading experience, I think.
You’re quite right about adding to the reading experience. Little is brilliant and Carey’s illustrations made it all the more so.
I have Grimwood, Carey and Hill on my shelves, plus loads of Jasper Ffordes. I seem to have got series fatigue again after the first 3 of the Thursday Next books.
I’ve only read two. The Eyre Affair was on the shelves of a holiday cottage we stayed in years ago. I sniggered my way through it!
I was just going to ask about this, how many you’d read. I read the first two in short order when they were new but never returned…maybe I had some of the fatigue that Annabel described. But perhaps with some distance between they would be good fun between more serious reads!
I’ve only read a couple quite some time ago now. I can see that the joke becomes increasingly thin but maybe one after a particularly gruelling read might work. Perhaps I’ll suggest that to my partner who’s currently mired in a long history of WW2 from an Eastern European perspective.
Yes, The Last Banquet is a very strange, but good book. Now your chain has made me hungry!
Not for stag beetles, I hope!
I am so keen to read The Glutton and Little was one of my books of the year a few years back. Great chain!
Thank you! Absolutely loved Little.
I loved Little, and now I’ll have to try some more of the choices in your tempting chain.
Wasn’t it great? I’m not usually a fan of historical novels this one made my books of the year list.
Yes, it’s quite memorable.
Oh my! You’ve reminded me that, somewhere among my as-yet-unread books, I have one titled something like “Little, Big.” That’s exactly how the 6 Degrees meme works!
I love the random things that pop up on bloggers’ 6 Degrees posts!
This is such a fun post! I’d be hopeless at coming up with them. Lots of fab sounding books on here too.
I thought the same until I tried it and now I’m hooked!
Lovely!
I have read another historical novel with Madame Tussaud (excellent: https://wordsandpeace.com/2011/03/01/madame-tussaud-a-novel-of-the-french-revolution/), but not this one.
https://wordsandpeace.com/2024/02/03/six-degrees-of-separation-from-elephants-to-crime/
Thank you! I’ll check that out. Highly recommend Little.
The illustrations–that was really unexpected. Good work! As always, I couple I’d like to read, too.
Thank you!
I loved Little and I’m tempted by The Glutton
I did wonder if The Glutton might be a bit too similar to The Last Banquet for me but the reviews I’ve read have persuaded me to get a copy.
I enjoyed Business as Usual so much. I wish my libraries had more from that publisher.
I’m doing a “book chain” challenge on litsy, but it’s more formal; the links are pre-decided.
That was one of my comfort reads during lockdown. Handheld Press have such an interesting list.
The Eyre Affair was so much fun! I must reread that series at some point.
Fun chain!
Thank you. A lucky find in a holiday cottage! I love puns so it was right up my street.
An interesting selection of books; Little sounds like something I’d want to look up, and Fforde–goodness, I’ve been meaning to get to Thursday Next since forever now!
Thanks, Mallika. I’m sure you’d love Little, and Thursdy Next, too!
Oh this chain is so good (and bad for my TBR as I now have 7 books — well, 6 more actually since The Eyre Affair has been there forever already!) My post is here
Thank you! I’ll wander over and take a look at yours.