Six Degrees of Separation: Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen

How the meme works

On the first Saturday of every month, a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book. Books can be linked in obvious ways – for example, books by the same authors, from the same era or genre, or books with similar themes or settings. Or, you may choose to link them in more personal ways: books you read on the same holiday, books given to you by a particular friend, books that remind you of a particular time in your life, or books you read for an online challenge. A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the other books on the list, only to the ones next to them in the chain. You can read more at the host blog, Books Are My Favourite and Best

I’m an American of a certain age so it’s almost (“almost”) guaranteed that I love The Boss! After all, I was Born in the USA! In spite of knowing so many of his songs, I haven’t read the book.

My Chain

1

While Shotgun Lovesongs is more John Mellencamp than the boss, it was the first book that occurred to me. So a book that includes a singer (like Springsteen or Mellencamp) and a town that’s way of life is over. Typical Springsteen type stuff. Shotgun Lovesongs by Nicklas Butler. (My review is linked)

2

On two a second book set in Wisconsin–The All Girls Filling Station’s Last Reunion by Fanny Flagg (My review was lost on my old blog, so the link is to Amazon)

3

From girls having fun and doing their “bit” in WWII in Wisconsin to girls in the Blitz in London. Dear Mrs. Byrd by AJ Pearce. (Book 2 is Yours Cheerfully and book 3 in this series, Mrs Porter Calling is coming in the USA in August, but can already be pre-orderd. The book 3 link is to Amazon)

4

Another story of a plucky young woman in the Blitz (this time a memoir) is Frances Faviell’s Chelsea Concerto.

5

A small statue or figurine features in Chelsea Concerto. Such items feature in Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle as well. (Ok, this was a stretch!) (Scroll down to my review in the linked post)

6

Tortilla Curtain shows the lives of an imaginary couple who have entered the US without bothering to check in with US Immigation (it is politically incorrect to use the word “illegal aliens” today). This book shows the other side of the story, albeit told by a young man who would cut himself before he’d use that term. The Line Becomes A River

This was the hardest chain in years!

Why not join us next month when we will start with a book on the Stella Prize 2023 shortlist – Hydra by Adriane Howell.

April 1, 2023 1

6 Degrees of Separation: Trust by Herman Diaz

How the meme works

A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the other books on the list, only to the ones next to them in the chain.

February’s Starting Book

From Amazon: Even through the roar and effervescence of the 1920s, everyone in New York has heard of Benjamin and Helen Rask. He is a legendary Wall Street tycoon; she is the daughter of eccentric aristocrats. Together, they have risen to the very top of a world of seemingly endless wealth—all as a decade of excess and speculation draws to an end. But at what cost have they acquired their immense fortune? This is the mystery at the center of Bonds, a successful 1937 novel that all of New York seems to have read. Yet there are other versions of this tale of privilege and deceit. Hernan Diaz’s TRUST elegantly puts these competing narratives into conversation with one another—and in tension with the perspective of one woman bent on disentangling fact from fiction. The result is a novel that spans over a century and becomes more exhilarating with each new revelation. At once an immersive story and a brilliant literary puzzle, TRUST engages the reader in a quest for the truth while confronting the deceptions that often live at the heart of personal relationships, the reality-warping force of capital, and the ease with which power can manipulate facts.

I wanted to listen to this in time for the Six Degrees post, but had too many others in the way. So….here goes with my chain…..

1

This was a compromise choice. Joe Kennedy first came to mind along the great Robber Barons. This will do nicely to start the chain, even if I haven’t read it. Six Tycoons by Wyn Derbyshire.

On to another book, one I loved, with Six in the title–Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. [I wanted a book with Mick Jagger–he attended the London School of Economics and is a tycoon of sorts. The Stones were the first to have a credit card with their name on it in the USA–smart financial move.]

3

Another book with a character involved in Rock and Roll is Where She Went by Gayle Forman.

4

In Where She Went, Adam was into Rock, but Mia was a cellist. Another book with cellists and classical music was The Ensemble by Aja Gabel.

5

Staying with the musical theme, Every Note Playedby Lisa Genova, tells the story of a professional musician and estranged husband suffering ALS.

6

Another estranged wife who put on a good show and stuck around to “care” (see that he was cared for) for her incapacitated husband was Rose Kennedy. This book brings me full circle back to tycoon Joe Kennedy. Times to Remember by Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, which I read years and years ago and even then realized much was written through Rose-colored glasses (pun intended). Today we call that “controlling the narrative.”

Next month (March 4, 2023), we’ll start with a book that was a best-selling self-help title in the seventies – Passages by Gail Sheehy.

Why not join in the fun next month? You can read all about Six Degrees of Separation HERE.

February 3, 2023 12

6 Degrees of Separation: Beech Read by Emily Henry

The Basic Rules

n the first Saturday of every month, a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book. Books can be linked in obvious ways – for example, books by the same authors, from the same era or genre, or books with similar themes or settings. Or, you may choose to link them in more personal ways: books you read on the same holiday, books given to you by a particular friend, books that remind you of a particular time in your life, or books you read for an online challenge. You can read the full rules and history of the meme here.

Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews writes best-selling romance. When she pens a happily ever after, he kills off his entire cast. They’re polar opposites. In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they’re living in neighboring beach houses, broke, and bogged down with writer’s block. Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She’ll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he’ll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no one will fall in love. Really.

The stupid names put me off reading this one. Stupid names are a pet peeve of mine!

Book One

Another book with a character given a stupid name (“Slip”), Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons made me quit reading books with characters who have stupid names or nicknames (ok, I made an exception for that Anne Tyler books with “Stem”).

Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Lorna Landvik

Book Two

Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons was about a group of women living in the same neighborhood at the same stage of life in the mid-to-late 1960s. The Wednesday Sisters is set in Silicone Valley at the same time period with the same premise only the ladies gather together to support each other as writers. (There is also a silly name tie-in: Frankie, which I know can be short for Frances, but….) I loved this book, but do not bother with the sequel–it was a mess.

The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Wait Clayton

Books Three

Another book set in Silicone Valley in which people are supposed to support each other is The Circle in which employees at a Silicone Valley firm are to register X-number “likes” each day in support of other’s ideas.

The Circle by Dave Eggars

Book Four

Another book in which women (this time also men) who live in the same “neighborhood” also encourage each other’s writing (or other artistic pursuits) and which has a shape (shapes–plural, actually) in it’s title is Living in Squares, Loving in Triangles.

Living in Squares, Loving in Triangles by Amy Licence

Book Five

Another book involving Bloomsbury, writing, and women, is The Bloomsbury Girls, a novel I enjoyed very much in 2022.

Book Six

Another book about “girls” who were really women and which had a character with a silly name (“Baby”) was The Last Girls. The silly name thing brings me full circle!

The Last Girls: A Novel by Lee Smith

February’s starting book will be Trust by Hernan Diaz

Like this? Join in next month! Read all the rules here.

January 7, 2023 18

Six Degrees of Separation: The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

How the meme works

Books can be linked in obvious ways – for example, books by the same authors, from the same era or genre, or books with similar themes or settings. Or, you may choose to link them in more personal ways: books you read on the same holiday, books given to you by a particular friend, books that remind you of a particular time in your life, or books you read for an online challenge.A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the other books on the list, only to the ones next to them in the chain. Read more at Books Are My Favorite and Best

My Review of The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

Book One

The first book that came to mind was about a different kind of “snow child”–a “love child” (well, possibly not, possibly something much worse) conceived by two great Hollywood stars while filming Call of the Wild in, among other places, Alaska where The Snow Child is set. Clark Gable and Loretta Young had a daughter. All The Stars in the Heavens by Adriana Trigiani tells the story of the whole thing–the daughter and her “beginnings.” (My review is linked).

Book Two

Call of the Wild would have been too simple for the next book, instead I went with another book with “stars” in the title–one on my TBR for way too long. Ike and Bradley were among the members of that class–two cadets who ended their Army careers as 5 Star Generals (American equivalent of a Field Marshall). Bradley would be the last to ever have 5 stars.

Books Three

(My weakest link) Someone who knew too much about the fort at West Point and had an evil itch to share it was Benedict Arnold, who appears in My Dear Hamilton (but NOT in Hamilton on Broadway) by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie. I DNF-ed this due to the audio reader, but that’s not the author’s fault.

Book Four

My Dear Hamilton was about Eliza Schuyler Hamilton. Another book…er…um, well PLAY, that features an “Eliza” is Shaw’s Pygmallion (and it’s movie counterpart My Fair Lady).

Book Five

A book that tells of trying to get a role acting in a play is Helene Hanff’s Under Foot in Show Business.Hanff for many years wrote television scripts–plays for t.v.

Book Six

A book that could almost be a fictionalized version of Under Foot in Show Business is Herman Wouk’s Marjorie Morningstar.

Once again, I did not bring my chain “full circle,” but that isn’t required.

Why not join the fun next month (January 7, 2023), when we’ll start with Beach Read by Emily Henry

December 3, 2022 22

6 Degrees of Separation: Naked Chef by Jamie Oliver The Chain in Which My Math Skills Failed Me! Updated

In this meme, books can be linked in obvious ways – for example, books by the same authors, from the same era or genre, or books with similar themes or settings. Or, you may choose to link them in more personal ways: books you read on the same holiday, books given to you by a particular friend, books that remind you of a particular time in your life, or books you read for an online challenge.

A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the other books on the list, only to the ones next to them in the chain. You can read all the rules at Books Are My Favourite and Best.

This month’s starting book is The Naked Chef by Jamie Oliver. I got it from the library and looked it over, but in the end didn’t cook anything from it due to my unemployment budget! I love Jamie–I’ve seen him on tv over the years and have enjoyed making some of his recipes.

The Naked Chef–-this was a tricky one to form a chain from–do I go all out foodie? [Julie Powell, of Julie & Julia fame died this week at only 49 so I did think of working her book in, but ultimately decided on a different course].

My first book may strike you as…well….odd. But, I bought it for my great-nephew Jamie last Christmas (it was on his wish list). Ultimate Bug Rumble by Jerry Pallotta.

I guess I could not count this one, since it’s a children’s book–right? Can’t believe I didn’t notice I had SEVEN books!

Not only is Muhammed Ali know for the phrase “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee,” he also fought George Foreman (he of grill fame), long ago, in the “Rumble in the Jungle.” The Greatest: My Own Story by Muhammed Ali.

Muhammad Ali is from Louisville, KY. Lee Child’s book Groundskeeping is mostly set in Louisville.

Another author named Lee is Lee Smith–a woman this time. She’s from next door West Virginia instead of Kentucky. I’ve read a few of her books, including Dimestore: A Writer’s Life, and the book pictured here, The Last Girls.

Lee Smith grew up in West Virginia in a town not unlike that in The Truth According to Us by Annie Barrows. The main character, Layla, works for the WPA on the state guide for West Virginia.

One of the characters in the last book, The Truth According to Us, worked for the WPA writing the state guide for West Virginia. Food of a Younger Land, a nonfiction book, often draws on the work of the WPA both in the state guide series and in other publications.The WPA was a governmental organization, part of FDR’s New Deal. My great-uncles did construction work for the agency. Another great-uncle tried, but failed, to get into the artist’s section just as it was winding down.

One problem all sorts of governmental and non-governmental agencies, international aid agencies and international non-governmental organizations have tried to tackle is a that of The Mosquito by Timothy C. Winegard which is still on my TBR. I had malaria a few times while living in Malawi in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

While I did not come up with a clever way to bring us full circle back to Jamie Oliver, I did at least get us back to the first book in my chain–another book about insects.

Why not join the fun next month? December 3, 2022 we’ll start with The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey.

November 5, 2022 24

Six Degrees of Separation: What Was She Thinking?/Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller

A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the other books on the list, only to the ones next to them in the chain. You can read all the rules at Books Are My Favourite and Best.

I had never heard of this week’s starting book, What Was She Thinking: Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller, so I got it from the library, albeit too late to finish it in time for this month’s chain. I’m a quarter of the way through as of today and it has been compelling. I will review it when I finish. Therefore, my choices may not be those I’d have made had I finished the book in time.

Book One

I supposed I could go all the way through the chain with school books, but nah! Anyway, this one is set in a prep school (American for boarding school for rich kids like those with the names Kennedy, Roosevelt, and Bush) and features some very explicit and scandalous scenes (or does it?). I reviewed it on my old blog, so I’m linking to Amazon. The Headmaster’s Wife by Thomas Christopher Greene.

Book Two

Mentioning the Roosevelts made me include this, yet another prep school book, but surely one of the greatest. The stifling atmosphere is well portrayed in this book–modeled on the Groton of Endicott Peabody, the school attended by T.R., F.D.R., and their sons and written by a (sort-of?) step-relative of Jackie Kennedy’s via “Hugh D” her step-father (who was also once step-related to Gore Vidal?? Crazy). The Rector of Justin by Louis Auchincloss (my review was lost on my old blog).

Book Three

Another place full of well educated people, but with a stifling atmosphere is a Cathedral. In this case the Cathedral includes the British type of Prep School–one for posh little boys Prince George’s age, but who sing like angels. This is one of the “Aga Saga” queen’s best books and was made into a tv series in the ’90s (iirc). The Choir by Joanna Trollope (my review was lost on my old blog).

Book Four

Another book about a claustrophobic religious life is In This House of Brede, by another great ’60s author (Auchincloss was one), Rumer Godden. In this book a very successful woman leaves her success behind and enters a convent. In This House of Brede (my review was lost on my old blog).

Book Five

[I’m really stretching here :)] A successful woman, hounded by a scandal over a tragedy, marries a prep school educated politician and brings him to sobriety via her Methodist faith. The author’s best book by far. American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld.

Book Six

To (sort of) bring us full circle, a politician’s wife (Book Five) who was a teacher in a private school (albeit one for girls), married a man educated at a prep school, had to endure many a Bishop, wash successful in her own right (and may for a few years have wished she’d run to a convent) and who caused scandals with not only her “intimate” female friendships, but as the starting book, with a much younger man (men, actually). Full circle? You decide. This is the best of the two Eleanor novels. Loving Eleanor by Susan Wittig Albert.

Why not join the fun in November? We’ll be starting with

October 1, 2022 22

Six Degrees of Separation: The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki.

A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the other books on the list, only to the ones next to them in the chain. You can read all the rules at Books Are My Favourite and Best.

Here’s the blub for this month’s starting book The Form and Emptiness.

I didn’t like the author’s last book, A Tale for the Time Being

One year after the death of his beloved musician father, thirteen-year-old Benny Oh begins to hear voices. The voices belong to the things in his house—a sneaker, a broken Christmas ornament, a piece of wilted lettuce. Although Benny doesn’t understand what these things are saying, he can sense their emotional tone; some are pleasant, a gentle hum or coo, but others are snide, angry and full of pain. When his mother, Annabelle, develops a hoarding problem, the voices grow more clamorous. At first, Benny tries to ignore them, but soon the voices follow him outside the house, onto the street and at school, driving him at last to seek refuge in the silence of a large public library, where objects are well-behaved and know to speak in whispers. There, Benny discovers a strange new world. He falls in love with a mesmerizing street artist with a smug pet ferret, who uses the library as her performance space. He meets a homeless philosopher-poet, who encourages him to ask important questions and find his own voice amongst the many. And he meets his very own Book—a talking thing—who narrates Benny’s life and teaches him to listen to the things that truly matter.

First Book

Another book with a character named Benny is:

I was mesmerized by this story when it came out–gosh I was young! “Benny” Hogan–Bernadette, if I remember correctly–a name I always thought would be so cool to have. A Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchey.

Second Book

Another group of friends:

Unlike Circle of Friends, this group went to Vassar–don’t we all wish we had? The Group by Mary McCarthy.

Third Book

Just after The Group another bunch of friends arrived at some elite colleges…..

The next generation of Seven Sisters Colleges girls was profiled in The Last Convertible–a favorite of mine. (The 1970s mini-series for TV was also good, but the book was better). The younger sisters, if you will, of The Group.

Fourth Book

When they came home after the war they became….

…they became the men and women who elected Jack Kennedy President. The Best and the Brightest by David Halberstam. An outstanding book, but one few will tackle today due to its huge size.

Fifth Book

Between World War II and Jack Kennedy’s election as President, the men were mostly just men like this–wearing gray flannel suits and taking the train into the city each morning–my Dad included, albeit into Chicago. The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit by Sloan Wilson (see the film, too, staring Gregory Peck).

Sixth Book

All of these men wanted to have ….

The Right Stuff-the “thing” the Mercury Astronauts, and presumably their wives, had that made them special. The movie is superb, too. Think of poor Betty Grissom–greeted with a fridge full of food and a kitchenette–all that could be awarded to “honorable Mrs. Squirming Hatch-Blower.” “No Jackie?”

I hope this chain entertained you!

Next month we’ll start with the book you finished with this month–very unusual, but what a fun idea!

August 6, 2022 20

Six Degrees of Separation: Wintering by Katherine May

How the meme works

A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the other books on the list, only to the ones next to them in the chain. You can read all the rules at Books Are My Favourite and Best.

About the book

Sometimes you slip through the cracks: unforeseen circumstances like an abrupt illness, the death of a loved one, a break up, or a job loss can derail a life. These periods of dislocation can be lonely and unexpected. For May, her husband fell ill, her son stopped attending school, and her own medical issues led her to leave a demanding job. Wintering explores how she not only endured this painful time, but embraced the singular opportunities it offered. A moving personal narrative shot through with lessons from literature, mythology, and the natural world, May’s story offers instruction on the transformative power of rest and retreat…..

I read, and surprisingly loved, this book. Here is a link to my review.

Follow up on my review. After reading the book, I’ve spent more than a year having an ice-cold smoothie for breakfast. It is almost always chocolate blueberry. (1 cup of Carbmaster vanilla yogurt, 2 teaspoons baking cocoa, 1 cup of water, ice). I’ve always gone for cold drinks in the morning. The smoothie helps as much, or more, than just a cold caffeinated drink (unsweetened iced tea). That could be the vitamins in the unsweetened blueberries, but I think that blast of super-cold also helps. The idea came from one of the stories in the book and how to adapt that story’s “cure” to a landlocked area.

My Chain

I intentionally read this book at the same time as May’s, so it was the first book that came to mind. This time the wintering is about geese. We still learn about coping and adapting though, just like in May’s book, both from the life of the geese and from the life of the author. Wintering: A Season With Geese by Stephen Rutt (the link is to my review).

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Another book, and excellent movie, with flying fowl in the winter is The Shooting Party by Isabel Colegate. Young Osbert’s duck still haunts me. (I read this not long after it came out so the link is to Amazon–I do not make money off your clicks).

Another book set on a (likely) one-time sporting estate that would have hosted shooting parties is The Last Garden in England by Julia Kelly.

Another kind of estate is the one that conveys money and other “effects” to one’s heirs. Of that estate is put into a “trust” for tax purposes like in the book Family Trust by Kathy Wang.

A book that includes both types of estates and has a garden-tie in (the Rose Festival) is the wonderful My Mrs. Brown by William Norwich, in which the main character benefits from the legal estate and decides to do something based on something she’s read.

Another book (a lifelong favorite of mine) in which a main character decides to do something based on something they’ve read and involves a (legal) estate is Auntie Mame. (Sorry no geese). Patrick reads in The Digest (ok, it’s a magazine, not a book, but….) about someone’s most unforgettable character and decides to tell about his most unforgettable character–his Auntie Mame who was his only living realitive after his father died and so took him in and raised him. Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis. (I’ve read Auntie Mame and Dennis’s The Joyous Season more times than I can count.)

So from a nonfiction book on coping to a book of the same title about geese to a book about shooting water fowl for sport to a book about the garden of an estate where birds probably were once shot for sport to the other kind of estate, to a book with both kinds of estates where a character bases a decision on something she read to another book where a character is affected by a legal estate and then acts on something he’s read. Got all that? Whew!

Why not join the fun next month? We’ll start out chains with The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki

My review of Ruth Ozeki’s A Tale for the Time Being, from 2014 on my old blog:

“Odd book that isn’t really about a Buddhist nun like it proports to be. My favorite character was the cat. A little sprinkling of sci-fi and a dump of hard science that I couldn’t begin to fathom, but that didn’t last long. A few “ick” moments (skip the intro if you want to miss the biggest one). Overall, the story was interesting though. Could have done without the mandatory PC-anti war screed, but it was a fleeting second in the story.”

July 2, 2022 13

6 Degrees of Separation: Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason

About the Book

“Martha Friel just turned forty. Once, she worked at Vogue and planned to write a novel. Now, she creates internet content. She used to live in a pied-à-terre in Paris. Now she lives in a gated community in Oxford, the only person she knows without a PhD, a baby or both, in a house she hates but cannot bear to leave. But she must leave, now that her husband Patrick—the kind who cooks, throws her birthday parties, who loves her and has only ever wanted her to be happy—has just moved out.”

OR since that is one of the worst blurbs ever, click the linked text to read my review

How the meme works

A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the other books on the list, only to the ones next to them in the chain. You can read all the rules at Books Are My Favourite and Best.

My Chain

My first thought was “Meg”–so another book by an author named Meg is The Wife by Meg Wolitzer.

Another novel about the wife of a famous writer is The Paris Wife: A Novel by Paula McLain. My review was lost on my old blog, but I loved it.

Another book with Paris in the title that involves an affairs is The 6:41 to Paris by Jean-Philippe Blondel and translated by Alison Anderson.

Another book featuring a train trip is The Last Train to London: A Novel by Meg Waite Clayton. (It is also another book by a “Meg.”)

A chocolatier has a big part in The Last Train to London. Another book with a chocolatier is Chocolat: A Novel b Joanne Harris. (My review for this book was lost).

Chocolat featured a priest and in Glass of Blessings by Barbara Pym like most of the Pym books I’ve read so far, are always debating High Church or Low Church, Catholic and Anglican priests are usually in there somewhere. Tenuous link, but it brings us back to London!

Next Month

Why not join the fun next month when the starting book will be Wintering by Katherine May (my review is linked) an interesting nonfiction choice!

June 4, 2022 13

6 Degrees of Separation: True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey

How the meme works

Books can be linked in obvious ways – for example, books by the same authors, from the same era or genre, or books with similar themes or settings. Or, you may choose to link them in more personal ways: books you read on the same holiday, books given to you by a particular friend, books that remind you of a particular time in your life, or books you read for an online challenge. A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the other books on the list, only to the ones next to them in the chain. You can read all the details HERE at Books Are My Favourite and Best.

The Starting Book

“I lost my own father at 12 yr. of age and know what it is to be raised on lies and silences my dear daughter you are presently too young to understand a word I write but this history is for you and will contain no single lie may I burn in Hell if I speak false.” In True History of the Kelly Gang, the legendary Ned Kelly speaks for himself, scribbling his narrative on errant scraps of paper in semiliterate but magically descriptive prose as he flees from the police. To his pursuers, Kelly is nothing but a monstrous criminal, a thief and a murderer. To his own people, the lowly class of ordinary Australians, the bushranger is a hero, defying the authority of the English to direct their lives. Indentured by his bootlegger mother to a famous horse thief (who was also her lover), Ned saw his first prison cell at 15 and by the age of 26 had become the most wanted man in the wild colony of Victoria, taking over whole towns and defying the law until he was finally captured and hanged. Here is a classic outlaw tale, made alive by the skill of a great novelist.

I have not read this book and probably won’t be reading it. I had enough Westerns and that sort of story when my Dad was alive, well, and in command of the tv to last me a lifetime!

My Chain

Book One

I’m starting with the first book that comes to mind. In this case it is a favorite of my Dad’s, True Grit (though he knew the John Wayne film–not sure if he ever read the book). Mattie is 14 to Ned Kelly’s 12 when she is orphaned. She and U.S. Marshall Rooster Cogburn hunt down his killer. Some similarities in the stories.

Book Two

A book I know my Dad read that has a John Wayne/Western-ish topic (and a very serious topic) is Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West by Dee Brown. It presented a very different version of the West from the John Wayne one. It was possibly the first book to tell the truth about what the United States did to the Native American population.

Book Three

A novel that deals with U.S. “Indian” policy in a different way–the institutionalization of children to force them to “assimilate” is This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger (link is to my review).

Book 4

Another population treated badly by U.S. policy are the incarcerated–especially African American men. In this novel they are young men sentenced to “reform school” in Florida. The Nickel School has a lot in common with the School in This Tender Land. The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead (link is to my review).

Book 5

Nanci Kincaid’s novel has a link with incarceration in the state of Florida–a chain gang member who befriends a young girl. (My review was lost on my old blog). As Hot as it Was You Out to Thank Me by Nanci Kincaid is just $1.99 for Kindle right now.

Book 6

Rory’s life isn’t that much like Berry’s in As Hot As it Was, but it also isn’t that much different. I’d put money on someone in that trailer park or in Rory’s family being in prison or just out of prison. Certainly someone has seen the inside of a jail cell. Plus it’s in Nevada where a lot of John Wayne movies could have been set and might have been film. That’s almost full circle! Girlchild: A Novel by Tupelo Hassman (link is to my review).

Why not join in the Six Degrees fun next month when we will start our chains with Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason which, for once, I just bought.

May 7, 2022 23