From “Passages” by Gail Sheehy to “Women on the Front Lines” by Debbie Zimelman.

This is a monthly link-up hosted by KateW at Books Are My Favourite and Best. Each month a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the other books on the list, only to the one next to it in the chain. The rules are:

• Link the books together in any way you like.
• Provide a link in your post to the meme at Books are My Favourite and Best.
• Share these rules in your post.
• Paste the link to your post in the comments on Kate’s post and/or the Linky Tool on that post.
• Invite your blog readers to join in and paste their links in the comments and/or the Linky Tool.
• Share you post on Twitter using the #6Degrees hash tag.
• Be nice! Visit and comment on other posts and/or retweet other #6Degrees posts.

THANKS FOR PLAYING!

This month we start with “Trust” by Hernan Diaz!

This month (March 4, 2023), the chain begins with “Passages” by Gail Sheehy. Once again, this is a book I haven’t read, however, I remember when it came out, it was a huge hit. Goodreads says it is about “At last, this is your story. You’ll recognize yourself, your friends, and your loves. You’ll see how to use each life crisis as an opportunity for creative change — to grow to your full potential. Gail Sheehy’s brilliant road map of adult life shows the inevitable personality and sexual changes we go through in our 20s, 30s, 40s, and beyond. The Trying 20s — The safety of home left behind, we begin trying on life’s uniforms and possible partners in search of the perfect fit. The Catch 30s — illusions shaken, it’s time to make, break, or deepen life commitments. The Forlorn 40s — Dangerous years when the dreams of youth demand reassessment, men and women switch characteristics, sexual panic is common, but the greatest opportunity for self-discovery awaits. The Refreshed (or Resigned) 50s — Best of life for those who let go old roles and find a renewal of purpose.” Now, I’m not one for self-help books, so that’s probably why I never read this, and I doubt I’ll ever put this on my TBR list.

First Degree. 

You know what kind of book can be really helpful? One that gives you tips regarding your profession and/or hobby. Because I’m a writer, my first link is to a book that helps people with proper usage of the English language. I’m referring to “Eats, Shoots, and Leaves” by Lynne Truss. What I really loved about this book was that it wasn’t just informative, but it was a really fun read. Truss’ humor comes through and makes something that could be dry and boring into a fun romp from start to finish. Would that all non-fiction and/or reference books be so fun! But obviously, that’s not always the case. By the way, I hear that Truss wrote other books, but fiction ones. They’re humorous novels about serious subjects like crime, and I would really like to read those!

Second Degree.

Another fun book about a fairly serious subject, which is also non-fiction, is “Shakespeare” by Bill Bryson. Okay, yes, Shakespeare didn’t only write dramas and sonnets, he also wrote some comedic plays, but a book about his life and writing is often pretty serious, academic stuff. Not so with this book, which was really fun to read, and I believe I learned a whole lot. By the way, this was/is the first book by Bryson I’ve read, and I feel very silly about that, because I have two of his travel books on my shelf, that belonged to my husband (who was a huge fan, and probably read all of Bryson’s books). I’m not sure why I’ve never picked them up, but I hope to some day, because travel is one non-fiction genre that I really enjoy.

Third Degree.

Yes, I’ve read several travel books (akin to those Bryson writes and for which he is most famous), but I haven’t actually reviewed all of them. I haven’t reviewed any of the Paul Throux books I’ve read, for example. One that I did review is “On Trying to Keep Still” by Jenny Diski. This was actually the last book by Diski I read, which I bought after I heard that Diski had cancer. The other two books of hers that I read are “Strangers on a Train” and “Skating to Antarctica,” both of which I loved. This book is more like a collection of essays of her own self-reflections, that came to her during various trips to different places. These include New Zealand and Lapland, and the adventures (and sometimes misadventures) she got into while researching her travel books and articles. Interesting, right? Well, I thought so!

Fourth Degree.

This brings me to another non-fiction book, which is also a collection of essays. I’m talking about “How to Be a Heroine: or What I’ve Learned from Reading Too Much” by Samantha Ellis. Ellis never hides the fact that this is her story, her life and her heroines, but she also asks the types of questions that most women who grew up with these books might (or perhaps should) have been asking themselves all along. Among these questions are such things as what have 21st century women learned from these books regarding how we behave vs. how we want to live our lives, and which of these characters inspire or hold us back from being the best type of women we can be. She also wonders about how these characters and their authors look at love, men, and their role in achieving happiness, as well as the obstacles they can pose along our path to personal fulfillment.

Fifth Degree.

Another book of essays that focuses on being a woman is “Conversations with my Body” by my friend and former colleague, Elana Sztokman (gotta love the cover art here, right?). I wasn’t all that sure I wanted to read this, but Elana actually dropped a copy off at my home, in the hopes that I’d review it for her. I was actually quite surprised at how much I enjoyed this book, even though there were times that I thought that she should have given us excerpts of previously published pieces, rather than the whole of the articles – particularly because (like all writers who consistently write on a certain topic) she duplicated some passages from one article to use in others – but only when appropriate, obviously! This book is almost like snapshots of how Jewish religious women are made to feel about themselves within their community.

Sixth Degree. 

Okay, did I use the word “snapshot” in the previous paragraph just to link up to this book? Yes, I did. But I can also say that there are a couple other things that link the former book to this one. One is that the author gave me a copy of this book for review, and the other being that the author of this book is also a friend and former colleague of mine. So my final link is to “Women on the Front Lines” by Debbie Zimelman. Debbie is a very accomplished photographer, and when I first met her, she was just starting out in her field. The fact that both are about women, and how they’re perceived, is also a connection, although one is from within the Jewish religious community, and the other is about women in Israel’s armed forces, which is a different type of community.

There you have it – my chain of books for this month. So… the question is, does this last book connect in any way back to our starting novel?

Hm… Well, serving in the army is a type of rite of passage for Israelis, so maybe that is the connection!

If you don’t know these books, I hope you’ll click on the links to my reviews and check them out!

 

If you decide to join in on this meme, I hope you’ll give me the link to your post in the comments below, and/or put your link on the linky page that Kate has on her blog for this meme.

Next month (April 1, 2023), we will start with Born to Run: An Autobiography by Bruce Springstein.