Hope your year is off to a great start. I’ve enjoyed day of reading and organizing but it is time for Six Degrees of Separation, which is a monthly meme hosted by Kate from Books Are My Favourite and Best. The idea is to start with the book chosen for the month and connect the following six books. Where will you end up?
This month we start off with Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell. I haven’t read this book yet but it is certainly on my TBR list. Given that it won the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2020, it made me think of other highly praised books that I would like to read.
So another publication I enjoy is Criminal Element and one of their top books is When No One is Watching by Alyssa Cole. Not only does it promise thrills but also social commentary.
Other newsletters I read to find out what about highly anticipated books is from B&N and Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam was one of the finalists for best book of 2020. A magnetic novel about two families, strangers to each other, who are forced together on a long weekend gone terribly wrong.
Then I thought why not see what some of my local booksellers are recommending and Bookwoman, Austin’s Feminist bookstore, gift guide for 2020 included The Once and Future Witches by Alex E. Harrow. There’s no such thing as witches. But there will be. So intrigued by this one.
Another favorite bookshop of mine is BookPeople and one of their 31 Favorites of 2020 was A Silent Fury by Yuri Herrera. A story about a real life tragedy and the exploration of what happened. I read one of his books last year and would certainly like to read more by this author.
There is another indie bookstore I love, Malvern Books, and they also have a favorites list and I was happy to see a poetry book. They listed Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz, also a 2020 finalist for the National Book Award for Poetry. Definitely going on my TBR list.
Finally, my local newspaper also had had recommendations for the year and the one I’m interested in is Big Girl, Small Town by Michelle Gallen, which is a novel set in Ireland.
Let me know if you’ve read and of these and if you are participating in Six Degrees. Again, thank you to Kate and look forward to seeing your lists!
I always enjoy these Six Degrees posts. I will have to try to d one for next month.
Well, that certainly is a very special way to do this chain – through awards and recommendations from indie shops. I really like this idea! Good for you for thinking of it, and what a lovely chain came from it.
I agree with Davida. Anything that promotes and supports our priceless independent bookshops is fine by me! And these look interesting books to place on the tottering TBR pile. So far, none of the posts I’ve read have included any of my links. Let’s see….
That was fun! Postcolonial Love Poem is on my list to read this year. I love Natalie Diaz.
Literary Feline – It is a great meme isn’t it? I don’t do it all the time but when I do I have a lot of fun making these connections.
Davida Chazan – Thank you and can’t wait to see what you came up with!
Margaret 21 – A bookstore is always special but an indie, well, it’s priceless right? Can’t wait to see your links!
Stefanie – I haven’t read any of her poems so I’d really love to check out her collection.
I haven’t read any of these but I did love BookPeople when we were in Austin for 3 months last year! I went to a couple of author events while we were there but I was most excited to meet Markus Zusak and have The Book Thief, my all-time favorite book, signed.
Great idea for a chain!
There’s another meme I follow (Top Ten Tuesday) and their prompt last week was Favorite 10 Books of 2020 — so many people recced The Once and Future Witches by Alex E. Harrow in that list! I haven’t read it but Harrow’s certainly carved an important niche for herself in SFF genre. Have to try it out for sure!
I love your chain and how you’ve found the most-recommended books from different sources. Amazing how they are all different as well, right? Love this.
Jen at Introverted Reader – I hope you had a great time in Austin. We love living here. Oh wow, I can’t believe I missed the Markus Zusak reading. The Book Thief is an amazing book and I would have loved to meet the author. Hopefully when we can have reading events again he’ll return to Austin.
Lex @ Lexilingua – That is a great meme and I just haven’t done one in a while. Glad to hear that book seemed to pop up quite a bit so it makes me more excited about it. I haven’t heard of the author before but I don’t read a lot of SF so that’s probably why.
Athira – You are so right, this is a great meme and love all the different connections. I really want to read Hamnet!